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Open Settings > System > Sounds and click Manage sound devices in the right-hand panel.

Whatever’s using the mic will be listed under Input Devices and you can click on it to disable it.

BTW, if your PC’s a laptop it might very well have a mic even though you think it doesn’t.

I was “absolutely positive” my HP laptop had no mic but, while testing some on-line meeting software with my uncle last month, I was very surprised to find that it actually does have one (the software asked if it could access my mic?!?!)

The catch was, unlike yours, the system tray mic icon was hidden so I never realized the PC actually had one.

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berniec

If you think that’s confusing, how about the fact 19044 (Windows 10) and 22000 (Windows 11) are both 21H2 simply because they were both released the 2nd half of 2021.

The /c /v command counts all the lines in a file, not just lines that contain text characters.

• BTW,  a line is anything that ends with a CR + LF combo (0x0D 0x0A)

The line count matches for the .txt, .log and .csv file formats because they only contain standard text characters.

Other formats (such as .docx files) report more lines than just the text you see when you open them is because they actually contain extra lines containing the special codes used to format the info they contain (i.e. font size, font color, bold, underlined, margins, padding, tables, lists, etc., etc.)

If you right click such a file, select “open with“, and use notepad to open it, you can see all those extra lines (they’ll look like gobbledygook since they’re special codes only the intended program can understand.)

So…

The line count for files that contain only “standard text characters” should always match. The file format (defined by it’s extension) doesn’t always matter because it’s possible to save a text-only file with any extension or even no extension.

Some other common file types that normally contain only text are:

• .bat, .css, .html, .ini, .js, .ps1, .reg, .srt, .svg, .xml, .xul

The line count for files types that include special formatting of the info they contain, will not match.

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Drcard:))

Those are installed by other programs that required that particular Visual C++ library to function properly and, unless you know with absolute certainty that the particular program and/or programs that required a specific C++ library have been removed/uninstalled, you should leave them alone.

Just FYI…

My own system has 26 different C++ libraries installed with the oldest being v8.0.50727.42 which was installed way back on 10/24/12.

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Tony H, b

Uninstalling the Antivirus S/W didn’t help.

I also tried a clean boot (i.e. disabled all non-Microsoft services and startup items) and that didn’t help either.

So, whatever’s causing this, it’s either a corrupt file that SFC/DISM can’t find or, what I personalty consider more likely, a corrupt entry somewhere in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch of the registry since it affects all users.

Anyone know of a program that can scan for and detect corrupt registry entries?

Every Sunday I use a bootable Paragon USB to create a full disk backup (saved onto an “external” drive) of both my PC’s. I figured I’d find out how old this problem is by rolling the Win10 install on the Laptop back to the oldest backup I still had on hand for it.

Yesterday, with the Laptop “disconnected” from the internet, I restored the 06/06/21 Laptop backup and, before installing any updates or making any other changes, tired to rename an existing folder and encountered the same problem.

I then connected it to the internet and let it fully update itself, the problem’s still there.

So, if it’s being caused by a Windows update, it’s one that was issued more than 6 months ago.

I’ll take the time a bit later today to completely uninstall the antivirus S/W, try to rename a folder, and post the results.

My 3rd party AV is working as expected on both PC’s.

I disabled Autoplay years ago (got tired of always having to select an option when inserting a new thumb drive/DVD) and was surprised you even mentioned it because, as far as I understand things, it’s only used when you insert new media??

Unless I’m mistaken, WDS is Windows Deployment Services (used to deploy windows images over a network and for Active Directory management) and, as far as I can determine, it’s not installed nor running on either of my PC’s.

I did the 21H2 update and it didn’t help. Of course, since it was just an “enablement package” that turned on features already present in the OS, I didn’t really think it would and am a bit surprised you suggested that (unless you meant I should try an “in-place upgrade” using a 21H2 ISO image?)

I know an in-place update using an ISO image would most likely fix this, but I’m really not ready to do that because it took me 2 weeks to restore all the “personal tweaks” I have in place on my systems the last time I did it.

Also, as I pointed out before, the folder rename thing is just a minor annoyance since I can always use a cmd prompt whenever I need to do it (which isn’t that often.)

BTW, thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming!

@oldguy,

Hadn’t really considered the problem might be a short names vs long names thing but, after your pointing it out, I realize the symptoms might very well point to that.

Of course the question would be, why on the Laptop but not the Desktop since they’re both pretty much duplicates of each other.

• i.e. same version of Win10 +updates with “mostly” (95%) the same S/W installed?

Anyway…

Yes, I tested long file names, and they work just fine.

Also, even though both PC’s have the exact same 3rd party Antivirus program with the exact same configuration, I tired deactivating the Antivirus program on the Laptop and it didn’t make a difference.

---

@b,

As I stated, I already tried replacing the FolderDescriptions and FolderTypes with know good ones from my Desktop and it didn’t help.

I also tried all of the solutions in your second link (that was the 3rd result I got when I searched on-line for a solution) and none of those fixed it.

