Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

--
John C.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

Programmatic modifying of filetype associations was removed in Win10 as
a security measure to prevent malware from doing the same. The idea is
the *user* gets prompted to make the choice instead of allowing any
process, good or bad, from changing the defaults.

I forget which program it was (VLC, or some other viewer) that thought
it could programmatically alter the filetype associations. Although it
claimed to be Win10 compatible, it still had settings in its config
screens to usurp the associations. It always failed on Win10. I
reported the defect multiple times, and eventually the author changed
the program from presenting an option to change associations, to making
it a button that opened the Default Programs wizard in Windows (which is
where you're now supposed to make those changes yourself under your
guidance and authentication).

I remember something like over a decade ago when you had programs that
would keep usurping associations from each other. When you ran a
program, it stole the associations. Then you ran another program, and
it stol the associations. RealPlayer was like this. Very rude in it
would steal the associations without every prompting the user. Then
malware came along that would steal the associations, because it was
very easy and trivial to do, so users' hosts got fucked up. So,
Microsoft finally countered by mandating the *user* must be involved in changing associations rather than let any process programmatically make
the changes. The user was put back in control.

In fact, for several "critical" filetypes, anything at attempts to
change them (without using the Default Programs wizard) will fail,
because Windows will see the association change, and change it back.
The critical filetypes have a registry subkey (UserChoice) that contains
a hash value computed by the Default Programs wizard. If a process
changes the critical association, but the hash is invalid, then Windows
will see the change as unauthorized, and change it to its default.
Someone figured out the algorithm for calculating the hash to provide a programmatic means of changing associations. Hunt for "SetUserFTA", or
read:

https://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
https://setuserfta.com/

Microsoft can easily change the algorithm for computing hashes, so the
tool will work until Microsoft decides to kill that 3rdparty workaround.

Of course, even when programmatic filetype change was permitted, you had
to be running under an admin Windows account to access the registry.
For a very long time, the recommendation is to use a limited Windows
account as your daily login account. Anything you can do then malware
can trivially do, too. However, if you're constantly doing admin duties,
a limited account is, well, too limiting, but then you're expected to
have the expertise of an admin if you choose to be your own sysadmin.

Security and ease-of-use are always the antithesis of each other. To
get more of one, you get less of the other. Microsoft decided users who
choose to be sysadmins get the joy of being sysadmins instead of
allocating those duties to any program that wants to be sysadmin. Thank
the malware author, and rude program authors, that change associations
without your permission, and often without your knowledge. You could
check if SetUserFTA still works for you. Consider it one of those many programs you pack into your sysadmin toolbox.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/windowsinternals/windows-10-how-to-configure-file-associations-for-it-pros

That mentions how to use a GPO (Group Policy Object) that you could
define, or push to workstations that log into a domain, or use DISM to import/export the associations. Or you could see if SetUserFTA still
works for you.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2/6/2025 9:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

I don't think there's any easier option. MS have taken to
blocking any software but their own from hijacking file
associations.

On the bright side, you can still set up Open With X
under HKCR\*. I have about 6 of those menu items, so
that I can bypass. For example, IrfanView is my default
for viewing iamges, but if I want to edit an image I
use right-click -> Open with Paint Shop Pro.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-02-06 17:00, Newyana2 wrote:

On 2/6/2025 9:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like
this?

TIA.

   I don't think there's any easier option. MS have taken to
blocking any software but their own from hijacking file
associations.

  On the bright side, you can still set up Open With X
under HKCR\*. I have about 6 of those menu items, so
that I can bypass. For example, IrfanView is my default
for viewing iamges, but if I want to edit an image I
use right-click -> Open with Paint Shop Pro.

Yes, I had similar problems when creating my Win 7 build, in that by
default any such associations are created for an individual user, in
other words in their registry hive, not that for the machine as a whole.
This means that any new users, including yourself if your profile gets corrupted, will have to go through the whole tedium all over again. I
made all the associations as a user, then exported all the various
sections of HKCU\Software\Classes, combined them into one, changed HKCU
to HKLM and then reimported them. Then I made a copy of the registry
file and edited it to delete the keys from HKCU.

