Category: Windows 8

Defragsvc Slowing down Computer

I’ve been having troubles with defragsvc slowing down a copy of Windows 10 hosted on VMware Esxi.  It was putting the hard disk at 100% usage which caused major lag for all the other computers trying to access the VM.  I changed the settings so that the defrag only happens once a month but it wouldn’t stop this existing defrag.

Then again, was it really defragging?  The numbers showed 0% fragmented yet the defrag kept running?  I tried to stop the service but it wouldn’t let me.  I tried it via the commandline and it said it wasn’t running.  Thought that was weird.  Eventually I found some information on how to permanently stop it at windowssvc.com.

Open a command prompt. (Run a command prompt as Administrator in Windows vista/7/8)
Copy red command line and Paste.
sc stop “defragsvc”
sc config “defragsvc” start= disabled

I look forward to seeing if this stays disabled or if it improves my server.  Solutionreach was also maxing my drive and I just can’t figure out why.  It only happens on Wednesdays and I don’t see anything in the settings that sets Wednesday apart from any other day.  I disabled it and later is when defragsvc started to cause issues.  This is all happening on just one computer.  I haven’t run into this issue anywhere else.

Adobe Reader Doesn’t Open in Windows 8

Adobe Reader doesn’t open in Windows 8 at least not on every attempt.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled Reader and have yet to see a difference.  I also am not sure what causes it.

What I do know is that Reader is opening in the background but is not being displayed on the screen.  Acrobat does not have these issues.  In this particular instances the Windows 8 copy is sitting in VMware Vsphere and being accessed via remote desktop.

Here is what you do.  You hit ctrl-alt-delete if you are in windows 8 but if you are accessing it from a remote desktop you hit ctrl-alt-delete to get to the  task manager.  In the task manager you may have to click “More Details” in order to see the entire list.  Once you do that you need to END TASK one each and every Reader in the list.

Like I mentioned earlier, Acrobat doesn’t have this issue.  With Reader becoming so large and bloated maybe it’s time to start looking for something else.  The built-in Reader for pdfs in Windows is just awful.  I won’t consider that an option.

How to minimize Windows 8 reader mode

Windows 8 -oh how do I loathe thee. This time I had a 15 minute time waster trying to figure out how to minimize this reader mode of a document. It’s hard for me to explain but basically it takes up the whole screen to display a document. There are 2 modes. 1 page and multiple pages. The problem I have is how to minimize it. I read that you can minimize with the down arrow + windows key. That didn’t work.

To make things more complicated, I was using VNC. Sending key combinations are not automatic. This is what we ended up doing to get out of this mess:

On the top of Ultra VNC there is a windows logo button. Clicking that brings us back to the tile menu. From there we managed to open up task manager to close the reader

How to shutdown Windows 8 or reboot

Windows 8 was officially released a month or two ago.  Prior to it’s release it was in RC(release candidate) form where people could download and trial it for free.  While Windows 8 has been panned by many in the IT field it received rave reviews from a large amount of publishers.

This split is made worse when you begin to read the comments from users who have used Windows 8.  Many say it is a short learning curve and really isn’t that bad. Others state it is the next Vista while others just blame it on old people who don’t like change.

I like change.  I embrace it.  I may not be in my twenties anymore but I am far from being considered old.  My professional opinion of Windows 8 is that it is a terrible piece of software.  It is only fair that I should explain myself.  I will have to explain myself in another post since I wasted 15 minutes trying to figure out how to reboot Windows (again).

So here is my tip for people on how to shutdown Windows.

If on the tiles then just start typing.  type “shutdown -r” to reboot and “shutdown -s” to turn windows 8 off.  If you are on the desktop then move the cursor to the lower left corner to get the little icon to go back to the tiles.  Good luck to you on getting the tiles back.  Usually takes me 10 tries for the stupid icon to pop up.  No exaggeration.  The other problem I had was I typed shutdown but it said no apps available because I didn’t use the dash.