Learn to use the Windows 10 Recovery Drive

Learn to use the Windows 10 Recovery Drive

Sooner or later, nearly every Windows user powers up the machine — and Windows simply refuses to start.

Every current version of Windows lets you create and run a self-booting rescue disc, but Win10 takes that tool to a new level.

The Windows 10 Recovery Drive comes with multiple tools for repairing and reinstalling Windows. You can, for example, use a system restore point to restore an image backup, run an automated Startup Repair tool, refresh Windows (either keeping or removing your data), or completely reinstall the operating system.

If you’re lucky, you’ll never need your Win10 recovery drive. But when things go serious wrong with Windows 10, you’ll be extremely relieved to have it. Here’s how to create and use a recovery drive.

Preparing the Recovery Drive — on a flash drive

The changes to the self-booting, Windows-recovery system start with the name. Bowing to changes in PC technology, it’s no longer a rescue disc, it’s now a rescue drive. In fact, creating a bootable CD or DVD is no longer an option; you must use a spare USB flash drive with a capacity of at least 512MB. But for a recovery drive with a complete set of tools, you’ll need an 8GB or larger drive.

If your internal drive crashes, and you need to install Windows on a replacement drive, you’ll be glad you splurged on teh 8GB drive.

Note that everything currently on the flash drive will be lost when you turn it into a Win10 recovery drive.

Most important, you’ll want to create your new recovery drive now, while your Win10 setup is healthy. (Note: A recovery drive created on one PC might not work perfectly on another machine.)

Once you have a suitable flash drive plugged into your system, it’s time to run Win10’s Create a recovery drive option. There are two ways to do it:

• In the Win10 search box, enter “recovery” and select the option under Settings.
• Open Control Panel/Recovery (in the icon view).

Click Create a recovery drive (Figure 1) and follow the prompts. If your flash drive has a capacity of less than 8GB, uncheck the Back up system files to the recovery drive option. Otherwise, the drive-creation process will fail, possibly with a generic error message.

Figure 1. Setting up a Win10 recovery drive starts with a click of the Create a recovery drive link.

Keep in mind that the actual drive creation can take considerable time — especially if you’re backing up system files.

When the process is done, label the flash drive with something like “Recovery” plus the make and model of the PC. Store it securely, so it doesn’t get used for some other purpose and you’ll be able to find it in an emergency.

But before you do that, I strongly suggest testing that the rescue drive boots — you can also check out its various tools, preferably while reading the rest of this article.

Booting Windows from the recovery drive

Starting your system from the recovery flash drive should be easy — simply plug in the USB drive and power up your system. But if that doesn’t work on an older system, you’ll need to check the preferred boot order in the BIOS.

On newer PCs, the disaster of an unbootable PC can be compounded by the UEFI startup system. If you’re left with “How the bleep do I get this thing to boot from a flash drive?” you’ll probably find the answer in Fred Langa’s Dec. 11, 2014, Top Story “How to solve UEFI boot and startup problems.”

When the recovery drive boots, you’ll first be asked to choose a keyboard layout — which is really a choice of languages and nationalities. (I chose US.)

The next screen, Choose an option (Figure 2), offers three choices. Obviously, you can ignore Exit and continue to Windows 10 and Turn off your PC. Click (or tap) Troubleshoot.

Figure 2. To access Win10's repair tools, select Troubleshoot.

Next, you get three more choices: Reset this PC, Recover from a drive, and Advanced options (Figure 3). I’ll start with the more flexible Advanced tools.

Figure 3. The Advanced options offers a variety of tools for fixing Win10 issues.

One more thing: After selecting one of these tools, you might be asked to select an operating system — even though the only option is Windows 10. Don’t worry about it; simply select Windows 10.

Advanced options: When you don’t need to reinstall

Despite the heading, most of the offerings under “Advanced options” (Figure 4) aren’t more advanced than anything else on the Troubleshoot menu. They are simply tools that might fix Windows without reinstalling the operating sytem. In other words, these are the tools you should look at first.

