Stop Windows from Restarting Your Computer After Updates

Click on Start menu or screen and type "regedit" (no quotes). Start the Registry Editor that pops up.

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

If "WindowsUpdate" does not exist, create it. To create it, right-click on the "Windows" key in the sidebar and go to New > Key. Name the key WindowsUpdate, then right-click on that key and create a new one called AU.

Click on the AU key and, in the right pane, right-click on the empty space and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name the new DWORD:

NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers

Double-click on the new DWORD and give it a value of 1.

Reboot your machine.

Download Reg file

Tip from http://www.howtogeek.com/139993/prevent-windows-8-from-restarting-your-pc-after-windows-updates/

Clean Install Windows 7 With Upgrade Media and Product Key

Retail version of Windows 7 has two main primary type of licenses – full or full package product (FPP) and upgrade, where the most obvious differences between full and upgrade versions are different prices for full and upgrade license, and customers have to possess an existing Windows license to be eligible for upgrade license.

 Clean Install and Activate Windows 7 with MediaBootInstall Registry Hack

1. After booting up, ensure that no Windows Updates pending task which requires a system reboot to finish installing.
   Tip: Normally, an orange-colored shield icon will be displayed next to Shutdown button in the Start Menu Power Button or at notification tray area if a restart is required.
   If reboot is required, restart the computer to allow any pending updates is installed.
2. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit).
3. Navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
4. In the right pane, change the value data for MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0.
   
   
5. Open an elevated command prompt as administrator.
   Run the command below to reset Windows 7 activation status:
   slmgr -rearm

Tip from 

http://www.mydigitallife.info/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-and-product-key-on-formatted-or-empty-blank-hard-drive/

Transfer Autocomplete Outlook 2010 from one pst to another pst

The autocomplete list in Outlook 2010 is stored in folder

C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache

in the "Stream_Autocomplete_0_"numbers/Guid".dat" file.

When you get the new profile created in Outlook, open a new message and send it to someone then close Outlook and reopen it and close it.

This will create a new Stream_Autocomplete_0_"numbers/Guid".dat file. You can tell by the size because it will be very small like 8 kb or less.

Copy the Stream_Autocomplete_0_.dat file from the old PC to the new one and rename it to have the same name as the new empty file and Outlook will use and they have their autocomplete list back. You must close, reopen and reclose outlook before replacing the file.

You can also still edit the list with NK2Edit from nirsoft.net and you can convert entries in the list that are EX "Exchange" entries to SMTP entries.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nk2edit.zip

Tip from http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/270775-transfer-autocomplete-in-outlook-2010-to-another-pst

The Best Free Antivirus for Windows

Avast! Free Antivirus

http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?part=dl-85737&subj=dl&tag=button

Microsoft Security Essentials (also known as Windows Defender in Win 8)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

How to install an IPA without iTunes using USB

Download and install the iPhone Configuration Utility from Apple.

You can get it for mac or windows here (look for "iPhone Configuration Utility")
http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/

Here's some basic steps on how to use it:

To install an app using iPCU:

- Connect your iPhone/iPod to your computer via USB cable.
- Close iTunes, if it is open, before launching iPCU
- Launch iPCU. You should see your device appear in the “Devices” section on the left side of the window.
- (I didn't have to do this step... i think you can skip it if you've ever installed anything to your device before.) Add the provisioning profile (mobile provision) to the iPCU Library: Click on “Provisioning Profiles”, then drag the .mobileprovision file into the Provisioning Profiles pane.
- Add the application to the iPCU Library: Click on “Applications”, then drag the app into the Applications Pane. On Windows, the app will be a folder, named something like YourAppName.app. On Mac OS X, the app will be a single application file.
- Access your device: Click on your device in the list of devices on the left. You should see five tabs appear in the main window: “Summary”, “Configuration Profiles”, “Provisioning Profiles”, “Applications”, and “Console”.
- (I didn't have to do this step) Install the Provisioning Profile: Click on the “Provisioning Profiles” tab of your device. You should see your Ad Hoc Provisioning Profile in the list of profiles. In the “Install” column you should see either a button that says “Install” or a button that says “Remove” (if you’ve installed this profile previously).
- Install the app: Click on your device’s “Applications” tab. You should see your app in the list of applications. In the “Install” column you should see either a button that says “Install” or a button that says “Uninstall” (if you’ve already installed the app).
- If you've installed this app before, just click the button named "uninstall" then "install" to reinstall the app.
- If not, then just click the button named "install".

Slow progress bar in Windows Explorer folders (like downloads folder)

How to Fix Slow Loading Folders in Windows 7

To clarify, the load-delay can be seen in the directory box as a green progress bar that fills from left to right. Depending on how many files you have in a folder, this can take several minutes or even hours to load.

Locate the folder that is exhibiting the problem.  The easiest way to do this is to be in a directory one level higher than the folder with the issue.  Now Click the folder, ClickOrganize and Click Properties.

In the properties window, Click the Customize tab.  Under the “Optimize this folder for: drop-down menu, Select General Items.

Once you’ve done that, Click OK to save changes.

Error when creating mirrored (RAID 1) drives on Windows 7

Error:
"The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close the Disk Management console, then restart Disk Management or restart the computer."
Solution:
Shrink the volume then extend it - then add the mirror.

Use CMD to create mirror:

Run CMD (as Administrator)
Enter: DISKPART
DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        30 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online         8 GB  8189 MB
  Disk 2    Online         8 GB  8189 MB

For the purposes of this tutorial we will be creating a mirrored volume based on a set consisting of disks 1 and 2. The mirrored volume is created by first creating a simple volume on the first disk and then adding a second disk to the mirrored set.
The first volume is created using the create volume command combined with the disk= directive. The size of the volume may also be specified using the size= directive. Omission of the size= option will cause diskpart to create volume which occupies all the available space on the designated disk. For example:
DISKPART>create volume simple disk=1
Having created the first volume on disk 1 the next step is to add the mirror volume on disk 2. This is achieved using the add command as follows:

add disk=2

The list volume command may be used to verify the new configuration:

DISKPART> select volume 2
DISKPART> format fs=ntfs label="Mirrored Volume"

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.