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Windows 10 News and User discussion (1 Viewer)

Tony Bensley

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Tony - Just a thought... I know you have been running Malwarebytes scans (that is the best anti-malware program you can get, btw) and AVG antivirus scans and they have found and removed infections. I am assuming you have been doing this in normal Windows user mode.

Have you tried restarting your laptop in safe mode (you don't need to select the command prompt or networking options, the regular safe mode is good) and then running full Malwarebytes and AVG scans? If you are battling a nasty bit of malware or a virus, they can often times not be fully removed unless you are in safe mode which only loads the drivers necessary for Windows to function on a base level.
Thanks for the tip, Clint! I may try that if this current session bogs down into more "not responding" crap, but so far, it's been OK. Regarding Malwarebytes, I hadn't realized that any custom mode setting, even only tweaked by specific Hard Drive selection (I thought this was necessary to avoid even lengthier secondary hard drive scanning!) would automatically result in interminably long scanning sessions, which I still find ridiculous, as I don't recall pre 2014 versions being set up that way, but never mind!

On the plus side, this morning's opening of Firefox and Google Chrome didn't start with non responsive Icon clicking and for the first time in quite awhile, I wasn't greeted with Firefox's annoying "Well, This Is Embarrassing" message that has accompanied previous restore previous session fails!

CHEERS! :)
 

Tony Bensley

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Unfortunately for me, even going into safe mode with my current setup seems to be posing a challenge.

In Googling instructions for doing this with my specific Acer Aspire E1-522 Laptop, clear instructions do pop up - for Windows 8! In attempting to follow the steps for my Windows 10 setup, I've found this doesn't work, sad to say! I can't seem to locate anything for updated instructions for Windows 10, either!

One might think that more than 12 months after Windows 10 made it's debut, basic stuff like how to enter safe mode would have been sorted out, but evidently not! Every little step seems like manually applying Root Canal with dull instruments! :P

EDIT: Apparently, with Windows 10, one has to right click the "Start" Icon to bring up a slew of options for starters! OK, I'll give this a whirl!

CHEERS! :)
 
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Tony Bensley

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I finally figured out how to access safe mode with Windows 10. Apparently, it isn't tied to specific PC models, as pre Windows 8 models were! In some respects, I'm still XP centric, it would seem!

Once I'm back on the PC, I'll post the relevant instructions!

CHEERS! :)
 

Rick Thompson

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Microsoft Edge: I opened; I saw; I dumped. Its insistence on giving me that MSNBC newsfeed is annoying in the extreme. It also gets in the way of my accessing my usual sites. All in all, a nonstarter.
 

Harry-N

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Microsoft Edge: I opened; I saw; I dumped. Its insistence on giving me that MSNBC newsfeed is annoying in the extreme. It also gets in the way of my accessing my usual sites. All in all, a nonstarter.

Just go to ... ("More") (the three dots) then Settings and set your home page to whatever URL you want it to be. If you want no page at all then type in "about:blank". And then Open New Tabs with "a blank page".
 

Tony Bensley

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Here's the instructions for starting PCs in safe mode for Windows 10 as promised:

Start your PC in safe mode in Windows 10
  • Email
  • Hide all
    From Settings
    1. Press Windows logo key Windows logo key + I on your keyboard to open Settings. If that doesn't work, select the Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen, then select Settings.
    2. Select Update & security > Recovery.
    3. Under Advanced startup, select Restart now.
    4. After your PC restarts to the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options >Startup Settings > Restart.
    5. After your PC restarts, you'll see a list of options. Select 4 or F4 to start your PC in Safe Mode. Or if you'll need to use the Internet, select 5 or F5 for Safe Mode with Networking.
    From the sign-in screen
    1. Restart your PC. When you get to the sign-in screen, hold the Shift key down while you select Power
      11995_en-us_2


      > Restart.
    2. After your PC restarts to the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options >Startup Settings > Restart.
    3. After your PC restarts, you'll see a list of options. Select 4 or F4 to start your PC in Safe Mode. Or if you'll need to use the Internet, select 5 or F5 for Safe Mode with Networking

In case the above instructions become outdated, here's the direct link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

CHEERS! :)

P.S. Hopefully, this will spare some users the aggravation I went through earlier!
 
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Clinton McClure

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Yeah Tony, the full Malwarebytes scan can last a few hours, especially on large drives or older mechanical drives. I keep forgetting how spoiled I have gotten with my solid state drive that a full scan on my Windows 10 partition (250GB) takes less than an hour and a quick scan is less than 2 minutes.

Keep us posted if you find anything.
 

Tony Bensley

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Yeah Tony, the full Malwarebytes scan can last a few hours, especially on large drives or older mechanical drives. I keep forgetting how spoiled I have gotten with my solid state drive that a full scan on my Windows 10 partition (250GB) takes less than an hour and a quick scan is less than 2 minutes.

