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How to disable driver updates via Windows Update

Posted on May 9, 2024May 9, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft’s Windows operating system may use Windows Updates to install driver updates. One of the main purposes of the feature is to ensure that recent drivers are installed for all components.

While that sounds good on paper, it has led to issues in the past: from releasing older drivers to the installation of extra tools, including those with Telemetry.

Windows administrators who want full control of driver installations may disable automatic driver updates.

Downsides

Drivers won’t be updated automatically anymore on the system as a consequence. This means that it is up to the administrator to find, download, and install new device drivers.

Drivers may introduce improvements, such as better power management, new features, bug fixes, or improved performance. They may also introduce undesirable changes, such as telemetry.

Disabling automatic driver updates in Windows using the Group Policy Editor

Do not include drivers with Windows Update

Note: the Group Policy Editor is not available in the Home edition of Windows. Home edition administrators need to modify the Registry instead to make the change directly there. See the next chapter on how to do that.

Open the Start Menu.
Type gpedit.msc and press the Enter-key to launch the Group Policy Editor.
- Windows 10: Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Tools > Windows Components > Windows Updates.
- Windows 11: Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Tools > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Updates.
Double-click on Do not include drivers with Windows Updates.
Change the status of the policy to Enabled.
Restart the system.

Windows won’t download and install drivers anymore via Windows Update after the restart.

Block automatic Windows driver updates via the Registry

The method below adds the same restriction to the Windows system. It works on any edition, including Home.

Open the Start menu.
Type regedit.exe and press the Enter-key to launch the Registry Editor.
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
- Note: if a key does not exist, e.g. WindowsUpdate, right-click on the previous value, and select New > Key. Name it accordingly and proceed.
Right-click on WindowsUpdate and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
Name it ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate.
Double-click on the new value and set it to 1.
Close the Registry Editor.
Restart the system.

Closing Words

It is up to the individual user to keep automatic driver updates enabled via Windows Update or disable them. Usually, it is better to download and install drivers manually, but that requires regular checks or the use of third-party driver checkers.

Inexperienced users may want to keep the default setting, even though that may mean getting unwanted extras during driver updates.

What about you? Do you install drivers manually or let Windows do the lifting?

How to disable the HP Insights Analytics Service on Windows

Posted on May 2, 2024May 2, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

HP Insights Analytics Service is a service that runs on many HP devices by default. It may run, even if you install Windows 10 or 11 from scratch. It is usually an effective way of reducing bloat that manufacturers of PCs like to add to their devices.

A quick check of the Windows Task Manager returns several HP processes. Among them is HP Insights Analytics Service. The service’s actual name is HP Touchpoint Analytics Service.

It is set to run automatically on Windows start and is set up to collect and submit Telemetry data to HP.

HP says that it is using the data to improve its products and services. It may also use the data to troubleshoot issues that users experience, and to give personalized recommendations.

It is recommended to keep this enabled if you are communicating or may communicate with HP support.

Find out if HP Insights Analytics Service is running

Press the keys Ctrl-Shift-Esc simultaneously to open the Windows Task Manager.
The service is listed as one of the processes.
You may also switch to Details on Windows 11 devices to check if TouchpointAnalyticsClientService.exe is running.

The directory of the process is C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hpanalyticscomp.inf_amd64_b76d40fc96db3872\x64

How to disable the service on Windows

You can disable the process on your Windows device in the Services Manager. Here is how that is done:

Open the Start menu.
Type Services.msc.
Run the Services result.
Scroll down to the letter H in the management window.
Double-click on HP Insights Analytics.
Activate the stop button to stop the process from running.
Switch the startup type to disabled.
Restart the PC.

Note: the stop option kills the process on the running machine. You can verify this in the Task Manager of the operating system.

Closing Words

There is a chance that the service is going to get enabled again. This may happen after updates or when other HP software runs.

Do you check Services or Processes regularly to make sure that no unwanted programs run on your devices?

