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By rseiler · Posted
Another devilish issue surrounding these certificates is what can happen with old, unsuspecting PCs that nevertheless have Secure Boot enabled. In my case, it was a Dell with a 3rd-gen Core chip (so about 13 years old). As of the last few weeks, it was suddenly BSOD'g within about 5 minutes of booting. Turns out it was because of MS's "Secure-Boot-Update" scheduled task, which is scheduled to run 5 minutes after login. It's explained in gory detail here (this is not my post, but it was where I found the answer), but the short version is that this legacy system would need fairly elaborate, manual certificate intervention since MS's automatic cert update method cannot work. How to do that is linked late in the thread. https://www.bleepingcomputer.c...od-caused-by-scheduled-task Secure Boot wasn't at all important for this particular PC, so I disabled it to be done with the problem. -
By Copernic · Posted
Winhance 26.06.12 by Razvan Serea Winhance is an open-source Windows enhancement utility designed to help users debloat, optimize, and customize Windows 10 and 11. It provides a user-friendly interface for removing unwanted apps, legacy components, and optional features safely, giving you more control over your system. With Winhance, you can improve performance, reduce clutter, and enhance privacy without the need for a clean install. Beyond basic debloating, Winhance offers extensive optimization tools. Users can tweak power plans, adjust gaming and performance settings, control notifications, and manage Windows Update behavior. Privacy-focused settings allow you to limit telemetry and data collection, while system customization options let you personalize the taskbar, Start menu, Explorer, and Windows themes. Winhance also supports installing or removing software efficiently, including external apps via WinGet integration, streamlining both new setups and daily maintenance. New AI privacy groups have been added for Windows AI, Microsoft Edge AI, and Microsoft Office AI, giving users clearer control over AI-related telemetry and feature usage. In addition, new settings in Gaming & Performance introduce AI taskbar pin toggles, options to remove AI apps, and controls for AI services and scheduled tasks, allowing users to better manage how AI components run in the background and appear in the system. For advanced users and IT professionals, Winhance integrates WIMUtil, a tool for creating custom Windows installation ISOs with automated configuration. You can generate autounattend.xml files, inject drivers, and apply your chosen Winhance settings automatically during installation. Most changes are non-destructive and reversible, with clear explanations in the GUI. Whether you’re optimizing a single PC or managing multiple systems, Winhance delivers a faster, cleaner, and highly personalized Windows experience. The Winhance.Installer.exe includes both Installable and Portable versions during setup. Winhance supports both Windows 10 and Windows 11 64-bit versions. It's regularly updated to ensure compatibility with the latest Windows updates and features. Winhance key features: Debloat Windows – Safely remove unwanted apps, features, and legacy components. Optimize Performance – Tune system settings for speed, responsiveness, and gaming. Privacy Enhancements – Control telemetry, data collection, and notifications. Power Management – Configure power plans and advanced energy settings. Windows Update Control – Adjust update behavior for stability and convenience. Theme Customization – Switch between light/dark mode and adjust system colors. Taskbar & Start Menu Tweaks – Modify layout, icons, and behavior. Explorer Customization – Adjust file explorer appearance and functionality. Software Management – Install/remove Windows apps and optional features. External Apps Installation – Deploy essential apps via WinGet integration. Configuration Management – Save, export, and import Winhance settings easily. Automation with WIMUtil – Create custom Windows ISOs with integrated settings. Autounattend.xml Generator – Automate Windows installations with preconfigured options. Driver Integration – Include current system drivers in custom ISOs. Non-Destructive Changes – Reversible settings with clear explanations in the GUI. Winhance 26.06.12 changelog: Features Builder Mode — build a Winhance config file or autounattend.xml without changing anything on the PC you're sitting at. Flip the new mode switcher to Builder, set everything the way you want it, and save the result as a Winhance config or an autounattend file ready for deployment on other machines. Sponsors & Supporters page — the exit donation dialog is gone. In its place, an in-app page (heart icon or the More menu) recognizes the businesses and individual supporters who keep Winhance free. It works offline and is fully localized. Change History — Winhance now keeps a receipt of everything it does. ChangeHistory.txt records every setting change (before and after values) and every app install or removal, with clear headers for config imports and bulk actions. Open it from the More menu. Hebrew language support — Winhance is now available in 29 languages. New Explorer customizations: desktop icon visibility toggles, This PC folder visibility, an icon cache size setting, and automatic thumbnail cache cleanup. New "All apps view" setting for the redesigned Windows 11 Start menu, and the Windows 11 system tray icons setting is now a dropdown with more control. App-local UI zoom — press Ctrl +/-/0 or use Ctrl+MouseWheel to scale the whole app, just like a browser. New External Apps: EA app, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, Rockstar Games Launcher, PowerShell, and Helium Browser. Bug Fixes Layouts no longer clip when the Windows text size slider is set above 100%. Accessibility: Narrator now announces setting names on toggles and dropdowns, previously unlabeled buttons are labeled, and progress updates are announced. Silent updates now respect your custom install location instead of reverting to the default. Cancel in Review Mode no longer clears your app selections. OneNote is now detected correctly for Win32 Click-to-Run installs. Clean Start Menu applies more reliably by also writing the group policy path. WinGet errors are no longer silent — error details now show in the terminal output. Fixed a startup crash on older Windows builds caused by a .NET runtime regression. Config import now converts power setting values correctly and no longer re-applies an already-active power plan. Improvements App icons load noticeably faster and cover almost everything now, including legacy capabilities and optional features — they come from a dedicated, checksum-validated icon repository and are fetched in parallel. Software & Apps polish: per-icon tooltips, extra table columns, an app sort dropdown, relocated search, and a cleaner compact view. A warning now appears when the Connected Devices Platform Service is set to Manual or Disabled, since some Windows features depend on it. Download: Winhance 26.06.12 | 61.5 MB (Open Source) Links: Winhance Website | Github | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware -
By News Staff · Posted
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By leonsk29 · Posted
Of course the problem was Secure Boot's new certificates. Install media created by the official Media Creation Tool is already signed with a valid certificate from Microsoft, so maybe that certificate isn't "up-to-date" enough for machines with the new ones installed in the UEFI. There's really no other logical explanation. -
By FunkyMike · Posted
Useful to know, thanks!
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