Introduction | Where To Find | Shopping |
Advantages of Upgrading | Reinstalling | Futures |
Disadvantages of Upgrading | Printers Rant | Links |
Windows Home vs Pro versions | Flaws | |
Tips | Books |
Microsoft has committed two deceptions in the release of Windows 10.
There was no Windows 9. Microsoft officially announced the version after Windows 8 will is called Windows 10. It is billed as being a cross between Windows 7 and Windows 8. I guess they are trying to put distance between the failed Windows 8. Microsoft is discarding their metro interface which makes your desktop behave as if it had a screen the size of a cellphone. So basically they are reverting to Windows 7, except that Windows 10 will run on both desktops and mobiles. The start menu will be back in modified form. It is missing in Windows 8. It will have two different user interfaces, one for mobile and one for keyboard and mouse. It will not try to unify the two as it does in Windows 8. You will not be able to buy it, just rent it. To soften people up of the new strategy, existing users of Windows 7 and 8 will get a year free rental. This will allow MS to come out with new versions of the OS without having to convince people to use them.
What do you get extra if you buy the pro version?
There is also an even more expensive enterprise edition.
Here is where to look:
I just cut/pasted this guide from the Windows 7 entry with some minor changes. I will gradually be making it more accurate. The entries above the multiple bars have been updated to Windows 10.
Where Windows 10 Hides Interesting Information | ||
---|---|---|
Function | Where To Look | Notes |
32 or 64 bit |
To find out if you are running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 10.
|
|
8.3 legacy short file names |
To turn off the creation of new 8.3 legacy short shadow file name entries: Run this in a command prompt as administrator:
fsutil.exe behavior set disable8dot3 1
If some ancient program stops working, you can turn them back on again with: fsutil.exe behavior set disable8dot3 0
To actually remove existing 8.3 filenames from the directory, you need: fsutil.exe 8dot3name strip /s /v Z:\
where Z: is the drive you want to strip. Fsutil not only strips the 8.3 filenames, it renames all legacy references in the registry. Unfortunately, this expands the registry and you cannot undo this. The ideal time to make this change is before you have installed any apps. |
In the DOS (Disk Operating System) days, filenames were limited to 12 characters in the 8.3 format. Even today every file is registered under its actual name and a DOS-compatible equivalent name such as TEXTFI~1.TXT for TextFile1.Mine.txt. Programs can look up files by either name. By turning this feature off, you shrink and speed up the directories. However, this just stops the creation of new shadow legacy names. It does not get rid of existing ones. For that you must strip existing 8.3 files. After you have done this, run a defragger to compact your directories. |
Account Control |
To turn off account control (UAC (User Account Control)
):
|
By default Windows warns you every time it runs a program not digitally signed or anything that could install or uninstall or change a setting including its own software such as w32tm.exe. This can drive you nuts, since it will ask about the same program 10 times a minute. |
Change Account Name |
To change the name of an account:
|
Unfortunately, this does not change the name of the C:\Users\xxxx\ directory. |
Change Account Picture |
To change the logo/picture to an account:
|
Microsoft does not provide any images to choose from. You must create your own and browse to it. It will take your rectangular image and put in a circle. You would think you could alternatively navigate to this setting via the control panel, but you cannot. |
Anti-aliasing |
To turn on font smoothing (anti-aliasing)(ClearType)
|
By default anti-aliasing(ClearType) is on. |
Associations |
|
This only lets you configure which program handles open when you right click on a file, not print or edit. I know of know existing utility that lets you completely control the right file menu. You can do it with regedit.exe if you are brave. Making a browser the default browser is not sufficient. You must also configure *.html to be opened with that browser. |
Certificates |
To view digital certificates:
|
Lets you view or add digital certificates used for SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encrypted Internet links. Java code-signing certificates do not appear here. Editing certificates is not for novices. You might want to turn off OCSP revocation checking, for example. |
Clean junk files off your disks |
To get rid of unnecessary orphaned temporary files:
|
Get rid of temporary files, empty the recycle bin. Note you don’t actually click Administrative Tools. Look for Free up disk space right below it. |
Clear Event Log |
To get rid of old event logs that waste disk space:
|
There are several kinds of logs you can clear. You can sort by severity of the error first then scan the logs by eye to look for problems before you delete them. |
Command prompt |
To bring up a command prompt box to run command line utilities:
|
If you use BAT (Batch) files extensively, you probably should using tcc/TakeCommand instead. 16 bit DOS and Win 3.1 programs no longer work under Windows 10. You need new 32 or 64 bit version of them. For convenience, create a shortcut for C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe or and put it on your task bar at the bottom of the screen. Ten ways to open the command prompt |
Correct Problems |
At the command prompt run as administrator:
|
This checks Windows 10 files for consistency and automatically corrects some problems. |
Create Repair Disc |
|
|
Date and Time Format |
Change the Date/time format:
|
I like ISO-format yyyy-MM-dd it sorts naturally in order, and it is unambiguous. You can tell it is ISO (International Standards Organisation), just by looking at a sample date. |
Country |
|
The trick is you have to set the country in four different places |
Defender |
How to start up the Defender GUI (Graphic User Interface) program.