Android: how to switch between buttons and swipe gesture navigation

Posted on April 30, 2024April 30, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Depending on the Android phone that you use, you may either use a navigation bar at the bottom of the screen or swipe gestures to navigate.

Google Pixel devices, for instance, use swipe gestures by default. Most, if not all, Android devices let you switch between the two options. If you prefer one over the other, you may make the change in the settings.

Good to know: the navigation bar takes up permanent space on the screen. This is the main reason why manufacturers such as Google or Apple have switched to gesture-based navigations.

Not all Android users may know that they can switch between the two options. This guide helps those users.

How to switch the navigation bar option on Android

Note: the path to the preference may differ slightly depending on the Android device. Try searching for the option if you cannot find it on your device.

Here is what you need to do:

Open the Settings on the Android device.
Switch to Display.
Find Navigation bar on the page that opens.
Switch between Buttons and Swipe gestures on the page to change the method. Tip: you may change the order of buttons under “more options”.

The change takes effect immediately. You can repeat the steps to switch back to the previous method.

Closing Words

I dislike swiping to navigate with a passion. My wife had this on here Google Pixel device and it never really worked reliable enough. While the navigation bar takes away space for other content, I have to say that I prefer it. My wife is also a lot happier now after I changed the option to buttons again in the preferences.

But maybe it is the other way for you. Maybe you prefer swiping because of the extra bit of space on the screen you get.

Which method of navigation do you prefer on your mobile devices? Buttons or swipe gestures? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Surprise: Edge’s Windows 11 Search Bar is not Bing-locked

Posted on April 20, 2024April 20, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Search Bar adds a standalone search field to the Windows 11 desktop when enabled. It allows you to run searches from it. The main benefit is that you do not need to open a browser first to run searches.

Microsoft announced this week that the Search Bar is now available on Windows 11. You need Microsoft Edge for it and enable it before it becomes available on the desktop,

From here, it works exactly as you would imagine a desktop search tool to work. Type something, hit enter or click on the go button, and wait for the results to appear in the Edge browser.

Yes, since this is an Edge feature, it requires the browser.

Surprise: search is not locked down to Bing. If you have set a different default search provider in Edge, it is used.

Setting up Microsoft Edge’s Search Bar

Here are the steps to launch the Search Bar on Windows 11 systems:

Start Microsoft Edge.
Select Menu > More Tools > Launch search bar.

If you do not see the option under More Tools, check for updates under Menu > Help and feedback > About Microsoft Edge.

Tip: you may hide the permanent sidebar button in Microsoft Edge, if you do not need it.

Using the new search option on Windows 11’s desktop

The search widget appears on the desktop once you enable it in Edge. You can move it around freely on the desktop.

Type a phrase and you get suggestions from Microsoft Edge’s default search engine. Select any of them or submit the search phrase to launch the results page in Edge.

A click on the menu icon displays a few options. You may switch to guest mode here, which does not associate searches with a Microsoft account.

The desktop widget starts with Windows 11 by default. You may stop this from the menu as well.

Select the close option of the menu to exit.

It may surprise you that Microsoft has not locked down the search provider. Any provider set in Edge powers the searches.

Closing Words

Whether Search Bar is something that is useful to you is up to you. Windows 11 already has a search feature enabled that may run web searches. These are limited to Bing and Edge.

Good news is that it is not locked down and that it is not enabled by default. It is still limited to returning search results in Microsoft Edge. Whether MSEdgeRedirect takes care of that remains to be seen.

It is doubtful that this feature will convince non-Edge users to switch browsers. Those who use Edge and do not have Edge open all the time anyway may find it useful.

Windows 11 is changing the display brightness constantly? Here is how you turn that off

Posted on April 19, 2024April 19, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system supports a feature that changes the brightness of the display automatically. Depending on the environment or content displayed, it may lower or increase brightness on the device.

While that sounds like a useful feature, it comes with its own set of problems. Probably the biggest issue is that it may make unnecessary changes. Another issue that you may encounter is that it may change the brightness too frequently.

