Tripredacus

It will be a wait-and-see type thing I suppose. I don't do any work within Windows 10 using .cmd files. I only use those in WinPE. My work within the OS uses the ComSpec environment variable to pass commands to be run using cmd.exe.

Let's hope their choice of changing 'cmd' to run Powershell prompt doesn't screw with anyone's scripts or programs that call CMD to perform specific things, such as installing programs. On this new build, is the ComSpec environment variable changed as well?

You can see it in the properties of the device in Device Manager.

Ok well there are some caveats. It may depend on what edition you are using. For example, Retail (which allows for transfer to new hardware) may be more forgiving than System Builder edition which doesn't. Also I do not consider a motherboard to be a minor upgrade. A person should expect to have to reactivate Windows if you change the motherboard. For my own personal experience, I've only had to reactivate a Windows 7 system after changing a motherboard. Not for anything else like video cards, disk drives or network cards. Fortunately, for Windows 7, it is fairly easy to reactivate. Ensuring internet access is present, most of the time you can just run slmgr.vbs -ato. And nowadays, the phone activation is better than it once was, where the Activation number will give you an option to text you a link where you can go to a website to do the number groups if need be. Way easier than talking to someone on the phone!

Windows 7 does not use the votes like XP. It does have a file integrity checklist that it uses instead. Too many or wrong files not matching expected checksums will trigger notification mode. Fortunately, unlike XP, Windows 7 will not lock you out of the OS if activation breaks. Some thing just don't work like Personalization. There are 2 main methods for checking out details of Windows 7 activation. From elevated cmd, you can run slmgr.vbs -dlv which will show some information in a pop-up window. This command also works up to current versions of Windows 10. For Vista and 7, there is a tool from MS called MGADiag that you can get more detailed information, including a list of files that do not match the checksums. This program is not meant to be used on Windows 8 and above (the results it generated on those OSes are not helpful for troubleshooting an activation issue).

We have a dedicated XP x64 section right here: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/104-windows-xp-64-bit-edition/

You may want to post the Hardware ID of the video device from Device Manager.

I know that email from the server itself still works, but in the past there had been reports of it not working for PMs, but did for reports. I can just say that Email of reports worked, as of this morning.

No politics talking here, be it US or otherwise. Only exception is something that is specifically technology related. There are plenty of other places to talk about world politics.

One of the things he points out, the short window of time a company has to change their software to be compatible... sticks out to me a bit. Microsoft has a problem with showing information to the correct people. Or perhaps attempting to make other people do this work for them. There are two examples I can think of. 1. Software Compatibility: A policy requirement was introduced in Windows 8 where an OEM was not allowed to install a program that did not fully uninstall. The requirements for clean uninstall was that no files (temporary or otherwise) or registry keys should remain after choosing to uninstall the program from Programs & Features. The first issue here is that this isn't the job of a company selling computers to do. The idea is nice, but it really looks like Microsoft was trying to offload software quality discipline to other parties. Let us take an example. Say we would like to build a computer with a RAID array. Well technically the RAID software is not allowed to be installed because it doesn't uninstall properly. But as you can probably expect, no one had followed this rule because then no one would have sold any computers in the past few years! 2. OEM-facilitated downgrade rights eligibility: To put it simply, starting with Windows 8, a System Builder was no longer able to do a Downgrade on behalf of the end user/customer. The information relating to this was not on a website that a System Builder could access. Not on the public OEM/SBLicensing site, not in the OPK (it didn't exist) but on a site only for Direct OEMs. I ran into this on technet a lot, System Builders trying to get help doing a downgrade from 8 or 10 to 7. And then you can say that they aren't able to do it that way (disclaimer: knowing how shops are IRL, things happen. It is a different story to ask about such things on an official Microsoft forum tho) you can't point them to the info they need because they don't have access to it. So then you end up being "a troll on the internet." Anyways, those are two situations I can think of where Microsoft did not communicate properly or to the correct people about the things they were changing and what their users or customers needed to know. In example #1, I do not think that any communication ever went out to software or driver developers relating to the 100% uninstall thing. Maybe it is buried in a MSDN document somewhere.