Alternatively:
|
Security Essentials has been discontinued. By default, Defender runs all the time aka real time protection. This gives you extra protection, but a hugely slows things down, especially in programs that hammer your disk like browsers or search/replace. I turn it off, and run manual virus scans daily. Windows likes to turn it back on again when I am not looking. To turn real-time scanning off permanenly requires a registry tweak that looks like this: .and run it. It must be preserved in UTF-16LE (little endian) encoding with an FFFE BOM (Byte Order Mark). |
Defrag your Disks |
To defrag your disks:
|
Pull files scattered over the disk into one contiguous piece. Note you don’t actually click Administrative Tools. Look for Defragment your hard drive right below it. See defraggers for better quality third party tools. If you use some other defragger, make sure you configure weekly defragging with Microsoft’s off. |
Desktop |
C:\Users\user\Desktop\ and C:\users\Public\Desktop\ | Where desktop shortcuts and folders live. |
DNS (Domain Name Service) |
To clear the DNS cache: un the command interpreter (command prompt) as administrator:
|
If you use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), your router or IAP (Internet Access Provider) will provide the IP (Internet Protocol) of the DNS servers automatically, so you don’t have to configure them. Typing ipconfig at the command prompt will display the names of the DNS servers. If you suspect one of your DNS servers is not working properly, you can use ipconfig /renew to ask your IAP to resend the list. |
Device Manager |
To see what hardware and device drivers are configured:
|
What devices are connected? Are there IRQ (Interrupt Request) conflicts? Where you can disable and enable devices. Where you install new device drivers. |
Drive Letters |
To change the drive letter of a disk partition, CD (Compact Disc) or DVD drive there are three techniques: Drive Letter Mapping
It is a bit like one of those sliding square puzzles. You can’t change a partition to S: if there already is a partition or device S: even if you plan to change S: to something else soon. You must first change it to something else. If you are doing a major reshuffle, assign all the partitions to temporary drive letters that will not be the permanent set, e.g. X: Y: Z:. Then you can change them to their final letters in any order because all the letters you want to use will be free. Network Drive MappingYou can also use:
SUBSTYou can use subst X: Y:\ to define alias drive letters for existing drives, or subst X: Y:\somedir to create shortcuts to commonly used directories. However, Windows forgets your settings after every reboot. To get around that problem you need to compose a bat file to do the SUBST and install it as the login script. SUBST is quicker and does not fail when other network connections fail. See J Drive for details. |
I like to make the DVD-reader always R: and writer always W: on all the machines I use. Scripts work everywhere and I don’t have to think. Be careful reassigning drive letters. Registry references will not automatically be adjusted. You may find programs on that drive stop working. You can’t reset the system partition or the partition CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide on Silicon) booted from. This makes it vary hard to clone a system without help from a BareMetal tools. If you add a drive, swap primary and secondary drives, or change the drive CMOS boots from first, it suddenly forgets its letters and reverts to a default set and very likely will become unbootable. |
Eject |
Ejecting a CD/DVD (Compact Disc/Digital Video Disc)
is flaky in Windows 10. There are three techniques to try when it does not work:
|
Often Windows 10 saves up writing to do when the disk is closed/ejected, so be patient so long as the CD/DVD is whirring. Sometimes you have to reboot to clear a stuck eject. |
Environment Variables |
To permanently set environment variables:
|
Where you do you SET XX=YYYY controls for BAT
files. If in doubt, put your variables in the system section. This way they won’t get lost if the
system decides to rename your user directory, which it will do if you change your computer
workgroup/name. After you set you variables, start new DOS
boxes to make the changes take effect. To make the changes take effect in BAT
files that you trigger with the task manager, you must reboot.
To more rapidly get to the deeply nested environment variables, set up a shortcut or bat file to C:\Windows\System32\SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe which does not get you all the way there, but at least most of the way. The icon looks like a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen with a big check mark on it. |
Folder Icons |
You can assign new icons to folders on your desktop two ways:
To start, use Google image to find a new suitable icon. Use Google advance search to limit the search to *.ico files. Download your new icon to your icon collection folder on the desktop. Right click the folder you want to improve. Click properties. Click customise. If you want to overlay, under folder pictures, click choose file. If you want to completely replace the icon, click change icon. |
|
Folder Options |
To modify the Windows explorer display of folders, open a window with Explorer. Click File ⇒ Change Folder and Search Options. You can change options just for this folder or for all folders. | |
Font Size |
To control the size of type and icons an your desktop:
You may also have to adjust other apps individually. |
|
Format |
There are three places to format:
|
You can format hard disks, CD s, DVDs and floppies. However, you do not need to format CDs and DVDs if you use burning software. |
Group Policy |
The Group Policy editor lets you configure various options and set up login scripts for each user. Unfortunately, Microsoft only ships the editor gpedit.msc with the pro version. If you have the home version, you must download and install a third party version of the editor . You can then invoke the editor with gpedit.msc from the command line. | |
Host/machine Name/workgroup |
To change your computer’s name on the LAN (Local Area Network)
:
|
Computer name and Workgroup for this machine. Only machines in the same workgroup see each other. |
Icon Arrows |
To get rid of arrows on shortcut icons use the fxvisor utility. | |
Icon Size |
To change the desktop icon size:
|
|
Install Fix |
If you are having trouble installing software, Microsoft has a generic fix for various problems that interfere. and install. | |
Install a Font |
To install a font, usually TTF (TrueType Font) or OpenType-TTF: Streamlined Method
Infuriatingly, you can’t select multiple fonts, even weight variants of the same font. You have to install them one at a time. Zip Method
Control Panel Method
|
|
IP configuration |
To manually assign a fixed IP or to select automatic
DHCP
IP assignment:
|
Configure static or dynamic (DHCP ) IP/DNS assignment. This menu item will not exist until your Ethernet card is functioning properly. Check with the device manager if you don’t see the Local Area Connection option. |
IP display |
To display the IP
automatically assigned to your machine or manually configured:
|
What IP addresses in this machine using? What has DHCP given me for a DNS server? The full name is C:\Windows\system32\ipconfig.exe. |
Java Control Panel |
To access the Java Control Panel:
|
|
.keystore |
C:\Users\user\.keystore | Java code-signing certificates. Use keytool.exe to view the file. |
Lost Icon Recovery |
To recover lost desktop icons:
|
|
Memory Test |
To run a memory diagnostic test.
|
It will reboot and take quite a long time. You can also start it with C:\Windows\system32\mdsched.exe |
Menu |
The menu structure is kept in directory trees as *.lnk files. "C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" There are also frequently used pinned entries in: "C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu\" Menu items accessible to all users are stored in: "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" |
You can manipulate the menu by deleting *.lnk shortcut entries, or moving them around in the menu tree, by renaming them or by modifying their properties. However, these changes will not necessarily show up in the menu. You can also manipulate menu-items to some extent with right-click. |
Mouse Configuration |
Unfortunately the option to display the cursor when you hit Ctrl does not work on my machine. |
Also see configuring a mouse |
NTP (Network Time Protocol) Clock Setting |
Installing the free Meinberg NTP software for Windows is very easy to set up. It does not require run as administer. It automatically probes using a pool of NTP servers. It is very accurate. It is superior in every way to the default SNTP tm32.exe default method. | |
Old OS |
Windows 10 will delete the files from your old OS in windows.old after a month. To free up the space earlier:
| |
pagefile.sys |
To change the size or placement of the paging file:
|
Set the size of your backing store, usually to 1.5 to 3 times the size of real RAM (Random Access Memory), e.g. if you had 3 GB of real RAM set it to 6000 Mb. If you have 16 GB or more of RAM, you might consider setting the size of each pagefile to 0 to turn off virtual memory. |
Performance Monitoring |
To see what percentage of your disk i/o, CPU (Central Processing Unit) capacity etc you are using:
|
You can also invoke it at a command prompt with C:\Windows\System32\perfmon.exe. |
Printer Cancelling |
To cancel/abort a print job:
|
Even after you stop your computer from sending more material to a printer, the printer has a buffer of material the computer previously sent but which has been printed yet. The printer may carry on for another couple of dozen pages. Windows is too stupid to tell the printer to clear its buffer. You have to do it by turning the printer off then on again. |
Printer Sharing |
To share your printer with others:
|
This lets you share your printer with others on the LAN.
