Windows 10 - May 2019 update 1903

With the new round of Windows 10 updates happening soon, Lamas Design is waiting.

Waiting for the update!  Waiting for the clients to call and say : "It started to update and then it came up with a picture of Grumpy Cat/dancing unicorns/Blue Screen/Automatic repair/crazy frog/(Insert problem here)..

I know which one I would prefer.

RIP Grumpy Cat 😢

I don't often get comments on this blog.  In fact, I think it is only read by one or two people as an alternative to sleeping tablets and the occasional desperate person looking on page 22 of a google search for a solution when they have tried everything else!

Imagine my surprise today when I received a comment telling me how much they enjoyed the blog.  They also included a bunch of links which led to scam websites.  No thanks - deleted.  I have email accounts to collect spam I don't need it here as well!!

The first PC has been updated, TriggersBroom, my workhorse that has recently been upgraded to a board with the Z270 chipset.  Downloaded and installed within a couple of hours without much assistance or interference from me.  That is obviously the way i like it to happen.  

My laptop however, is a slightly different kettle of fish. I did an extra special clean up on it yesterday. Including, disk cleanup, virus check, malware removal, although most of this is done on a very regular basis anyway.  It still took hours to download, install and then, subsequently, fail.  

It gave me various different error codes and in the end I have given up for the time being. The error codes as usual mean very little and do not give a clear indication of what the problem may be.

Watch this space for further updates.





   

Housekeeping!

Look at your computer in the same way you look at your home. 

You like your home to be clean and tidy and everything is where it should be, household running smoothly, everyone has a clean shirt etc.

Keep your home this way takes a bit of regular housework, dusting, vacuuming or sweeping, washing, cleaning and so on.

If you want your PC to run well you will need to do similar tasks.  

• Regular Antivirus scans with up to date software.
• Malware and spyware removal with up to date software
• Disk defragmentation
• Disk cleanup
• Driver updates. 
• Make sure system restore is running

Most of these things can be automated.  Most of these things can be done with free software.  Sometimes you can find software that is both!

One of the most important things is (Here it comes, you've been expecting this one) is a back up!

And yes - I heard the collective groan.  

The times I've heard Will I loose all my pictures? or some version of that. 

Back up of data is imperative.  Disks are not infallible, but unlikely to all go down at the same time.  But you know all of this, you have been told this time and again.

What is also as important is a system image.  Windows can do this without additional software.

You spend ages installing all your software, putting all the serial numbers away in that safe place (I always think of the room of requirement when he hides the Potions book, because "Safe Place" I can never remember exactly where it is!!)

And then Microsoft gets involved and gives you updates, some minor, some major, and that is when it starts becoming a problem.  Minimise the problem by performing the housekeeping.

If you have a system image there is a very good chance that your system can be restored to its former glory with little fuss if a system has a backup.  

I hate it when I have to return a system to a client with just a bare copy of Windows 10 and their data.  Obviously I put AVs and stuff on as well, but it does not look the same as it did and nothing is where they left it.

If you would like some help or recommendations please contact me.  My advice costs nothing, a system rebuild is so much more expensive in many ways.

Have a good weekend all. 

Turn off Remote Access

As a follow up to recent posts about phone scammers, here is a proactive way to protect yourself. 

If the scammers can’t get on to your pc in the first place then they can’t do the damage. It is highly unlikely that anyone legitimate will ask for remote access.

So for Windows 10 in the bottom left search box 

type “Remote Assistance” by the time you get to the A, it will be showing “Allow Remote Access to your computer”  It is important to get as far as the A, because it shows Remote Desktop and that is not what you are after.

Select the Remote Assistance option.

This shows the System Properties Window from a Windows 10 Home system

This shows the System Properties from a Windows 10 Pro system

Uncheck the tick box beside "Allow Remote Assistance Connections to this computer" and click Apply at the bottom of the windown and you are Done.

Again, tell your Nan or better yet do it for her.

Show your Mum and Dad and share it with everyone you know.

The remote access option is turned on by default in a new windows installation and that is what is making it easy for these scammers to carry out this despicable fraud that targets anyone. Let's at least try to make it harder for this scum to succeed.

The more people I speak to about this, the more I find have been caught out in some way. They dont care who you are, just what they can get out of you. 

Top Antivirus and Security

I get asked a lot by friends and clients what Anti Virus application should they use.  I have a preference - one that works!

I read an article recently in PC Pro Magazine which tested the different AV packages.

