Derek891

I've haven't witnessed this kind of backlash to a product since Coca-Cola tried to market "New Coke" back in 1985.

Hello pinky6968 - I'm going to describe something that happened on my Windows 8 machine quite some time ago, and I want you to check and see if you have the same problem I had. Open Defraggler and hit the "Analyze" button. Then examine the drive map, looking for the light brown section that represents pagefile.sys, the Windows paging file. Is it a single unbroken line, or is it broken into two segments? In my case, it had somehow split into two sections. The result was that Defraggler reported 39% disk fragmentation all the time, even immediately after I had finished defragmented Windows C:\ drive. To fix this, you're going to have to access your virtual memory settings, uncheck the box marked "Automatically manage page file size for all drives", then check the box marked "No paging file" and click the "Set" button. Windows will complain that it needs at least 400MB to store memory crash dumps, just ignore the warning and proceed. After doing this, you will have to reboot your machine to enable the change. After the reboot, open Defraggler, do another analysis, and see if the light brown section has disappeared, and the high percentage of disk fragmentation along with it. If so, proceed to defrag the disk using the "Defrag" option, not "Quick Defrag". After defragmenting, go back into your virtual memory settings and check the original box marked "Automatically manage page file size for all drives", then reboot. The next time you open Defraggler and perform an analysis, the light brown section should appear as a single unbroken line on the drive map.

Another +1. I had a trial version installed on my Windows 8/8.1 machine when I purchased it. Twice it intervened when it thought I was doing something foolish on the web. The first time, it completely blocked me from accessing a website it viewed as threatening. When I say completely, it means there was no option offered for me to proceed at my own risk. Period. (Note: This was not a porn website or anything like that. Later on I visited the same site on my Linux machine and it turns out there were cracked copies of Windows XP available for download. Perhaps they contained viruses/malware?) The second time it blocked me from downloading a utility from Zemana's website that tests their keystroke encryption software. I guess it takes a very dim view of any form of software that is capable of cracking encryption as well.

I'm happy to report that it worked! When I performed the installation I deliberately did not make an internet connection during the process. Here's a screenshot that I made immediately afterwards, please note it shows Windows 8.1 is installed and it is not yet activated : After taking the above screenshot, I made my internet connection and Windows 8.1 was immediately activated with no other input on my part: As a test, I clicked "Change Product Key" and entered the key that was shown in Belarc Advisor and ProduKey and the results were unchanged, Windows 8.1 was still shown as being activated. So this shows two things: 1.) Both Belarc Advisor and ProduKey display the correct Windows 8/8.1 Activation Key. 2.) On a machine that has an OEM installation of Windows 8, the Windows 8 Activation Key works when installing Windows 8.1 from scratch using an .iso file.

Hello to all - I'd like to thank everyone for their responses on this. I downloaded ProduKey from Nirsoft and Windows 9 Product Key Viewer from the mydigitallife forum, and their results are both in agreement with Belarc Advisor as to the Windows 8 Activation Key. So it looks like Speccy works with Windows 7 but fails with Windows 8 in this regard. Yesterday I rounded up all the hardware drivers needed and some of the HP applications I want to retain, and copied them to a USB flash drive. I've decided to try something a bit different from my original plan. Instead of using a Windows 8 .iso, I'm going to try using a Windows 8.1 .iso and see if the Windows 8 Activation Key works. This will save me from upgrading to 8.1 via the Store after installing. I'm thinking that if Microsoft allows you to upgrade from 8 to 8.1 via the Store for free, then the same key should work for both versions, at least on an OEM machine where the key is somehow "embedded" into the machine's BIOS to allow for hands-off activation after re-installing Windows. I'll report back if I succeed with this.

I have two laptops with two different Windows operating systems installed. I have Speccy and Belarc Advisor installed on both systems. I installed Windows 7 Professional SP 1 64 bit from DVD and used the Activation Key from the packaging. On this system, what Speccy displays as the Serial Number is an exact match for what Belarc Advisor displays as the Windows Activation Key. On my Windows 8 system, pre-installed by HP (OEM), what Speccy displays as the Serial Number is entirely different from what Belarc Advisor displays as the Windows Activation Key. Is Speccy correct, or Belarc, or neither? I'm asking this because I'm considering a clean installation using a Windows 8 .iso file. This way I can avoid having all of the HP bloatware included in the installation and am free to install only the applications I want to use. So it's important that I have the correct activation key before I begin.

