That's also similar to the Firefox extensions I'm using:
I am also using these advanced settings to speed up and enhance my browsing experience. They are very effective on my frequently slow and laggy home Internet connection:
browser.cache.check_doc_frequency
0
Forces Firefox to ignore the frequently already expired expiration dates needlessly set on many web resources, thus improving navigation times on slow Internet connections and reducing bandwidth consumption. Very rarely does this setting cause out-of-date information to be displayed for me, and when it does, pressing [F5] always forces a full content update.
general.smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMinMS
100
Firefox has laggy scrolling, this makes it more responsive.
Makes fonts much more solid and clear instead of being so faded. Microsoft Edge already does something like this by default (although without ClearType, resulting in jagged text).
Forces the above setting to be applied for all font families. Make sure that you have ClearType enabled and tuned properly in Windows for best effect. Firefox will have to be restarted for the change to take effect, after which the above setting should dynamically set the font-weight real-time.
network.dnsCacheExpiration
600
Greatly reduces unneeded DNS traffic and the associated lags caused when the DNS request packet gets lost. Never had any DNS related site issues with this setting.
network.dnsCacheExpirationGracePeriod
3600
If the packet does get lost, another will be sent, but in the meantime go ahead and use the information we already have cached for up to an hour so the page can load promptly.
network.http.pacing.requests.enabled
false
Pacing helps prevent SYN flooding; however, because I am enabling pipelining next, this is not necessary and only slows page loading down.
network.http.pipelining
true
Greatly improves page loading speed especially on sites with lots of little resources. The performance improvement is proportional to the amount of connection latency. The higher, the more this helps. Pipelining is causes the web browser to send multiple requests in a row over a single connection, instead of waiting for each to finish before sending the next. Pipelining can easily double the performance of these transactions, improving the efficiency of HTTP/1.1 nearly to that of HTTP/2 (this can be confirmed on the many HTTP2 test sites).
network.http.pipelining.aggressive
true
A couple years ago, enabling pipelining would cause various sites to regularly be missing a random image (or worse yet, a CSS file!) here or there for me. However, since then, Firefox has improved and I am not having any issues, even with aggressive pipelining enabled.
network.http.pipelining.read-timeout
8000
Not sure why the default is 30 seconds. You bet I won't be waiting that long! I have found that reducing the number much below 8 seconds seems to cause less pipelining and more parallel connections.
network.http.pipelining.ssl
true
Enable pipelining for secure connections.
network.http.proxy.pipelining
true
Enable pipelining for proxied connections.
Last Edit: Nov 17, 2015 22:12:42 GMT -6 by Techie007
Microsoft, is Windows 10 the best you could do? Really? After promising to listen to our feedback, what a letdown!
Back when Microsoft introduced DMF Formatted Floppy Disks for Windows 95, I used this program extensively for copying those same disks or to reformat a disk so it could hold more than 1.44MB of Data. Since then, the program has matured and has become a powerful disk imaging suite.
The following has been excepted from the WinImage website which describes what the program can do:
WinImage is a fully-fledged disk-imaging suite for easy creation, reading and editing of many image formats and fileystems, including DMF, VHD, FAT, ISO, NTFS and Linux. The disk image is an exact copy of a physical disk (floppy, CD-ROM, hard disk, USB, VHD disk, etc.) or a partition that preserves the original structure. With WinImage in place, you can recreate the disk image on the hard drive or other media, view its content, extract image-based files, add new files and directories, change the format, and defragment the image. All this and more is delivered in one intuitive user interface that enables imaging right out of the box.
The program has many utilitarian uses at home and in the office. As a serious PC user, you probably have tons of old but still useful floppy disks. With WinImage in place, you can turn them into disk images, which can be stored on the hard drive and recreated, when a need arises. In combination with a CD creating tool, WinImage can help you create your own custom boot disk with hardware diagnostic or virus cleaning software to bring a problem PC back up and running without being in Windows. As a hard-disk backup solution, WinImage allows you to save hours and even days restoring a system and configurations on a machine that has experienced a hard-disk crash or software corruption. Along with homes and offices, this ability is a must for training classes, where restoring torn down PC configurations quickly is critical.