Figure 4. The recovery disk's Advanced options includes various levels of repair.

I’ll start with the easiest. (Note that all these tools are available within the default Win10 setup. Click Settings/Update & security/Recovery/Advanced startup. Next click Restart now/Troubleshoot/Advanced options. But, of course, you can’t access those tools if you can boot your PC.)

• Startup Repair: This simple tool examines all system files and settings that play a role in the Windows boot process. It then tries to determine what’s at fault and attempts to fix it.

  Because it’s relatively quick, this tool is a good place to start your troubleshooting. If it doesn’t work, you can then move on to more extensive solutions.

• Go back to the previous build: If you’ve upgraded from Win7 or Win8.1 within the last 30 days, and you haven’t removed your Windows.old folder, this option will take you back to the previous OS.
• System Restore: Most likely, you’re already familiar with Windows restore points — records of previous operating-system settings and configurations that you can access and restore via Control Panel/Recovery. The option in the recovery drive works that same way (Figure 5).
  

  Figure 5. The Win10 recovery drive includes the basic Restore system files tool.

• System Image Recovery: You also access backup images of your system hard drive or SSD, stored on another drive. (I’ll assume you have a recent image backup; if not, click Control Panel/File History tool. You’ll find the link, System Image Backup, in the lower-left corner of the File History window.)

  To restore an image from an external drive, you’ll need to plug in both the recovery drive and the backup drive into separate USB ports.

  I succeeded in restoring a backup only after some struggles. On the first try, the image-restore system didn’t see the backup drive. But rebooting the PC with the backup drive already plugged in solved the problem.

  Then the tool failed to restore the backup, stating: “Windows cannot restore a system image to a computer that has different firmware. The system image was created on a computer using BIOS and this computer is using UEFI.” This, as it turned out, was a cockpit error: my computer had displayed two listing for the same flash drive (Figure 6), and I’d mistakenly chosen the one prefaced with “UEFI.”

  

  Figure 6. Picking the correct flash drive

  The third try was the charm.

• Command Prompt: Feeling nostalgic about DOS? Me neither. But there are times when the command-prompt environment is useful — for example, when booting to Safe Mode from the recovery drive.

  Unfortunately, recovery drive doesn’t include a simple safe mode–restart option. In my opinion, that’s a significant omission. (For more on booting in safe mode — including from a command prompt — see the Field Notes article in this issue and a Windows TenForums page.)

  The command prompt has other recovery uses. For example, use XCOPY (more info) to move your personal files to an external drive, or use DISKPART (info) to delete or create drive partitions (if you’re careful and patient).

  Of course, you’ll also want to remember the “exit” command, which gets you out of Command Prompt.

Reset and Recover: Reinstalling Windows 10

Now back to those first two Troubleshoot options, Reset this PC and Recover from a drive. Both reinstall Windows and offer essentially the same options.

Where the two options differ is that Reset uses the installation files on the internal drive and Recover uses files on the recovery drive. That’s why you’ll see the Recover option only if you used an 8GB or larger flash drive and chose the Back up system files to the recovery drive option when you created the recovery drive.

When would you use Recover instead of the Reset option? Typically when the special recovery partition on the main system drive has been destroyed or corrupted. You might also use Recover when replacing or upgrading the main drive and you’re creating a clean installation.

Neither of these options will require a product key — assuming you’re running the recovery drive on the original PC.

When selecting Reset the PC, you’ll be asked whether you want to Keep my files or Remove everything (Figure 7). The first option reinstalls Windows but leaves your personal documents, photos, and other data files where you left them — at least if you left them in folders (Documents, Music, and so on) recognized by Windows as part of your libraries. Personal files in other locations might get deleted. (Obviously, you should have all your data files backed up before you do anything involving significant changes to Windows. In fact, your data files should be regularly backed up, period.) Reset the PC also remembers who you are; you won’t have to set up your account all over again.

Figure 7. When resetting a PC, you can either keep personal files or start from scratch.

