Enable Fast Startup in Windows 8

Enable Fast Startup in Windows 8

Fast Startup is a Windows 8 feature that allows you to boot your PC / Laptop much faster than was available in Windows 7. This is accomplished by utilizing the hibernation file as a boot source,instead of the system needing to initialize and load drivers, services etc which take considerable more time. The below graphic illustrates this:

As with any new feature in operating system, some  people are reporting that there is some system instability associated with this feature such as hung start ups and BSOD. This is especially true in dual boot set ups. If this is your case then i would recommend that you disable this feature and see if this settles down the behavior. If the problem goes away, then its also possible to re enable in the future and see if the problem re emerges.

Enabling Fast Startup using Microsoft Windows System Settings

1. Log into Windows using an Administrator Account
2. Open The Control Panel and choose Power Options
3. On the left hand side menu is a link labeled Choose what the power buttons do. Choose this link.
4. towards the top of the screen, select/click change settings that are currently unavailable. You may receive a UAC prompt here, if so choose "Yes"
5. Towards the bottom of the page is a heading called Shutdown settings. under this is the option Turn on for fast startup. Select (tick) this check box to enable Fast Startup on the machine. 
6. Choose Save Changes to finalize these Settings.

NOTE: the Fast Startup settings may not appear of hibernate has been disabled. Enabling Hibernate will make the Fast Startup option 

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR Blue Screen BSOD in Windows 8

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR  Blue Screen BSOD in Windows 8

The KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR in Windows 8 blue screen tends to occur on a cold bootup, and will cause the machine to loop and reboot.

Commonly, the KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR is caused by a driver issue, or an issue with the MBR and is especially prevalent in systems that have slightly older hardware, such as those that have been upgraded from Windows 7.

To fix this issue, firstly you should consult the manufacturers site of your computer and ensure that you have the latest approved drivers for your system.

After this has been done,  boot the machine into Safe Mode (start pressing F8 when the computer is turrned on, you will be given a menu list, just choose safe mode). from here open a command prompt (easiest way is to go to the start menu and type cmd into the keyboard.

Once you have the command prompt open, you run a checkdisk program to find and fix errors in the MBR. the command to enter into the back command prompt is chkdsk /f /r which should identify and fix any errors on the disk. Often You will be prompted that chkdsk needs to be run on a restart and would you like to continue? choose y to do so

Hopefully this will help solve your KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR blue screen issues!

This article can also be found on our sister site DizzyIT.com at: http://dizzyit.com/2013/05/05/kernel_data_inpage_error-blue-screen-bsod-windows-8/

IE 10 Group Policy Settings in Windows 8

IE 10 Group Policy Settings in Windows 8

If you are running a 2008 or 2003 Domain, the group policy settings for Internet Explorer 10 are missing. In Fact, several Windows 8 options are not present if you look hard enough.

In order to leverage the Group Policy options available in Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10 you need to Install Microsoft Remote Administration Tools (RSAT) available here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972 . After you install this tool, you connect it to your 2008 Domain Controller and the Windows 8 Options will be available to you.

This Article can also be found on our sister site DizzyIT.com at: http://dizzyit.com/2013/05/05/10-group-policy-settings-windows-8/

Remove Burn Button in Windows Explorer

Remove Burn Button in Windows Explorer

You may want to remove the Burn button in Windows Explorer for a variety of reasons including security ( not allowing staff to burn in a secure Windows Environment) through to the fact that it just gets in the road. The Burn icon in Windows Explorer is shown below:

The good news is that its very easy to remove with some knowledge on how to manipulate the registry.

1. open the start menu and enter regedit either in the search bar of Windows 7 or just type it into the start menu on Windows 8. 
2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer .
3. right click in the white pace in the right hand window and choose new then Dword
   
4. name the dword NoCdBurning and set the Value to 1
   
5. Close the registry editor and restart the computer.

The above article details how to remove the Burn icon from Windows Explorer.

How to Delete Windows.old files in Windows 8 and Windows 7

How to Delete Windows.old files in Windows 8 and Windows 7

The Windows.old file is created when you perform an upgrade to Windows 8, perform a refresh, or perform an installation where you don't reformat the drive prior to installation (i.e you are installing Windows 8 onto the same partition as Windows 7).

In instances where you have done an upgrade on an upgrade (e.g. from Vista to Windows 7 and then again to Windows 8 you may also may have a Windows.old.000 folder present. this is the older installation data.

Having these files can eat up a lot of room, especially on smaller laptop SSD drives. in this article, we show you how to remove these folders.

Some of the methods listed below will also be applicable for deleting the Windows.old file in Windows 7 as well

NOTE: before deleting any files or folders, you need to ensure that you no longer need any files or folders located in this location. If in doubt you must back this up to external storage.

Method 1:
Deleting from the Command Prompt

This method is very straight forward and can be scripted for situations that invlove upgrades in an organisation.

1. Open an elevated administrator command prompt
2. To delete the folder, enter or copy the following command into the command prompt window:
RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%\windows.old

3. For a Windows.old.000 folder then repeat the above with the Windows.old replaced with Windows.old.000

Method 2:Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup can be used to delete the Windows.old folder. To do so:

1. Open disk cleanup (either Open Computer, right click on C: choose properties and then disk cleanup or type cleanmgr into a run command)
2. If you have more than 1 drive letter available  you will be asked to choose the drive you with to cleanup. Choose C: as the drive to cleanup

3. In the lower left hand corner, you will see an icon labeled "clean up system files", choose this.

4. You may be prompted by UAC, choose Ok. you may need to repeat step 2.
5. In the disk cleanup menu, scroll to previous Windows installations, and then tick this box. choose OK to continue. This will mark the Windows.old file for deletion.

6. If prompted as to if you would like to delete these files, choose delete files

7. this will now delete the windows.old file.

This article discussed how to remove Windows.old and windows.old.000 from Windows 8 and also Windows 7

Set Desktop Background via Group Policy in Windows 7, Windows 8 in a Server 2008 or Server 2012 Domain

Set Desktop Background via Group Policy in Windows 7, Windows 8 in a Server 2008 or Server 2012 Domain

Setting the desktop background for all machines in the domain is easy, and also normally a requirement for machine identification / standardization in a work environment. This article will cover setting for all machines in the domain, however if you wanted to apply to only a certain group of machines you could create a separate policy and apply it to the OU of your choice.

The process for setting the desktop background is as follows:


1. Type \\domain.local\sysvol in the start menu search bar and hit enter
2. Place your BMP or JPG file in that folder
3. Open the start menu and type gpedit in the search bar
4. Right click on the default domain policy and navigate to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Desktop\Desktop Top\Desktop Wallpaper and set the setting the the JPG you moved to the SYSVOL folder
5. Enable the Prevent Changes policy in that same location
6. Run a GPUPDATE/FORCE on one of the machines, log off and then log back in to test it.

This Article can also be found on our sister site DizzyIT.com at http://dizzyit.com/2013/04/14/set-desktop-background-group-policy-windows-7-windows-8-server-2008-server-2012-domain/

How to Install Features and Roles using PowerShell in Server 2012 and 2008

How to Install Features and Roles using PowerShell in Server 2012 and 2008

Server 2012 allows you to install features and roles via PowerShell. Before doing this, you may need to load the Server Manager Module with the command Import-Module Servermanager .

Firstly, you need to know the name of the windows feature / role that you wish to install. To find this information you enter the command Get-WindowsFeature . This will list the features available to install.

Server 2012

To install a feature or Role on a local machine, open PowerShell and type: install-windowsfeature {featurename} using the feature name you previously identified.

 Often this will require a restart,so you can add the -restart switch to the end of the command if you wish. It is also possible to install a feature on a remote machine using PowerShell by adding the -computername switch to the above command.

Server 2008

In Server 2008, the command to install is a little different to the above, but the switches are the same. The command used to install is add-WindowsFeature {featurename}  .

This Article can also be viewed on or sister site DizzyIT.com at http://dizzyit.com/2013/04/13/install-features-roles-powershell-server-2012-2008/