Anybody remember "The ScreenSavers" TV show from ZDTV? I used to watch Leo Laporte and his many guests talking about computer tech on my big satellite dish back in the '90's. The topics were alway interesting and inciteful regarding anything to do with computers. The show has been re-launched in a web-cast format and is now called "The New SceenSavers" which can be found at: twit.tv/shows/new-screen-savers
Older episodes can also be found on YouTube. Here is a link to the first episode of "The New ScreenSavers" from May, 2015:
How to Stop External USB Hard Drive Thrashing when using Windows Media Player
I've first witnessed this peculiar problem when I was testing Windows 10, but apparently, the problem has existed since Windows 7/Vista depending upon your system configuration. What happens is Windows re-indexes all your media files on whatever external hard drive you may have attached to your system. That in itself is not so bad except that Windows re-indexes all of your media files each and every single time you select a new media file to play! The fix is fairly simple with the only consequence being that you will need to select and transfer files manually if you attach say a digital camera to your computer. To me, that is a non-issue as I would rather save the hard drive from pre-maturely burning out from excessive disk accessing.
The procedure is as follows:
1.Click Start and then Run... (Or the shortcut is Windows key + R) (in Windows 10, it's right click on Start, then select Run).
2.Type "Services.msc" and press Enter.
3.Scroll down to "Portable Device Enumerator Service".
4.Double click and change "Startup Type" to "Disabled".
I have found on some systems, a re-boot may be required for the changes to take effect. Also, in Windows 10, you may need to re-check this setting each time your system has been updated.
With Windows 10 being built on the mantra of mobile first, many of the default programs have now been replaced with apps. I've seen many requests coming from desktop users asking how to change the default apps back to the more functional programs that we have all been accustomed to using. The following outline on how to do it can be applied to any of the programs or apps that shows up in the default programs list. See attached picture.
1.Go to Start and then select Settings. 2.Select System. 3.Select Default Apps. 4.On the right side, scroll down and select Set Defaults by App. 5.You should be at a screen the says Set Your Default Programs with a list of programs showing. Please note that this same screen can be accessed from the Control Panel > Default Programs > Set Your Default Programs. 6.Scroll through the list and click on a program you want to setup as being default. 7.On the bottom right side of the screen, you will be presented with two options for setting defaults. Set This Program as Default is the quick way to do it. Choose Defaults for this Program will give you better control of how file extensions are used to open a program. 8.When using the Choose Defaults for this Program option, another screen will pop up showing you a list of file extensions. From here, you can select which file extensions will be used to trigger your default program to start the next time it's called for. 9.Remember to click Save to keep your settings.
10.On a final note, these settings may need to be re-checked after a major Win10 update.
Edit: The replacement file needed for this procedure can be downloaded here: FXST30.dll (211 KB)
Fixing the crashing Windows Server 2012 r2 Fax Server I am sure Microsoft will come out with a proper fix for this problem, but in the meantime this work around will have to do!
The problem is caused by the fxst30.dll file which is located in c:\windows\system32. We can replace that DLL with a DLL from a Windows 7 installation and then it works fine.
First of all, shut down the fax service so that the DLL is not in use. The service is simply called “Fax”.
Navigate to c:\windows\system32 on the server with the problem and find the fxst30.dll file. Right click on the file and choose properties. Go to the security tab and then click on advanced. Click on the “Change” button next to the owner and change the owner from “TrustedInstaller” to the administrator account you are using to make these changes.
Back in Windows explorer rename the file to “FXST30-original.dll”.
Copy FXST30.dll from a Windows 7 machine into the system32 folder of your server. This is what the two versions of the file I had looked like (Windows Server 2012 r2 on right):
The file that ships with Windows Server does seem to be more recent than the one that comes with Windows 7 – but apparently does not work very well!
Start the Fax Service up again and hopefully you should be able to receive faxes on Windows Server 2012 r2!
Including Microsoft Office, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and even Windows XP! I'm not sure how they have remained online with copyright laws and all, but I certainly use it (lawfully, and with already paid license keys) to reload software on PCs I have to reload for whatever reason. I would much rather download my media from Microsoft, but this site does come in handy for older versions Microsoft no longer offers downloads for, and for Windows 7, which Microsoft will not give to those with OEM license keys. You do have to be careful though. That site's search tool is poor, and there are plenty of modded downloads. Mods could be great, could contain malware, or be cracked (illegal), so beware.
Last Edit: Feb 3, 2016 23:52:50 GMT -6 by Techie007
Microsoft, is Windows 10 the best you could do? Really? After promising to listen to our feedback, what a letdown!
Awesome, thanks! I have here a Vista Ultimate DVD and a valid license, BUT... I have reached a stage where I have no optical player I can use right now. I have a perfectly good drive but no more power connectors inside the computer (6 SSDs and 3 HDDs are using them up).
Your link is well-timed; I need to set up a Vista VM to test a user problem.
