HarryTri

Adobe Flash Player is implemented in Windows 8 (or IE 10/11, I'm not sure).

This is an example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AeLookupSvc - FailureActions: Well, it is impossible to copy the binary data from the registry! You can find a service with failure actions enabled and have a look at its HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<Service name in registry> - FailureActions value.

On Windows XP the time is in milliseconds, I thought that it would be the same on Windows 8 (now I notice that it isn't).

I upgraded to Windows 8.1 twice and then reverted to Windows 8. Degraded performance, many removed features, lots of bugs (which at least where corrected with the subsequent updates)... In my opinion Windows 8.1 is rather a free downgrade to Windows 8 than an upgrade. My laptop came with Windows 8 and will stay with them as much as possible, no matter how much Microsoft urges for the free "upgrade". Let's hope that Windows 8.2 and Windows 9 will be a different story.

Yes, it always reports the current number of sectors that have been identified as bad (during the latest check or any previous one). By the way use the /r option only if you have a good reason to do it, it can report sectors as bad without them really being so and will destroy the data of any files that are detected as defective by replacing their defective sectors.

Where it can be changed: Computer Management Console> Services> Rightclick in the desired service> Properties in the popup menu> Restore? (I'm not sure how it says it in English) tab. Where it is stored: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<Service Name> - FailureActions (if they are any, not that it is a binary value not easily interpreted).

I don't think that it is malware, as for the results and the rest stored information: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winsat

300000 milliseconds can be changed to 3000 milliseconds, which at least will be more convenient.

I don't get it. Can VMware backup all these GBs of files and restore them in seconds?

I tried PC Mark 7 this days (huge but not as much as PC Mark 8). I monitored its benchmark with PC Wizard and the use of the processor was never maximized. I did it two times, one with EIST enabled and the processor running at 1.2 GHz and one with EIST disabled and the processor running at 3.2 GHz. I have done the same in my old laptop with a Pentium M 740 processor. The results: Pentium M 740 - PC Mark 05 EIST enabled EIST disabled 800 MHz 1733 MHz 1844 Marks 2942 Marks Intel Core i5-3230M - PC Mark 7 EIST enabled EIST disabled 1200 MHz 3200MHz (with turbo boost) 1612 Marks 1599 Marks! So the processor is indifferent to this thing! How do they sell it? Passmark Performance Test 8 seems good but it is not free, I am staying with Novabench and Crystalmark (thought a bit outdated - hopefully a new version will be released at some time) for the moment.

Of course you can do this with any disc imaging software (Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect (free edition available) etc. also.

I know what jaclaz would say it and I say it instead of him: make your image/copies first.

Macrium Reflect Free is very good and you can verify the partition image that you make.

No but why would it create duplicate firmware entries, you just keep the same partitions.

I use CCleaner regularly on Windows 8, no problem at all.

From my experience defragging registry is harmless if you use a good tool but the space you gain is usually insignificant.

It does work and you don't have to be an administrator. It shouldn't have been greyed out of course.

The same is valid for Windows 8 too (and for Windows 8.1 I suppose).

You can do both of them, whichever fits more to you.

Perhaps you can try reinstalling Norton Internet Security and check if it really causes problem.

You can try to find a free Reversi game on Microsoft Store instead.

In the Free Download Manager's settings go to the "Flash Video" tab, make sure that the option "Monitor flash video downloads in browsers" is activated in general and for the browser you use and check the "Show the "download it" button (Internet Explorer and Firefox only)" option, this should do it. Also in the "Monitoring" tab of the settings make sure that the option "Add FDM to the browser's context menu" is checked and in the customization tab make sure that the option "Download video with Free Download Manager" is checked. Then if you right click in the browser you have this option available in the pop up menu. This must work for Google Chrome too (make sure that the browser you use is checked).

CCleaner is really tame, I can say it too (I was using Advanced SystemCare before, more aggressive but with no problems too - relevant to its cleaning work at least).

Also you can download videos from many sites with Free Download Manager: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org Just activate the "Download Video with Free Download Manager" option in the browser context menu customization option of the program and when you start playing the video a small tag "Download Video with FDM" will appear.

I use Macrium Reflect for online imaging/offline restoring partitions for some time with no problems, it uses the VSS technology and does a really good job. But: This may also mean an irreversible change/damage in the contents of the partition. As far as I know Paragon is not suitable for online partition imaging.