Remove 3D Objects and other annoying folders on Windows 10

 Microsoft just keeps adding more crap to clutter up the navigation in Windows 10.  Seriously, who needs a 3D Objects folder?  The tiny percentage of 3D modelers in the world probably already have a sensible way to store their files.  This is up there with the "Briefcase" in Windows 95.

Even worse, there's nothing exposed in the UI to hide this and other annoying folders.  If you're like me (you probably are if you found this page) then you want to know how to clean up these items.  There are a few articles out there already, but most want you to manually navigate the regedit UI which takes a little while.

Instead, you can just copy/pasta these lines into an administrator command prompt or powershell and be done!

Simply copy the whole script, or do each individual line.  If you get an access denied error, please make sure you are running the shell as administrator.

OneDrive won't start on Windows 10

Recently I was helping a colleague set up OneDrive on a new Windows 10 laptop.  He installed it correctly, but it didn't open.  He restarted, uninstalled, reinstalled...still it did not open.

There were a number of items preventing it from starting:

1. Blocked by Group Policy
2. Blocked by Registry Key

Please see each heading below for tips to fix your OneDrive installation.  There's one more tip at the end.

Blocked by Group Policy

Steps to resolve:

1. Right-click on the Start button, Choose Run (or Windows + R)
2. Type "gpedit.msc", click OK
3. Click the following items in the tree
1. Computer Configuration
1. Administrative Templates
1. Windows Components
1. OneDrive
4. Inspect the settings in the pane to the right.  If the "Prevent usage of OneDrive for file storage" is "Enabled"  (like the screenshot above) then this is preventing you using OneDrive.
5. Change this setting to either "Not Configured" or "Disabled"
   
6. Verify that the setting applied correctly
   
7. Close the "Local Group Policy Editor"
8. Right-click on the Start button, Choose Run (or Windows + R)
9. Type "gpupdate", click OK
10. Wait for the command to complete

Blocked by Registry Key

1. Right-click on the Start button, Choose Run (or Windows + R)
2. Type "regedit", click OK
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive
4. Make sure "DisableFileSyncNGSC" is set to "0".
1. If the registry key doesn't exist, that is okay.  You can just skip this step.

Once you have completed both items, try to launch OneDrive.  If you're still having issues there's one final trick you can try - resetting OneDrive.

Resetting OneDrive

1. Right-click on the Start button, Choose Run (or Windows + R)
2. Copy this and paste it into the dialog window then press OK. "%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset"
3. Manually start OneDrive from the Start Menu

Lync: Appear Offline Status

Back in the LCS and OCS days, you could have a status called "Appear Offline" which allowed you to function if you were online, but people wouldn't know it.  Now this option is hidden, but you can re-enable it manually if you edit the registry.

Manually Create

• Run regedit
• Go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft"
• Create a new key "Communicator"
• Create a dword "EnableAppearOffline"
• Set the vecimal value of "EnableAppearOffline" to 1

Create via .reg file

• Open Notepad
• Copy and paste the text below into notepad
• Save as a .reg
• Open the .reg file and import

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator]
"EnableAppearOffline"=dword:00000001



Before

After

Windows 7 Brightness Not working - Dell Precision - M4600/6600 nVidia Optimus

If you have Windows 7, a Dell Precision Laptop with nVidia Quadro 1000M or 2000M with Optimus enabled and your brightness is not working...add this registry key and restart.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
"KMD_EnableBrightnessInterface2"=dword:00000000
"KMD_EnableBrightnesslf2"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\intelkmd]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff

Adobe Reader - Hide Tools Pane

One of the most annoying things about the latest version(s) of Adobe Reader is the stupid tools pane.  Sure, it's helpful when you need it.

Unfortunately, Adobe makes it show up every time you open Reader.

Sure, you can click "Tools" to turn it off - but there is nowhere in the application to actually keep it off permanently.

Fortunately, there is a registry key to fix this issue.  Set the following registry key to 1:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\11.0\AVGeneral\cTaskPanes]
"irightPaneState"=dword:00000001

Now, open your document, click "Tools" to hide the pane, and close Reader.

Now, open the document again.  The Tools pane should no longer appear.

Windows 8.1 Brightness Fix - Intel HD Graphics 3000

So I updated to Windows 8.1 because I figured it's been out long enough and the vendors got the driver issues fixed...apparently not!  A day later, I realized I was no longer able to adjust my screen brightness.  My laptop has two video cards, but the internal screen is driven by the Intel HD Graphics 3000 / 3000M.

So, I downloaded the latest driver from Intel's website - no dice.  I uninstalled the driver entirely, and found that the built-in Windows standard/generic graphic driver works for brightness.  However, the external VGA port doesn't work using that driver, and since it's a generic driver it obviously doesn't perform well.

Luckily, I found a fix for the issue - a simple reg hack.  Make a text file in notepad and paste the following into it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
"KMD_EnableBrightnessInterface2"=dword:00000000
"KMD_EnableBrightnesslf2"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\intelkmd]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff

Save the file as HD3000MFix.reg or something, double-click to import it and reboot.

Brightness control works now!

How to tell if VAAI is working

So - you have a new array and want to make sure VAAI is working?

1. Open up a SSH session to your ESX host upon which the VM you want to test is running
2. Run "esxtop"
3. Press "u"
4. Press "f"
5. Press "b,f,g,i,o"
6. Drag your session window wider so you can see all the columns
7. Start a storage VMotion in a supported fashion from your array vendor
8. Look for the CLONE_RD, CLONE_WR statistics on the datastore(s) in question.  If VAAI is working correctly, these numbers should increment