Cut and pasted from another website: I just got another one of those telephone calls. This time I was prepared for it. What follows is not an exact transcript, but a shortened version. "Hello sir, I'm calling to inform you that your computer has a virus. We can fix your computer." "You've seen a virus? On my computer?" "Yes sir." "Is that a Windows virus?" "Yes sir." "And you're seeing it right now on my computer?" "Yes sir. We're from the Windows company." "You're from Microsoft?" "We provide Windows support sir." ...followed by more back and forth, while I attempt to get the name of his company, his phone number, and his web site, with dubious results. Finally: "You're saying you can see a Windows virus, right now, on my computer?" "Yes sir." "Well then you are liar and a fraud, because I'm not running Windows on my computer, I'm using openSUSE. Good-bye." (click)

Hello to all - An alternative to wiping a disk is to fill it with random data instead. If you're willing to download a Linux .iso and create either a DVD or bootable USB flash drive, you can boot into a live session and use the Terminal to perform the following operations: 1.) Enter " sudo fdisk -l " ### Use the output to determine the correct device (sda,sdb,sdc,etc.) you're working on and the sector size of the device, either 512 bytes or 4096 bytes. 2.) Enter " sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX iflag=nocache oflag=direct bs=512 " ### Substitute sda,sdb,sdc,etc. for sdX and 4096 for 512 if necessary; this operation zero fills the drive 3.) Enter " sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX bs=512 " ### Substitute sda,sdb,sdc,etc. for sdX and 4096 for 512 if necessary; this operation fills the drive with random data An alternative to the above is " shred -v /dev/sdX " ### Substitute sda,sdb,sdc,etc. for sdX; this operation fills the drive with random data three consecutive times. These techniques are used when creating an encrypted partition or an encrypted volume in LVM. The random data acts as a smokescreen for the encrypted data, making it very difficult for someone to perform an analysis and crack the encryption.

Hello @ Coffee4Joe - I finally figured out what the problem was with the clock. It has less to do with Windows and more to do with the fact I'm dual booting between Windows and Linux Mint on the same system. It seems Windows prefers to set the clock according to local time, while Linux Mint uses UTC time. So the solution is to either configure Windows to use UTC, or configure Linux to use local time, the latter being the easier solution of the two. Here's a link that I found describing everything: http://askubuntu.com/questions/169376/clock-time-is-off-on-dual-boot

Hello JDPower - Good luck with using Spinrite. I recently read a post on the My Digital Life forum where the author had nothing but praise for Spinrite. Please post back and let us know what the results are.

Hello @ Augeas - Actually, performing the above operation goes much quicker than trying to describe the operation. I'd like to test it to be 100% certain that it duplicates a secure erase, but given the fact that I installed Windows 7 on my Crucial M500 SSD just this last Monday, and all of the angst I went through in doing so, I think I'll put it on my list of "Things to do when I'm completely bored and can't think of anything else to do". EDIT: I nearly forgot, here's a link to an article I came across last night on the topic of performing a secure erase. http://raywoodcockslatest.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/ssd-secure-erase/ The last paragraph: "Assuming TRIM was properly implemented in the SSD, and assuming the drive was otherwise eligible (e.g., no corruption), it seemed that one potentially workable approach was simply to perform an NTFS quick format of a SATA-connected SSD, encrypt the entire drive with something like TrueCrypt, do another format, and then leave the drive connected for a while, so as to let TRIM do its work. Since the implementation of TRIM in a particular SSD could not be verified, it appeared that a combination of these steps with other methods (above) might provide the most reliable response to the task of securely erasing an SSD."

Hello JDPower - I had another look at Hiren's Boot CD and there's another set of tests available besides the ones in the DOS section. If you boot it up and select Linux Rescue Environment (Parted Magic) from the boot menu, wait for the desktop to appear, then double-click "Disk Health". Select the disk in question, then click the "Attributes" tab. There you will find all the S.M.A.R.T. data displayed. And if you select the "Perform Tests" tab, you will find three more tests available: a short test, a long test (checks disk surface), and a conveyance test (checks for damage due to drops/bumps).

