Replies

I am trying this as of late December 2024, and I find Hiren’s BootCD PE x64 (v1.0.8) and Rufus 4.6.2208(Portable).  When I follow the process using Rufus, I receive (as others have) this error:

—————————
Revoked UEFI bootloader detected
—————————
Rufus detected that the ISO you have selected contains a UEFI bootloader that has been revoked and that will produce a “Security Violation” screen, when Secure Boot is enabled on a fully up to date UEFI system.

– If you obtained this ISO image from a non reputable source, you should consider the possibility that it might contain UEFI malware and avoid booting from it.
– If you obtained it from a trusted source, you should try to locate a more up to date version, that will not produce this warning.

I tried the .ISO files from both the OG and Hiren’s sites; both produce the warning.  My UEFI BIOS has a CSM provision, so I miss that in Rufus, as well.

Any suggestions for next steps that will work would be appreciated.  TIA.  DVH.

 

A thoughtful analysis of MS’s hubris.  I particularly liked:  “If you’re going to get a better deal, someone with a lot more power will need to take up your cause.”  Seems to me that the Federal Government is the obvious choice for “someone”.  The challenge will be in achieving any useful results in the foreseeable future.

Timely, useful, and very much on target.  Thanks.

I’m in full agreement with @Ben Meyers about using TM to kill the offending browser instance, and would suggest that starting the browser in safe mode is the way to go for clearing cache/history, suggested revision to your text:  “Clear your cache and cookies, reset your browser, or uninstall/reinstall it. Start your browser in safe mode after your AV scan”.

DVH

1 user thanked author for this post.

Norio

This is an excellent, highly useful article.  Thanks, also, for the shout-out for AHK, it’s a gem.

DVH

Good reading; both your survey summary and the comments, above.  I’m in agreement with all the expressed wishes for continuation.  Much appreciated here, as well.

 

2 users thanked author for this post.

Will Fastie, Travasaurus

I have to echo Daniel, as well.  I am of the same age, and now have to consider rebuilding my home pc (last rebuilt about 10 years ago, and still working fine, just not able to move up to Win 11).

Thanks for all the fine work you and the team are accomplishing.  And thank you, particularly, for taking on the management of the AskWoody team.  The group is performing in top notch fashion; we are all the very much better for all your contributions and continued strong work ethic.  Salute!

 

Thanks, Susan.  I’m glad to get your input on this and will recommend the same to folks whom I help from time to time.

DVH

Hi, it is now almost 2023, and this article focuses on Window 7.  Isn’t it time for an update that acknowledges that Windows 11 has been out for more than 1 year now?  Is Windows Defender and its follow-on products still sufficient for most folks?  Is the stricture on AV-only still appropriate?

Thanks for all you do!

Susan, you have described my situation to a T.  I have/support secondary Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches), and I anticipate getting an M2 Apple notebook in the near future.  Having this Apple-oriented information gathered in a place I trust is greatly appreciated.  Thank you for being so perceptive and filling this niche.

DVH

Nicely done; your comments mirror my experience closely.  I also have a “free” TeamViewer license, that I use occasionally; my preference is RD, which almost always, just works.  DVH

I just went to turn it on and had no issues (I am using Windows Defender, along with scheduled MalwareBytes manual scans).  I have several data storage drives on my pc, which weren’t protected by default at startup.  It turns out to be fairly simple to enable protection for these drives, as well.  Open Control Panel > (System Properties) System Protection.  Click on the drive of interest in the Protection Settings box to select it.  Then click on Configure and click the Turn on system protection radio button to enable it.  Next, set an amount of Disk Space Usage (say 5%), and finally, click on OK.  Repeat as necessary.  Done.

All the documention I found via Google referred to OneDrive, which is not what I needed.  The above procedure turned the trick for me.

DVH

Hi, I tried the solution Tracey mentions for obtaining the Windows 10 product key for an OEM system, which mine is.  I got this response:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.1139]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey
OA3xOriginalProductKey

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Which is not quite the desired response…  Suggestions?

@LarryG — for digital image management, check out IMATCH.  It is very powerful and has a learning curve; the results are worth it.

All, the freeware photo editing app Picture Window Pro is worth a look.

Thanks for this article it was useful information.

1 user thanked author for this post.

SueW

I’d agree with RG that downloading the current Windows 10 MCT is a useful first step.  I’d also suggest that creating a backup of your current environment (OS and data) is a critical second step, the third step should be to verify that the backup is usable for recovering a blown upgrade — that step has saved my bacon a couple of times now.  Then, do an in-place upgrade of your current Windows 10 environment by running the MCT, use the create an .iso image option, use File Explorer to mount the .iso file, and double click on setup.exe.  That will start the update process.  After a bit you will get a choice about what to keep, usually with the options to keep your applications and files pre-checked.  Keep what you want, click OK, and let the update run to completion.  Hopefully that will get you on the current version of Windows 10.  If you run into issues, there are many folks on this forum who can help out.

@bbearren – Thanks for the hint, I’d found that one and several others which I tried without success.  Further searching lead me to the sysnative.com forum.  I reviewed a couple of their interactions with folks who needed help and was very favorably impressed with what I observed.  I signed in and provided a synopsis of my issue per their very clear and concise procedure.  A couple of days later (they are busy folks!) I got an email saying that one of their specialists was available to assist me.  We worked through several sets of tests and eventually found that a failing SSD drive (c:) made further progress impossible.  I replaced the SSD, recovered a previously saved system backup, and was able to get back into operation.  The help that sysnative.com provided was excellent, and I would encourage anyone with complex Windows 10 install / update issues to contact them.

My takeaways from this experience are:

1. Ensuring reliable hardware operations needs to precede any efforts at software recovery.
2. There are some very useful forums available online; Woody’s being one of them and sysnative.com being another.

DVH