Recent Discussions
Save the date: Windows Office Hours - March 20, 2025
Save the date and join us for our next monthly Windows Office Hours, on March 20th from 8:00-9:00a PT. We will have a broad group of product experts, servicing experts, and engineers representing Windows, Microsoft Intune, Configuration Manager, Windows 365, Windows Autopilot, security, public sector, FastTrack, and more. They will be standing by -- in chat -- to provide guidance, discuss strategies and tactics, and, of course, answer any specific questions you may have. For more details about how Windows Office Hours works, go to our Windows IT Pro Blog. If 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time doesn't work for you, post your questions on the Windows Office Hours: March 20 event page, up to 48 hours in advance. Hope you can join us!11Views0likes0Comments- 6Views0likes0Comments
PC keeps getting BSODs ?
Hey everyone... Not a big techy person and I'm at the point of frustration where i have no idea what's causing these BSOD anymore.. I've tried numerous things on youtube/google to solve the issues but they keep happening i would really appreciate some help if possible to try and solve this issue. I will randomly blue screen or my pc will restart sometimes when I'm gaming or even just watching a youtube video. At first i thought it was just my ram so i went out and spent 150$ on new ram.... but it has continued to keep getting BSOD even after the new sticks went in. If I'm lucky i can go a few hours without a bluescreen but sometimes if i blue screen it will do it every 5 minutes or so until it gives up and lets me play for a while - Im not sure if there is a setting that's wrong in my pc or anything but i have tried many things to even check for outdated drivers and to my knowledge i have it all updated. I have even tried resetting my pc and keeping personal files..7Views0likes0CommentsHow to connect two PC using USB cables?
How to connect two PC using USB cables? I've been researching how to transfer files between PC's, it looks like the easiest would be to use a USB data transfer cable. I found these instructions on-line: Transfering Files Using a USB-to-USB Data Transfer Cable5Views0likes0CommentsExperience of installing Windows 11 on an old 2009 PC
I tried installing via a Rufus USB installer two or three times in a row. Each time, after the reboot, it got stuck on: "Loading operating system...". Then, I thought about installing Windows 10 and then updating to Windows 11. However, during the process, it BSODed, and the changes were reverted. This happened twice. Next, I tried the Rufus USB installer again, and it BSODed with different errors on the second reboot. Then, I tried to boot from a Windows 11 to go USB drive, and it resulted in watchdog BSODs. I was losing hope. Then, I had the idea to use an old HP ProBook 6540b that had a similar CPU (Intel Core i5 520M). I installed Windows 11 on it and then plugged the SSD into my main PC. It initially failed, but then the recovery menu appeared, and I booted in safe mode. It took a while, and after a restart, the magic happened: it successfully booted into Windows 11. The only issue was that the Ethernet card wasn't working. To fix it, I went to Device Manager (during the Wi-Fi connection prompt for sign-in) and tried to automatically install the driver for the Ethernet card, which resulted in another BSOD. (Later, I fixed it by downloading the driver from the Realtek website.) So, that's my story. I hope that you could understand it.5Views0likes0CommentsAfter install of windows always 2 keyboards layouts
When i do a clean installation of windows 11 and also of windows 10. Make a user than get the user 2 keyboard layouts for example Belgium and USA. Ore Belgium and Netherlands layouts. How can I make that when i make de first user only the Belgium keybord layout is made and no other.8Views0likes0CommentsRight click on shortcut to Open file location does not work except for Excel
Right click on desktop shortcut to Open file location does not work except for Excel, Word shortcut. Anyone else experience this? If I right click on desktop ANY shortcut icon in Windows 10 on other laptop next to me and select Open File Location-it will open any location for ANY shortcut or program. I have the same programs on Windows 11 laptop and Bat and other files. When I Right click on desktop in Windows 11 23H2 (have not updated in a month or so due to prob I read with updates) and select "Open File Location" , it yields no results. Nothing opens UNLESS it is the 2 shortcuts Word and Excel shortcuts. Right click and select Troubleshooter compatibility also does not work but never tried it from desktop so I do not care. I have normal things on desktop like Zoom, , Macrium, FileZilla Pro, Chrome, Firefox, various shortcuts to folders... Works within the Start menu or if I select just Open in the start menu. But on desktop, nope except MSFT Word and Excel. Same for Open Folder Location. Not a big deal but just wondering. Thank you very much!8Views0likes0CommentsHP All-in-One 24-df1370: Waking from SLEEP Issues
I have an HP ALL-IN-ONE PC that is having trouble exiting sleep mode once the mouse or keyboard is touched. I have checked the power management settings in Device Manager, and they all look correct as they should to allow the peripheral devices to wake the computer from sleep. But they don't wake it, so I must press the POWER button on the computer. The POWER button shuts it down (I guess you could say manually) and restarts the computer. I don't know if something is crashing when I press the ENTER key or touch the mouse or what. Thanks for the help ahead!7Views0likes0CommentsAfter a recent update on 'start up' W11 Pro seems to default to and launch a 'browser'!
