Category: Microsoft

Everything about Microsoft

My Initial thoughts on Windows 11!

Paul
Windows 11 — Just is!

It’s like pulling teeth!

I finally installed Windows 11 Windows Preview build into my system. Later last week I was wondering what they had done with Windows 11 and requirements. So I thought it would be a great idea to try to install Windows 11 with my current system that I built last year. Thanks to building this system just last year and thinking ahead, I got everything I could to prepare for the future needs. I even made sure it had TPM 2.0 just in case, I thought I’d not need this. I guess I was completely and most definitely wrong. I will say after talking about how to update Windows 10 to GPT and Secure Boot, that part went rather smoothly. I did find that if you have a Linux partition and a Windows partition then the converter will not be able to work. I had to erase the Linux Mint Distro partition to be able to convert it to GPT. I however divided the size to possibly install Linux mint along side Windows 11. I am curious to see just how well that will happen. That’s my next step in the next few days.

I didn’t like the setup

After converting the partitions and joining the Windows insiders program, I was able after a few attempts and fixing the CMOS.  It seems strange that I had to keep going into CMOS to enable even more things than I initially thought.   I had to enable secure boot, UEFI, and PTT (For those on Gigabyte Motherboards).   It wasn’t easy to say the least, I’d update one and the other and find out I had to enable more in the bios so Microsoft would see I met the requirements to download and install Windows 11.

Privacy is a Real concern!

I know on my Windows 10 system, I didn’t have my account linked to Microsoft but when I installed Windows 11.  It automatically linked my account to Microsoft.  I’d think if I am upgrading to Windows 11and it sees that it was a local account it would not link it to the Microsoft account.  The Bad news was I had to delete that account and remove all the data so Microsoft wouldn’t be watching me.  I had to re-install all my apps and loose some of my personally files but it was worth it to keep the information safe.  I wish I could of had an easy way to go back to my local account without having to jump through so many hoops.

It’s Just isn’t that good!

So far, after only using this for so many hours.  I can’t see any major differences that I will like.  The Start button will be an issue because I just don’t like it in the middle.   Also finding what I might need in the Settings is a little bit more interesting and difficult for me because they looked like they buried some of that.  I have also noticed the Windows 11 hack to revert my Windows start menu doesn’t work.  I’m going to try the Windows 11 preview builds some more but I am not that impressed with them and I might just go Windows 10 when Windows 11 finally get’s released unless they allow the users to use windows there own way, like No TPM, Or Secure boot.  I hope Linux will hurry up and make it easier for people to install Linux along side Windows 11.  I am almost sure there is a way just haven’t had time to explore the possibility.

Boot Times

After install Windows 11 and using my NVME drive, I have found the boot times to be a bit longer.  That was to expected because of the encryptions that is being used to quote “Secure” windows from any virus tampering.   I can’t see this being an extreme issue but I don’t  like the fact that it takes several more seconds on my NVME to boot up Windows when it would just boot almost instantly with my NVME.   They better fix that problem also because I don’t care about their so call security if I am sitting there waiting for the system boot.   All in All the Windows 11 experience isn’t as much a good thing as a bad thing.   I already know Virus writers are creating viruses to get around the so called security and I have done some research on the topic.  I can’t wait to say to Microsoft “I told you so“.

What’s your thoughts on Windows 11?  Have you tried it?  Will you install it even with the TPM and Secure boot requirements?  I’d like to hear your thoughts on the issue.  Why not leave a comment and tell me what you think about Windows 11.

 

3 topics I enjoy to talk about and why?

Paul

Topics

Science Fiction

To boldly go where no man has gone before!  You’ve probably heard that saying before but I grew up with Star Wars, and And Star Trek.   I even Grew up with Buck Rogers or even The Million dollar man.  I love the fact that there were new technology and new ways to deal with problems.   I would go to cons in my area whenever there was one and I still might when they start doing it again.   I can remember the days that I would watch every single episodes of the original Star Trek and want to meet some of these people myself.  I can’t imagine I am no the only one.  This is why I listen to all these audio books because I just keep imagining meeting different aliens and knowing what the world will be like or how different it will become.

