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Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Windows 11 Experience - Issues and How to Solve it

This year (2022) I bought a new laptop - HP 14S - running on AMD Ryzen 5 5500U with Radeon Graphics 2.1GHz, which comes with Windows 11 Home version. 

This article is made to list the issues faced with Windows 11. Back in 2005, I was on Windows XP on my first desktop, when many computer users were still stuck to Windows 98. Windows got smarter but I skipped next generations of Windows, and again back to Windows with Win 7 with new laptop in 2008. Win7 is stable experience on the oldie. But had to move on to a new laptop, as I have transition to Windows 11 in 2022. 

Noting down my experiences on Win11, as follows. 


First of all with SSD, it is super smooth. 

First I moved the dock like Taskbar (in the middle) to left. 

Creating partitions on SSD, I installed 2 partition manager and I was an idiot. Disk Management tool of Win11 is capable to do that. My old Minitool Partition Wizard also did not help. 


On 23rd Nov, 2022, my laptop got updated to Win11 22H2 (got Win11 23H2 update on 03/11/2023). And after the update I got error message: amifldrv64.sys load prevented by Windows Security. 

Clicking on 'Learn More' gets me on: Windows Help page

  • You can also open the Core isolation page by selecting Start  > Settings  > Update & Security  > Windows Security  > Device Security and then under Core isolation, selecting Core isolation details. Turn the Memory integrity setting Off if it isn’t already. You'll need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.


How to open the full right-click menu by default on Windows 11 (and revert) - XDA or here

Windows 7 or Vista look on Windows 11 by single command: https://betanews.com/2024/02/04/transform-windows-10-or-11-into-windows-7-or-vista-with-a-single-command/


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Softwares - Must Haves on Win11: 

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/windows-ultimate-collection-guides.4507867/

Ninite.com - download/update all apps

Win7/10/11 start menu - https://www.startisback.com/
NetWorx

Archivers
7-zip, PeaZip, NanaZip
>OldSchool< WinZip, WinRAR

Browsers
Opera/Vivaldi/Firefox 
Edge 

Browsers with VPN - Opera, Aloha Browser, Epic Browser, Avast Browser, UR Browser

Epic Browser has only 2 search engine options - Yahoo and Epic. 
EpicSearch is ad-free, requires registration and costs $2.50 per month. 

Other Mentions: Floorp (a Firefox fork, made in Japan, features similar to Vivaldi)

Opera's top extensions:
  • Install Chrome Extensions - NOT available anymore, as Opera supports Chrome extensions natively now. 
  • DownloadHelper - https://www.downloadhelper.net/
  • V7 Notes 
  • The Camelizer 
  • Shopper.com 
  • RightToCopy 
  • Privacy Badger 
  • Page load time
  • Allow Select and Copy 
  • Enable Right Click for Google Chrome 


Addons - uBlock Origin/Dark Reader/Pocket/Always on Top

Download Manager - XDM 
Multimedia Player - VLC/MPC-BE/PotPlayer


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Know Battery health: 

Select Search on the taskbar, type Command prompt, press and hold (or right-click) Command prompt, and then select Run as administrator > Yes.
At the command prompt, type powercfg /batteryreport, then press Enter.
The battery report will be an HTML file that’s stored in a folder on your PC. The file location will be shown in the Command Prompt window.

On Microsoft site - link
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How to charge your laptop via USB-type C port though it is for the data transfer only?

HP 14S comes with a USB type C port, but that supports only data transfer. MicroUSB is dead virtually, and USB-C is more universal. Even Apple adopted USB-C in iPhone 15 line up. 

In my case I need to carry the charger and the cords which came with the laptop, while I am carrying a USB-C cable with adaptor for my phone. I need to cut down the weight. So I looked for an adapter which can allow to use the phone's charger for charging my laptop. Thankfully I got something very useful on Amazon.in - barrel jack plug converter. It was easier to find out as the color coding helps. 

The link is here: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0CSYRG936/
The full description reads: Usb C To 4.5Mm Laptop Charging Adapter Female Type C To Male Dc 4.5 X 3.0Mm Barrel Jack Plug Converter 100W Pd Power Charger Connector Tip

Now I got it delivered, but found that it is not working with my phone's 33W chargers. I checked with the laptop charger - its 65W. So I got a charger from Xiaomi that's supporting 120W. Now the plug connector is worked! 





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Security apps: 

After my laptop got infested with malwares, I have to format the Windows 11 on the laptop. It can be easily done with Reset This PC (under Systems > Recovery). It took hardly 30 minutes to do so. I was concern about the disk partition - will it be intact or not. Thankfully the disk partition was intact - C/D/E. But on D & E partition the icon showing 'Yellow Triangle with !' My D Drive was completely blank - so I format it and voila the issue is gone. But for E drive I need to clear my doubts. 

Standing in the year of 2023, I had to opt for a security app for my laptop and I saw the world has changed a lot. My HP laptop came with preloaded McAfee AV along with Windows Defender. 

I got updated as just like little known BBK Electronics owns Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, realme, iQOO, the digital security space is actually dominated by Gen Digital (previously Symantech Corp, home of Norton products) who owns Norton, AVG, Avira and Avast brands. 

Today many smartphone makers are including a security app powered by a reputed AV company, for eg, Mi has tied up with Avast or Samsung with McAfee. Samsung has its own security stuff - Knox that's similar to Windows Defender. 

Even Indian telecom companies offer similar app - Jio Security is powered by Norton. Earlier Airtel had agreement with F-Secure. Now Airtel Secure is powered by different components from cyber security giants like Cisco, Radware, VMWare, Forcepoint etc. 

I came across SmadaAV - an unique antivirus from Indonesia - which aims to be offering second layer of security to Windows and USB flash drives. Web: https://www.smadav.net/?lang=en

Similar to SmadAV: Panda USB Vaccine is an old tool (last updated in 2009 til v1.0.1.4) for Windows. It is not compatible with Win11. When I was looking for it recently, found that Panda Dome is a new app from Panda Security - combines Antivirus and VPN. 
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/panda-usb-vaccine/

https://www.fosshub.com/Anti-Malware.html

Bleepingcomputer has several security tools under its download section. But many of them are not compatible with Win11. Still it is a good collection.

After 1 year, I got a superb deal from McAfee - LiveSafe 1 device came at Rs 199.00 (April 2023). 
Well later I found that this subscription came for 360 days only. 

In 2024 after a year, McAfee offered:
(www.mcafee.com/consumer/en-in/landing-page/retention/mls-family/livesafe.html) 
For HP Laptop: 
2yr, 1 device - Rs 1399
1yr, 1 device - Rs 0999
2yr, UL device - Rs 5299 
1yr, UL device - Rs 3599


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