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SamirGunic
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Re: Reinstate audio function without reinstalling Windows?
1. Run the audio troubleshooter. This is the easiest thing you can try. If your audio issue is deeply rooted, it will probably not be very helpful to run the audio troubleshooter. It can only fix the simplest possible non-issues such as if you have accidentally muted your speakers and you're unaware of it. In that case, this tool can unmute it for you. I did not make this tool, so I don't know all of its capabilities. It could for example be able to restart and enable audio related Windows services, and that alone would make it worth a try. Run control from the Run prompt to open the Control Panel. Now follow this path. Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\Hardware and Sound Click on the item that says "Playing Audio" and follow the instructions. 2. Ensure that audio related Windows services are running. Run services.msc from the Run prompt and locate the following two services. Windows Audio Windows Audio Endpoint Builder Make sure their Status is "Running" and their Startup Type is set to "Automatic". 3. Reinstall audio device and device drivers. Open the Device Manager and locate the "Sound, video and game controllers" category and expand it to view audio controllers. Right click on each of them and then click "Uninstall device". If you get the optional check box "Delete the driver software for this device" be sure to check it before you click on Uninstall. Note: You will have to download and reinstall the audio drivers, especially if you have selected to "delete the driver software for this device". Go to Action menu, then select "Scan for hardware changes" to re-enable your audio device(s). You may need to reboot the PC, especially if you have selected to delete the device drivers in the previous step. 4. Restore system configuration using a System Restore point. Run sysdm.cpl from the Run prompt to open System Properties and click on "System Protection" tab. Then click on System Restore, select "Choose a different restore point" and click Next. Then select a restore point whose creation date and time predates the audio issue you're experiencing. Don't select one that's too far back in the past as it could undo more system changes than you would want to. 5. Attempt to manually repair the Windows registry. Have a look at one of these locations. C:\Windows\System32\config\repair C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack See if you have some files in there with names such as "SAM", "SECURITY", "SOFTWARE", etc. These are your registry hive files. These files contain all the important system configuration parameters and allow Windows to boot correctly, recognize and initialize your system devices. You can use these files in an attempt to repair your Windows registry using various tools Microsoft has released over the years, including RegEdit. Note: The hive files your system is currently using are stored one level up in the System32\config folder. Note: This is a very advanced topic, and I would advice against using these techniques if you don't feel comfortable with it. I would not only advice against it because it's an advanced topic, but because the chances of success are slim and you may be wasting your time on this. There is no single tool (to my knowledge) that Microsoft has released that can reliably repair a corrupted Windows registry. The best I know of is RegEdit, but you need to be running it on the system you are trying to repair, or know how to load and unload registry hives offline and make changes that way. It can get really tricky and it's a dirty solution. Note: Starting with Windows 10 version 1803, Windows no longer uses the RegBack folder to store backup copies of its important registry hive files. This feature has been deprecated and this folder is no longer used. Note: Don't fool yourself with registry repair tools. They don't do anything useful but make you feel good about your PC, making you think that you're doing something good for your PC. They belong in the same category as "PC Performance Boost" type of applications. There are dozens of these registry repair and cleaning tools on the web, and all they do is remove registry keys and values that are not of any concern to begin with. You can end up screwing up a perfectly healthy Windows installation by using these tools. 6. Do a so called "in-place upgrade". This works by migrating the old Windows registry and all the registered devices and their drivers to a new Windows registry. The chances of a successful repair are higher here than doing manual registry labor. It depends largely on the state of the current registry and how badly it is corrupted. 7. Restore your system from a system backup. If you have one, restoring your system state from a backup could be your first and last step you would need to do to recover from this kind of audio issue. If you don't have a backup solution already, you should invest some time in sourcing a backup solution that can create disk images or system images. I personally have a very good one, but this event with Windows Update and audio issues was set too far back in time for me to revert the changes using my system image, and I didn't attend to the problem at hand before it was too late. 8. Reinstall Windows. As the last resort, if everything else fails, you can be sure that reinstalling Windows will most certainly resolve the issue. This too could be your first and last step you would need to do. The cost of reinstalling Windows is that you would have to restore all your files and applications. As I pointed out previously, your files should not be stored and living on your Windows partition in any case. Make it a habit to store your files elsewhere. The same goes for applications and configuration files. If you can install them elsewhere, do so. This will make you much better prepared to reinstall Windows whenever you run into some issue that you can't resolve. Reinstalling Windows fixes 99.99% of all issues with Windows.Re: How do I remove "English (United Kingdom)"?
