I'll be buying a new computer...

[zedd151]

Well, I'll be darned!

Windows to go. It is an installation on a bootable flash drive (or other portable) I was experimenting with win 10 32 bit pro version iso, and with rufus I found the option 'Windows To Go'. It created a Windows 10 Professional installation on my flash drive. I never knew.

It still needs activation in the normal manner, else functionality will cease at some point. But as of now, I am posting from the portable Windows Professional installation.   

Much much better than WinPE. Of course, I still have Cortana, Real Time AV scan BS to deal with; Not to mention auto updates.

I now have a better way possibly, to test questionable tweaks and 'adjustments' to my activated Windows 10 Home edition setup.
I know I said I wouldn't mention that any further. But what I found today was a major breakthrough for me.   


Now I can possibly test this portable windows installation on my two derelict machines. Neither has a hard drive. I will see if it's possible.
I now have a new toy to play with, at least until my interest in coding re-emerges.

[zedd151]

Of my two derelicts, the older laptop the win to go portable win 10 pro works, but does not have drivers for WiFi card.

The other one has drivers for Wifi, but has problems with video card. When trying to change resolution it doesn't quite crash the OS, just hangs with an almost black screen.

If I could only connect to the internet first then I could instll the appropriate video drivers.   

But I'll have to take the netbook on the road for a better WiFi connection. The Internet connection I have at home is dreadfully slow - in the kb/s range.  :(

But at least I sort of have 3 work(able)/ing computers.   :P

The older laptop is definitely more suited for Windows xp, or possibly Vista.

The newer netbook though smaller - seems to handle Win 10 alright. (other than the video issue)

edit to addd--->

I have noticed that for being ran from flash drive this OS runs fairly fast. Not quite as fast as running from HD, but pretty close seems to me.

[anunitu]

i have seen this system on a stick around.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-stick-pcs/

So whole hardware on a stick kinda,add an OS I guess.

[zedd151]

So whole hardware on a stick kinda,add an OS I guess.

That is actually a different animal of a similar genus. That is actually hardware in a small form factor.

Windows To Go is an installation done to an external USB thumb/flash/etc... drive that you can do yourself. It can be run on any PC whether it has a hard drive or not.

Starting with Windows 8 certain editions had this ability natively to create a Windows To Go install directly
from the OS on a Windows To Go compatible edition of windows.

There are now 3rd party tools that add this functionality to other editions of Windows 8 through the current
versions of Windows 10. I use 'rufus' I have also seen this capability in 'AOMEI partition assist' partitioning tool.

from Microsoft
for more information on "Windows To Go"

[zedd151]

the debug strings?

I have been trying to get back into coding since I got this computer. Now I have everything under control with it, I started re-using some of my old code from my "Installer Creator".

I only want to create a directory tree and file listing. Those work ok, but I get this debug string spit out by ollydbg:

Code Select Expand


Message=Debug string: onecoreuap\shell\lib\idllib.cpp(161)\SHELL32.dll!741608CB: (caller: 74160E1E) ReturnHr(1) tid(1414) 80004001 Not implemented


I have no clue what that means.   :redface:

I am busy cleaning up the code and removing unused portions left over from its use as "Installer Creator" -- will post the code as soon as it is ready.
...... or not

[zedd151]

I basically gave up on Windows 10 Home ed. I ran Windows 7 Pro for about a week and a half, I am now sampling Windows 7 Ultimate.

I didn't realize that the install.wim file contained 4 editions of the OS. It's not always the case. But the iso I have of it does, so that's a bonus.      I hadn't bothered with Basic or Home version.

Windows 7 is working very well for me. Not all of the drivers are available, as this PC was built specifically for Windows 10 by Dell  - but the preinstalled Windows drivers work acceptably.  Thank you Micros--t for that anyway.

---- A strange thing happened -----

I had a strange thing happenning with my mouse today; I don't use the netbooks built in touchpad as I don't like them.

When I would view a web page or even a long .asm source, .txt file or 'you-name-it'  the vertical scroll bar would suddenly shift up or down, without me moving the mouse wheel.  At first, I though it might be a virus, or something. So I reinstalled a clean backup of the OS, after wiping the drive.

Still same effect. Even in Windows to Go I have on a USB drive exhibited the same problem - so I narrowed it down to the mouse. I changed batteries - you never know (the mouse sometimes performs strangely on a very low battery) - Still same issue.  It is now over two hours I have been trying to figure the problem out and narrow it down to what needs to be fixed.

I even tried getting drivers for the mouse as I no longer have the unneeded (at the time) drivers originally supplied by Logitech.

I recalled that some time in the past month I spilled my coffee ( a sin, in and of itself ) on my desk.  Only a few drops landed on my hardware. (the netbook, mouse and a couple of USB flash drives)  So, with this new recollection at hand, I dis assembled my mouse to discover a mound of dust, hair, and probably some cookie crumbs.  Probably that junk got dislodged, and relodged itself in my mouse wheel - with the help of my spilled coffee.

Inside the mouse wheel there are teeny tiny vanes, I guess some form of optical sensor sees the vanes moving to detect mouse wheel movement. Anyway, I cleaned everything inside the mouse case with a paintbrush to remove all of the debris.

Now my mouse is happy and can run around on my desk, trying to avoid the mouse trap.    :P

[aw27]

I become crazy when mouses start performing bad. Many don't even have  screws for dismounting and resist to disassemble in all imaginable ways. I usually end throwing them directly to where they deserve to be.  :(
I settled for simple wireless mouses and come to prefer those from Microsoft because always install straight away without CDs or DVDs full of crapware.

