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Windows 10 Notes
General Preparation
Windows 10 Clean Install Instructions
- When performing a clean install of Windows 10, use the Windows 7 license key printed on the computer or from your "Windows Anytime Upgrade" purchase receipt. Windows 10 will recognize it as a valid license.
Product Key .vbs script (save to Desktop then run):
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId")) Function ConvertToKey(Key) Const KeyOffset = 52 i = 28 Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789" Do Cur = 0 x = 14 Do Cur = Cur * 256 Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255 Cur = Cur Mod 24 x = x -1 Loop While x >= 0 i = i -1 KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then i = i -1 KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput End If Loop While i >= 0 ConvertToKey = KeyOutput End Function
Make a bootable USB drive:
Pre-install and backups
Use Belarc Advisor to get an inventory of programs on the computer
For Microsoft Office:
- Note the current software key
- Reinstall office with the MS Office .iso installation file
- Use the same software key on the same hardware when the new OS is installed
Backup user data
- Copy every user's C:\Users\* folders to a USB drive or 2nd hard disk
- Take screenshots of the following:
- Desktop to restore look and feel after installation
- Installed programs (check one by one) to capture their specific settings
- Firefox, Thunderbird, WinSCP, Canoscan Toolbox, Crashplan, VirtualBox
- Any programs that run at startup
Installation
Use ISO boot instructions listed above
Post-install Cleanup
Mostly compiled 23 April 2016
Network
- Set IP to static address if needed
- Disable IPv6 if needed
- Test that you can browse network devices
2nd Hard Drive not recognized - Follow these steps
Enable Remote Desktop for Windows 10 Pro:
- The RDP feature is disabled by default
- To turn the remote feature on, type: remote settings into the Cortana search box
- Select Allow remote access to your computer from the results at the top
- System Properties will open to the Remote tab
Need to use xfreerdp for Remote Desktop Connection from Linux
- xfreerdp –no-nla -z -x m -x 80 -f XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:3389
Add shortcuts to start menu:
- First create a shortcut to the program you want to add
- Right-click, send to Desktop
- Drop shortcuts into the Roaming folder at %appdata%\Microsoft\WIndows\Start Menu\Programs
- This allows the item to appear in the "All Apps" menu
- Drag it from the list to anywhere on the start menu
- See this post and this post for more info
Restore File Explorer to Taskbar
How to Make Windows Photo Viewer Default image viewer
Add Shortcut to Internet Explorer:
- Right-click on Desktop, choose New > Shortcut
- Choose Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe for the program to run
- Give the shortcut a name
- After it's added to the Desktop, right-click and choose Add to Start Menu
Turn on Backups:
- Start > Settings > Update & Security (recovery, backup)
- Left sidebar, click Backup
- Choose a disk for the backups
- Toggle on for "Automatically backup my files"
- Click More options
- Choose how often to backup files (Daily)
- Choose how long to keep backed up files (1 month)
- Adjust folders as needed
- AppData
- Downloads
- Favorites
- Contacts
- Desktop
- VirtualBox VMs
- .VirtualBox
- Pictures
- Documents
- Camera Roll
- Videos
- Saved Pictures
- Music
To restore a file: