After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer print.

No surprise there,

I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential and;

1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by VBOXSVR;
2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to print returned an "err".

Suggestions would be welcome.

(Even the inevitable rude ones. I need a smile)

TIA, Alan

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-72-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.8
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of DRAM.

On Thu, 18 May 2023 20:36:43 +0100
pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to
> resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer
> print.
>
> No surprise there,
>
> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential
> and;
>
> 1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by
> VBOXSVR; 2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to
> print returned an "err".
>
> Suggestions would be welcome.
>
> (Even the inevitable rude ones. I need a smile)
>
> TIA, Alan
>

You have more problems than anyone I have ever seen. How's that for
being rude?

On Thu, 18 May 2023 14:41:53 -0500
Johnny <johnny@invalid.net> wrote:

> On Thu, 18 May 2023 20:36:43 +0100
> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to
> > resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer
> > print.
> >
> > No surprise there,
> >
> > I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential
> > and;
> >
> > 1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by
> > VBOXSVR; 2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to
> > print returned an "err".
> >
> > Suggestions would be welcome.
> >
> > (Even the inevitable rude ones. I need a smile)
> >
> > TIA, Alan
> >
>
> You have more problems than anyone I have ever seen. How's that for
> being rude?
>

You must get out more.

What's more, you don't know the half of it. :)

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-72-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.8
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of DRAM.

On 5/18/2023 3:41 PM, Johnny wrote:
> On Thu, 18 May 2023 20:36:43 +0100
> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to
>> resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer
>> print.
>>
>> No surprise there,
>>
>> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential
>> and;
>>
>> 1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by
>> VBOXSVR; 2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to
>> print returned an "err".
>>
>> Suggestions would be welcome.
>>
>> (Even the inevitable rude ones. I need a smile)
>>
>> TIA, Alan
>>
>
> You have more problems than anyone I have ever seen. How's that for
> being rude?
> Have you rebooted your computer????

pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to
> resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer
> print.
>
> No surprise there,
>
> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential and;
>
> 1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by
> VBOXSVR;
> 2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to print
> returned an "err".

Apparently you didn't keep a log of what changes you made trying to fix
the icon problem. Naughty naughty.

Restore from the image backup you [should have] made before putzing in
the registry, disabling startup programs, and disabling/removing
services. If you don't save backups before commiting major changes,
you've chosen to burn your bridges to get back where you started.

If you don't save backups before changes, you could try System Restore.
Unlike an image backup, System Restore won't get you back to the exact
state as before. Sometimes it works, many times not. You may have to
walk back through multiple SR restore points to get back to one before
the the computer got fucked up.

On 5/18/2023 5:36 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to
>> resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer
>> print.
>>
>> No surprise there,
>>
>> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential and;
>>
>> 1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by
>> VBOXSVR;
>> 2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to print
>> returned an "err".
>
> Apparently you didn't keep a log of what changes you made trying to fix
> the icon problem. Naughty naughty.
>
> Restore from the image backup you [should have] made before putzing in
> the registry, disabling startup programs, and disabling/removing
> services. If you don't save backups before commiting major changes,
> you've chosen to burn your bridges to get back where you started.
>
> If you don't save backups before changes, you could try System Restore.
> Unlike an image backup, System Restore won't get you back to the exact
> state as before. Sometimes it works, many times not. You may have to
> walk back through multiple SR restore points to get back to one before
> the the computer got fucked up.
>

Since Alan is running a Win10 Guest virtual machine on a Linux Host
computer, all he has to do, is keep a copy of the container file,
to roll back to a certain state.

I keep things like

win10.vhd.gz

as a point-in-time snapshot, for rolling things back. It depends
on whether you have a good compressor, as to whether compressing
makes sense.

*******

At a time like this, I would load "Win10.iso" as my virtual DVD
while the Guest is running, then execute Setup.exe off the
virtual DVD. And that will do a "Repair Install" keeping all
programs and user data. Doing a "winver" from Start : Run ,
will tell you which of your DVDs you need to use to match the version.
For example, if I saw "19045.xxx" I would use my "Windows10-x64-22H2.iso"

It will take less time to do that, than for us to assemble some moth-eaten
recipe for debug.

