Interrupting the Windows update process may leave the system in a broken non-bootable state. This can manifest by the boot never finishing (getting stick at the spinning circle screen forever) or simply crashing and automatically restarting after a while.
At some point I noticed that my Task Manager’s processes list becomes empty. This usually happens after a long(er) uptime, in the order of weeks/over one month.
Digging around the internet for similar issues revealed nothing useful until I’ve hit a hidden gem of a thread that made an idea instantly click.
Normally Windows will fail to connect to an IPSec VPN server if either or both the client machine and the server are behind some form of NAT.
However it is still possible to configure a Windows machine to allow such connections via a registry tweak.
Since I’m personally interested in using soundcards that support tone (bass / treble) adjustments and I’ve noticed this information is particularly difficult to find online I’m posting screenshots with the software functionality and controls of the cards that I’ve personally tested and/or used, for anyone else that may be looking for this same information.
Loading a RAID driver for the motherboard integrated controller is a familiar procedure for anyone having used such a setup under Windows regardless of using AMD or Intel-based systems.
However, the AMD Ryzen series of chipsets have a slightly odd driver initialization procedure needing the use of multiple driver layers loaded in the correct order.
Using a single USB printer on several computers isn’t the simplest task: you have to either connect the printer to each computer separately, share it from one (and start it up every time you need to use the printer) or, my personal choice, set it up on a Raspberry PI and share it with the world.
The information provided here covers the second half of the setup process – the client side of things…
Computers need upgrades, and upgrades involve motherboards, and motherboards have chipsets, and chipsets require drivers, which drivers are chipset dependent. And computers also fail, requiring replacing parts. Upgrading or replacing a motherboard with different chipset in Windows Xp used to be both complicated and simple at the same time, requiring the well known repair install. But then Vista and later 7 were released and the repair install was no more.
Fortunately, there is still a way to keep your Windows 7 (and probably Vista, 8, 8.1 and perhaps even the upcoming 10) after switching to a motherboard with different chipset (and driver).
The thing I love about Thunderbird (and its sibling Firefox) is that to transfer a wholly configured instance from one computer/system to another all one needs is to copy over the contents of the profile folder.
However, on the path of a Linux to Windows migration I discovered the oddity that Thunderbird will neither connect to mail server not prompt for password…
Every once in a while Windows 7 manages to lose the list of available updates, and while it displays the correct number, the list for both important and optional updates are empty.
The only actual solution seemed to be a computer restart. However, there is an additional way to restore the updates list to proper functionality…
One may randomly encounter a Windows installation where some bluetooth devices don’t get their drivers installed despite having installed all of the manufacturer’s drivers.
In such cases, one may end up with one or several non-functioning “Bluetooth Peripheral Device”. To solve this, start by downloading and installing Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1…
Three months after installing KB2670838 and updating my graphics drivers from Catalyst Mobility 13.12 to 14.4 the font rendering issue popped up. Except I didn’t get issues with text rendered in pages, but in Firefox’s menu /tabs / titlebar itself.
Nobody would think an update installed that long ago could be the culprit. Everyone would think the newly installed driver is (and it definitely has something do to with the issue).
One can never have enough backups. Backups are important and you shouldn’t let one day pass without having them. I recommend creating system-wide backups (either the entire system partition or the entire hard disk) periodically.
But for that bit of data which is frequently changed/updated/replaced, you’ll need a more often backup schedule. This can be easily achieved with an archiver and a bit of scripting…