Hello @ Augeas - There is one little trick I've learned using Linux Mint that will accomplish what you've described by using Linux's fstrim command. 1.) Boot into a live CD session of Linux Mint. 2.) Open Gparted and select the SSD by using the tab on the right side of the panel to toggle between /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, and so on. If there's only one hard drive on the system, it will usually be /dev/sda. If there's more than one, you'd better pay close attention here - you do not want to select the wrong device! Once you are absolutely certain that you have selected the correct device, create a new ms-dos partition table on the SSD. Then create a single new partition using the entire unallocated space on the SSD. Format it ext4, since ext4 supports trim. Exit Gparted. (*Note: Before closing Gparted, take note if this new partition is assigned /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1, or whatever - see Step 3-b below.) 3.) Open the command terminal and enter the following: a.) sudo mkdir /media/SSD ### Creates a new directory /media/SSD b.) sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/SSD /mnt ### Mounts the ext4 partition on the SSD to the new directory /media/SSD. (*Note: Change /dev/sda1 to /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdc1 to match exactly what you noted in Step 2 above.) c.) sudo fstrim -v /media/SSD ### Issues a trim command to the directory /media/SSD. You will get a response "xxxxxxxxxxx bytes have been trimmed". 4.) Sit back 15 minutes or so and let the SSD's firmware perform garbage collection. Then try using Recuva to see if any data is recoverable.

Hello JDPower - If you have access to another PC, you can download Hiren's Boot CD and use the hard drive utilities that it contains to analyze your drive. The link to download Hiren's is here: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ Note: Look for the .zip file near the bottom of the page. After you unzip this file, you have two choices of what to do with the .iso file: either burn it to a CD or DVD, or use Rufus to create a bootable USB flash drive using the .iso. The link to download Rufus is here: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ When you boot Hiren's, select the DOS programs from the boot menu, then look for hard drive tools on the next menu. This will lead you to a sub-menu where you can find utilities for Western Digital, Seagate, IBM/Hitachi, Maxtor, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Samsung, and maybe a couple more.

Hello Coffee4Joe - Thank you for the tip. I set my time zone to EST right after the installation and never changed it. I played around with everything else except that. Maybe that's the key. I'll give it a try the next time I boot it up. Thanks again.

It looks like you've never used Rufus before, so here's a rundown of what you need to do. 1.) Download the Windows 10 Technical Preview from the link I've already posted. While you're patiently waiting for this to complete, write down the SHA-1 hash and the Windows Activation Key. You'll need both later on. 2.) Then perform a SHA-1 checksum to make sure you didn't lose any pieces during the download. If you don't already have a utility to do this, you can download and install HashMyFiles from Nirsoft's website: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/hash_my_files.html Note: There's a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version available. 3.) Now download Rufus from the link I've already posted. You do not have to install Rufus, you only need to double-click on it to make it run. 4.) Plug in your 8GB USB flash drive and format it to NTFS. Rufus will reformat it again before installing the .iso, but I always like to do this first just to check that the flash drive has no problems being formatted. 5.) Now run Rufus. In the first tab, "Device", you should see the USB flash drive already displayed there. If it's not, then eject it, unplug it, and plug it back in. Now comes the only tricky part about using Rufus, and it depends on the machine you are using for installation. In the second tab, "Partition Scheme and Target System Type", you can leave it set to the first choice, "MBR partition scheme for BIOS and UEFI Computers", if the machine you are using to install Windows 10 has a BIOS that uses MBR boot and it's hard drive has a MBR partition table. Then in the third tab, "File System", select "NTFS" and use the default for "Cluster Size". However, if your machine uses UEFI boot and it's hard drive has a GPT partition table, then you should select the third choice, "GPT partition scheme for UEFI Computer". Then in the third tab, "File System", select "FAT32" and use the default for "Cluster Size". This is because UEFI machines using disks that have a GPT partition table cannot boot from the MBR area of the disk, they must use a separate FAT32 boot partition to boot from. This applies to USB flash drives as well, they must be formatted FAT32. (Don't even ask me about the second choice, "MBR partition scheme for UEFI computer": I've never used it and can only assume it's for a UEFI machine that has it's BIOS set to use Legacy/CSM boot. Possibly. Maybe. Can't say for sure. ) Now go down and click the small disk icon that appears just to the right of the tab marked "ISO Image". Then navigate your way to the Downloads folder and double-click on the Windows 10 .iso file. You'll see "JM1_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9" appear in the box marked "New volume label". Now you're set to go and can click the "Start" button. In about 10 minutes or so, your USB flash drive will be ready for action.

