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This is a long shot, but... I'm trying to prevent my win-2k domain server from making Krazy-a** dns requests such as: _ldap._tcp.Default-First-Site-Name._sites.dc._msdcs.(my_domain) _ldap._tcp.Default-First-Site-Name._sites.gc._msdcs.(server_name) _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.(my_domain) _ldap._tcp.gc._msdcs.(server_name) I don't know where "Default-First-Site-Name" comes from but I might have seen it in the registry somewhere. There might have been a couple more, I put them in the HOSTS file and I plan on putting the above in there tomorrow, but I'm wondering how I can stop the machine from trying to perform DNS queries on those things. I've pointed this 2K server at my router as the DNS server and I'm logging these requests so that's how I know what they are. The DNS sub-system on this 2K server is really messed up but it doesn't matter, the machine does what it's supposed to do, it's hosting an exchange server and the PC's that need it can connect to it. I just want it to stop making these Krazy DNS queries.

A few days ago I installed "Simple DNS Plus" on a win-7 PC that is not always running. I had changed the third DNS server setting on the Win-NT4 server PC (the subject of the thread) to the LAN IP address of this win-7 PC. Trying to capture the DNS request being made every 8 hours. I was lucky today - here's what the Simple DNS logs captured: 11:12:24 Listening for DNS requests via UDP/TCP at 127.0.0.1 port 53 11:12:24 Listening for DNS requests via UDP/TCP at 192.168.2.137 port 53 11:12:24 Listening for DNS requests via UDP/TCP at ::1 port 53 11:25:26 Request from 192.168.2.130 for A-record for 192.168.2.1 11:25:26 Sending reply to 192.168.2.130 about A-record for 192.168.2.1: 11:25:26 -> Answer: A-record for 192.168.2.1 = 192.168.2.1 Hmmm. The NT server (at 2.130) is making a DNS request for the host 192.168.2.1. So, 192.168.2.1 is my LAN router. It's also the gateway IP in I guess all TCP settings for all devices on the LAN, including this win-NT box. Somewhat odd that something on the NT box is making a DNS request for an IPv4 IP, and the OS is actually going through the motions and making an external DNS request, not for a host-name but for an IPv4 address. Now I don't know, in the DNS world, whether or not making a DNS request for an IP address (especially a private / un-routable IP like 192.168.x.x) is kosher, but it seems that this request is failing for both the primary and secondary DNS servers and hence it's falling to the 3'rd server (which used to be 4.2.2.2 but is now the local PC running Simple DNS). It doesn't seem legit to be doing this, presumably the OS is supposed to just return the IP address as the result and not make a fool of itself by going out to make a (bogus?) request? As to what program or service on the NT4 box is making the request, I have a no idea what it could be. I do have something called "About Time 4.8" (an NTP time checker/setter) running on the box, but it's also running on another NT4 box and both of them are using 192.168.2.1 for the NTP time server, and both are set to do an NTP time check every hour (not every 8 hours). The Post.Office SMTP software is the only other service that's running (that I know of) that has a reason to do DNS queries, but I can't associate anything in it's logs with these queries for 192.168.2.1 every 8 hours. Perhaps as a start I can put this into HOSTS file: 192.168.2.1 192.168.2.1 and see if this actually prevents the NT box from doing DNS lookups on that LAN IP. But as to why it's doing that, any clues as to how I can figure that out?

There was something called the "Creators Update" that was released in early 2018 that added an address bar to regedit so that you could directly type or paste in a registry location to jump to. I have no idea for what versions of Windows this Creator's Update was for, but I'm wondering if this update is available for win-7, or if not, if the relavent exe/dll files are available somewhere and can be dropped into a win-7 installation to enable this feature.

I've got an NT4 server system on my network that runs an SMTP server. I have my router log in-bound and out-bound traffic to/from the machine and also restrict it's access to the internet beyond a few necessary ports. So in the logs I'll see traffic on port 53 (DNS) and 25 (SMTP). The machine's TCP settings have 3 DNS IP addresses, 2 of which are my ISP's DNS servers and the third is 4.2.2.2 (a generic server that I've used for years as a DNS backup and also for pings to test for IP connectivity). I happened to be looking at the logs recently and noticed that the NT server does make port 53 DNS requests to the first DNS server IP entry when it's sending an out-bound email, but curiously, exactly every 8 hours to the second, it makes what I'm assuming is a port-53 DNS request to each of the 3 DNS servers. Does NT have a DNS checking scheme, where it just checks for DNS server connectivity on a schedule? I'm thinking of setting up a DNS server (simpledns) on a win-7 PC on the network and point the NT4's third DNS IP setting to the win-7 PC just to be able to capture this request and see what the machine is trying to lookup. Unless there's a way I can do it on the machine itself.

What about installing Win-10 on PC's with OEM keys built into the motherboard firmware? I assume they'll always activate now and in the future?

This is a laptop running windows 7 ultimate. The desktop is extended to an external monitor. In the power plan settings, when plugged in, the "put the computer to sleep" option is set to never. In advanced power settings, under power buttons and lid, the lid close action when plugged in is set to hibernate (on battery it is set to sleep, but it is always on ac power). Yet, when I close the lid, windows tranfers all open windows to the still-powered external monitor. It does not shut down or sleep or hibernate. Can anyone explain this?

I've come across comments like Powershell has to be V2 for these commands to work - how do you get the powershell version? I've also come across that in Control Pane, - Progams and Features - Turn Windows Features on or off, that SMB is supposed to show up in the list, but again I don't see it. What about enabling all versions of SMB? How is that done? I will mess with the various file-sharing settings and see what happens...

I'm looking at pages like this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/file-server/troubleshoot/detect-enable-and-disable-smbv1-v2-v3?tabs=server How to detect, enable and disable SMBv1, SMBv2, and SMBv3 in Windows And I'm seeing instructions like this: Powershell: Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName SMB1Protocol And I get errors like this: get-WindowsOptionalFeature : The term 'get-WindowsOptionalFeature' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. (...) (BTW, does it matter if there is use of mixed case (uppler and lower case letters) in these commands?) I come across this thread: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/35330530-0488-4ddc-8544-6f95cec51abc/getwindowsfeature-missing?forum=win10itprogeneral which is primarily about "get windowsfeature" but does mention "get windowsoptionalfeature" and it talks about the function working one day then not working the next day, and also mentioning that it might only be available on windows servers (but Windows 7 is not a server OS but these commands must have worked on win-7 at one time in the past???) Does anyone know a way to enable SMB on windows 7 and/or Windows 10? I don't care what SMB version as long as I can share a folder with an iPhone connected via wifi to the same local LAN.

I seem to recall that win-7 has some sort of validation that runs as a service, and if you disable it you will get a message on your desktop along the lines of "your copy of windows may not be genuine" or something like that. Does Win-10 have the same thing? Also, I'm very familliar with XP and how it's validation was tied to a bunch of different hardware fingerprints and you needed 5 or 6 "votes" for it to continue to think that it's a valid install otherwise it would need to re-validate itself. There was even a program (xpinfo.exe) that would tell you which hardware elements were contributing (or not) to this vote scheme. I'm not sure if Win-7 works the same way in this regard as XP does, and likewise no idea how win-10 operates in this regard. If win-10 does the same thing as XP, is there software available that will show me the validation status based on hardware fingerprint?

I don't understand the relationship between the motherboard RAM architecture or RAM sub-system and the M.2 interface. The HP computer in question has (1) NVMe 2242 and (1) NVMe 2280. The smaller one is used by the installed wifi/BT card. I assume I can install an SSD in the larger one? I read somewhere that M.2 SATA is not supported.

I'm pretty sure its a S01-pF1013w. The HP service app on it said that the 1 year HP warranty expired just a couple months ago. This thing looks brand new, not sure where these come from, maybe leased? For what it has, I think the $170 I paid for it ($125 USD) is a steal. Came with a new mouse and keyboard. 1 TB internal hard drive, 4 gb ram, 4 USB-3 ports in front (which for some reason HP doesn't refer to as USB 3 but as "SuperSpeed USB Type-A"). Yes, I see that it will be limited to 32 gb ram (2 x 16 gb) but I'm not planning to go beyond 8 gb. Just wanted to make sure Win-10 home wasn't limited to 4 gb. I see that 4 gb DDR-4 ram is somewhat hard to find (locally). Having 2 sticks of 4 gb would be faster than a single stick of 8 - yes? Dual Channel?

OK, after some searching I've found directly from M$ that the "physical" ram limits for Win-10 home is 128 gb vs 2 TB for Pro. I don't know how it's even possible to generally have more than what, 64 gb of installed ram in your "average" desktop computer. So basically there is no real distinction in terms of max installed ram when you're looking at Home vs Pro. This is a big difference compared to Win-7. M$ created more low-budget versions of Win-7. Win-7 "Starter" was limited to 2 gb and was only x86. Win-7 home basic (x64) was limited to 8 gb and Home premium (x64) was limited to 16 gb.

The point is that when you buy new or refurbished hardware, it's already going to have win-10 "installed" on it, and there won't be any media disk for you to use to "install it yourself". So the only thing you can do is to go through the motions when you take it out of the box and turn it on. It's going to ask for any info it can to identify a pre-existing microsoft account. Your only option is to give it a phone number that you've never given to M$ before. And I'll ask again, does win-10 home have any set ram limits? How exactly is win-10 home handicapped vs some other flavor of win-10?

I've picked up an HP Slim Desktop Celeron G5900 as a refurbed unit. It has 4gb and Windows-10 home 64 bit. I was wondering if there are any RAM limits for W-10 home (ie maybe it's limited to 4 gb?) otherwise I was thinking of throwing another 4 gb ram into it (I'm guessing it would help performance?). I'm somewhat new to win-10, but I see if I'm going to migrate some PC's from 7 to 10 I'm going to have to dig into this a bit. One of the things I'm not liking is when you go through the initial power-on phase of a system with pre-installed win-10 is that it wants you to have a microsoft account (instead of a local account) and there doesn't seem to be a way to bypass that. Beyond that, has anyone come up with a single "god-mode" or "power-user" package that will make all the mods that you'll eventually stumble on doing over time as you hammer and mold a stock/retail win-10 installtion into something more useful for a power user? Like taking ownership of the /etc folder so you can control the hosts file? Turning off all crap services, uninstalling all the stuff you won't use (or will refuse to use on principle) like office 360, onedrive, etc?

Roytam came up with Retrozilla - yes? I've been using that for a while now on my win-98 systems (which do not log into any websites). I usually have to set the View Style to None to make a site useful to view, but it works for what I do on those systems. Regarding chrome - I've stayed clear of chrome on any other PC I have (which are win-7) because of my "perception" (which could be wrong?) that chrome is tied in too heavily to google (in terms of backdoor, telemetry, etc). Is my perception correct? I would feel comfortable using a "chromium" based browser if it was as disconnected from Google as Firefox is (or can be) from Mozilla. Are there links to download packages / installers for the top candidates mentioned here (360 Chrome and DC Browser) or do I have to figure out how to actually get my hands on them?