Category: Windows

Everything About Windows

Will Microsoft start watching you on Windows 11?

Paul


Microsoft Requirements

According to Microsoft requirement page for Windows 11, you will need to have some of these things enable to be able to install it.   Let me show you what I see of the top and maybe even read between the lines:

  • You will be required to have internet connectivity for Windows 11 Home.
  • The System will need to be TPM Enabled. (If you have an NVME, You probably already have a TPM on your system.)
  • Microsoft Edge will be the Default Browser (That’s was expected by me)
  • Taskbar Alignment to the bottom of the screen is the only location allowed.  (I heard there is a Hack for this).
  • Required to have at least two cores to be able to install Windows 11.
  • Apps can no longer customize areas of the Taskbar.  (I am not sure what they mean by this but it will probably change the app development in the future.)

So who’s watching you?

I have a few issues with this requirement for one, the need to require to have an internet access to for first boot.   There will be people in countries who have no access to internet or people who don’t want to be tracked by Microsoft.   That is something I am cautious about when it comes to booting into Windows.   I don’t want Microsoft to know what I am doing or have access to any of the data that I am during with their system.   I specifically make sure that is what I want by opting out of those features when I installed Windows 10.   I turned off those features before I even started using Windows 10.   I might just be one of those who was security aware of the problems associated with leaking my personal information or having someone watch what I am doing online.   I know I don’t have privacy online but I do try to protect what I can when I can.

WIndows 11 Pro?

Granted, Windows 11 Home is the only thing they say requires internet connection, I am curious to see what the requirements are for Windows 11 Pro.   Will I need to do all this for the Professional versions also?   Until Then, I will keep with Windows 10 Pro(*Get the OEM version for $21.96 USD* Affiliate Link), because I don’t have to worry about logging into Windows 10 with my Microsoft account.   Even though, I am using skype and other features that I log into.  I am however not giving them much information as I could be.   Although, As I am looking at the business side of Windows 11, I do not see the requirement for needing an internet connection to run Windows 11 Business.  I think that is what you call the Professional edition.   Either way, I’ll wait and see what happens in the future and see what the requirements are.

Are you going to use Windows 11?  What do you think about it?  Why not leave a comment and tell me what your thoughts are about Windows 11?

Is Windows 10 being put on the chopping block?

Paul
Windows II Logo

Microsoft readies launch

It’s like trying to stuff a van into a mini cooper and then selling it for more than it’s worth.   If you haven’t been paying attention lately, Microsoft decided to create Windows 11 and that got leaked all over the internet.   I’ve not had a chance to sit down and play with it but I am impressed with the screenshots of the UI and even hearing some of the other things.   I am sure Microsoft will always try to stuff everything they can into Windows 11 and then some.   The event is actually June 24th, 2020 at 11am and you can watch like everyone else and hear all about it.  So what does that mean for people who want to upgrade and It looks like it will be an upgrade feature for people who have Windows 11 but that might change.

Design of Windows 11

If all the screenshots I’ve seen online are correct and I don’t know just yet, I have request to be put back into the beta program from Windows upgrades.  I will tell you what I think when they finally release it.   I am quite curious as to how well it reacts to upgrade if that’s going to happen or will we have to buy it?  I don’t know just yet.   There are several videos of the Windows 11 leak and people showing it off, I am unsure of how reliable these videos are but I figured it would be something to at least look at and see for yourself.

The Next Windows

So I am going to say that it is probably going to be like Windows 12 and so on.   They will probably do this from time to time and if the current product cycle holds it will probably be every 5 to 6 years.   So you can bet it will probably progress from 12 to 13 and so on.   I am sure this will be interesting to see just what they have planned on June 24th and even be able to see it in person when it is finally released.

 

How to build a Gaming Computer Cheaply!

Paul

Building that Cheap Desktop

Even now people are still trying to build cheap gaming desktops because it is fun to build it yourself.   You can however order a gaming desktop from either your local computer store or even online such as Origin but then you will be paying more.  Either way, you will probably be paying more for the labor and maybe even the price of some of the computer parts.   This is why I like to build my own desktop and customize it to my liking.   Each time I make a desktop for clients or even me, I ask myself what do I want to have in my system.   I’m an INTEL person myself and will always go with Intel due to the fact that it works really well with Windows and other programs natively.  I also ask myself some common questions before I begin my build.

