PC insomnia

On 12/28/2017 01:35 PM, Ken Blake wrote:

I am anything but an evangelist. Microsoft does some things very
well, and other things terribly. I am simply reporting my experience
with my computers, my wife's computer, and several others I support.

Hi Ken,

And you probably did not buy crappy computers either. A lot
of my customers step over dollars to save dimes.

I have probably have supported about 200 or more over two
counties over the years.

People who find Windows to be unstable invariably either have flaky
hardware,

Agreed.

are infected with malware

Junkware especially is a total nuisance. I have
had customers with junkware bombs on them that could
hardly move their mouse. I usually go into a
Live USB and delete the temp files, delete offenders
from the run section of the registry, and nail anything
I know for sure in Program Files. Then boot back into
Windows and run junkware scanners.

, or have made bad mistakes in
setting up and configuring it.

Somewhat.

And, the big one you missed is that M$'s quality sucks.
If you have ever run Fedora and Windows Nein (w10) side
by side on the same machine, the dead comes to life
and you will know what I mean.

Fedora just works. When I support Linux and
Apple computers, I assist with software and configurations.
I very, very seldom have to dicker with the system,
fix crashes, fix jammed updates or any of that
type of nonsense. Fedora is a dream to work on.

The only reason to run Windows, other than if you
are masochistic, is that Windows has all the applications
and you can't get your work done on Apple or Linux.
This is why there is no end in sight for Windows.

And there are ways to cope with Windows. I have
a set of "Windows Self Defense" rules I give my
customers:

1) do not "collect" software. Be minimalist and
only install what you need

2) Windows is not ready when you boot it. It only
looks ready. That is a marketing tool to make you
think Windows boots faster that it does. Wait a
bit before starting to use it. Getting a cup of
coffee is perfect.

3) only have open what you are using. DO NOT start
every program you think you might use that day and
leave it running.

4) Windows typically crashes on the installment
program. Do not wait for the "spectacular" crash.
As soon as Windows starts acting "weird" -- arrow
keys stop working, etc. -- reboot your machine.

5) Windows need a reboot once a day to remain stable.
A nightly power off is perfect. And turn off "Fast Boot"

More than you wanted to know? Huh?

-T

On 12/28/2017 02:51 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 12/28/2017 2:44 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 12/28/2017 2:09 PM, T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 08:52 AM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 12/28/2017 10:04 AM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 00:01:17 -0800, T wrote:

The bad news is that Windows is not a stable operating system.


I completely disagree.



The
good news is that you can cope by shutting down or reboot once a day


I *never* do that--not unless an update requires it,Â* or I am going
away on vacation. And Windows remains completely stable.



Plus computers are like car tires, the longer you use them, the
quicker
they wear out.



I completely disagree with that too.



+1

Rene


Hi Ken and Rene,

This the only place I find anyone who thinks Windows
is stable.

If you guys are not being tech evangelists (fan boys) and
are actually being honest, it is a good thing that your experience
if different than mine.Â* Means there is hope for Windows.

Also keep in mind that I only get called when things go
wrong.Â* And, glossing over quality issues in Windows
does not serve my customers well.

Rather than smothering my customers with M$ marketing bull
s***, I try to coach folks in the direction as to what will
make Windows more stable.Â* Actually shutting the damned
thing off at night is a good start.

Since I do not charge for five minute calls, when I
show up at a bizarre Windows 8+ problem and
simply pull the power plug and turn off Fast Boot,
I do take it in the shorts.Â* I do not bill for travel
time and do not have a minimum charge.Â* Hopefully
they have other things that need fixing too, but quite
often not.

I make a good living off of Windows poor quality,
except for fast boot.

-T

I am being quite honest about this, I am not an expert but classify
myself as Having plenty of knowledge and experience (since 1975) on
various systems, WindowsÂ* is an extremely complex system which means I
will never be an expert but mostly manage to tame it to my liking.
I start it when I get up and turn it off when I go to bed.
I do a lot of experimenting and break it when things go wrong, So I
always have various copies of backups when required.
When I leave it alone it behaves very well week after week, no problems.
So yes It is stable, but I also have a good stable i9 system an an
Asus motherboard and a good 850 watt Coolermaster power supply which
all helps.

