Replies

that will have been the swine flew.

Wait a minute, perhaps it hanglidididid; does that mean I still need a jab of that vaccine?

(Fruitlessly trying to steer the thread back on-topic …)

Well I’ll… oh my, I just saw a pig fly by, as if that wasn’t today’s surprise, he also spoke, said something about greetings from Canada.

—
Added an apostrophe; went out and bought some; now I have a whole bunch. ””” Someone wants it for tea?

I think this is an OS question, not networking. Which OS do you use on that PC?

Have you restarted the PC after this happened? See for example: System icons do not appear in the notification area in Windows Vista or in Windows 7 until you restart the computer.

What is the difference between x64 and IA-64? The table shows downloads for both.

IA-64 is “Intel Architecture, 64-bit”, the older one. x64 is Microsoft’s term for “Extended 64”, I think (specified by AMD as x86-64 an extension on the x86). It’s used by both Intel and AMD, such as AMD64 and very common.

As for the IA-64, the processor family is called Itanium, and it’s a bit special, think you’ve seen Windows Server OSs for Itanium based systems. They are not backward compatible with (32-bit) x86. See here for example, Microsoft Computing on Itanium: http://www.microsoft.com/servers/64bit/itanium/overview.mspx

[snip]
[…] and when and if it happens again how would I find this BSOD w/ an error code so I could copy and paste it back to you all?

Windows has a setting that makes it restart the PC at system or hardware errors (Stop errors). This is intended to help (most users) since a restart is the only way around, and if a smaller error, a glitch, it maybe never happens again.

At these system/hardware errors Windows shows a Stop error message (a.k.a. Blue Screen of Death, BSOD), that can be a help in troubleshooting, but when the PC reboots there is no chance to see the message. In your case it’s perhaps better to set Windows to halt at the Error.

[*]In Control Panel select System (or System and Security and then System) OR press Windows-key + Pause/Break.
[*]In the Control Panel pane, left, select Advanced system settings.
[*]In the Advanced tab (it should be selected), in the Startup and Recovery section click the Settings button.
[*]In the Startup and Recovery dialogue, uncheck “Automatically restart”, in the System failure section.
[*]Click OK on your way out.

Now you have to restart the PC, for the change to take effect. If you get an error message (BSOD) later on, type down error number, file names mentioned etc. Since Windows now halt at the BSOD, you will have to restart the PC yourself.

Unfortunately it is a fact of life in both vista and win 7. The winsxs folder can be moved with a lot of work but it still is going to grow. If you do alot of app installs, it can get huge. I have reports fro users that theirs have become 25gigs by itself.
[snip]

Not true, see [post=’808739′]this post[/post].

I just wish I could trim the winsxs directory with 5.79 GB (6,221,655,451 bytes)
[snip]

Please see this old [post=’753918′]post 753918[/post], in a thread about something completely different, so no need to post there.

And please, all, use the search tool here in the Lounge.

Since all the new users signed up, we have had some new threads on this matter. The above linked post was in completely different thread, but it does explain some things and links to some source, the winsxs has been explained in other posts as well.

We have had some 3.5 pages of new posts in only the Windows 7 forum, already. Obviously this is a new OS, so there may be a lot that has not been mentioned or otherwise been discussed, but other forums here are full of information as well.

AND, it’s been mentioned in this thread post #5: [snapback]807653[/snapback].

Links to recent threads on this, apart from this one:
WinSxs Folder Growth;, 2009-12-03
Another one about size:
Windows 7 is a smaller OS ?????

This is VERY easy to prove if you want to take the time to test it as I have. […]

Please send your test results to Ed Bott, I think he might be interested in seeing them.

I think we need to form a queue to this thread; set up some chairs and start selling coffee to all who is waiting to reply.

This has been mentioned some times, and discussed here in the Lounge during the years, and it is getting quite boring, if you ask me (even though the Lounge has not seen any “wars” on this matter, as in some other forums).

[…] That is, when needed to complete a messy un-install. […]

I agree with that, troubleshooting that is, I also agree with Bott and Russinovich. And I agree with Joe, in this thread.

As I’ve said before: It’s a big difference between troubleshooting and regular maintenance. I do not see registry cleaning as regular maintenance.

Some people seem to live with old habits from the Win9x era. We have modern operating system nowadays and they can handle large hives. I’ll repeat myself from another thread, below:
If I would use a registry cleaner, that means I would have to trust that the developer of that program knows everything about Windows and how all other programs use Windows’ registry (the trust, as we all know, must be big since the registry is vital, to say the least, to Windows). I also have to assume that the developer knows something about the registry and Windows’ use of it that no one else knows.

Some links to discussions here in the Lounge on this matter:
Windows Registry Utilities? Any Good? (Windows 7 forum – November 2009)
Registry Software Optimizers (Windows XP forum – November 2008)

Have you tried clicking on the drop down menu button?
[indent][/indent]

[…] Forgot to check the show icons after the SP3 ug… and yes it was a UGGGGGLLYYY!!!!!!!!!!

I hear you.

I agree with both of you; run CHKDSK from a Command Prompt.

But: in this case CHKDSK was running at start, something that happens when the tool can’t lock the partition it’s going check (you are asked if you want to schedule a check at next start). And when that is finished it will start Windows very quickly, thus the log entry in Event viewer.

It’s disabled and can be enabled via some different methods:

[*]Start an elevated command prompt (right-click a command prompt shortcut and select Run as administrator).
[*]Type: net user administrator /active:yes (Press Enter).
[*]Exit the Command Prompt and Log off to use/see the built-in Administrator account.

If you want to disable the account:

[*]Start an elevated command prompt.
[*]Type: net user administrator /active:no (Press Enter).

But I would save the built-in Administrator account for serious things and keep it disabled; if for some reason there are no other accounts with administrative privileges the Administrator account may become enabled.

[snip] I like choosing when Microsoft or Windows Update runs. If that’s how MSE updates, sounds like that would leave me wide open between when I turned on the updates. Odd recommendation, IMHO.

I’ve not tested this on Windows XP; but remember that it’s a big difference between having the Automatic Updates service running (set to start automatically) and having AU in automatic mode or semi-automatic mode. At this moment I have the service running in Windows XP, but AU disabled.

I quote from the FAQ I mentioned:

It is recommended, however, that you at least allow Automatic Updates to notify you about critical and important updates so that you can choose to download and install them as soon as possible and help keep your operating system secure with the latest patches from Microsoft.

But as I said, I’ve not tested this (MSE on Windows XP).

It relies on the Automatic Updates service (but are not offered via that UI (AU)).

At the moment it seems to be a “once per 24 hour” check, and as you have found, there is no setting for time or update frequency. But it will also check within some 10 minutes after start or wake up, if definitions are older than 24 hours (though there are some problems with that; see link below).

See this FAQ: MSE Definitions/Signatures Update FAQ.

And this: Microsoft Security Essentials signature updates may not occur when resuming from sleep/hibernation.