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I was able to get the sound card working using drivers from HP z220. But, there is a problem with PC speaker sound. It works in general. Memtest is able to generate sounds, all right. But in Windows XP x32, Windows 7 x3 and Windows 7 x64, PC speaker does not work. A bit of information, first. HP z class workstations are equipped with a speaker. It is able to generate PC speaker sounds, and in the same time it is the sound card speaker. In case of z220, I had the same problem. Fortunately I found Realtek drivers able to make PC speaker work correctly. According to my investigation, the PC speaker works by connecting rogrammable Interval Timer (PIT) output to a speaker. The problem with HP z workstations is, the same speaker is used for both PC sounds and sound card output. Apparently the sound mixing is done by the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver. So it depends on driver, how the output mixing is done. While I was able to get driver with correct mixing profile for z220 in Windows XP, the same driver package was unable to do the same for both Windows 7 32 and 64 bit. So I failed to get audible sounds from Beep XP driver in Windows 7 on z220. On the other hand, drivers available for HP z210 are mixing PC speaker with all three systems XPx32 7x32 and 7x64. All three HP workstations (z 210, z220, z230) are equipped with sound cards from the same series of Realtek High Definition Audio. The difference is, the support for Windows XP was removed along the way. Another observation shows the tendency to remove PC speaker mixing function from newer versions of Windows 7 drivers. Is it possible to tweak the available driver packages to make the PC speaker available? It seems, the HP z workstation build is somewhat special. There must be something in the HP released drivers for z workstations, what makes the PC speaker sound mixing working. I was able to to get XP drivers for z230 for i7-4770 HD 4600 graphics, and Intel Ethernet I217-LM network. The only missing is a "perfectly" working sound driver.

The problem is, the same happens with multiple types of SSD, on multiple HP z210 CMT workstations. The users reported significantly longer boot times when compared to other computers. To be more precise, users reported computer malfunctions. When compared to standard HDD, computers with SSD took much more time to go through the blank (black) screen phase. Since other computers were faster in the same boot phase, the assumptiom was made the workstation with SSD were faulty, so workers started to power off the workastation with SSDs to fix the problem. After investigation, it came to light, the workstations with SSD took about a minute of black screen time, when workstations with HDD did the same in less than 10 seconds. After informing the workers about the extended wait time, the power cycling and computer failure reports stopped. All workstations have the same specifications, except hard drives, and monitors. The system partitions were cloned, so they do have the same drivers. After cloning system it is visible the HDD boot is longer (3m 22s). But with each sequential boot the time goes shorter. On the other hand SSD is faster first (1m 42s) but the time does not improve significantly, after that. All workstations are not using Microsoft Account. In any case, both SSD and HDD workstations would take the same time with the MSA and OneDrive, probably. There is no domain logging, as well. It all came to light with SSD and HDD mixed enviroment. In a different location all workstations are fitted with SSD, so there is no time difference between them. So workers assumed long boot time is normal behavior, probably. I will have to check how they are performing on boot, when I have an opportunity to be there.

I'm investigating significantly longer boot times on HP z210 CMT with SSD, when compared to standard HDD. I'm using the same partition image on both SSD and HDD. After restoring the boot partition on HDD i timed a few boot times: 1. 3m 22s 2. 2m 13s 3. 1m 20s 4. 59s 5. 56s 6. 48s 7. 48s The same, but on SSD 1. 1m 42s 2. 1m 30s 3. 1m 38s 4. 1m 38s The first boot is longer in both cases, as there are some differencies in hardware form the computer the image was made from. But in case of HDD is visible some sort of boot optimization process, I think. On the other hand on SSD there is no significant boot time improvenent. Finally HDD becomes significantly faster. Hibenation is disabled, so fast start is disabled as well. What could be a reason for such strange differences?

I had a triple boot Windows 7 x64, Windows 7 x32 and Windows XP x32. I did upgrade Windows 7 x64 to Windows 10 while retaining all installed applicatiopns. The end result is both Windows 7 x32 and Windows XP x32 are unbootable. I did not know Windows 10 is not designed to upgrade from Windows 7 in multiboot enviroment. Still, upgrade seems to be the only way to retain the same drive letter assignments used in all installed systems. The multiboot solution grew from Windows 9x to Windows 2000, XP, 7 x32, and finaly 7 x64, while loosing Windows 9x and 2000 on the way. Now the question is, is it possible to regain ability to boot Windows XP and Windows 7 x32. Or perhaps I have to revert to old XP, 7 x32 and 7 x64 layout, and then to add Windows 10 as fourth option. If it is possible to launch Windows 10 setup from Windows 7 x64 it could be possible to retain drive letter assignments used in old Windows 7 x64. -------------------- The boot menu seems to be working, fine. But both Windows 7 x32 and XP are hanging during the boot. The BCD database seems to be different just for Windows 10 entry. The Windows 7 x32 and XP records are exactly the same, as they were before upgrade to Windows 10. -------------------- For some reason everything started to work correctly. Not sure where the cause was. I did change the boot menu from GUI to text mode i the process. Perhaps it made the difference.

