Windows Tips, Tricks and Notes

Windows 10 annoyances and how to overcome them

"Let's finish setting up your device." Let's not and say we did:

Disable this annoying splash screen thusly:

End the automatic upgrade/automatic reboot madness

Open the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
Navigate to the following path: 

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update

Change the following 3 settings:

Configure Automatic Updates → Enabled, 4 - Auto download and schedule the install
Configure auto-restart required notification for updates → Enabled, 2 - User Action
No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations → Enabled

Require username to be specified at logon (disable user listing)

Open the Local Policy app (secpol)
Navigate to Security Settings → Local Policies → Interactive Logon: Don’t display last signed-in and set to Enabled.

Enable ICMP

Open a command window in Administrator mode and enter the following command: 

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ICMP Allow incoming V4 echo request" protocol=icmpv4:8,any dir=in action=allow

Disable "helpful" reminders to login to a Microsoft Account (insert puke emoji here)

Open the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
Navigate to User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Account Notifications
Set Turn off account notifications in Start to Enabled

How Windows determines whether or not the machine has internet access

Windows attempts to download a file from a dedicated Web server. Depending on which version of Windows, it’s http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt or http://www.msftconnecttest.com/connecttest.txt. If the download is successful and contains the correct contents, then Windows concludes that you have full Internet access.

If something goes wrong, Windows will report either limited or no Internet access, depending on what exactly went wrong.

More details on this are available here.

Personalizing a non-activated Windows 10 system

Disable Taskbar Button Grouping with Group Policy

Open the Registry Editor app and locate the following registry key: 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

On the right, create the new 32-Bit DWORD value NoTaskGrouping
Set the value of the newly created key to decimal 1.
Restart the computer.

Setting Desktop Wallpaper via Group Policy

Open the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
Navigate to Local Computer Policy → User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Desktop → Desktop
Select 'Desktop Wallpaper'
Select 'Enabled', then supply the wallpaper name (directory\filename).
Choose Wallpaper Style
Click OK

Wallpaper modification will take effect on the next login.

Setting Desktop Wallpaper using Registry Editor

Open the Registry Editor app.
Navigate to Policies in HKCU.
Right-click on Policies > New > Key.
Name it as System.
Right-click on System > New > String Value.
Name it as Wallpaper.
Double-click on it and enter the wallpaper path.
Right-click on System > New > String Value.
Name it as WallpaperStyle.
Double-click on it to set a Value data; the values below are valid: 

0 - Center
1 - Tile
2 - Stretch
3 - Fit
4 - Fill
5 - Span

Click OK to save the change.

Wallpaper modification will take effect on the next login.

Removing the wallpaper

In case you want to remove this wallpaper, navigate to the following path: 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

And right-click on Policies > Delete. Then, confirm the change by clicking the Delete button again.

Helpful Commands and Procedures

Creating/extracting files with 7-Zip

Create or add to an archive:

7z a -p <zipfile name> <file(s) to add>

Create an archive, recursing the directory specified:

7z a -rp <zipfile name> <file(s) to add>

Extract the archive:

7z x <zipfile name>

Resurrecting a USB Stick

Connect your flash drive to the computer at first, and make sure it can be detected.

1. Click “start” and type “command prompt”.

2. Then, right click “command prompt” and select “run as administrator”.

3. After that, type “diskpart” and press “Enter”. Then execute the below commands in turn: 

  list disk
  select disk n
  clean
  create partition primary
  format fs=fat32 quick: If you want to format to NTFS, type “format fs=ntfs quick”.

Bulk Installation of Programs

Visit www.ninite.com

Checking a file's hash

certutil -hashfile <filename> SHA256

Laser Printer keeps "going offline"

Solution found on Reddit:

Unfortunately, I think most HPs don't have an option for disabling sleep mode altogether.

However, if you're using a Windows PC, I have often found that the computer will mistakenly show the printer as 'offline' if the print driver port is set to Web Services Driver (WSD).

If you're using a Windows computer and used the “Add A Printer” set up feature, it will often automatically assign the driver port to WSD. Go to Control Panel ⇒ Devices and Printers ⇒ Right-click the printer icon and choose Printer Properties ⇒ Go to the tab labelled 'Ports' and it should have the current port highlighted. If it says 'WSD' followed by a bunch of random numbers, hit 'Add New Port' ⇒ TCP / IP ⇒ Input the printer's IP address.

If you don't know the printer's IP address off-hand, you can print a network configuration page by holding down the green button for about 5-10 seconds. The address should be listed under Product Settings next to IPv4 address.

If you want to check the printer's settings, type that IP address into a web browser while the printer is connected. Make sure the IP address is set to static by going to the Network tab., clicking on 'Networking' from the left pane, and then clicking on 'Network Address (IP)'.