Tag: Windows 10

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Stop Chrome (or any app) from preventing Screen Locking and/or Screen Saver

A minor problem that has plagued me for some time, I would be done for the day, leave the home office, and yet hours later all 4 screens were still left on. I hate paying for the power to leave my screens on all night plus the fact it reduces the screens longevity. Most importantly, its a security issue. I want my computer to lock when I am not at it. Many times I press Win+L to lock but sometimes I forget.

I generally leave my security cams up on the top screen, and I was fairly sure Chrome has a way of telling Windows to not go to sleep because media was playing. Well, I was right.

Detecting the Issue

Simply run this command to see what is holding up the system:

powercfg /requests

Notice there under DISPLAY: that Chrome is playing video?

The Fix

The block Chrome from preventing the computer from sleeping simply run this command (change it from chrome to another app name if its not chrome):

powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS chrome.exe awaymode display system

Enjoy,

-Eric

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Fix: Windows 10 Start Menu (and Modern Subsystem) Freezes and Stops Working

Nothing gets me more upset than seeing a common issue that never seems to get fixed. Since Windows 10 inception I have noticed a rather odd issue that occurs about weekly where my Start Menu, all Metro (Modern) Apps, and even Internet Explorer (which is odd given its a Win32 App) locks up, freezes, and just plan stops working.

The only obvious cure had been to reboot the PC.

However through alot of trial an error have figured out a workaround to get your PC back on its feet.

The Workaround

  • Simply open Task Manager (CTRL + SHIFT + ESC)
  • Click More Details (if needed)
  • Go to Details
  • Locate: siHost.exe
  • Right Click, End Process Tree

Note: This may need to be done twice in my testing but should always return the start menu after that second try. Many times it only takes once.

More Detail

You may notice when this happens that there are the following events in the event logs:

The program ShellExperienceHost.exe version 10.0.10586.218 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
Process ID: 2290
Start Time: 01d1a082cc447ca3
Termination Time: 4294967295
Application Path: C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe
Report Id: 524e2a97-0c76-11e6-8dae-64006a80564a
Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.10586.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Faulting package-relative application ID: App

Also you may see errors about SearchUI.exe

 

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Workaround: Chrome will not PIN sites to Windows 10 Taskbar

I could rant for a long while about how Microsoft removed the verb “Pin to Taskbar” from the Shell.Application COM object but I won’t. I will simply say that I think they did that to keep OEM’s from putting crap on it when you buy a new PC. However as so often is the case, there was unintended side effects. Reasonable use cases like Chrome being able to PIN websites and Corporate IT being able to PIN corporate applications comes to mind. Lets not talk about how anti-competitive it looks when Internet Explorer (IE) is able to still pin items to the taskbar yet 3rd Party browsers like Chrome are left in the dust.

Ok I said I wouldn’t rant, here is the workaround.

  • Simply do the normal process in Chrome to PIN something to the start menu.
  • Then go here:
    • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Chrome Apps
      • Note: <username> will be your username you use to logon to Windows. If you dont know it simply go to c:\users and you should be able to figure it out
  • Find the shortcut Chrome created for your website, right click and you will see “PIN to Taskbar”

Also thanks to Reddit for figuring this out:

Chrome "Add To Taskbar" Issue
byu/Shinenite inWindows10

Leave a comment if it helped you!

-Eric

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Offline Downloading of Windows 10 Patchs

Anyone looking at Microsoft KB’s may be surprised to see that there are no direct download links. However you can still download the patches manually by finding and downloding them here:

http://catalog.update.microsoft.com

This can also be used to import patches into WSUS if needed.

Hope it help

-Eric

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Fix | Windows 10, “the connection cannot proceed because authentication is not enabled”

Ah security, the balance between not allowing access at all and allowing too much access.

In Windows 10 Microsoft changed RDP’s defaults. They modified the default for “SecurityLayer” from 0 to 2. Even if you go into the user interface and disable: “Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (recommended)” Still doesn’t change that value to a 2.

Simple fix:

  1. Open RegEdit
  2. Navigate to this Key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp
  3. Change “SecurityLayer” to a zero
  4. Reboot and done!