Table of Contents
Websites and Tools
The Help Center depends on internet web sites and software tools. If you are curious then this page may be helpful. If you are looking for answers, the content of this page may not contain the immediate answer, but may be the first step in finding an answer.
Web Sites of interest:
Websites and Tools
The Help Center depends on internet web sites and software tools. If you are curious then this page may be helpful. If you are looking for answers, the content of this page may not contain the immediate answer, but may be the first step in finding an answer.
Web Sites of interest:
Sites/subdomains that appear within the sctexas.org domain.
The Computer Club web site contains several interesting SIG (Special Interest Group) sections. I really wish the “Search” feature on the Computer Club web site was more functional. There is a lot of information in the SIG sections. A lot of time was invested by volunteers to share their knowledge and experience.
Windows SIG Some of the history of the Windows Sig is contained in the web site sctxwindows.com, created by Bill Buppert, one of the earlier participants in the Computer Club and a significant contributor to the evolution of the Help Center. Bill chose to require you to register to look at the content of his site. The site is a good resource of knowledge and experience. You may find the Tutorial section helpful.
Security SIG As relates to Windows security, John Jenkinson has been maintaining a BLOG about security issues. KrebsOnSecurity may open your eyes about internet security.
Mac Users Group (MUG)
All of the previous presentations of the Mac Users Group have been recovered and moved to a sub menu on the Cyber Security SIG's web site. Navigate to Meeting Notes on the left side, Scroll down to MAC Users Group (MUG) Archive. Many articles are of general interest to club members
Websites and Tools
The Help Center depends on internet web sites and software tools. If you are curious then this page may be helpful. If you are looking for answers, the content of this page may not contain the immediate answer, but may be the first step in finding an answer.
Web Sites of interest:
Sites/subdomains that appear within the sctexas.org domain.
The Computer Club web site contains several interesting SIG (Special Interest Group) sections. I really wish the “Search” feature on the Computer Club web site was more functional. There is a lot of information in the SIG sections. A lot of time was invested by volunteers to share their knowledge and experience.
Windows SIG Some of the history of the Windows Sig is contained in the web site sctxwindows.com, created by Bill Buppert, one of the earlier participants in the Computer Club and a significant contributor to the evolution of the Help Center. Bill chose to require you to register to look at the content of his site. The site is a good resource of knowledge and experience. You may find the Tutorial section helpful.
Security SIG As relates to Windows security, John Jenkinson has been maintaining a BLOG about security issues. KrebsOnSecurity may open your eyes about internet security.
Mac Users Group (MUG)
Sites that are not part of the sctexas.org domain.
Chris Titus is a resource for computer knowledge in several domains. The material he covers can be educational and helpful. This is a video about Windows Utilities. Here is a video from April 2019 about Windows setup. Watching this video will give you a taste of Chris Titus. This item and video are more current. The process depends on a PowerShell script. Debloat Windows is the text version and this is the Debloat Video.
Scott Hanselman created this blog entry. There is more than one good suggestions in this article.
The Windows Club, All kinds of Windows stuff. However… Be CAREFUL. I have found plenty of “clickbait” on this site
Note that the link above goes to the www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10. If you are interested in other software downloads start at this link: Microsoft Software Download. Downloadable versions of Microsoft office are here: Microsoft Office . You will need the product key to complete the download.
https://www.howtogeek.com/t/windows/
woshub.com (Windows OS Hub) might be helpful, but…. Watch out for click bait.
The internet archive is a goldmine of “older versions” of internet websites. It is hard to believe that an organization creates “snapshots”
of the internet and makes those snapshots available to the world, for free. WOW!!! If you want an “older” version of a file you downloaded from a website, it is possible you can find it on the internet archive. When I discovered that later versions of minitool required payment for a feature that used to be free, I went to the internet archive and chose a snapshot that contained the older version of the software.
Websites and Tools
The Help Center depends on internet web sites and software tools. If you are curious then this page may be helpful. If you are looking for answers, the content of this page may not contain the immediate answer, but may be the first step in finding an answer.
Web Sites of interest:
Sites/subdomains that appear within the sctexas.org domain.
The Computer Club web site contains several interesting SIG (Special Interest Group) sections. I really wish the “Search” feature on the Computer Club web site was more functional. There is a lot of information in the SIG sections. A lot of time was invested by volunteers to share their knowledge and experience.