It may also react to manual brightness changes, making this a frustrating experience.

Technical information

How Windows 11 manages the automatic changing of brightness depends on the device. Some devices include light sensors that may react to environmental light information.

Launching Windows 11 in a bright room may cause an increase in brightness to counter this. In a darker room, it may tone down the brightness instead.

Microsoft launched Content Adaptive Brightness Control in Windows 11. The feature “provides ideal brightness and contrast levels” according to Microsoft while “saving power and providing longer battery life”.

Not all devices support the feature. The following chapters explain how to find out if it is supported on a Windows 11 device and how to manage it.

Configure brightness settings on Windows 11

Do the following to manage or disable the automatic Brightness feature on Windows 11 devices:

Open the Start Menu and select Settings. You may also use the shortcut Windows-I to open Settings.
Go to System > Display.
Expand the Brightness section at the top.

Here, you find the following options:

Change the brightness of the display.
Enable or disable “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes”.
Change brightness based on content.

The last two options define whether automatic brightness changes are enabled on the system.

Change brightness automatically when lighting changes

This feature is only available on devices that have light sensors. The device analyzes the information of the sensors to adjust the brightness based on the information.

Uncheck the box to turn the feature off.

Change brightness based on content

This feature is available on all devices. Windows analyzes the content displayed to make changes to the brightness and contrast.

Available settings are:

Off — The feature is disabled. Windows 11 won’t change the brightness based on the content that is viewed automatically.
Always — The feature is enabled. Windows 11 will change the brightness on battery and when plugged in.
On Battery Only — The feature is enabled. Windows 11 will change the brightness only on battery power.

Another setting that may cause automatic brightness changes

WIndows 11 lower brightness on battery saver

Windows 11 maintains another setting that may change the brightness on devices automatically. This one lowers the screen brightness only when battery saver is enabled.

Here is how you configure that option (or turn it off):

Select Start and then Settings to open the Settings app.
Navigate to System > Power & Battery.
Expand Battery Saver on the page that opens.

The following options are revealed:

Battery saver — Enable or disable Battery Saver manually.
Turn battery saver on automatically at — When Windows 11 will turn the battery saver feature on by itself. Options include Never, Always and a battery value between 10% and 50%.
Lower screen brightness when using battery saver — may lower the brightness of the screen when battery saver is turned on.

Uncheck the last option to prevent Windows from making changes to the brightness.

Closing Words

If you want to block Windows 11 from making automatic changes to the brightness or contrast, turn off both options.

Uncheck “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes” and set “Change brightness based on content” to off.

The changes take effect immediately. Note that disabling the feature may cause increased power usage.

How to create screenshots of a full webpage

Posted on April 7, 2024April 7, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

If you found great helpful content online, you may want to save it for safe keeping. Screenshots are one option to do that. There are others, including saving the entire webpage to the local system or using tools such as SingleFile.

All operating systems support the creation of screenshots natively. On Windows, you’d just use Ctrl-Print to capture a screenshot. These screen capturing options are useful, but they are not ideal when it comes to capturing entire webpages, as they only capture the visible part.

Browsers with native screenshot tools

Several web browsers include native screenshot tools. Here is a list and how you activate the built-in screenshot function:

Microsoft Edge — Open menu and select screenshot from the list of options. Pick capture full page next and use the save icon to download the screenshot of the webpage to your system.
Mozilla Firefox — Right-click anywhere on the page and select take screenshot from the menu. Select Save full page to create a screenshot of the entire webpage. It takes a moment before a preview is displayed. Use the download button to save it to the local system.
Opera — Select the snapshot icon in the address bar to create a screenshot. Activate the capture full webpage button to create a screenshot of the entire webpage. Options to edit the screenshot and save it to the local system are provided after a moment.
Vivaldi — Activate the camera icon in Vivaldi’s status bar to open the screenshot options. Select full page and then the capture button to save the screenshot to the local system.