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
I've had an update that has failed to install for Office 2003 since almost forever with Windows 10 though the program is working fine. I've read online about people having issues with drivers having the same sort of issue. Provided here is a link to a Microsoft website to a utility troubleshooter program you can download that will allow you to hide those pesky Failed Updates.
That's AKA KB3073930 and a particularly good one, Rick, because it brings an added benefit most folks don't realize:
It can be used to check for available Windows 10 updates WITHOUT actually giving the go-ahead to install. All you have to do is run it, UNcheck the "Fix Automatically" box, then see...
Coupled with the policy change (or my little application) to stop automatic updates, this represents an ability to, albeit with a bit more effort, emulate the old technique of checking for updates, determining whether they're all wanted, hiding those that aren't, then - when the time is right - going through the actual installation.
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
Post by Bayer A.User on Apr 21, 2016 13:15:20 GMT -6
I forgot about this... www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download Before you even THINK about upgrading to 10,get yourself some install media for 7 or 8.1 Valid key required
Post by Bayer A.User on Apr 21, 2016 15:11:45 GMT -6
Run CMD as admin to retrieve your Win8 & 8.1 key. EDIT-If you have a PC that had 8 or 8.1 installed by manufacturer,this is the easiest way to get the OEM key from UEFI/BIOS. Even if you swap the hard drive and install another windows OS, as long as the mobo is original this command will work.
Last Edit: Apr 24, 2016 8:25:02 GMT -6 by Bayer A.User
- for those who are unfortunate enough not to have it already built into Windows 10.
Affected versions are as follows:
Windows 10 Home N, Windows 10 Pro N, Windows 10 Education N, Windows 10 Enterprise N, Windows 10 Enterprise N Evaluation, Windows 10 Enterprise N 2015 LTSB, Windows 10 Enterprise N 2015 LTSB Evaluation, or Windows 10 Home KN, Windows 10 Pro KN, Windows 10 Education KN, Windows 10 Enterprise KN, Windows 10 Enterprise KN Evaluation, Windows 10 Enterprise KN 2015 LTSB, Windows 10 Enterprise KN 2015 LTSB Evaluation
Original article with downloadable installation files can be found at:
Junk Removal Tool, I used it to get rid of iex toolbars & other bloatware in a 2010 vintage oem install of Win7x64. It does not install on your system,just double click/extract and run the executable. Provides report on notepad. will give it a try on Win10 next.
Why did this thread show up near the top of the "recent" list when the last post was last November? Is there one we can't see just waiting for another one to follow it? As of this writing, the Locutus' Nov 13 post was the most recent.
Edit: OK, now a whole second page shows up. Either I'm stupid and missed a "Next Page" link or there be glitches here.
For some reason along the way to Windows 10 development, Microsoft has reduced the functionality of this program to an almost non-existent state in their more recently available ISO's. If, upon your needing to do a clean install of Windows 10 on your system, you may find that Windows Photo Viewer has been reduced in capability to viewing only *.tiff files.
Presented here is a registry hack that will bring back the capability to view almost any picture file format that Windows Photo Viewer used to be able to handle.
(The file can be deleted later on after running the procedure).
Next, you will need to make sure you are signed in as the administrator to your system.
Once you are logged in as the administrator, just double click on the file to run it. You may get an warning or two, just click Yes to continue to allow registry changes to be made to your system.
To set defaults for Windows Photo Viewer, go to Control Panel > Default Programs > Set Your Default Programs.
Once inside find and highlight Windows Photo Viewer in the list on the left. On the right side, you may have to scroll down to see Set This Program as Default. Click on it and you are done!
Original article on how to do this can be found at:
It seems pretty sad when they can't even make the image viewer App enough better so that it's more integrated or interesting for people to use than the old Photo Viewer, so they have to actively deprecated functionality from the old software in order to force people to change.
Wasn't "Improved" supposed to come after "New and"?
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
Post by Bayer A.User on Jun 19, 2016 13:30:47 GMT -6
The win10 "photo" app was good for only 2 things. Gifs & Altering the colorization of images. Other than those two, no reason to use it at all. The old photo viewer and mspaint were always my defaults on 10 !
Post by Bayer A.User on Feb 4, 2017 9:39:20 GMT -6
New Malwarebytes 3.0 Not just a GUI change. They combined the familiar anti-malware with the anti-exploit. The old individual programs are no longer available for home use. If you are happy running the old versions(paid PRO or FREE) don't be in a hurry to upgrade. The new full time version is a bonafide AV so it will NOT run alongside Defender. Like all other full time security- software it will turn Defender OFF.
