Reminder on Making ISO's

See
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-bootable-usb-cd-dvd-install-windows-using-iso-file/

Possible Windows 7 download links
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/14-windows-7-direct-download-links

Windows 8 and 10 possible download links
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/70-windows-8-x-and-windows-10-iso-direct-download-links

Office 2016 possible download links
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/8-office-2016-direct-download-links

Office 2013 possible download links
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/73-office-2013-direct-download-links

Office 2010 possible download links
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/18-office-2010-direct-download-links



Heidoc's ISO burner utility
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool

Reminder re chkdsk

See
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stuck-chkdsk-use-fix-right-way/

In Windows 8 and newer
chdsk /scan
chkdsk /spotfix

As well, there is a user with a lengthy post of his scanning, cloning and imaging a new drive.  Kudos to him.

ALSO, Consider this one:
title:   How to run and use chkdsk to Repair a non booting Dell Server
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/SLN167459

Reminder on Windows 7 Startup Repairs

From here
http://www.digitalcitizen.life/fix-windows-7-using-startup-repair

Boot up on Windows 7 CD
Repair Your Computer
  see http://www.digitalcitizen.life/overview-system-recovery-options-windows-7
Choose Startup Repair

If not successful, run through 3 times

Next, you will be asked to restart your computer. You will also be informed that, if the repair was successful, your system will start correctly. If not, you might be asked to run the tool again in order to perform another fix. You can also check out the details of your repair by clicking the 'Click here for diagnostic and repair detail' link.

Notes for IP Cameras

Gotomeeting needs a usb or built-in camera.  Some success noted by people using the below techniques, but it is not supported.

Skype is a little bit more friendly.

Use the following software to convert the ip camera into a virtual camera.

http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/convert-ip-camera-virtual-webcam-19771.html

http://foscam.us/forum/you-can-use-your-cameras-in-skype-yahoo-other-messengers-t8712.html

Fixing network stack on Windows 7

1. Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog.
2. Reset IPv4 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log.
3. Reset IPv6 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults.

from here.

Dell Server R410 Card Issues

Refer to this page and discussion
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/906/t/19596130

Windows 10 - One Can Still Get

Can still get for sake of accessibility feature users, here:
http://www.microsoft.com/accessibility/windows10upgrade

Thanks to these folks:
    Make Use Of

If you need a summary of Windows 10 Privacy Options to Adjust

If you need a summary of Windows 10 Privacy options to adjust, then see this article:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3095284/windows/windows-10-upgrade-dont-use-express-settings-if-you-value-your-privacy.html

An important reminder is to change the sharing of Windows Upgrades.

Windows 10 Upgrade - Synopsis

Synopsis

There are (were?) 4 tools from Microsoft for that Windows 10 upgrade.

  -Get Windows 10 (GWX)

  -Windows Upgrade Assistant (UA)

  -MediaBuilder (MB)

  -and a 4^th one that GWX would invoke and which utilized a portion of Windows Update customized for the Windows 10 download.  Only saw it on Friday 7/29 twice.

In the beginning months, GWX would work pretty good; it would download the OS file, and then when desired install the OS.  We did many upgrades using that tool.

During the last week, GWX began not to be able to install the OS.  So we utilized the UA quite a bit.  It was nice in that it gave percentage of completion.  However in the last few days, it started failing on about 25% of units (more as time went on).  The major problem seen was that it would stall in the 90+% completion of the INSTALLATION (not download) sometimes even at 99%.  In one case it did finish at 8 hours, in other cases, after 5 hours, we pulled the plug on it.  The best workaround found was to disable the Windows 7 updates (set to Never check), and then run UA again.  This worked 100% after we had the stall outs.  The bad news was that UA would download the OS files all over again, but on fast internet connections that was only 20 minutes.  Interesting that during early successful UA installs, if GWX had previously downloaded the OS, then UA would see that and just start the installation.

Failures, we saw 3 failed installations.  Two were re-attempted with Windows 7 update set to Never and then ran UA, and they completed.  The last bugger was a pre-install check failure due to CPU not compatible…that is that supposedly the Core i3 didn’t support an extended instruction set (NX).  Third-party cpu tests showed it was functional and supported.  We tried all the suggested fixes of BIOS Settings, several bcdedits to no avail, and finally we used a technique several people reported success with: use the MediaBuilder and choose the “Update this pc” option.  It had a brief system check and then an update section and than an installation which did in fact work.

Never tried – install from disk (media), though we did make them and had them ready.