Steve

Heya @Willholmania First question I guess -- what's the push to move away from Mac? Is it just cost? Looking to move to a lower cost platform so you can buy a generic laptop? Just curious. From my standpoint -- I'm an Ubuntu newb... I guess I need to dig into that a bit more personally. -S

Hey there - can you point me at the article you're talking about? Will get it updated. Thanks!

Hi @slymonkey123 -- Welcome to the forum. First, this is not uncommon. Many if not all.... uninstall applications will leave artifacts of games and apps on your Windows system. They do this for several reasons, such as if you ever reinstall the app, perhaps you will want those saved games. Or perhaps you customized the app so if you install it, those old settings will remain. It's a very bad habit from software makers but I won't get into that. Nothing we can do. On the blog, we've documented how to completely uninstall software which should help you. Granted, nothing is 100% but, the app we talk about will crawl your drive and registry and look for abandoned files and folders and registry entries etc... Another tact you can try is good old file manager + a drive mapping tool. Here's the tool I use each time I do this. However, be careful as you might delete something your system needs. Keep us updated on your progress!

There are a few things you can do. This is not a complete list BUT, it's where I would start. Add Remove Programs -- Uninstall any software you don't need. You can also use a tool for this if needed. Over time, many things run in the background -- and you normally don't need all the junk. Go through and nuke anything you don't recognize or need. Free up your disk space by removing old no longer needed files. Low drive space can cause a lot of issues on a system. Clean things up annually if possible. Disable startup apps you no longer need. Some apps are useful but, if you don't need they to always run, remove them from the auto-startup. The best way to speed up an old system is to replace your hard drive with an NVMe Drive. These are cutting edge and in many cases, can extend the life of a system for years. This is my #1 recommendation. But, you will need to spend a little cash which is why I list it last.

Things have started but, you can see all our content here with the details. https://www.groovypost.com/tags/windows-11/ Enjoy!

Hi @Ron S Just a quick FYI - we have been playing with comments on the main site. Comments are enabled and if you still have issues, let me know.

Question from reader: Steve, Do you have anything in your library regarding the use "Signal" for messaging on PC, Android, Etc? Hello! We don't have a lot of content on groovyPost regarding this app however, we do have a few articles: https://www.groovypost.com/tags/signal/ You can also search around here: https://www.groovypost.com/search/ Regarding supported devices, Android, iOS, Windows, Mac and Linux are all supported - https://www.signal.org/download/ From what I know, you can setup Signal on your mobile phone, setup an account there and then install the Desktop client on Windows and Mac. You must first install it on your mobile to create the account however before you install on Mac and Windows. Hope that helps! Steve

How to Change Size of Desktop Icons: Right-Click the Windows Desktop Hover over View > and select from Small, Medium or Large Icons That should do it for ya.

I assume you did all the standard stuff - reboot etc...?

When I had issues with my system, it was a problem with my Bluetooth receiver. It was external to the system (you screwed it onto plugs on the back of the motherboard). It's an antenna I guess you could say. The problem was the same as you describe, it sounded "out of range". The fact that you moved your BT400 receive to another box and it worked just fine.... kinda kills the idea that it's the receiver. The next thing I would check is a different USB port. Perhaps there is some damage on the USB port. Have you tried to move the BT400 receiver to a different port?

Hi @Crazichic - Can you explain a little better what you mean by "virtual to logon a loptop"? Not sure I follow you.

Hi @AndreiT, I don't have an ASUS laptop however, on my Lenovo, using it's power savings software, you're able to put the battery into a mode which extends its life. When it does this, the battery will only charge up to 70-80% capacity. Many say this is a good thing as it prevents problems if your lithium battery remains at 100% indefinitely. So, my suggestion is to take a look at the ASUS power savings settings. You likely enabled a "Battery Saver" feature or something similar to this. Turn that off and it should charge to 100% again.

HI, Normally you don't want to interrupt your system when it's restarting however, anything more than 15-20 minutes normally means something is wrong. You should hard restart your PC by holding down the power button until the computer turns off. Restart the computer after and you should be fine.