If you select Recover from a drive or if you go with Reset this PC and Remove everything, the installation process will delete all files. Once it’s finished, you (or perhaps a new owner) will have to start from scratch, including setting up user accounts.

Remove everything has two more options: Just remove my files and Fully clean the drive. That last one, which can take hours, securely wipes everything off of the drive.

A secure wipe will make it impossible to recover any data from your hard drive. But the technique is problematic with SSDs, as reported in a PCWorld article. Microsoft hasn’t answered my questions about this issue. For now, I’d skip this option on an SSD.

Final thoughts: The Win10 recovery drive could use some more tools — the lack of a “Boot to Safe Mode” option is particularly vexing. If you can’t get to your usual sign-in screen, you can’t get to the various Safe Mode settings via the standard Win10 Troubleshoot/Advanced/Startup Settings screen.

That said, Win10’s flash drive-based repair system is still a must. Create a recovery drive and store it someplace where you won’t forget where it is. One of these days, it may save, if not your life, than at least your sanity.

SSD stuck in slow IDE-emulation mode

How to troubleshoot a solid-state drive that’s operating at speeds far slower than expected.

Plus: Windows Defender vs. Microsoft Security Essentials, questions about the current quality of Firefox, and how to activate God Mode in all current versions of Windows.

New SSD uses old IDE software interface

Reader Mike C. added a speedy solid state drive to his Win7 PC. However, his system refuses to use the correct software interface.

• “Fred: I’m not a newbie, but I made a newbie mistake; I forgot to enable AHCI in the BIOS before adding a new solid-state drive [SSD] and installing a fresh copy of Windows 7.

  “Now my super-fast SSD is running in IDE-emulation mode.

  “I’d like to enable AHCI without doing yet another Windows installation, but from what I’ve read, the likeliest outcome will be blue screens at bootup.

  “I found two articles suggesting Registry edits to correct the problem, but the articles [at AskVG.com and SuperUser.com] differ in which Registry keys to edit.

  “I’d love to hear your advice on this problem.”

Intel’s Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) allows for flexible, high-speed operation of Serial ATA (SATA) devices — including most SSDs (for more on AHCI, see the Wikipedia entry).

The problem you encountered occurs mostly with older PCs that came to market when IDE/Parallel ATA (PATA) hard drives were still dominant. The classic BIOSes in these systems (as well as in some early UEFI systems that emulate classic BIOSes) might not automatically recognize AHCI-capable drives.

With newer, fully UEFI-based systems running Win8/10, the firmware and the operating system operate more or less as an integrated whole. But the classic BIOS typically offers only rudimentary communication between the hardware and the OS.

So if you manually change the BIOS’s drive entries to AHCI without also changing the Win7 Registry to match, Windows can no longer access the hard drive and death by blue screen is a likely result.

To further complicate matters, newer systems also use a different version of AHCI than older systems — which probably explains why some sites offer different instructions for editing the BIOS and Registry.

For example, the Win7 implementation of AHCI is called MSAHCI. But in Win8 and Win10, it’s called StorAHCI (more info) and has different code. It’s hard to say whether your new SSD drivers are designed for MSAHCI or StorAHCI — or both.

Vista and Win7/8/10 can usually implement MSAHCI or StorAHCI if the system BIOS is configured properly during the initial Windows setup — even on older hardware. A clean install almost always prevents a mismatch between the BIOS AHCI setting, the Windows Registry, and whatever storage drivers are available.

I know it’s not what you want to hear, but a clean install probably is the best option — especially because we don’t know what drivers your SSD is using or the capabilities of your PC’s BIOS.

On the other hand, if you want to roll the dice, start by making a full image backup. Next, try the Win7-specific AHCI instructions on the aforementioned AskVG page. Win8 instructions are on the Super User page.)