Paul

On Thu, 18 May 2023 16:36:15 -0500
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to
> > resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer
> > print.
> >
> > No surprise there,
> >
> > I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential and;
> >
> > 1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by
> > VBOXSVR;
> > 2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to print
> > returned an "err".
>
> Apparently you didn't keep a log of what changes you made trying to fix
> the icon problem. Naughty naughty.
>
> Restore from the image backup you [should have] made before putzing in
> the registry, disabling startup programs, and disabling/removing
> services. If you don't save backups before commiting major changes,
> you've chosen to burn your bridges to get back where you started.
>
> If you don't save backups before changes, you could try System Restore.
> Unlike an image backup, System Restore won't get you back to the exact
> state as before. Sometimes it works, many times not. You may have to
> walk back through multiple SR restore points to get back to one before
> the the computer got fucked up.

The last image that I have preceeded a repair to an application that I
cannot replicate. So broken functions or not I am going to have to
stick with it and gradually knock down each issue.

Fortunately, I can print to files and then open and print them from
Linux. Not ideal but a workaround at least.

Linux makes logging easy so that problems can more easily be
identified. (If you learn to interpret the log contents).
Windows being closed source makes that a bit trickier.

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-72-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.8
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of
DRAM.

On 5/19/2023 6:20 AM, pinnerite wrote:

> Linux makes logging easy so that problems can more easily be
> identified. (If you learn to interpret the log contents).
> Windows being closed source makes that a bit trickier.

Windows has Eventvwr.msc .

That's the logging system.

There are web pages, which identify particular eventids.

There are also logging files captured during an OS installation,
which are of substantial size. Even WindowsUpdate.log keeps
info about what your computer has been doing behind your back.
But to make that one, the raw log is collected with ETW (tracing
subsystem used by Process Monitor), and there is a conversion
step to make WindowsUpdate.log from the raw ETW file.

Paul

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

> Since Alan is running a Win10 Guest virtual machine on a Linux Host
> computer, all he has to do, is keep a copy of the container file,
> to roll back to a certain state.

No mention by OP in this thread of using a VMM to run Windows in a VM.
He might've mentioned it in his prior posts, but then I would be
assuming a VM instead of a native install of Windows.

If his Windows VM is for experimentation, like to trial software, he
could just create a new VM for Windows as a guest; i.e., start from
scratch. He could create a new VM while leaving the old one around to
check if the new VM works okay.

For VMs, he may have to install the pass-through drivers in the VM to
get to the real hardware. Virtualbox has its Extension Pack (installed
in the host OS) and their Guest Additions (inside the VMs). I'd have to
wander over to VMware's site to see what they call theirs.

Virtualbox allows snapshots for backups. Of course, if you schedule
backup in your host OS, that'll cover the virtual disk file for the VM,
but your backup program should support VSC (Volume Shadow Copy) if you
leave the VMs running (e.g., Virtualbox windowless mode).

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-use-snapshots-in-virtualbox/

pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote in
news:20230518203643.588e9b4c900ec02fa97564af@gmail.com:

> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of
> tryng to resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I
> could no longer print.
>
> No surprise there,
>
> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or
> essential and;
>
> 1) I could not access network shares (except those
> provided by VBOXSVR; 2) Although my printers all showed
> up, every attrempt to print returned an "err".
>
> Suggestions would be welcome.
>
> (Even the inevitable rude ones. I need a smile)

Dump that VBox Win10 and buy a refurbed W10 box from NewEgg* for $125 that
comes with a W10 Pro license, and most likely, much better performance than you
see under VBox (if it's hosted on that PC in your sig), as well as no more oddball
problems like this display driver issue, and whatever the last problem was (that I can't
remember).

(*If you're in the US or Canada. Else, whatever hardware/software outlet you buy gear
from that offers 'refurbed' deals, in your neck of the woods.)

