Posts Tagged ‘task scheduler’

Disable Automatic Reboot after Windows Updates in Windows 10

Tuesday, September 20th, 2016

This trick proves very useful in cases where an unplanned reboot of a PC might disrupt a critical capability …

One of the most frustrating experiences on Windows is the operating system’s default updating behavior. Windows is configured to download and install patches automatically when they become available. Many require a restart before they are fully installed on the system, and Windows will restart the system automatically if that is the case. While you can delay the inevitable restart if you are in front of the PC at that time, there is little that you can do about it if you are not.

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Software Annoyances that Need to Go Away

Friday, March 11th, 2016

I think the author of this article would probably find that a majority of users would agree with him, but since most of the annoyances listed are used by software companies as a means to generate additional income, I don’t think many of these annoyances will be going away in the near future.

I install hundreds of programs each year and while most of those installations work just fine and without issues, some come with annoyances that most users would probably like to live without. While many of the following annoyances are found in installers, some of them are experienced while the program is running, upgraded or removed from the operating system. The majority of annoyances perform operations without giving the user a choice in the matter, or hide the choice so that most users won’t prevent its execution.

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To-Do Suggestions for when your Internet is Down

Monday, March 23rd, 2015

If all else fails, one could always try actually stepping away from the computer and talking to one’s family and friends.

My Internet connection stopped working suddenly yesterday and did not come back up after cutting power to the router for a couple of minutes. And so began my two-hour calling technical support odyssey. I talked to four different employees of the company which all suggested things that I knew were not going to solve the problem.

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Schedule Regular Disk Cleanup in Windows 7 and Improve Performance

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Here’s a very basic (but also very helpful) trick for Windows users …

All versions of Windows feature the Disk Cleanup utility that liberates space on your hard drive when it is bogged down with useless data. It is important to use the Disk Cleanup utility in Windows 7 regularly, at least on a weekly basis. Much of the data that needs to be cleared includes temporary internet files containing sensitive data such as passwords and credit card numbers. By leaving the data there, you are simply begging for viruses to snatch personal information and overall operating system performance is diminished as this data accumulates over time. The following examples and steps are from Windows 7 but will work on Vista, as the two versions have many similarities.

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The Definition of Idle in Windows

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

An interesting answer to an interesting question …

When is a computer idle? A friend of mine asked me that question the other day after playing around with the Windows Task Scheduler for a while. One of the conditions in the Task Scheduler is the on idle condition which executes the given task if the computer has been idle for a given amount of time.

But what exactly does it mean, idle? I had troubles answering that question. I knew that it had to do with the resource utilization and user interaction, but was not able to provide exact figures.

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