If you’d rather not risk having to unravel blue-screen problems, I recommend the safer, surer clean-install method:

• Make a complete system-image backup. You might also copy your user files to a separate, safe location so that you can easily restore them later.
• Reboot your PC. Because your PC did not automatically detect your AHCI-capable hard drive, manually edit the firmware’s drive settings to support AHCI. (Note: Most newer systems don’t need this; usually, the hardware can automatically detect AHCI-capable drives.)
• Boot from your Win7 installation disc and set up Windows afresh; then copy your user files back from wherever you stored them.

Chances are good that Win7 will install and run normally, with the correct drivers in place — and with no additional Registry or BIOS tweaking needed.

That, in turn, will smooth the way for any upgrades to Win8 or Win10 that could be in your future.

Keep in mind that your next PC won’t have this problem. Newer hardware is smarter about AHCI and usually gets things right — from start to finish. For example, I have a native Win8 system (now running Win10) that doesn’t even have an AHCI option in its UEFI-based firmware. Special ACHI settings aren’t needed because the hardware and Windows correctly set up conventional drives or SSDs, with no user intervention required.

So, your problem is limited to your current system; it’ll go away for good when you eventually upgrade to a newer, fully UEFI-compliant PC.

Confusion between Windows Defender and MSE

Microsoft’s naming of its free anti-malware tools has caused needless bewilderment among users. It started with the Win7 and Win8 versions of the software, and it’s causing trouble anew with Win10.

Reader Roy’s letter highlights this issue.

• “After upgrading to Windows 10, I ran into some confusion about Microsoft Security Essentials [MSE] and Windows Defender.

  “Under Win7, MSE was my active AV program and Windows Defender was disabled. After the upgrade to Win10, Defender is active and MSE is gone. Can you clarify which of these Microsoft AV apps would be best to run?”

Your confusion is totally understandable — and is all Microsoft’s fault.

In Vista and Win7, Windows Defender is a primitive, lightweight, “better than nothing” anti-malware tool that’s built into the operating system.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a more complete anti-malware tool, offered as an optional download. When installed in Vista and Win7, MSE deactivates Windows Defender and takes over its functions.

But with Win8, Microsoft did something rather stupid: it dropped the basic Defender and built the more-capable MSE right into the operating system — and then called it Windows Defender.

Win10 continues this confusing naming convention.

Simply put, the Windows Defender that’s built into Win8 and Win10 is virtually the same as the optional version of MSE for Win7 and Vista, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Despite their different names, Microsoft Security Essentials (top), an add-on for Vista/Win7, and Windows Defender (bottom), built into Win8/10, are virtually the same both in look and function.

The primitive Vista/Win7 version of Windows Defender was never included with Win8 or Win10.

For a more thorough explanation of this confusing nomenclature, plus a discussion of exactly what threats Microsoft’s various anti-malware tools are designed to counter, see the April 4, 2013, Top Story, “Microsoft’s six free desktop security tools.”

That article was written before Win10 came out, but it uses the same naming conventions as Win8 — simply substitute “Win10” wherever you see “Win8” in the preceding article, and the information will still be accurate.

Has the Firefox browser’s quality declined?

Jim McIntosh is unhappy with the way Firefox runs on his system.

• “The Mozilla Firefox browser has become a very unstable product. It is getting to where it is unusable! What gives?

  “Perhaps comments from Windows Secrets can get these people to clean up their act!”

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open-source application; it’s produced and maintained mostly by volunteers.

If not enough programmers volunteer to update the coding — or if users don’t contribute sufficient funds to keep the servers running and the lights lit — changes to Firefox might be less than perfect when they do arrive.

If you wish, you can become a Mozilla Foundation volunteer (site) and/or contribute funding (site).

Or, simply switch to a different browser that’s supported by a large, for-profit company. Microsoft’s Edge and Internet Explorer browsers are obvious alternatives for Windows users.

I currently prefer Google’s Chrome, because of its easy cross-platform integration (e.g., with Android devices) and rich library of extensions.

Of course, commercially supported browsers have their own drawbacks, such as the advertising they’ll shovel at you.

But there’s no such thing as a free lunch: one way or another — by direct participation, cash contribution, putting up with advertising, or other means — you going to pay for the software you use.

