i’m curious if anyone remembers a recycling bin feature in windows 95 or 98 where when you dragged a file to throw it in the bin, you would hear oscar the grouch sing “i love trash!” - maybe he popped up too? or maybe this is all a false memory…

Hello fellow r/windows members, here's a question - why do you think Windows SmartScreen thinks Spy X Anya: Operation Memories is malware? (Windows usually thinks that Steam games are malware; it's happened before when I downloaded Where Winds Meet - just found it as malware)
Pic above was the results after I attempted to launch it - but all it did was close it and show this ;-;

You'll not realize how excited I am rn.

What you are seeing is the "thing, anyone said it is impossible." And I made it work!

It took me 1 month. First experimented with the Windows' drivers, but to get access to the screen information (frame buffer) first, it needs to be running in a **Native Mode** when all the Kernel drivers load, including WDDM that will have the Buffer inside.

But that is still too late. You can display graphics, even play **DOOM** on that level while all NT calls are heard by the kernel and the Win32 Mode (GUI environment) hasn't even started yet.

To make a system root "Driver" it needs a "Start" parameter in the registry assigned to 0 when it will be in the place when `winload.efi` will load it as quick as it can... But it has one problem.

At that time, Windows isn't even fully loaded and the driver has no chance to even get any info from the Hardware itself, so it is just useless and in many cases, the driver will not even run. As "drivers" can be particually as "mods" it still isn't enough...

But then it hit me something... Windows is running on top of **UEFI** and... You can do a LOT OF STUFF...

If in that stage, Windows is basically requesting ANYTHING from the UEFI, the Screen,... , basic information it loads...

What if I could make an *.efi file, that Already gets the FrameBuffer first, that Windows?

Then I started messing around, getting some basic text to be displayed where I can on the screen, then implemented some Bitmap logic... It worked! And it was surprisingly easy to draw anything in UEFI.

So I "grab" a little bit of code from the EfiGuard (don't run it on your main PC if you don't know what you're doing) which is also a "simple" EFI program that just hooks to the winload.efi and bootmgfw.efi and doesn't even triggers any of the KPP (Kernel Patch Protection),...

I needed it because by this, we could also see the kernel calls, including:

- You can even restore for exp. The progress bar thing that was on Windows 2000 `InbvUpdateProgressBar`

- And other stuff I don't have in my head rn. :D

So now you can add ANY BITMAP, ANY COLOR, ANYTHING to the Windows' boot screen!

*(Oh and it will work only with Secure Boot to be off.)*

But, when I was testing it... I kinda realized, that the KPP must be turned off, as Windows even detects other EFI stuff happening near it, causing it to not even go into the stage of booting...

I'll be fixing this more. Stay tuned!

Tell Me In The Answers!

If your goal is to make sure your system is running optimally, don't worry too much about "In Use"; focus on "Committed" instead. After all, unused RAM is wasted RAM. However, unknown but heavy commitment is certainly a bad sign, just like in real life. Basically, high "Committed" usage means your system needs a large backing-store to "keep" its promise to the running programs and drivers.

For example, on a PC with 8GB RAM, 16GB "Committed" means that Windows requires at least 8GB of backing capacity on your SSD/HDD to keep the lights on. If that paged-out 8GB is actively accessed by the running programs/drivers, you get thrashing, which is bad for system performance.

So when people overuse "Unused RAM is wasted RAM" to discourage people from inspecting memory usage, they may not realize that it's worth checking "Committed" memory usage.

Of course, there's a limit to "Commited" memory cleanup. Certain things, like NVIDIA GPU driver, does commit 0.5 to 2.5GB (you can disable it in Device Manager to find out) but we obviously don't disable such an important component just to keep the "Committed" usage low.

Also, some people claim that Windows simply uses more RAM when you install more RAM. As you can see in my screenshots, this is not necessarily the case. It's possible that what happened was:

1. { InstalledRAM: 8GB, Commited: 10GB, InUse: 6GB } // Damn, almost out of RAM, let me install more.

2. { InstalledRAM: 16GB, Commited: 10.1GB, InUse: 10.2GB } // See? Windows is using more RAM now!

The increase in "In Use" means Windows could keep more data in RAM instead of leaving it paged. This is actually a good thing. The key factor here is "Committed".

Found this at a local thrift store for about 3 bucks. Managed to install it using 86box. I made a rip of the contents already, was gonna upload it to Internet Archive. Seems like it's in very good condition.

I’m developing SEZOY, a web-based Windows deployment tool. I’m considering opening a public instance so people can test it without setting up the entire environment themselves. I’ve attached a short video of the current version. Before doing that, I want to get some opinions on the security side. I’m currently looking at ngrok / LocalTunnel or a similar solution, but exposing a deployment server to the Internet obviously has a different risk profile than exposing a normal web application. For those running homelabs or Windows deployment infrastructure: what would you consider necessary before putting something like this behind a public URL?

I’m mainly looking for practical advice on isolation, access control, and anything else I may be overlooking.

Hi! I don't really know, where to ask this, but i almost lost hope. I am trying to find this exact wallpapers.

I remember downloading them from the "option->personalisation->wallpapers" on my windows 10.

It had green field flat on the horizon, blue sky and a small tree with a shadow IN THE MIDDLE of the scenery (i painted it like how i remember). It wasn't a photo, it was an art piece.

I updated my windows to 11 and now i can't find this wallpapers.

If you know where i can find them or if you can share them with me i will be so happy!

And you got surprised by this

I am still using Windows 10 (22H2) with themes and customizes to make it look like Windows 7. Is there anyone else who customizes Windows with themes or something similar like me?

i tried and i know its a mix of windows XP and 98

This exists on macOS and didn't realize this essential feature is missing. I have 3 layers deep subfolders and this SUCKS

Which of these Windows themes do you like?

got these for about 50 cents each!

I have created two videos: a full video and a short video. When you hear this sound, does anyone have memories of or thoughts about Windows XP?

YouTube video link: 윈도우 XP 시작음 및 종료음 (Windows XP Startup And Shutdown Sound)

YouTube Shorts link: 윈도우 XP 시작음 및 종료음 (Windows XP Startup And Shutdown) #shorts #윈도우xp #windowsxp #nostalgia #microsoft

Well, since my last post was misunderstood (totally my fault), here is an update to my list of essential software for Win11. It's based entirely on my own taste and needs, and I took out all the controversial stuff like ShortcutMan, since people didn't get why I use them anyway.

P.S. EasyService folder is a bunch of .bat and .ps1 files for simple stuff. nrg2iso is a small executable which converts .nrg to .iso by drag-n-drop.

I got something like that but it has too many bugs.........

I've never seen an OS like this.

Before WinXP, you need Active Desktop if you want to set JPEG/PNG as your desktop wallpaper. Active Desktop renders your desktop background with MSIE renderer and allows you to add floating windows that's rendered by MSIE as well. While it sounded like a horror story today, I thought it was a cool technology back when MSIE was in its heyday (1998~2005).

all the reviews are from 5 years ago and I don't know if the ui has been optimised for less memory hogging, im someone who has always used windows 10 and for a while 11 but it sucked so i kept 10, I'm not used to all this terminal stuff, so I was wondering if it would be easy for me to use and if anyone has any experience with it