Windows SIG Some of the history of the Windows Sig is contained in the web site sctxwindows.com, created by Bill Buppert, one of the earlier participants in the Computer Club and a significant contributor to the evolution of the Help Center. Bill chose to require you to register to look at the content of his site. The site is a good resource of knowledge and experience. You may find the Tutorial section helpful.
Security SIG As relates to Windows security, John Jenkinson has been maintaining a BLOG about security issues. KrebsOnSecurity may open your eyes about internet security.
Mac Users Group (MUG)
Sites that are not part of the sctexas.org domain.
Chris Titus is a resource for computer knowledge in several domains. The material he covers can be educational and helpful. This is a video about Windows Utilities. Here is a video from April 2019 about Windows setup. Watching this video will give you a taste of Chris Titus. This item and video are more current. The process depends on a PowerShell script. Debloat Windows is the text version and this is the Debloat Video.
Scott Hanselman created this blog entry. There is more than one good suggestions in this article.
The Windows Club, All kinds of Windows stuff. However… Be CAREFUL. I have found plenty of “clickbait” on this site
Note that the link above goes to the www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10. If you are interested in other software downloads start at this link: Microsoft Software Download. Downloadable versions of Microsoft office are here: Microsoft Office . You will need the product key to complete the download.
https://www.howtogeek.com/t/windows/
woshub.com (Windows OS Hub) might be helpful, but…. Watch out for click bait.
The internet archive is a goldmine of “older versions” of internet websites. It is hard to believe that an organization creates “snapshots”
of the internet and makes those snapshots available to the world, for free. WOW!!! If you want an “older” version of a file you downloaded from a website, it is possible you can find it on the internet archive. When I discovered that later versions of minitool required payment for a feature that used to be free, I went to the internet archive and chose a snapshot that contained the older version of the software.
Software tools
This is the beginning of a list of tools that are frequently used in the Help Center.
March 2023: The tools I use most of the time now are: Gsmartcontrol, Treesize free and Sergei Strelec WinPE iso.
I have all my tools installed on a thumb drive configured with Ventoy.
Bloatbox is a tool that might help you remove unnecessary bloatware from Windows. Use with CAUTION. Read the documentation carefully
Clonezilla is a flavor of linux designed for some of the tasks that help you recover disks. To use clonezilla it is necessary to boot from a thumb drive or CD that contains the clonezilla system.
Rescuezilla is similar to Clonezilla. It is a recent discovery and has a prettier interface as compared to clonezilla. Clonezilla and Rescuezilla do NOT shrink partitions automatically. However, if you use gparted to shrink partitions before “cloneing”, you can copy/clone a large hard drive to a smaller solid state drive.
Windows Task Manager is frequently the first tool/progam, used to start the process of, “understanding ” what a computer is doing. If investigation requires more details then Windows 10 Resource Monitor or Sysinternals Procmon may be helpful.
Malware Bytes Free Malwarebytes, the free version, can be used as one of the steps used to clean up malware. Cleaning up infections frequently starts with MalwareBytes.
Change NT password (chntpw) is used to clear or set the password of a local account.
Deployment Imaging Service and Management (dism) can be used to establish the reference files for System File Check. Here is a step by step (with screen shots) about how to use DISM to repair windows 10 . And…. here is a link to an item that provides directions for using dism to extract and use the contents of a windows.iso file. Here is another perspective on how to use dism. This forum contains a discussion about using DISM. Here is some of the discussion….
For good meassure i ran sfc /verifyonly and it found some problems.
From reading here in the forum and from this Microsoft support document, it is recommended first to run
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
and then
sfc /scannow
Here in the forum i found this thread where it is recommended to run DISM and sfc in this order:
1) Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /checkhealth
2) Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /scanhealth
3) Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealth
4) sfc /scannow
5) Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
6) Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
I seem to remember that i have seen other recommendations elsewhere (can't remember where).
Here is a link that might help you understand the Dism options… Repair Windows Image
DISM and SFC are inconsistent when it comes to “aiming” them at another windows installation.
Examples…
With DISM you use “Dism /Image:d:\ /Windir:windows +OtherOptions”
With SFC you use “SFC /OFFBOOTDIR=D:\ /OFFWINDIR=d:\windows +OtherOptions”
Dism and SFC can “run a while”. Be patient
System File Check (sfc) can verify and/or fix Windows System files. However, SFC is part of a two step process. First you may need to use DISM to update the set of files that SFC references to confirm the computer does not have corrupted files.
Gsmartcontrol More information about what and why of gsmartcontrol is here.
