How to disable Windows Backup notification in Windows 7 and 8

By default, in Windows 8, Windows 7 & Windows Vista, Windows Backup notifies end-users to configure Windows Backup. Notifications can appear in the Action Center after seven days without having configured Windows Backup, or when an end-user attaches an external hard drive.

Disable Windows Backup Notification

If you do not intend to enable Windows Backup, and instead provide a third-party backup solution to end users, you may disable the Windows Backup notifications.

Windows Backup notifications are controlled by a registry key. This registry key is not present in default Windows installations. To disable Windows Backup notifications, you must manually add a registry key.

To do so, open regedit and navigate to the following location:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsBackup

Now under WindowsBackup, in the RHS pane, open a new DWORD and name it as DisableMonitoring, and set its value to ‘1‘.

Exit regedit.

If this key is set to 0, or if this key does not exist, then Windows Backup will display notifications to the end user to configure Windows Backup.

If this key is set to 1, and an end-user has not already configured Windows Backup, then notifications to configure Windows Backup will not be displayed to the end user in the Action Center, or when a user attaches an external hard disk.

Sourced from: Technet Libraries.

UPDATE: You can also do the following. Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Action Center\Change Action Center.

Check, un-check the options you want, click OK and Exit.

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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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Windows 7: Open A Port in Windows Firewall

If you need to open some ports in Windows 7 such as a Remote Desktop Connection, FTP or some other ports such as a ESET NOD32 (2221-2224) ports, than please follow the instructions:

1.    Click Start | Control Panel
2.    Click System and Security
3.    On the right, click Windows Firewall
4.    On the left, click Advanced Settings as show below

5.    In the left pane, right click on Inbound Rules | click New Rule as show below

6.    The New Inbound Rule Wizard will appear.
7.    Select Port for the type of rule as shown below | click Next.

8.    The Protocol and Ports screen will appear.
9.    Select the protocol that you need for the particular service you are using.  For this example, I will select TCP as shown below.

10. Now select the Specific local ports radio button and enter the port number you need to open as shown above.  For this example, I will enter 21.  This is the standard port for FTP service if you want to make your PC into an FTP server.
11. Click Next | The Action screen should appear.
12. Select the Allow the connection radio button as shown below | click Next

13. The Profiles screen will appear.  Select which profiles you’d like this open port to apply to.  I’m going to accept defaults and click Next.
14. The Name screen will appear.  Enter a meaningful name for your open port rule and click Finish.

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How to delete Hiberfil.sys file

To delete this file, you have to use the command prompt to manually turn off hibernation. If you turn off hibernation via Control Panel | Power Options, it will not delete the actual file itself.

Open a command prompt in Windows 7 by typing command in the search box. Right click Command Prompt and choose Run as Administrator.

To turn off or disable hibernation, type the following command at the prompt:

powercfg –h off

This will disable hibernation and will remove the hiberfil.sys file from your system.

You’ll have to restart your computer before it will take effect.

To turn on the hibernation again, type the following command at the prompt:

powercfg –h on

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Reduce the size of WINSXS folder

1. Click Start | Run
2. Type in CMD and press [enter]
3. At the command prompt, type DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /SpSuperseded and press [enter]

While you trying to do it, if some Error is shown than your OS was probably installed using media that already had SP1. In this case please use the Disk Cleanup tool:

1. Open My Computer,
2. Right Click on the Windows System Drive and click on Properties, 
3. Then from the Properties dialog click on "Disk Cleanup" in General tab.
4. Wait for a while to open the "Disk Cleanup" dialog.
5. Here it has an option on lower left "Clean up system files". Click on it.
6. "Disk Cleanup" dialog will re-open.
7. Now you will find "Service File Backup Files" in "Files to delete" box. Select it and click Ok.
8. A conformation pop-up will open,
9. Click "Delete Files" to Proceed.
10. Done

Vista

It depends on which SP your OS is running:

For SP1 use vsp1cln.exe
For SP2 use compcln.exe

Both tools are located in %windir%\system32

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