Some Notes on the Machines

This one really works:

http://www.pablosoftwaresolutions.com/html/baby_ftp_server.html

40 megabytes per second across a double LAN segregated with two routers. No authentication or encryption, just use it if you have to get data across fast, then take it down immediately.

Appears to work in Vista, 7, and 8. A whole lot of web references are out there on this. Just one example:

http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-vista-tips/manage-irq-settings-windows-vista-7/

One studies a list of IRQs and related hardware, and then choose the hardware to maximize priority upon using registry adds. Use msinfo32 (Hardware Resources, IRQs).

We then add registry entries here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl

It is reported best to include IRQ zero (0) and eight (8) to start with, this is system timer and real time clock. To do these two, add the following-named items as DWORD in the above area, value 1 for the first, value 2 for the second:

IRQ0Priority
IRQ8Priority

When originally looking at this, I was solving a tendency for my softphone to cut out during any load situation or drive access, and so I checked my PC using Device Manager and msinfo32 as above, and also added subseqeuent priorities:

IRQ7Priority
IRQ20Priority
IRQ21Priority
IRQ4294967288Priority

because on this box, 7, 20, and 21 were USB, and 4294967288 was the active NIC. After you have made the changes, reboot.

The above also produced much better response to VNC and RDP redirection via Labtech.

At least one resource states that one must not set the same priority to multiple IRQs. Duplication may be the source of some reports saying it is placebo effect. Here is a very interesting post with some seriously good-quality testing and results:

https://www.tenforums.com/performance-maintenance/140553-regedit-priority-control-irq.html#6

Try this:

https://www.av-comparatives.org/test-results/

Several fixes, some of them most interesting:

https://www.guidingtech.com/fixes-for-chrome-not-opening-on-windows/

Number 4 on that page, is most surprising, and often functional with new build upgrades.

Recommended by the amazing Yvonne Wynkoop.

Spotted these recently. All of these are to be run in administrative Powershell. On one Server 2019 machine, these boosted overall throughput from 7-25M to 600-700M.

File server ( Microsoft docs here )

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableMultiChannel $true -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableOplocks $true -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -ServerHidden $true -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -IrpStackSize 20 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -MaxMpxCount 4096 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -MaxWorkItems 16384 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -MaxSessionPerConnection 16384 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -TreatHostAsStableStorage $true -force

Clients ( Microsoft docs here )

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableBandwidthThrottling $false -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableLargeMtu $true -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableLoadBalanceScaleOut $true -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableMultiChannel $true -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableSecuritySignature $false -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -MaxCmds 16384 -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -MaximumConnectionCountPerServer 32 -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -OplocksDisabled $false -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -UseOpportunisticLocking $true -force
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -WindowSizeThreshold 2 -force

-WindowSizeThreshold may be good to set to 4 or 8.

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -IrpStackSize 15 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -MaxMpxCount 50 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -MaxWorkItems 1 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -TreatAsStableStorage $false -force

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableBandwidthThrottling $true -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -MaxCmds 50 -force
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -WindowSizeThreshold 1 -force

After a cleared positive from a major tool, this seems like a good suspenders-and-belt second scan:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/intelligence/safety-scanner-download

Our lawnmower finally wouldn’t start this year. I suspect it needs electrical cleanup or something, but it’s an extremely heavy Menard’s special which was a gift from a friend of Sweet Lori’s, and I just didn’t want to put money or time into it. So I put money into a new Toro 21” battery-operated mower. And I am flatly amazed.

It is lighter than anything I know of comparable in gas, even though its construction is nice steel; its maintenance is hose it off and charge the batteries; it folds vertical for storage (it’s set up well for this, and no liquids, no hot parts…); there’s absolutely no lack of power; and it mows our whole yard in half a battery. It’s a Toro 60V (same as my very happy leaf blower bought last year), so I have two more batteries if I need them. We have wonderful neighbors who have mowed our yard before, so I’m going to have that kind of fun soon.

But the most intriguing part for me, was what happened when the mower pulled us to denser growth. Immediately that thing knew it and increased the power output. The first and second time it happened I thought something might be wrong, but no, it knows, and it drives that power up and down according to need of the moment, immediately, no hesitation at all. (This is why well-implemented brushless motors are a very good idea.) For ages, some gas mowers have had “regulators” that are claimed to do the same thing, and I’ve used a number of them, but they’re nothing like this. It was “vroom!!!” and then wonder and look to see what was going on, and only then, “Oh, now isn’t that nice!” The only slight “gotcha” is that overall result tends to pull the walker occasionally, but for me that’s almost more of a plus than anything, it keeps me going at a good pace; I tend to be a slacker at mowing!

It was also interesting to see the result. I do the mulching thing, and not bagging or shooting, because I flatly don’t want the bother and the bags. Every other mulching mower I have ever seen work, leaves some larger bits as it addresses denser growth. Not this one. I walked around the whole yard after I was done, I had had the mower set on quite short, and I saw absolutely zero sign of cuttings. Zero. Amazing.

100 Kbps is more than enough.

…is often like a flying carpet in a hurricane.

There is some definite undocumented mystery concerning Volume Shadow Services in Windows. In general we are told to use VSSADMIN to do maintenance, and it does a lot, and helps a lot. But recently there was a Server 2012 R2 machine using 280G of space for System Volume Information on C:, and after CHKDSK and various DISMs it still was using 280G. So I tried removing all orphan shadows with VSSADMIN, and it found one and removed it; almost zero change comparatively. And then I searched a little deeper.

DISKSHADOW is built into Windows 2012 R2 and later, and earlier too I think, not sure how early. It may be a successor to VSHADOW which was an SDK add-on to 2003. Regardless, DISKSHADOW is a command-line environment of its own sort of like NSLOOKUP and DISKPART (!), not a simple command, can run a script of its own commands, and one of its commands is:

DELETE SHADOWS ALL

Now VSSADMIN DELETE SHADOWS /ALL deletes all orphan shadows, all VSS shadow copy sets which Windows knows are good to delete. The above within DISKSHADOW is a different animal altogether: it deletes them all. And does not appear to report anything to event logs (!). And definitely frees up a whole lot of space. And also, definitely not least, is flagged as infection activity by certain high-test super-anti-malware tools, when run! That was amazing, a Windows built-in being run with one of its own recommended commands, flagged. But I’ll think that that means this is to be used only when very needed. There may be gotchas I don’t know about yet.

As I write, the System Volume Information on this C: drive has been shrunken 290 (two hundred ninety) gigabytes, and everything is still running fine. There were originally 522 (five hundred twenty-two) shadow copies hanging out there of many different sizes, and DISKSHADOW was able to delete them all, all server services appear AOK.