How to activate Windows’ GodMode feature

“GodMode” can be a handy shortcut for Windows’ power users. It places some 500 Control Panel tasks and functions, across 40 different categories, into one, organized menu (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. In all current versions of Windows, GodMode places a huge number of Windows features and functions into one giant menu (Win10's shown).

God Mode has been around for a long time — it first appeared in XP — so I was a little surprised to find it’s still available in Win10. But it is, and it’s still created the same way as in previous Windows versions:

• Right-click on an empty spot on the desktop and select New/Folder.
• Give the new folder this name: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
• Open the new folder.

That’s all it takes. When you open the folder, you’ll see a long list of commands and functions in a single, linear menu. The exact number and type of commands will depend on your Windows version and setup.

Note: You can replace the “GodMode” portion of the folder name with any text you wish. For example, all these work exactly the same way:

• FredsDemo.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
• CommandFolder.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
• AnythingAtAll.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

If you peek behind the curtains, you’ll see that GodMode is less miraculous than it might first seem: the {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} portion of the name is the globally unique identifier for the contents of Control Panel. GodMode simply displays these aggregate contents as a single, linear folder listing in Explorer — rather than in the normal, graphical, multilevel Control Panel format.

So GodMode won’t really give you supernatural control over Window; you won’t be able to do anything more than you can already do the normal way.

Still, it can be a convenience, giving you a faster way to access the wide array of Windows features and functions that otherwise might require lots of pointing and clicking to access.

As if Berlin were a whole little earth

When German photographer Jonas Ginter dressed up in a crocodile suit and took his 360-degree GoPro camera crew on the road (and river) in Berlin, he created a beguiling little planetary experience for viewers. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to visit Berlin, you’ll enjoy the resonant pleasures of comparing Ginter’s image of the city with your own. Everyone else can view the video on its own terms. Click below or go to the original YouTube video.

Learn something new about an old app

Lounge member naomi inherited an org chart created in Visio but found it partly crippled: boxes moved only horizontally, not on the vertical plane.

She asked for suggestions for solving this problem in the Other Apps forum.

But before anyone could help out, naomi solved the problem herself. Furthermore, she found useful Visio tools to recommend to fellow Loungers. You might find her discoveries helpful, too.

The following links are this week’s most interesting Lounge threads, including several new questions for which you might have answers:

Office Applications
General Productivity	How to repair large .pst files?
Word Processing	Will Office 365 automaticallly update to Office 2016 features?
Spreadsheets	Pulling data from 11 workbooks into summary workbook
Databases	Moving from Access 2010 to Access 2013
Microsoft Outlook	Reduce size of personal folders?
Non-Outlook E-mail	Windows Live Mail message-size constraint
Other MS Apps	Visio org boxes stuck horizontally
Windows
General Windows	How to find reputable tech service?
Windows 10	Updated Win10 now shows “No bootable device” on power up
Windows 8	How to boot to external USB drive?
Windows 7	Windows Update disappears from notification area
Windows XP	Screen goes black when changing resolution
Windows Servers	Can Windows Server 2012 R2 run in workgroup?
Internet/Connectivity
Internet Explorer and Edge	Unlock Work Offline in Windows Live Mail?
Third-Party Browsers	Set Chrome as default browser in Win10?
Networking	Teredo and IPv6
Software Development
Web Design & Development	Resize and frame a linked HTML file?
Other Technologies
Non-Microsoft OSes	Switch from Ubuntu to Windows?
Maintenance	HPSF restore point system
Hardware	Crucial MX100 512GB question: Corrupt or borked?
Other Applications	Amazon Kindle app for PCs

starred posts: particularly useful

If you’re not already a Lounge member, use the quick registration form to sign up for free. The ability to post comments and take advantage of other Lounge features is available only to registered members.

If you’re already registered, you can jump right into today’s discussions in the Lounge.

New devices that help you stay connected

For most of us these days, staying connected to family, friends, and coworkers means staying connected to the Web.

When the usual paths for communication go down or prove inadequate, some specialized accessories can bridge the gap.

