Tag Archives: windows 10

Printer goes permanently offline fix

software, windows, ,

Scenario:

Whenever you print documents in Windows 8 or Windows 10 they do not print and the printer appears Offline.

Solution:

Often times the printer will go offline and not come back online until you reboot.  Microsoft points to the vendor drivers as the cause and the vendor usually point a Microsoft as the cause.

A temporary work around is to restart the print spooler service.  This will save you from having to reboot.  To restart the print spooler follow these steps:

  1. Open “Computer Management”
  2. In the “Computer Management” window click “Computer Management->->Services and Applications->Services”.
  3. Right click on “Print Spooler” and choose “Restart”.

Is Visual Basic 6 still supported on Windows 8?

programming, windows, , , ,

Question:

Is Visual Basic 6 still supported on Windows 8?

Answer:

Yes and no. Yes, the runtime and extended runtime files are supported on Windows 8 and will likely also be supported on Windows 10. The IDE however is not supported and does not run in Windows 8. Running a Virtual Machine with Windows 7 maybe one of the only options to run the IDE in modern OS’s.

Windows 8: Display bluetooth file transfer

windows, , ,

Scenario:

You want to locate and find the bluetooth file transfer wizard in Windows 8.

Solution:

This maybe difficult to find if you are using a table with the desktop. There is a setting that will put it into the notification dock on the bottom right hand side of the desktop. To do this follow these steps:

  1. Press Windows Key+W then search for “bluetooth”
  2. Choose the “Change Bluetooth settings” option.
  3. On the “Options” tab check the “Show the Bluetooth icon in the notification area” option then press “OK” on the dialog to save.

How do I stop Windows 8 and/or Windows 10 from restarting to install updates?

software, windows, , , , ,

Scenario:

Windows 8/10 has initiated the process to install patches and updates but needs to restart. You will receive a banner message box with text such as this:

Restart in 14 minutes, 59 seconds

Your PC needs to restart to finish installing important updates.  If you've already saved everything, you can restart now.  Otherwise, you should take a moment to save your work.

A restart is needed

To finish installing important updates, you need to restart your PC.  If you've already saved everything, you can restart now.  Otherwise, you should take a moment to save your work.  Your PC will automatically restart the next time you sign in.

Solution:

You can use the group policy editor to disable this behavior (you will still have to restart at some point to finish installing patches but it won’t happen automatically). Steps for professional and higher versions of Windows that have the group policy editor included:

  1. Open epedit.msc
  2. Navigate to “Local Computer Policy”->”Computer Configuration”->”Administrative Templates”->”Windows Components”->”Windows Update”
  3. Click on the “No auto-restart with logged on users” policy and change it to “enabled“

Steps for home versions of Windows that don’t have the group policy editor.

  1. Open the registry editor, e.g. start “regedit”.
  2. Navigate to KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
  3. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value and name it NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers. Set the value to “1” (with no quotes).
  4. Reboot the computer after you have entered this.