As you say, it's a right royal PITA, but at least these associations
seem to survive the various upgrades, so far at least, unlike the
windows sizes, default choice of Details view in Explorer, etc, etc,
losing which are the bane of every so-called 'upgrade' of Windows.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2/6/25 09:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

Not sure it's the best item but... https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/file_types_manager.html
Nirsoft makes a lot of utilities for tweaks. File Types Manager is good, but here again
you have to tweak one at a time. The only + side is that with this, you can make an
'edit' and a 'open' option for files. I open an image with a simple viewer but I edit it
with GIMP.

Other utils https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html shellxview https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_view.html shell menu view https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_new.html shell new view.
--
Linux Mint 22.1, Cinnamon 6.4.6, Kernel 6.8.0-52-generic
Thunderbird 128.6.0esr, Mozilla Firefox 134.0.2
Alan K.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/02/06 05:26 PM, John C. wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this? >>
TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

Eg. Tried to install Nero 7 Essentials. No problem in W7, but in W10 the installation fails with several javascript errors. And this is
attempting to set it up from an OEM DVD.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

--
John C.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

--
John C.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 05:26 PM, John C. wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

Eg. Tried to install Nero 7 Essentials. No problem in W7, but in W10 the installation fails with several javascript errors. And this is
attempting to set it up from an OEM DVD.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Nero Essentials is a basic version of Nero's regular programs. They
already have limitations, and are often bundled with hardware, like
optical burner drives.

Instead of trying to install an old version, maybe you need to move to
version 11 of Nero Essentials -- which is already 13 years old, so
obviously released far before Windows 10 (c.2016).

https://windows.apkpure.com/nero-essentials

I couldn't find a newer version of Nero Essentials. Likely you got it
bundled with some hardware, and that was crippleware to start with. I
could not find Essentials listed at nero.com, so you probably have to
get it from some 3rd-party download site.

Or replace Nero Essentials with new optical burning software some of
which is free. There is (not an exhaustive list):

- Nero Burning ROM, but I'm not sure if it is free, or a trial (which
expires). Windows 7 SP-1, or later.
- Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE. Windows 10, 11. Thought I used this on
Windows 7, but was probably an old version back then.
- CDBurnerXP. Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 10.
- AnyBurn. Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 8,1, 10, 11.
- BurnAware Free. Windows 7, 8, 10, 11.
- ImgBurn (I used that for a while). Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000, XP,
2003, Vista, 2008, 7, 8, 10.

You do know you can burn discs using software already bundled in Windows
7, 10, and 11, right?

https://www.howtogeek.com/689705/how-to-burn-a-cd-or-dvd-on-windows-10/

With Windows 7, you used Windows Media Player, and maybe Windows
Explorer. Been too long to remember what I used on Windows 7.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this? >>
TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7 install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/02/2025 14:46, John C. wrote:

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file associations like in Windows 7?

https://i.imgur.com/HqUShts.png

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/02/06 07:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7 install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.

Well, it's very strange. My User Account is an administrator one, but
I'm having to right click on every program's setup file and choose "Run
as an Administrator". This worked when I installed Nero 7 Essentials a
little while ago. However, it installed the Lightscribe System Software
and when I just tried to remove it using Programs and Features, I got
the following error message: _________________________________________________________________________ LS_HSI

You do not have sufficient privileges to complete this installation for
all users of the machine. Log on as an administrator and then retry this installation.

[OK}
_________________________________________________________________________

When I click on the "OK" button, that ends the uninstall process without
it doing anything.

--
John C.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-02-07 03:11, VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 05:26 PM, John C. wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my >>>> files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension >>>> in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it, >>>> ...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the >>>> file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

Eg. Tried to install Nero 7 Essentials. No problem in W7, but in W10 the
installation fails with several javascript errors. And this is
attempting to set it up from an OEM DVD.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will >>> all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Nero Essentials is a basic version of Nero's regular programs. They
already have limitations, and are often bundled with hardware, like
optical burner drives.

