Topics

1

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Support for windows 11

« on: October 05, 2021, 08:54:15 pm »

Hello.  You are probably already aware of this, but Windows 11 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11) was officially released today.  I Just wanted to make sure that you are aware of this so that you can begin working on updating tweaking AIO Repair so that it is compatable with windows 11, as it does not appear to be at the moment.

2

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Reparse point scan and repair error

« on: May 03, 2020, 02:29:20 pm »

Hello.  So I was running a reparse point scan and repair on one of my computers, and I noticed that, despite the reparse point being valid  and working, the scan is detecting an invalid symlink during the scan and failing to repair the problem during the repair.  This is the invalid item that the scan finds:



Below is the info in the log file when trying to repair the above item:

+-------------------------------+
¦[STARTED] [5/3/2020 5:03:00 PM]¦
+-------------------------------+
Running Repair on C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome Remote Desktop\CurrentVersion

   

• Command to Run: Create Target Path/Folder .\83.0.4103.2\
• Calling SHCreateDirectoryExW
• SHCreateDirectoryExW Returned An Error, Error: 161 - The specified path is invalid.

+--------------------------------+
¦[FINISHED] [5/3/2020 5:03:00 PM]¦
+--------------------------------+

3

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Winsowa AIO repair displayed inciorrect information

« on: March 10, 2018, 12:08:24 pm »

I just ran the read-only chkdsk scan in Windows AIO repair on one of my machines, and good thing I was paying attention since, despite the fact that I saw the console text display an error in the file system, Windows AIO repair reported in the main application window that no error were found when the process completed.  Attached is the log file which the chkdsk scan generated when Windows AIO repair reported that there was "no error"

4

Tweaking.com Support & Help / issue with reparse point scanning

« on: December 28, 2017, 04:28:21 am »

So I just performed a repair install of the latest version of Windows 10, and first thing I did when the repair was complete was boot into safe mode and run the pre-scan.  One thing I have noticed is that, whenever I perform a repair install and then run windows AIO repair (to verify that the os doesn't have any issues), the reparse point scan always finds the same errors each time I perform a repair install: reparse points associated with my Office 365 Office suite installation are always "erroneous", as well as reparse points associated with my Graphics card driver/software:
canning Reparse Points.
│ Started at (12/28/2017 7:03:48 AM)
│
Reparse Point: (Type: JUNCTION) (Name: NvTelemetry) (Original Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\NvTelemetry\plugins\NvTelemetry) (Target Path: C:\\C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\NvTelemetry\plugin) (Creation Time: 12/23/2017 7:25:45 PM)
Target Path doesn't exist!

│ Problems were found with the Reparse Points.
│ You can use the Repair Reparse Points Tool at the bottom of this Window to try and fix these problems.
│

It is also important to note that the original path is very much valid (verified using nirsoft tool "NTFS links view"), so something isn't quite working with the reparse point scan.

5

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Respectfully disagree

« on: December 23, 2017, 06:24:45 am »

In the Windows AIO application, I believe that the "scan and repair reparse point" functionality should be a valid fix in of itself, or at least its importance in resolving issues shouldn't be undersold.  Example: I recently created a custom install.wim of the latest version of Windows 10 for use in deployments, but when I deployed the image, the system was slow and my applications kept crashing.  Turns out that, for some reason, when I created the custom image capture (which, for those who don't know, usually entails booting a fresh install into Audit mode, which uses the administrator account to allow you to make changes which will be captured to your OS), all of the built in administrator's default reparse points had been deleted.  Using Windows AIO repair to add them back in resolved the issue instantly.  Still need to rebuild the image, but my point being that employees at the company I work for also use Windows AIO repair, and they just skip to the repairs without even looking at the other features.  I have tried to dissuade them from doing this, and actually follow the recommendations outlined in the help file, but there are a few who don't care.  Anyway, I would highly recommend that the scan and repair reparse points fix have its own repair entry, or at least not be downplayed by putting the text "THIS IS NOT A FIX" right at the top of the page where the repair is located.  Just my 2 cents..

