Windows General Archives • Helge Klein

How to Check Which Bluetooth A2DP Audio Codec Is Used on Windows

This is a follow-up to my earlier article Bluetooth Audio Quality & aptX on Windows 10, based on a comment by reader eluxe. Windows makes it unnecessarily hard to identify the audio codec used by the Bluetooth A2DP profile, but there is a way. This post shows how to check if your connection makes use […]

Windows Setup USB Flash Drive Not Showing Up in BIOS List of Boot Devices

There are countless articles on how to install Windows 10 from a USB flash drive. Most of them, however, fail to mention a common problem: the USB flash drive does not show up in the BIOS’ list of boot devices. Here is a simple solution that often works.

Free and Powerful Equalizer for Windows 10

Windows 10 does not come with an equalizer. That can be annoying when you have headphones that are too heavy on the bass, like the Sony WH-1000XM3. Enter the free Equalizer APO with Peace, its UI.

Bluetooth Audio Quality & aptX on Windows 10

Bluetooth is a flexible standard. It defines various profiles that operate on top of the Bluetooth networking protocol stack and implement specific services, such as hands-free communications. Bluetooth devices each support a small subset of profiles, typically only one or two, according to their designated function. Bluetooth headphones and speakers implement the advanced audio distribution […]

Creating an Application Crash Dump

How to enable local application crash dump creation globally or for a specific process executable only.

What’s Wrong with Group Policy

Over the years I have worked with Group Policy in many different ways. My experience ranges from helping an enterprise client establish a brand new set of policies for physical PCs and VDI machines to authoring ADM/ADMX/ADML files. Last year I presented and wrote a very detailed analysis of the impact of Group Policy on […]

Lenovo Yoga 900: SSD Upgrade & Clean Windows Installation

The Lenovo Yoga 900 packs some amazing hardware in an ultraportable 1.29 kg 13″ chassis: high-resolution 3200×1800 screen, Intel Core i7-6500U CPU, 16 GB RAM. The only downsides I found so far: glossy display, maximum SSD size is 512 GB, OS is Windows Home, not Pro. There is not much we can do about the […]

Windows Keyboard Mapping with SharpKeys

Or: Getting rid of Caps Lock & creating the missing context menu key I like my current laptop, a Lenovo W540, but details of the keyboard layout really deteriorate the user experience (not to mention the horrible trackpad – I can only recommend you carry a mouse or buy the successor which is rumored to […]

Determining the Size of a Folder without Access or Permissions

Imagine you need to determine the size of a directory, but you do not have access to it and cannot change the permissions, either. Such a situation is common with Windows user profiles. This article shows how to deal with it.

Software Installation Very Slow without Internet Access

I have been using Windows 8 Client Hyper-V for a while now and must say it works like a treat – except for one thing: it is practically impossible to give VMs at the same time NATted internet access and connect them to other VMs and to the host. Windows Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) just […]

Why Every Self-Respecting Administrator Should Ditch Explorer For Good

Windows Explorer is an end user, a consumer product. It creates a reality distortion field that hides part of what is really there and makes you see things that do not exist. That is OK for its intended customer base, but as an administrator you cannot afford to live in a dream world.

Setting up Mobile Broadband (WWAN) on HP Elitebook 8560p

Configuring an HP Elitebook with integrated HS2340 mobile broadband module to use the 3G connection can be a little tricky. Here is how it works – without third-party dialer software!

Dead Simple Wake-on-LAN for Your Windows Server at Home

Having a server at home is a great luxury, but having a computer running 24×7 is an extreme waste of energy. Turning it on and off manually is not very appealing, either. Luckily we have to do neither. Windows can easily be configured to put the computer into sleep mode (where modern PCs consume approx. […]

How to Speed Up Your Windows 7 Boot Time by 20%

[What I wrote here is wrong. Please read this follow-up article.] Here is a very simple way to reduce the time it takes to boot Windows 7 by around 20% (the exact number depends on the hardware).

New File System ReFS in Windows 8: Quick Facts

The introduction of a new file system is a big step even for Microsoft. According to this article in the Building Windows 8 blog ReFS will ship with the server version of Windows 8 only, but will be brought to the client at a later time, too. ReFS was built for resiliency and complements Storage […]

How User Profiles Will Help Make Windows 8 a Success

Competition in the tablet market is fierce because the profits are potentially enormous (check Apple’s financial statements as proof). No wonder everybody is desperate to get their way in, some giving up before they really started (HP), others with dubious concepts (RIM). Apple obviously is fighting tooth and nail to keep up their dominance which […]

Shortcut Magic

Windows shortcuts aka LNK files have interesting capabilities. The shortcut target can be stored not only as a fixed-path string, but also as an item ID list. If a shortcut is equipped with such a list, it is – to a certain extent – platform-independent.

Officially Announced New Features in Windows 8 (Client and Server)

This is an attempt to list officially announced new and changed features in Windows 8. I will update this list as new announcements are made.

Locking Down Internet Explorer 8 with Group Policy

Managing Internet Explorer via group policy is a daunting task. Hundreds of policies are available to control the browser’s user interface, security settings and much more. This article lists strategies and scripts I have found helpful.

Access Denied Trying to Connect to Administrative Shares C$, D$ etc.

Under certain circumstances, you cannot connect to administrative shares (e.g. C$) on remote computers, even though you use the right credentials. Accessing a normal (i.e. non-administrative) share works flawlessly, though.

Missing Sharing Tab in Folder Properties on Windows 7

Sometimes the “Sharing” tab in the folder properties goes missing. If that is the case and you right-click a folder and select “Properties”, it looks like this:

Dinosaurs on Your Hard Disk: Historical Files in Windows 7 Everybody Seems to Have Forgotten About

Everybody knows that Windows installations become bigger with every version. But Windows’ hard disk footprint grows not only because Microsoft adds new files, but also because some files seem to be delete-proof and are not removed, even though they have been obsolete for ages. This is a compilation of some of these files along with […]

The Unmanageable File Server

I had an interesting little case to solve at home recently when my headless file server suddenly would not accept RDP connections any more. It still worked flawlessly as a file server, so I ignored the problem for a while.

How to Get Back Windows XP’s Fast Event Viewer in Windows 7

One of the first things I noticed about Windows Vista and immediately disliked was the new event viewer. The user interface is too cluttered, but more importantly, it is just so very sloooow. It is so slow that I think twice before starting it. And when I do, I almost feel physical pain watching it […]

Where is the App Store for Windows? Why Microsoft Should Fear Developer Drain.

Selling little apps for little money is next to impossible – on Windows. It works great on another platform, though: the iPhone. Such an imbalance has consequences: Apple making it easy for developers to actually sell their programs creates a pressure that might well cause a “developer drain” on the Windows platform.

Eating Microsoft's Dog Food – A Self-Experiment With Windows 7, Part 3: Usage

In the previous article of this mini-series I described how to install Windows 7 x64 beta 1 into a virtual hard disk (VHD) file. In this post I will share some thoughts on what using Windows 7 x64 actually feels like.

Eating Microsoft's Dog Food – A Self-Experiment With Windows 7, Part 2: Installation

In the first article of this mini-series I described how I prepared my work laptop for the installation of Windows 7 x64 beta 1 into a virtual hard disk (VHD) file. This post covers the installation itself. At this point you may (rightly) ask: “Why yet another description of this process?” The answer is that […]

Eating Microsoft's Dog Food – A Self-Experiment With Windows 7, Part 1: Preparation

After reading a lot about the speed and stability of Windows 7 (beta 1), I decided it was time for me not only to use it for real work, but also to move from 32-bit Windows to a 64-bit installation. This mini-series serves as a documentation of the steps I took and the lessons I […]

Undocumented Changes to the Cluster.exe Command Line Tool in Server 2008

While working on the next edition of my book I found several documentation errors on Microsoft’s Technet pages describing the command line tools of Windows Server 2008. One of the graver errors relates to clustering. Windows Server 2008 brings many improvements with regards to clustering. However, the new syntax of the command line-based cluster management […]

Group Policy Preferences: Why Windows Server 2008 Will Change the Way You Work

I confess: I like group policies. They are and have always been a great way of managing computer and user settings ever since their conception and introduction with Windows 2000. Of course, at the beginning management tools were nonexistent. But we were so happy not to have to rely on NT4’s system policies any more […]

Category: Windows General

How to Check Which Bluetooth A2DP Audio Codec Is Used on Windows

Windows Setup USB Flash Drive Not Showing Up in BIOS List of Boot Devices

Free and Powerful Equalizer for Windows 10

Bluetooth Audio Quality & aptX on Windows 10

Creating an Application Crash Dump

What’s Wrong with Group Policy

Lenovo Yoga 900: SSD Upgrade & Clean Windows Installation

Windows Keyboard Mapping with SharpKeys

Determining the Size of a Folder without Access or Permissions

Software Installation Very Slow without Internet Access

Why Every Self-Respecting Administrator Should Ditch Explorer For Good

Setting up Mobile Broadband (WWAN) on HP Elitebook 8560p

Dead Simple Wake-on-LAN for Your Windows Server at Home

How to Speed Up Your Windows 7 Boot Time by 20%

New File System ReFS in Windows 8: Quick Facts

How User Profiles Will Help Make Windows 8 a Success

Shortcut Magic

Officially Announced New Features in Windows 8 (Client and Server)

Locking Down Internet Explorer 8 with Group Policy

Access Denied Trying to Connect to Administrative Shares C$, D$ etc.

Missing Sharing Tab in Folder Properties on Windows 7

Dinosaurs on Your Hard Disk: Historical Files in Windows 7 Everybody Seems to Have Forgotten About

The Unmanageable File Server

How to Get Back Windows XP’s Fast Event Viewer in Windows 7

Where is the App Store for Windows? Why Microsoft Should Fear Developer Drain.

Eating Microsoft's Dog Food – A Self-Experiment With Windows 7, Part 3: Usage

Eating Microsoft's Dog Food – A Self-Experiment With Windows 7, Part 2: Installation

Eating Microsoft's Dog Food – A Self-Experiment With Windows 7, Part 1: Preparation

Undocumented Changes to the Cluster.exe Command Line Tool in Server 2008

Group Policy Preferences: Why Windows Server 2008 Will Change the Way You Work