Instead of trying to install an old version, maybe you need to move to version 11 of Nero Essentials -- which is already 13 years old, so
obviously released far before Windows 10 (c.2016).

https://windows.apkpure.com/nero-essentials

I couldn't find a newer version of Nero Essentials. Likely you got it bundled with some hardware, and that was crippleware to start with. I
could not find Essentials listed at nero.com, so you probably have to
get it from some 3rd-party download site.

Or replace Nero Essentials with new optical burning software some of
which is free. There is (not an exhaustive list):

- Nero Burning ROM, but I'm not sure if it is free, or a trial (which
expires). Windows 7 SP-1, or later.
- Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE. Windows 10, 11. Thought I used this on
Windows 7, but was probably an old version back then.
- CDBurnerXP. Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 10.
- AnyBurn. Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 8,1, 10, 11.
- BurnAware Free. Windows 7, 8, 10, 11.
- ImgBurn (I used that for a while). Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000, XP,
2003, Vista, 2008, 7, 8, 10.

You do know you can burn discs using software already bundled in Windows
7, 10, and 11, right?

https://www.howtogeek.com/689705/how-to-burn-a-cd-or-dvd-on-windows-10/

With Windows 7, you used Windows Media Player, and maybe Windows
Explorer. Been too long to remember what I used on Windows 7.

Yes, to most or all of the above. I still have Nero on my XP (32-Bit)
build, because in the days when the original build was created as W2k,
around the turn of the millennium or perhaps a year or two later, I was creating my own CDs of favourite tracks to use in the car, backing up
DVDs by making copies of them to play, copying stuff off my digital
recorder onto DVD, etc, etc. Now relative to then, disk space is so
cheap that I don't need to do any of that any more, I just back up stuff
onto my NAS, which in turn also has a backup NAS which mirrors it.
This includes all my entertainment - DVDs, CDs, ACs, VHSs, vinyls,
downloads from the the web, etc - OS backup images, etc. Nowadays
even car stereos can accept a USB stick, hence I haven't actually used
Nero for, at a guess, around 15 years, and never felt the need to
include it in my W7 build that was the foundation of all my builds since.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Mr Xi Ji Ping wrote:

John C. wrote:

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

https://i.imgur.com/HqUShts.png

Thanks, but I already know all of that. In fact, that's exactly the
process I'm trying to avoid having to use.

--
John C.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 06 Feb 2025 19:40:41 -0600, John C. <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 05:26 PM, John C. wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

Eg. Tried to install Nero 7 Essentials. No problem in W7, but in W10 the installation fails with several javascript errors. And this is
attempting to set it up from an OEM DVD.

I've recommended ImgBurn in the past to your request for an alternative to Nero.
https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=17940&group=alt.comp.freeware#17940

For a Portable version, Shadow replied in the thread about how to do that.

If you're still interested, v2.5.8.0 is found at https://www.videohelp.com/software/ImgBurn

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well, it's very strange. My User Account is an administrator one, but
I'm having to right click on every program's setup file and choose "Run
as an Administrator". This worked when I installed Nero 7 Essentials a
little while ago. However, it installed the Lightscribe System Software
and when I just tried to remove it using Programs and Features, I got
the following error message: _________________________________________________________________________ LS_HSI

You do not have sufficient privileges to complete this installation for
all users of the machine. Log on as an administrator and then retry this installation.

[OK} _________________________________________________________________________

When I click on the "OK" button, that ends the uninstall process without
it doing anything.

Nero Essentials 11 is 13 years old. The Nero Essentials 7 you are
trying to install is even older. Neither of those are designed to
install on an OS that didn't yet exist until several years later.

