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Because he can “see” the 2 DATA folders he’s referring to (i.e. they’re not hidden), I deliberately didn’t include the h option so the results he got would only show items that are visible.

I also set it up to look at the whole of drive C: because “This PC” actually points to the entire computer, including all it’s drives, partitions assigned drive letters and/or mapped network drives. I “assumed” the DATA folder would be on the primary Windows drive C: instead of a different drive.

BTW, not all SYMLINKDs and JUNCTIONs are hidden.

• i.e. among other folders, a user’s My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos and Start Menu are all Junctions that are not hidden.

The following command will show all the “unhidden” symlinkd/junction folders on drive C:

dir C:\*. /a /s | findstr /i "<SYMLINKD> <JUNCTION>"

 

OUCH!!

I get that same e-mail (or the UPS/DHL equivalent) at least once or twice a week but have never  been tempted to click on anything simply because I didn’t have any packages pending delivery and I always track my packages using the shippers tracking site until they’re actually delivered.

BTW…

Instead of using the “Type clipboard text” option and having to wait for the text to get “typed” onto the screen, you can use the hot key combo Ctrl+V to instantly paste the clipboard contents to the screen.

Also, instead of using the arrow keys to “scroll” to the end of a long line of text, you can use the End key to immediately move the cursor to the “last” character of a line (the Home key immediately moves the cursor to the “first” character of a line.)

Most likely one of those is either a shortcut, a symlink (symbolic link) or a junction point (directory link) which are all “virtual“.

i.e. they don’t actually contain anything or take up any storage space they just point to the real folder and will always reflect its contents.

Right clicking either and selecting properties would reveal if it’s a shortcut.

To find out if either is a symlink/junction, use the following command from an elevated cmd prompt.

dir C:\DATA. /a /s | findstr /i "<DIR> <SYMLINKD> <JUNCTION>"

This will display all folders on drive C: named “data” with a column showing whether it’s a directory (<DIR>), symlink (<SYMLINKD>) or junction (<JUNCTION>) and, if it’s a symlink or junction, a column showing the real folder it points to (i.e. DATA [C:\Documents])

If you want, you can delete a symlink or junction using the rd command but that won’t actually increase the amount of storage space on your drive as they don’t actually use any  space (note, removing a symlink/junction does not remove the real folder it points to.)

BTW…

The main difference between a symlink and a junction is a symlink can point to a file or a folder while a junction can only point to a folder.

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wavy

I occasionally get the same pop-up notification (I have a shared drive connected to my Linksys router) which fixes the problem when I click on it but, like you, sometimes I’m not there to click the notice.

If it’s disappeared, here are 2 ways to attempt to reconnect the drive.

1. Click the ^ just to the left of the system icons on the lower right side of the taskbar to open the “hidden” taskbar items menu and then click the disconnected network drive icon (the one with the X)
2. Open explorer, click on “My PC“, then click the disconnected drive (the one with the X).

Either of those does the same thing as clicking the original notice.

BTW, if neither works, then something more serious is causing your problem.

I disabled that task on my system back in May using the following powershell command (run as Admin.)

Schtasks /Change /Disable /Tn "Microsoft\Windows\Management\Provisioning\Logon"

I no longer get any tw-*.tmp folders and haven’t noticed any ill effects of the task being disabled.

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AlphaCharlie

Glad to hear it worked out!

Here’s how to create a image of your “active” Window partition.

Boot a Windows install Disc/USB

Press Shift + F10 at the first window to get a command prompt

Diskpart

List Vol (to determine the drive letter Windows is installed on)

• Note: normally it will not be the same drive letter you see when using Windows.

Exit Diskpart

DISM /Capture-Image /ImageFile:Drive you’re saving it to:\Your filename.wim /CaptureDir:The Win10 drive:\  /Name:whatever you want to call it /CheckIntegrity /Verify /EA

Note: the size of the final image will be “significantly” smaller than the actual amount of disk space used by Windows because DISM compresses it. (i.e. my 83.5GB Win10 installation created a 24.1GB wim file

Ok, here’s the problem:

The registry settings for the mouse are “normally” only read during startup so changing the MouseTrails value after the system has started doesn’t actually change the setting it’s already using (the change requires a restart to take effect which doesn’t work in your case.)

The reason the pointer trails immediately changes when you click the Display pointer trails checkbox is because windows “forces” the system to read & apply the new MouseTrails value.

Well, we can use a powershell script to do the same thing as follows:

Add-Type @"
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
public class PInvoke {
[DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern int SystemParametersInfo(int uiAction, int uiParam, int[] pvParam, int fWinIni);
[DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern int SystemParametersInfo(int uiAction, int uiParam, System.IntPtr pvParam, int fWinIni);
}
"@

$mouse = Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Mouse'

# MouseTrails -> SPI_SETMOUSETRAILS
[PInvoke]::SystemParametersInfo(0x005D, $mouse.MouseTrails, $null, 0)

Simple copy the above code and save it as a .ps1 file.

Since you already have a batch file that enters the value you want into the registry, here’s the extra code you need to add to it so it’ll run the above script.

@PowerShell -windowstyle hidden -noexit -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "YOURSCRIPT.ps1"

Note: the above code must be located after the code that changes the registry value in the batch file.

I tested this on my Windows 10 21H1 and it works just fine (files attached – you’ll need to modify the paths to match where you place them on your system.)

BTW, if you don’t want to see the Command prompt window that pops up for a short time when your batch file runs, simple create a shortcut to your batch file, set it to always run minimized, and run that at startup instead of the actual batch file.

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BiltmoreLaker

The registry entry for pointer trails is located at

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse

The MouseTrails string sets it as follows:

• a value of 0 disables trails

• a value of 2-7 sets the length of the trail from short to long

If the value keeps getting reset when you restart, you can create a batch file that runs on every restart to reset it to your preferred value (I use such a file myself to restore numerous registry values that always get reset during restarts.)

*** WARNING ***

If you go with the hammer idea (or some other really destructive method), be sure to place it IN something that’ll contain all the pieces that’ll come flying off — especially shards from the “glass” display panel.

Also, even though they “seem” to be dead, beware of damaging the batteries as lithium batteries can catch fire and even explode if there’s any charge left in them at all.

Finally, since it’s e-waste, don’t just throw it in the trash, take it to a local e-waste disposal center.

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BobStr, Mr. Austin, Susan Bradley, Steve, Sky

Black keyboard cover for HP 17-cp0124od

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kc27

It’s possible Windows Defender Antivirus was disabled via a value in the registry.

Open regedit and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender

If the subkey  DisableAntiSpyware exists with a value of 1, that disables Windows Defender Antivirus and, because it’s a Policies setting, would also explain why you’re getting the “settings are managed by your organization” message.

If it exists, changing the value to 0 or completely deleting the key “should” allow you to enable Defender Antivirus after removing AVG.

Note: you must restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Here’s how to import your Chrome settings to Edge (note, does not remove them from Chrome.)

1. Open Edge and click the Favorites icon on the right.
2. Open the “More options” menu (the 3 dots located between the Search and Pin icons)
3. Select “Import favorites” in the drop-down menu.
4. Select Google Chrome in the “Import from” drop-down.
5. If you have more than one Profile, select the one you want import to.
6. Select the specific items you want to import (warning, the default is everything checked.)
7. Click the “Import” button at the bottom.

That’s it, everything you selected to import from Chrome will now be available in Edge.

BTW, if your particular Chromebook can install and run Android apps from Google Play, there’s now a Microsoft Edge for Android app available there.

The actual program itself (Windows10Upgrade9252.exe) hasn’t changed since at least 2018 and you can reuse it as many times as you want.

If you’re already on the most current version of Win10, it’ll display Thank you for updating to the latest version of Windows 10.

If a newer version is available, it’ll display Update to the latest version of Windows 10 with an option to Update Now.

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Fred, LHiggins