I'd like just the desktop and icons from many Windows version previously. The updates that have changed this seem to have happened recently. I'm currently 24H2, 26100.3476, Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.54.0 I don't generally use the Edge browser that it seems to launch asking for either a URL or search. I haven't gone to the required efforts to make Brave my default but it is what I use most of the day. I have a couple work related webs that I use Edge for but something recently seems to have created the issue I see. Startup seems to give me the desktop that I want but after maybe 15 or so seconds launches what I believe is a browser of sorts.8Views0likes0CommentsPC wakes up from sleep mode almost instantly
I want to put PC in sleep mode but it keeps turning back on almost instantly. Been having this issue for several weeks but before that it never did this. I ran the command prompt and did the "powercfg/lastwake" and it's showing this text below as the reason it's turning back on. Anyone know how to resolve this issue and what this means?9Views0likes0CommentsHow do I UPDATE (not upgrade) Windows 11 from 21H2 without TPM?
I installed Windows 11 on a non-TPM computer ages ago, using Rufus. But now I'm told my version 21H2 has reached end of service and when I try to update using the Windows11InstallationAssistant, it tells me TPM is needed. I already change the registry and rebooted as I found on this site: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup. Create a new registry key under Setup and name it LabConfig. Within LabConfig, create DWORDs values BypassTPMCheck and BypassSecureBootCheck and set each to 1. But it still detects this absence of TPM. How do I get past this? (without the hassle of ISOs and booting off other media), it must be possible.8Views0likes0CommentsIs it REALLY a bad idea to install Windows 11 on an 'unsupported' system?
I downloaded the little Windows tool, and it told me my PC is not compatible with Windows 11, but it's basically because of the lack of the TPM 2.0 module. Specs: CPU: Intel Core i7 8700k Mobo: Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming Ram: 32gb DDR4 3200 I'm thinking about upgrading my whole system (Ryzen 7 9700x CPU, with compatible mobo and RAM), instead of bypassing the W11 TPM 2.0 module requirement, all because I've heard that down the line there may be some "incompatibility" or security issues that Windows may require TPM 2.0 for. And I've also heard that buying a TPM 2.0 module for my mobo just to make it compatible with W11 is not really the best idea either.9Views0likes0Comments"Can't access Recall right now"
I've enabled Recall feature on Windows 11 Pro (26120.3380) on my Surface Laptop 7 with Snapdragon X Plus. I was able to use it for a while, but then since some recent update (or maybe after I changed the primary login email for my Live.com account), it stopped working. Even though it's turned on and appears to be saving snapshots (it shows it's using disk space), I can't access any snapshots. I tried turning the feature off and on using command line (Recall doesn't show up as one of the features I can enable/disable on "Turn Windows Features on or off" program). Also tried deleting all snapshots, disabling/re-enabling Recall, etc. None of them fixes this. I also get this message sometimes, even though I have Bitlocker turned on:6Views0likes0CommentsHow do I just block/prevent the Secure Boot update, without going into the BIOS?