The top 2 were Kaspersky and Avast.

Kaspersky is a subscription. Avast is available for free.

Yesterday I was asked the question about AVs by a friend, whose subscription was due for renewal in January at a cost of GBP80.00. She decided that it was more cost effective to change to different package!

I checked on the current prices for her.

Argos are currently the cheapest for Kaspersky,

The other option I mention to anyone who enquires is a lot of the ISPs include a security package.  Virgin Media offer F-Secure, BT and Sky offer a security package powered by McAfee,

PC Pro also offer trial subscriptions in their magazine to some of the Security packages for 3 or 6 months,  These are sometimes useful if you are unsure whether a certain security solution will work for you, without making a financial commitment.  I have tried some of the options and found that they were good, but were not what I was looking for.

Windows 10 Running Slowly and showing errors

A couple of systems recently have landed on the workbench at Lamas HQ, that were recently upgraded to Windows 10 that were just not working right.  No amount of fiddling and fixing made any difference. Each time something was fixed something else showed up

Common to all of the laptops were sudden, extended and repeated hangs.  There was nothing showing up on Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, Rootkit or hardware tests.  They had all developed this issue since the upgrade to Windows 10.

I tried updating all the drivers, checking for OS updates and also running the Tweaking application. The Event View was littered with all kinds of events, errors and warnings, but nothing specific enough to give a clear picture of what the issue was exactly.

The only answer I could find to this irritating issue is a Reset.

From the Settings Menu

A full reinstall of the operating system but it keeps your documents, photos & files, although making sure you have some kind of backup is always a good precaution, but it does get rid of applications and those will need to be reinstalled.

Using Reset This PC with the Keep My Files option does not keep any desktop applications that were installed.  For example, MS Office, Chrome and iTunes would need to be reinstalled, as will your security software and printer.  The reasoning behind this is that it could be one of these applications that caused the issue in the first place.  However, once the reset is finished you will find an icon on your desktop that lists all the applications that were not reinstalled, so that you can make the decision whether you need to reinstall them.

There are many tutorials "how to use Reset for Windows 10". So there isn't one here! highlight the words in quotes, copy and paste into your web browser!

Windows cannot automatically bind the IP protocol stack Windows 10 Update

Recently completed the Network Managers upgrade to Windows 10.

Dell Inspiron 1545.  It arrived with Windows 7 on it.  

The first time I upgraded it errored out, rebooted and restored Windows 7.  The reason for this was I had over estimated the battery power.  It is not as good as it used to be.  (insert Ronnie Corbett-esque anecdote about laptop batteries?...maybe another time)

I tried again with the laptop running on the mains power and it completed.

There was however, an issue with the Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

Due to the age of the laptop Dell do not provide updated drivers for Windows 10 so I reinstalled the Windows 7 drivers.  They apparently installed with no issue, but it was still not working and not making the connection to the internet.

I ran a diagnostic on the network connections and the result was:

"Windows cannot automatically bind the IP protocol stack to the network adapter"

The reason for this was, installed on the adapter configuration were some items that were not required.

Control Panel -->  Network and Sharing Centre --> Change adapter Settings --> Right Click on the adapter name and select Properties.  The window below will appear or something very much like it

The items that should be checked are:

• Client for Microsoft Networks
• File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
• QoS Packet Scheduler
• Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4
• Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)
• Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver
• Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder.

Uncheck anything else.

The culprit, it seems, on the Dell Inspiron, was Microsoft LLDP Protocol Driver.  It was checked. 

It was then unchecked and the adapter was disabled and then re-enabled and then it was finally able to connect to the internet.

There are other reasons that it may not work, one is an unsupported VPN application or connection.  I made sure that anything of this nature was removed from the laptop, but in this case it was the MS LLDP Protocol Driver.

Sadly, I cannot remember or find the site that this useful information came from and I do like to give credit where credit is due.  If I do find it I will add the link to the site as the discussion it came from did give other solutions if this was unsuccessful.

Other reasons could include :

• the Ethernet cable may not be plugged in correctly
• Firewall or AV software may need to be temporarily disabled.
• Unsupported VPN software.

 

Windows 10 upgrade

So we were away on 29th July and I had to wait until 2nd August before I could even think about getting my grubby mitts into the Windows 10 upgrade.

The first in line for an upgrade was my faithful war horse PC.  This PC is the "Triggers Broom" of PCs.  It was first purchased in about 2000 and it had Millenium installed!  Pausing so you can wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes.

