Windows 10: Various windows UI menus disappear instantly, making the system unusable.

On my son's computer it started acting up today. The following things do not work:


1 Searching the start menu. On pressing any key while visible, the start menu disappears.

2 Bringing up the restart menu. It appears after a long and inconsistent delay.

3 Searching anywhere in the system. Search bar in Settings disappear instantly.

4 Uninstalling software. I can only modify - the uninstall context menu disappears instantly. Fortunately I can uninstall in the modify menu.


Things I have attempted:

• sfc /scannow
• dism both variants
• various troubleshooters
• installing all updates
• the big crazy powershell script that reinstalls all that ****.
• switching to other user profiles - each of my children have their own user account and they all have this bug
• turning off all startup programs in task manager
• restart with msconfig with all non-microsoft services turned off
• safe mode

Only safe mode works, and obviously it does not work after I *leave* safe mode, and living in safe mode is not an option. What does safe mode do that all non-MS services disabled not do? Idunno. Can't figure out.

:)

 

Metro UI Tweaker: Make Windows 8 Look Like Windows 7

For those of you trying out the Windows 8 developer release who already hanker for the old Windows 7 look, help is now at hand! Enter Metro UI Tweaker from The Windows Club. From the screenshots below, you can see that things like the Explorer Ribbon and the Metro Start menu can be turned off. It can do a lot more, however.













Note: This application requires the enabling of .NET Framework 3.5.1 on the Windows 8 developer preview as follows:
1 Fire up Control Panel then click on More Settings and go Programs > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off
2 Select .NET Framework 3.5.1 from the listing and click OK
3 Windows will connect to Windows Update to download the required files
4 When that’s done, you’re good to go

The tweaks currently being offered are:

1 Disable Metro Start menu: Disables only Metro Start menu screen. This function requires editing a system file. It does not remove the file
2 Disable Metro Ribbon: Disables only the Metro Ribbon UI. It requires taking ownership of a system file. It does not remove this file
3 Disable Metro Start menu and Ribbon: Disables the Metro Start menu UI, Ribbon UI, Metro Task Manager UI and the lock screen
4 Enable Metro Start menu and Ribbon: Re-enables all available Metro UI options
5 Add power options to the Metro Start menu screen: Logoff, Switch User, Lock, Sleep, Restart and Shutdown
6 Add any application/file to the Metro UI Start menu screen: Some applications/files may not be available to you to add to the Metro Start menu screen. This program allows you to add those applications/files which would otherwise be unavailable

When first run, the program will generate a folder in your Windows directory labelled Metro UI Tools. This folder is there to keep your power option apps in place without worrying about them having to be moved. Once generated and the files are unpacked from the program, do not remove the folder or the power apps from this folder as these options will no longer be available and may generate errors. The program works on 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. It's constantly being refined, so check the Windows Club website regularly for updates.

Sources: ZDNet | The Windows Club | Microsoft Developer Preview Intro | Windows 8 Developer ISO download page

 

Feature suggestion: Add right-click menu

Suggestion: Please add a Windows 7 Jump-List and/or right-click menu to the GPU-Z icon in the Windows taskbar. Possible menus in it would be "Exit" and "About GPU-Z...".
Maybe also "Switch to tab 1/Switch to tab 2/Switch to videocard 1/Switch to videocard 2" too.
Examples of programs that have such menus are ICQ, Skype, AIM.

NOTE: It seems for a right-click menu, Windows 7 is not needed - it works on WinXP and Vista too.
But even a Windows 7 Jump-list may be good enough.
What do you think?

 

Bloatware updates make system unusable

A couple of things just occurred to me.

The way a software update works is in two steps. The first step is to
download the files, and the second step is to install the files. The
problem I've been describing is that installing the files for Windows
apps (bloatware) takes over the whole machine, and makes it almost
unusable.

The Windows OS updates are installed by requiring a restart, and then
the installation takes place during the restart ("23% completed --
don't turn off your computer"), and that take a few minutes or a
couple of hours, depending on the size of the update,

The bloatware updates are similar, except that they don't require a
restart. Instead they simply make your system almost unusable for a
couple of hours. In other words, the OS updates and the App updates
really both take control of the computer, but the OS updates do it in
the context of a restart.

That shouldn't happen. The app installation should just run in the
background, and allow everything else to run normally. The fact that
it's making the system almost unusable means that the installation is
running at a high priority. If it ran at a normal priority, then
maybe there wouldn't be any problem.

Well, it occurs to me that the Process Explorer program (from
sysinternals) has a "Priority" column. I have Process Explorer up all
the time anyway, so it's handy when there's a problem. So now I've
added the "Priority" column, and I've set the display to show
processes in decreasing order of priority. And wow, there's a bunch
of them running at priority 13 (high), and most of them running at 8
(normal). Interestingly, Firefox and Chrome run at priority 4 (low).

So anyway, next time I get an attack, I'll take a look at the Process
Explorer window, and maybe that will tell me who's causing the
problem. And maybe, just maybe, I can just set that process to normal
or low priority, and solve the problem. (Sorry, I may have crossed
the line into fantasy thinking, but I can't help myself.)