6

Tweaking.com Support & Help / An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist

« on: October 09, 2017, 04:36:00 am »

There is a bug with Windows AIO repair.  After I run the repair "register system files", if I have the Remote Server Administration Toolkit (RSAT) is installed on my machine and I try to open "Active Directory Users and Computers", I get the above error and the one attached to this post.  I already found the fix: I simply have to re-register all of the dlls in the "System32" folder with the below command, and it starts working again immediately:
for /f %s in ('dir /b *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %s, C:\Windows\system32
EDIT:   Usually this resolves the issue.  However, and I don't know if Windows AIO repair causes this issue or not, but the above command did not fix it for me this time.  It took me a lot of research to find this, but the reason that the error is occurring is because certain registry keys were improperly modified:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mscfile\shell

When I expanded Author\command, open\command, and RunAs\Command, the default registry key for each entry was pointing to the 32-bit version of the mmc executable in '%SystemRoot%\SysWow64\mmc.exe "%1" %*'.  These registry keys need to be changed to point to the mmc executable in the "system32" folder instead.  Then it worked like a charm.

7

General Computer Support / On screen Keyboard keeps crashing

« on: June 23, 2017, 07:30:17 am »

Hello Everyone,
So I had a quick question involving an the fact that my on-screen keyboard will crash after I close it and only after the first launch since reboot on my Windows server 2012 R2 machine.  In order to troubleshoot, I mounted the wim from the base install media and compared the osk.exe files (the on-screen keyboard executable located in C:\windows\system32), and found that the hash values for these files was different.  The date that they were modified is also different.  So here is my question: Windows server 2012 R2 has been in use for quite some time, so is there a possibility that some Windows update or Windows feature that I have installed modified the on-screen keyboard executable so that it is no longer the same file that is included in the base installation media?  Also, if anyone has any idea as to why the on-screen keyboard keeps crashing, please let me know.  While it is not preventing the server from functioning correctly, it is an area of concern.  BTW, all running the following shows no problems with the os:
sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
chkdsk C:

8

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Windows 10 "metro app repair" changes windows store icon on task bar

« on: May 31, 2017, 08:31:54 pm »

So tonight is the second time I have run the Repair metro apps repair on a device (as in two separate installs, two separate incidents) running Windows 10 creators update pro x64.  And this is the second time that, after the repair was completed and the device rebooted, the Windows store icon has changed from the default:


To this:


While the Windows store apps APPEAR to be running normally (meaning that the problem that I was having which prompted me to use the repair in the first place was resolved), I have no doubt that something will crop up, because (call me a cynic) something always does.....

9

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Manage users and groups tool not working in creators update windows 10

« on: April 20, 2017, 08:09:06 am »

I have tried to create a local user on a domain joined computer using the technician toolkit 3 times, and each time it reports error code 0, but no user is created when I click refresh.  FYI

10

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Internet Explorer no longer functions after running repairs for Creators update

« on: April 14, 2017, 12:17:21 am »

I actually noticed this while I was trying to write a script which creates an internet explorer window, I kept getting the error:
> IE.au3 T3.0-2 Error from function _IECreate,  (Browser Object Creation Failed)
So, I went to check out internet explorer and noticed that the application is missing entirely from the start menu.  In fact, the only way to find it is by searching with Cortana.  I think that Internet explorer was updated in the creators edition (see pic), and applying the Windows AIO repair for IE to the Creators update version has dis-associated it from the operating system.  For example, I tried resetting the internet settings from Internet options in control panel.  Now normally, if there are any IE processes running, trying to reset internet settings will generate a popup box telling you to close IE first.  Even though I had Internet Explorer open (after I found it with cortana), I was still able to perform the internet reset.  When I launch it, it appears to function correctly, but I am very troubled that I am unable to script with it anymore.  Any thoughts?

11

Tweaking.com Support & Help / new release of Windows 10 reporting bad digital signiture

« on: April 08, 2017, 06:50:31 am »

Hello forum community.  So I updated to the newest build of Windows 10 a couple of days ago and I began getting an error when attempting to perform Dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth commands (even with the /source and /limitaccess arguments specified) that the source files could not be found.  In an attempt to fix, I ran Windows AIO app in safe mode, and found that, during the pre-scan, the following package file was found to have a bad digital signature:

C:\Windows\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-TestRoot-and-FlightSigning-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.15063.0.mum

So I mounted the "install.wim" of the boot media used, obtained the file in question fresh from the source, replaced it, and tried again.  It was still flagged as having a bad digital signature.  So, thinking that it may have been due to the in-place upgrade, I wiped my computer and installed from scratch.  After a few application installs (office, new adk, etc) I ran the above DISM command again only to find that I was again getting the source files could not be found error.  I then ran the pre-scan again to find that the exact same file mentioned above was still showing as having a bad digital signature.  Is this an error on the part of Windows AIO repair, or is this a Microsoft issue.  I am inclined to think it is a Microsoft issue, but wanted to get another opinion.

