Windows 11 Create Recovery Drive
I recently upgraded to Win11 24H2 and when I went to create a recovery drive I ran into problems. After telling Windows that I would like to Create a Recovery Drive including system files Windows went off in search of media and came back and told me i needed a 32GB thumb drive. Tried it without system files and no luck either. No matter what kind of thumb drive 32GB, 64GB, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Formatted NTFS, FAT32, exFAT. Whether I formatted the drive using the file explorer utility, or using DISKPART and cleaning the drive and restoring the partition and reformatting. Nothing worked. sfc /scannow and DISM did't show any problems either. I know I can and i did, use a third party application to create a recovery disk, I would like to use the built in Microsoft tool. Any suggestions??Save the date: Windows Office Hours - November 20, 2025
Save the date for our next monthly Windows Office Hours, on November 20 from 8:00-9:00a PT! We will have a broad group of product experts, servicing experts, and engineers representing Windows, Microsoft Intune, Configuration Manager, Windows 365, Windows Autopilot, security, public sector, FastTrack, and more. They will be standing by -- in chat -- to provide guidance, discuss strategies and tactics, and, of course, answer any specific questions you may have. For more details about how Windows Office Hours works, go to our Windows IT Pro Blog. If you can't make it at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time, post your questions on the Windows Office Hours: November 20th event page, up to 48 hours in advance.
Explorer ribbon blocked / 90% hidden after update
I had an overnight update install itself last week. After the AM reboot, the Windows Explorer window has been altered, such that the ribbon is now hidden the the content frame (not sure about my terminology; please see attached screenshot). The tops of the buttons are barely visible, but hovering over them, some are active. Rebooted many times, no diff. Compact view on or off makes no difference. I believe I tried safe mode, no diff (I'll try again). My tech support source got on the machine and rolled back an update, but no difference. I've uninstalled some useless demo apps, etc, no difference. I don't believe there are any more updates that came that night to roll back. My skill levels are approximately "old school power user." NOT tech support level. I would be grateful for any suggestions; it's not shutting me down, but it's getting fairly tedious. And aside, kind of personal mantra now: "It was working before; why did you break it?"
Cannot Boot from Windows 11 USB Installation Media
So the story is a long one. I updated one of my Windows 10 PC's successfully to Windows 11 using the Rufus tool and all was well. What I hadn't noticed was that the previous Windows 10 install had for some strange reason put the Windows Boot Manager on another 'Data only' Solid State drive (presumably creating a small partition on it). The Windows 11 upgrade process left it there. A few days later my PC would not boot. I think I have tracked it down to the failed m.2 NVMe drive where the Boot Manager was. I installed the drive in a USB carrier but the whole drive was impossible to read. It looks dead. So I thought I would try booting from a Windows 11 USB drive - then from the repair tools try to use the Bootrec tools to fix the MBR on the actual proper Windows 11 installation C drive. I have not got to being able to do that as I just cannot get any Windows 11 USB drive to boot up I have tried the original Rufus generated drive (which incidently works fine on two other PC's I have), then tried Media Creator Tool with fresh USB drive from Microsoft sources. No luck. I have been in BIOS and checked Secure Boot UEFI is on. The CSM entry allows UEFI and Legacy. Its the same on PC's that can boot up. The BIOS was updated to latest from ASUS. No luck. When it starts up it appears it is going to boot, you get the ASUS logo then circle wait scroll - then it blue screens. Nothing. Can anyone suggest another way to get a proper Boot Manager on the Windows 11 drive installation?. Could I put that Windows 11 drive in another PC and then target it to add the necessary Boot manager (booting from a USB drive in the first place)? Basically that System C drive is fine - it has no Boot Record. If my original Windows 10 Pro install had not put the Boot Manager on a totally separate drive I would not have this issue. I even checked PSU rails in the system - all OK. At present I have run out of ideas. Anything anyone could suggest to get the USB to boot up would be welcomed. Motherboard is an older Z390A Prime system with Intel 9900K CPU.
Error safely ejecting external drives
Windows 11 25H2. Pretty much everything up-to-date, including graphics drivers, GPU drivers, MS store components etc. A week ago, out of nowhere, without installing anything or tweaking any settings, I stopped being able to safely eject external hard drives/SSDs, except for flash drives. When I click the ''eject'' button, 45 times out of 50 so to speak, I get this https://anandthearchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/image-2.png. I've since performed several clean installs using the Media Creation Tool, formatting and deleting every partition and the problem persists, even after the November cumulative update. I've reached out to AI to troubleshoot and after long, tiresome sessions, supposedly, the problem lies with the update(s) Windows sneakily delivered that messed up the connection between some system components. I'm not really asking for a workaround per se, I'm just intrigued why this is happening and hasn't been addressed. Kind regards,
Use mobile phone with windows 11 as desktop extender?
Is there an official way to use a mobile phone(preferably with usb connection) so the mouse can be used on my mobile phone to run it if docked with a windows 11 pc? I have it plugged into a port for power via usbc and keep wanting to move my mouse into the phone to use it. It's a 40gb usbc port so I would assume it's not a bandwidth limit. Not sure what the phones port limit is. It's a samsung galaxy a16 5g with 25 quickvolt recharging. I think it can transfer files via the port. Haven't tested this but it acts like it can.Buying new laptop - need advice
Hi All, I am using windows 10 laptop right now, as the support is ending in few weeks, looking to buy new laptop. Unfortunately existing laptop is not eligible to upgrade to windows 11 so i have to buy new one. Question is should i buy windows 11 laptop now OR wait till windows 12 is released. Also if i buy a windows 11 laptop now, how to find if it is eligible to upgrade to windows 12 once that OS is released. Appreciate your inputs, thanks in advance.
Using Advanced Startup in Settings to boot from USB resets pin
This has happened on a few occasions recently in the past few weeks on 3 separate computers being worked on. I boot off of a USB to do a memtest. I use the Advanced Startup section in Recovery in 10/11 and choose to boot from the USB in the Recovery Environment. Once the tests completes, I boot back to the login screen and the pin has been wiped and has to be re-set up. I'm wondering why it does this and how do I mitigate this as I routinely test machines memory from the USB? On the most recent machine, it has caused a massive issue as my customers rarely know their passwords. So now were are going backwards trying to reset passwords to be able to get codes (which also don't work because it says "Try another verification method..."). It has become one hurdle after another. My assumption is that it is tripping Secure Boot, but if I'm initiating this from within Windows, isn't it declaring the USB "Safe"? I'd rather not have to turn off Secure Boot every time like I used to in the past, but I haven't had this issue until recently.Reading event viewer to pinpoint while pc is freezing up while gaming
I have a pc that keeps randomly crashing while running call of duty, it can be a few hours to just minutes and it will freeze my whole pc up. I don't know how to read event viewer to see if it helps identity the problem or source. can anyone help me with that thanks.
