Windows 10 Tweaks and Fixes (Index post #1)

Probably another great feature of having automated updates. Is there not a proper driver for your dongle?

 

Unfortunately no. I've got a cheapie from eBay that worked flawlessly up till I tried to turn on WiFi to print this morning.
I think if I remove the USB, uninstall the driver, reboot with DSE disabled and then install it again it should do the trick. I'll update on that.
I'll have to wait till I get home now. How annoying. Waste of time. W10 -1 for productivity. Filthy pigs at MS.

 

So I reverted back to Windows 8 ... BEST OS in the world !

 

I disabled driver updates from the device installation settings in the Hardware tab in the system properties

I disabled driver updates from Group Policy

I disabled driver updates by ensuring the value of the following registry entries are set:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching]
"SearchOrderConfig"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\DriverSearching]
"SearchOrderConfig"=dword:00000000


The moment I connected to the internet all drivers were being installed From Windows Updates.

Formatted and went back to Windows 7, I will not let anyone control what drivers I run on my system. period.

 

I went back to Windows 8.1 for several reasons and the automatic updating is definitely one of them. My desktop gaming rig will stay on Windows 8.1 as that's a dedicated Steam Box and I don't want MS crappy update delivery system anywhere near my PC rig.

The only device that is currently running W10 is my ThinkPad T60 as the drivers are really not available from ATI and in fact I had to use Windows 7 video drivers. I can understand MS direction wrt Windows 10 as it's now a service. But I do have OS options and W10 is definitely not one of them.

 

I sort of got around this time after 4 formats....

What I usually do is....

Install Windows
Set all my prefences and libraries
connect to the internet
do all windows updates
take an image
install drivers
install apps


This time what I did was...

Install Windows
Set all my preferences and libraries
take an image
install drivers
do all windows updates, but this time since all the drivers were installed and up to date, it didn't offer me any driver updates, just did like 3 Windows updates in which one of them was really big I think that may have been SR1
install apps

This way it will hold me off until Micro$h4ft have fixed the fact that Windows Update is not honoring my setting in device installation to never install drivers from Windows Updates

Update:

Disable Driver Updates through Windows Updates:

Unfortunately it seems like clicking on "Disable automatic driver updates through Windows Update" doesn't work and no registry tweak or group policy setting is going to disable that.

To properly disable driver updates through Windows updates, do this:

Start > Settings > Devices > Printers and Scanners > Turn off Download Over Metered Connections

Start > Settings > Devices > Connected Devices > Turn off Download Over Metered Connections

Start > Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced Options > Set as metered connection

 

I too have had this issue and had to go back to Windows 8.1.

Worst driver issues I have are nVidia though. For some reason Geforce Experience wants to run Battlefield 4 in DSR mode. I have lost about 20fps in Crysis 3 and it also has lowered my settings. I normally just get max settings on everything that's why I don't both manually tuning. This has forced me to do it all myself. Even with that I have still lost FPS.

Drivers installed without my consent. Asus Audio codec, Intel wifi driver, Nvidia display driver.... REALLY annoyed me. I just put an image from Acronis back on and now everything is happy again!!!

Shame as I actually like windows 10

 

We here have little in the way of privacy issues as we can easily fix them. The driver one though is huge. secondary to that is the fact of extremely bad error reporting. How can you track an error down when all it will tell you is it can't do that?

 

Word! I can fix every quirk of this BETA OS but the driver updates no as I have no control over a broken OS feature. Broken as in, you tell Windows to never check for driver updates but it doesn't care for what setting is there in the Device Installation options.

I have find a way around it though not perfect but better than nothing, before going online, ensure all your drivers are installed, latest versions from the manufacturer. Then go online, that way Windows hopefully should not find any updates to install.

 

that can be an issue, My P79 had the same driver but W10 wanted it's version for the trackpad. I had to roll back the trackpad driver so W10 could get its version in.

 

What was you liked on 10 ? I actually hate it
*so many restrictions added
*privacy limited to minimum
*limited options created
*spying established
*task bar not quite nice
*not able to change proper fonts in some windows blurred
*icons pixelated

 

I believe i will go back to win 7 ultimate... i trying hard to get used to win 10...but no... i feel limited with it

 

Haha, you've seen some semblance of a light have you ? What happened to THIS Simona, when she seemed so defensive and so accepting of all things W10 and M$?

Best W10 tweak/fix at present IMO: stay away from W10 until at least 2016. Then at that time reassess for yourself whether M$ have acquired an improved state of mind & function with regards to W10 (most niggling "bugs" fixed as well) or whether they've decided to continue down their wormhole of ignorance. If they seem set on the latter, enjoy what you got already (W7/8/8.1) until its wheels fall off. Hopefully before then a worthy competitor, in every sense, will arise to change the OS landscape for the better.