12

Tweaking.com Support & Help / USer manager not creating users

« on: February 11, 2017, 08:40:19 am »

I have tried this twice now with the user manager in technician toolbox.  When run on Windows 10 x64 pro redstone, when attempting to create a user when running the tool while logged in as the built in administrator, the tool not only fails to actually create the user, but falsely reports that it succeeded in creating the user.

13

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Volume shadow Copy and Reg backup

« on: January 28, 2017, 08:57:01 am »

Ok, so I I have never gotten this to work, EVER, but haven't really minded it because it still works with the simple copy method.  Now I am having to restart my computer simply to unlock a user registry file, so now seems as good a time as any to ask why, even when I specifically go into my "services" and manually run every single service that has the words "volume shadow" in it, why will regbackup absolutely refuse to use the method that utilizes volume shadow services?  Is the text that is shown on the registry back up window not accurate?  Does the application just not like me?  ?

14

General Computer Support / How to "delete files on next reboot"

« on: October 30, 2016, 06:59:40 pm »

Hello all.  I am currently writing a script in which I need to delete some constantly in use files using a delete on reboot method.  I have looked into the "PendingFileRenameOperations" registry key, but have yet to find a good example of its use or if it can be used to delete directories and their sub-directories and files.  Can someone advise as to if this is possible?  Is there another way to accomplish the same thing?  Which method would be best to use? Any advice would be awesome.

15

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Windows AIO repair sees I have a pro license, but at the same time doesn't

« on: September 05, 2016, 12:26:04 pm »

I think the attachment says it all.  Any idea what is going on?  Also, even when windows AIO repair is open, the useful taskbar icon will not appear, even when the shortcut is directly launched.  Any ideas?

16

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Technician's toolkit "manage users and groups" tool

« on: August 03, 2016, 08:33:20 pm »

Ok, so I have never quite seen anything like this in technician's toolkit before: I have a corporate computer that is of course a member of a domain.  But when I access the "manage users and groups" tool, when managing users and I select the local computer as the environment to search, it seems like it is, instead of saying "please wait" like one would normally see when the list is loading, it initially loads a blank list and seems to be actively adding all of domain user accounts to the list, even thought mind I have selected only to view the users local to PC.  What is going on?  NOte each picture is in groups: first picture shows bottom of list at time of first shot, and the second will show bottom of list as more items are added to list.  *EDIT*  Another interesting issue that I just found out concerning technician toolkit's "manage users and groups" tool on this particular corporate device: when ever I try to close the "manage users and groups" sub-tool, it keeps relaunching at my attempts to close it, forcing me to exit out of technician toolkit altogether to get it to go away.  Anyone else run into these strange issues?

17

General Computer Support / Windows 10 RSAT fails to install, but actually succeeds

« on: July 10, 2016, 02:20:54 pm »

Hey all.  Been a while since I posted to these forums.  But I have an issue which is causing me a great deal of frustration.  This morning, I performed two, separate clean installations of windows 10 Threshhold 2 using the iso obtained from the tech bench website.  Before I continue to the problem, however, it should be noted that I have written a custom powershell script which I use to automate the process of customizing my windows environment, which can be found here: https://gist.github.com/DemonDante/fb39757fdaf02071b47b24f234714318
Now, as a part of the customization (as you can see if you look at the script), near the end, I download the RSAT msu for Windows 10 and perform a silent installation and force a reboot afterwards.  Now here is the strange thing, and I have never had a problem with this before, yet it happened on two brand new installations that I attempted this morning: when the computer restarts and seems to be finalizing the "configuring updates" portion of the RSAT tool installation, when the process reaches 100%, it will say "We couldn't install the updates.  Rolling back changes".  Then it wikll restart a couple of times and then, when I log back in, I look in my start menu and, lo and behold, under administrative tools, all of the RSAT tools appear there and seem to work fine, and the update also appears in the list of "installed windows updates" in control panel.  I guess they didn't get the memo huh?  Anyway, I'm not sure how to pursue diagnosing this issue.  If i uninstall the update and attempt to reinstall it, same result.  Same result also when I extract the .cab file from the msu file and try to apply it to the online image using DISM.  I'm about to throw my pc out the window.  Any ideas?

18

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Improvement for technician toolbox

« on: May 22, 2016, 01:35:56 pm »

I have been using technician toolbox both personally and professionally (it is a great tool).  However, there is one feature that I would love to see added.  When accessing the "manage users and groups" portion of the tool, if the computer is a member of a domain, you get the option to select if you want to view the users/groups of the local computer or the domain, but the tool is limited in that respect.  Say I need to add a domain user to the administrator group on the local computer.  There is no way to do this in technician toolkit.  You can only interact with objects that are in the same "instance" (local or domain) you currently have selected, and I have to do it the manual way.  If this feature can be added, that would be sweet

19

Tweaking.com Support & Help / tweak in Windows AIO Repair causes high pitched sound on device

« on: May 17, 2016, 05:38:50 am »

So I am trying to think of the best way to describe the sound.  I am 95% sure that the sound is being produced by the hard drive for multiple reasons: 1) the sound kind of sounds like a very low volume "nail scraping across chalkboard" sound and 2) do to the way in which hard drives work (spindle moving along magnetized plate from which the spindle reads data).  I can completely imagine that this is the cause, and I am thinking that it is probably caused by (most likely) the tweak "Memory Tweaks - Cuts Down How Often Windows Accesses The Hard Drive" or (least likely) "Disable MFT Fragmentation".  The sound occurs about every 5-10 seconds, and persists for about 5 seconds before going away, and it does this until I restored the registry back to the backup I took just before I applied the tweaks.  One more key factor that should be considered here that will probably provide the "oh that's the problem right there."  My device doesn't use a standard hard drive, but a hybrid SSHD, basically "incorporate a significant amount of NAND flash memory into a hard disk drive (HDD), resulting in a single, integrated device." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_drive#Dual-drive_hybrid_systems).  Just wanted to make you aware of this issue, because the sound, as you can imagine, doesn't sound like its benefiting the hardware at all.  Quite the opposite.  Let me know what you think.  Also, since I do use a SSHD drive, I am constantly asking myself "should it be treated as a regular HD or an SSD?"  For example, defragmentation is needed and recommended for regular HDs, but is unnecessary and can damage SSDs.  How should I look at my drive in terms of its maintenance and upkeep?

20

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Registry backup will not start

« on: April 15, 2016, 09:04:17 am »

I am trying to lauch the registry backup program on some tablet devices, and I was until a couple minutes ago able to successfully launch and use backup registry.  Now the process won't even appear in task manager when I launch it.  Any idea what could be causing this?  The loading mouse cursor will spin for a half a second then go back to normal

21

General Computer Support / LOCAL policy editor issues after most recent Windows 10 cumulative update

« on: April 15, 2016, 02:18:51 am »

Ever since I installed the cumulative update that was released earlier in the week, I am getting the attached messages whenever I run "gpedit.msc".  The thing is, the snapin still loads and appears to be fine, but as those who work with policies know, policies are enforced in the background with no visual indicator that they are even there.  I also have windows 10 RSAT installed, and the error does not occur when I run GROUP policy editor.  I also have the windows 10 1511 adminsitrative templates installed as well (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48257), but I was under the impression that was for group policy not local.  Anybody else run into this?  I would rather not uninstall the update, as I really don't have the time to deal with this, but will if I have to.

22

Everything Else / Where do I go from here?