On 5/19/2023 8:31 PM, DanS wrote:
> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:20230518203643.588e9b4c900ec02fa97564af@gmail.com:
>
>> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of
>> tryng to resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I
>> could no longer print.
>>
>> No surprise there,
>>
>> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or
>> essential and;
>>
>> 1) I could not access network shares (except those
>> provided by VBOXSVR; 2) Although my printers all showed
>> up, every attrempt to print returned an "err".
>>
>> Suggestions would be welcome.
>>
>> (Even the inevitable rude ones. I need a smile)
>
> Dump that VBox Win10 and buy a refurbed W10 box from NewEgg* for $125 that
> comes with a W10 Pro license, and most likely, much better performance than you
> see under VBox (if it's hosted on that PC in your sig), as well as no more oddball
> problems like this display driver issue, and whatever the last problem was (that I can't
> remember).
>
>
> (*If you're in the US or Canada. Else, whatever hardware/software outlet you buy gear
> from that offers 'refurbed' deals, in your neck of the woods.)
>

Current generation of refurbs, gets you a quad core.

Previous generation (I have an Optiplex), it was dual core.

The quad core machines use DDR3. It's just possible production
of DDR3 memory has stopped (I was interested in picking up
some SODIMMs for the laptop, but production of those stopped
in Mar.2023, no stock of what I wanted).

The computer industry is very "uneven". Expensive stuff is
still available (of course). Usable video cards start at $200
(and are still mostly shit). It used to be, you could get
perfectly good video cards for $50 or $65. While you can
definitely get CPUs with integrated GPU, not all of them
have that. And then, to get your graphics, incurs an expense.

The video cards cheaper than $200, are missing the video
decode acceleration feature. A totally unnecessary "silicon edit"
on those.

So yes, while I agree you can get refurbs, the refurbs are not
attractive enough, to get excited about them. It might solve
the situation, where you had a child who needed something for
their homework, but it doesn't solve any other problems with
"a lot of style".

If you were swapping out the Phenom for something newer, three
items would be a start.

AM4 mobo £149.00
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/asus-rog-strix-b550f-gaming-am4-motherboard-10210512.html

5600G 6 core (internal GPU) £129.00
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/amd-ryzen-5-5600g-processor-10227696.html?q=5600g

DDR4 3200 MHz PC RAM - 16 GB x 2 £73.00
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/corsair-vengeance-lpx-ddr4-3200-mhz-pc-ram-16-gb-x-2-10220493.html

The above can idle at around 42 watts.

Or substitute the 8 core version of CPU, for slightly more core count.

5700G 8 core (internal GPU) £170.00
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/amd-ryzen-7-5700g-processor-10227697.html?q=5700g

The CPU comes with a Wraith cooler in both cases (that's aluminium, no heatpipes,
not even a copper slug in the center of it).

Paul

On Fri, 19 May 2023 17:46:16 -0500
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>
> > Since Alan is running a Win10 Guest virtual machine on a Linux Host
> > computer, all he has to do, is keep a copy of the container file,
> > to roll back to a certain state.
>
> No mention by OP in this thread of using a VMM to run Windows in a VM.
> He might've mentioned it in his prior posts, but then I would be
> assuming a VM instead of a native install of Windows.
>
> If his Windows VM is for experimentation, like to trial software, he
> could just create a new VM for Windows as a guest; i.e., start from
> scratch. He could create a new VM while leaving the old one around to
> check if the new VM works okay.
>
> For VMs, he may have to install the pass-through drivers in the VM to
> get to the real hardware. Virtualbox has its Extension Pack (installed
> in the host OS) and their Guest Additions (inside the VMs). I'd have to
> wander over to VMware's site to see what they call theirs.
>
> Virtualbox allows snapshots for backups. Of course, if you schedule
> backup in your host OS, that'll cover the virtual disk file for the VM,
> but your backup program should support VSC (Volume Shadow Copy) if you
> leave the VMs running (e.g., Virtualbox windowless mode).
>
> https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-use-snapshots-in-virtualbox/

Your comments are valid (I had not previously used snapshots).
The Tech Republic article is easy to read as well as being well
presented.

I have two VM: Win-10 and Win-XP. The latter has always been problem
free and is retained to support two large 16-bit programs and a Fujitsu
cut-sheet scanner for which there is no usable Win-10 or Linux program.
It also runs pretty fast and is also a useful gauge as to whether a
fault lies with Win-10 or the underlying Linux host.

Win-10 was installed out of nevessiuty bevause essential commercial
programs for my business only run on Windows 7 or above.

Even at the best of times it has always executed at a snail's pace.

From 8 November 2022 no applicatioins were installed until 4 april 2023.
From 4 April the following were installed.

Amazon Kindle
TopUpTax (an essential professional program)
TaxCalc Discovery service (ditto)
PostgresSQL 9.4(x86)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x86) -12...
TaxCalc (an essential professional program)
Mozilla Firefox (x86 en-GB)
MicrosftOneDrive
Adobe Acrobat (64-bit)
Microsoft Edge Webview2 Runtime
Miscrosoft Edge (installed 12 May 2023)
Microsoft Update Health Tools (installed 12 May 2023)

By choice I would not have installed the last four. Indeed after
considering your message, it is probablt time to take a snapshot,
uninstall them ans see what happens.

Thank you for taking the time.

Alan

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-72-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.8
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of
DRAM.

pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 19 May 2023 17:46:16 -0500
> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> Since Alan is running a Win10 Guest virtual machine on a Linux Host
>>> computer, all he has to do, is keep a copy of the container file,
>>> to roll back to a certain state.
>>
>> No mention by OP in this thread of using a VMM to run Windows in a VM.
>> He might've mentioned it in his prior posts, but then I would be
>> assuming a VM instead of a native install of Windows.
>>
>> If his Windows VM is for experimentation, like to trial software, he
>> could just create a new VM for Windows as a guest; i.e., start from
>> scratch. He could create a new VM while leaving the old one around to
>> check if the new VM works okay.
>>
>> For VMs, he may have to install the pass-through drivers in the VM to
>> get to the real hardware. Virtualbox has its Extension Pack (installed
>> in the host OS) and their Guest Additions (inside the VMs). I'd have to
>> wander over to VMware's site to see what they call theirs.
>>
>> Virtualbox allows snapshots for backups. Of course, if you schedule
>> backup in your host OS, that'll cover the virtual disk file for the VM,
>> but your backup program should support VSC (Volume Shadow Copy) if you
>> leave the VMs running (e.g., Virtualbox windowless mode).
>>
>> https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-use-snapshots-in-virtualbox/
>
> Your comments are valid (I had not previously used snapshots).
> The Tech Republic article is easy to read as well as being well
> presented.
>
> I have two VM: Win-10 and Win-XP. The latter has always been problem
> free and is retained to support two large 16-bit programs and a Fujitsu
> cut-sheet scanner for which there is no usable Win-10 or Linux program.
> It also runs pretty fast and is also a useful gauge as to whether a
> fault lies with Win-10 or the underlying Linux host.
>
> Win-10 was installed out of nevessiuty bevause essential commercial
> programs for my business only run on Windows 7 or above.
>
> Even at the best of times it has always executed at a snail's pace.
>
> From 8 November 2022 no applicatioins were installed until 4 april 2023.
> From 4 April the following were installed.
>
> Amazon Kindle
> TopUpTax (an essential professional program)
> TaxCalc Discovery service (ditto)
> PostgresSQL 9.4(x86)
> Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x86) -12...
> TaxCalc (an essential professional program)
> Mozilla Firefox (x86 en-GB)
> MicrosftOneDrive
> Adobe Acrobat (64-bit)
> Microsoft Edge Webview2 Runtime
> Miscrosoft Edge (installed 12 May 2023)
> Microsoft Update Health Tools (installed 12 May 2023)
>
> By choice I would not have installed the last four. Indeed after
> considering your message, it is probablt time to take a snapshot,
> uninstall them ans see what happens.
>
> Thank you for taking the time.
>
> Alan

Try the System Restore first if you haven't used a backup program before
inside the Win10 VM. Since this is a business computer, you should be
running backups in the host OS (Linux), and they should be scheduled to
eliminate the user doing the backups (since users are unreliable). If
so, those host OS backups should include the virtual disk file for the
VM, and you can try renaming the current VM file, and restore it from
your Linux backups to walk back until the problem disappears.

If your proposed uninstalls don't help, try rebooting Win10 in the VM
into its safe mode. You'll probably want "Safe Mode with Networking" if
any of the problems are with networking; for example, I don't know if
the printer is attached to the VM to use as a local printer to the Win10
OS inside the VM, or if the printer is on the network as its own node.
Safe mode will eliminate any non-essential services and startup programs
to provide a cleaner environ to test for the problems. Microsoft made
it more difficult to boot into safe mode, but there are plenty of online
articles on the procedure.