Rene



Sorry for the blunder, I must have been dreaming when I typed i9 !!! I
meant i7.

Rene



Somewhere out there I heard Intel was working on an i9. Maybe
you had that on the brain?

I can't tell much difference between an i5 and and i7 on
Windows (I can on Linux), so I tell folks to put their
money towards a fast hard drive, like an NVMe drive.

I recommend and sell Samsung drives SSD drives.
Stay away from Intel drives. I learned the hard way.

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 15:09:57 -0800, T wrote:


On 12/28/2017 01:35 PM, Ken Blake wrote:


I am anything but an evangelist. Microsoft does some things very
well, and other things terribly. I am simply reporting my experience
with my computers, my wife's computer, and several others I support.


Hi Ken,

And you probably did not buy crappy computers either. A lot
of my customers step over dollars to save dimes.




Yes, but then don't blame their problems on Windows.



I have probably have supported about 200 or more over two
counties over the years.


People who find Windows to be unstable invariably either have flaky
hardware,


Agreed.


are infected with malware


Junkware especially is a total nuisance. I have
had customers with junkware bombs on them that could
hardly move their mouse. I usually go into a
Live USB and delete the temp files, delete offenders
from the run section of the registry, and nail anything
I know for sure in Program Files. Then boot back into
Windows and run junkware scanners.


, or have made bad mistakes in
setting up and configuring it.


Somewhat.

And, the big one you missed is that M$'s quality sucks.




Once again, I completely disagree.



If you have ever run Fedora and Windows Nein (w10) side
by side on the same machine, the dead comes to life
and you will know what I mean.



I've never run any version on Linux on any machine. I have no interest
in it, and I have no problems with Windows.




Fedora just works. When I support Linux and
Apple computers, I assist with software and configurations.
I very, very seldom have to dicker with the system,
fix crashes, fix jammed updates or any of that
type of nonsense. Fedora is a dream to work on.

The only reason to run Windows, other than if you
are masochistic, is that Windows has all the applications
and you can't get your work done on Apple or Linux.
This is why there is no end in sight for Windows.



Again, I disagree.




And there are ways to cope with Windows. I have
a set of "Windows Self Defense" rules I give my
customers:

1) do not "collect" software. Be minimalist and
only install what you need



I disagree. What you install is insignificant. What you run is
significant.



2) Windows is not ready when you boot it. It only
looks ready. That is a marketing tool to make you
think Windows boots faster that it does. Wait a
bit before starting to use it. Getting a cup of
coffee is perfect.



Again, I disagree.



3) only have open what you are using. DO NOT start
every program you think you might use that day and
leave it running.



Depends on the program. With most programs, doing so doesn't matter.



4) Windows typically crashes on the installment
program. Do not wait for the "spectacular" crash.
As soon as Windows starts acting "weird" -- arrow
keys stop working, etc. -- reboot your machine.




Windows never starts acting "weird" here.



5) Windows need a reboot once a day to remain stable.
A nightly power off is perfect.



Again, I strongly disagree. Windows is completely stable and I never
reboot . I'll say it one more time: " I *never* do that--not unless an
update requires it,Â* or I am going away on vacation. And Windows
remains completely stable."




And turn off "Fast Boot"

More than you wanted to know? Huh?



What I know is that I strongly disagree with your "Windows Self
Defense rules."

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 16:38:40 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:



1) do not "collect" software. Be minimalist and
only install what you need



I disagree. What you install is insignificant. What you run is
significant.



And even that isn't always significant. For most programs, if they are
running, but not actively being used, they quickly get paged out and
have no effect on performance or anything else.

On 12/28/2017 06:00 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 16:38:40 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:


1) do not "collect" software. Be minimalist and
only install what you need


I disagree. What you install is insignificant. What you run is
significant.


And even that isn't always significant. For most programs, if they are
running, but not actively being used, they quickly get paged out and
have no effect on performance or anything else.

It used to be that very few programs had to be installed. You just run
them.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"The weirdest way to fantasize While frigid Solstice thaws Imagine-
Christless Christmastime! replaced by... "Jesus Claus"? [Gerald Tholen]

On 12/28/2017 04:00 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 16:38:40 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:


1) do not "collect" software. Be minimalist and
only install what you need


I disagree. What you install is insignificant. What you run is
significant.


