Medicat USB

2022-06-18 Update

Medicat installer works fine but you still need to deactivate Defender before running.

Once Medicat USB is created do not insert into an active system without disabling virus protection.

It is tempting to use a huge USB with Medicat and add a bunch of useful things but you can not plug Medicat into an active system because of some of the hack files so 64GB is good enough. 32GB is too small to add Windows install files.

With the new installer most of what I said below is obsolete.

***Caution

If you stick MediCat into a working Windows OS to edit or play around, be sure to deactivate real time protection or antivirus will delete some of the files. This is too many files for just whitelisting and not worth the time.

Ventoy Method

Had to boot in legacy for mini-Windows to work. This PC's BIOS gave me the option for legacy or UEFI on the boot menu. Bottom line is use Ventoy for simplicity unless using over 32G drive and wanting add more ISO files.

*Ventoy Method

Medicat is easier than it looks to install on a USB stick. 

. Most tutorials are in foreign language. 

. . I don't yet know how to add additional ISO files to the drive or update the menu. 

. . . Medicat has more than you will probably ever need anyway.

This seems to me the main site for Medicat

... Choose the torrent download

Download the current Ventoy and prepare a flash drive choosing the GPT partition option and the Secure Boot option. I think GPT is for booting UEFI. It booted the the Windows ISO fine with legacy BIOS for me.

Then go to the main large Ventoy partition and reformat to NTFS.

The Medicat you downloaded will have a number of zip folders. 

, Open zip-1 in 7zip and extract to the large Ventoy partition.

, , 7zip will automatically extract all of the zip folders in order.

. . . Be sure to have real time protection off.

. . . . Yes it will take for ever.

This method for E2B might be worth a try. E2B is awesome at booting on various machines.

Easy2Boot Download Here

*E2B Method

Don't' worry when you can't find "\pecmdExt.ini" file to copy. It's not there.

Remember to always run Make Drive Contiguous after adding anything. It's in root E2B.

Remember

..Working on MediCat (but not booting to) in standard Windows you need to disable real time protection.

..Then unzip and work with MediCat.

..Might as well delete the unzip if turning on protection because it will remove some MediCat files.

..Your ISO files in E2B benefit from having the *,isodef extension in E2B and not *.iso

.. If you can't see an ISO it may be that you did not run MakeDriveContiguous

When using a large drive and planning on adding other ISO files E2B is the way to go. MediCat will take up much of a 32G drive without adding anything so forget adding a Win10 install to a Ventoy MediCat on a 32G drive.

Secure Boot

. . .I hate it and forgot to turn it of on my Acer Predator laptop. It was grayed out. What the heck. I set a BIOS password and was able to turn secure boot off. Then I removed the password. Enter the password you set and hit enter on the blank new slots to have no password.

Can't Access Boot Menu

. . .Try holding shift key down when shutting down Windows before restart.

Boot Menu Keys

Added Bonus

Portable Apps Section

If you access this within your Windows system (real time turned off) and you 

Windows Product Key

2022-06-16 UKV (Ultra Virus Killer) under system info will show the key 

Open command prompt cmd

wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

I like Nirsoft's program for this but fighting the antivirus over it irritating so why bother.

This one looks good PID Key Checker 

Or this may be good enough and you don't need anything but cmd

Windows Product Key

check expiration

slmgr /xpr

type and partial key

slmgr /dli

same but more info

slmgr /dlv

Retrive key

wmic path softwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

Microsoft Office In Safe Mode

 I don't use Outlook anymore but a friend could not start Outlook without admin.

He then could not drag/drop into email.

I disabled addins but it didn't help.

The only way I could fix it was starting Outlook in safe mode.

3 Ways

1. Run Box > outlook.exe /safe

2. Press and hold the Ctrl key, then select the Outlook shortcut

3.Make Shortcut

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE” /safe

Location Program Files or PF (x86) depends on if 32 or 64 bit version

I could not get the shortcut I made to work and was short on time so gave up.

Fix Windows Update Script

Paste into notepad and save as fixupdate.bat

Should work. I've done it manually before but not with this script.

