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You might take a look at Zorin Light. I installed it on an old HP netbook some time ago and it has functioned well. I haven’t used the netbook a lot since then, but it has performed well when I have used it. Zorin Light can be downloaded from https://zorin.com/os/download/16/lite/ .

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Woody! It’s good to see your familiar face(?) again. Hope you’re doing well.

All is working well for me.

 

I’m confused. I thought Patch Tuesday was the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Since the first Tuesday was Dec. 1, the second Tuesday can’t be before Dec 8. Why DEFCON 2 now? Historically, I’ve waited until just a few days before Patch Tuesday to install Windows updates. What am I missing?

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The Surfing Pensioner, TonyC

BobbyB, thanks. I tried resetting all 15 of the apps that wouldn’t open, including Microsoft Store. There was no response from any on the first try and, on second attempt to start them, blue windows containing the apps’ logos opened for each then disappeared after a few seconds. Also, Microsoft Store did not open in response to using the Admin CMD prompt and WSRESET. I haven’t tried O&O App buster.

I’ve about decided that it’s more trouble than it’s worth trying to solve a problem with apps that I never use (other than Calculator). Unless something other than Microsoft Store and its apps is adversely affected, I believe I’ll be content to let it go as it is.

Steve

PKCano wrote:

Start by going into the Settings app (if it works) and check you settings to be sure you have everything turned on.
I don’t use any of the UWP apps, so I have done everything I know how to do to turn them off in settings.

Thanks, PKCano.  Everything is turned on, but none work.  I don’t use the UWP apps, either, except for the calculator and other calculators are available so I’m not sure the problem is worth trying to solve unless it affects something other than those apps.

Never played it. Uninstalled it (along with the other crapware that came with Win 10).

PKCano wrote:

In Group Policy: Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update Configure Automatic Updates = Enabled, set value to 2 (notify download/install) Taht way, they won’t download without your clicking on “Download.”

Done.  Many thanks!

I’ve been running Win10 1803 for several months without problems so far.  As usual on the day before the most recent Patch Tuesday, I opted to delay updates for 35 days.  I was surprised this afternoon to be greeted by a “We have an update for you…” window.  I checked Update & Security > Advanced and found that the delay button was “Off”.  I clearly remember turning the delay on and have no idea how it was turned off.  The update scheduled to be installed on the next restart is the infamous and regularly recurring KB4023057.  Assuming at this point that there’ s no reasonable means to prevent the installation on restart, I plan to uninstall that update after it has been installed.  Creation of a new disk image is now in process and will be completed before the next restart.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 1803

Yaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!

Windows Secrets resuscitated and improved as a blended part of Ask Woody Plus… Woody, Fred, Susan,,,  and the original bunch on  board!

That’s great news and, from the perspective of a Windows Secrets subscriber and AskWoody reader, it’s warmly welcomed.

Steve

 

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Great Lake Bunyip, woody

Double-clicking a .psd file opened it with Photoshop Elements in 1803.

I’ve worked with Macrium Support for the past several weeks trying to find a solution to not being able to boot a restored disk image created 2 days before my computer failed to boot following a power outage. To summarize, power had come on briefly and then went out again during the boot process. The computer would not boot subsequently.

With the guidance of Macrium Support, I did the following over that period of time.

1. Cleaned “System” partition, formatted it and tried without success to restore the image.
2. Ran chkdsk c: /r /f then installed Windows 7 from scratch and it booted normally. Restored just drive C from the image successfully, but Windows would not boot after restoration.
3. Set partition to Active. Load Rescue media and run the command, bcdboot C:Windows.

None of the things we tried solved the problem. Macrium Support then used a copy of my disk image to restore to one of their computers. It restored successfully for them and booted normally. From that, they concluded that the power outage “… somehow damaged some of your system components that do not allow your image to be successfully booted after a restore. It can be most probably your memory or motherboard.”

I did a new install of Windows 7 (again) and it boots normally and has functioned, essentially, normally. I qualify that because I encountered an error (“COM Surrogate has stopped working”), and double-clicking a photo filename no longer opens the photo. “Open with” Windows Photo Viewer also no longer works, but I guess I need to start another thread to look into that.

I’ve run a test of the memory and no problem was found. I don’t know how to test/examine the motherboard for damage secondary to the “off-on-off” power outage (or anything else) that occurred in October. At this point, I’m quite willing to reinstall programs that were on the imaged Windows 7 and subsequently retrieve their respective data files from the image. Before I do that, I want to ask whether any of the things done under the guidance of Macrium have raised any red flags or turned on any mental light bulbs in the lounge that might point toward another solution. I don’t want to install software onto hardware that is damaged.

Thanks.
Steve

UPDATE: I installed Win 7 SP1 again and it worked well. This time I also installed Macrium Reflect just to see if having it on board would make any difference in restoring the disk image. Also, I burned a new Macrium Rescue Disk rather than continue to use the one burned originally a couple years ago. In the restoration p;process this time, a window appeared with the message that an automatic restore would begin in X seconds. I let that proceed with the hope that the result would be different. It wasn’t. The files were restored, but Windows would not boot.

Still operating from the Macrium disk, I opened Windows PE Explorer and noticed that the C and D drive letters had been switched. I saw SYSTEM (C: ) and OS (D: ), with the former containing 100 MB and the latter nearly 1.4 GB (including the operating system).

How can I change the drive letters when the system will not boot? Is there a tool/utility to facilitate that? Could I use a Linux live flash/thumb drive to go in and rename the drives? I’ve been pretty much out of my league through much of this month-long endeavor, and my status has not changed at this point. Can someone provide some step-by-step guidance on this? I’ll be grateful.

Steve

Do you have a Macrium emergency boot disk? If not, make one, and then boot to it. Then do your restore from within that environment./QUOTE]

Yes, I’ve been using a Macrium boot disk all along without success. I appreciate your suggestion.
Steve

Sudo15, the Advanced Options you asked about are illustrated in the thumbnails below.
Steve

Looks like you may be onto something, David. I read earlier what a Dynamic disk is and decided it would likely be of no benefit to me. Also, I noticed that the Macrium disk image showed that the partitions were labeled “Dynamic”.

I deleted everything (as far as I could determine) as suggested by Paul T and then, based on information in the Macrium Knowledge Base [ http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Bare+metal+restore+of+a+dynamic+disk+system ], I think I converted it to a basic disk (see attachment 1)… although, at this point, I’m not sure whether I’m coming or going or exactly which direction is up.

Anyway, I arrived again at the step in restoration at which a destination disk is selected and I dragged and dropped just the “System” and “C:” partition images to the place from which they were to be copied to the disk. I clicked “Next” and the summary page (see attachment 2) showing what operations were to take place came up. It appeared as usual, except for the lines in both the System and C: sections that were in red and said “Source Volume” followed by a long line of letters and numbers and the statement “The system cannot find the file specified.” After I clicked “Finish”, the selected partitions were copied to the HDD, but the machine still would not boot. I clicked “Fix boot” on the Macrium screen, but, still, it failed to boot after that effort. I don’t know why it couldn’t find the specified file(s).

Thanks again to all who have offered help on this.