It has been upgraded through XP, Windows 7, and now to 10. (Skipped over Vista, 8 and 8.1) Over the years it has had, in no particular order, new HDD & SSD.  New Optical drive, I upgraded the Motherboard and processor at one point and I have also replaced the PSU added RAM... and a new case, but it has been with me all these years.

I am writing this blog on it and it is now working fine upgraded to Windows 10.  There is a bit of back story including me being a little impatient and not waiting for the official release and upgrading to the Insider Preview version.  This version upgraded ok, but did not like it when I tried to upgrade to the full version.  I was a victim of the "explorer and cortana is not responding" critical error.

I had to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch and then update to windows 10.  I will gloss over the fact that I have now got to install all my applications again, but sometimes that's a good thing. It was due a clean out anyway.  But that is my desktop, I accumulate applications for this and that and sometimes don't uninstall them.

My Laptop on the other hand, was a bit of a "surprise - I'm upgrading to 10"  Still not entirely sure how it started.  I really wanted the desktop working first, but my laptop decided that it had all the necessary and was going with Windows update and was going off to Windows 10 land whether I liked it or not.  I registered for the upgrade almost the second it came out so I have only myself to blame.

It is working fine.  There have been some ID 10T errors from the k2c interface, but these are slowly being resolved, as I find out new stuff.

There are other Systems here at Lamas HQ and some of my clients have asked me to "do" the upgrade for them.  I have one sitting here beside me at 18%.  This client is firmly in the Hate Windows 8 camp.  (Laptop with no touchscreen!)  She did not want to wait any longer to get rid of 8.1 and upgrade to 10.

All in all it is going well so far.  I have no wisdom to impart as I have not really had any issues, other than those of my own making, so far.  Or maybe just one.  Custom Installation or you will be furnishing Microsoft with all of your personal browsing habits and application info.  Double check all the toggle switches about sending this that and the other bits of info out to all and sundry.

There will be more on the Lamas Windows 10 journey in the future as there are more systems to go!

This copy of windows is not genuine - Oh yes it is!

A Client phoned me on Monday and told me that he was getting a Non Genuine Windows warning.

I knew that the copy of Windows was, in fact, genuine as I had purchased it, installed it and activated it myself just over 12 months ago!

The Network Manager was going over that way that evening and went and took a look at it.

I did not know at the time, as the client was not all that clear about it, but it was a random thing.  Sometimes it booted ok, other times it gave the warning.

The Network Manager found no issue and went on his merry way, the PC booted fine for him.

About an hour later I had a call to tell me that it is once again doing the same thing and giving a non genuine warning. 

I picked up the PC and brought it back to the workshop for further investigation.

I rebooted a couple of times, with no issue and the 4th time it happened again, a black screen with the warning in the bottom right of the screen.  It looked something, but not exactly, like this...

The back screen without the photo that is usually there, with the warning. When I did a quick bit of research on this i found that this is not an isolated incident and there have recently been quite a number of these.

It seems that something is corrupting the registry files associated with the licence.  If you check the MS website for their solution you may end up a little jittery as it involves a lot of manual registry editing. 

These pesky registry keys must be straightened out, however.  

The command required to do this is slmgr -rearm in an administrator level command prompt window.

This YouTube video is a good step by step instruction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_qJ2FS9pPw

But if you are in any doubt about what you are doing consult a professional.  

Technical Preview Windows 10

I took one of the little Lamas to the ballet yesterday.  It was her introduction the ballet.  The Nutcracker by the Russian State Ballet.  It was good and she enjoyed it. 

I might think twice about getting seats in the upper circle! wow - made me feel a bit wobbly there for a while, because it was so high up.  We got there early so we got some magazines to read while we waited.  

Little Lamas got a Moshi Monsters mag and I got a computer magazine!  The only reason I bought a computer mag was because it had, not surprisingly, quite a bit about Windows 10.

Microsoft have issued a Technical Preview of Windows 10 and I thought it might be a good idea to have a look.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

I personally don't care what they call it.  I have no issue with them missing out Windows 9 or giving it a name like Windows "I hope we did a bit better this time" it makes no odds to me.

I am going to take a look at the tech preview and see what I think.  

I enjoyed my extra hour this morning and was quite pleased that I slept in and the other little Lamas was not late for Rugby training.

The new laptop is good. I have my favourites back in Firefox and the applications are slowly returning.  My only issue is the track pad and gestures - I can't remember what they all do! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and Happy Half Term!