Technology

It’s all in how you see the world.  Yes it so much more better seeing the world when I know that there are possibilities that we have never imagined.  I see companies that are trying to innovate and then I see companies who just like to keep the things the same.   Without innovation we would not become even better.   I could talk about technology until the day I am out of breath but I wouldn’t stop just for myself.   I even like to know what they will do in the future and I imagine them to be so much better than before.  After everything we’ve seen, can it not get even more better than we could possibly imagine?

Games

The cake is a lie!  Lately I have been playing old games that can easily be played on my newer systems because the games reminds me where I came from and why I did what I did.  It’s all in how you approach the problem and figure out the problem.   I simply love to problem solve and see what I can do with the games.   I guess that’s why I love puzzle games like Portal, Subnautica, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020,  Half Life Series and Terratech or anything that lets me build or problem solve.   I can’t imagine I am the only one who likes these types of games because it is just fun to be able to do things and try new ways to play a game or solve a puzzle in the game.   I hope the game developers get even more creative in the way they will allow the player to solve the game or let the player figure a problem out in several ways.

These are just a few things I can talk about and still do whenever I see Something that I want to talk about on my blog.  These are only a few topics that I enjoy to write about and even might even make more topics as I see more things that I need to write about.   What are some things you like to talk about and why?  Let me know what you like and don’t and we can discuss them in the comments below.

5 portable Apps that will save your time on your computer!

Paul
Picture by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

Give it a chance

So you have a client who has some computer problems, and you don’t know what to do?  I am here to help you with that problem.  It can’t be easy for some to know exactly what you might need for those uncertain times.   There are multitude of problems that you’ll see in your computer technician job that will need to be resolved.   Here is a little bit of a list of apps that I use on a daily or weekly process to repair and upgrade systems.  Some of these will help me fix problems or even problem solve the answer.

Sysinternals Suite

Process Explorer

This bag of applications brought to you by Microsoft is the cream of the crop.   If you haven’t downloaded the who suite of tools from sysinternals.  You really should  do it now.   I really like the process monitor and process monitoring tools to help me see what might be wrong with a system.   It’s got a whole lot of apps to use when you need to either kill an app.   I could go on and on about this pack of apps from Microsoft but it is definitely a grab bag for me.  This is something that I have on my USB for when I might need it.

CloneZilla

Clonzilla Live CD/USB

Another great app that you can load on your USB and use it when you need to copy partitions or even whole drives from one drive to another.   It is a free utility that you can use on any system.  You’ll just need to create a bootable USB.   I use the app call YUMI to create a multiboot usb and put all my favorite and important ISO on the USB for when I need them.

Portable Apps

Portable Apps

This is another one that I put on my USB just to be cautious and know that I don’t have to use anything on a system that I might not trust. They’ve got a slew of apps that you can use for everything that you might need. What I like about portable apps is they even have antivirus and password generators. They have a lot of what I will use from time to time because they just make it easy to scan an infected system from my usb without having to load the antivirus before boot. They have some great tools all around and You should check them out.

RevoUninstaller Portable

This is great utility to remove all the crap that any system that you buy from a store or even from Amazon will be removed without much effort from you.  You can run this off a USB or even install it and remove all the stuff that gets loaded on from the Acer, Dell, or other OEMS.   It helps me out really well because I have seen clients systems speed up by removing all the annoying programs that aren’t even being used.

Windows Offline update (WSUS)

Windows offline Update (WSUS)

Let’s face it, if your client hasn’t updated their system for quite some time or the system in question doesn’t have a way to update because of no internet this is the best solution for you.   Download the updates and put it on a USB.   Most of the time, it will be a good around 20gb or 30gb depending on which windows updates you get from Windows 7 to Windows 10, you will have each one being like 3gb or 4gb a piece.   It actually helps me when it comes to updating a client’s computer without having to wait for it to download the updates.   I can just update and reboot.  This has been a great time saver for me when it comes to being a computer technician.

What’s your favorite portable app or even just an app that you use on a regular basis.  I’d like to hear what yours is and why.  Why not leave a comment and tell others and help others who might not know of a good app to use.

Amazon’s New World Makes your Graphics Processing Units a Brick!

