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As Alex5723 hinted, the fix is to change the file association to a different app as the latest update seems to have broken Windows Photos app ability to open files from Explorer. (I reset mine to Paint.net since it opens relatively quickly compared to Photoshop.)

Understood. I’m just wondering what’s seen as wrong with it that causes it to not be in the top recommended.

I wonder why the lack of love for Roboform. It gets mentioned here by a couple of people, but is only in one of the lists, and is the last one in it. I’ve been pretty happily using it for years on PC laptop and Android. Am I missing something?

The primary reason I haven’t moved to Windows 11 is a superficial one. Since my first days of Windows, I’ve had my taskbar running up the left side of the screen. This always seemed better because (1) it’s a better use of real estate, (2) you can make it as wide as you want in order to see open file names, (3) it works better with Extended Desktop and (4) it feels more natural, though that may be just because I’m used to it.

StartAllBack claims it can “Move taskbar to top, left or right edges.” I’ve read elsewhere that this is buggy. I’m wondering if anyone has done this.

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windbg, rbailin, tom m

Hi Ascaris. My goal is to have the backup laptop ready to go with an absolute minimum loss of time in the event of any number of things (hardware, virus…) going very wrong with the primary laptop. As a one-person business, I’m totally dependent on my computer and have neither the technical knowledge or the time to take half a day or more in the event of a serious problem. It’s the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night.

That would preclude things like opening the laptop. And as the problem could be the hard drive, I wouldn’t want to swap them in any case. (I also wouldn’t feel that comfortable mucking around inside a laptop. I did that kind of thing decades ago with towers, but they were simpler and I had more time not under pressure back then.)

Both laptops have Windows 10 already installed, so I don’t think there’d be an activation issue. But I don’t know how or if that’s affected if I transfer everything. (Go easy on me; I’m not technically proficient or confidant.)

It’s sounding to me – subject to others’ input – that my best option is to boot up the backup machine every month or two and update everything, included new apps, addons, etc. But I want to be able to seamlessly move into the backup without losing or having to spend much time on things like email setup and retrieval, etc. (The email alone is daunting to me. As I understand it – or don’t – my Exchange accounts will update the Inbox, Outbox, etc., but not my folders. And not all my accounts are Exchange.)

I think I’d be happier and more confident of things having someone help me with this unless there is a process simply enough for someone like me.

Suggestions or (paid) consultants welcome!

 

Thanks Alex. I’ll check it out.

Thanks Don. These are both laptops, so swapping hardware isn’t that feasible. The Macrium Reflect or Acronis True Image path is probably the best path. I have OS images via both Windows and Macrium (in case one of them doesn’t work) and multiple data backup methods (Windows File History and Crashplan). I’m not sure if those images include apps – I have to check how I set them up. Are you talking about also backing up data via Macrium or Acronis?

Ideally, I’d like to keep the second laptop in a ‘mission ready’ state so as not to lose downtime. (I’m self-employed with no real IT/tech support other than Dell’s.)

On top if this issue and perhaps related(?), sometimes – not always – when I attempt to delete and item from the Inbox, it will disappear for a few seconds and then reappear. This, too, is a new behavior.

(I didn’t realize I wasn’t still logged in when I posted just now, so this is a duplicate.)

Thanks everyone (and sorry for the delayed acknowledgement). When I tried to point the new computer’s FH to the existing folder on the external drive, it instead started a new FH. I’d wanted to use and continue the old one because it would retain the older file versions, and also because the external drive doesn’t have room for two FHs. (BTW, I don’t need to transfer the files via FH to the new computer; that’s done already via a direct copy of the D partition, which houses almost all my data – Outlook being the annoying exception.)

Also, one of the questions in my initial post was whether I need to change the name of the new computer to the same as the old one in order to use that existing FH.

Two of you mentioned using a 3^rd party backup. I’m curious what you use. I have Crashplan, with both cloud and local backup, but (A) I like to have redundancy via a second app and (B) Crashplan requires going through their app to restore files vs direct access. And I may be wrong, but I think OneDrive has a limited size unless you pay for more and (?) also requires that the files be in the OneDrive folder in C:\users.

Thanks again.

Hi Paul.
No, I meant a mandatory update when attempting to restart. And that’s when, among other things, that unexpected half hour (+/-) is a problem.
David

Oh, this is interesting and I’m glad you asked. It’s v 1909, which I think it already was. When I checked for updates just now, it says Updates Paused and there’s a button to resume updates. I wondered why the update was so fast. It said it was at 30% when I went away for just a minute or two. But when I came back, the laptop was off and I had it to power it back on – which usually doesn’t happen after updates. And the desktop reappeared almost immediately, which it also doesn’t usually do.

So I guess the pause and/or metering actually did work.

And I recall from the Defcon notes that the newest update is 2000-something.

I didn’t know about Wushowhide. Thanks for pointing it out. Now I wonder, though, whether I need it…

Hmm, I wonder why my computer is only at 1903. I haven’t prevented any recent updates.

The default (which I haven’t touched) is set to Monthly, with nothing entered for the Monthly Reset Date, 0 for Data Limit, and nothing entered for Unit.

Yes, it was off. Didn’t seem to matter.

[greenbergman]

Sorry about not specifying the version. I figured it would be obvious, since I hadn’t been able to avoid updates, that I was on the most current version (1903).

And, yes, I’ve been debating springing for the Pro version. There was some reason other than the cost that I didn’t want to do it – but of course I don’t recall what it was.

Thanks everyone. Potential disaster averted (for now).

• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by greenbergman.

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Bluetrix