I think there is a misunderstanding. My intention was not to use different audio output for different E-Mail account. What I need is different audio output for just the E-Mail notifier. And my solution was to use system Beep on motherboard buit in speaker, the same way it worked on Windows XP.

Well. The whole script is run multiple times by the Windows schedule. I did modify the script to save previous WGET output file. But, both the new and the previous one are exactly the same. The task definition uses the same credentials, as the user running the script from Explorer. Also, manually running task from schedule list ends with just one connection. The amount of connections from schedule task is random. But all connections are made in just 2 s time period. As Holmes said. After eliminating all the other possibilities, the one remaining must be the truth. Windows schedule runs the same task multiple times during 2 s time period. To prove that I did modify the script by adding a PING 127.0.0.1 command in it. The script execution takes more than 2 seconds now. So far the result is just one connection, every time.

I encountered strange result when runnig batch script from Windows 10 schedule. The script uses WGET.EXE to connect to check if a HTTP service is running on the same computer (127.0.0.1). If thre is a problem an Email is sent and the service gets restarted. The WGET output is redirected to a file, so all operations are visible there. When running from command line or explorer there is just one connection in the HTTP service log, as it should be. But if the same script was executed from Windows 10 schedule, there are multiple connections visible in the log, from the same source at the same time. All connections are done in 1 to 2 s time frame. I did test the idea with using a reverse proxy server co connect to the same service. The proxy log shows the same multiple connections effect. So, it is not a problem of the HTTP service. There are multiple connections from the same address, because the proxy logged them, as well. The output file from WGET shows just one connection. The command line has a -t1 switch to limit the attempted connections to just one. The -o switch redirects output to a text file, and there is just one connection attempt in the output file. I'm stuck. I do not know how to crack this behavior. I wish to know what is going on here.

Switching E-Mail address is a significant problem. Too much hassle to consider it a solution. In any case, I would certainly not use Onet or WP. I would use an E-Mail server in my own domain, instead.

It seems the Email Tray is unable to set up a GMail account. The procedure just requires E-Mail address and the password. The OAuth2 autentication is not performed, and the applications says the password is wrong. So, I do believe the Email Tray does no support OAuth2 authentication.

The general idea is to get audible new E-Mail notification, with the speakers turned off. The old solution was to get the notification through PC Speaker. It worked well in Windows XP and later Windows 7, while using POP Tray and later POP Peeper applications. To read GMail originated messages the Thunderbird was used. In case of mails from different server it was enough to read the header, and then just delete it. As, they are just notification of events like power failures and such. POP Tray went useless, after GMail forced OAuth2 authentication procedure. POP Peeper is unable to select the audio output. So, it worked well with the beepxp driver, generating system error beep through PC Speaker. But, failed to do the same on HP z220 CMT computer. For some reason I was unable to get the PC Speaker function on z220, while it worked perfectly on HP z210 CMT. So, here you have it. Now, I'm looking for an E-Mail notifier with. - ability to generate audible notification on audio output different from the default one on Windows 7 x64. - ability to use OAuth2 authenication - multiple E-Mail account support, and ability to view headers and delete mails without running a full blown E-Mail client. - visible seconds on E-Mail list. The POP Peeper was unable to display seconds on the list of new mails. I'm using internal E-Mail server to monitor events on multiple devices. Somtimes it is difficult to get the sequence of events, if the seconds are not visible. - it would be perfect if the apllication is free (with commercial use included).

Sorry, but cloning will not do. I have to be able to modify the user profile acting as Administrator. With cloning I would have to clone the user profile to Administrator login, then make modifications, then clone the profile back to the user. It's much simpler to change the user password, log in as user, then to make changes to the user settings, then to tell the user to change the password back.

I need to have two users with different passwords but the same user settings and layout. The idea is for the Administrator to be able to login as user and to be able to work with user profile and make modifications to it. In case of Windows 7 I was able to have the same user folder by linking the Users\Administrator folder to the user folder by a symbolic link. It works in Windows 10, but there are issues with default applications. Every time I login as a different user the default applications get reset (Mail client, Web browser, ...). So I need to find a different approach, or to get the default applications function under control.

Indeed Windows Update Blocker 1.8 did the job. I did not use the Protect Service Settings feature, however. On the note WUB disabled more than just the Windows Update. Apparently some other services were responsible for turning the Windows Update back on. Also, after the WUB did the job, the Windows Update was set disabled. But, after system reboot, Windows Update returned to the manual start, again. Good thing is it was not runnig. It did not work for me. Well, not in Windows 10. I was able to force the Windows Update to ask for permition before downloading, but not to disable the nagging for updates after every login.

I'm trying to get Windows Update service under control. There is a lot of articles in the Internet saying, the only way to get automatic updates disabled is to get Windows Update service disabled. Unfortunately, all my attemps to get Windows Update service to be turned off, failed. The service gets turned on after a while. I presume, there were some changes in newer versions of Windows 10, and the old ways are not working, any more. Right now I'm dealing with 22H2 version.

Since the flame war has ended, it is a good time to think about the future of VxKex. By my understanding the best project to continue with is the BeitDina / VxKex fork. It has the whole source posted on Github, with last available version of 1.0.0.999. It appears to be compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.