Sadly, impossible. I did exactly what you said. I checked the two boxes, clicked OK, restarted, and made a new user called "Blabla" and made him administrator without password (danger zone). After signing in with Blabla, I get a bit different language configuration than I had previously when I made a new user account. But I still got the "English (United Kingdom)".Re: Reinstate audio function without reinstalling Windows?
Following articles discuss how to repair Windows registry hives. https://www.kuhnline.com/repair-corrupted-registry-hive/ https://www.css-networks.com/2010/12/recovering-from-windows-registry-hive-corruption-the-clever-or-smart-way/ It's surprising to see that the first author (first link) came to the same conclusion as I have: the first thing you want to try when a registry hive has been corrupted is to use the Last Known Good Configuration. Followed by using a restore point in System Restore, followed by offline loading the hive in Registry Editor. In that order. Then I found a second article, from a different author (second link) that suggests offline loading the hive in Registry Editor immediately (same as the other author), without testing any of the other method. He describes this as "the smart way" of recovering from registry hive corruption. So all I really need now is a good copy of my SYSTEM hive to attempt to repair this "No Audio" issue offline in a second computer. It would seem reasonable to think that this might actually do the job. Sadly I don't have a good copy of these files. My system image backups are not old enough to retrieve copies of these files that predate this issue with audio devices. Otherwise I have not had any major issues with this computer, not a single crash, not until I got KB5003345. I may still be able to repair the SYSTEM file that I have, using that extra stuff (LOG1, LOG2, BLF, REGTRANS-MS). But it seems like a long shot, and will require opening my computer and disconnecting my M.2 disk, which may be problematic to install on the second computer since it's not a regular SATA HDD or SSD disk. If I knew it would work I would do it... I may still do it, I just need to convince myself it's worth the hassle. At least I have a fresh backup in True Image to fall back on should something go wrong. I will think about it. I wish I knew what I know now. But wishing is not going to help me... Also, I will add that I just learned that as of Windows 10, Windows no longer makes backup copies of these hive files as of version 1803. See for yourself, the Microsoft Docs link is below. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/deployment/system-registry-no-backed-up-regback-folder Since at least Windows 2000, there was this folder: C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack Windows used to make its own backup copies of the registry to this folder. But starting with Windows 10 version 1803 it no longer does that. It would have been so convenient if it did. This change is by design, and is intended to help reduce the overall disk footprint size of Windows. To recover a system with a corrupt registry hive, Microsoft recommends that you use a system restore point. Actually, I am using the very latest Windows 10 evaluation copy (build 21390.2025) on the Dev channel and I can still see this folder, but it's empty (screenshot below). This article is not very helpful but it supports what I said earlier about how the KB5003345 update is to blame that I'm in this situation now, because it triggered a GSOD loop and power loss. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/troubleshoot/windows-server/performance/registry-troubleshooting-advanced-users A power failure or some other unexpected shutdown event may cause a corrupted registry hive. To determine whether this is the cause of the issue, look for event ID 6008 entries. Event ID 6008 entries indicate that there was an unexpected shutdown. In this case, some process may have been modifying part of the registry hive, and the computer lost power before that change could be completed. This leaves the registry hive in an inconsistent state. So basically it's Windows that broke Windows. I am only guilty of testing unstable Windows versions. 🤪Re: How do I remove "English (United Kingdom)"?
As a last test, I created a new local user account. By default, Windows adds following "preferred languages": English (Sweden) English (United States) English (United Kingdom) I guess it inherits the "English (United Kingdom)" by some magical glue. But at least it's shown in the Settings app for this new account. The display language was set to "English (United States)", as expected. The "Swedish keyboard" was applied to "English (United States)" and to "English (United Kingdom)". The "English (Sweden)" had no keyboard applied to it. I think it only adds Swedish spell checking support, inking support and Swedish dictionary (if I'm reading the symbols/icons above correctly). After removing "English (United Kingdom)" I am left with "English (United States)" with Swedish keyboard (what I wanted all along), and "English (Sweden)" with Swedish keyboard (this seems as if Swedish keyboard has been moved from the removed English (United Kingdom) to this English (Sweden) where there was no keyboard previously). At this point I could just remove "English (Sweden)" and keep only "English (United States)" with Swedish keyboard. This would remove the language selection icon from system tray. Except Swedish spell checking would not work in Windows and across all apps, and I do want to intend support for more languages (UK English is just not one of them, and the reason I wanted to remove it). The main problem with this "solution" is that this is not my user account. I would like to be able to remove "English (United Kingdom)" equally as easy on my main account as I just did on this test account. Windows and its languages and locale settings... absolutely horrible!Re: How do I remove "English (United Kingdom)"?