And even that isn't always significant. For most programs, if they are
running, but not actively being used, they quickly get paged out and
have no effect on performance or anything else.


Ken,

You are missing all the S*** that gets copied into system32 and
the DLL hell it sometimes can create. Not to mention if you
remove a program and it clobbers a shared DLL.

Windows is a house of cards, but you can cope with it and never
land on what I am speaking of if you follow a the few simple
rules I point out.

-T

On 12/28/2017 5:19 PM, T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 02:51 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 12/28/2017 2:44 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 12/28/2017 2:09 PM, T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 08:52 AM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 12/28/2017 10:04 AM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 00:01:17 -0800, T wrote:

The bad news is that Windows is not a stable operating system.


I completely disagree.



The
good news is that you can cope by shutting down or reboot once a day


I *never* do that--not unless an update requires it,Â* or I am going
away on vacation. And Windows remains completely stable.



Plus computers are like car tires, the longer you use them, the
quicker
they wear out.



I completely disagree with that too.



+1

Rene


Hi Ken and Rene,

This the only place I find anyone who thinks Windows
is stable.

If you guys are not being tech evangelists (fan boys) and
are actually being honest, it is a good thing that your experience
if different than mine.Â* Means there is hope for Windows.

Also keep in mind that I only get called when things go
wrong.Â* And, glossing over quality issues in Windows
does not serve my customers well.

Rather than smothering my customers with M$ marketing bull
s***, I try to coach folks in the direction as to what will
make Windows more stable.Â* Actually shutting the damned
thing off at night is a good start.

Since I do not charge for five minute calls, when I
show up at a bizarre Windows 8+ problem and
simply pull the power plug and turn off Fast Boot,
I do take it in the shorts.Â* I do not bill for travel
time and do not have a minimum charge.Â* Hopefully
they have other things that need fixing too, but quite
often not.

I make a good living off of Windows poor quality,
except for fast boot.

-T

I am being quite honest about this, I am not an expert but classify
myself as Having plenty of knowledge and experience (since 1975) on
various systems, WindowsÂ* is an extremely complex system which means
I will never be an expert but mostly manage to tame it to my liking.
I start it when I get up and turn it off when I go to bed.
I do a lot of experimenting and break it when things go wrong, So I
always have various copies of backups when required.
When I leave it alone it behaves very well week after week, no problems.
So yes It is stable, but I also have a good stable i9 system an an
Asus motherboard and a good 850 watt Coolermaster power supply which
all helps.

Rene



Sorry for the blunder, I must have been dreaming when I typed i9 !!! I
meant i7.

Rene



Somewhere out there I heard Intel was working on an i9.Â* Maybe
you had that on the brain?

I can't tell much difference between an i5 and and i7 on
Windows (I can on Linux), so I tell folks to put their
money towards a fast hard drive, like an NVMe drive.

I recommend and sell Samsung drives SSD drives.
Stay away from Intel drives.Â* I learned the hard way.





The i9 is out now, 10, 12 and 18 core, Sells for up to $2600.00 for the
i8 core.
Apple is supposed to be using them in their Super high price iMacs
which start at $4999.00 up to about $13000.00

Rene

On 12/28/2017 05:03 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:


The i9 is out now, 10, 12 and 18 core, Sells for up to $2600.00 for the
i8 core.
Apple is supposed to be using them in their Super high price iMacs
which start at $4999.00 up to about $13000.00

Me thinks a waste of money, but I haven't tried one. A fast
NVMe drive makes all the difference int he world.

18 cores? Reminds me of the commercials for shavers that
make fun of multi blade shavers by showing a 10 blade shaver.

How in the world will all 18 cores talk over the same
busses? Oh well...

On 12/28/2017 7:26 PM, T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 05:03 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:


The i9 is out now, 10, 12 and 18 core, Sells for up to $2600.00 for
the i8 core.
Apple is supposed to be using them in their Super high price iMacs
which start at $4999.00 up to about $13000.00

Me thinks a waste of money, but I haven't tried one.Â* A fast
NVMe drive makes all the difference int he world.