Lightscribe came bundled with Nero stuff. I don't remember if the Nero
install had a custom install that let you decide what to install, or if
they were rude in forcing the install of Lightscribe without your
permission. The final release of Lightscribe was 11 years ago, again
before Windows 10 showed up.

Windows accounts in the Administrators security group do NOT have full privileges, just more of them. Perhaps you need to run the installer
program (which is also the uninstaller) under the SYSTEM account. I
know SysInternals psexec lets you select under which account to run a
program. If you don't want to use psexec (Microsoft acquired
SysInternals), you could define an event in Task Scheduler that runs
under the SYSTEM accocunt.

Might be easier to use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of Lightscribe.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/unistalling-lightscribe-direct-disk-labeling/dea5ae74-4bc8-4c1a-bd2e-a388a170d004

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2/6/2025 8:40 PM, John C. wrote:

Eg. Tried to install Nero 7 Essentials. No problem in W7, but in W10 the installation fails with several javascript errors. And this is
attempting to set it up from an OEM DVD.

I've been using ImgBurn without incident for years, on XP, 7 and 10.
I just did a data backup to DVD yesterday.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Note that 7 -> 10 is no longer free. I've found that using 20H2
ISO on a Dell with Win7 worked fine, but not 22H2. I've yet to
try going from 20H2 to 22H2, to see whether it still activates OK.
If you go direct from Win7 to 22H2 you'll need to buy a license.

Did you already buy a license? In that case there's no issue.
But starting all over sounds rather extreme just because a
program doesn't work. If you think the Win10 install is funky
you could refresh it by mounting the ISO, running setup.exe,
and reinstalling while keeping files.

I haven't personally found much incompatibility. All of the software
I used on XP works on 10. Visual Studio 6 sometimes shows a COM
error message when the program opens, but there's no other problem.
Paint Shop Pro 5 (circa 1999 :) works fine. The scanner import
is sometimes slightly glitchy, but not a big deal. PDF XChange Viewer
Free had to be updated to v. 2.5 build 322.10. And all the software
I've written myself works without a catch, with the exception of
32-bit shell extensions. They can't run under 64-bit Explorer.

So a few minor issues,
but impressive considering that my software collection spans 25 years.
If this were Mac I'd need to replace anything more than 2 years old. If it
were Linux then all the software I used previously would likely be long
dead.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

John C. <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
[...]

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has been way too problematic.

Eg. Tried to install Nero 7 Essentials. No problem in W7, but in W10 the installation fails with several javascript errors. And this is
attempting to set it up from an OEM DVD.

As others mentioned, there are many alternatives (to Nero) and many
just use what comes with Windows. Not that I have burned that many
CDs/DVDs, but ever since Vista, I just used the built-in software
(before that, I had a Plextor CD writer which came with nero5 BURNING
ROM software).

What special needs do you have that are not met by built-in Windows
tools?

As to "every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has been way too problematic": Can you give examples of some of these other programs and
what kind of problems you had?

As mentioned, many of us are happily running very old software on our
new (10/11) systems. For example this very post is brought to you
courtesy 22 year old software running on Windows 11. So Windows 10 and
11 can still run quite old software, but that of course does not mean it
can run all old software, nor that doing that is hassle-free.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Just anecdotal, but our Windows 8.1. to Windows 10 'upgrade' went
without a glitch.

Anyway, good luck with your efforts.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-02-07 01:26, John C. wrote:

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

As I've had reason to state so often over the last couple of days that
people are probably getting bored of it, this is what I did around
2014-15, and it's been the foundation of all my builds since. My
penultimate day job before I retired was creating first the W9x and then
the W2k builds that were used on every PC throughout the UK offices of a
well known accounting firm, from memory I think that was some teens or
tens of thousands of PCs. I'd create the build, put it through
independent testing, and, when they passed it, the Ghost image file
would go to our suppliers to be put on every PC of the particular make
and model it was designed for.