« on: April 03, 2016, 06:26:57 pm »

I currently work as a IT support engineer, but my true passion lies in the creation of software.  While I may not have anything major released, I have made  available my simple tools for those who would have a use for them: a form filler (https://github.com/DemonDante/FormFill/archive/master.zip) which I created as a means to expedite the process of filling out job applications back when I didn't have one.  Becoming frustrated with the inconsistency and unreliability of import tools to pull information from a document or site and put it in the right place (other form fillers which rely on HTML tag names have this same issue), I wrote this tool to allow for users to save their personal information to a file, the contents of which are encrypted with AES, so the only place which displays the user's confidential info is the GUI of the program, select which pieces of the information are relevant to the form they want filled, and insert that information into the form (either using a paste tool or when the user clicks the primary mouse button when the "I-beam" cursor is active) quickly and without needing to touch their keyboard.  Another tool, my updater program (https://github.com/DemonDante/UpdateUtility/archive/master.zip), which takes advantage of multiple powershell modules to perform both automated windows software installations and windows updates.  However, I would consider myself to be intermediate at best in regards to my knowledge and ability to write usable, production quality software, and I want to get better.  I took a few classes in college, but they never really got more advanced than how to create a GUI, and there are many things that I just don't know, like use of DLLs, COM/OLE Objects, creating Ser-defined functions, obtaining input from USB, Plug-and-play devices, and other advanced tools/topics. My question is, does anybody have any recommendations concerning reference material or maybe a tool which personally worked for you that could increase my knowledge and understanding of advanced programming concepts (eg DLLs for dummies or something).  And PLEASE do not say Microsoft development website.  I understand that it si a good tool as well, but I need to learn how to utilize the content posted there first, and their website is about as organized as an explosion.

23

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Technician toolkit run as system

« on: March 21, 2016, 08:55:13 am »

So I tried to run a command utility from Microsoft's Sysinternals suite, pskill, to terminate a virus scan process which was not responding.  Since the process was an antivirus though, I, even as the Admin, did not have access to terminate it.  So I tried running pskill from the RunAsSystem tool in technician toolbox, but technician toolbox, for whatever reason, kept telling me it could not find the file.  I even used the "copy path" feature in explorer to place full file path in clipboard and pasted it into the prompt.  Still couldn't find it.  Tried even copying it to windows directory: still couldn't find it.  Am I misunderstanding something here?

24

General Computer Support / [solved]Issue with Volume shadow service

« on: February 23, 2016, 03:00:30 pm »

Hello all,
I have a windows 2012 R2 server that I have configured, and I am running into a very time consuming and annoying issue whenever I try to create an image backup using windows server backup services or any other image backup software (tried macrium server, Imperium, etc.).  When the process gets to the part where it starts using the Volume Shadow service (for windows server backup services it says "creating volume shadow copy of the disks" ) and then hangs.  I access this server using RDP over my LAN, and the server will remain somewhat responsive (as long as nothing is clicked, like you can still see tooltips and the like), but after a long period of time, I completely lose connection to the server and cannot reconnect.  I then am left with no choice but to force power off the server, at which point it won't get past the "loading" pre-boot screen, and I am forced to reapply the image I have for it.  I have done all sorts of research, but most of what I have found is related to server 2003 and not applicable to my product.  I believe it has something to do with the way Volume shadow services is configured for my drives (it is not, "vssadmin" command displays no information for VSS), but I am unable to find a guide or tutorial on how to configure VSS FOR WINDOWS BACKUPS SPECIFICALLY.  This problem is driving me nuts and has consumed hours of time reinstalling server os.  Any help would be awesome.

25

Tweaking.com Support & Help / First pre-scan finds issue every time

« on: February 13, 2016, 08:02:50 am »

Whenever I install windows 10 on a computer, when I run the pre-scan, it always finds the exact same issue concerning an environment variable.  Here is the text from the scan:
 Checking Environment Variables.
│ Started at (2/13/2016 10:56:46 AM)
│
│ This folder in the 'PSModulePath' variable doesn't exist: C:\Program Files (x86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86)86X
│
│ Missing default folder in 'PSModulePath' variable: %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\
│
│ Problems were found with the Environment Variables.
│ You can use the Repair Environment Variables Tool at the bottom of this Window to try and fix these problems.
│
│ Done Checking Environment Variables. (2/13/2016 10:56:46 AM)

However, when I go into the actual repair environment variable page, It lists the environment variable under current, but with the valid path with only a single "x86".  This is more of a informative post than actual issue, unless it could potentially cause an issue, in which case let me know.