Browsers that require an extension to take screenshots

Google Chrome — You may use a browser extension such as GoFullPage or FireShot to capture entire pages.

Technically, Chrome supports capturing screenshots natively. The feature is available in the Developer Tools, which makes it difficult to access. Still, it may be an option if you do not want to install a browser extension for creating screenshots.

Here is how you use it:

Open the webpage that you want to create a whole screenshot from.
Use Ctrl-Shift-I to open the Developer Tools. On Mac, you use Command-Option-I. This opens the Developer Tools interface.
Use Ctrl-Shift-P to open the run box. On Mac, you use Command-Shift-P instead.
Type screenshot and select capture full size screenshot.
Chrome saves the screenshot to the local system.

Bonus Tip: Android

Android’s native screen capturing tool supports full webpage captures. You may know that you can take a screenshot of the visible screen by pressing the Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time.

Android displays several options afterwards. This includes a a “down” icon. Press it once and Android scrolls down a bit on the webpage and appends more to the screenshot automatically.

Tip: press and hold the icon until the end of the page is reached to create a full webpage screenshot.

Do you take screenshots of webpages? If so, how do you capture them and why? If not, do you use a different method to save information?

How to deal with Notifications in Google Chrome

Posted on March 26, 2024March 26, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

All modern web browsers support so-called push notifications. Websites may request permission to send notifications. When users accept, they may push notifications to the user’s system. Ideally, these are useful to the user. Maybe about a new post on the site, an auction running out, or about item availability in online stores.

Most of the time, at least from my experience, notifications are not that helpful for users. Sites may push lots of notifications to user systems. Abuse is rampant. Notifications may get abused for advertisement, scams, or malicious attacks.

While notifications contain no executable content, clicking on notifications may launch sites and thus attacks.

You can check out this recent story on Bleeping Computer for an example of attacks. The attack originated on Google Search and used notifications to push spam and malware.

One of the best options to deal with notifications is to disable them. This works well for users who never use them in the first place. Those who do use notifications on specific sites may also optimize their configuration.

The following paragraphs explain how that is done. Note that this applies to other Chromium-based browsers as well. All offer these options, and you may load the URL provided below to open the Settings.

Blocking Notifications in Chrome permanently

It takes just a few steps to block notifications in Google Chrome.

Load chrome://settings/content/notifications in the Chrome address bar. You may also open Menu > Settings > Privacy & Security > Site settings > Notifications manually.
Set the default behavior to “Don’t allow sites to send notifications”.

You are done. Chrome won’t send any notifications from this moment up. There is one exception, and this is handy to allow specific sites to send notifications while disallowing them from any other site.

Scroll down to the customized behaviors section. There you find overrides. Use the “allowed to send notifications” section to allow specific sites to send notifications to your system.

Activate the “add” button and type the domain name using the following format: [*.]domain.com.

This allows the domain to send notifications, even though the general setting is set to disabled.

Tip: you can also allow sites in the following way:

Open the site in the Chrome browser.
Click on the icon that is in front of the domain name in Chrome.
Select Site Settings from the menu.
Locate the Notifications preference and set it to “allow”.

Closing Words

My recommendation is to turn off Notifications and use the allow list for select sites only. This blocks all notification spam and any attempt to use notifications for malicious attacks. It also prevents less tech savvy users from accepting notifications on a regular basis in the browser.

How to enable Flash support in Firefox

Posted on March 5, 2024March 5, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Flash? Is not that the technology that had so many security holes that it had to be put down? Yes and now. Flash was undoubtedly highly problematic from a security point of view. It was, however, also a technology that was widely used to create incredible applications and games.

Flash is dead and there is no option to install Flash anymore in modern web browsers. The technology lives on, however. Ruffle is an open source project that emulates Flash in modern browsers and on websites.

There are two main options here: websites may integrate Ruffle for Flash emulation so that games and apps may be played. The other option integrates Ruffle into browsers so that Flash content may be played even if the site has no Ruffle implementation.

Firefox is in an excellent position, as it supports desktop and mobile extensions. This means, that you may install Flash in Firefox for the desktop and for Android to regain Flash support. Ruffle is also available for Chromium-based browsers, but all major ones limit extensions to their desktop versions.

Microsoft is testing extensions support in Edge for Android, but it is not there yet.

Installing Ruffle in Firefox

It is not difficult to install the extension in Firefox. Just visit the official Ruffle website in Firefox and activate the “add to Firefox” option on the page to install the extension. Ruffle displays the permissions that it requires — access your data for all websites — and an add button to commence the installation.

Once installed, Ruffle will load Flash content encountered in the browser. If the site uses a Ruffle implementation it will upgrade it to the latest version, if that is not already used. If the site does not emulate Flash at all, Ruffle will load the Flash content so that it can be accessed. In other words, the Ruffle extension may also prove useful if the site uses Ruffle to provide access to Flash content.

Note: Ruffle is still a work in progress. Some games or apps may not work properly or at all because of that.

Using Ruffle to play Flash games

Once Ruffle is installed, Flash games should load automatically. This is regardless of whether the website the game is hosted on supports Ruffle or not.

Apart from certain games or apps that won’t work properly, Ruffle’s extension is also not capable of loading local Flash games in the browser.

Other than that, it is smooth sailing from this moment on. Finding Flash games and apps on the Internet is probably the hardest part at this point. Most gaming sites that supported Flash games in the past have installed Ruffle by now. The extension may still be useful on some of these sites, as it may load a newer Ruffle version that promises better compatibility and other benefits.

Firefox for Android loads Flash games and apps just like the desktop version once Ruffle is installed. It may be difficult to play them in the browser, at least on smaller screens, as the resolution may be tiny because of missing optimizations.

Alternatives

A few projects offer access to thousands of Flash games and apps. Popular ones are the Flash Games preservation project, Flashpoint, which had a size of more than 30 gigabytes back in 2018 already. It has grown to a size of 1.4 terabytes since then.

The archive has preserved more than 170,000 games and animations according to information on its website. Good news is that you do not need to download the entire archive but a smaller distribution. Games and components are then loaded on demand.

Another project is the Flash Game Archive. It is still maintained up to this point and includes a searchable directory of games on its website.

Closing words

Ruffle is an interesting option if you want to play Flash games or apps in your browser. While it does not work for all games yet, it is a valid option. Many Flash game websites have withered away since the end of Flash, others have moved on to support JavaScript games only.

Now You: have you played games online recently?

Does it work? Trick promises to speed up folder opening in Windows’ File Explorer

Posted on March 4, 2024March 4, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

We have probably all been there. The gigantic folder full of — insert a data type here — is taking ages to display all files that it contains. It does not matter if we are talking about pictures, videos, audio files, documents, or a mix of files.

Sometimes, File Explorer seems to take ages to open large folders on Windows devices. While this is caused by hardware limitations at times, a slow CPU, a tiny amount of RAM, or a slow hard drive may be blamed, it is sometimes Windows that is causing the delay.

Microsoft introduced folder types in earlier versions of Windows. The main idea behind the feature is to display data in specific ways. A folder full of images shows thumbnails of these images, which many users like.

To get there, File Explorer needs to analyze the files. If it finds a dominating type, it may set the folder to that type. Problem is, this analysis is automated and it takes time.

A solution (via Deskmodder) that promises to fix the issue has been making the rounds lately. It blocks this auto discovery from happening basically.

The solution

This solution is not new and it may come as a surprise to some that it is making the rounds again. Then again, these tricks rarely get old, but new generations may not know them at all.

About 14 years ago, I published several articles on the matter. Fix slow folders in Windows 7 recommended changing the folder type to “general items” to avoid any loading issues.

I mentioned the trick that is now making the rounds in the same year. Back in August 2010 I explained how you could enable a single view mode for all folders in Windows Explorer to speed up the loading of files and folders. Windows Explorer is the previous name of File Explorer in case you are wondering.

