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Turning Bluetooth off for two hours, enabling Dark Mode at eight in the evening, or setting the volume to 0 percent in the morning. These are all examples what a new PowerToys tool might offer in the future.

The main idea is simple: let users create schedules for certain system settings. Besides what is been mentioned already, the new feature may support Wi-Fi or keeping the screen turned on for a specific amount of time.

Windows itself offers limited functionality when it comes to automating features. One of the very few options lets users activate Night mode on schedule so that Dark Mode is enabled at a specific time.

Administrators may use the Task Scheduler for certain jobs, but this is an advanced tool and not user friendly.

What is PowerToys? PowerToys is a collection of tools that expand Windows. It adds dozens of tools to Windows. The program is optional and while it does add a ton of tools to Windows, some dislike it because of its size.

Settings Scheduler Tool

Settings Scheduler is not yet available, but it has been announced as an idea on the PowerToys GitHub repository.

There, it has been described in the following way:

A simple utility for scheduling a setting for a set time or duration. The utility would have a few options for different settings then the option to change them based on a timer or based on a specific schedule.

While it seems likely that Settings Scheduler is going to be integrated into PowerToys, there is no guarantee for that at this stage.

Who is the tool for? The answer depends largely on the functionality that it will ship with initially. It could be an interesting tool for users who would like to automate certain processes.

The real question is, would you use it if it meant that you would likely have to run PowerToys on system start (assuming that the scheduled tasks are not added to the Task Scheduler)? Feel free to leave a comment down below. Also, whether you use PowerToys. (via Neowin)

DISM-GUI is a free app for Windows 10 and 11 that gives you access to various commands to check and repair Windows.

Good to know: DISM stands for Deployment Image Servicing and Management. It is a command line tool that, among other features, may be used to find and repair Windows issues related to missing or changed operating system files.

The free app makes the functionality more accessible. You still need to know the basics, as the program lacks documentation. The program interface consists of buttons that run the selected commands in a command prompt window.

It includes all popular options, including cleanup, which frees up storage space by removing overhead from the component store, and restore, which attempts to repair the Windows system.

Tip: check out Super God Mode as well. It creates shortcuts to more than a thousand admin tools and settings on Windows.

Here is a quick overview:

• Check (CheckHealth) – The command checks for corruptions inside the Windows image.
• Scan (ScanHealth) – The command runs a more thorough scan.
• Restore (RestoreHealth) – Searches for errors and attempts to repair them.
  • Online – check using the local image.
  • Wim – use an ISO image or an unpacked ISO image for the repair.
  • ESD – use an ESD image.
• Analyze ( AnalyzeComponentStore) – Checks the component store for overhead.
• Cleanup (StartComponentCleanup) – Cleans up the component store to free up disk space.

DISM-GUI supports several non-DISM commands next to that:

• SFC Scan — Runs the command sfc /scannow.
• CAB Install — Install a CAB update on the system.
• ESD > WIM — Convert an ESD file to a WIM file.
• Get State — Returns the state of Reserved Storage.
• Enable / Disable — Enable or disable Reserved Storage.

Note: Windows reserves storage on the primary partition for “proper performance” and updates.

Commands are executed in a command prompt window in the background.

You can download DISM-Gui over at Deskmodder.

Verdict

DISM-Gui is a useful helper app for Windows 10 and 11. It is especially useful for admins who use the commands regularly and for inexperienced users who need to run the commands.

All in all, it is a useful free app for Windows administrators.

Will it disallow access to the Windows kernel by security products? Not right now, but the path could lead there.

Microsoft held a security conference earlier this week at its Redmond headquarters. It invited business partners, especially those in the security field, to participate.

The hot topic during the conference was the Crowdstrike disaster that took down more than 8.5 million PCs worldwide. More precisely, how to avoid a repeat of it in the years to come.

David Weston, Vice President Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft, published a summary of the event on the Microsoft Windows blog.

The main short-term takeaways:

• Microsoft and security vendors agree that choice is good when it comes to security products for Windows.
• A list of best practices for developing and distributing security updates will be created based on discussing Safe Deployment Practices.
• Other areas of improvement include testing, information sharing, and improved incident response effectiveness.

For the long-term, Microsoft plans to introduce new security capabilities to the Windows platform to add “security capabilities outside of kernel mode”.

Microsoft will design and develop the new platform in collaboration with “ecosystem partners”. The goal is “enhanced reliability without sacrificing security” according to Microsoft.

The blog post ends with several partner quotes and how everyone appreciated the opportunity to discuss security. Reading between the lines, several expressed concern that security could suffer, especially if kernel access would be revoked.

Closing Words

It will take some time before changes, even the discussed short-term changes, are applied. While Microsoft said nothing about pushing security products out of the kernel on Windows, some are worried already that Microsoft could create a solution that benefits its own products over everyone else’s.

Called it. Regulators need to be paying attention. A world where only Microsoft can provide effective endpoint security is not a more secure world. pic.twitter.com/PR2AnJwpZi

— Matthew Prince 🌥 (@eastdakota) August 23, 2024

It would not be the first time in the history of Windows.

What is your take on this development? It should be clear that something needed to be done to avoid another scenario that would cause millions of PCs to go down in flames. Are the proposed changes the right way?

Super Microsoft Configuration is a new tool by “built by Bel”. It is an “advanced and fully automated alternative to the traditional MSConfig tool” according to the developer.

Key Details:

• It is designed specifically for Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system.
• It checks the state of certain Windows features and settings to rate them as good or bad.
• Bad settings can be “fixed”.

The current version of the app has the title Super System Configuration. Whether that is going to be the new name or not is unclear. The developer has a habit of changing program names.

Using Super Microsoft Configuration

The program is portable and you may run it right after you have downloaded it from the GitHub repository.

Note: Windows SmartScreen may display a security warning. The reason for this is that it is a new program, not because it is malicious. A check on Virustotal returned a single false positive hit.

Hit the check button in the interface to run the scan. This should not take longer than a few seconds and you end up with a long log at the end.

The bad entries are shown in red. You can check “show only bad config” to hide the good settings to better focus on what the program considers bad.

While that helps, it is possible that you will still end up with dozens of entries. The main issue here is that each entry is listed in a single row. Since the information includes a description, Registry path, and other information, it is possible that you may need to scroll to read everything.

As far as what is considered beta is concerned, here are a few examples:

• Sending feedback and error reports.
• Radio access.
• Disabled Windows Defender Real-time Protection.
• Disabled User Account Control.
• Disabled Secure Boot.

At least two of the detected bad configurations were erroneous. User Account Control was enabled on the test system, for instance. The program returned no “current value” for the entry, which is why it detected it as bad.

You may double-click on an entry to display the details in a new window. This improves accessibility.

The window includes buttons to apply the fix or revert it. Here you may also copy the Registry value to search for it online.

It is necessary to go through them one by one, as you may not want to disable or enable features that might cause issues.

This makes Super System Configuration an advanced tool. The GitHub repository says as much as well.

Verdict

The application is not that different from other tweaking tools, including some of the developer’s past and present offerings. The main difference is the scanning and that it reveals advanced information, such as Registry keys.

On the other hand, it is difficult to navigate and there is no distinction between disabling quick links on Microsoft Edge’s new tab page and enabling Secure Boot or disabling microphone access.

It is not something that inexperienced users may want to use. It lacks guidance and at least some kind of warning or classification for some of the tweaks.

Considering that the program is available as a preview, it is a good idea to monitor its development and wait for the final release. For now, it is an interesting rough application.