Sergei Strelec WinPE iso contains a large collection of Windows utilities. The WinPE components and utilities are later/newer than the components on Hirens or Bob.0mbs. Today (March 2023) it is the preferred tool. Downloading can be painful because the sites I have found provide “click bait” that conceals the “right download”. I did download it successfully from MajorGeeks. (May 1, 2023) There is some “magic/ reading” to downloading from the Sergei Strelec WinPE iso web site.
Hirens Win_PE This site offers two versions/collections of software. Apparently the original creator of the Hirens collection ceased to provide updates, so a community continued the process. The last version of the original Hirens is available, as is, a more current release. If you download and burn the latest ISO, you will discover a lot of utilities. Here is the download link for the 1.3 gb iso. You can use Rufus to create a bootable thumb drive. Or, you can put a copy of the Hirens iso on a thumb drive with Ventoy.
bob.0mbs.Win10PE is another Windows PE that can be applied to a thumb drive with Ventoy. It is a later version of Windows PE and contains some additional applications as compared to Hires Win_PE. Since it is a later version than Hirens you may find that it will work/behave on newer hardware as compared to Hirens. If Hirens fails to complete the boot process, try bob.0mbs.
Produkey is a Product Key Finder. It is able to extract product keys from multiple sources including the boot drive or an alternate drive.
System Rescue is a bootable (from CD or Thumb Drive) Linux. Why is it here? At least two reasons. 1st, it can act as a litmus test for the condition of a PC. If Windows will not boot, but System Rescue will, you probably have a software and/or Hard Drive problem. 2nd, it contains the “chntpw” program. If you forgot your Windows password, chntpw can clear the password. Clearing the password will let you logon to Windows (with a local account ) without a password.
Windirstat Windirstat allows you to see the size of the things on your disk drive in graphical and tablular form. MiniTool Partition Wizard provides similar functions and many more features.
Treesize free is another tool for understanding folder size on Windows. Executed as administrator may be required for full understanding. It may also be available on the Windows Store
WizTree free does its thing as fast as Treesize and presents a graphical picture similar to Windirstat.
MiniTool Partition Wizard , the free version, provides multiple features aimed at disk management. One of its features is similar to the capabilities of Windirstat. Please note that many of the features of MiniTool can lead to “Oh NO”, if you do not understand what MiniTool can do for, or TO your disk drive. Minitool has a disk cloning feature that was free in older versions of the tool. The later versions of this tool require payment for the cloning feature. You can download older versions of the tool from the Internet Archive.
Nirsoft.net contains a variety of utilities that are helpful. Reading the “about” page of Nirsoft.net will produce confidence in the writer. The features and functions of TaskSchedulerView is a good example how Microsoft could be better.
SysInternals Programs of interest in the Sysinternals suite are: autoruns, procmon and ProcessExplorer.
Yumi A tool for putting multiple ISO images on one thumb drive. Facilitates booting any of the ISO's . With the size of todays thumb drives, Yumi is a tool that allows almost anything you want, to be on one thumb drive. My thumb drive contains multiple versions of Windows, Linux and many of the tools identified on this page.
Ventoy is similar to Yumi. Ventoy is open source. Using Ventoy you install Ventoy on a thumb drive and then “copy” one or more “iso” files to the thumb drive. Ventoy has a different model for persistence. Here is the documentation for Ventoy Persistence. Since it is open source, reading the source code might reduce the length of a sleepless night..
Discussion
I want to signup for the Electronics Recycling Opportunity next week. I have attempted phone calls, visits to help center and website all unsuccessful.
Michael F Welsh, a member 302 Lake Sommerville Trail Georgetown, Tx 78633 847-373-2464Bold Text
I need a home visit to remove my former ZOOM modem/router and replace it with a new Arris Modem, a new Lynksys Router and hook up the existing Cell phone Booster and new netgear gigabit ethernet switch (new equipment purchased at Best Buy). I have tried it myself and called my provider for help (no luck) and tried using Arris help - again no luck. Any suggestions or visit by someone who can do this would relieve my tech stress!
Thank you.
Hi. My desktop changed suddenly a few days ago and now I have all the tile there and none of the desktop items like Citibank, etc. that I used to have. I have to go to a drop down screen to access Google vs. an icon right on my lap top. There has also been a change in how to manage taps which are now 'Set aside“ vs. minimizing. There are often no min. or max to click on.
I don't think I did anything inadvertently to make this happen and when I did a restore to an early date, it didn't fix the problem.
Thanks for any explanation, etc. Carol