Windows 11 Support Thread

Park@82 said:
Is the user profile gone form c:\Users?
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Yup - it has disappeared - only his wife's user profile is still there & active - it's all we can log into - apparently the laptop was doing a Windows update and one of his children moved books / files onto the keyboard - and his wife only noticed the screen 'flickering' strangely a few hours later - so who knows what happened in the interim... the perils of NOT pressing Win+L when leaving the laptop unattended... also it seems to have a hybrid drive - the C:\ drive is about 120GB and the D:\ drive is about 450 GB - but the user folders were NEVER set to save to the D:\ drive as a default - and the C:\ drive was in the red with only about 10-15 GB free space - so maybe the update bombed out due to insufficient space on it... it wasn't even able to download a Win 11 25H2 ISO file from the Windows website...
 
HAL 9000 said:
Yup - it has disappeared - only his wife's user profile is still there & active - it's all we can log into - apparently the laptop was doing a Windows update and one of his children moved books / files onto the keyboard - and his wife only noticed the screen 'flickering' strangely a few hours later - so who knows what happened in the interim... the perils of NOT pressing Win+L when leaving the laptop unattended... also it seems to have a hybrid drive - the C:\ drive is about 120GB and the D:\ drive is about 450 GB - but the user folders were NEVER set to save to the D:\ drive as a default - and the C:\ drive was in the red with only about 10-15 GB free space - so maybe the update bombed out due to insufficient space on it... it wasn't even able to download a Win 11 25H2 ISO file from the Windows website...
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Thats not good. Maybe try testdisk and try to recover it. use chatgpt for a guide on how to use it (Explain the context and ask for advice).

If it had important stuff that were not backed up, shut it down, don't write anything else to it. Maybe the file structure got lost and perhaps the data was not overwritten yet. Remove the drive and put it in another system then try testdisk to see if you can recover it. chatgpt can tell you the steps...

I have had some success with testdisk in the past.
 
Park@82 said:
Thats not good. Maybe try testdisk and try to recover it. use chatgpt for a guide on how to use it (Explain the context and ask for advice).

If it had important stuff that were not backed up, shut it down, don't write anything else to it. Maybe the file structure got lost and perhaps the data was not overwritten yet. Remove the drive and put it in another system then try testdisk to see if you can recover it. chatgpt can tell you the steps...

I have had some success with testdisk in the past.
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Almost all of the critical data is stored on the D:\ drive or in the cloud (OneDrive / Google) so I am going to do a reset with Rufus & a fresh install of Win11 25H2 onto it - and then set up the two user profiles... better to start with a clean slate again - with the file libraries for each profile set to store their data on the D:\ drive instead of on the C:\ drive...
 
HAL 9000 said:
Almost all of the critical data is stored on the D:\ drive or in the cloud (OneDrive / Google) so I am going to do a reset with Rufus & a fresh install of Win11 25H2 onto it - and then set up the two user profiles... better to start with a clean slate again - with the file libraries for each profile set to store their data on the D:\ drive instead of on the C:\ drive...
Click to expand...
Perhaps make sure the data isn't bitlocker encrypted before nuking the C drive. If it's an older system maybe consider Tiny11.
 
HAL 9000 said:
Almost all of the critical data is stored on the D:\ drive or in the cloud (OneDrive / Google) so I am going to do a reset with Rufus & a fresh install of Win11 25H2 onto it - and then set up the two user profiles... better to start with a clean slate again - with the file libraries for each profile set to store their data on the D:\ drive instead of on the C:\ drive...
Click to expand...

What drive is it? ... can't you delete all partitions and make it one large drive?

Usually with hybrid drives only the caching runs from the chip side of the drive ? ... faster booting etc.
 
I managed to get all the data backed up to an external HDD on my friend's laptop - then deleted ALL unnecessary data & files off the C:\ drive - I also backed up all his data on the D:\ drive to the external HDD as well...

I then had about 60GB free on the 128GB partition - so I did the 'Reset This PC' option in Windows Update - let it complete successfully - then created 3 new user profiles on it - one for him as the primary user - and two for his children (Using Microsoft Family Safety) as well - I also set ALL the file libraries (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures & Video) on the three profiles to use the D:\ drive for their default storage options - and then set-up each user profile's apps & settings as required (MS Office, Adobe Reader, AnyDesk, etc) - just going to do a final check on all settings this morning & then it's finally done & dusted... 💻⏱️⏱️⏱️
 

14 simple Windows 11 tweaks that instantly boost your privacy - Windows Central​

Windows 11 shares more than you think. Here's how to lock it down and harden your privacy step by step.

1771477347898.png

Windows 11 works great out of the box, but it also connects, syncs, reports, backs up, and shares more than many people realize. If you care about privacy and want tighter control over what your computer sends to Microsoft and other services, you have to go beyond the default settings.

Although you cannot make your computer completely private, there are tweaks you can use to harden Windows 11 for privacy. For instance, you can switch to a local account, reduce telemetry, turn off cloud-powered search, remove apps like OneDrive and Copilot (and Windows Recall, if available), disable sharing and backup integrations, control updates, and even replace BitLocker with an alternative encryption solution if you prefer a different trust model.

In this how-to guide, I'll outline the steps to improve your privacy on Windows 11.
Click to expand...

 
HAL 9000 said:
I managed to get all the data backed up to an external HDD on my friend's laptop - then deleted ALL unnecessary data & files off the C:\ drive - I also backed up all his data on the D:\ drive to the external HDD as well...

I then had about 60GB free on the 128GB partition - so I did the 'Reset This PC' option in Windows Update - let it complete successfully - then created 3 new user profiles on it - one for him as the primary user - and two for his children (Using Microsoft Family Safety) as well - I also set ALL the file libraries (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures & Video) on the three profiles to use the D:\ drive for their default storage options - and then set-up each user profile's apps & settings as required (MS Office, Adobe Reader, AnyDesk, etc) - just going to do a final check on all settings this morning & then it's finally done & dusted... 💻⏱️⏱️⏱️
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Thank you for sharing. What did you have for dinner?
 
www.thurrott.com

The Canary Channel is Somehow Getting Even Weirder

We don't even write up most Windows Insider Program Canary builds because there's so little going on there.
www.thurrott.com www.thurrott.com
We don’t even write up most Windows Insider Program Canary builds because there’s so little going on there. But back in November, Microsoft switched Canary over to Windows 11 version 26H1 testing, which is inherently interesting. And now it’s doing something … different.
..

As odd, Microsoft is currently testing different Windows 11 version 25H2 series of builds through the Dev and Beta channels for some reason, though the assumption now, given the recent news about 26H1, is that Dev will move to 26H2 testing at some point. Lost? Welcome to the club.

Crazy.
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