Windows Woes

P

P. Short

Super Moderator
Staff member
I'm so tired of trying to set up a somewhat congenial Windows development environment. This would be used to develop and run programs that parse the Vixen 3 internal files and send results to some custom hardware that I'm developing. By congenial I mean that I have access to Unix command line programs like pushd/popd/dirs, grep/fgrep, locate/updatedb, on a a 1920/1024 14" (give or take) screen. I'm not particularly interested in learning another IDE. My current approach is to try and get wsl working on a Windows laptop. Unfortunately, the laptops that I own with sufficient screen size and resolution all have really annoying problems. One fairly recent Windows laptop (last 1/2 year) locks up when the lid is closed, and currently is locked up all of the time. Another somewhat older (but still sufficiently powerful) won't let me install the Intel graphics utility that is needed for wsl2/ubuntu to run the emacs app in graphics mode (maybe not the biggest problem, since I have emacs running under Windows there). And don't get me started on the extremely annoying need for an internet connection and microsoft account to install recent versions of WIndows.

I suppose that I could use xLights instead of Vixen 3 (because that is a multi-platform program), but that costs me a fair bit of time to accustomize myself to that program, as well as time to understand the internal file formats. I really wish that I had chosen to work with that, rather than Vixen 3.
 
I do believe you can install Windows 11 without a microsoft account. I don't remember exactly but here is a link. https://en.softonic.com/articles/ho...VMEGHadCb80Wqdf1YhWc6mZ4OaC81IkhoCtgkQAvD_BwE

Basically it you just have to restart oobe(out of box experience) with a command line switch and it will allow you to tell it that you don't have internet.

Other than that, I agree, Microsoft just keep making decisions that are a royal pain in the butt.

For the laptops locking up, did you change the power settings to not go to sleep/hibernate when the lid is closed? I would also try turning off Fast startup.
 
Hi Phile.

I am sorry to see that you are still afflicted by the emacs condition. I know you dont want to learn a new IDE, but VSCode runs on Windows, MAC and Linux, giving you a common IDE that has all of the features you get with a heavily customized emacs and a few more that are a PITA in emacs. It might be time to broaden your tool set. :)

I also suspect your power down issues are power settings related. I had to spend 45 minutes at one point to get my mother-in-laws laptop to work while closed. She liked her keyboard and monitor and did not want to use it as a laptop. The settings are there, you just have to experiment with them.
 
ctmal said:
I do believe you can install Windows 11 without a microsoft account. I don't remember exactly but here is a link. https://en.softonic.com/articles/ho...VMEGHadCb80Wqdf1YhWc6mZ4OaC81IkhoCtgkQAvD_BwE

Basically it you just have to restart oobe(out of box experience) with a command line switch and it will allow you to tell it that you don't have internet.

Other than that, I agree, Microsoft just keep making decisions that are a royal pain in the butt.

For the laptops locking up, did you change the power settings to not go to sleep/hibernate when the lid is closed? I would also try turning off Fast startup.
Click to expand...

That method doesn't work with the latest versions of Windows. I've been using that method for a long time, and it has stopped working sometime within the last year.
 
MartinMueller2003 said:
Hi Phile.

I am sorry to see that you are still afflicted by the emacs condition. I know you dont want to learn a new IDE, but VSCode runs on Windows, MAC and Linux, giving you a common IDE that has all of the features you get with a heavily customized emacs and a few more that are a PITA in emacs. It might be time to broaden your tool set. :)
Click to expand...
Emacs is not a real issue, as it has been ported to Windows and I can use it. It's the other bash commands, in total, that matter more to me. I don't know if there are equivalents to pushd/popd, while the equivalents of some of the other commands that I like to use seem to have overly complicated syntaxes for spur-of-the-moment uses.

As far as IDE's go, I don't want to learn any IDE. I've been using command-line interfaces for around 40 years, and am quite comfortable with them. The Arduino and MPLABX IDEs are minimally intrusive, and I use an external editor with both of them.

And to be frank, I consider your comment about 'broaden your tool set' to be a bit condescending (or was that meant to be humorous)?

I also suspect your power down issues are power settings related. I had to spend 45 minutes at one point to get my mother-in-laws laptop to work while closed. She liked her keyboard and monitor and did not want to use it as a laptop. The settings are there, you just have to experiment with them.
Click to expand...

I agree that the issue seem to be power-settings related, at least that's what most of the on-line blogs and forums state. The only relevant power settings that I could find were in the Control Panel, but they appear to be a bit inconsistent in operation. I've had the laptop-lip closure working fine, and then when I reinstall Windows for some reason or other they quit working. In any case, the keyboard and touchpad are completely dead on the current laptop install,
 
It was meant to be humorous.

Windows has a habit of clearing the power management settings anytime they do an update. It was very annoying until the Mother-in-law moved in with us and it became a walk down the hall. When you get into the expert mode power settings (sometimes called custom profiles) you find you can do whatever you want (until the next update).
 
P. Short said:
I'm so tired of trying to set up a somewhat congenial Windows development environment. This would be used to develop and run programs that parse the Vixen 3 internal files and send results to some custom hardware that I'm developing. By congenial I mean that I have access to Unix command line programs like pushd/popd/dirs, grep/fgrep, locate/updatedb, on a a 1920/1024 14" (give or take) screen. I'm not particularly interested in learning another IDE. My current approach is to try and get wsl working on a Windows laptop. Unfortunately, the laptops that I own with sufficient screen size and resolution all have really annoying problems. One fairly recent Windows laptop (last 1/2 year) locks up when the lid is closed, and currently is locked up all of the time. Another somewhat older (but still sufficiently powerful) won't let me install the Intel graphics utility that is needed for wsl2/ubuntu to run the emacs app in graphics mode (maybe not the biggest problem, since I have emacs running under Windows there). And don't get me started on the extremely annoying need for an internet connection and microsoft account to install recent versions of WIndows.

I suppose that I could use xLights instead of Vixen 3 (because that is a multi-platform program), but that costs me a fair bit of time to accustomize myself to that program, as well as time to understand the internal file formats. I really wish that I had chosen to work with that, rather than Vixen 3.
Click to expand...

Have you enabled God Mode for your windows version ?
 
So, I did a little reading on Microsofts site and it looks like they took that away the ability to install without internet from the home editions. Supposedly its still there for the pro edition but I'm not in work today to test that. (Snow day, yeah).

One possibility is that you install with a microsoft account then switch it to a local account. This would require you to set one up initially which in your case probably defeats the purpose.
 
It appears that most (if not al) of my problems on the 14" laptop were due to the downloaded Intel Graphics drivers that were reported as necessary for wsl in gui mode. I have a fairly recent model 11.6" laptop where wsl appears to work fine in graphics mode. I really would have liked the larger (but not too large) higher-resolution screen, though.
 
FWIW, I've given up on trying to get windows to run on the 14" Lenovo laptop. I've installed Linux on that laptop and am using a fairly lightweight window manager (WindowMaker) instead of the default. I'm using it to develop ESP8266 sketches and PIC firmware (all of which works fine).

It appears to be hit-or-miss as far as installing Windows and WSL go. I've successfully installed Windows with WSL on two slightly older laptops, but multiple attempts on the laptop that I mentioned above are at best partially successful.
 
Phil, I'll bring a flash drive with the God Mode folder on it to the next blinky-flashy lunch. It's a very strange folder... it shows as zero bytes but after clicking on it (to install it from your desktop), it does some sync-ing on your computer and you end up with a peculiar Microsoft icon on your desktop that looks like a pie chart.

When you open THAT icon, you get a list of 210 admin options that connect you directly to Windows functions. No messing with menus, drilling-down into apps to find features.... Some of the features are common operations, but some of them are also the p-o-w-e-r-f-u-l ones....
 
That 14" Lenovo is now up and running with Vixen3 and WSL. The biggest problem was the recommendation by Microsoft to download and install a specific Intel Graphics Driver (not via Windows Update process) in order to use the GUI modes of WSL. This is what was breaking Windows when opening the laptop lid after closing it. There were one or two other minor issues that prevented WSL gui programs from running, but the graphics driver issue was the big one.

Accepting advice from the Microsoft Support forums on the internet seems to be a hit-or-miss proposition. They appear to have little or now quality control over what their reps advise, and don't appear to update that advice as Windows updates are sent out.
 
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