Keep your Web connection during power outages

Winter’s coming to the northern hemisphere. It’s time to think about maintaining your computing capabilities during possible power outages.

The last time there was a power failure in my neighborhood, I felt fortunate to have a full battery charge on my notebook. I didn’t lose the document I had open — in fact, I kept working on it for another couple of hours (the display illuminating an otherwise dark room). But what I did lose was my vital connection to the Internet.

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) would have kept my modem/router going, but at that time I didn’t have one. The typically UPS is heavy, expensive, and rarely used — they also use lead-acid batteries that are difficult to recycle. That’s because many are still designed to support old power-hungry desktop PCs and displays.

But new UPS devices are becoming lighter and smaller. For example, APC’s Back-UPS Connect BGE50ML (info) uses a lithium-ion battery pack and is designed specifically for today’s low-power (up to 50 watts) digital devices.

Figure 1. The small and light Back-UPS Connect includes a detachable battery pack for charging mobile devices. Source: APC

Weighing under three pounds, the Connect has two AC outlets that rotate, making attaching power bricks a bit easier. It also has three USB charging ports and an innovative removable power pack for charging mobile devices when you’re on the go.

To test the Connect, I plugged it into an AC outlet controlled by a wall switch — a convenient power outage being unlikely. Cutting the power to the UPS triggered its no-power alarm, alerting me that my router was now running on battery power. After muting the alarm, I was able to maintain my Internet link for just over two hours. Recharging the Connect takes about 2.5 hours.

It also has a single USB charging outlet that’s in addition to the pair in the removable power pack.

The one aspect of APC’s Back-UPS Connect that gives me pause is its U.S. $140 price tag. The mobile feature is nice, but why not get a more robust UPS for my entire computing system?

After some research, I found the APS Back-UPS Pro 500 (site), which has a 300-watt lithium-ion battery. But it’s priced at $300.

Eventually, I settled on the APC BR1000G Back-UPS Pro (info), an eight-outlet UPS that sells for about $120 online. It handles up to 1000 watts and includes an LCD front-panel display for battery status. Powered by a lead-acid battery, it weighs over 24 pounds — but it’ll never stray from under my desk.

Bottom line: New Li-ion-powered UPS devices are small and light, but they’re also still expensive.

Voice Bridge merges cell and landline phones

As we depend more and more on our smartphones, landlines are rapidly disappearing from our homes. But hard-wired connections still have their uses, such as a backup system for connecting to the Internet or making emergency calls when our smartphones are out of power.

European company Invoxia has come up with a novel product: a bridge between our landlines and smartphones. The $99 Swissvoice Voice Bridge (info) lets you make and receive landline calls on your mobile phone or tablet.

Figure 2. The compact Voice Bridge joins landlines with smartphones and tablets. Source: Invoxia

Setup is easy: you connect the small Voice Bridge box to both your phone jack and Wi-Fi router; you then install an iOS or a forthcoming Android app. (Obviously, cabling might be an issue if you don’t have a phone jack near your router.) I was able to answer my landline calls from my iPhone and use the iPhone’s address book to make outbound calls over the landline.

Voice Bridge is especially handy if you have spotty cell service at home. When you’re away from home, Voice Bridge notifies you of calls to your landline, and it can let you know who called.

There’s no subscription fee for the Voice Bridge — it’s a one-time purchase. If you still get calls on your landline, or you’ve got a basic mobile account with limited call time, this little gizmo is well worth the $99 price.

Double-duty PC headset is mobile, too

If I’m going to spend about $250 for an audio headset, it had better work not just at home but also on a plane or at the local coffee shop. It must also have excellent noise-canceling technology, a solid Bluetooth connection, and a battery life that lasts all day.

Plantronics has come up with such a device. The Voyager Focus UC (site) nicely handles all audio needs, both at home and on the road. The Bluetooth headset allows me to move easily from Skyping on my PC, to taking calls on my cellphone, to listening to music or movies, wherever.

