Wenton's Windoze Page

by
Wenton L. Davis

You've probably figured out that I'm not a fan of Micro$oft Windoze.  I have no problem admitting that it is more common and more popular than any other operating system.  I just contend that as time passes, the Great Monopoly will erode away, and Linux and Macs will eat away at the monopoly because they are better in many ways.  But there's very little point in rehashing, here, what is still being debated (less than politely) across the internet.

Here are some tricks, gadgets, and programs I have for coping with... oops, I mean working with... Windoze.

Administrative stuff
• Startup Programs
• updates
• user accounts

Simple tools
• EETools programmer
• HP Virtual calculator
• Virutal TI calculator (yuk)

Games
• Stars!

Map a network drive from command line:

C:\> hostname
COMPUTERNAME

C:\> net use R: \\NAME\B $\Path /persistant:yes

C:\> net use R: /delete

C:\> subst X: /d
  

Create a new drive within existing directories (does not work from admin account):

C:\> subst X: C:\path

Speed Up by Stopping Background Services

Here are some ways to speed up your Windoze computer by killing some stupid background processes:

Windows Search
• Ctrl+R
• type services.msc
• Look for Windows Search and stop the service
• Change Startup type to Disabled or Manual
• Change the recovery tab of the service's properties and select Take No Action

SysMain (used to be Superfetch)
• As abive, but look for SysMain

Micro$oft Diagnostic Data
• Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Diagnostics & Feedback
• Disable Diagnostic Data

Clean Up after Years of Updates

OK, here's one that clearly deomnstrates how little Micor$oft really cares about customers.  We all know that Windoze PCs slow down as they age.  Part of the reason is that as updates come at us on apparently a weekly basis, now, stuff accumulates in various locations.  Although I can't prove it, I suspect that each update leaves "check for this data" in the startup process, and it seems to never get cleaned up.  updates also leave remnants behind that also never get cleaned up.  However, Micro$oft has apparently at least been aware of this, because it can be cleaned up with just a few commands.  These commands MUST be run using administrator privliges, so start a command shell WITH "Run as administrator" and enter the command:

dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /AnalyzeComponentStore

All this does is analyze and recommend (or not) to perform the cleanup...

dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup

Once that is completed, you can go back and rerun the first command to see how much space has been freed up.

Transparency

One effect that I like, even knowing it slows things down, is just a little bit of transparency.  The user does not need administrative rights to do this.

To enable this, Settings > Personalization > Colors > Transparency effects

I really like just a little transparency in command prompt.  To accomplish this, right-click on the titlepar of a command prompt to go to settings > Command Prompt > Appearance > Background opacity and drop down to 80% or so.  Click on "Save."

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