Unfortunately this was not good enough for Windows. I have removed "English_UK" and rebooted. I also checked the first (001) control set hive where control parameters are stored. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\ContentIndex\Language HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex\Language In both of these locations, I only have "English_US" and "Neutral". The "English_UK" key has been removed with success. But I still have "English (United Kingdom)" in system tray as a language option. I have restored (imported) the Reg file I exported previously (all of ContentIndex). I then tried to do a German switcheroo by adding German language to the mix so I can kick out "English (United Kingdom)". That didn't work, as you can see by the screenshots below. This is hopeless... I'm not reinstalling Windows again.How do I remove "English (United Kingdom)"?
Hello Internet, If you're reading this message, it means I have given up or I am close to giving up on this Windows problem. I have a recently installed Windows 10 (build 19043.1110) here on my PC with the following two... languages?... (I will play along and pretend for a minute that I'm a complete idiot and I don't know what constitutes a language or a Windows locale). English (United States) English (United Kingdom) These "languages" are accessible from the system tray. My keyboard is Swedish. Both of these two "languages" are set to use "Swedish keyboard". So if I use the hotkey Win+Space I am merely entertaining myself, it's not doing anything useful, it just switches my keyboard layout from Swedish to Swedish and back to Swedish again. If I really feel like entertaining myself in this way, I can even do so explicitly using the hotkey Alt+Shift. The "Input Switch Notification" knows this. "Typing Left Alt + Shift changes your input language. You can turn this feature off or change your hot key [sic] sequence by selecting Customize." I see it's now called "input languages switching". I know it's a keyboard layout, but OK, I will play along. Still, nothing is changed by any of this if I have two "languages" called "Swedish keyboard"! So I thought I would make this hot little feature more useful by adding some additional languages so that I can communicate in a few more additional languages instead of being stuck on English with Swedish keyboard. That proved to be most difficult. For starters, Windows never heard of "English (United Kingdom)". The Settings app has no record of it. It only displays "English (United States)". The "preferred languages" language is "English (United States)" and the "Windows display language" is "English (United States)". This is almost OK. I do prefer it when Windows talks English. Unfortunately, this is not English, this is something else. Can you make sense of what Windows is saying here? I can't, and my understanding of English is pretty good if I may say so myself, even though it's not my first language. I can only speculate and make educated guesses on what's going on here. Windows has always been confusing when it comes to foreign language support for as long as I can remember. Let's not forget the "MUI" packages for Windows and Office that were only reserved for privileged few customers who payed enough money to access these premium features. But here we have Windows 10, failing English, in year 2021. If "English (United Kingdom)" is not found in the Settings app, then where do I find it? Where does Windows get the idea from that I want "English (United Kingdom)" in addition to "English (United Kingdom)"? I checked the old Control Panel options already, as far as I can tell, it's not possible to add or remove keyboard layouts or "languages" that way, like in the old days. It does list both of these English variants though. Go figure! In an attempt to get a handle on "English (United Kingdom)" I tried to add "English (United Kingdom)" in the Settings app where there was none. That gave me three different "languages" in system tray, one of which was "United Kingdom keyboard" (language!?). That did give me the privilege (handle) to "Remove" it from the Settings app. But that did not have the effect I was hoping for. I still have this stubborn "English (United Kingdom)" language that won't go away. It does offer me the opportunity to learn British spellings like "colour" and "personalisation" by changing the display language. I wish Microsoft would stop trying to "simplify" our lives by calling everything a "language" and bundling numerous locale related settings in single name entities. I may be using a Swedish keyboard, but that doesn't mean I want my Windows to be in Swedish. You don't know how I use my computer, despite your best efforts to find out with your telemetrics. Windows is still Windows, some things are hard to change. I suspect this may be related to use of Microsoft account for automatic backup and sync of personal preferences. I did use British English at one point in a prior installation of Windows 10. Help me Internet, you're my only hope...Re: Reinstate audio function without reinstalling Windows?
It was quite amusing to watch the "Playing Audio" reality show unfold. Windows detected a problem: "There might be a problem with your audio device." Windows suggesting a solution: "Restart your PC to finish installing drivers and updates" (and itself detected as a problem!!! 🤪). 😂😆🤣 It seems to think that a restart is the solution to the problem, so "apply this fix" simply means to restart the computer. But it fails to do this on its own! �� So it tells me "we've made some changes that should fix the problem, restart your PC for the changes to take effect". All I can do is click "Next" and then "Close", accepting that the PC must be restarted by me. This is so confusing it's out of this world! It's definitely not for people with a weak heart or easily irritated and with a short attention span. Of course, I have restarted manually, but that did not solve the problem (I expected no more than that). The troubleshooter did provide a registry log, which to me at least is useless noise. But I will attach it for reference. P.s. I take that back, because txt files are apparently not supported on this forum: "The file type (.txt) is not supported. Valid file types are: jpg, gif, png, mp4, doc, docx, ppt, xls, csv, ics, pdf, mp3, oft, zip, pptx, xlsx, .cqdx, accdb, xlsm, xlsb." P.s.s. I have converted it to DOCX so everyone with Office installed can open it (sorry for any inconvenience). P.s.s.s. Also, the troubleshooter is lying when saying that "at least one of these services isn't running". I assure you both Windows Audio End Point Builder and Windows Audio services are up and running. (I also made Plug and Play run on auto, as suggested in Kapil's blog post.)Re: Reinstate audio function without reinstalling Windows?
