Ever had those moments when life attacks you? *Whomph!* Well, this is in a good way I suppose. Work was getting a little quiet around here with all the staff on summer vacation. Now their back. My desk is a mess, my office is swamped with hardware, and my email inbox looks like a street after the 4th of July! Ah well, *job security* everyone says. In my opinion, that phrase is a bit overused at this point. I hear it about 5 times a week. You know, thats 20 times a month. :P
Anywho, I am determined to not fall behind on my blog posts, but you may see the odd rant here and there without a lot of learning or new ideas behind it. I'll try to make up for these with lengthy over-researched posts when I have more time (like last week's rant).
Cheers,
Sheepdog
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
An exhausting (but not exhaustive) list of how to fix Windows 10 when you upgrade from 7, 8 or 8.1
Have Fun!!!
An
Introduction to Windows 10 (Home Edition)
Remove OneDrive:
If
you use OneDrive, all is well and good. If you don’t want it cluttering up
everything, here is how to remove it:
1.
Open
CMD (as an admin)
2.
Terminate
OneDrive: taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe
3.
Uninstall
(32 Bit): %SystemRoot%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
4.
Uninstall
(64 Bit): %SystemRoot%\SysW0W64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
Next,
you will need to remove OneDrive from File Explorer:
5.
Open
Regedit
6.
Modify
the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree DWORD value under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}\ to 0, from its
default of 1.
7.
On
64-bit editions of Windows, it also
changes the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree DWORD value under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6\. To
undo the change, set the same settings back to the original value of 1
Change Default Apps:
You
may notice many of your default programs (media player, firefox, etc.) have
been changed to a new set of default apps put into place by Windows 10. Here is
how to change/revert them:
1.
Open
the Start menu > Click on Settings in the lower left > Click System >
Click Default Apps.
2.
Scroll
through the list, and change them to your preference.
Remove Windows Apps:
Speaking
of which, you may wish to click through and remove many of the windows apps
that have suddenly taken over:
1.
Open
the Start menu > Click on Settings in the lower left > Click System >
Click Apps and Features.
2.
Scroll
through the list, click on one you wish to remove, and click Uninstall (Be
careful not to remove one that is actually a full program!).
3.
You
may notice some of the apps have a greyed out uninstall button. To remove
those, you will have to open a powershell session:
a.
Start
> PowerShell > right click, run as admin
b.
Type
in the appropriate code from the list below:
3D
|
Get-AppxPackage
*3d* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Camera
|
Get-AppxPackage
*camera* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Mail
and Calendar
|
Get-AppxPackage
*communi* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Money,
Sports, News and Weather
|
Get-AppxPackage
*bing* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Groove
Music, Film, and TV
|
Get-AppxPackage
*zune* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
People
|
Get-AppxPackage
*people* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Phone
Companion
|
Get-AppxPackage
*phone* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Photos
|
Get-AppxPackage
*photo* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Solitare
|
Get-AppxPackage
*solit* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
Voice
|
Get-AppxPackage
*soundrec* | Remove-AppxPackage
|
xbox
|
Get-AppxPackage
*xbox* | Remove-AppxPackage
Ack! Did you notice all the red
warnings? It’s okay, it actually installed just fine, but Windows 10 didn’t
like it.
|
WifiSense
A
lot of people are making a big deal about Windows 10 sharing wifi passwords
automatically. While it is a security issue, it’s fairly easy to remedy this:
1.
Click
on the Start Menu, then Click on Settings in the lower left hand corner.
2.
Click
on Network and Internet, then click on Wi-Fi.
3.
On
the right pane, click on manage wifi settings.
4.
Make
sure both connect to hotspots, and connect to networks are both turned off. As
an added security measure, look through your saved wifi networks, and remove
any you no longer need / use.
Automatic Updates
Unfortunately
for any users who don’t have Windows 10 Pro, updates aren’t an option. Windows
will update them whenever the feel like it. However, we do have a little
control over random restarts.
1.
Click
on the Start menu, then Click on Settings, then Click on Update and Security.
2.
Under
Windows Update, Click on Advanced Options.
3.
Change
the top setting from automatic to notify to schedule restart.
4.
Pro-Tip,
you may also want to change a hidden setting: Update from more than one place.
a.
On
the same page, Click on Choose How Updates are Delivered.
b.
Turning
this setting off can help your computer refrain from downloading updates from
multiple sources.
Privacy
Just
like with any new update, Windows 10 would like to announce to the world what
you’re doing, where, when, and who. Here is how to lock your PC down a little:
1.
