Windows 11 Tips

 For now, I'll only put Windows 11 unique things here, most of Win 11 responds to the Windows 10 stuff

Initial setup:

keeping a list of what I do to a new installation

deny everything it wants in the initial setup, location, help, etc.

make a microsoft account if you don't have one, later you will make a local user and cut the microsoft account connection

create a new local user, set as administrator. For windows home, enable the hidden administrator user: net user administrator /active:yes (do from elevated command prompt), BE SURE to set a password, there is no password for the administor account by default !!!

reboot, check both your new logins, and then delete the original user that is hooked to the microsoft account.

install firefox, make it default, and put in ghostery and ublock (be sure to allow these to work in private windows), delete all the extra search engines, set home page, etc.

Install ccleaner, and uninstall all the crap, turn off all crap in startup, and in services

now customize your desktop, set sleep and screen timers so the dang thing stays on for a while

run your manufacturer's update program, be sure to update bios if offered, you may have to reboot several times for the software to correctly identify updates

now might be a good time to change your computer's boot options, a new dell kept looking at the network card to boot from...  a recent Dell XPS tried to boot from the network card under IPV4 and IPV6 as configured from the factory. Who does that?

open the microsoft store, I turn off automatic app updates, otherwise somehow microsloth seems to keep installing more junk.

now I install driver booster and see how far off the factory update is from current on drivers. Be careful if you don't know what you are doing.

finally I add the free version of malwarebytes, and a few other utilities.

Can't expand start menu

What the hell? It's bad enough that half of the space is devoted to recommended junk, but no room for all my shortcuts. If you can handle more menu items on a cell phone, why not on a real computer?

Just buy Start11, very flexible and very useful. You can get a windows 10 start menu, or windows 8 or windows 7. You can easily alternate between the menu of your choice and the stock windows 11 menu.

reset recycle bin

keep emptying recyle bin, but stuff stays? from administrative command window rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin   will reset corrupted files in recycle bin...

Lock Screen timeout

This is really irritating, one computer when updated to 11 constantly times out quickly and lock screen.

First check the screensaver:

screensaver (none) and uncheck the box: "on resume, display login screen"

Edit power plan timeouts

Now go to power options edit power plan

set sleep timer to never (at least on plugged in)

Disable or delay lock screen password when the screen turns off

accounts: sign in options

under additional  options: if you've been away, when should windows require you to sign in?

on my computers, the setting was grayed out

in this case: Win + R’ and then type secpol.msc

navigate to local policies: security options, then search: ‘Interactive logon: Machine inactivity limit’.

Computer -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> System

delete the inactivityTimeoutSecs key

--------------------

One new item is the unattended sleep time in advanced power settings in control panel under power options

If it does not show, use this:

First, change sleep settings as usual

Next set system unattended sleep time in advanced settings. To make it show:

powercfg -attributes SUB_SLEEP 7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0 -ATTRIB_HIDE

This is usually set to default 2 minutes

Next you want to change the "Console lock display off timeout"

This is set to 1 minute by default

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8ec4b3a5-6868-48c2-be75-4f3044be88a7

set the attribute from 1 to 2, and now it will show in the "DISPLAY" section of the advanced power settings.

Next change the ScreenSaveTimeOut, my Lenovo kept changing it to 600 (seconds) no matter what I did.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\ScreenSaveTimeOut

Adobe Acrobat DC tips

Yeah, not windows 11 specific, but this stupid program puts up all kinds of menus and crap when 99% of the time all you want is a fast pdf reader without eating the entire screen.

• go to  ” C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\RdrApp\ENU”
• Create a subfolder called “Disabled”
• Move “AppCenter_R.aapp”, “Home.aapp”, and “Viewer.aapp” to the “Disabled” folder

Getting the old Microsoft office picture manager

last version that had this is office 2010

You can download the 2010 Sharepoint designer for free.... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16573

Then do a custom install and block everything except the Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8ec4b3a5-6868-48c2-be75-4f3044be88a7

put a 2 in for attributes, mine was 1

now in the power options, under advanced settings, the Display category will show "Console lock display off timeout", and yes it was set to 1 minute for plugged in and on battery..!!

Be sure to move the start button from the default center to left first.

C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\StartMenuExperienceHost.exe

https://www.mediafire.com/file/0u819qv1n76n6e9/Start_Menu.rar/file

updating issues

 overall error:

something went wrong... error code 0xc1900101

Matching Profile found: FindAbruptDownlevelFailure - 55882B1A-DA3E-408A-9076-23B22A0472BD
SetupDiag version: 1.6.2107.27002
System Information:
Machine Name = GREG-PC
Manufacturer = Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Model = Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
HostOSArchitecture = 1033
FirmwareType = UEFI
BiosReleaseDate = 20211113000000.000000+000
BiosVendor =
BiosVersion = F15
HostOSVersion =
HostOSBuildString = 19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406
TargetOSBuildString = 10.0.22000.194 (co_release_svc_prod1.210911-1543)
HostOSLanguageId =
HostOSEdition = Professional
RegisteredAV = Avast Antivirus
FilterDrivers = FileInfo
UpgradeStartTime = 2/13/2022 10:18:35 AM
UpgradeEndTime = 2/13/2022 12:20:28 PM
UpgradeElapsedTime = 02:01:53
CV = JD0YWqBfd0Okriz4
ReportId =

Error: SetupDiag reports abrupt down-level failure.
Last Operation: Finalize
Error: 0xC1900101 - 0x50016
LogEntry: 2022-02-13 12:17:10, Error MOUPG CDlpActionFinalize::ExecuteSetupPlatformFinalize(1192): Result = 0xC1900101[gle=0x8007000d]

Refer to "https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/Debug/system-error-codes" for error information.

Last Setup Phase:
Phase Name: Finalize
Phase Started: 2/13/2022 12:16:08 PM
Phase Ended: 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM
Phase Time Delta: 00:00:00
Completed Successfully? False

Error: SetupDiag reports abrupt down-level failure.
Last Operation: Finalize
Error: 0xC1900101 - 0x50016