Windows 10 Appearance Tweaks

another excellent article by How To Geek

HERE

Built in Ads in Windows 10...

How To Geek has a wonderful article on how to disable all of Windows 10's built in advertising.
I suggest you all go there and read and do the suggested edits.

HERE

Windows Update-- the easy to understand way.....

Manually reset the Windows Updates Components once again and then re-initiate the Windows Update process.

Resetting Windows Update Components will fix corrupt Windows Update Components and help you to install the Windows Updates quickly.

Please follow the below steps to reset the Windows Updates Components:

1. Press Windows Key + X on the keyboard and then select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the menu.  (right click on CMD-"run as administrator")

2. Stop the BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer and the Windows Update Services. To do this, type the following commands at a command prompt. Press the “ENTER” key after you type each command.

                           net stop wuauserv

                           net stop cryptSvc

                           net stop bits

                           net stop msiserver

3. Now rename the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folder.

                         C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution-- Rename to SoftwareDistribution.old

                         C:\Windows\System32\catroot2-- Rename to Catroot2.old

(Make sure the processes have been stopped so that you are able to rename the folders)

4. Now, restart the BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer and the Windows Update Services. Type the following commands in the Command Prompt for this. Press the ENTER key after you type each command.

                        net start wuauserv

                        net start cryptSvc

                        net start bits

                        net start msiserver

5. Type Exit in the Command Prompt to close it and then restart the computer.

6.After restarting the computer, now retry to install Windows Updates.

Ref: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058



This process finally worked for me to be able to install Windows 10 on my Windows 7 Desktop computer.

How to disable Windows 10 Nagging popup till you want to go ahead with it....read on

here is a free .exe which I heard about courtesy of  HTG and so will pass it along to my readers....


its called NEVER 10

check out the link HERE

it will also remove all the downloaded Windows 10 files stored on your computer...about 6 GBs if you direct it to...


again it is just an executable and not something you install so you can keep it on a USB

Windows Update Fails to install.....

HTG has an excellent tip for a stuck Windows Update.....HERE

Safe Mode-How to get there in Windows 10

If you have a failed driver or update and Windows 10 will not start the recovery option will pull up eventually....


In the Troubleshoot menu, click Advanced options. The Advanced options menu will give you several options: System Restore, System Image Recovery, Startup Repair, Command Prompt, Startup Settings, and Go back to the previous build. Click Startup Settings to change Windows' startup behavior.

In the Startup Settings menu, click the Restart button to restart your PC. Your PC will now restart.

When your PC starts up, you'll see a light blue screen with the Startup Settings menu. You can now choose an option using your keyboard (number keys or function keys). To start up in Safe Mode, press 4 or F4. To start up in Safe Mode with networking, press 5 or F5. To start up in Safe Mode with the Command Prompt, press 6 or F6. If you change your mind and decide you don't want to boot into Safe Mode after all, hit Enter to boot normally.

Windows 10 stuck on "checking for updates?"......

you need to stop and restart the  windows update service....

open CMD

type " net stop wuauserv " (without quotes)

wait a couple of minutes

type " net start wuauserv " (without quotes)

If it does not work the 1st time just repeat it 2-3 times

that should give it the boink it needs to get going and do it

be sure to shut off your antivirus just in case it is hindering the process also....

Install Kodi on Linux Mint 17.3....how to

Open the Terminal:
Make these entries one by one"

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kodi

Netflix on Linux Distro..how to

Installing Netflix Desktop

Not only have the developers done the work of tweaking all this software and putting it into an easy-to-use package, they’ve also provided a PPA that allows you to easily install the Netflix Desktop package on Mint.

To install it, open a Terminal window (search for Terminal in the dash and press Enter) and run the following commands:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop

After it’s installed, you’ll find the Netflix Desktop package in your dash. Search for Netflix to find the app.

If you get the MS fonts are not installed error on startup of the Netflix Desktop do this:

Open a terminal and run this command:

Code:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Don't leave the terminal unattended while this operation proceeds. After a few minutes you will be presented with the Microsoft EULA which you must agree to otherwise the installation fails. Press the TAB key to highlight OK, and then press ENTER. Once the installation has finished, check Netflix again.

Another privacy program which also works on Windows 7-8 and 10..check it out

In continuing to do tech research I found another program which works easily also to disable alot of the privacy concerns for folks using anything web world related these days....
you can check it out for yourself
The  SpyBot Search and Destroy company has a program called Anti-Beacon..
HERE is the link to the info..highly recommend