Figure 3. Plantronic's pricey Voyager Focus UC combines excellent audio with comfort and flexibility. Source: Plantronics

The Voyager is targeted primarily for work, but the comfortably padded, memory-foam ear cups and 15-hour battery time (12 with talk) make it ideal for after-hours play. The unit comes with a desktop charging stand, or you can charge it via a USB cable.

If your PC doesn’t included Bluetooth, the Voyager kit includes a small USB/Bluetooth dongle. The mic boom can be attached to either the left or right side and the headset controls automatically change function to match.

Obviously, at this price, sound quality had better be good. I wasn’t disappointed: whether noise cancellation was powered on or off, sound reproduction was excellent for all types of music and crystal-clear phone conversations. In an open-office setting — or at a noisy café — the Voyager’s noise cancellation was particularly proficient at blocking out ambient sound.

On a flight, the headset nicely eliminated the drone of the engines and surrounding cabin noise. When the flight attendant came by for my drink order, I simply pressed the OpenMic button to hear her — no need to remove the headset as I’ve had to do with other headphones.

Plantronics has embedded smart sensors, so you answer calls simply by putting on the headset. Taking off the headset automatically turns on mute. There’s also convenient, built-in voice alerts to announce Call ID, mute, connection status, and talk time.

When you’re on the road, the headset folds flat and comes with a multipocket carrying case. Optional apps for PCs and smartphones let you customize settings and control calls from multiple phones.

Yes, Plantronic’s headset seems outrageously expense. But a high-end Bose headset costs $300 and doesn’t include the range of Voyager’s features. If you spend hours wearing headphones, this is the real deal.

Windows 10 technical support — on cards

With all the initial confusion and upgrade hassles that followed the release of Windows 10, I breathed a sigh of relief when I received Beezix Software Services’ Windows 10 Introduction Quick Reference guides (site). The four 8.5-by-11-inch, laminated crib sheets pack a surprisingly succinct assemblage of how-to tricks and tips for mastering Windows 10.

Figure 4. Beezix's four-page Windows 10 Introduction guide provides a quick resource for common OS tasks. Source: Beezix

Instead of searching online to figure out Win10’s myriad setup, navigation, and other common functions, I found most of my answers on one of the well-organized pages. To squeeze in all the information, Beezix uses both its own original icons as well as ones found in Windows and then combines them with step-by-step numbering to guide users along.

Using the guide, I was surprised to discover some Win10 functions that are easier to use than they initially seemed. For example, the cards showed how to configure the various ways to sign in to the operating system (picture, typed, and PIN passwords). I also found quick help for resizing the Start menu and managing tile groups. It produced a forehead-slapping ‘well duh!’ moment.

Other concise tutorials show how to get the most out of the Action Center, the multiple ways to switch between apps and windows, the ins and mostly outs of searching with speech enabled Cortana, and working with multiple desktops.

But managing content with File Explorer gets by far the most coverage. The cards take you through managing files and folders; customizing the Quick Access View; and linking to a document, folder, or app.

A useful sidebar has all the keyboard shortcuts I wrote about in the Aug. 20, 2015, Best Practices article plus many more. It’s complemented with mouse/touch equivalents and a short section of working in tablet mode.

The Windows 10 Introduction Quick Reference guide sells for just $5.75. The company’s website hosts a huge assortment of other guides for Office apps. Obviously, they can’t cover all functions of an OS or application, but they do a good job of including the functions we use the most.

Lost and found: Windows 10's safe mode

Windows 10 might be a significant improvement over Windows 8, but it still possesses some of its predecessor’s dual personality.

That’s most evident in Windows system settings, but it’s also true of some built-in troubleshooting tools.

A workaround for accessing Windows safe mode

During the writing and editing of this week’s Top Story, it became evident that Microsoft is de-emphasizing one of Windows’ longstanding troubleshooting tools: booting to safe mode. That’s not entirely surprising: most average Windows users have forgotten about that option. But many advanced users and system admins still use it, according to our own Susan Bradley.

