Techokami

Basically every so often I find myself wanting to adjust the Windows registry or otherwise adjust stuff deeper in the OS in ways that Windows doesn't super readily want to allow, and since especially the registry-editing stuff is too obscure to memorize, I thought I'd collect together a list of stuff I might need when e.g. migrating to a new computer next time. Then I thought, "hey, this might be useful to others too" and here we are.

Shout-outs to purpleraccoon for posting about how to disable the upcoming Windows Copilot on Windows 10 and prompting me to actually start this list: https://cohost.org/purpleraccoon/post/3617693-if-you-re-stuck-on-w

#windows #microsoft #lifehacks

Techokami @techokami11/22/2023, 8:29 AM

My only real gripe with this is telling people to disable an actual safety feature in Windows, which is hella dangerous for people that don't know what they are doing (it's the very first entry at the time of this chost, do not disable the UAC prompt for unsafe files, please!!)

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in reply to @Hempuli's post:

@rotopenguin11/22/2023, 7:10 AM

You definitely want wingetUI to go with winget.

Hempuli @Hempuli11/22/2023, 9:44 PM

Added a reference to it :)

@pancelor11/22/2023, 7:43 AM

for file searching, voidtools' Everything was fantastic (I used it on windows 7, if that matters - haven't tried the newer oes) https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/

Z-A @Z-A11/23/2023, 11:55 PM

Holky smokes, Win10 still has the old Windows Photo Viewer?

Hempuli @Hempuli11/24/2023, 1:06 PM

I was in for a fun surprise recently when I opened a .tif file and for whatever reason it opened in the old photo viewer instead of the new one without me having touched any settings :D

Aepoh @Aepoh11/26/2023, 10:14 PM

Have you ever had any scary butterfly-effect registry stuff happen to you? I cursed an SSD from touching the registry a few years ago.

in reply to @techokami's post:

Hempuli @Hempuli11/22/2023, 3:29 PM

That's a fair point, although I'd argue that most things on this list require e.g. registry editing and as such are quite firmly in the "only do this if you're okay with something bad happening if you don't know what you're doing" realm; the setting does specifically mention unsafe files, and changing the listed setting makes Windows Defender permanently warn you about your computer being at risk. I guess I'll edit the title of the tip to specifically also mention unsafe files.

Relatedly: do you know what "unsafe files" entails, exactly? So far the only time I've seen this prompt appear has been when trying to play indie games that don't come with an installer or aren't played via a separate launching program a lá Steam, which is why I wanted to get rid of it. I assume the risk lies in how suspicious zip files and such the user is ready to open unless prevented by Windows?

Techokami @techokami11/23/2023, 12:53 AM

Basically, anything that has the "Mark of the Web" (e.g. it's a file you downloaded from the internets) or needs escalated privileges (e.g. needs to touch something in the Windows folder) will trigger a prompt. This is to make sure that, yes, you really do want to run that .EXE file you just downloaded from the internets that may or may not be a shady malware dropper. If you actually trust the file in question and can verify that it is, indeed, legit, and does not need elevated privs, then there is a way to remove the Mark of the Web to make the prompt no longer appear for that file.

Hempuli @Hempuli11/23/2023, 1:52 AM

From what I recall the way the feature worked was by Windows preventing me from running executables at all due to them being "rarely downloaded" (it's been a while since I applied the change so I don't remember the exact scenarios). Since I generally download a file with the intent of running it (even if I'll regret that later), this seemed like it'd be useful only in situations where I download a file that shouldn't bring up the warning but does anyway (e.g. by downloading a spoofed "official" thing). Since this is a fairly unlikely scenario, this didn't seem like a feature that'd protect me enough to warrant the friction. (This isn't to say that I disagree with you, just explaining why this seemed like something that made sense to me to disable!)

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