I used this experience to create a webpage describing how to create
Windows images - it's still up there on my site ...

www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/Windows/WindowsImageBuilding.html

... but is too full of the nitty gritty details of the time to be much
worth reading now. However the PRINCIPLES that I followed for W7 were
exactly the same, the overwhelming ones being:

+ Keep things as simple as possible while still giving you what you
want in the way of functionality.
Don't install freebie software supplied with a particular piece of hardware unless it is worthwhile in its own right and would still be
useful in the absence of that hardware, because hardware dies, but, to
be most useful to you in repaying the time invested creating it, the
build will need to live on. The Nero example is one such - in its day
I used it a great deal, but I never use it now, so I installed it for
W2k/XP, but not for W7, and there's always ImgBurn, which is more
specific in its functionality and I suspect therefore puts less hooks
into the system, if I should need something like that.
Particularly, where possible avoid things that appear in the System
Tray, things like netcard drivers that install an unnecessary program to monitor your net connection, Windows has its own icon that does that
anyway, or printer drivers that launch a monitoring program that runs permanently in the background. How often do you need actually to print anything these days? Not often, so, if you need a monitoring program at
all, you only need it while actually printing, not running all the time consuming resources. Scanners are another example of hardware that
loads a service &/or system tray program, but it may not be easy or
desirable to do without them
The other types of resident programs to avoid are things like fast
start options for software. Adobe PDF viewer is an example of software
that used to launch, and perhaps still does, a resident program on boot
to preload all the libraries necessary to view a PDF, so that, if and
when you do actually view a PDF, it appears to load very quickly, but,
unless you really do read a lot of PDFs, all the rest of the time it is consuming resources for nothing, thus making the entire OS more sluggish
than it need be, in particular when loading and drawing the Desktop
after log on. Office programs do this as well. Most probably, you
should disable such options where possible.
However, what to do in any one particular case depends on your usage
and is down to you, I can only give general, not specific, advice.

+ Separate data from OS and programs. In the firm we used to keep
all the user's data in a separate folder off the root, so that when a
user upgraded their PC, we could just copy the folder from the old one
to the new. This meant when creating the builds going through all the installed software altering the settings to offer default save and open locations within this directory structure, rather than in the user's
profile directory.
I do the same except that all my data is on a different partition.
I make the OS partition as small as possible while still allowing the OS
to run well, about 64-80GB for Windows 7/10/11 depending on the amount
of RAM in the system (the more RAM, the greater the size of the
hibernation file C:\hibefil.sys), and having search indexing completely disabled as IME it is useless and just wastes runtime resources and
consuming unjustifiably huge amounts of disk space to accomplish next to nothing that is genuinely useful. This means there is nothing,
literally nothing, of my own on the OS partition, and I can replace W7
OS with a W10 or W11 OS without affecting my data at all.

HTHs

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/02/06 05:40 PM, John C. wrote:

On 25/02/06 05:26 PM, John C. wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

Eg. Tried to install Nero 7 Essentials. No problem in W7, but in W10 the installation fails with several javascript errors. And this is
attempting to set it up from an OEM DVD.

Was able to get it installed this morning. Works fine.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Not at this point though. I've almost got the computer back to where it
was before the failed update install caused all the problems.

--
John C.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/02/07 06:18 AM, VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well, it's very strange. My User Account is an administrator one, but
I'm having to right click on every program's setup file and choose "Run
as an Administrator". This worked when I installed Nero 7 Essentials a
little while ago. However, it installed the Lightscribe System Software
and when I just tried to remove it using Programs and Features, I got
the following error message:
_________________________________________________________________________
LS_HSI

You do not have sufficient privileges to complete this installation for
all users of the machine. Log on as an administrator and then retry this
installation.

[OK}
_________________________________________________________________________

When I click on the "OK" button, that ends the uninstall process without
it doing anything.

Nero Essentials 11 is 13 years old. The Nero Essentials 7 you are
trying to install is even older. Neither of those are designed to
install on an OS that didn't yet exist until several years later.

Finally got it installed this morning. Working fine.

