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Windows 10 machine keeps waking from sleep

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This has been a source of irritation for many recently.  Simply disabling wake timers and disabling the Windows Update service is no longer enough to keep Microsoft from waking your machine from sleep mode to carry out maintenance and install updates.  It looks like this was introduced as an update sometime in 2018 and affects Windows 10 1607, 1703 and 1709.  Fortunately there are a number of steps you can take to stop Microsoft meddling with your machine and leaving it running all night costing you larger electrical bills.

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Cannot start software protection service & activate Windows and Microsoft Office

This is a quick post to mention a fix for an annoying problem that cropped up today after Sage had been installing their applications on one of our servers.  It first appeared that Windows was not activated (even though I knew I had done this) and the Software Protection service was unable to start.  It was giving the error Windows could not start the software protection service on Local Computer.  You may also notice that Microsoft Office pops up with an error stating Microsoft Office can’t find your licence for this application.  A repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled.  Microsoft Office will now exit.  I experienced the error on Windows 2012 R2 Server but it seems that this is common on all operating systems above Windows 2008 R2.

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How do I make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows on it?

This is a pretty simple one, for those of you that have a volume licence subscription or other method of downloading Microsoft .iso files with complete installers on them – this is how to make a bootable USB flash drive from them.

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Use the Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said “Microsoft loves Linux.”

Microsoft Loves Linux?

If using Linux within your Microsoft operating system has been something that you have always dreamed of then you may be pleased with this feature.  Microsoft has made a number of Linux distros available within the Windows store that enable you to use a bash terminal window.

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Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

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‘Starting with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, these innovative features will further empower your creativity.’ – Microsoft

 
The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is nearly upon us as summer rapidly draws to close.  Like 1511, 1607 and 1703 before it the current build of 16241 or  ‘Redstone 3’ has been available as a preview to insiders (in this case since April 14, 2017).

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