18 cores?Â* Reminds me of the commercials for shavers that
make fun of multi blade shavers by showing a 10 blade shaver.

How in the world will all 18 cores talk over the same
busses?Â* Oh well...

Methinks it will be a long time before software is available for it,
Maybe Cadcam software. And professional people with awful deep pockets.

Rene

T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 05:03 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:


The i9 is out now, 10, 12 and 18 core, Sells for up to $2600.00 for
the i8 core.
Apple is supposed to be using them in their Super high price iMacs
which start at $4999.00 up to about $13000.00

Me thinks a waste of money, but I haven't tried one. A fast
NVMe drive makes all the difference int he world.

18 cores? Reminds me of the commercials for shavers that
make fun of multi blade shavers by showing a 10 blade shaver.

How in the world will all 18 cores talk over the same
busses? Oh well...

The previous generation of monsters like that,
used counter-rotating rings. Which doesn't sound
all that good. The newer generation uses a mesh
(bus grid). There are some pictures of the old and
new here. There were also some pictures on anandtech,
showing how the rings worked on the old high-core-count
ones.

https://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-x...-interconnect/

The AMD "Infinity Fabric" is some kind of mesh too,
but I can't find any really exceptionally detailed
pictures. I don't like "fluffy cloud" pictures for
tech, if I can avoid them.

Apparently, both the AMD CPU and GPU use that
connection method. But again, without pictures,
it's hard to say why in the case of a GPU.

Where the caches are located on these things is
important. If the interconnect between cores has
a high latency, it doesn't take much to make a
"far" cache, be about the same speed as a main
memory access. Making it functionally useless.

So those papers all those grad students wrote
twenty years ago, are finally coming to pass.
(I had an IEEE membership back then, and some
of the CPU papers were a practical joke, because
at the time, who could afford to build them ?)

The thing is, with modern silicon, there is plenty
of room for goofy stuff. But it costs money
and takes time to design those gates, and that's
the really amazing part of these things - knowing
how hard it is to make bulletproof things
that are ready for production. There's probably
no microcode to patch a bug in the mesh station.
So let's hope they started the mesh project
ten years ago, and had plenty of time to test
prototypes or whatever.

Paul

Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 12/28/2017 7:26 PM, T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 05:03 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:


The i9 is out now, 10, 12 and 18 core, Sells for up to $2600.00 for
the i8 core.
Apple is supposed to be using them in their Super high price iMacs
which start at $4999.00 up to about $13000.00

Me thinks a waste of money, but I haven't tried one. A fast
NVMe drive makes all the difference int he world.

18 cores? Reminds me of the commercials for shavers that
make fun of multi blade shavers by showing a 10 blade shaver.

How in the world will all 18 cores talk over the same
busses? Oh well...

Methinks it will be a long time before software is available for it,
Maybe Cadcam software. And professional people with awful deep pockets.

Rene


The Google developers who work on Chrome/Chromium,
use processors like that for their builds, as well
as linking to a ton of other boxes to accelerate the
build.

In fact, stuff like that is how a software developer
knows his or her boss, loves them. When they buy a
big thing like that for them to play with.

I bet if Microsoft developers could talk in public,
they'd probably mention getting machines like that
too.

They're not given quad cores any more. Only a cheap
manager would do that.

Paul

On 12/28/2017 04:48 PM, T wrote:
Windows is a house of cards, but you can cope with it and never
land on what I am speaking of if you follow a the few simple
rules I point out.


Although my rules would have not helped with this, I am in
the process of PCI certifying sever Windows 7 computers.
Four of the seven had their updates crashed. I wrote
the fix as a tip over on the Window 7 group.

Windows is a house of cards and as some have reported over here,
some never have an issue with it.

M$ Update service is a PAIN IN THE ASS. It speaks to M$'s
quality control issues. This kind of update crap does not
happen to this extent in any other OS.

T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 04:48 PM, T wrote:
Windows is a house of cards, but you can cope with it and never
land on what I am speaking of if you follow a the few simple
rules I point out.


Although my rules would have not helped with this, I am in
the process of PCI certifying sever Windows 7 computers.
Four of the seven had their updates crashed. I wrote
the fix as a tip over on the Window 7 group.