Lightscribe came bundled with Nero stuff. I don't remember if the Nero install had a custom install that let you decide what to install, or if
they were rude in forcing the install of Lightscribe without your
permission. The final release of Lightscribe was 11 years ago, again
before Windows 10 showed up.

Yeah, it got installed in the background this morning and at no point
during the setup was I allowed an opportunity to turn it down. Not only
that, but it didn't want to get uninstalled. Eventually though, I was
able to use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of it.

Windows accounts in the Administrators security group do NOT have full privileges, just more of them. Perhaps you need to run the installer
program (which is also the uninstaller) under the SYSTEM account. I
know SysInternals psexec lets you select under which account to run a program. If you don't want to use psexec (Microsoft acquired
SysInternals), you could define an event in Task Scheduler that runs
under the SYSTEM accocunt.

I actually ran the Nero setup as an administrator. That's what got it installed.

Might be easier to use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of Lightscribe.

Yes, MS Copilot told me that and it worked.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/unistalling-lightscribe-direct-disk-labeling/dea5ae74-4bc8-4c1a-bd2e-a388a170d004

--
John C.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Lightscribe came bundled with Nero stuff. I don't remember if the Nero
install had a custom install that let you decide what to install, or if
they were rude in forcing the install of Lightscribe without your
permission.

Yeah, it got installed in the background this morning and at no point
during the setup was I allowed an opportunity to turn it down. Not only
that, but it didn't want to get uninstalled. Eventually though, I was
able to use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of it.

I've used Revo Uninstaller free for awhile. I even paid for it, but it
became subscriptionware ($25 for 1 year), and eventually I got
proficient at removing remnant registry entries and files to do the same effort. While the free version works well for common programs, the
payware version includes a bigger database that records the changes (and
what to undo) for more in-depth eradication. Eventually it really
didn't do more than I could do. After a year for the Pro version, you
get nagged the license expired, but the Pro version continues to work as
a Pro version (no crippling), but with no updates.

If you use the aggressive mode to uninstall, you assume the role of a
sysadmin, and must know which registry entries are for the program,
which are merely referenced by other programs, and which are dependent
or independent of other registry entries. Same for removing the remnant
files.

https://www.revouninstaller.com/products/revo-uninstaller-free/

There is a free vs paid comparison there. The feature to remove browser plug-ins is pretty defunct for many years.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/02/06 07:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7 install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.

It's a done deal. I'm using W10 at this point. What led to my
reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I was able to do,
since my system is so old that it can't boot from a thumb drive) was
that I was unable to save changes to my documents without doing a
workaround. It might have been that the problem was due to CFA being
activated when I did the first reinstall. I don't know. CFA works, I'm
sure, as a method of blocking ransomware, but perhaps there might be a
better solution which doesn't confuse the average end user of the OS so
much. CFA is a lot of work to set up (like one of the old firewalls) and
like you mentioned in another post, there's no way that MS can create or maintain a list of all the software which would be safe to use.

--
John C.

Take back Microsoft from India.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 07:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my >>>> files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension >>>> in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it, >>>> ...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
(let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the >>>> file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.

Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
been way too problematic.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will >>> all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7
install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.

It's a done deal. I'm using W10 at this point. What led to my
reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I was able to do,
since my system is so old that it can't boot from a thumb drive) was
that I was unable to save changes to my documents without doing a
workaround. It might have been that the problem was due to CFA being activated when I did the first reinstall. I don't know. CFA works, I'm
sure, as a method of blocking ransomware, but perhaps there might be a
better solution which doesn't confuse the average end user of the OS so
much. CFA is a lot of work to set up (like one of the old firewalls) and
like you mentioned in another post, there's no way that MS can create or maintain a list of all the software which would be safe to use.

Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did not
have write permissions in the folder containing the file you could read.
As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't have write
permission, you are offered to save the modified file to elsewhere, like
to the desktop.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/03/02 12:50 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 07:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:

Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the >>>>> setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my >>>>> files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.

Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This >>>>> works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by >>>>> Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension >>>>> in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it, >>>>> ...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.

Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type >>>>> (let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the >>>>> file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there. >>>>>
Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
associations like in Windows 7?

Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?

TIA.

To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.

So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has >>>> been way too problematic.

I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and >>>> programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will >>>> all work.

Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7
install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.

It's a done deal. I'm using W10 at this point. What led to my
reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I was able to do,
since my system is so old that it can't boot from a thumb drive) was
that I was unable to save changes to my documents without doing a
workaround. It might have been that the problem was due to CFA being
activated when I did the first reinstall. I don't know. CFA works, I'm
sure, as a method of blocking ransomware, but perhaps there might be a
better solution which doesn't confuse the average end user of the OS so
much. CFA is a lot of work to set up (like one of the old firewalls) and
like you mentioned in another post, there's no way that MS can create or
maintain a list of all the software which would be safe to use.

Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did not
have write permissions in the folder containing the file you could read.
As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't have write
permission, you are offered to save the modified file to elsewhere, like
to the desktop.

That was the weird thing about it. I did have write permission, because
my account then (as now) was an administrator one. And that it was only specific folders (like Documents and Pictures) where I was blocked from altering files, that kind of points towards CFA.

--
John C.

Take back Microsoft from India.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

What led to my reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I
was able to do, since my system is so old that it can't boot from a
thumb drive) was that I was unable to save changes to my documents
without doing a workaround. It might have been that the problem was
due to CFA being activated when I did the first reinstall.

Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did
not have write permissions in the folder containing the file you
could read. As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't
have write permission, you are offered to save the modified file to
elsewhere, like to the desktop.

That was the weird thing about it. I did have write permission,
because my account then (as now) was an administrator one. And that
it was only specific folders (like Documents and Pictures) where I
was blocked from altering files, that kind of points towards CFA.

By default, CFA is disabled. You had to deliberately manually enable it
to throttle access to files in your Documents folder. Users had to
discover the feature, enable it, and realize it was too onerous. I'm
assuming you are logging in under a local or Microsoft account, and not
on a workstation that is part of a corporate domain where policies can
be pushed by a PDA server.

Also, Administrator, or Windows accounts in the Administrators security
group, do not have all priveleges. There will still be folders to which
you are not granted full access. That's why I leave UAC enabled. If I
don't have access, UAC notifies me, and UAC will elevate my permissions
if I request it to do so. A lot easier than me right-clicking on a
folder to look under the Security tab to check what all permissions my
Windows account had on the folder to figure out what to change.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

VanguardLH wrote:

John C. wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

John C. wrote:

What led to my reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I
was able to do, since my system is so old that it can't boot from a
thumb drive) was that I was unable to save changes to my documents
without doing a workaround. It might have been that the problem was
due to CFA being activated when I did the first reinstall.

Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did
not have write permissions in the folder containing the file you
could read. As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't
have write permission, you are offered to save the modified file to
elsewhere, like to the desktop.

That was the weird thing about it. I did have write permission,
because my account then (as now) was an administrator one. And that
it was only specific folders (like Documents and Pictures) where I
was blocked from altering files, that kind of points towards CFA.

By default, CFA is disabled. You had to deliberately manually enable it
to throttle access to files in your Documents folder. Users had to
discover the feature, enable it, and realize it was too onerous. I'm assuming you are logging in under a local or Microsoft account, and not
on a workstation that is part of a corporate domain where policies can
be pushed by a PDA server.

Not sure what a PDA server is. I'm using a local account on a one-user
system, non-networked.

Nice to know that CFA is disabled by default. Onerous indeed when it's
enabled.

Also, Administrator, or Windows accounts in the Administrators security group, do not have all privileges. There will still be folders to which
you are not granted full access. That's why I leave UAC enabled. If I
don't have access, UAC notifies me, and UAC will elevate my permissions
if I request it to do so. A lot easier than me right-clicking on a
folder to look under the Security tab to check what all permissions my Windows account had on the folder to figure out what to change.

