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UAC – Quick notes on why I disable it.

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Original article: Windows 7 UAC – Quick notes on why I disable it. circa 2009

***31 December, 2020
As of today my original article is over eleven years old. Links to sources have disappeared. I updated the links today, mostly to the Internet Wayback Machine archive. I’ve also backed up these sources to PDF and have linked to those where appropriate.

Microsoft introduced User Account Control (UAC) with Windows Vista. Windows 7 has an “improved” version of UAC. The purpose of this short note is to explain why I do not like or use UAC on my own machines (because I get asked so much), it is not to start an argument or to try to convince others to disable UAC.
[Read more…] about UAC – Quick notes on why I disable it.

Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

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Many programs on your computer access the internet even though they don’t need to. They phone home for a variety of reason including telemetry and checking for updates.
I don’t need or want most programs phoning home for any reason. Still, they try.
With programs getting more invasive I thought it would be appropriate to show you how to block their access to the net.
[Read more…] about Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

Upgrade To Win10 And Keep Previous Windows Version

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thI’m going to show you how I upgraded to Windows 10 and kept my Windows 7 install. I alluded to this method earlier. Although not tested this should work for Windows 8.1 too.
I searched the Windows 10 EULA and I can find nothing that restricts this but I’m not a lawyer either.
[Read more…] about Upgrade To Win10 And Keep Previous Windows Version

GWX – Get Windows 10

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gwxEarlier this week several Geek sites parroted an article at MYCE entitled Update for Windows 7 and 8.1 silently installs Windows 10 downloader (nice work there guys!). Although the article did not bash Microsoft, commenters around the web were pissed off. At first I thought these comments might be a little bit of anti-Microsoft hysterics. Still, it made be curious enough to research the issue. Now, I’ve changed my mind…
[Read more…] about GWX – Get Windows 10

Windows 8.1 SSD Defrag

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thAn interesting blog post was brought to me attention by a reader. Many Geeks will recognize the blogger, Scott Hanselman:
The real and complete story – Does Windows defragment your SSD? (be cure to check out the comments too)
The gist of this post is to tell us we’ve all been wrong and Windows 8.1 does in fact defrag SSD’s.
However, we need to dig a little deeper. [Read more…] about Windows 8.1 SSD Defrag

Fix KB3000850 Will Not Install

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thpinpostlogoI had a couple of Windows 8.1 computers that would not install KB3000850.
KB3000850 is also called “The November 2014 update rollup for Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2.”
The specific error code was 80070002.
fix_kb3000850_1

The Windows error logs directed me to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. There I found complaints about system files.
The cure for that is:
From an ELEVATED command prompt [Command Prompt (Admin) ] > type sfc /scannow and press the Enter key >
Let it do its thing > Reboot and install your update.

fix_kb3000850_2

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