After the uninstall, and if that doesn't help, I would look at what
config settings got changed by you for each of the programs you
installed into the Win10 VM to record them (unless a config file was
available to save, or they have an export/import function) along with
all your data files for those programs. Save the data to storage, like
to a USB flash drive or USB HDD or even to optical disc. Then start
with a fresh install of Win10 into a new VM, install the Guest Add-ons
into the VM, take a snapshot, install one critical program, and test for
the problems. If no problems, take another snapshot, install another
critical program, and test for problems. Repeat for each critical
program installation, but with a snapshot before the install, so you can
step back before after an install but encounter problems with it.

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote in
news:u49e6i$venv$1@dont-email.me:

> On 5/19/2023 8:31 PM, DanS wrote:
>> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote in
>> news:20230518203643.588e9b4c900ec02fa97564af@gmail.com:
>>
>>> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of
>>> tryng to resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons,
>>> I could no longer print.
>>>
>>> No surprise there,
>>>
>>> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate
>>> or essential and;
>>>
>>> 1) I could not access network shares (except those
>>> provided by VBOXSVR; 2) Although my printers all showed
>>> up, every attrempt to print returned an "err".
>>>
>>> Suggestions would be welcome.
>>>
>>> (Even the inevitable rude ones. I need a smile)
>>
>> Dump that VBox Win10 and buy a refurbed W10 box from
>> NewEgg* for $125 that comes with a W10 Pro license, and
>> most likely, much better performance than you see under
>> VBox (if it's hosted on that PC in your sig), as well as
>> no more oddball problems like this display driver issue,
>> and whatever the last problem was (that I can't remember).
>>
>>
>> (*If you're in the US or Canada. Else, whatever
>> hardware/software outlet you buy gear from that offers
>> 'refurbed' deals, in your neck of the woods.)
>>
>
> Current generation of refurbs, gets you a quad core.
>
> Previous generation (I have an Optiplex), it was dual core.
>
> The quad core machines use DDR3. It's just possible
> production of DDR3 memory has stopped (I was interested in
> picking up some SODIMMs for the laptop, but production of
> those stopped in Mar.2023, no stock of what I wanted).

Well, NewEgg's got a little under 1300 listings for DDR3 RAM...

You're over-thinking this. If one is using W10 under VBOX, they're not looking for huge
frame-rate video, or anything high performance.

DanS <t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@r.o.a.d.r.u.n.n.e.r.c.o.m> wrote:

> You're over-thinking this. If one is using W10 under VBOX, they're not
> looking for huge frame-rate video, or anything high performance.

Could be the OP did not allocate enough physical RAM to the VM's system
memory causing lots of thrashing.

The OP said he is using the following programs inside the VM:

- Amazon Kindle. The computer is waiting eons while the user reads a
document. Obvious no effect on the VM when it isn't running.
- Several tax programs. No business should be running their business
critical software inside a VM, especially at an enterprise level of
business use with a high volume of users, like many employees at a
company, concurrently interacting with the tax programs or servers.
Again, the software is waiting eons for input from the user.
- Firefox. Visiting sites that are highly scripted, and poorly
scripted, would account only for slowness inside of Firefox, not the
OS and other apps running at a snail's pace.
- OneDrive. That is a background and low-priority service. It uses
BITS to minimize any impact on system performance. It incurs less
impact to sync the files than a 'copy' command on the same files.
- Adobe Acrobat. Might have high CPU usage during use, but again would
not reflect an OS or apps running at a snail's pace.
- Edge (presumably the Chromium variant). No impact when it's not
running.
- Health tools. Unnecessary.

We don't know how much system memory the VM got allocated. We also
don't know if the OP dedicated some CPU cores to the VM. We don't know
if the OP configured the VMM to save, load, and use the virtual disk for
the VM on a spinner (HDD), SATA SSD, a portion of an nVME m.2 SSD, or on
some slow-write [crappy] USB flash drive drive (a very poor choice,
especially for business use, since running an OS, apps, and data with
all those writes will kill the drive much sooner - writes are
destructive, and why USB flash drives are rated for max write counts).
Might be a good time for the OP to use SysInternal's Autoruns to see
what all services and programs are getting started when he loads the
guest OS in the VM.

If the Windows 10 VM has a snail's pace response, a new computer running
Windows 10 on native hardware will likely run slow, too. There's a
common cause in both setups (wink, wink). In a VM, all hardware is
emulated except the CPU, and except for pass-through drivers for the VM
to access the native hardware (and why I suggested installing the Guest
Add-ons package into the VM). So, yes, software emulated hardware will
be slower. The OP is not running video games inside the VM. He is
using software that waits eons in computer cycles for user input. Think
about using Notepad in an OS on native hardware, and using Notepad
inside a VM with an OS on emulated hardware sans CPU. Twould be rare a
human can input text so fast into Notepad to notice a difference in
response of the editor.

You're suggesting throwing hardware at a software problem. I suspect
the result for the OP would be nearly identical performance response.
However he configured the VM (starve it of memory, using slow storage
media, not allocating CPU cores to it, allowing load of superfluous
services and startup programs, etc) could also apply to using native
hardware that is similarly starved. It's like saying that someone who
leans too far back in an office chair with rollers atop a hard chair mat
should buy a new chair with rollers when the cause of the problem is the
user leaning too far back on the chair on a slick surface.

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> DanS <t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@r.o.a.d.r.u.n.n.e.r.c.o.m> wrote:
>
>> You're over-thinking this. If one is using W10 under VBOX, they're not
>> looking for huge frame-rate video, or anything high performance.
>
> We also don't know if the OP dedicated some CPU cores to the VM. ...

https://www.alibabacloud.com/tech-news/virtualization/2fx-how-to-allow-for-more-cpu-cores-in-virtual-box

An OS inside VM should have as much system memory assigned to it as
would a native hardware setup to allow minimizing impact on
responsiveness. And the same for the number of cores available to the
OS in the VM. You give the same considerations to the VM as you would
for the native hardware. That means you should have twice the amount of
RAM and CPU cores available for the host OS since half of it will likely
go to the OS in the VM.

On 5/20/2023 2:51 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> DanS <t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@r.o.a.d.r.u.n.n.e.r.c.o.m> wrote:
>>
>>> You're over-thinking this. If one is using W10 under VBOX, they're not
>>> looking for huge frame-rate video, or anything high performance.
>>
>> We also don't know if the OP dedicated some CPU cores to the VM. ...
>
> https://www.alibabacloud.com/tech-news/virtualization/2fx-how-to-allow-for-more-cpu-cores-in-virtual-box
>
> An OS inside VM should have as much system memory assigned to it as
> would a native hardware setup to allow minimizing impact on
> responsiveness. And the same for the number of cores available to the
> OS in the VM. You give the same considerations to the VM as you would
> for the native hardware. That means you should have twice the amount of
> RAM and CPU cores available for the host OS since half of it will likely
> go to the OS in the VM.
>

One item on your grocery list you missed, is how healthy VirtualBox itself is.

Many eons ago, if you ran Win2K on it, on a dual core, it would rail
on one core when Win2K was idle. This was an internal tasking issue,
where the program did not work properly with something like IOAPIC
functioning and I/O load spread across cores.

At least on the Windows side, advanced versions of Virtualbox can actually
freeze up, and then it's not possible to tell what froze and why. There could
be a logfile somewhere, if some wanted to waste time root causing it.

There are signs VirtualBox is much less efficient than it used to be.
At one time, I could tell you that x86-on-x86 ran at 0.90 in situations
like this, but I would not want to hazard a guess today without actual
testing (bench), to see roughly where the ratio sits.

The Linux version of Virtualbox is not quite as bad, because it's not
running under an inverted hypervisor and the arrangement is "more conventional"
and works more or less like it has in the past. Things you would have to be careful
of, is expecting Windows 10 bash shell to work, while Windows 10 is a Guest
in VirtualBox. That might not work. If you tried to run Windows 11 in
VirtualBox (which can be made to work), virtually all the "features" would
be shut off by the Guest, because it knows it is inside a VM. It can detect
exactly where it is. Sandboxing would stop.

Paul

On Thu, 18 May 2023 16:36:15 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

>pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> After I stopped every startup option in the vain hope of tryng to
>> resolve the black overlay on the desktop icons, I could no longer
>> print.
>>
>> No surprise there,
>>
>> I restored all services options that seemed appropriate or essential and;
>>
>> 1) I could not access network shares (except those provided by
>> VBOXSVR;
>> 2) Although my printers all showed up, every attrempt to print
>> returned an "err".
>
>Apparently you didn't keep a log of what changes you made trying to fix
>the icon problem. Naughty naughty.

On that point, is there a keystroke recorder for use in lengthy
adventures in software & installations, so that one can review the
past?

>
>Restore from the image backup you [should have] made before putzing in
>the registry, disabling startup programs, and disabling/removing
>services. If you don't save backups before commiting major changes,
>you've chosen to burn your bridges to get back where you started.
>
>If you don't save backups before changes, you could try System Restore.
>Unlike an image backup, System Restore won't get you back to the exact
>state as before. Sometimes it works, many times not. You may have to
>walk back through multiple SR restore points to get back to one before
>the the computer got fucked up.

Peter Jason <pj@jostle.com> wrote:

> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> Apparently you didn't keep a log of what changes you made trying to
>> fix the icon problem. Naughty naughty.
>
> On that point, is there a keystroke recorder for use in lengthy
> adventures in software & installations, so that one can review the
> past?

I use an ancient method employed long before computers existed, and even
before electricity strung on wires (qualified to obviate electricity via
lightning bolts or static shock). It's pen and paper. Of course, you
could go electronic with an editor, like Notepad on Windows, a note app
on your smartphone, or vim on Linux. No need to record keystrokes.
Just record your actions. You may have been weaned on computers, but I
bet you still used pen and paper not too long ago in elementary school.

On Sun, 21 May 2023 19:35:45 -0500
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> Peter Jason <pj@jostle.com> wrote:
>
> > VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
> >
> >> Apparently you didn't keep a log of what changes you made trying to
> >> fix the icon problem. Naughty naughty.
> >
> > On that point, is there a keystroke recorder for use in lengthy
> > adventures in software & installations, so that one can review the
> > past?
>
> I use an ancient method employed long before computers existed, and even
> before electricity strung on wires (qualified to obviate electricity via
> lightning bolts or static shock). It's pen and paper. Of course, you
> could go electronic with an editor, like Notepad on Windows, a note app
> on your smartphone, or vim on Linux. No need to record keystrokes.
> Just record your actions. You may have been weaned on computers, but I
> bet you still used pen and paper not too long ago in elementary school.

Contrary to the assumption that I don't keep notes, I do, copiously.
However, that is not always reliable. Usually I have litle trouble with
Linux but Windows 10 appears to be a different animal.

As there were several issues, I decided to go back to a reliable backup
(25 April 2023) and restore the complete Win-10 virtual machine. It was
successful but I now have to get help with one application that was a
trial version when the backup was taken.

However that is trivial by comparison with being unable to "see" my
printer, nor network shares and have black rectangles overlay the
desktop icons.

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-72-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.8
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of
DRAM.