Paul

New World and a NEW GPU!

According to reports from what I’m seeing,  Amazon’s New World MMO is bricking people Graphics cards.  I haven’t even tried this game on my system nor will I because I have other important things going on.  JayzTwocents on twitter said:

Fixing the MMO

Just cap your Frames Per Second to 60 or 70 at the most. It seems most are saying that is how to prevent the extra power draw from to your Nvidia 3060 or High GPU’s and stopping them from become bricks. Although it’s not just Nvidia but also AMD that seems to be having the problems. There are a few older cards that are also having problems with this but not to that extreme of bricking it. You should however be careful with this game and others and watching your heat and power draw using the MSI AfterBurner utility. Please don’t overclock your GPU while playing this game. Keep it at it’s defaults, that way you will less likely have issues.

Don’t be like other guys:

I think I’ll wait!

It’s time to put that on the burner. I won’t say I haven’t thought about trying this game when I first heard about it but I have been rather busy the last few weeks with school and about to move into my new place. I thought I would wait and maybe try it out later this year.   In any case, I am a little bit worried that if I did, my 1660 super would be fried.   So I am going to wait and see what Amazon does when it finally does fix this bug if it is one or fix this issue.   Happy Gaming all!

How to Convert your Windows 10 from MBR to GPT

Paul

Securing Windows 10

It’s complicated is what I’ve heard from people all around the world. The idea that We have to figure how to turn our Windows 10 into a secure boot, can seem difficult at best. Just like Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) isn’t always labeled right in the bios and that can be hard to find.   It seems that all the motherboard manufacturers wanted to make it extremely difficult for anyone who might want to enable or disable UEFI to be able to do it.   Then add on to the fact that the Motherboard manufacturers also made it hard to figure out how to turn on TPM in the bios also.   Can seem quite maddening to most because each manufacturer didn’t just call it TPM or UEFI.   Some of them Call it PTT (The intel Platform Trusted Technology) or even the AMD which is called fTPM(Firmware Trusted Platform Module).   Although the AMD version is a whole lot easier to understand since it does say TPM.  Intel on the other hand can be hard to find or even know what PTT stands for unless you google it.

Checking your system

The first step you should always do is make sure you can do this in the first place.   If you haven’t read my other post about this, I’d go over there and check to make sure you can do this in the first place.   As of currently Microsoft has stated that the requirements are the same for the previous few weeks.   So I don’t know if they will change when the final release comes out but it could very well change.

Have backups

Before I talk about the upgrading or updating your boot system to allow you to boot into Windows 10 Secure boot.  I’ll make this statement, please consider backing up all your important files that you might want to keep to a USB Flash Drive or even portable HDD or a HD that you can unplug from the bios to keep your important files safe while the upgrading of Windows 10 is being done.    What you do after this is on yourself and no one else.

can you upgrade to secure boot?

If you have checked the previous post and turned on what you can besides secure boot, but you know you have it.  You’re pretty much set to upgrade Windows 10 from Master Boot Record (MBR) to GPT(GUID Partition Table).  The process for converting your Master Boot record is relatively simple but will require you to boot into a Windows 10 on a USB!  Once you have done that you will then want to get to the command prompt the easiest way is to hit Windows+S and type in cmd then right click run as administrator.  Now you’re at the command problem.  Now is where the fun starts.

Type in :  mbr2gpt.exe  /allowFullOS /convert

Let it do it’s conversion and once done you’ll need to reboot but before you try to log into Windows again, you’ll need to go into the bios and enable secure boot.   Depending on how much Windows 10 needs to go through a new startup process will depend on the way GPT was converted.  It may take a few minutes even on the fastest system for Windows 10 to fully boot or it could be just as quick as before.   Once Windows 10 is booted, I suggest verify all your files are there and that everything is working correctly.   You might need to update software but that shouldn’t be to much a problem.   After That if you are on the Windows Insider Program than go check for updates and Windows 11 should be able to install.  If it still says you can’t upgrade I’d go back and check Whynotwin11 and Find out if you haven’t enabled TPM or what version of the TPM it is.   Other than that you should be set to go.

Enjoy Windows 11 Preview builds.