Anyone wanting to use the shared printer must have an account on the computer with the printer, or at
least must know some user-id/password combination on the server to connect to the printer with.
Anyone wanting to use the shared printer must first:
Just once, you have to turn on the ability to share printers and possibly the ability to let others share your printers. You do that with:
For more detail, see the printer sharing entry. |
Program Data |
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\
(supposed to be for configuration data that would ideally follow you around from computer to computer).
This is a hidden directory. Make AppData visible if you are doing any work with
it.
or C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\ (supposed to be for configuration data that is tied to this particular computer). Make AppData visible if you are doing any work with it. |
Where programs tend to keep configuration information. |
QuickLaunch |
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\StartMenu\ | Where the *.lnk files corresponding to the QuickLaunch icons are stored. The QuickLaunch icons live in the left side of the task bar at the bottom of the screen. You can launch programs with a single click. |
Remove Obsolete OSes (Operating Systems) |
Remove obsolete OSes from the boot menu. |
Use bcdedit run with
administrator
rem to see what you have bcdedit rem to remove junk bcdedit /delete {name} /f |
Repair Explorer |
Sometimes Windows explorer complains when you double click a directory, saying it is missing an association. To repair it:
|
You can correct most other broken associations the same way. |
Restore Point |
To turn off restore point checkpointing:
|
Keep several restore points (aka checkpoints or snapshots) since the most recent one may already have been corrupted. Restore points are not a substitute for image and file-by-file backups. It is probably a good idea to turn this on drive D:, you won’t protect changes to drive C:. The restore points will be stored in files with the unlikely name of System Volume Information. |
Run |
To run a program, just one command, without the run as administrator option:
To open a command prompt box with run as administrator option, where you can enter many commands:
|
You can create a shortcut to C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe (or X:\Program Files\JPSoft\TCMD21\tcc.exe for tcc/TakeCommand), and drag it to your task bar at the bottom of the screen. You can then invoke a command prompt with a single click of that icon. |
Schedule a Task |
To schedule a bat/btm file to run at a certain time periodically:
|
You may specify multiple triggers, to schedule a task to run more than once a day. |
Shared Disk Accessing |
To access a shared disk:
|
This procedure lets you look at somebody else’s hard drive. Optionally, set up a drive letter so their drive forever after looks to be part of your machine. You won’t be able to access any network drives on a machine that is hibernating. Just looking at its drives will not bring it out of hibernation. You must walk over to the that machine and wake it up. This is also true for accessing a shared printer on a hibernating machine. |
Sharing your directory over a LAN |
To share your disk, or a folder with others:
|
|
Show Hidden Files |
To display hidden files in directory listings:
|
Can also navigate there directly with a shortcut C:\Windows\System32\control.exe /name Microsoft.FolderOptions |
SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol) Clock Setting |
To set the date and time from an atomic clock on the web: NTP is superior in every way to the default SNTP w32tm.exe, so I do not recommend the following SNTP method of setting your clock. What’s wrong with SNTP?
Periodically resync the clock with: rem sntpresync.bat rem make sure clock is accurate rem must run as administator rem start service, need be done only once after boot. sc.exe start W32Time rem probe an atomic clock on the web to resync the clock w32tm.exe /resync I suggest you Install the free Meinberg NTP software instead.
|
Don’t use this to adjust daylight savings. If you have the time zone configured properly the leaping forward and back should happen automatically. Using it to adjust for DST (Daylight Saving Time) will screw up your file dates which are based on invariant GMT/UTC. Synchronises with Microsoft atomic clock, time.windows.com. That server is quite unreliable, so I suggest replacing it with another from this list of timeservers. If that does not work, try SetClock. I have mine set to ca.pool.ntp.org to select a server from a pool of Canadian NTP timeservers. To sync the clock, you must run w32tm.exe which will only work after the W32Time service is started. You must run as administrator. I recommend using NTP instead. |
Add To Start Menu |
To make a copy of a launch icon in the left start menu, right click, click pin to start. | |
Startup Programs |
To control which programs automatically run (autorun) when you start up the computer:
|
A few of these program will be represented by *.lnk files in "C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\". |
Stopping a Program |
Sometimes a program won’t stop, or won’t start because another copy of the program got stuck half way through stopping. To stop a program:
|
You will see all kinds of programs listed there you did not start yourself, such as svchost.exe You can get overview of what they are for in this essay. |
Suppress Peek |
If you let your mouse wander into the bottom right corner of the screen, (and perhaps other magic places), suddenly your app will disappear and you will see the desktop. This is called peeking. To suppress this behaviour:
|
What a hare-brained idea this was! Why not click an icon if you want to see the desktop, which you can’t easily to by mistake? |
Task Bar |
To move the task bar from the side back to the bottom:
To create more room on the task bar.
|
|
Themes |
To select a new theme:
|
|
Transparency |
To turn off transparent window borders:
|
By default transparent windows borders are on. |
Uninstall |
To uninstall a program:
|
IObit Uninstall does a much more thorough job since the uninstall programs that come with apps generally leave all kinds of directories files and registry entries behind. |
Unsharing a folder over a LAN |
To stop sharing a folder with others:
This is insane. You should be able to unshare by right clicking the directory in the explorer. |
|
Update Check |
To force a check for updates to Windows 10:
|
If you do this often, create a shortcut to invoke:
C:\Windows\System32\control.exe /name Microsoft.WindowsUpdate |
Version |
To find out the Windows version and build number.
|
|
Wallpaper |
C:\Users\user\Pictures\. . | Where Windows 10 stores desktop wallpapers, past and present. You can change the wallpaper by finding a suitably large image in your browser and right click Use image on desktop. Also see Themes |
Weather for your city |
To configure the default city for which Windows displays the weather:
|
If there other functions you would like instructions to find, please let me know.
When you reinstall Windows 10, unfortunately you must also reinstall all your applications, a very tedious process. You can reduce the pain somewhat by copying all the C:\Windows.old\users\user\appdata hidden directory to C:\Users\user\AppData\ and C:\Windows.old\users\user\my documents directory to "C:\Users\user\my documents\" before you do any installing. Prune out directories for programs you no longer use. This way much of the time you will not have to reconfigure your application settings, or restore data from backup.
Every time you re-install Windows, it has to re-download all the updates from scratch. It should be smart enough to let you burn a CD with the updates on it, so you only have to re-download updates since the last reinstall.
Printers are very badly done in 10. Here are a few of my complaints:
Here are some of what I consider flaws in the design of Windows 10. Some of them have been in Windows for decades, so I am not holding by breath these will ever be fixed.
recommend electronic⇒Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit System Builder OEM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
asin | B00ZSI7Y3U | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
You might want the 32 bit version, the French version, or the pro version instead. This version comes in plain packaging, normally used by people who build computers and throw the packaging away. The advantages of having an install DVD are:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
recommend electronic⇒Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit System Builder OEM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
asin | B00ZSHDJ4O | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
You might want the 32 bit version, the French version, or the home version instead. This version comes in plain packaging, normally used by people who build computers and throw the packaging away. The advantages of having an install DVD are:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
In my view, the key feature missing from Windows since DOS days, is a the concept of default source and target directory. Then you could copy and move files without the spastic contortions of drag and drop. I am not holding my breath.
For programmers there should be an API (Application Programming Interface) for creating temporary files that will automatically eventually be deleted, even if the app or OS crashes. It could even be implemented as a standard naming convention. The business of recovering junk files is fraught with danger. Utilities are always deleting files that are not really abandoned temporaries.
I think everyone has absolutely had it with malware. We need a top to bottom rethink to keep each app in its own airtight box where it cannot interfere with any other program. A vendor should be able to modify its own code, but no one else’s. They should be able to modify only their own registry entries.
I have been asking for these things for decades, so do not hold your breath.
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