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In Task Scheduler, I found System Restore (if that’s what I should be looking for).

“Run whether user is logged in or not” is checked on gray.

“Run with highest privileges” could not be checked.

And I don’t even know if that is the right task.

When I right-clicked the shortcut, say to Create Restore point, Advanced, I was unable to change to “Run as Administrator.”

I like this idea, though it seems to contradict the prior post, since this one keeps the last monthly rollup–makes more sense.

Thanks for the info. This is totallly counterintuitive.

” Usually, we recommend you delete the latest CU package in the LCU folder. This is because you may encounter broken Windows updates after you clear all contents of the LCU folder.”

Hi Paul:

Thanks for the quick response. The folder in the title is the same as in the top of the post. I didn’t realize htlm was added to the title and can’t edit. The main idea is that these are rollup files and the folders are over 1 GB: do I need to keep them?

Susan mentions that UEFI gives some degree of security, presumably vs. Legacy boot in the BIOS. I ran into a problem with a dual-Xeon system with Windows 10 Pro. In 12/2022 I lost the ability to boot into Windows. The systrm always booted into a command line with EFI, whatever that is. The only way I could reinstall Windows 10 was by setting BIOS to Legacy/MBR and creating with Rufus a Legacy/MBR Windows installation USB stick.

While that worked fine and I have my system back with an updated Windows 10 Pro, I am wondering what would happen if I changed BIOS back to UEFI to get a more secure boot. Would I permanently lose the Windows installation?

This seems by far the best way to go but few know of this method and you have to get it right from the initial installation.  What is the reason for creating a PIN and how do you do it?

“go through the Settings App while in the Admin account and make a listing of all the settings. Then use the list to make the Standard account look the same. It’s a PITA of a job.”

That’s what I figured. I’ll have to think long and hard about it.

 

PK, thanks for the warning. The real question is whether, if I change my main admin account which has all the correct personalization settings, to Standard user, will I still be able to boot into that ABC account automatically, as I do now, considering I don’t know the password (but Windows does.)

On one of my systems, I have three local user accounts: ABC (admin) with password, which I don’t know;  xyz (standard user) with password, which I know; and fgh (standard user) with no password.   Nevertheless the system boots into ABC as it automatically puts password in on bootup. I must have set it up that way originally.

If I boot into either xyz or fgh, I won’t have my usual Windows settings or desktop, so what good is that?  Or I could change xyz account to admin and ABC to Standard user. But then will I be able to boot into ABC (with my desktop and all my settings) since I don’t know the password?

 

I know I should have set up a separate Standard User accnt long ago, but issues with apps always caused me to go  back to the one admin accnt. from the orginal admin accnt installation.

I’m now trying Susan’s recommendation. When in the new default Standard User accnt., certain apps require me to type in the admin accnt password–Windows System Restore backup and Macrium backup. Is there a way to bypass this on these commonly used apps?

Oddly, opening these two apps (hen in Standard User accnt.) don’t require me to log off and back into admin accnt; just type in the admin accnt password.

Re Shell prompt, I should add that in BIOS boot manager, I see 6 items, including “Hard Disk” and “Built-in EFI Shell” but no “Windows Boot Manager”.

I have a system that boots to the prompt Shell>

Shell> EFI Shell version 2.40  Current running mode 1.1.2

Device Mapping table

Disk 0: HardDisk–Alias (null)  Pci Root (0x0)/Pci etc

Disk 1: through Disk 6

Windows has offered and tried startup repair without success. Does this mean I have to do a clean Windows install?

There is no hardware issue, no bad video cable 🙂

I could “restore” with Macrium Reflect backup/restore in the sense of copying the data back to the C: or D: drive or I could do the same by copying from Windows.old, but in either case I assume the apps would not be installed in my new clean Windows.

I can certainly restore data but don’t I have to reinstall all the programs in my new Windows?

I can say at this point that the entire boot issue into Windows GUI one one system (\\karpov) was caused by one bad pin on one end of a DVI-D video cable. Oh well, there are those who do a clean install of Windows once/year. I had lost sound completely and now have it back, so that is also something.

Thanks to the group of top experts here who guided me. Many of you said it was a hardware issue, though I never would have thought that one bad pinout could cause such inexplicable video havoc.

I now have 4 of my 5 systems working well. One of them won’t complete the Windows boot, but that is a post for another day or week.