In brief, safe mode boots Windows with a limited set of essential drivers and startup files. Safe mode loads just enough to get Windows running. As noted in a Microsoft help page:

“Safe mode is useful for troubleshooting problems with programs and drivers that might not start correctly or that might prevent Windows from starting correctly.

“If a problem doesn’t reappear when you start in safe mode, you can eliminate the default settings and basic device drivers as possible causes. If a recently installed program, device, or driver prevents Windows from running correctly, you can start your computer in safe mode and then remove the program that’s causing the problem.”

Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to access safe mode either in Windows 8 or 10. As Lincoln Spector discovered while researching Win10’s recovery drive option, it’s especially difficult to launch safe mode if Windows won’t boot — which sorta defeats the purpose of the tool.

Here are three ways to start Windows 10 in safe mode.

A quick launch of Win10 Troubleshoot

As described in the Top Story, Win10 has a set of troubleshooting tools for fixing operating-system problems. The easiest way to access them is to open the start menu and click the Power icon. Next, hold down the Shift key and click Restart. That will pop up the “Choose an option” window; select Troubleshoot and then Advanced. (An alternate route is to click Settings/Update & Security/Recovery/Advanced startup.)

In the Advanced options window, select Startup Settings; you’ll end up with the window shown in Figure 1. It merely describes what options you’ll have. Click Restart.

Figure 1. The Start Settings window lists alternate startup settings — including safe mode.

At this point, your system will do a full restart. A second Startup Settings window then appears — with actual choices. As shown in Figure 2, pressing the F4 key enables safe mode. If you press it, Windows restarts again and opens with the classic minimalist look. (Interestingly, the safe mode window lists your current Windows build.)

Figure 2. Default Startup Settings screen in Windows 10

Rebooting out of safe mode returns your system to its standard startup format.

Launching the classic startup options

Surprisingly (or not), the traditional startup-troubleshooting options are still in Windows 10. On some systems, through a trick of the command prompt, you can have the OS boot to the DOS-like “Advanced Boot Options” window. Here’s how:

• Launch Windows 10 using a standard installation/recovery/rescue disc or flash drive.
• Select your language. If “Repair my computer” appears on the next screen, click it. Otherwise, click Troubleshoot/Advanced options/Command Prompt.
• Enter the following commands, as shown, on separate lines.

     C:
     BCDEDIT /SET {DEFAULT} BOOTMENUPOLICY LEGACY
     Exit

• Back in the Troubleshoot menu, click Turn off your computer.
• Power up the system again, and (as the boot process starts) repeatedly press the F8 key until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears, shown in Figure 3.
  

  Figure 3. The classic window for launching safe mode

Again, after you’re finished with safe mode, rebooting should return your Windows installation to its normal startup process. (A tip of the hat to Fred Langa for bringing up this tip.)

A few notes about this technique. On my system, I had to turn off Fast Boot in my system BIOS. Otherwise, Win10 would never see the F8 key command. So, as is usual with Windows, much depends on your particular system setup. You might have to experiment.

And has been previously discussed in Windows Secrets, on newer systems, the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot system can be problematic for self-booting media. For a refresher on that, see the Dec. 11, 2014, Top Story, “How to solve UEFI boot and startup problems.”

Windows 10 updating is still a mystery

For advanced Windows users, it’s bad enough that Win10 automatically installs all updates. But often there’s very little information on what the updates contain — other than a long list of modified files.

That means features can change in Win10 without any real notice. For example, the format of the Win10 Settings screen recently changed shape on my test machine. Admittedly that’s an extremely minor thing, but it points up the problem with poorly documented updates. I don’t know whether the change was due to a feature update or something else. And can we expect our Win10 experience to change without any sort of forewarning?

The answer appears to be: yes! — at least for now. For the average Win10 user, the silent evolution of this OS might be both a blessing and an annoyance. But for businesses, it can be a real problem. That point was nicely discussed in a recent The Register article, which mentions the efforts by our very own Susan Bradley to convince Microsoft to change its policy. Check it out.