Event viewer is populated with many Error messages, that "The Secure Boot update failed to update a Secure Boot variable with error Secure Boot is not enabled on this machine." Searching how to prevent/block this update only shows results such as for disabling or enabling Secure Boot in the BIOS (or, sometimes on answers.microsoft.com, its typical recourse to doing a repair or clean install). However, I cannot find anyway on how to block/prevent this update. Of course, I find MS still trying to install updates even though they have been paused for 35 days.22Views0likes0CommentsNeed help win 11 wont install.
Hello I have recently tried to install win 11 from win 10, and for some reason it wont do it. I have ran the health report and it has passed the report and rdy for install but when it is doing the last part of the win 11 install it gives me an error saying its not compatible.. is there a way to fix this I have loaded screen shots of the error code and the passed health check. please let me know what I need to do to fix this.3Views0likes0CommentsAccessing a third-party NAS with SMB in Windows 11 24H2 may fail (Work Around)
So as we all know that Windows 11 24H2 created an issue for us that have older NAS products and have been using it for years and the fact that they still work, points to this topic write. I believe in to the point solutions without all the GIGO. This fix is an attempt to restore the SMB settings back to what they were before the update 24H2. One important thing here is that it allows me to access the OLD NAS by its network name address Eg: /serverName/sharedFolder But it did not allow me to access my NAS using its IP.. further research needed. Good luck and here it is: First if you are using a Windows Home edition, add the gpeditj (Policy Editor) Put this inside a *.bat file and run in a command windows opened with admin rights. add_gpedit.bat =========== echo off pushd "%~dp0" dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~3*.mum >List.txt dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~3*.mum >>List.txt for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . List.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i" pause FIX SMB CONNECTION after 24H2 Update on Windows 11 In Registry: Navigate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters Look for: AllowInsecureGuestAuth → If it exists, set it to 1. (If not, create a DWORD (32-bit) value and set it to 1.) Find: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters Modify or add these registry entries: RequireSecuritySignature: Set this to 0 (if it was set to 1). EnableSecuritySignature: Set this to 0 (if it was set to 1). Enable plain text password: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters If the value EnablePlainTextPassword exists, set it to 0 (or delete it) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters Set RequireSecuritySignature to 0 if it was set previously. In Windows Features: Make sure SMB is on and uncheck the removal one Only check the Cleint SMB Then in Powershell: Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName SMB1Protocol-Client -NoRestart gpedit.msc Enable Guest Access for SMB2 Navigate: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Lanman Workstation Find: Enable insecure guest logons Enable it. Navigate to: Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options Look for the policy: Microsoft network client: Send unencrypted password to third-party SMB servers Make sure it is : Not Defined or Disabled if it exists. Default SMB setting: Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options Find these two policies and set both to "Not Configured" or "Disabled" (depending on the previous state): Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always) Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always) Also check if these are enabled: Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (if server agrees) Disabled Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (if client agrees) Enabled Then Apply then OK secpol.msc Navigate: Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options Find: Network security: LAN Manager authentication level Set it to: Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated On the TCP/IPv4: Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP under properties Update NFS Mapping in Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClientForNFS\CurrentVersion\Default Add or modify these DWORD values: AnonymousUid = 0 AnonymousGid = 0 NOT REALLY NEEDED BUT HELPFUL wsl --install -d Ubuntu133Views0likes0CommentsComputer shows different characters than typed
I have a problem that occurs sporadically on my Windows 11 computer. I will be typing along and random characters will show instead of what I typed. The same problem will occur simultaneously with my built-in laptop computer and my extra keyboard. I then have to restart the computer to get it working properly again. My keyboard settings are all for English (U.S.) only. The problem occurs in all applications at the same time. Does anyone have any idea what could cause this and how I can troubleshoot it? I would appreciate any assistance.11Views0likes0Comments
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