  • Will it Be Intel or AMD?  (To each their own preference)
  • How much speed do I want to have?
  • What type of HD will I most likely install it it?  (examples: NVME, SSD or HDD)
  • What type of Graphic card do I plan to have in it if Any?  (Nvidia, AMD or no Graphics card at all)
  • Will I want to have max memory or just the standard 8Gb or 16Gb of memory?
  • Will it be for Gaming or Work, or Both?
  • Will I need a lot of power to run this PC?
  • Will it be Watercooled or Air Cooled?
  • Will it have RGB on it or will it be non RGB?  (This too is a good question because RGB will take additional power but it isn’t going to be a lot)
  • What Games if any will I most likely be playing on this desktop?  (Each Game has minimum requirements that need to be met, so look carefully at the games)

Time to do research

This is where it starts to get interesting because most of the time, I will start with Motherboard and CPU.   This is the first place I start looking for the right motherboard and cpu for my needs or at least to start off with.   You can always buy a slower CPU and gradually upgrade it as you get more money.   So you don’t have to always have the fastest CPU to start off with.   It does help but it will also help with keeping it cheap.  This is the time you decide if it will be AMD or INTEL and then look for the board that will work with the CPU.   Also you will need to pay extra attention to the socket types and how many PCI Slots.   If you are going to install a Graphics Card, you will need to have the right PCI slot and also if you intend to install any other peripherals which might need a pci slot.

Buy RAM

Once you’ve bought the CPU and Motherboard, you’ll know which type of RAM you will need to buy to install onto the Motherboard. This is what I usually do anyways and I start looking for RAM being sold on Facebook or other sites that sell used RAM.   You’ll just want to make sure the seller is reliable and has some good ratings before buying the ram.  The max speed I usually get for any system nothing more the 4000 Ghz,  I usually try to limit it to 3200 Ghz because you really don’t find any more speed coming from the memory at higher rates.   I think it is due to the limitations of the motherboards but that might just be something else.

Power Supply

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 Ga, 80 Plus Gold 850W, Fully Modular, ECO Mode with Dbb Fan, 10 Year Warranty, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply 220-GA-0850-X1

Now is the time to buy the power supply,  This can seem easy but really it is harder than most will admit to.  You’ll want to buy a power supply that can be used with your system and then add a cushion of 30% or more to the power supply needs.   So if you need a 500 watt power supply, I’d buy a 900 watt power supply just to be safe.   If you can find one that is modular, that is even because then you won’t have cables that you aren’t using.   That’s the only thing good with Power supply.   Something like the one you are seeing on the left will work just fine.   Most of the time it will work even better than you can imagine.

 

Video Card

This is essential the most expensive part of the build right now.   Depending on where or who you talk to.   It can be anywhere from a few 100 dollars to even a 1 thousand dollars to buy the video card new.  The trick here is to find a video that will work for you right now and then upgrade it as you need to in the future or as you get the money in the future.   So I always tell people to go with the Minimum requirements of games and then work your way up to recommended requirements because that way you can save up for the GPU that is recommended and still be able to play the game you are wanting to play.  Just remember don’t bottleneck your CPU with getting a better GPU and not upgrading your CPU in the same the process.  Look for people who are selling their GPU’s and or places that might sell you a cheap GPU that still will do what you are looking to play or do with it.  Even with Nvidia announcing the Low Hash rates GPU’s, You can expect the price of them to be more expensive than what you normally will see for quite some time.

After That you should really be set to put you system and install what operating system you might want into the new desktop.   Once that done you are set to start playing your games.

 

Why Having a rolling updates for Windows 10 is a Good Idea!

Paul

Microsoft Windows 10

Those unexpected times

So you need your Windows 10 for something important from maybe a church service, or you have an important meeting on zoom for Tuesday.   You have something important going on and Windows brings up this notification that you should reboot your system for an Windows 10 update.  You can tell it to schedule the update later that day or even during the night with no problems but what if you have to reboot your system?   There’s the problem, you do have the option to restart without updating but most people don’t know that option.   It’s an easy fix.   Go into command Mode by typing Cmd into the search bar.

cmd prompt

and then type:

shutdown -s -t 0

Once it shutdowns you just reboot your system and you are back to where you left off.  It however isn’t always that simple with people who seem to forget that little trick from time to time.