Keep us posted if you find anything.
The size of my main hard drive is 750 GB, which doesn't strike me as that extreme by today's standards, although my 6 GB of RAM might be a tad low, if that makes any significant difference.

My quick scan by Malwarebytes took about 1 hour and 20 minutes in safe mode. By the way, that scan and the previous one I did last night both indicated 9 Threats Detected at the end of the scanning, but nothing showed up in the actual display field that lists these, thus I was given no option to remove these, or perhaps Malwarebytes already took care of this, but then why were the exact same number of Threats detected in today's safe mode scan? :unsure:

CHEERS! :)
 

Clinton McClure

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It's possible the threats which were detected in normal mode were not completely removed. As I aluded to yesterday, some malware and viruses can remain attached to certain system resources and thus remain and replicate after a normal mode scan. Safe mode loads only the bare minimum for Windows to operate and doesn't really give malware anywhere to hide. This is why it's always good to run scans in safe mode if malware is detected in normal mode.

A good rule of thumb I usually recommend is to run a quick scan in normal mode. If you detect malware, boot into safe mode and run a full scan. If malware is detected and removed, after the scan completed, reboot into safe mode once more and run the full scan again to make sure the malware was fully removed. Usually malware which is removed by the first full safe mode scan will not show up in the second one. The same rule applies for antivirus. If detections are found in normal mode, boot to safe mode, full scan. If more are detected and removed, reboot back to safe mode and full scan again.

Your mileage may vary but it's been my experience that the hours you spend removing infections in safe mode pales in comparison to your level of frustration if you don't.
 

Tony Bensley

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It's possible the threats which were detected in normal mode were not completely removed. As I aluded to yesterday, some malware and viruses can remain attached to certain system resources and thus remain and replicate after a normal mode scan. Safe mode loads only the bare minimum for Windows to operate and doesn't really give malware anywhere to hide. This is why it's always good to run scans in safe mode if malware is detected in normal mode.

A good rule of thumb I usually recommend is to run a quick scan in normal mode. If you detect malware, boot into safe mode and run a full scan. If malware is detected and removed, after the scan completed, reboot into safe mode once more and run the full scan again to make sure the malware was fully removed. Usually malware which is removed by the first full safe mode scan will not show up in the second one. The same rule applies for antivirus. If detections are found in normal mode, boot to safe mode, full scan. If more are detected and removed, reboot back to safe mode and full scan again.

Your mileage may vary but it's been my experience that the hours you spend removing infections in safe mode pales in comparison to your level of frustration if you don't.
Unfortunately for me, one full Malwarebytes scan probably means the better part of 24 hours - no exaggeration! Even the "quick" Threat Scan took about 80 minutes in safe mode. The good news is my browsers are running much better than they were, although Windows Explorer did bog down once last night. I could add the rootkit scan later, if need be.

If you don't mind my asking, how much RAM does your PC have? Mine has 6 GB and is unfortunately limited to 8 GB capacity (Hardly worth upgrading for the sake of an extra 2 GB!); an important detail I was unfortunately unable to discover until awhile after purchasing the laptop, as that spec was inconveniently not listed anywhere online (Or even within the included manual!) at the time!

CHEERS! :)
 

Stan

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Just went through the 200 steps to clear my browser history, cookies, etc. from Firefox. Now, no matter what I do, everything defaults to a Twitter search. Just one more step for MS taking over? Why it would go to Twitter I have no idea.

Go to MS Edge and everything comes up just fine.

Don't really care, I'm very flexible with browsers, but just wonder if this is a Win 10 issue, maybe MS forcing us with their never-ending push towards their products, who knows.
 

Stan

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Three times in the past day, I just look at my keyboard, breathe on it or walk by and my display suddenly turns portrait, flipped landscape, etc.

I have to plug in a mouse, adjust my brain to the current orientation and can eventually reset it to basic landscape.

Why????

I've never had these issues with any other OS. Win 10 bites, but I deal with it.
 

Stan

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How do I change my avatar, or maybe a better question is where is my avatar?

Found a new one I want to use, it's somewhere on my laptop, I can see it, but when I try to change my avatar, all I get are sub-folders titled:

Suggested photos
Your photos
Profile Pictures
Timeline photos
Cover photos

None of which show my new avatar. It's there, under something. Once again, another annoying Windows 10 issue. I was starting to feel better about it, but the pendulum is swing the other direction again.

I go to "File Explorer", first thing highlighted is "Quick Access" so it's on my hard drive. My old avatar is nowhere to be seen, yet it's working. Where is it kept? A simple copy/paste and I could fix this, but have no idea where my current avatar is storedl

Read fast before this question is "Frezoned" by a certain moderator :cool:
 

Harry-N

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First of all, the Avatar that displays here is stored HERE, on the Forum. It was something that you uploaded to the HTF servers whenever you uploaded it.

To change it, all you have to do is click on your user name (next to your current avatar) in the upper right bar of the screen. That will bring up a drop-down box and you'll see "Avatar" as one of the choices in the left column.

Select that, and you'll be taken to another box with the avatar-changing function. At the top, choose [Choose file] in the Upload New Avatar box. This will take you to your very own computer for browsing functions. Browse to the file that you want to be your new Avatar and select it to upload to the HTF server. You should get a confirmation message that the file uploaded OK and you should see your new avatar in the box.

What can go wrong? If your file is too big, or cannot be loaded, you'll get an error message. Under the choose new avatar function, it says:

"It is recommended that you use an image that is at least 200x200 pixels."

That says to me that the forum software can handle something larger and size it down. But it probably should be a .jpg file so that it isn't too big. Square images work best as the forum will cut it down to a square shape anyway.

(And NONE of this has ANYTHING to do with Windows 10. It would be the same procedure in any Windows version.)
 

Clinton McClure

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Hey Stan. As soon as I'm in front of my MBP I will look into the Firefox issue (sounds like a search engine change is in order) and the (I'm assuming) Windows 10 user account picture location issue. It may be tomorrow though. I'm working overtime today and my MBP is at home. By the time I get home tonight I'll be going straight to bed then getting back up in a few hours to come back to work. I'll try and remember to bring it to work with me and look during lunch.
 

Stan

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First of all, the Avatar that displays here is stored HERE, on the Forum. It was something that you uploaded to the HTF servers whenever you uploaded it.

To change it, all you have to do is click on your user name (next to your current avatar) in the upper right bar of the screen. That will bring up a drop-down box and you'll see "Avatar" as one of the choices in the left column.

Select that, and you'll be taken to another box with the avatar-changing function. At the top, choose [Choose file] in the Upload New Avatar box. This will take you to your very own computer for browsing functions. Browse to the file that you want to be your new Avatar and select it to upload to the HTF server. You should get a confirmation message that the file uploaded OK and you should see your new avatar in the box.

What can go wrong? If your file is too big, or cannot be loaded, you'll get an error message. Under the choose new avatar function, it says:

"It is recommended that you use an image that is at least 200x200 pixels."

That says to me that the forum software can handle something larger and size it down. But it probably should be a .jpg file so that it isn't too big. Square images work best as the forum will cut it down to a square shape anyway.

(And NONE of this has ANYTHING to do with Windows 10. It would be the same procedure in any Windows version.)

In life this is just a tiny, minuscule piece, I'll certainly live. But if it's stored on HTF servers, how does it show up on Facebook, MSN and other places where I may comment? (Yes, HTF is not the only group of people I torture, I'm world-wide :P:P:P)

It has to be on my hard-drive somewhere doesn't it? I remember "stealing" it from somebody a few years ago just to tease a friend who supports the Arizona Cardinals, but have no idea where it is, just became part of me.:banana:
 

DaveF

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It sounds like you used the same icon for every service you signed up for, and so they all have it. There's no single sign-on spanning Facebook to google to MSN. And apparently you've since lost the icon.

If you want to change your avatar, change it. If you're having problems, you might get better help in the Support sub-forum of HTF.
 

DaveF

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Three times in the past day, I just look at my keyboard, breathe on it or walk by and my display suddenly turns portrait, flipped landscape, etc.

I have to plug in a mouse, adjust my brain to the current orientation and can eventually reset it to basic landscape.

Why????

I've never had these issues with any other OS. Win 10 bites, but I deal with it.
Did you try turning off this feature, from a few months ago?
Windows 10 News and User discussion

Have you checked it isn't a hardware problem with the computer?
 

Stan

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Did you try turning off this feature, from a few months ago?
Windows 10 News and User discussion

Have you checked it isn't a hardware problem with the computer?

I did do something regarding "tablet mode" which was on, and that cleared up a lot of issues. I've still got some goofy ones, but minor enough I just work around them when they show up. I still miss Windows 98, so easy, so comfortable to use, never had a problem with it. But time marches on, support stops, no more Service Packs, we're forced to keep up or be left behind.

My major issue now is that I'll be typing in a comment like this, then my left hand just brushes the right combination of keys and maybe the touchpad and everything vanishes. Sometimes it's cached and I can get it back on sites like HTF, but other places it's just gone.

Had a laptop that croaked about a year ago, some friends gave me an old PC with Vista until I got a new laptop. That was painful. Even as bad as Win 10 is, Vista was worse.
 

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