Windows is a house of cards and as some have reported over here,
some never have an issue with it.

M$ Update service is a PAIN IN THE ASS. It speaks to M$'s
quality control issues. This kind of update crap does not
happen to this extent in any other OS.


It's actually a design issue, and not a quality issue.

Windows Update does not scale well, the more updates
that are poured into the database.

Microsoft has attempted to fix this, by switching
Windows 7 over to jumbo "one a month" updates.
This is an attempt to hide the problem.

However, for a guy like you, this doesn't solve the
problem of "how do I get to Nirvana?". The thing is,
you have to get patched up enough, to load the Patch
Tuesday one, and if wuauserv is spinning in circles,
that might not happen for hours and hours. Just getting
prepared to get there, is a problem.

In the past, we found an article identifying two
patches that put the OS in an "as ready as it's gonna
get" state, and from there, you can attempt the
latest Patch Tuesday cumulative. OK, so I think the
search term I need is '369. Maybe these will serve
as a bread crumb.

http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/...aspx?q=3020369

http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/...aspx?q=3125574

The people at wsusoffline deal with this too. They
actually have a file in their download, which lists
the "pre-requisite" patches to make Windows Update work.
For Vista, there were at least five patches that
made up their list. (I actually got Windows Update
working on Vista once - it's a metric bitch!!!) And
if I needed to bootstrap myself today on the topic,
I might dig around my Wsusoffline collection for a hint.

If an OS has gone out of support there, then you have
to dig up the "last" version they offer, to get the
desired patch list. For example, the last WinXP-supporting
version was 9.2.1. Vista is no longer being supported, so
you'd have to discover which version was the last for
Vista, to get their best guess as to the patch list
to use.

Basically, any patch that has win32k.sys, atmfd.sys,
or some GDI thing, would have a lot of dependencies that
caused Windows Update to loop for hours on end. The people
at Wsusoffline know exactly which files are the troublemakers,
they analyze incoming patches and figure out which patch
supersedes one already in their short list, and that becomes
the "new fixer" on the list. And so on. That's the
methodology. I'm not good enough at that, to do it
myself. I tried my own hand at Vista. And failed.
Twice. I used their list on the third try, and it
worked. It took *days* for those combined experiments.
There was even hair loss and a blood pressure rise.
I almost bought a Balmer dart board.

Paul

On 12/28/2017 10:31 PM, Paul wrote:
T wrote:
On 12/28/2017 04:48 PM, T wrote:
Windows is a house of cards, but you can cope with it and never
land on what I am speaking of if you follow a the few simple
rules I point out.


Although my rules would have not helped with this, I am in
the process of PCI certifying sever Windows 7 computers.
Four of the seven had their updates crashed.Â* I wrote
the fix as a tip over on the Window 7 group.

Windows is a house of cards and as some have reported over here,
some never have an issue with it.

M$ Update service is a PAIN IN THE ASS.Â* It speaks to M$'s
quality control issues.Â* This kind of update crap does not
happen to this extent in any other OS.


It's actually a design issue, and not a quality issue.

Windows Update does not scale well, the more updates
that are poured into the database.

Microsoft has attempted to fix this, by switching
Windows 7 over to jumbo "one a month" updates.
This is an attempt to hide the problem.

However, for a guy like you, this doesn't solve the
problem of "how do I get to Nirvana?". The thing is,
you have to get patched up enough, to load the Patch
Tuesday one, and if wuauserv is spinning in circles,
that might not happen for hours and hours. Just getting
prepared to get there, is a problem.

In the past, we found an article identifying two
patches that put the OS in an "as ready as it's gonna
get" state, and from there, you can attempt the
latest Patch Tuesday cumulative. OK, so I think the
search term I need is '369. Maybe these will serve
as a bread crumb.

Â*Â*Â* http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/...aspx?q=3020369

Â*Â*Â* http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/...aspx?q=3125574

The people at wsusoffline deal with this too. They
actually have a file in their download, which lists
the "pre-requisite" patches to make Windows Update work.
For Vista, there were at least five patches that
made up their list. (I actually got Windows Update
working on Vista once - it's a metric bitch!!!) And
if I needed to bootstrap myself today on the topic,
I might dig around my Wsusoffline collection for a hint.

