Friday, August 14, 2015

Windows 10 Linkpost: Constructive Edition

etakt2fj.gtu

“ubuntu 9.10 cloud server in a box”
CC by 2.0 attribution: by fsse8info on flickr.
…and yes, I like the irony… 

Despite all my recent rantings about privacy issues in Windows 10 -- and my ongoing delays in actually planning to install it on any of my home systems -- I really and sincerely want to install it on my home systems.

The updates to the Windows kernel, the enhanced performance, the non-controversial feature sets it provides make it a very attractive product for most users.

So with that in mind, and having some time since the initial excitement surrounding its release, here is a new collection -- mostly troubleshooting and tweaking related -- for reference.

Alienware Black Screen During Win 10 Upgrade

My little brother decided to pull the trigger and upgrade his Windows 7 Alienware system to Windows 10 last week. Overall it went well but he did encounter a persistent “black screen” issue during the upgrade process.

Here you go for the issue background and solution.

Side note: What’s interesting to me about this particular issue is that it seems to be related to situations where you have an on-board Intel graphics controller plus a graphics card. Windows (falsely) detects a phantom monitor connected and pipes the “primary display” that direction so you can’t see it. I’ve seen a similar behavior on a new Dell Latitude system running on a Dell Dock unit kicking out extended video output via a DVI-type connection. When the system goes to sleep, or screen-locks, you get the black screen with no (apparent) way to get back onto the system other than a hard-reboot. I don’t have that issue when I run the extended display via a VGA connection.  This is going to be the trick I try next time I set up a system in that configuration.

Possibly related: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade: Black Screen Troubleshooter - Borns IT and Windows Blog (Google Translated)

Anyway, his system seems to be running well at the moment.

No. We haven’t discussed the whole privacy issue and any tweaking he may have done.

Thanks for the tip, bro!

How to do stuff to Windows 10 (Standard Level)

Most of these tips and tweaks are pretty standard items. Nothing too crazy or risky.

How to do stuff to Windows 10 (Advanced Level)

This collection of tips and tricks is a bit more technical. Mostly for the sysadmin crowd.

Clean Installs & Product Key Discovery


Security Thoughts

That first post got my recollections running.

Back for the Windows 8/8.1 release we were asking ourselves a similar question -- how do I interact with Windows Defender?

Advanced Tips for Windows Defender with Windows 8 - grandstreamdreams blog

My comments and tweak-tippage then may still be valid today.

When Lavie upgraded to a Windows 8 system, Microsoft Security Essentials couldn’t be installed as in it’s wisdom, Microsoft bundles a MSSE version of Windows Defender on the system instead.  That’s just the way it is.  While essentially the same product, it doesn’t have some of the more granular control in setting scheduled scans, DAT updates, or on-demand scans.

So if you have Windows 8, and are using the stock Windows Defender as your AV/AM solution, then you might find the following “power tips” to using/tweaking Windows Defender helpful.

Indeed, Margus Saluste has updated his posts to now include Windows 10 support.

TechNet also had a PowerShell script to add Windows Defender “scan with” to the context menu for Windows 8. Experiment on your own Windows dime: [Script of Feb. 25] How to add Windows Defender to the file context menu in Windows 8 (PowerShell) - OneScript Team Blog

So there you go. Happy Windows Defender tweaking in Windows 10.

Windows 10 Updating and Bandwidth Considerations

If you have a lot of Windows 10 systems in your network, this probably sounds like a good thing.

If you don’t like the idea of using your system/bandwidth to update others’ Windows 10 systems outside  your network (via peer to peer type connections) then that feature may be a bad thing.

To be clear, this is different (but related) to that whole - automatic force-feeding of updates thing that Windows 10 does.

Commentary

Errors and Troubleshooting

This next section is pretty link-heavy and technically deep. However there is the off chance that a particular error could arise and these may be valuable.

Cheers,

Claus Valca

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