Category: Windows

Adding drivers to a Windows install image

If you need to add drivers to a Windows install USB then do this:
1. Copy the install.wim file from the USB stick to your local drive.
(optional, to speed up the process)
2. Run the following command to mount the Windows image file.
Assumes that you put the file in C:\temp and have created a C:\mount folder
Dism /mount-wim /wimfile:C:\temp\install.wim /index:1 /mountdir:c:\mount
3. Add the drivers to the image.
Assumes that the drivers are located in c:\temp\x64
Dism /Add-Driver /Image:"c:\mount" /Driver:"C:\temp\x64" /Recurse
4. Unmount the Windows image file
dism /unmount-wim /Mountdir:c:\mount /commit
5. Copy the install.wim file back to the USB stick

Change mouse scroll direction in Windows

How to Reverse the mouse scroll direction in windows

 
TL;DR – Run regedit as an admin, search for “FlipFlopWheel” and replace the 0’s with 1’s, unplug and reinsert the mouse.
Step-By-Step.

  1. Open Control Panel, double click “Mouse” to open the mouse properties windows, and then click on the “Hardware” tab.
  2. Select your mouse in the list of devices then click on the properties button in the bottom right corner, just above the “Apply” and “Help” buttons.
  3. In the device properties dialogue window, click on the “Details” tab and then select “Hardwire Ids” from the “Property” drop-down list.  You should see a list of entries starting with “HID…”.  Write down the values that start with “HIDVID_???…”.
  4. Close device properties by clicking “Cancel”.
  5. Close “Mouse Properties” by clicking “Cancel”.
  6. Find and open the application “regedt32.exe” as an administrator, if you are not already logged in as one.
  7. Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetEnumHID”, and look for an entry that resembles the “VID_???…” number that you wrote down earlier in step 3.
  8. Open each sub entry under your specified “VID_???…” key, and open the “Device Parameters” key.
  9. There should be a key named “FlipFlopWheel” under each of the “Device Parameters” key.  Reverse the entry value for the “FlipFlopWheel”.  i.e. if default is “0” (zero) change it to “1”, and vice-versa.
  10. Do the same step 9, for each alphanumeric text string key entry, and their “Device Parameters”, “FlipFlopWheel”.
  11. Close “regedt32.exe”.
  12. Unplug your USB mouse, wait for 5 to 10 seconds, then plug the mouse back in again. If that doesn’t work then reboot.

Moving a Lightroom catalog from PC to Mac

Something along these lines,
On your Windows PC

  1. Select File then Export to Catalog
  2. Select a name and location for the new export catalog
  3. Wait a long time for it to copy the catalog file and all your photos to the new location.

On your Mac

  1. Create a new Catalog in your desired location
  2. From the File menu choose Import from Another catalog
  3. Chose to either
    1. Import files and leave them where they are
    2. Copy files to another location and then import
  4. Option a is quicker, but doesn’t move the files
    Option B is slower, but will move the files to another location if thats what you want.

 

Using diskpart on Windows to partition a USB stick

Open an elevated command prompt.
Run diskpart

<C:> diskpart
DISKPART> list disk

Note the disk number that corresponds to your USB drive, it should be obvious going by size.
select disk X where X is the number from above

 select disk X
 list partition
 select partition 0
 delete partition
 select partition 1
 delete partition
 create partition primary
 exit

Exit Command Prompt (type exit or just close the window)
In Windows, go to Computer and try to open the disk. It will ask you to format it.
Format it with the default settings and give it a name if you want.
It should now a single, unified partitioned drive.

Windows update will not download updates

Windows update will not download updates – stuck at 0% downloading
1) Stop the Windows Update service.
You might have to disable the service then restart your computer to be able to get it to stop.
You might also have to stop the Application Experience service.
2) After that, delete everything within the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, but not the folder itself.
3) Start the Application Experience service and enable Windows Update service.
4) Check for updates and try to download them. It should work now.
Thanks,
Malcolm.

Installing windows features using a WIM file

Installing windows features using a WIM file.
1) use DISM to check which image in the file to use.
DISM /get-wiminfo /wimfile:D:\sources\install.wim
2) start powershell
powershell
3) Install feature
install-windowsfeature xps-viewer -source wim:D:\sources\install.wim:2
(assuming image 2, which is server standard with GUI)
Thanks,
Malcolm