In previous versions, you could use the Color panel to set selections for the Explorer window. That could be run with: control color but in Windows 10 it only opens the color mixer and those color settings only change the Start Menu and does not seem to effect Explorer selected items. EDIT: I think it might be possible to change this color in the registry under HKCU\Control Panel\Colors. I was able to change the highlight text, which you can see if you were to rename a file. None of the keys under Colors appears to reflect that tho. Because the default color is blue, the 3 numbers in the key value, the 3rd number represents blue. If you want to see if you find a 3 part color value in the registry and see if it is the color you are looking for, you can use mspaint's Edit Colors panel to input those values and see a preview.

There is no clear cut method. Our computers are better nowadays so that a large HOSTS file isn't a problem like it was years ago. For a single computer it may well be fine. Then there are the more advanced methods of blocking sites elsewhere in the chain, be it using a proxy, firewall or a DNS server. It may make more sense to do it on one of these separate network devices if you have multiple computers and you don't want to manage HOSTS files on each.

Use DIR /a:h or DIR /a:s instead.

Same is true of Server editions at least back to 2012 RTM (not R2). I ran a Server 2012 box that was not activated for 6 months or so. It had a product key in it but it was isolated. It ran WDS no problem as a domain member for that time and didn't reboot or anything like that. Gone are the days of XP where it would lock you out of the system. Of course you can't use that in a corporate setting because it would not be in compliance and you'd get popped if you got audited.

I do not use Windows 10 on a personal system. This was in the standard Windows 10 Pro image. I am not allowed to modify the OS or change default settings in the deployment image. Clients can but those changes cannot be done here. I am well aware of all the things Windows 10 does, which is why I use Windows 7.

OEM Facilitated Downgrade Rights is available in the Direct Channel and expired the same day (Oct 31) as normal Windows 7 installs did. There are ways to continue selling a computer like this past the expiration of the program but there isn't a reason to get into it. As far as general retail sales go, that program is ended. OEM Facilitated Downgrade was not an option in the System Builder channel at all but I am well aware that companies were doing it. And I would not be surprised if Downgrades continue to be sold unadvertised without one of the special contracts required past the expiration. Plenty of people do not follow the policy documents. All I can tell you is what the rules actually say, not what is actually being done out in the marketplace. One thing. System Builders are still able to sell computers with Windows 7 pre-installed using System Builder Kit media. This SKU is usable until it stops being available from the distribution houses. There is no end date on the sale of System Builder Kit. Also RRP (Registered Refurbisher Program) can still install Windows 7 on used computers.

That program ended Oct 31st.

Ran into a weird thing today. Doing a test so we can write instructions for end user. Computer needs network driver installed. Install driver, Smart Screen says can't connect to the internet. OK I need to connect to the internet in order to install the driver that lets me connect to the internet.

Windows 10 can and should only go up from here. We are past EOL (End of License) for Windows 7, meaning that you cannot buy a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed on it anymore. Except some circumstances, but they would not end up making any difference in those OS charts.

OK good. NoelC pointed out the one I had in my signature wasn't working anymore. I just updated it to one that works.

This doesn't work anymore.

I think it was cached. It showed up for me but when I tried to view the image itself, I got an error from Photobucket. If it helps Drugwash or anyone else browse the forum easier, I put that picture on Imgur now instead. As for why someone would use Photobucket, it is not an ideal choice today to use to put your pictures. But in the early 2000s (when I made my account) it was great. So I have over 10 years of images in there. Often I do send new pictures to Imgur instead.

Photobucket's ads come from their domain and are not picked up by ad-blockers. Even with just allowing scripting on the two required domains to allow for the GUI and uploading to work (photobucket and pbsrc or whatever) the site is super slow and often times doesn't finish loading. The ads come through in large pop-up windows (like the 90s ) from their domain. Photobucket is also at fault for an incorrect load order. I've seen it on Yahoo as well, where they prioritize loading of advertisements (which are sometimes movies) before GUI components.

What is your starting point? aka what software is your community running on?

Raiden89 and Carlitosoo555, you are not moderators. There is nothing wrong with the post so just leave it alone.