Excellent! I'm glad you got it fixed! Thnx for posting the link.

hi @Jacques G Lerner - Here is a site with a few options: https://www.minitool.com/news/device-not-migrated.html I don't think this is a USB so you can ignore all that. I assume the drive is plugged in directly to your motherboard or PCIe card correct? That article has a few fixes you can try. I've personally never run into the "device not migrated" before, that's a new one for me. Here is another article: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/changed-sata-ports-ssds-and-hdd-device-not/6ff9bc60-dd4c-4d40-9b50-3bdc60bc7506 It mentions using EasyBCD to correct the drive. Take a read and let me know if you make progress.

Hi @jglerner So it sounds like the new Gagabyte NMVe drive died so you put the old SSD back into it. It's a bit hard to follow you above due to the typos but I'll try to help. My suggestion would be to put the old drive back in and then go into the BIOS and make sure the bios can see the drive. From there boot up. If you do this, what happens when you boot up? Does Windows start with the Gagabyte NVMe drive?

Message from JGLerner

Hi there @jglerner - Which brand of NVMe drive do you have? Also, is this a laptop or a desktop? Did you install the drive yourself? I assume it's plugged into an M.2 slot correct? When you go into Disk Management for Windows, do you see the drive in there? Thnx

Heya Rob, A few good answers can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/Tx1HS4EOW8SBDBC The short answer - no. However, you might be able to use the FireStick + another USB stick in the same TV to leverage additional storage on that USB device. Are you trying to add more content to it?

Hi Michael, You know the saying.... if it sounds too good to be true... Adding a USB drive to your computer is not going to speed up Windows. It's also not going to protect you if your primary hard drive fails. Sounds like a gimmick and a scam. There is no magic when it comes to speeding up your computer. The best way to increase the performance of your computer is to replace the main drive of your PC or laptop with an NVMe SSD or Legacy SSD drive (if your computer doesn't support NVMe M.2). https://www.groovypost.com/reviews/what-is-nvme-m2-ssd-drive-how-fast-is-it/ - What is NVME? https://www.groovypost.com/howto/upgrade-laptop-install-ssd/ - Install legacy SSD drive. Granted, if your laptop or PC was purchased within the past 3-5 years, it probably already has an SSD drive (or NVMe drive if it's 1-2 years old). Another way to speed up your computer is to backup all your apps and data and re-install Windows. This is a fairly drastic step which I personally don't do on my main system. It is an option however. Hope that helps.

In todays world, there is no great answer for avoiding SPAM other than changing your email address daily.... Alternatively, if that doesn't sound like a good plan to you, my next suggestion would be to use an email provider like Outlook.com or Gmail.com. Granted, they won't find all the SPAM sent to you but, they will get most of it and you can mark whatever they miss as SPAM to help train the AI to do a better job in the future.

One thing to keep in mind, VPN providers might actually throttle you as well. Something to keep in mind.

Negative. Still not possible on Windows. Microsoft Outlook for Mac includes a keyboard shortcut but not the Windows Version of Microsoft Outlook. For now, the best option is "Right-Click + L or V" as mentioned in the first post.

Hi @metzu - unfortunately, it's not that simple. Depending on how long ago you upgraded your OS to Windows 10, you may or may not be able to do a downgrade. Here's a few articles on the topic which explain things in detail. These are our own Articles on the topic: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/downgrade-windows-10-to-windows-7-windows-81/ https://www.groovypost.com/howto/downgrade-windows-10-previous-windows-version/ Give these a read and report back if needed here. Thanks! -S

Are these laptops or desktops? Sounds like they are desktops given you mentioned (mouse and keyboard). That's really funky. The update for windows should not impact video or keyboard during the boot process. Are you not getting anything during the post/boot cycle before windows? If it's an OS issue, you will get video in BIOS at least... If you're not, I'd verify the monitors are plugged in correctly and hard reboot the boxes. If you still can't get video you either have an issue on the motherboard, video card or monitor. If it's happening on two individual boxes..... that's a huge coincidence. You might have had a power event that fried something on box boxes. Again, very rare but not impossible. True to rule out each of those items individually before doing any replacement of the computers.