@ECHO OFF

echo Simple Script to Reset / Clear Windows Update

 echo.

PAUSE

echo.

attrib -h -r -s %windir%system32catroot2

attrib -h -r -s %windir%system32catroot2*.*

net stop wuauserv

net stop CryptSvc

net stop BITS

ren %windir%system32catroot2 catroot2.old

ren %windir%SoftwareDistribution sold.old

ren "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%application dataMicrosoftNetworkdownloader" downloader.old

net Start BITS

net start CryptSvc

net start wuauserv

echo.

echo Task completed successfully...

echo.

PAUSE 

I have an early Yoga running 1903 and it refuses to feature update.

I thought it was the Conextant Audio drive but looks like it was a BIOS update needed.

2021-05-15 I let Lenovo update the bios. Update still stopped at 61%. But this time running Update Assistant looks like it is going to make it.

(Of course Assistant detected standard update running so I hade to net stop wuauserv and it was happy.

Do I really care if I have 2004? I would have been happy to stop it at 1909 but I does bug me not to have things works correctly.

Windows Key Beeps and Keyboard Start Menu Not Working

2021-05-15 None of these have worked to date.

Driving me crazy . . .

First but only temporary

Press "shift" 5 times in a row

***More permanent is reregister the Windows Key

Reregister the Windows Key

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-start-win_menu/download-start-menu-troubleshooter-for-windows-10/3b9c6509-4e87-4b87-b9d1-4eb446139d41

1. Open Task Manager, click File > Run new task. 

2. Type powershell in the Create new task box. Check the option 'Create this task with administrative privileges'. Click OK. 

3. In the administrative Windows PowerShell window, type/paste following and press Enter key: 

Get-appxpackage -all *shellexperience* -packagetype bundle |% {add-appxpackage -register -disabledevelopmentmode ($_.installlocation + “\appxmetadata\appxbundlemanifest.xml”)} 

4. Let it complete and then restart your system.

This seemed to work but it came back . . .

***So Now I'm Trying This

Rename sethc.exe to sethc.exe.old

You will need to take ownership of the file to change the name

***If that does not work try this

You may try the registry key settings as below:

Click on start and in the start search box type regedit and press enter. In the registry editor make the following changes.

1.     Disable Sticky Keys

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys]

“Flags”=”506″

2.     Disable Filter Keys

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Response]

“Flags”=”122″

3.     Disable Toggle Keys

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\ToggleKeys]

“Flags”=”58″

Note: one can completely disable accessibility options by renaming/deleting the registry-node Accessibility (above)

flag 0 works on sticky but hurts in games

These are the original settings

response 126
sticky 56
toggle 62

Programs I Likely Install On Most Systems

7-Zip 19.00 (x64)

AOMEI Backupper Standard

AutoHotkey 1.1.33.02

Brave (I quit using because so many things wouldn't work)

Carbonite (for business)

Chocolatey GUI (wingetui now so seldom use)

Core Temp 1.13 (for heat sensitve systems only)

Everything 1.4.1.935 (x64)

f.lux

Google Chrome

IrfanView 4.54 (64-bit)

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010

Mozilla Firefox

Neat Download Manager

Nik Collection

Notepad++ (64-bit x64)

OBS Studio

OpenShot Video Editor

Oracle VM VirtualBox

PowerToys (Preview)

Private Internet Access

qBittorrent

ShareX

Sonos Controller

Steam

SyncTrayzor

VLC media player

VMware Player

Zoom 

Portable I drag along

Portable Apps

AS SSD Benchmark

audacity

AwesomePhotoFinder

BOOTICEx64_v1.332

Calibre

ClickMonitorDDC_3_0

Complete Internet Repair

debotnet

DnsJumper

Easy2Boot_v2.04

EasyBCD

EcMenu_v1.6

Fix Dual Boot

FotoSketch

FreeAlarmClockPortable

FreeFileSyncPortable

Gimp

God Mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

HandBrake 1.2.0

HDTune

HexChat

hwi

LockNote

O&O Shutup

PhotoResizer

Rainmeter

RocketDock

Simple Driver Origin

SyMenu

TaskbarX (Not Win11)

UVK - Ultra Virus Killer

Ventoy Theme

Virtual_Magnifying_Glass_Portable_paf

volumouse-x64

Winaero Tweaker

Windows_Repair_Toolbox

SyMenuSuite

_Cache

_CacheCustom

_Trash

3D_Youtube_Downloader_(x64)_sps

7-Zip_(x64)_sps

AnyBurn

AnyDesk_sps

Awesome_Duplicate_Photo_Finder_sps

BleachBit_sps

CPU-Z_sps

CrystalDiskInfo_Portable_sps

CrystalDiskMark_Portable_sps

DriverBackup_sps

Foxit_Reader_Portable_sps

Gixen_Desktop_Manager_sps

GPU-Z_sps

GT_Text_(x64)_sps

GtkHash_(x64)_sps

Homedale_sps

HWiNFO_sps

HWMonitor_sps

IcoFX_sps

Jarte_sps

LaunchyQT_sps

MiniTool_Partition_Wizard_Free_(x64)_sps

MobaLiveCD_sps

NexusFont_sps

Pale_Moon_Portable_(x64)_sps

PDFTK_Builder_Portable_sps

PuTTY_sps

Q-Dir_(x64)_sps

Registry_Finder_(x64)_sps

RegSeeker_sps

Revo_Uninstaller_sps

ScreenToGif_sps

Speccy_sps

Sumatra_PDF_sps

SyncFolders_sps

Tor_Browser_sps

Ultradefrag_Portable_(x64)_sps

UltraSearch_(x64)_sps

UniversalViewerFree_sps

Unlocker_sps

Visual_Studio_Code_(x64)_sps

Wallpaper_Welder_sps

WinCDEmu_sps

WinMerge_(x64)_sps

WinSCP_sps

Wise_Disk_Cleaner_sps

WizTree_sps

NirSoftSuite

_Cache

_CacheCustom

_Trash

DevManView_x64_sps

HotKeysList_sps

LastActivityView_sps

ProduKey_sps

QuickSetDNS_sps

RegScanner_x64_sps

SearchMyFiles_x64_sps

ShellMenuView_x64_sps

SpecialFoldersView_x64_sps

SysExporter_x64_sps

UninstallView_x64_sps

WebBrowserPassView_sps

WifiInfoView_sps

Wireless_Network_Watcher_sps

ShareX Settings

Text Extraction

    Set Ctl + O to activate

Record Video & Audio

    Video works by default but including audio requires adjustments.

You will probably need to get ffmpeg.exe and enter the path

    Right click & select "Task settings . . .

    Select "Screen recorder"

    Select "Screen recording options"

Check "Use custom FFmpegpath" it should already be in the ShareX folder.

Install recorder devices is not intuitive but you are not looking for anything. Just accept the defaults.

When "install recorder devices" works you will get the Ready to Install dialog.

    virtual-audio-capture will be a source option

Go the the Hotkeys section.

    Set maybe F2 (or some unused key) for hotkey to start/stop recording.

        Using a hot key make things much easier to control.

Record Audio Only

(If desired for some reason)

Go to the Hotkey Settings

Edit the task settings

Then edit the Recorder settings

Then edit the screen recorder options

Copy to Clipboard

    In after capture tasks activate "copy file to clipboard". Then you can paste the image after capture.

It would seem natural to chose "copy image to clipboard" but that does nothing that I can tell.

UVK Virus Remover & CleanUp

 Go Here https://www.carifred.com/uvk/

Tons of things you can do but it is also a good portal to get some scanner programs.

For example you can quickly grab, install and run MalwareBytes

Update Gone Bad

 Start - Stop Window 3 times to get into troubleshooting.

Then do this

Choose uninstall update and it will uninstall most recent update

Reset Group Policy To Default

1. Open command prompt with admin permission

2. Execute these commands then restart the computer

RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy"

RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"

gpupdate.exe /force