Many folks have repeatedly asked for a Windows 11 Tweak Guide. I’m not promising that will happen but toward that end I’ve been experimenting with installing and/or upgrading Windows 11 on my main PC.
Since it’s release I’ve done an upgrade with almost every version on Win11.
This go round with version 25H2 I did:
– Update via Windows update
– Update online via setup.exe from an extracted ISO.
– Update offline via setup.exe from an extracted ISO.
– Clean install booting from a USB drive via ISO.
My goal in all this was to use a local account. I do not want a Microsoft account on my PC.
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This Site
Enroll In Windows 10 ESU
The Windows 10 ESU enrollment notification finally showed up on my main computer. I’ll show you how the official process went for me and a way to force enrollment using only a local account.
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Am I Finally Upgrading To Windows 11?
Y’all keep asking so the answer is…
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Fixing Microsoft’s KB5034441 Charlie Foxtrot
Back in January I mentioned that there was an issue installing the Windows 10 KB5034441 update. This update provides an update to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). The update fails for most people with error 0x80070643. The excuse given was, “update requires 250 MB of free space in the recovery partition to install successfully”. It failed on the 6 computers I have running Win10.
At the time I said about this, “here is a “fix”, I tried it and it works. HOWEVER, I DO NOT recommend it at this time. Give Microsoft time to see if they can fix this.”
Welp, according to Neowin, “Microsoft has acknowledged that an automatic resolution for this issue will not be released and as such, the only way to fix this is manually.”
That’s just friggin’ great. A perfect example of the downfall of Microsoft. Create a problem due to poor quality control and then refuse to fix it. This has left the non-Geek out there to try and do a geeky exercise that could render their computer unbootable. Thanks Microsoft!
Here’s how to fix it…
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Two Android Bike App Results
I took my first bike ride since November 30th of last year. I had 2 Android apps going at the same time. The difference in the displayed results of the 2 apps were surprising.
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A Review Of Two Tweaking Apps
Recently I’ve become aware of a new “tweaking app” from Microsoft. In the process of researching it I came across a better alternative…
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Audio Tricks – dBpoweramp CD Ripper, Rip As One
dBpoweramp is my favorite audio conversion and CD ripping software. This article will show you the very useful “rip as one” function.
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Audio Tricks – Using Audacity To Trim Music
I’ve been using Audacity for many years. From creating audio, to mixing, to editing it has been an essential tool for me.
I’d like to show you how this tool can be of use to the average user. I’m going to give a very quick example of using Audacity to trim music.
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Site Online
No idea how long the site was down. My webhost (InMotion Hosting) had issues. No direct contact from them.
They seem to have restored from a week old backup. I’m not happy with them.
This was the message when I tried to chat with support (this wasn’t working either):
“Our Systems Administration team identified an issue with the file system on shared server ecngx245 that requires a file system check (fsck). A file system check requires the file system to be offline while the file system is checked and possibly repaired, which can take a number of hours depending on the disk size. Unfortunately, until the file system check is complete, the server will be offline. There is not currently an estimated time for this issue to be resolved, but updates will be provided when possible.“
Prepping For Major Windows Updates
It’s been a while since I’ve written about this and with Win10 22H2 coming soon I thought I would post this for new readers.
In the past I used Service Pack updates as an excuse to clean, tweak, and organize my computers as if it were a new install. Gone are the days of Service Packs as Microsoft has moved to a yearly major feature update (version 20H2, 21H1, etc.).
The end result for me is the same and I employ the same strategy as I did before.
* A note before we start, all my “backups” are disk images using a Macrium Reflect Free bootable USB drive.
See: Using Macrium Reflect Boot Media and Macrium Reflect Boot Disk In Action
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