Windows Archives

Home » Windows » Page 8

System restore from command prompt

Dave Farquhar Windows August 26, 2016November 19, 2016cmd, command prompt, Task Manager, Windows 10, windows 7

Sometimes a Windows computer is so broken that you have to run system restore from the command prompt. If you’re reading this, I don’t have to elaborate. This works in Windows 7, Windows 10, and any other recent version.

And when a system is that broken, you can expect to run into a couple of snags. Maybe you can’t even get a command prompt. Or maybe you got a command prompt but the executable file is buried. Here’s how to solve those two problems. Read more

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net

Can’t connect to this network? Here’s the fix.

Dave Farquhar Windows July 6, 2016November 26, 2018dell, hp, intel, lenovo, optimizing windows, vista, Windows 10, windows 7

After upgrading to Windows 10, when I unhibernated my laptop the next morning, my wifi connection didn’t work. The connection dropped and I couldn’t reconnect. Forgetting the network and reconnecting didn’t help. Any time I tried to reconnect to my wireless network, I’d get the message that Windows 10 can’t connect to this network.

The problem seemed to be in the power management.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

0xc1900201 error installing Windows 10

Dave Farquhar Windows July 5, 2016September 14, 2018dell, Windows 10, windows 7, Windows XP

Are you getting a 0xc1900201 error installing Windows 10? I got both that and 0xc1900200. Here’s how I fixed it.

I upgraded my venerable Dell E1505 to Windows 10 over the weekend. It was harder than it needed to be, but I got it running. It’s an old machine, but for some tasks, it can handle Windows 10.

Here’s how I got the Windows 10 install working.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Solve the NSIS error

Dave Farquhar Windows June 13, 2016November 26, 2018cmd, malware, TEMP

I was trying to install some software last week and I got an NSIS error. The message certainly suggests corrupt downloads, but corrupt downloads are relatively rare, and when they happen, redownloading it ought to clear that up. Getting two of these failures in a row with different programs is really a freak occurrence, so I started looking for another problem.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Share a Windows 10 printer by UNC

Dave Farquhar Windows May 6, 2016July 15, 2017cmd, hp, laserjet, old school, old windows, UNC, Windows 10

Windows 10 uses homegroups, but if you have systems that don’t understand homegroups and want to share a Windows 10 printer by UNC (the old school way to share a network printer), it’s not obvious how to go about doing it.

I couldn’t find a way from the GUI, but it’s still possible to share the printer from a command line.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Compress system files doesn’t show up in Disk Cleanup

Dave Farquhar Windows May 2, 2016July 17, 2017cmd, command prompt, Disk Cleanup, Windows 10

One of the new features of Windows 10 is better file compression, which was intended to help Windows fit better in low-resource devices like tablets. But it’s helpful on computers with SSDs too. But for whatever reason that option doesn’t show up on mine.

But you can still compress your system files even if the Disk Cleanup utility (which you can also launch from the Free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files control panel) doesn’t show the Compress system files option.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Change your printer’s IP address in Windows

Dave Farquhar Windows April 26, 2016July 15, 2017UNC, vista, Windows 10, windows 7, windows 8

Sometimes you may need to change your printer’s IP address, such as after you rearrange your network. It’s not hard to do, it’s just not always immediately obvious where the settings are.

This method works in Windows 7 and Windows 10. It probably also works in Vista and Windows 8, but I don’t have those versions anymore.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

The settings saved on this computer for the network do not match the requirements of the network

Dave Farquhar Windows March 30, 2016August 2, 2017AES, Windows 10, windows 7

If you replace your wireless router with another one, your Windows machines may give you a red X along with this error message when you try to reconnect: the settings saved on this computer for the network do not match the requirements of the network.

The quickest, easiest fix is to forget the network and reconnect. Here’s how to forget a network in Windows 7, and how to forget a network in Windows 10.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Whitelist Java to provide better security and a better user experience

Dave Farquhar security, Windows December 9, 2015September 15, 2016JRE, oracle, Proxy server, Whitelist

One of the best things you can do to improve your security in a corporate environment is to limit the use of Java, or whitelist Java. Undoubtedly there will be one or more legacy web applications your company uses that require Java, and it’s almost inevitable that at least two of them will be certified for one and only one version of the JRE, and it won’t be the same one.

Believe it or not there’s a solution to the problem of conflicting JREs, but it took me years to find it, because I had no idea that Oracle called it “Deployment Rule Set.” The secret’s out now. If you run Java, and you want security, you need Deployment Rule Set.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Easier application whitelisting in Windows with App Locker

Dave Farquhar security, Windows November 26, 2015December 5, 2015malware, Whitelist, Windows 10, windows 7

Application whitelisting is the holy grail of security, but it’s always at the top of the list of things people should do but haven’t yet. The reason is because it breaks stuff and it’s almost as impossible to anticipate ahead of time what it’s going to break as it is to fix whatever breaks.

I know. I wanted to do application whitelisting way back in 1997 and failed miserably.

I found a good-enough approach recently, though.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net