 

After all these strange issues, I will stay with Windows 8.1 and hopefully get StartIsBack soon.

But I don't get the hate against M$ - do you guys honestly think it has nothing better to do than serve the NSA, CIA, MI6 and all them espionage departments and collect all your data? What are the top guns there going to do with it, anyway? F*p to all the private sexts?

It's a profit-oriented company and if it does do all that tracking BS, and if word gets out, it's screwed, à la NSA. Be rational, people... Read too much 1984, Brave New World and We, maybe?

 

The issue is not so much as to what the data is supposed to be used for, it is what can happen to it down the line. Agreed allot is already out there but why add onto the pile? Also as it stands my work products and flow have none of that privacy issues, with W10 that could easily be changed over for everyone.

 

How to install .NET Framework 3.5 (include .NET 2.0 and 3.0) feature in offline mode

• Insert Windows 10 DVD or USB Flash Disk.
• Open Command Prompt as Admin. Start > Windows System > then right click on Command Prompt and choose Run as Admin
• Run the following command Dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:E:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess, and hit Enter.
• Bear in mind that E: refers to the DVD drive or USB Flash Disk letter. If you have some other drive letter assigned to DVD or USB Flash Disk, then change the command accordingly. You may get an immediate progress to some %, then halt, but it will finally complete in 3-5 mins.

 

They are a monopoly. These don't get screwed, until the government decides to do so. And since they're in bed with the government and its agencies, that's not going to happen anytime soon. Next.

In today's world, one can never read too much of any of these books.

 

Of course.

Well, they were. In 2005. Not anymore. We have seen how much a "monopoly" they are with Windows 8....that sure was a big hit^^

Microsoft no longer is all powerful.

If NSA, CIA etc. want something, they have many, many different ways of getting what they want. They don´t need Microsoft for that.

The main difference between Windows 10 and former Windows versions in terms of data collection: Windows 10 gives you options to turn certain things off. Microsoft collected data since Windows XP or even before, and they also are collecting data if you are using Windows 7.

Oh, thats not going to work. The thinfoil hat fraction is on the loose^^

 

Anyone who has a share of market similar to what Microsoft bears when it comes to operating systems - regardless of W8.x fiasco - is de facto a monopoly.

They don't *need* Microsoft, but will be more than happy to use whatever info they can obtain from them, likely being one of those "trusted partners" that the W10 EULA refers to....

Not quite...

http://arstechnica.com/information-...ndows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

http://www.sevenforums.com/security-news/378118-how-protect-your-privacy-windows-10-a-2.html

Nowhere near the extent that gets collected from W10 even with everything turned off.

You may or may not care about what data gets collected from your online presence, and that's your judgement call by all means. Some of us prefer sharing less - and not more - with Microsoft or anyone else for that fact.

 

Black Vipers' Windows 10 Service Configurations (Services that are safe to disable)

http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-10-service-configurations/

 

Add "Reboot in Recovery" to right click context menu on "This PC".

* Take control of the registry key :

Code:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell

Code with .ico:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Adds "Recovery" to right click on This PC
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\*Recovery]
"Icon"="\"%windir%\\System32\\rc.ico\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\*Recovery\command]
@="shutdown.exe -r -o -f -t 00"

Code without .ico:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Adds "Recovery" to right click on This PC
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\*Recovery]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\*Recovery\command]
@="shutdown.exe -r -o -f -t 00"

.ico download > https://www.sendspace.com/file/dqx57z
(copy to Windows\System32)

Spoiler

 

How to run the Windows System Assessment Tool on Windows 10 (AKA WINSAT)

The Windows Experience is still there--even in build 9860. However, the GUI was retired with Windows 8. If you want to run the experience, which is really called the "Windows System Assessment Tool," you must run it from the command line.

Open an administrative command prompt and type winsat formal -v -xml c:\winstatresults.xml. This will run the full formal test in verbose mode and provide an xml output of the results. It is in the report, you will see the scores you seek. As others have said, it is important to keep in mind that the numbers may not--probably won't--really align with the numbers from previous operating systems.

Another thing to keep in mind is that all of the preview versions and builds are "checked" builds with debugging code built in. As such, preview versions of Windows will never run as fast as "free" builds that are fully optimized and lacks all of the debugging code. This is the reason why Microsoft insists that people don't run and publish performance testing results as the test is not an accurate or fair measure.

If you want to run just a subset of the tests, type winsat /? see all of the arguments and options.


Navigate to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore to see all of the assessment XML files.

 

This is the most useful Windows 10 tweak on the web. Check it out! [ LINK ]

 

That troll... But honestly - what's wrong with W10?

 

Lol. I had a feeling that was coming.
Well it's probably the best performance upgrade W10 users (including myself) can do.

 

Yup, it's a configuration-crippled spyware mess in every box. If your machine doesn't get bricked first.

I think the real question is, "what's not wrong" LOL. I think @Matrix Leader needs to rename the thread to " What's Wrong with Windows 10" because it goes way beyond like/dislike at this point. It's just messed up. The UI is a slight aesthetic improvement in a few ways, but that's about the sum of their success.

 

Many of the changes that were introduced with Windows 8 and not fixed with Windows 10 are so stupid. This is one that definitely falls into the stupid category.

You can avoid the hassle of getting into the BIOS/UEFI, or changing Windows Bootloader settings by bringing back the Advance Boot Options menu in Windows 8 or newer OS, so that pressing F8 brings it up before Windows loads, just like the easy way in Windows 7. This is a must-have tweak in my opinion. It makes accessing Safe Mode, Disabling Driver Signature Enforcement and other features SO MUCH easier to access. You can get to them immediately with the F8 key, without having to waste time going in and out of Windows.

To remedy this, simply open an administrator command prompt and enter the syntax below. On the next reboot (and every time thereafter) you can simply press F8 to see the boot menu as shown in the images below.

Code:

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

Unless you are multi-booting more than one OS, you will never see the OS selection menu, and you will never see the Advanced Boot Options menu unless you press F8 before the Windows Bootloader takes over, so there's nothing not to love about this tweak.

[parsehtml]<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="750" frameborder="0" src="//imgur.com/a/rM70L/embed"></iframe>[/parsehtml]

 

Great tweaks overall, that photo viewer app is one of the worst things I've seen in the last years!

 

I actually lol'ed with this.

 

Fair enough.

As long as one makes an *informed* decision based on their own needs and preferences, there's nothing to argue about. To each their own.

With that said, my biggest problem with W10 which supersedes all the shortcomings of the OS itself is the abysmal lack of transparency on MS' part, which cripples one's ability to make an informed decision quite severely unless a serious amount of time is dedicated to in-depth research which is above the pay grade of most users of their products.

 

Someone already tried this?:

http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-disable-telemetry-and-data-collection-in-windows-10/

EDIT: Nevermind, just found out now the post on page 4 by MatrixLeader...

 

Forgive me if this has already been covered but has anyone else experienced scrolling issues with 10? When I double click on the scrollbar and then move my cursor back to the screen to click on something else, there is a delay. The scrollbar remains selected. It's really annoying. I tried looking for a setting but couldn't find a fix.

 

The screensaver in Win 10 is hid away.
How to customize Screensaver in Windows 10
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/customize-screensaver-settings-windows-10

 

How to disable - Shortcut suffix text when creating shortcuts

Whenever you create a shortcut for a file or folder, the newly created shortcut will have a "– Shortcut" suffix at the end of the original file or folder name.

That can be annoying for some as we already know it's a shortcut since it has the shortcut arrow on the icon and it will make the file name very long which may probably lead to the text of the icon being trunscated.

If you prefer the created shortcut to have the exact same name with the original object, without the "– Shortcut" suffix, you can use the following registry trick to disable the "– Shortcut" completely.

1. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit).
2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
3. In the right pane, double click on link registry value.
4. Change the “link” binary value data to 00 00 00 00.
5. Log off or reboot immediately otherwise any change to any other parameter in the registry without logging off will cause this value to revert back to default.

 

How to disable Automatic Driver Updates:

For Windows 10 Pro, Student, or Enterprise that have the Group Policy Editor:

1) Open the Group Policy Editor by hitting the Windows Key + R button on your keyboard then type: gpedit.msc and hit Enter

2) Navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update

3) Double click on the rule which says "Do not include drivers with windows updates" then set it to "Enabled" then press "Apply" then "Ok"

For Windows 10 Home users you need to do the following registry edit. I also recommend Windows 10 Pro and higher users to also do the registry edit as a safety measure:

Open a blank Notepad and copy/paste the below code:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Update]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Update]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Update\ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate]
"value"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate"=dword:00000001

Now save the file and name it anything you want, for example: Disable Driver Updates.txt

Now rename the extension from .txt to .reg then double click on it to merge it with your registry

Restart your computer

Or you can simply download this file which has the reg files to enable/disable driver updates: Enable-Disable Windows Driver Updates

Alternatively, you can use O&O ShutUp10 to disable automatic driver updates through Windows Updates:



Also ensure you disable Driver updates in the System / Hardware / Device Installation Settings:

 

What about disable windows maintenance in Win 10? The trash goes almost all day as long as you do not use the mouse. Tragic...
Worse to stop this in Win 10 than the old trash 8.1

 

How to disable telemetry, keylogging, speech recognition, and other privacy breaching settings

1) Download O&O ShutUp10 which is a free tool

2) Upon the first run, it will recommend you to create a system restore point, that is up to you.