Thanks! Thank you for participating and exchanging ideas. I will do some more exploration of this issue and see if I can get this to work again before accepting defeat. But the very first thing I would recommend everyone reading this is to enable RegBack (instructions are in the link below). The reasoning behind Microsoft's decision to disable it by default on Windows 10 version 1803 and onward is highly questionable! "This change is by design, and is intended to help reduce the overall disk footprint size of Windows." https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/deployment/system-registry-no-backed-up-regback-folder Unless your Windows 10 device runs on 32 GB of disk space, I see no reason to disable this. I just checked and all my files within System32\config take up 331 MB, and I'm a guy with a ton of apps and stuff installed. Windows is a system that survives on eating disk space, given how much legacy bloatware it packs, for compatibility or whatever the reason. I say let it have it's 331 MB meal two times over! What do I care? That's just 662 MB (331 MB in config and 331 MB in config/RegBack). My disk size is 500 GB (maybe 512 GB since it's SSD, I don't remember and I don't care to look now). So I don't mind lending 662 MB to RegBack. I have 114 GB of free space, so I can afford it. (I doubt there are any recently sold Windows 10 devices that have less than a 128 GB SSD disk inside.) Looking at Disk Cleanup right now I see Windows is eating whopping 2.99 GB or 2990 MB of disk space on "Delivery Optimization Files". Looking more closely at it, I see a description saying: "Delivery Optimization is used to download updates from Micrsooft. These files are stored in a dedicated cache to be uploaded to other devices on your local network (if your settings allow such use)." I rather that Windows regularly cleans this sinkhole, than to "save" 331 MB of space on RegBack that's so crucial for Windows registry repairs.Re: Reinstate audio function without reinstalling Windows?
Thanks! I installed it immediately. Sadly, it did not help. I have not rebooted yet, but I doubt it will do anything for me. The problem is that Windows doesn't know that the audio devices are misconfigured. As for the Play Audio troubleshooter, it can only resolve the most trivial of "issues" with the complexity of an ant, like for example unmuting a muted device, or starting up Windows Audio Endpoint Builder and the Windows Audio service. It can really only fix the simplest of audio issues in Windows (and it always suggests a reboot and lists a reboot itself as an issue).Re: Reinstate audio function without reinstalling Windows?
To be honest I'm not too familiar with these Microsoft terms. It's not easy when there are so many "recovery" tools in the Windows world that it's hard to tell them apart, some of which have been discontinued or deprecated by new tools. New tools and new names. Windows "File History" is another example of a tool that has fallen into oblivion. Looking for "System Repair Disc" brought me to this place: Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore (Windows 7) I don't have one of these discs and I can't even make a new one, apparently, since I don't have any optical drives in this computer. I was not aware that you can't create these without use of optical media. That's telling how old this is. But it still exists for some reason in Windows 10.Re: Reinstate audio function without reinstalling Windows?
I'm pretty sure I know now what I would need to do if such situation would appear again. I would need to use "Last Known Good Configuration" (LKGC) to restore Windows SYSTEM hive to its previous control set. https://neosmart.net/wiki/last-known-good-configuration/ https://neosmart.net/wiki/booting-into-last-known-good-configuration/ Sadly, this is only possible immediately after booting up the system. So the error needs to be caught early on. Also, it appears as if no more than one control set is stored by default (ControlSet001), so there are no additional sets to restore to. Is it true that Windows does not possess the capability to rebuild the SYSTEM hive? Without reinstalling the entire operating system? It would seem like a simple requirement, given that the SYSTEM hive is used to store global configuration settings for the hardware. There should not be a lot of dependencies as this is the widest scope possible, and computer hardware itself seldomly changes. Alternatively, a system restore point can be used, if available. I used to be able to repair this problem this way, not once, but several times. For each time Windows Update destroyed my audio by pushing in KB5001391. Up until that restore point was purged from the system and I no longer had any such restore point to fall back on (and now I'm here without a resolution).
