How to Disable / Enable the Windows Firewall When the Options Are Grayed Out

There are many situations in which a user may need to disable / enable the Windows Firewall application. However, a common problem is the disabling of the ability to turn the firewall off from the graphical application. Users will see that any option available is grayed out, and nothing can be chosen. However, the firewall can be disabled through another route.

Note: Before you start save the registry preferably on a separate media from the computer hard drive. This will be used in the event of an unrecoverable error.
Launch the regedit application. This application can be launched by clicking on the "Start" button in Windows, and typing "regedit" into the "Run" box.
Export the registry. This can be done by clicking on the "File" menu option of regedit, then clicking on the "Export" option. A dialog box will open requesting the location for saving the registry.  

Locate Windows Firewall by following this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall.

Delete the "WindowsFirewall" branch by right-clicking on the "WindowsFirewall" branch and choosing the option to delete. Answer the confirmation to complete the deletion and Restart Windows.

 

After the reboot open the Windows Firewall application by double-clicking on the icon for Windows Firewall in Control Panel. The options will no longer be grayed out, allowing the firewall to be turned off / on by selecting the appropriate radio button next to the option.

Click "OK" to save the settings.

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How to reduce the size of CBS.log file

The SFC.exe program writes the details of each verification operation and of each repair operation to the CBS.log file. The CBS.persist.log is generated when the CBS gets to be around 50 meg in size. CBS.log is copied to cbs.persist.log and a new cbs.log file is started.

It would be useful only for troubleshooting issues. If you are sure your system is running fine, you can delete this file. SFC.exe will create a new one, next time it is run.
I have used following method to delete:

1. Stop TrustedInstaller.exe (Windows Module Installer) in Taskmanager Services tab. Additionally if you cannot, open the Taskmanager Processes tab and End Task the same process.
2. Delete or move all the .log files in the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS directory, you can delete the .persist and .cab files as well.
3. Start Windows Module Installer service (TrustedInstaller.exe) again.



NOTE: The new created log files should not get bigger than 50MB

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Prevent Windows From Restarting Your PC After Windows Updates

Using the Group Policy editor:

Have you seen that message in Windows 10 that tells you your computer is going to reboot and there is not a thing you can do about it except save your work?

Here’s how to make sure that never happens again. This tip works for Windows 8 and 7 as well.

Press the Win + R keyboard combination to bring up the run dialog then type gpedit.msc and press enter.

When the Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

On the right hand side you will see a setting titled:

No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations

Double click on it.

From here you will need to enable the setting by changing the radio button from “Not Configured” to “Enabled”, then clicking apply.

As always, I recommend you force a Group Policy update so that the changes will reflect immediately.

That’s all there is to it.

Using the Registry:

If your version of Windows 8 doesn’t ship with the Group Policy editor, you can always use the registry to disable these reboots. Again press the Windows + R keyboard combination to bring up a run box – type regedit then hit enter.

Now navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Note: If you don’t see the Windows Update or AU keys you may have to create them.

Then create a new 32-bit DWORD called NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers.

Then double click on it and give it a hex value of 1.

Note: Reboot is requered.

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Office 2010 Activation Failure: Unspecified Error 0x80070190

On a new install, when attempting to activate Microsoft Office 2010 receive error: 

"An unspecified error has occurred. Your request cannot be processed at this time.
Please try again later. (0x80070190)"

To activate Office 2010, please use OSPP.VBS.

a. Open an administrative command-prompt
b. Run one of the following command-lines based on your Operating System:

x86
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs" /act
x64
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs" /act

You should see something similar to the following.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14>cscript ospp.vbs /act
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:
SKU ID: fdf3ecb9-b56f-43b2-a9b8-1b48b6bae1a7
LICENSE NAME: Office 14, OfficeProPlus-MAK edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 14, RETAIL channel
Last 5 characters of installed product key: XXXXX
<Product activation successful>
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------

DONE.

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