[zedd151]

Ending the saga of my Windows 10 experience. 

I was going to write a tutorial of all of the changes I have made to Windows 10 to make it behave 'properly'. But I decided against the idea, since some of the changes would have most likely been in violation of the Licensing Agreement. It's the only Licensed copy of WIndows that I own currently.

I have also abandoned many of the changes I have made to my Windows 10 installation. Right now I am running Windows 7 in trial mode until the 30 days run out. I have a nearly complete Windows 10 installation on a flash drive (Windows To Go) that I use from time to time.

Not if, but when the trial runs out on my Windows 7 installation, I will be seeking to obtain Windows 7 retail. I know it is still out there - I just have to find it locally when I have the $$ to do so. I used to love Windows XP, But I am getting adjusted to Windows 7 very well.

There are some driver issues with Windows 7 (non availability) but the system is stable with the drivers that come preinstalled with Windows 7. So, that is not a major issue for me. I don't plan on any hard core gaming or video processing so the video/graphcs drivers are not an issue as well.

So this thread will probably be " I'll be hunting down locally, a legal copy of Windows 7 real soon "   
Til then I may have to freshly install 7 again to get another 30 days of bliss.  8)  or else deal with the complexities of 10.  :icon_rolleyes:

[zedd151]

Now my mouse is happy and can run around on my desk, trying to avoid the mouse trap.

My mouse started acting up again today. I took it apart again to investigate. The wheel actions are controlled by an emitter/detector pair and the emitter was loose. Not having a soldering iron available, I wiggled it back and forth until I was able to remove it.

I don't have the wheel functionality anymore but at least the cursor isn't jumping all over the place, nor is the page. I can still scroll the page by clicking the wheel then moving the mouse. It's not precision movement, but a fast way to jump to either the top or bottom of a page. Even if I had a soldering iron handy, I doubt if I could do the job as my eyesight ain't what it used to be.   :P

[zedd151]

I have been intermittently having trouble with my mouse, or so I thought. When browsing long pages in IE, or even perusing long text files or others - the page scrolls up or down without rhyme or reason.  I was blaming the issue on my mouse and in fact found a defect with it.

The defect was the emitter that is part of an emitter/detector pair that determines whether or not the scroll wheel has changed position. I 'resolved' that problem by going nuclear and removing the faulty part. (Didn't have a soldering iron available to repair somewhat properly).

All was well since my last post in this thread. I have installed a s**tload of software to try out on this Windows 7 system. There was so much junk, that I had to do some extreme housekeeping. So, I reinstalled Windows 7 from a backup. Now the so-called mouse issue is back.

I am starting to really believe that it was not the mouse at all that was causing the problem with the obnoxious scrolling of long pages. I think it could be one of the drivers that I installed through Windows Update. (Didn't have any other resources available for certain drivers)

Another thing I have noticed is the text cursor here right now is blinking ultra fast. I disabled the cordless mouse by simply unplugging the USB radio. Something I had NOT done during my first trouble shooting sessions.

The page just jumped, so I KNOW NOW that it is not my poor little mouse that was causing the issue.  I think though that if is not the mouse, perhaps the touchpad. I could not find any setting to disable the touchpad, other than what would disable the mouse as well.

The touchpad of course is embedded and part of the computer. I don't want to crack open this thing and permanently kill the touchpad, although that IS another option. And I may have to - to help determine if the touchpad is the reason for the problems.

Maybe the touchpad is just too sensitive? I know that when I am typing I have to stay well clear of the touchpad to avoid unwanted cursor movement.  Well the other option is always available - - to just keep running Windows 10 and stop trying to run 'obsolete' operating systems.  Thank you very much Microshaft!   :icon_redface:     ::)

-------------------------------------

edit to add...

I think I will use Windows 10 for a full day tomorrow, with everything set the same way as when I was having the page scrolling issues in Windows 7.

signed,
stumped in Chicago.    

[jimg]

Often you can disable the touchpad in the bios.

[zedd151]

Often you can disable the touchpad in the bios.

I hadn't checked that. Thanks for the tip. I'll check now.............

moments later:

Nothing useful in the BIOS for this purpose. Thanks anyway.

[zedd151]

The next thing I tried is to disable all visual effects in control panel> advanced system settings> performance> settings (button) > visual effects..At first I disabled everything. So far it worked. I don't know why but it appears it did.

I wasn't satisfied how the fonts were displayed though, so I enabled 'smooth edges of screen fonts' and left everything else disabled.

The interface resembles win 2000 (no glitz), but if it gets the job done, I don't care.

[FORTRANS]

Hi,

Maybe the touchpad is just too sensitive? I know that when I am typing I have to stay well clear of the touchpad to avoid unwanted cursor movement.

   Here is a dumb idea for you; cut out a piece of corrugated
cardboard to cover the touchpad.  Then glue it over the touchpad
and pretend it's a wrist rest pad.  May not work, but it is cheap
to implement.

Cheers,

Steve N.

[zedd151]

Here is a dumb idea for you; cut out a piece of corrugated
cardboard to cover the touchpad.

So far, removing all of the visual effects seems to improve my mouse's performance. I haven't noticed any unwarranted page jumps since I disabled most of the visual effects. I only kept 'font smoothing'.

p.s. No idea is too dumb for me at this point. I was running out of my own ideas; so every little bit helps. At least by the end of all of this, I should have a long list of things that didn't work..   :P

btw - Looking at the title of this post makes me think of the wild west, with horses and buggies. Buggy Driver.   :lol: