There are some reports that an Outlook 2010 update that was released today (KB3114409 Dec 8, 2015) may impact operations of Outlook 2010. You may find that it will only run in safe modem, or your Outlook settings may get reset to default, or configuration changes you make will not stick.
If so, uninstall KB3114409 for now. Read more here
I will be honest. My first two smart phones years ago were Apple iPhones. I had an iPhone 3, and liked it enough to upgrade to an iPhone 4. I enjoyed them both. I refuse to use the word “love” when talking about a phone! I also have a Galaxy tablet back then.
When Microsoft came out with their Windows 8 phones, I knew I wanted to try one. So I went with the Nokia Lumia 920 three years ago. I liked it enough that when the phone cracked from repeated drops to the floor, I picked up an exact replacement.
But I’ve been biding my time for the Windows 10 phones to come out.
Microsoft recently announced the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL. I wanted to get the XL as it is slightly larger, but I decided to go with the Lumia 950 due to pricing and availability through AT&T, who released it on Nov 20th.
I will write up a report of my experience in a week or two. I have some an upcoming trip and will get to utilize the phone a lot during that time. I’m anxiously awaiting arrival of my Microsoft Docking Device
But my first impressions of the 950 are good ones. I was able to restore all my apps, settings, files and pictures. I was able to activate my SIM/Cellular from a web page or phone (so no driving to the local AT&T store to do it). It’s a cleaner image than the Windows 8 phone.
So, in the words of The Rocket Man … “I like it!”
I have done several in-place upgrades from Windows 7/Win 8.1 to Windows 10 without any real issue. But yesterday I unboxed a new Lenovo computer that came pre-installed with Windows 7 Pro, and I used the same Windows 10 USB stick that I have been using to upgrade this computer.
All seemed to go fine with the upgrade, and I was able to login successfully, including using IE and Edge to access the Internet. 
But, when I tried to click on Settings, I would see a quick flash on the screen, but nothing else.
I tried rebooting several times with no improvement. –>
I checked the event log and found a pair of events (Id 59 and 5973) that indicates an issue with Immersive Control Panel.
Doing a web search indicated that this issue has been encountered since the initial release of Windows 10 back in July 2015, but also, similar errors with Windows 8.1.
I finally found a Microsoft Answer post (click here) that pointed me in the right direction for a solution. Microsoft pushed out an emergency troubleshooter utility that you can download directly from the Microsoft web site:
Download, open and run this troubleshooting utility. It should identify the issue and fix it. No rebooting is required. It fixed my issue with opening the Settings app immediately.
Hope this helps!
The Windows 10 November 2015 update was a full upgrade, and in the process it stored a backup copy of the prior version of Windows 10 on your disk. And that’s a good thing … as it allows you to restore back to the prior version of Windows 10.
But that backup copy is taking up 20GB or more of disk space on your system C: drive.
It doesn’t hurt to leave it there.
But once you have been running with the updated Windows 10 for a few days, and things are running well, you may wish to reclaim that 20gb of disk space. You can do so in three easy steps:
Step 1: Run Disk Cleanup
You can start Disk Cleanup by typing in disk cleanup in the I’m Cortana. Ask me anything. search box at the bottom your Windows 10 desktop. Select to open up the Disk Cleanup desktop app, and select your system C: drive.
Optionally, you can right click on your C: drive from File Explorer, select Properties, and click on the Disk Cleanup button.
Step 2: Select to Cleanup system files
When the Disk Cleanup window display, on the bottom left, click on the Cleanup system files button.
Wait a few seconds while it rescans your disk drive.
Step 3: Select to remove Previous Windows installations
It will refresh the list of files that you can select to delete. Scroll through that list and look for “Previous Windows installations”.
On my computer, this was taking up 23GB of disk space.
Click to select this option, and then click OK. It will then display a final “are you sure” message box. If you wish to proceed, click Yes.
That’s it!
Microsoft announced the release of the first major update to Windows 10.
In prior terminology, we would be calling this Service Pack 1, but Microsoft want to simply refer to it as the November 2015 Update. During pre-testing phase it was referred to as TH2.
This update will be pushed out automatically through Windows Update.
It contains a slew of new new features and improvements, including
Read more on the Microsoft site:
http://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2015/11/12/first-major-update-for-windows-10-available-today/
I’m always open to using a new tool for the right occasion. Burning a system image .iso disk file to a bootable USB flash drive is such an occasion.
Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 both come with the ability to burn an .iso file to a CD/DVD. However, many computers no longer come with a CD/DVD drive, and so the need to create a bootable USB stick is very necessary. Plus the size of the system image .iso files keep getting large. Both the Windows 10 and Windows 2012 R2 .iso images are over 5GB in size, and won’t fit on a standard 4.7GB DVD disk.
A tool I recently found that worked extremely well is called Rufus. Not only is it a free, simple and straight-forward utility to use, what I also like is that it does not need to be installed — it is a portable program (single .exe file). At the time of this blog post, Rufus is at version 2.4.
There is a full description on using Rufus at this link. I am simply including the easy 1-2-3 steps necessary.
Download Rufus here. I recommend downloading the portable version.That’s it. Enjoy!
By default, Windows 10 is set to automatically detect, download and install updates for driver software. And, yes, it’s possible to turn off this feature. But finding where to disable it requires some digging.
For over 12 years, my recommendation and best practice has been to disable Microsoft from automatically updating driver software. It’s been a love/hate relationship with this feature for me. No sooner do I get comfortable with Microsoft’s ability to successfully install drivers, than an other driver issue pops up. I’ve made it a point to stop Microsoft from doing driver updates, and just go to the vendor’s web site and check for updates myself.
If you wish to turn off this feature in Windows 10, here are the steps:
And here are the associated screen shots:
Happy 20th anniversary to Windows 95!
It was on August 24, 1995 that Microsoft released Windows 95 (codenamed “Chicago”) with this video, featuring music from the Rolling Stones:
Microsoft released the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 10 on Aug-18-2015. This can only be installed on computers running the full release of Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise. The RSAT tool comes in both a 32-bit and 64-bit version.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45520
After Tuesday August 11, 2015, many users began to report receiving Flash Player alerts or warnings when using Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) on Windows 8.1 or Windows 2012R2. These popups warn about action scripts and other flash features.
The good news is that there is nothing to worry about. Your computer was NOT hacked or infected.
What happened was that in the August 2015 Windows updates, Microsoft accidentally updated the embedded flash player in IE11 with the “debugger” version of flash player instead of the normal version.
Microsoft has updated the notes for KB3087916 to reflect this known issue, which Microsoft says should be fixed by August 18th.