Windows Search or Menu missing or not doing anything

Ever lost your favorite Windows 10 (or lower) search or the menu bar, and keep pressing it doesn't give you anything at all? Well I had this issue and I found a solution.

Before you proceed, run "services.msc" under admin command prompt (Use Task Manager, File > Run, Check Admin) and ensure that "Windows Search" is running. Some tools believe this services should be stopped and I can tell you its not worth the problem you get from doing so.

If that doesn't fix it, open Powershell under admin with the similar method above for services.msc.
Copy and paste this line in:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

What this does is that it fixes some of the App Packages and for me it works. 

I hope it does for you too!

Let me know in your comments.

SFC failed May 2015 - utc.app.json telemetry.ASM-WindowsDefault.json

After some Windows Update in May / Jun, you may find that your Windows 8.1 SFC /SCANNOW suddenly failed with some corrupted files. If you followed some instruction to check the logs, you will notice that there are 2 files mentioned.

• telemetry.ASM-WindowsDefault.json 
• utc.app.json

Well, the guys at Microsoft had did it again and broken their own tool. Luckily there is a way to fix this. Well, there are 2 exactly, the hard way or easy way. I would link you to the easy way instead.

The hard way is to manually do what the easy way did, line by line on console.

Tech Cookbook SFC Fix:
http://thetechcookbook.com/windows-7-update-kb3022345-causing-corrupt-files/

Install Dot Net Framework 3.5 onto Windows 8 / 8.1 and Server 2012

Do you know that it is a lot more complicated than just throwing in a installer to install Dot Net Framework 3.5 on Windows 8 / 8.1 or Server 2012? The reason is that it already came with Dot Not Framework 4.5 and the installation of these Windows actually comes with Framework 3.5. It is just not enabled.

So, actually all you have to do is to enable it. But wait, why does it need to go to the Internet to do that? The installation is really stupid. If you are stuck in an offline environment, this is really terrible. But fear not, there is a way around it.

Simply locate your CD or where the Windows installation source files are and run this command to enable Dot Net Framework 3.5 :

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3 /All /Source:(CD Drive):\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

Remember to run this as administrator though. And you should see something like this.

Hope this had been helpful. Let me know in the comments.

System Restore Saves the Day!

Microsoft System Restore
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-SG/windows7/products/features/system-restore

This has been in system a long time ago, since XP perhaps. While most of the time, we only hear about how this feature waste space and cause delay during installation, we had totally forgotten when it would become useful.

In fact, for me, even in the days of Windows 8.1, this feature prove to be useful. What actually happened to me was that I was migrating one of my PC from a ATI (AMD) graphics card to a Nvidia one.

 

It is no surprise that ATI and Nvidia driver would not play nice together. The fatal mistake was however my own. I had forgotten to remove the old ATI driver before shutting down and plug in my Nvidia card. After testing, I wanted to change back to my ATI card and this time, even when I remember to uninstall the Nvidia driver, it just give me the famous "Black Screen of Death" at the Windows 8 login. I had tried reinstalling the ATI driver (but it won't install when the Nvidia card is in) and install-remove the Nvidia driver, but it just wont boot up when the ATI card is in, but perfectly OK on the Nvidia. I guess it could be a "feature" so that you won't switch back to your own card... LOL

Anyway, in the end, during the boot option, I click "Advance Option" and decided to try a System Restore, fortunately was just before the swap since the Direct X was updated. Guess, what? It solved all the issue and I got it up on the very next reboot (even though System Restore did took a while).

So, ask yourself is that little bit more of HDD space worth it? To me, definitely, since HDD space is cheap nowadays and System Restore actually manages itself not to overuse the space anyway. And one thing is for sure, I would add more restore point in the future. And lastly, Thanks Microsoft for implementing this nice feature! 

Windows 8 BSOD DPC WATCHDOG VILOLATION

One fine day at work, one fine Windows 8 which was shutdown properly last night, but it did not boot up like it always had in the morning. Instead, what greeted me was a BSOD, well the new BSOD anyway saying something about a "DPC_WATCHDOG Violation". Now, isn't that puzzling. First, its about a watchdog, which I obviously did not bought one and then there was a violation. Did a bad dog run into Windows 8?

After some 30 minutes of read up (using another OS on another partition), I finally found the root of the problem. Well, at least for most other users. It comes down to 3 software.

1. AVG Antivirus or similar suites
2. Kaspersky Antivirus or similar suites
3. ATI Radeon Catalyst 

Well , there are not in order, but for me, I had AVG. And luckily I had this OS (Windows 7) on another partition and simply out of my mind, I rename c:\program files (x86)\AVG to AVG1 and restarted Windows 8.

TADA. OMG, it was really AVG! I had seen success stories from other users for KAV, KIS as well. Seems like these AV companies tried to compete on who gets their product Windows 8 compatible and they made some pretty fatal mistakes along the way. For ATI, it may be a bit more involved to skip start it, but since I did not encounter that I would let other users who had to tell their stories.

Guess, what is the first thing I did after I recovered my Windows 8?
UNINSTALL AVG 2013!

From that day onwards, AVG and Kaspersky is banned from all my Windows 8 machines.