Rolling Updates

What if You don’t have time to do this little trick or you forget.  Well you know what happens, you wait for the update to take place.  It can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on how big the update is.   I’ve seen it take like 10 mins on some systems. It can take some time to update Windows 10 because you get some massive updates sometimes when it comes to updates.   You get new Revisions and you get new patches every 2nd Tuesday of the month.   What if you need the updates to update on a certain day.     There is a way to do it.  Depending on which day you need to do the updates, you can make Windows 10 pause the updates up to 35 days and that can be a very useful way to prevent unexpected updates when you need Windows 10 to just be working.   You can do this by going into windows update settings

WIndows update settings

Once you click Windows Update Settings and go to the menu.   You’ll want to hit the advanced options and then look for pause updates.   Then you can select a date up to 35 days.    This is something I tell my clients from time to time to do this because it really does help them from having those unexpected downtimes.

Once you do this, write down the date you selected and put it somewhere next your computer.   I like to use Google Calendar or some calendar app to remind a few days before that date and then I update Windows 10 at my convenience not the other way around.   You find a day that is convenient for you and you update windows before the 35 days or you just let it do it’s thing and you have two updates in one most of the time.   Once you update and restart your system, you go back into Windows update settings and pause the updates for another 35 days or whatever date you want to pause till.   You start the process over again and you have a rolling update schedule.

Change Active Hours

Something else I tell my clients is to change the active hours you work on your system.   Even though Windows 10 does a really good job, it isn’t perfect and thus you might be using the system when the system thinks it should be inactive.   You can also change that on the windows update setting page.   I usually turn off the active hours feature and then change the active hours and put it when I will be using the computer the most of the time.

Schedule the update

You can also schedule when Windows will do the update.   In the early days you could only pause the update for 4 hours before it would restart the system without your knowledge.   Now you can tell Windows when to restart the system and usually it will pick sometime while you are inactive and not doing anything.   So you can select the time that is convenient for you.   You can do this by just going to Windows update Settings page(See above) and hit the Schedule the Restart and then select the time of day you want the system to restart the computer.  This way if you forgot that there is an update and you are busy with work, you can tell it to wait till you aren’t busy with some important work.

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The Pagefile.sys and the early years

Paul

technology, electronic device, computer hardware, computer component, electronics, motherboard, personal computer hardware, cpu, computer accessory, Free Images In PxHere

from PxHere

What is the Pagefile.sys

When Microsoft created Windows XP, it became quite apparent that Windows UI couldn’t handle all the desktop users needs. Since this was in the early 2000 when we were still working with a very limited system resources. The systems we had at the time were 16 bit or 32 bit systems. This is where it gets interesting because the maximum you can have on a 16 bit system was 64kb of ram which wasn’t much. However we started with the 32 bit systems that would allow up to 4 gigabytes of memory total. It was quite nice but it still required the system to use the file system to hold or run programs. It would become self evident that the system was so bogged down by processor speed and amount of ram that was available. All the while they were working on the Windows operating system they had to create a way to throw the unimportant programs or sometimes important programs into the background to be able to load other programs. It was really a pain and I should say this isn’t something we have to worry about now.

What does it do?

Well it basically put the program to a mini sleep and throws it onto the hard drive and keeps a record of where and what it had to know in order to start the program back up. It was a way to keep memory space used to a minimum and still be able to have a really nice experience with Windows XP. Microsoft in all it’s wisdom, decided to incorporate this little feature into the Windows vista and other operating systems. I still think it has a use in Windows 10 but I doubt it is being used like was in the early days since most people usually have enough ram to not need to put to sleep any programs in the background to run programs.

Can I delete it?

Like many other experts, I say you shouldn’t even think about it. In the early days, when it was deleted or corrupted you couldn’t even boot your system. There were even cases of BSOD(Blue Screen of Death) and thus it is never recommended to delete or modify your pagefile.sys without fully backing up your system and then maybe. There are several ways you can do it but I won’t talk about that. I however will link to them and let you decide for yourself if you should do it or not.

Does it slow my system down?

In the early days, it would most likely slow it down but since we have so much more system resources than before we shouldn’t need to worry about. I honestly have 32 gigabytes of ram in my system and see no noticeable speed difference than when I had 16 gigabytes. Pagefile.sys shouldn’t be doing anything now but it might if you are using a really big program or game that requires massive amount of memory and if you didn’t have the memory requirements for it but still was able to run it. Then you might be using pagefile.sys to do swapping of programs and free up space for that game or big program that you are trying to run.

Other than when you put your Windows system to sleep, it is what is used to throw everything you have loaded up in your laptop or desktop on to the HDD to save for quick retrieval of the programs to start the laptop or desktop where you left off.   This is the only place that I know of that it is currently still be used but I am sure it is still be used on old systems.

In the long run, the pagefile.sys is still used today and probably for a while. It’s uses can be small at times but it was designed to help you with your computer memory and thus should not be tampered with unless you know what you are doing.