Licencing and Windows 8 and 8.1 and restores and rebuilds

The Lamas HQ devices are a mix of Windows 7, Android and Pi. 

I know... but we did not fancy Windows 8 without touchscreen and in his "other" life the Network Manager uses Windows 7.  But this is just our opinion and our choice. 
Possibly there will be an addition to the pack, by way of an Ubuntu facility

Recently I have been asked to rebuild a Windows 8(.1?) laptop.

Now this Laptop was likely to have Windows 8 preinstalled at the beginning and upgraded to Win8.1 and then it seemingly downgraded to a failed HDD.  (insert Wah Wah Wah Wah, trombone here)

The items that were handed to me were a semi dead, out of warantee laptop, power cable and user password info.  I checked on the warrantee status very early in the process.  No reinstallation or backup or restore media and no trace of a Windows COA was to be found.

I have learned A LOT about windows 8 licensing. That includes laptops that are purchased with it preinstalled:

• it is activated in a completely different, new and "improved" way (improved for whom, I wonder?)
• COA does not appear anywhere on the box, the laptop itself or the battery compartment.  It is coded into the BIOS
• Windows 8 cannot be legally downloaded (for this manufacturer,) in the same way as the retail version, if the laptop came with it preinstalled, even using the COA, prised out of the BIOS (using a linux command that I think Hermione Granger would have been proud of!) and from the manufacturer I quote "Unfortunately we can not provide any Windows 8/8.1 recovery media."
• Windows 8 - you can create optical media to restore/reinstall/save your ass by DVD.  Windows 8.1 has to be done on a flash drive and will not accept optical (DVD)  This I learned from flailing about another clients laptop, who I know has Windows 8.1 (I did the upgrade myself) and knowing she did not have the media to recover the laptop in the event it all went horribly wrong.  Windows 8 gives the option for a DVD or flash drive.  Windows 8.1 only provides the option from a flash drive. BTDT.  

I am sure there is more I should know, but it does seem to be a huge and quite intricate subject.
 
My opinions/feelings about windows 8 and 8.1 have not improved learning about all of this.

By best advice to anyone purchasing a laptop with Windows 8, of any version, preinstalled is this...

• Create an appropriate & comprehensive backup media and keep it somewhere safe and accessible.  There are many online tutorials to be found on the web, the manufacturers site is usually a good place to start.
• Use Belarc Advisor - print out your results.  This will show you the relevant COA 25 digit code and keep it somewhere safe and accessible..
• get an external drive and clone the whole hard disk drive.  There are some manufacturers that provide cloning software for their own brand.  Western Digital is one of these, they provide a cut down version of Acronis True Image. Keep the backup safe and somewhere accessible.
• Don't drop your laptop

Currently, the laptop is in the workshop with my last hope, Obi-Wan-Ubuntu, doing a byte by byte copy from the damaged HDD to a new one. I may be sometime....

Windows XP Upgrade

"After April 8, 2014, technical assistance for Windows XP will no longer be available, including automatic updates that help protect your PC. If you continue to use Windows XP, your computer might become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses."  ...from the Microsoft site.


You have just 6 months to upgrade your operating system, if you are currently running XP.

XP was a successful operating system and has been in operation for about 12 years.  There have been 3 subsequent upgrades since its release, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

What does it mean "withdrawing support"?  It means that while XP will continue to run on your computer, Microsoft will no longer be issuing security updates, bug fixes or service packs leaving you vulnerable to any newly discovered weaknesses in the operating system.   

There are, however, alternatives if you dont want to or can't afford to pay out for an upgrade licence.  Here are a couple of options:

1. Ditch the PC/Laptop and spend the money on an Android Tablet or an iPad.
2. If you want to continue using your current hardware you could install a Linux operating system - Linux Mint for instance, with a Cinnamon interface looks, I understand, like the XP you are used to.
3. Although Google Chrome operating system is not for heavyweight applications like Photoshop, it is cloud based and lightweight.  Maybe not intended for your primary computer, but maybe as a secondary computer for social networking or for the kids to do their homework research.

Don't think that because you are running a Microsoft product at the moment that you options are limited to a Microsoft upgrade.  As I have described above there are alternatives out there if you want. 
If you are unsure of where to go after XP, find a local IT professional that will help you.  
Type "Alternative XP upgrade" into a web browser of your choice.  Read up on your options.

Moving from XP to Windows 7 or 8 is going to involve changing operating system, layout and how you do and find things.  Using an alternative OS to Microsoft Windows will be no different.


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