Some Notes on the Machines

This page has some fixes that I haven’t seen anywhere else:

https://computerinfobits.com/why-is-windows-10-search-so-bad/

This command:

wmic product where name="Application Name" call uninstall /nointeractive

appears to do it. Put the whole long name from the software list in Control Panel, within those double parentheses. This works in at least some cases where msiexec /x does not. And it is not version-specific.

To get a full list of names with GUIDs, try this:

get-wmiobject Win32_Product | sort-object -property Name | Format-Table IdentifyingNumber, Name, LocalPackage -AutoSize

The Microsoft Update Health Tools appears to be an optional add-on which helps Windows do updates. Beyond that all of my searching has come up with vagueness. But Microsoft recommends it and often installs it without informing us, so probably it helps fairly often.

Microsoft Update Health Tools comes in KB4023057. To install KB4023057, we can use PSWindowsUpdate:

www.business.com/articles/install-windows-patches-powershell/

Here’s a complete run-anywhere command paste for preparing to use the module (administrative shell only please):

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process -Force
Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -Force -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue' > $null
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
If (Get-InstalledModule -Name PsWindowsUpdate -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue') {
	Update-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
} Else {
	Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
}
Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate

and the command for just KB4023057:

Install-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KB4023057

PSWindowsUpdate is a very interesting module all by itself, it can do lots of things, e.g., install all updates available from Microsoft. Another nice function is:

Reset-WUComponents

To get a full list of functions:

Get-Command -Module PSWindowsUpdate

Get-Help works for all of them.

One can install all updates available from Microsoft, though this can be dangerous, there are huge ones and drivers and BIOS too. So this simple command won’t be here :-)

To just see the list of available updates:

Get-WindowsUpdate

To install all available updates except one KB:

Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -NotKBArticleID KB000000

and except a list (here of two) KBs:

Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -NotKBArticleID "KB000000,KB000001"

where KB000000 is a KB to be excepted. There’s also -NotCategory and -NotTitle for items without KB articles.

As of very recently, Intel has divided its NIC support installs into two steps, one being driver, and the other being PROset, software which supports the driver and the hardware. Both are recommended. Here is the page for Windows 10:

www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18293/intel-network-adapter-driver-for-windows-10.html

When trying to get SVI contents out and vssadmin and diskshadow don’t work, this may:

wmic
(then it its own command prompt) shadowcopy delete

It will require “Y” and “Enter” to be pressed, it will do one at a time. One can also have it delete all noninteractively:

wmic shadowcopy delete /nointeractive

and in Powershell, one can run that noninteractive as a job:

Start-Job -ScriptBlock { wmic shadowcopy delete /nointeractive }

Some new data:

https://wiki.msp.exchange/troubleshooting/windows/windows_update/reset_windows_update_reboot_flag

If group policy cache is clear, group policy bugs are ironed out, and you still see bad/nonfunctional printers forcibly recreated and/or print-over-RDP doesn’t work, try this (you’ll need psexec) in administrative CMD:

psexec.exe -s reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider" /f
psexec.exe -s reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\PRINTENUM" /f
psexec.exe -s reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\PRINTENUM"
psexec.exe -s reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{0ecef634-6ef0-472a-8085-5ad023ecbccd}" /f
psexec.exe -s reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{0ecef634-6ef0-472a-8085-5ad023ecbccd}"

Any SMB-mapped printers will be deleted or grayed, IP direct printers will remain.

There is a built-in, hidden, “Ultimate Performance” power scheme in Windows 10, 11, and probably others:

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Does not include everything in a page on this site, but integration will follow soon :-)

Do these in order:

SFC /scannow

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

These fix a very large number of issues, 8.1/2012R2 and later. If SFC fails, run it again last, DISM sometimes has to repair the SFC component store. And occasionally, after SFC’s component store has been fixed and SFC rerun, the DISMs need to be done again for completion.

Sometimes IPv6 networking goes haywire, on a PC, server, or even a whole network. Machines are there, ping may happen or not, but one, some, or all of them just insist on using oddball IPv6 IPs to connect to each other, even though nothing has been changed voluntarily. Given that even after all these years there still are no useful IPv6 blacklists on the Internet, and given the excellent methods in place to use IPv4, we see no need for IPv6 at this time.

But Microsoft does insist on using IPv6 inside its operating systems, so we must keep it running; disabling v6 does harm in a Microsoft environment. The following is Microsoft’s recommendation to instruct Windows to prefer IPv4, which does eliminate the above issue. One adds a DWORD here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\

named DisabledComponents. Hex value 20, binary 32. Then reboot.

A quick way to do the registry add, in administrative CMD:

REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters /v DisabledComponents /t REG_DWORD  /d 32

Still you’ll need to reboot to get it to take effect.

The info is from this reference.