How enabled do you leave it? Just curious.

Thanks for your reply, VanguardLH.

--
John C.

Take back Microsoft from India.

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"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

Not sure what a PDA server is. I'm using a local account on a one-user system, non-networked.

Then I'm guessing you also don't know what is a domain in a corporate
network of workstations.

PDC = Primary Domain Controller (PDA was a typo).

When logging into a corporate workstation, you are logging into the
corporate domain (although you may have the option to login into a local account, too, but usually you aren't given the login credentials for
local acocunts since the IT folks are supposed to manage the
workstations). When logging into a domain, policies get pushed onto
your workstation. Since all policies are registry entries, and *if* you
were given the login credentials for an admin-level account on your workstation, you can add a batch script with reg.exe commands to change
those policies. I had to do that to override the timeout and password requirement on the screen saver decided by IT for a pushed policy, for a
kiosk workstation that had to always be available to anyone in QA that
needed to use it, but it was in a digitally locked room, so only users
with the code could get at it (me, my manager, his manager, and a backup
person in case the others were out sick, got killed, or moved to a
different job).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_controller_(Windows)

By the way, NEVER log into the Administrator account except in an
emergency. Don't use it as a working account. If you need to always
login to an admin-level Windows account (in the Administrators security
group), create your own Windows account with admin privileges. In fact,
for me, right after installing Windows, I create a secondary
Administrator account called TechSupport, AdminBkup, or some such name
to distinguish from working accounts (admin or restricted). Sometimes
user profiles get corrupted. If you have image backups, you can restore
to get your account working again; else, you need a non-corrupted admin
Windows account to make repairs, and that's when you use the
Administrator or other admin-level Windows account that is rarely
touched to prevent its profile getting corrupted.

Windows will create multiple profiles in the registry for backup.
You'll see them under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM listed as ControlSetxxx,
where xxx is a number, like 001, 002, etc. CurrentControlSet is the
pointer to whichever ControlSetxxx is the default during startup. If
the current control set gets corrupted, you can try selecting a
different config set during bootup (you need to see the boot menu to
make that choice). For example, a driver install since they run at ring
0 could cause Windows to hang or crash, and you need to revert to an
earlier config set where the driver did not exist, or was a prior
version. However, that doesn't always work to get you back a working
Windows. Image backups are important not just for data recovery, but
also for system recovery.

Nice to know that CFA is disabled by default. Onerous indeed when it's enabled.

How enabled do you leave [UAC protection]? Just curious.

2nd setting down from top, which is:

Notify only when apps try to make changes to my computer (default)

That is the default setting. For example, although I am logged into a
Windows account in the Administrators security group, I will get the UAC
prompt when I open apps with admin priveleges, like a shortcut to
cmd.exe where "Run as administrator" is enabled. The next setting is:

Notify me only when apps try to make changes (do not dim my desktop)

I don't see a reduction in UAC prompts, but the prompt itself does not
get focus. When the other setting, the UAC prompt gets focus, and I
don't have to use the mouse, but just the keyboard (left arrow to switch
from No to Yes, and Enter key) to get past the UAC prompt.

Few programs need admin privileges. Most times when I'm in a cmd shell,
I'm doing admin functions, and why I have that shortcut run under admin
privs. I could have another shortcut to run cmd.exe without admin
privs, but I don't as much need a command shell for non-admin functions.
Some programs will attempt system changes, like the registry editor, but
again I'm not often in there. Other programs, like Word, NNTP client,
e-mail client, web browser, calculator, games, etc, don't need and
really should not run with admin privs.

If you get lots of UAC prompts, perhaps reconsider why those non-system programs must run with admin privileges. They probably should not, by
default. You should be getting UAC prompts when you run a program that
must be ran with admin privs, and that means you are digging into the OS instead of just using it as a platform to run user-mode software. The
UAC prompt occurs when doing something to the OS; i.e., admin functions.

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