MHO, they seem to have had concerns about Win10- so "quiting" MBAM 3.0 is a simple click away on the notification area icon if problems arise. Then Defender can be started,again. When my 14day Premium trial runs out ,it will be interesting to see if the Free version & browser anti-exploit runs alongside Defender.
Yes, it's possible to run the free MalwareBytes 3.0 as a scanner only, and leave other AV software in place.
My pet peeve is that it installs and leaves running its service and tray application. I run the scanner from a script that takes the extraware out after the scan I've initiated is done.
But it scans about 6 times faster than before, which is nice.
Oh, and don't forget to watch out for what it tries to contact online, e.g., telemetry.malwarebytes.com. So far as I can see it's absolutely necessary to allow it to contact keystone.mwbsys.com and sirius.mwbsys.com, after which it will download its updates from cdn.mwbsys.com.
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
Post by Bayer A.User on Feb 5, 2017 8:40:54 GMT -6
The Anti-exploit puts a GUI on the familiar browser settings,some of which we can/have used in iex before. Works with all browsers that i've tried it on, including off the wall 3rd party/open source, chromium based.
The old FREE version absolutely prevented iex ransomware attacks without sacrificing internet browsing performance.
Oh, and don't forget to watch out for what it tries to contact online, e.g., telemetry.malwarebytes.com. So far as I can see it's absolutely necessary to allow it to contact keystone.mwbsys.com and sirius.mwbsys.com, after which it will download its updates from cdn.mwbsys.com.
<Rick> Good video. It's almost hard to believe that at one time Windows 98 was the resource hog, but even then, it still ran circles around what Windows 10 can do on today's modern hardware and look a heck of alot better doing it.
May 25, 2021 22:55:12 GMT -6
<Rick> As stated elsewhere, So much for the launch of Windows 11, "The Great Crash." Myself, I had a hard time getting into the site listed above, when I did get in, the video was partly done and then it crashed. There has been many other reports of crashing.
Jun 24, 2021 9:52:33 GMT -6
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<Rick> I see Microsoft has been very quick to pull down reports of site crashing regarding the Launch of Windows 11 on the Microsoft Insiders forum.
Jun 24, 2021 9:57:31 GMT -6
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<Rick> The rebroadcast is working okay.
Jun 24, 2021 11:00:25 GMT -6
<Rick> With reports of people being able to install the dev-edition of Windows 11 on machines not meeting spec, I thought I would give it a what-the-heck try. Lucky me, I'm caught in the downloading, doesn't meet spec, clearing, re-downloading loop on my machine!
Jul 2, 2021 7:08:46 GMT -6
<Rick> I've recently purchased a license for ArcaOS from www.arcanoae.com/ to play with. First impressions, it's still OS/2, but it now has a Linux twist to it.
Jul 2, 2021 7:32:53 GMT -6
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<dozrguy> laptop shit out and am stuck buying a new one. os win11 as fucked as win10 was?
Oct 2, 2021 12:56:10 GMT -6
<Rick> Let's see ..., my impression of Windows 11 is that it is a spruced up version of Windows 10 requiring a 64-bit processor plus a piece of security hardware that is less than 4 years old in order for it to run.
Oct 4, 2021 18:25:49 GMT -6
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<Rick> On the plus side, Microsoft is supposed to be supporting Windows 10 for some time to come for those of us still using systems with I7 or older processors.
Oct 4, 2021 18:44:35 GMT -6
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<dozrguy> i tried installing win10 om the 'shitout' pc this morning usung media creation. EPIC FAIL! went into an endless bootloop. win7 reinstalled just fine
Oct 21, 2021 11:23:38 GMT -6
<dozrguy> STILL so much bullshit and so little time for the kiddie ideas from the hill. My new laptop (MSI GE 11-UH461) would be an awesome "10" machine but because of Winblows I can only give it a "2"......wasted $3500
Oct 27, 2021 9:36:47 GMT -6
<Rick> Hello. Just checking in.
Mar 17, 2022 10:46:54 GMT -6
<isidroco> Each new w10 update adds >100000 useless files to \Windows\Servicing\LCU\Package_for_RollupFix... folders. Even in a SSD takes time to delete that stuff. In each version they manage to worsen stuff.
Mar 27, 2022 16:14:51 GMT -6
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<dozerguy> still traffic here?
Oct 9, 2022 17:32:44 GMT -6
<Rick> No, there does not seem to be very much traffic these days. I still check in from time to time.
Oct 9, 2022 20:08:58 GMT -6