Defrag: Admin Accounts, Block Sizes, PerfView
- Posted: Jan 10, 2012 at 1:26 PM
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Microsoft tech troubleshooter extraordinaire Gov Maharaj and I help walk you through troubleshooting solutions to your tech support problems. If you have a problem you want to send us, you can use the Problem Step Recorder in Windows 7 (see this for details on how) and send us the zip file to DefragShow@microsoft.com. We will also be checking comments for problems, but the email address will let us contact you if needed.
[00:10] - Crapware recap.
[04:20] - Pulling drivers out of the .wim after flattening a PC.
[06:00] - Is it overkill to have an admin account and a standard user account.
[08:44] - Taskbar acts weird when debugging in VS.
[10:22] - Flattening a PC takes longer than we often suggest, why?
[14:33] - The case for bigger or smaller block sizes.
[17:33] - Gov on UPS's. [link]
[21:34] - What is Local Disk Q:?
[23:00] - How to capture a screenshot periodically.
[24:28] - Can't see all the RAM on a PC.
[25:15] - How to remove lock icon from a folder.
[26:06] - How to alt-tab to an app without a Task Bar button.
[25:15] - Pick of the Week: PerfView [link]
Following is the note from Wayne Knapp about extracting drivers out of your recovery image:
"It sounds a little scary but it works well and you can always restore to the factory image if something goes wrong. This gives one the maybe the cleanest possible starting point. I recently was able to upgrade a Dell 2320 all in one touch screen computer to Windows 8 using the above approach. I was able to reinstall all the correct drivers in about 10 minutes after the Windows 8 install was complete.
1) Open up an administrator command prompt.
2) Create a directory to create a copy of the expanded restore image, say "c:\backupImage".
3) Expand the factory image with dism.exe. This is scary looking but docmented in MSDN. In my example:
"dism /mount-win /wimfile:d:\DELL\Image\Factory.wim /index:1 /mountDir:c:\backupImage"
This command will take a few minutes to run.
4) Copy the c:\backupImage\windows\system32\DriverStore directory to the recovery partition, say d:\DriverStore.
5) Now reinstall a clean version of Windows on the C:\ drive, leaving the restore partition alone!
6) Fix the drivers by using the device manager and browsing to the D:\driverstore for the drivers.
7) Enjoy your fast and very clean system!"
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In a future show could you please answer this question for me:
If I encrypt my files using BitLocker, and then create a system image using the tools built into Windows 7, will I be able to restore from that system image and still have access to all of the files that were there at the time the system image was created?
@DanHarris: Good question. Next show could you talk about what kind of encryption Bitlocker uses?
Some OEM shovelware is really obvious and new users will just assume that this is part of the OS which will give them a unrealistic view of what a fresh install of Win7 should look like. They run at startup, bug you all the time and take over different filetypes so that their horrible software opens up when you try and open certain files.
Stuff like replacing the OSes built in firewall is WAY out of line and for more serious than something like replacing the default viewer for .JPG files but it's ALL annoying.
Interesting that you talk on the show about crapware, but despite saying "we're on the same page" I still don't think you get it. It's not bad that you allow OEMs to install this crapware (and to be fair, as you say on the show the term crapware isn't necessarily an indication of the usefulness or quality of the software, but if the owner of the PC isn't going to use it, it's crap). In fact there's a lot of this crapware that's very useful to some people and I've known people that have complained when they buy a new PC that didn't include some specific crapware that was included in their previous PC purchase. So forget the idea that we're asking Microsoft to prevent OEMs from installing this stuff.
The issue is with removing it. You spent quite a bit of time explaining how you often can't just run add/remove programs to get rid of this stuff properly. Instead you search the Internet for a standalone uninstaller and use that. THAT IS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS. You can't expect the average user to do this. Washing your hands by saying "everyone has a goto tech support friend or family member" is not a good answer. Even for those of us who can (and do) deal with this issue, it's still wrong. What should be a 30 second fix requires several minutes or sometimes even more if it's difficult to find an uninstaller. When the solution to all of this is so simple (don't give the OEM a Windows Logo if they install software that doesn't cleanly uninstall from add/remove programs) all of these excuses and "we understand" remarks (when I'm not sure you actually do) are infurating.
I realize you don't have the power to fix this problem, and in many ways I'm preaching to the choir here. But the responses on this topic have still been "lacking" as a polite euphamism.
[06:00] - Is it overkill to have an admin account and a standard user account.
starting with Vista it is no longer required to use the 2 accounts. UAC make the created admin user account to act like a standard user for most time. And if you need admin rights, simply run the "as admin":
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-do-I-run-an-application-once-with-a-full-administrator-access-token
I love the UAC so much, this makes it so easy to work.
[10:22] - Flattening a PC takes longer than we often suggest, why?
wait for Windows 8 (if you like the Metro UI) and use the Reset function with an image (captured by Recimg) if you don't want to use 3rd party imaging tools:
Refresh and reset your PC
The Windows 8 Refresh Your PC Feature
[21:34] - What is Local Disk Q:?
It also used by Office 2010 if you use the Click & Run version (which internal also uses App-V)
In reference to switching between windows, since my Windows 98 days, I've been a fan of Alt+Esc (when one time I accedently used it instead of Ctrl+Esc to immediately escape a full screen application without closing it out). It works by taking the current active window and sends it to the bottom, making the second topmost window now the active window. Adding a Shift key has the same effect as adding a Shift key to most other operations, it does the opposite, taking the bottom most window and bringing it to the top. Since it deals with the windows directly, it should not skip over windows without a taskbar entry (at least it doesn't do so in my experience).
Wow ALT+ESC is actually quite handy.
I do exactly the same thing with the underscore in front of important folders! Who needs hi-tech features of modern operating system!?
yeah, I also use _ at important folders to access them faster.
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