In fact, I’ve tried multiple different solutions suggested on many different on-line sites (short of actually reinstalling Windows) and, so far, none of them have fixed my problem.

The lack of finding a solution on the web is what prompted me to post here.

BTW, this is more of an minor annoyance than a real problem since I don’t often need to do this and can get it to work if I use a cmd prompt instead of explorer.

Your symptoms sure “sound” like the drives are entering power saving mode and my first suggestion should have fixed it like it did for seatle27.

I suggested the others because they also “might” cause your symptoms.

Since none of those are causing your issue, I’d suspect you’ve got a program running in the background that’s accessing your drives that doesn’t kick off until they’ve have been idle for a certain period of time.

The delay you’re experiencing before the drive reacts would be the time needed for that program to reach a “safe state” before it shuts down whatever it’s doing with the drive and releases it so you can access it.

Not sure exactly what Win10 program might do this (maybe automatic defrag?) but…

• after waiting the amount of time it usually takes for the problem to crop up

Open task manager before you try to access a drive and take note of what programs are running.

Do the same after you’ve access a drive and then compare the results.

If a particular program is what’s causing your problem, this should help you pinpoint it.

Good luck!

Check your PCI Express > Link State Power Management setting.

To avoid possible latency issues with attached devices (such as your drives being slow to respond) it should be Off.

You can also look for an “Aggressive Link Power Management for SATA controller” setting in your BIOS (it’s called “Aggressive SATA Sleep” on AMD motherboards) and make sure it’s disabled.

BTW, I’ve been on 21H1 since April and have never experienced this problem so it’s shouldn’t be related to you upgrading to that version of Win10.

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bashbish

It’s not the sleep setting causing your problem, you need to change the turn off timer setting so the drives won’t power down when inactive for too long.

System > Power & sleep > Additional power settings > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Turn off hard drive after > Plugged in

As you can see, I have mine set to never power down since, unlike HDD’s which use quite a bit of power to simply keep the discs spinning, SSD’s don’t consume very much power when not in use.

Of course, YMMV.

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bashbish, Paul, Seattle27

Microsoft just released a patch (KB5008295) to fix this problem.

Releasing Windows 11 KB5008295 to Beta and Release Preview Channels

That’s because it’s not a “standard” registry setting.

The purpose of the hack is to add a new entry to the registry so apps (like Outlook) that require the IE Trident rendering engine will use Edge’s IE mode rendering engine instead.

BTW, I did some checking and this registry hack was actually provided by Microsoft as the “work-around” for any apps that will still require IE once they completely remove it on June 15, 2022.

Associate file extensions with Internet Explorer mode

There’s also an extra step I forgot to include.

Once you’ve made the registry changes, open Edge and enter edge://settings/defaultBrowser in the URL box.

In the right hand panel the “Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode” option needs to be set to allow.

Reboot your PC to ensure the chances get applied.

My Uncle recently encountered this same issue and the problem is the “built-in” rendering engine used to display messages in older versions of Outlook is based on Internet Explorer instead of Edge.

That means the “default behavior” in those versions of Outlook is to always open links in Internet Explorer so, if it’s been removed, the links no longer work.

And, because it’s a “built-in” function in those versions of Outlook, changing your default browser won’t change how the links work.

I found the following registry hack on the internet that fixes this by forcing Outlook to display messages using the “IE mode” Edge rendering engine.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSEdgeIEModeMHT\Application]
"ApplicationCompany"="Microsoft Corp"
"ApplicationName"="Edge in IE Mode"
"ApplicationIcon"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application\\msedge.exe,4"
"AppUserModelId"=""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSEdgeIEModeMHT\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application\\msedge.exe,4"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSEdgeIEModeMHT\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application\\msedge.exe\" -ie-mode-file-url -- \"%1\""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.mht\OpenWithProgids]
"MSEdgeIEModeMHT"=hex(0):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.mhtml\OpenWithProgids]
"MSEdgeIEModeMHT"=hex(0):

Worked just fine for my Uncle’s Outlook 2003 and should work for you as well.

Note: attached zip file contains a .reg with the above settings

Here’s how to setup auto-login without having to “store” your password anywhere.

1. Press WinKey+R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Enter control userpasswords2 and press enter.
3. Uncheck the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.” box on the Users Tab that appears and click OK.
4. You’ll be prompted to enter the credentials for the account you want to automatically login when Windows starts.
5. Fill in the User Name, Password and Confirm Password boxes and click OK.

The next time you start Windows 10, it’ll automatically login using that user’s account.

Notes:

This method does not store your password in clear text anywhere on your PC (it uses you existing encrypted credentials to log you in.)

Other users on your PC (such as the Administrator account if it’s enabled) will still have to enter their login combo to access Windows and, if you use the “Log off” option, you’ll have to enter yours to log back in (i.e. the auto-login only works during Windows initial start up.)

Warning: this is potentially a major security issue because anyone with “physical” access to your PC  can log in as you by simply restarting your PC. So DO NOT use an account that has admin privileges as your auto-login account.

To reverse the auto-login, simple open the same User Accounts panel and check the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.” box.