3) Set the options as per the illustration below, these are my recommended settings but feel free to click on any of the options to display a popup/caption of that that particular option does.





4) After you have selected all the options that you want to disable, simply exit the app; it will recommend you to restart which you should do immediately.

5) After you restart, run the tool again you will notice that one of the Telemetry options is back to the OFF mode so you need to again enable it and visually scan for any other options that didn't stick.

6) Exit the app again and reboot once more. This time all the settings should remain the way you set them.

This is one of the best tools I have used in a long time and is a gift from heavens to Windows 10 users, without this tool, I wouldn't even dare to go online or use Windows 10 as you can see your every step, keystroke, and even speech is recorded and sent to Micro$h4ft. Thanks to this tool, it has changed my stance of Windows 10 from a piece of garbage OS to a tamable and usable OS.

While many other tools on the web exist that may do the same thing, they are often bundled with malware, Trojans, etc. This is the only tool that I found so far which actually works and is trusted coming from a great company such as O&O, a Microsoft Partner LOL

Update:

Disable Driver Updates through Windows Updates:

Unfortunately it seems like clicking on "Disable automatic driver updates through Windows Update" doesn't work and no registry tweak or group policy setting is going to disable that.

To properly disable driver updates through Windows updates, do this:

Start > Settings > Devices > Printers and Scanners > Turn off Download Over Metered Connections

Start > Settings > Devices > Connected Devices > Turn off Download Over Metered Connections

Start > Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced Options > Set as metered connection

 

Great find, Matrix Leader. Hopefully it'll make the upgrade better when I manually upgrade to Windows 10 with an ISO. The older, safer and more reliable way.

 

To mention a person, you need to put the @ sign immediately followed by his nickname bro

Example: @user

 

How to restore OneDrive Folder Icon:

1) Right Click on the OneDrive folder then go to Properties then Customize

2) Click browse and navigate to this path:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive

3) Double click on OneDrive.exe

4) Select the folder icon

 

it is good now for upgrade from windows 7 to windows 10 with all this tweak?
is there any other problem that make you not recommend to upgrade to windows 10?
something like unfixed problem or decreased performance
my friend tell me, in windows 10 i can't use cracked program/game is that true?

i want to try but...i'm afraid, i willl dissapointed

 

These tweaks are for those who don't listen, don't care about their privacy, and insist to upgrade.

I do not recommend you update.

3 reasons to sum it all up:

1) Forced Automatic Driver Updates

2) Privacy Invasion and sending everything you do to Microsoft and possibly get sued if you do anything illegal as simple as downloading a copy righted MP3 song or movie

3) lower performance in all benchmarks

For the full details, please look at this thread:

Why I don't like Windows 10

 

if so, i better stay with i have now

thank you for clear my mind again

 

How to disable or delay taskbar previews in Windows 10

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/09/03/how-to-disable-or-delay-taskbar-previews-in-windows-10/

 

O&O ShutUp10 updated to v1.0.1345

Changelog:

• New Short Guide available in Help menu
• New category for the personal assistant Cortana
• Various options for settings
• Revised filter features
• Minor errors corrected

 

Use the classic Personalization panel in Windows 10

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/09/05/use-the-classic-personalization-panel-in-windows-10/

 

Bing-Google for Firefox 1.0.0
Bing-Google is a simple Firefox add-on that redirects any searches conducted with Cortana in Windows 10 from Bing to Google.
"The redirect is across the board, meaning that even if you manually search on Bing.com you will get Google. We'll have to see if this add-on will keep the name as it is or if they will have to change it. But regardless, it does what it says it will do with little fuss."

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bing-google-1/?src=search

 

Not adding this to the index due to the following note on the add-on page:

 

^ the problem is, google is just as bad as bing for data collection.

duckduckgo ftw!

 

Portable Update - A Windows Update Alternative in Windows 10

http://www.portableupdate.com/

Portable Update is a windows-base tool for updating a Microsoft Windows computer in a isolated environment.
This is useful in many circumstances:

• When the computer reside on a secure lan isolated from internet;
• When the computer to update doesn’t have access or can't use a proxy server;
• When is necessary to completely update a fresh-formatted computer with the last update before to connect it to network;
• When the computer doesn’t have an hardware network connection at all;
• When the network connection speed is too low or it is necessary to update the computer very quickly;
• In all the other cases when is mandatory to have the complete control on the updating process without connecting the computer to the network.