Registry Editor: set folder type to unspecified — File Explorer Slow Folders tweak

This tweak still works in Windows 11. Here are the steps:

Open the Start Menu, type regedit.exe, and press the Enter-key on the keyboard.
Confirm the prompt by selecting Yes.
Paste the following path into the address field in the Registry Editor window, or go there manually: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell
Check if FolderType exists. If it does not, right-click on Shell and select New > String value. Name it FolderType.
Double-click on FolderType and set its value to NotSpecified.
Close the Registry Editor.
Restart the Windows PC.

The effect

The change sets the default folder type for all folders to general. In other words, File Explorer does not need to parse the files in the folder anymore to determine its type. This should speed up the opening of folders.

You may still customize certain folders by changing their folder type.

To answer the question: yes it does work in many cases. While it cannot do anything about hardware-related slowdowns, it will speed up the loading of large folders on Windows.

Several programs are available that help you do that. You may use Nirsoft’s ShellBagsView or the free software WinSetView for that. The latter comes with options to reset the views to their defaults as well.

Closing Words

If you experience issues opening folders on Windows regularly, then you may want to give this tweak a try. It may resolve the issue on your end and there is little drawback to the method.

Now You: did you know about this tweak?

About Microsoft Edge’s Super Drag & Drop feature

Posted on February 27, 2024February 27, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Super Drag & Drop is a new experimental feature of the Microsoft Edge browser. The main idea behind the feature is to improve the opening of links and running web searches in Edge.

Once enabled in Edge, it allows you to drag and drop links just a short distance to open them in the browser. Similarly, dragging & dropping text runs a search for the text.

How to enable Super Drag & Drop in Microsoft Edge

Here is how you enable the feature in Microsoft Edge. Note that the feature is integrate in Microsoft Edge 122 or newer. You may check the version by selecting Menu > Help & Feedback > About Microsoft Edge.

Load edge://flags/#edge-super-drag-drop in the address bar of the web browser.
Set the status of the experimental feature to Enabled.
Restart Microsoft Edge.

There is one additional step required to enable the feature in Microsoft Edge:

Load edge://settings/appearance in the Edge browser’s address bar.
Scroll down on the page that opens until you come to the Super Drag and Drop section.
Toggle “Enable Super Drag and Drop” on the page to turn the feature on.

Super Drag & Drop is now enabled in the browser and you may start using it. Note that there is a “Configure Super Drag and Drop” option on the settings page to configure it.

The only two options provided at the moment let you select the open mode and the website block list. Links and searches open in a background tab by default. You can change that to foreground tab in the options.

The block list prevents Super Drag and Drop from functioning on websites that you add to the list.

Using the feature in Edge

Usage of the drag and drop feature is simple. Whenever you encounter a link in Microsoft Edge, you may drag and drop it just a short distance to load it in a new tab in the browser. It is handy especially for users who do not use middle-clicks or Shift-clicks to open links in new tabs.

Current versions of Edge support dropping links onto the browser’s tab bar to open them. This feature reduces the distance the mouse has to travel to open links.

There is no option to launch multiple links that way. This ability reminds me of Snap Links, a browser extension for Firefox and other browsers. It allowed you to draw rectangles around links to open them all at once in the browser.

Anyway, Edge’s feature is limited to dragging and dropping a single link to launch it. If you want to open multiple links, you need to repeat this for each of the links individually.

The second option that the feature introduces is to run searches for text that you drag and drop. Highlight text in the browser and then use drag & drop to run a search for that text.

This feature uses the default search engine of the browser. It is refreshing that Microsoft did not hardcode it to use Bing. Clearly, this should be the norm, but in this day and age, it is often not. A program like MSEdgeRedirect helps with that under Windows.

Closing Words

Super Drag & Drop is an experimental feature that is entirely optional at this point. It may speed up the opening of links and searching for selected text in the browser. Users who use keyboard shortcuts or middle-clicks won’t benefit from it as much as users who do not.

Now You: how do you open links in your browser of choice?