Cure Windows 10 Insomnia
Windows 10 (Should also work on Windows 7 and Windows 8x)

Windows 10 sometimes has a problem sleeping. For weeks now I've been trying to get my Windows 10 laptop to sleep though the night. I tried changing the power options, which seemed to work sometimes, but not for very long. Then I remember a tip EB showed me quite a while ago. So, I dug out her instructions and sure enough, my Windows 10 laptop now sleeps like a baby.

This worked great for me and it should work for you too if your Windows 10 PC seems to have trouble staying asleep. In order to find out why Windows 10 won't asleep, it's always good to know what's keeping Windows 10 awake. So let's see if we can find the culprit:

First, right-click the Windows 10 start button and choose "Command Prompt (Admin)"

At the prompt type the command:

powercfg /energy

Please pay close attention to the spaces, you have to leave a space before the slash or this won't work. You see a notices that the command starts a tracing process that will last around one minute.

When it's done tracing, you'll see that it has generated an "engery-report.html" which shows you everything that's going on with your power configuration, and gives you some ideas as to what keeps waking up your Windows 10 PC. As you an see from the screen shot above, my poor work laptop, a glutton for punishment had 9 errors, 18 warnings and 36 informational items listed.

In order to open the report it generates, you'll need to copy the location "C: \Windows\system32\energy-report.html" which you can do directly from the Command box

Highlight the file path and press the Enter key to copy it. Press Windows Key + R to open a Run dialog and pasted it in the run box:

And press OK. The "Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report" will open in your default browser.

As you can see from my report (below), my poor, old work laptop had a number of errors

Every error is highlighted in pink.  The first entry tells me I don't have sleep configured for my laptop - but it's wrong, because I do. The second item, though, caught my eye. I don't use Windows Media Player networking - I rarely even use Windows Media Player.

Windows Media Player Network Sharing runs as a service in Windows. In order to stop it, I opened a Run dialog, typed in Services.msc and pressed OK to open Services. In Services, I found Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service. It was set to run Automatically at Windows startup. I don't need it and I sure don't need it starting with Windows so I set it to "Manual" which means it will only run manually if a program requires it.

I was right - the culprit turned out to be Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service running constantly in the background. Turning it off, enabled my Windows 10 computer sleep like a baby. My computer is now a sound sleeper!

You might have other things keeping your Windows 10 computer awake; in order to be a super sleuth you need to have the information to help you nail the culprit. And now you do! 

Three Ways to  Search Windows 10
Windows 10

Windows 10 offers you a variety of ways to search your PC and find what you're looking for. We are going to cover 3 of them for you in today's newsletter.

Option #1 for Search: Open Windows Explorer, Click "This PC" to search entire computers and attached drives, or click the drive or folder you want to search in. Now type you are searching for in the search box at upper right. See screenshot below



Option #2 for Search: Type your search terms in Cortana (next to the Windows 10 Start Button). If you do not see the Cortana icon or search box, you can right click on Task Bar and choose if you want it to show as an icon or a text box. See screenshot below.



Option #3: Press and hold down the Windows Key and tap the S key. This opens Cortana search. As soon as you type in your search term, results will show. The results include items on your computer, apps, and Web results.



Narrow Your Search Results - You can narrow search down by choosing from the icons in the upper left of the search results box - these include Apps, Documents or Web. If you want to narrow down even more, click "More" option on upper right of the search results, and you can now choose to search specifically from a particular category to include All, Apps, Documents, Folders, Music, Photos, Settings, Videos or Web. See screenshot below.

Which Is Worse: Driver Updater Programs or Malware?
Windows 7, Windows 8x, Windows 10

This question crossed my mind this morning as I was working on 2 different PCs, owned by 2 different people, in 2 different countries, who both were experiencing some really bad Windows problems. What did these two PCs have in common?

These two  PCs had one thing in common – they both were using driver updater programs.

Darcy and I have been using Windows since Windows 3.1 (yes, there was such a thing), and we can’t ever remember a time when driver updater programs were necessary. Then again, Windows was pretty bad back in the Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME era, so perhaps they may have been of some use in those days. Back in the day, we used to keep our fingers crossed every morning when we booted up our PCs. There was better than a 50/50 chance they wouldn’t boot. And if our PCs would not boot, we knew we would have to spend the next 2 or 3 days reinstalling Windows and getting everything back up and running again. But, you back then you got used to it and expected it. So we had all our floppy disks (remember those?) and CDs (yes, Windows used to fit on a CD) ready to go for the reincarnation of Windows and getting our PC working again.

I can remember (and so can Darcy) that, back in those days, the hardest part of getting Windows working right again was getting back online – particularly Windows 95. But all that being said, I don’t think either of us recall ever needing a driver updater — even back in those dark ages of Windows.

We can tell you with much certainty, that from Windows XP through Windows 10, driver updaters have been among the most often downloaded and among the most useless programs on the Web.

I digress.

The two computers I referenced at the beginning of this article, although located in different parts of the world and owned by two different people, both had problems caused by driver updaters as well as malware. And even those two, the driver updaters and the malware are related Many so-called “free” driver updates, are “free” because they come bundled with all manner of malware. So, I was pretty sure that some or most of the malware on these to PCs came from malware bundled with the driver updater software.

Driver updaters are not only worthless, they can and do cause problems with Windows PCs.

But before we go any further, we want to point out we are talking about 3rd-party driver downloaders that you download and install. A new computer oftentimes has a lot of driver updates recommended by the manufacturer (updates done with the manufacturer's software) and that you should let those update when first getting a new computer as many computers have been on the shelf for weeks or months. Also, Windows Updates may update critical system drivers. We are not talking about manufacturer or Windows updates, we are talking about 3d-party driver updater programs. We wanted to make sure we pointed this out before we go any further.

First of all, you don’t need a third-party driver updater program to tell you that you need a new driver. The only time you ever need to update a driver or drivers is if a hardware device (printer, sound, etc.) is not working correctly or the manufacturer recommends an update. Installing new drivers just because new drivers are available, is unnecessary, and can be a recipe for disaster.

If you have a hardware device that is not working properly,  you can get the correct driver from the device’s manufacturer. When you visit the hardware device manufacturer’s website, make sure you know the version of Windows you’re using and the name / model of your hardware device. Then download and install the correct driver directly from the manufacturer.

If you’re not having any problems with your hardware devices, there’s no reason to update your drivers – even if new drivers may be available.

Don’t be tempted to  install a driver updater because you think it’s going to make your computer run better or it’s going to make it easier for you to keep your drivers updated. Driver updaters are unnecessary and many times can cause problems with your PC.

Remember: In the world of computer software, less is often more.

So, be smart and leave those driver updaters alone, we tells ya!