On Sat, 20 May 2023 09:35:13 -0500
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 19 May 2023 17:46:16 -0500
> > VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
> >
> >> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Since Alan is running a Win10 Guest virtual machine on a Linux Host
> >>> computer, all he has to do, is keep a copy of the container file,
> >>> to roll back to a certain state.
> >>
> >> No mention by OP in this thread of using a VMM to run Windows in a VM.
> >> He might've mentioned it in his prior posts, but then I would be
> >> assuming a VM instead of a native install of Windows.
> >>
> >> If his Windows VM is for experimentation, like to trial software, he
> >> could just create a new VM for Windows as a guest; i.e., start from
> >> scratch. He could create a new VM while leaving the old one around to
> >> check if the new VM works okay.
> >>
> >> For VMs, he may have to install the pass-through drivers in the VM to
> >> get to the real hardware. Virtualbox has its Extension Pack (installed
> >> in the host OS) and their Guest Additions (inside the VMs). I'd have to
> >> wander over to VMware's site to see what they call theirs.
> >>
> >> Virtualbox allows snapshots for backups. Of course, if you schedule
> >> backup in your host OS, that'll cover the virtual disk file for the VM,
> >> but your backup program should support VSC (Volume Shadow Copy) if you
> >> leave the VMs running (e.g., Virtualbox windowless mode).
> >>
> >> https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-use-snapshots-in-virtualbox/
> >
> > Your comments are valid (I had not previously used snapshots).
> > The Tech Republic article is easy to read as well as being well
> > presented.
> >
> > I have two VM: Win-10 and Win-XP. The latter has always been problem
> > free and is retained to support two large 16-bit programs and a Fujitsu
> > cut-sheet scanner for which there is no usable Win-10 or Linux program.
> > It also runs pretty fast and is also a useful gauge as to whether a
> > fault lies with Win-10 or the underlying Linux host.
> >
> > Win-10 was installed out of nevessiuty bevause essential commercial
> > programs for my business only run on Windows 7 or above.
> >
> > Even at the best of times it has always executed at a snail's pace.
> >
> > From 8 November 2022 no applicatioins were installed until 4 april 2023.
> > From 4 April the following were installed.
> >
> > Amazon Kindle
> > TopUpTax (an essential professional program)
> > TaxCalc Discovery service (ditto)
> > PostgresSQL 9.4(x86)
> > Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x86) -12...
> > TaxCalc (an essential professional program)
> > Mozilla Firefox (x86 en-GB)
> > MicrosftOneDrive
> > Adobe Acrobat (64-bit)
> > Microsoft Edge Webview2 Runtime
> > Miscrosoft Edge (installed 12 May 2023)
> > Microsoft Update Health Tools (installed 12 May 2023)
> >
> > By choice I would not have installed the last four. Indeed after
> > considering your message, it is probablt time to take a snapshot,
> > uninstall them ans see what happens.
> >
> > Thank you for taking the time.
> >
> > Alan
>
> Try the System Restore first if you haven't used a backup program before
> inside the Win10 VM. Since this is a business computer, you should be
> running backups in the host OS (Linux), and they should be scheduled to
> eliminate the user doing the backups (since users are unreliable). If
> so, those host OS backups should include the virtual disk file for the
> VM, and you can try renaming the current VM file, and restore it from
> your Linux backups to walk back until the problem disappears.
>
> If your proposed uninstalls don't help, try rebooting Win10 in the VM
> into its safe mode. You'll probably want "Safe Mode with Networking" if
> any of the problems are with networking; for example, I don't know if
> the printer is attached to the VM to use as a local printer to the Win10
> OS inside the VM, or if the printer is on the network as its own node.
> Safe mode will eliminate any non-essential services and startup programs
> to provide a cleaner environ to test for the problems. Microsoft made
> it more difficult to boot into safe mode, but there are plenty of online
> articles on the procedure.
>
> After the uninstall, and if that doesn't help, I would look at what
> config settings got changed by you for each of the programs you
> installed into the Win10 VM to record them (unless a config file was
> available to save, or they have an export/import function) along with
> all your data files for those programs. Save the data to storage, like
> to a USB flash drive or USB HDD or even to optical disc. Then start
> with a fresh install of Win10 into a new VM, install the Guest Add-ons
> into the VM, take a snapshot, install one critical program, and test for
> the problems. If no problems, take another snapshot, install another
> critical program, and test for problems. Repeat for each critical
> program installation, but with a snapshot before the install, so you can
> step back before after an install but encounter problems with it.

VBox suggests 4Gb of DRAM for a fresh Win-10 installation. I allocated
8GB. My system runs on a 2TB 7200rpm hard disk drive.

Last evening I installed a second Win-10 VM just to see whether there
was any material difference between the existimg one and the fresh one
in terms of speed.

While I have had multiple installs of Linux Mint, I had not installed
Win-10 for several years. Accordinly I was flabbergasted to discover
just how slow and laboured it was. In essence I am better off gradually
knocking down the skittles of the first one than spending even more
time reinstalling and conguring all the applications in the second
again.

By chance I discovered that one of the essential programs for which I
needed Win-10 also has versions for Linux and the Mac. Provided I get
the other one to run under "wine" it will be goodbye to Win-10.

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-72-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.8
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of
DRAM.