If an OS has gone out of support there, then you have
to dig up the "last" version they offer, to get the
desired patch list. For example, the last WinXP-supporting
version was 9.2.1. Vista is no longer being supported, so
you'd have to discover which version was the last for
Vista, to get their best guess as to the patch list
to use.

Basically, any patch that has win32k.sys, atmfd.sys,
or some GDI thing, would have a lot of dependencies that
caused Windows Update to loop for hours on end. The people
at Wsusoffline know exactly which files are the troublemakers,
they analyze incoming patches and figure out which patch
supersedes one already in their short list, and that becomes
the "new fixer" on the list. And so on. That's the
methodology. I'm not good enough at that, to do it
myself. I tried my own hand at Vista. And failed.
Twice. I used their list on the third try, and it
worked. It took *days* for those combined experiments.
There was even hair loss and a blood pressure rise.
I almost bought a Balmer dart board.

Â*Â* Paul

Awesome read. Thank you!

"design issue, and not a quality issue" are the
same thing to me. But I see your difference.

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 16:38:40 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 15:09:57 -0800, T wrote:

On 12/28/2017 01:35 PM, Ken Blake wrote:

I am anything but an evangelist. Microsoft does some things very
well, and other things terribly. I am simply reporting my experience
with my computers, my wife's computer, and several others I support.

Hi Ken,

And you probably did not buy crappy computers either. A lot
of my customers step over dollars to save dimes.



Yes, but then don't blame their problems on Windows.


I have probably have supported about 200 or more over two
counties over the years.

People who find Windows to be unstable invariably either have flaky
hardware,

Agreed.

are infected with malware

Junkware especially is a total nuisance. I have
had customers with junkware bombs on them that could
hardly move their mouse. I usually go into a
Live USB and delete the temp files, delete offenders
from the run section of the registry, and nail anything
I know for sure in Program Files. Then boot back into
Windows and run junkware scanners.

, or have made bad mistakes in
setting up and configuring it.

Somewhat.

And, the big one you missed is that M$'s quality sucks.



Once again, I completely disagree.


If you have ever run Fedora and Windows Nein (w10) side
by side on the same machine, the dead comes to life
and you will know what I mean.


I've never run any version on Linux on any machine. I have no interest
in it, and I have no problems with Windows.



Fedora just works. When I support Linux and
Apple computers, I assist with software and configurations.
I very, very seldom have to dicker with the system,
fix crashes, fix jammed updates or any of that
type of nonsense. Fedora is a dream to work on.

The only reason to run Windows, other than if you
are masochistic, is that Windows has all the applications
and you can't get your work done on Apple or Linux.
This is why there is no end in sight for Windows.


Again, I disagree.



And there are ways to cope with Windows. I have
a set of "Windows Self Defense" rules I give my
customers:

1) do not "collect" software. Be minimalist and
only install what you need


I disagree. What you install is insignificant. What you run is
significant.


2) Windows is not ready when you boot it. It only
looks ready. That is a marketing tool to make you
think Windows boots faster that it does. Wait a
bit before starting to use it. Getting a cup of
coffee is perfect.


Again, I disagree.


3) only have open what you are using. DO NOT start
every program you think you might use that day and
leave it running.


Depends on the program. With most programs, doing so doesn't matter.


4) Windows typically crashes on the installment
program. Do not wait for the "spectacular" crash.
As soon as Windows starts acting "weird" -- arrow
keys stop working, etc. -- reboot your machine.



Windows never starts acting "weird" here.


5) Windows need a reboot once a day to remain stable.
A nightly power off is perfect.


Again, I strongly disagree. Windows is completely stable and I never
reboot . I'll say it one more time: " I *never* do that--not unless an
update requires it,* or I am going away on vacation. And Windows
remains completely stable."



And turn off "Fast Boot"

More than you wanted to know? Huh?


What I know is that I strongly disagree with your "Windows Self
Defense rules."

Ditto on everything you said above. Todd's rules only apply to Todd.
Most people don't have the problems that he seems to keep running into.