Click
on the Start Menu, then Click on Settings, then Click on Privacy.
2.
I
will let you peruse through these at your leisure, but I would like to point
out one in particular. Computers are now using locations to send you location
based ads, collect survey info, and more. Click on Location on the left pane,
and turn this one off. Unless you travel a lot or are worried about your
computer being stolen, you probably don’t need this one.
File Explorer
First,
you may notice File Explorer is back! Then, when you open it, you are greeted
with recent files, OneDrive Shortcuts, and a pinnable Quick Access bar on the
left. Here’s how to make it look a little closer to windows 7:
1.
Open
File Explorer, and Click File > Change Folder and Search Options.
2.
At
the top, change the pulldown setting from Quick Access to This PC, and Click
Apply. This will change the default look when you Open File Explorer.
3.
Also
Uncheck “Show frequently used folders in Quick Access” under
General>Privacy. This will get rid of most of the shortcuts on the left pane
except the one’s your used to (My Computer, etc).
4.
Finally,
if you wish to remove the OneDrive shortcuts, follow my regedit instructions
under OneDrive.
Windows 10 Eats RAM!?
We
squawked when Windows xp ate 256mb of ram. We squawked when Windows 7 used 1gig
of ram. Well, Windows 10 is using about 2gig of ram when nothing is open. Why
is that? Windows 10 is claiming this is on purpose. Anything you have open, or
were working on gets compressed into Ram instead of being stored under the page
file in your hard drive. This basically means Windows is keeping more things
partially open so they can be accessed faster. The downside is if your computer
only has 4gig of ram, this doesn’t end so well for you. The upside is, if you
have way more ram than you need, windows has opted to utilize some of it rather
than let it go to waste. My thoughts? It’s a nice gesture, but it can still be
a pain. L
Other Thoughts:
Don’t
forget to customize your start menu, its basically the new metro interface,
although if you have a tablet or want a larger start menu, you can click and
drag from the top of the menu to resize it. You can also pin / unpin items,
resize items, turn off live tile updates, change color, and more.
You
may also want to play with Cortana a bit, I haven’t spent any time with that
yet.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Fall is Coming! Quick! Get the Hot Chocolate!
August
18th
I’m
so excited for the fall! Fall is when a blanket envelopes the world, the
weather turns colder, the leaves crunch under your paws, and the world seems
quiet, taking a long break from the warm spring and summer months. September
comes sweeping in after August, adding clouds and rain to the mix. It’s a time
most students dislike, but being a dog, I have grown fond of September. Sep.
hands the baton off to October, which begins rustling the leaves with a chill
wind and changing the colors of the leaves to bright orange, yellow, and red. November
then sweeps the canvas clean, letting the leaves fall to make way for the white
of the cold winter months and snow. Fall is a magical time of the year, it’s no
wonder NaNo takes place in November. There is nothing like curling up with a
good book, a hot cup of cider (or cocoa) either with a book filled with adventures,
or a blank book that you’re writing, busily filling up the pages. Lately, September’s
have seemed to be a continuation of the hot August weather, but I have hopes
that this year the weather will turn colder sooner. It rather depends on the
weather patterns, if we get a strong el nino, or a weak el nino. I’m not much
of a weather dog, so I’ll leave that up to the experts. One thing is for sure,
fall is coming…get the hot chocolate!
***Also, after falling behind, I posted 7 blog entries today, be sure to read them all!***
***Also, after falling behind, I posted 7 blog entries today, be sure to read them all!***
Haha, friends? What are those?
August
11th
You know,
I still find it crazy that we have lived in our town for 3 years, and have
managed to make only one acquaintance/friend. And that was almost by accident! Finding
people to hang out with and meet new people is hard after college! We still
hang out with family quite often (which is fantastic, don't get me wrong), but other than that, I can count on one paw
how many other people we hang out with. However, lately we’ve been getting
involved in our local library. It’s a great place to meet people, and
socialize, and libraries are always running events for various age groups. We
have been attending a board game night which has been fabulous! That’s where we
met our acquaintance from actually. We’ve managed to have a couple of hangouts
during the summer which has been nice. Our church has moved further away,
making it harder to attend, and while I like our church, it may be time to try
out a few smaller churches to see if we can meet anyone. On the plus side, with
libraries, there are friends on every shelf, so even if we don’t meet anyone,
we still can check one out and take it home with us. J An added bonus, if you meet
someone in the library, you know you already have one thing in common!
Any
thoughts / ideas for meeting new people?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)