Correct. Here is the link to the .iso files that available so far: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso Note the SHA-1 hashes are listed for each individual file and the activation key is located at the top of the list. You have two choices of what to do with the .iso: either burn it to DVD (using slowest possible speed) or use Rufus to create a bootable USB flash drive. You can download Rufus here: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ Also note that you will need a 4GB USB flash drive at the minimum if you decide to use that option.

My sentiments exactly. After the Great Windows Update Debacle of August 12, 2014, which only involved one or two Security Updates, I can only imagine the resulting carnage and tales of woe when people try to update the entire operating system using Windows Update. I think anyone who is interested in taking Windows 10 for a test drive would be much better off doing a clean installation using the readily available .iso file. That's what I did. So far I like it. I like it much better than Windows 8/8.1. It's more akin to Windows 7. There is one bug so far that I find annoying. No matter what I do, the time is always off by +4 hours when I first boot the system. I've tried synching the clock to all the available internet servers, setting it manually, and it refuses to hold the setting. I guess I'm permanently stuck on "Redmond time".

There is a very good chance that Alan_B is correct. It's no small coincidence that Piniform.com is a registered website. Check out these two links: http://dawhois.com/site/piniform.com.html http://whois.domaintools.com/piniform.com

I cannot pass judgement on them, because I've never used either one. Maybe you can fill in the blanks for me.

A brief history of Microsoft Windows: Windows 98SE . . . a good one. Windows ME . . . . a stinker. Windows XP . . . . another good one. Windows Vista . . . another stinker. Windows 7 . . . . . . another good one. Windows 8 . . . . . . another stinker. Windows 10 . . . . . Let's hope they follow the pattern!

A follow up - I did a reset on Internet Explorer, and it fixed things. Sort of. I no longer have any problems while I have it open. But when I close it, I get the message "Internet Explorer stopped responding", then the little progress bar appears claiming that Windows is searching for a solution. It appears that Windows cannot figure out that it stopped responding because I closed it. Classic Microsoft behavior.

Mystery and confusion certainly reigned back in the days of Win 95, 98, and 98SE. I remember that Microsoft recommended a minimum of 32MB of memory to run 98SE. So when I bought my first desktop, I thought I would play it smart and ordered it with 64MB of memory installed. I experienced BSODs on a regular basis, basically every time I used the machine. A friend of mine claimed that increasing the size of swap was the answer, so I began experimenting with setting the size of swap myself instead of letting Windows manage it. That didn't provide much of an improvement, so I took the next step: I installed an additional 128MB of SDRAM. Things improved substantially, but I still suffered an occaisional BSOD. So I installed a second 128MB module, bringing my total system memory to 320MB. The BSODs disappeared entirely, and it became much more enjoyable to use that machine. So this proves two things: 1.) There is no substitute for RAM. Playing around with the size of swap was not the answer, increasing the system's physical memory was. I only wish I had known that from the start. 2.) Never trust Microsoft when they recommend a minimum amount of system memory. This applied back then and still applies today.

It might have been worse. He could have responded "Atlanta", making him look 3x more stupid.

Did anyone have any problems with yesterday's round of updates? I did. After installing them and doing a reboot, I went online. About a half hour later, I tried to close one of several tabs I had open in I.E. and found I couldn't do it using the "x" on the tab itself. So I went down to the taskbar and tried closing it from there. Still no luck. Then I opened Task Manager and forced I.E. to close, which produced a blue screen but no error message, simply a plain blue screen. Then I did a "ctrl-alt-delete" and logged out. When I logged back in, everything was normal, like nothing happened. So I did a reboot, and haven't had any issues since. The last time I had a BSOD following the August round of updates, it also occurred when I had I.E. open for a while. Both rounds of updates, August's and September's, included cumulative security updates for I.E.. Any connection here?