#System File Cleanup

[fitlifefuel]

How to Free Up Space on Windows 10: A Comprehensive Guide

As your Windows 10 system accumulates more files and applications, it can start to slow down and become less efficient. Freeing up space not only improves your system’s performance but also extends its lifespan. In this guide, we’ll explore various methods to free up space on Windows 10, going beyond the basics to ensure you have a well-optimized system.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Understanding Disk Space Usage

Utilizing Built-in Windows Tools

Disk Cleanup

Storage Sense

Uninstalling Unnecessary Applications

Managing Temporary and Cached Files

Cleaning Up System Files

Windows Update Cleanup

System Restore and Shadow Copies

Using Third-Party Disk Cleaners

Handling Large Files and Folders

Moving Data to External Storage

Using Cloud Storage Solutions

Conclusion

1. Introduction

As modern software and files grow larger, managing disk space effectively becomes crucial. This guide offers practical steps and tips to reclaim disk space on your Windows 10 computer, ensuring it runs smoothly and efficiently.

2. Understanding Disk Space Usage

Before freeing up space, it’s essential to understand how your disk space is being used. Navigate to Settings > System > Storage to view a detailed breakdown. This will help identify which areas need attention.

3. Utilizing Built-in Windows Tools

Disk Cleanup

Windows 10 features a built-in Disk Cleanup tool designed to delete unnecessary files. To access it:

Type “Disk Cleanup” in the search bar and select the app.

Choose the drive you want to clean.

Select the file types to delete (e.g., temporary files, system cache).

Storage Sense

Storage Sense automates disk cleanup. To enable it:

Go to Settings > System > Storage.

Toggle on Storage Sense and configure settings to regularly delete temporary files.

4. Uninstalling Unnecessary Applications

Unused applications take up significant space. To uninstall them:

Go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features.

Review the list and uninstall non-essential programs.

5. Managing Temporary and Cached Files

Temporary files can quickly accumulate and consume disk space. Use Disk Cleanup or third-party tools to regularly clear these files. Browsers also store cached data, which can be cleared from the browser settings.

6. Cleaning Up System Files

Windows Update Cleanup

Old update files can take up substantial space. Disk Cleanup includes an option to remove these:

Open Disk Cleanup and select Clean up system files.

Choose Windows Update Cleanup.

System Restore and Shadow Copies

System Restore points and shadow copies can consume significant disk space. Manage these by:

Typing “System Protection” in the search bar.

Selecting the drive and clicking Configure.

Adjusting the Max Usage slider to limit space usage.

7. Using Third-Party Disk Cleaners

Third-party tools like CCleaner provide more comprehensive cleaning options. They can remove junk files, clean registries, and manage startup programs to free up space.

8. Handling Large Files and Folders

Identifying and managing large files is crucial. Use tools like WinDirStat to find large files and folders. Consider moving non-essential large files to external storage.

9. Moving Data to External Storage

Free up space by moving data such as videos, photos, and documents to external hard drives or USB sticks. Ensure you regularly back up important data to avoid loss.

10. Using Cloud Storage Solutions

Cloud storage services like OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox offer substantial space. Move infrequently accessed files to the cloud to save local disk space.

11. Conclusion

Regular maintenance and mindful storage practices can keep your Windows 10 system running efficiently. Use the tips and tools outlined in this guide to manage and optimize your disk space effectively.

External Authoritative Sources

Microsoft Support: Free up drive space in Windows

CCleaner Official Website

How-To Geek: The Ultimate Guide to Freeing Up Space on Your Windows PC

By following these detailed steps, you can efficiently manage and optimize your disk space on Windows 10, ensuring your system remains fast and reliable.

[filehulk]

PrivaZer Download - Clean Junk Files & Protect Privacy

PrivaZer is a free tool with an optional premium version that acts as a privacy protector, registry cleaner, and junk file remover for your PC. It helps users safeguard sensitive data by eliminating unwanted traces left behind during regular computer use. PrivaZer goes beyond typical cleaning; it can securely erase data, making it nearly impossible to recover. This feature is especially…

[techdirectarchive]

Analyse Disks with Treesize: Defragment and Shrink VMware Workstation VM Disks

In this article, we will discuss how to “Analyse Disk with Treesize: Defragment and Shrink VMware Workstation VM Disks”. If you’re looking to improve VM performance, defragmenting is the way to go. If you are trying to free up disk space on the host, compacting (shrinking) or disk clean up will be appropriate. Please see how to Map and disconnect Virtual Disk in VMware Workstation, and how to…

[prokopetz]

The thing I like about the Blood Moon mechanic in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is how it affords game-mechanical transparency to the player.

Like, we all know the reason it exists is because, like any complex open-world game, BotW and TotK periodically need to hit the reset button on all non-trivial changes to the world state; in games that don't, your save file has unbounded growth due to the need to keep track of every little thing you've ever done, and eventually the system runs out of memory, save/load performance goes to shit, or both. It's basic software engineering constraints dictating the shape of play.

The thing is, most open world games try to do this subtly, perhaps by setting individual timers for the consequences of different actions to expire, or by linking world-state cleanup to proximity to the player character, but in practice it never works – trying to be sneaky about it paradoxically makes it more obtrusive to the player by rendering it opaque and unpredictable, often prompting the development of superstitious gameplay rituals to work around it.

BotW and TotK take precisely the opposite tack and make it 100% transparent and 100% predictable. Once a week, at exactly the same time of day, there's a spooky cutscene and an evil wizard undoes every change you've made to the world that doesn't have an associated quest log entry. Why everything at once, and always on the same schedule? A wizard did it. Why exactly and only those changes that don't have quest logs attached? See again: a wizard did it.

And this isn't just a gameplay conceit. Everybody knows about the evil wizard! The fact that the evil wizard keeps resetting everybody's efforts to fix the befuckening of the world is a central plot point. There are organisations whose chartered purpose is to go around redoing stuff that's been undone by the wizard.

It makes me wonder what other potential synergies between fantasy worldbuilding and mechanical transparency are going unexploited.

[glowettee]

✧ preparing for next semester series (7/12): digital organization dreams ✧

hi angels, digital organization is sooo important nowadays especially since now most schools + universities/colleges require devices and laptops for students to use. so here's a little guide for digital organization for your academics! <3

essential digital organization:

folder structure:

semester folder

subject subfolders

assignment folders

resource folders

archive system

file naming convention:

date_subject_assignment

class_topic_version

project_draft_number

reading_chapter_notes

homework_week_number

cloud storage setup:

google drive

dropbox

onedrive

icloud

backup system

app organization:

study apps folder

productivity apps

note-taking apps

calendar apps

communication apps

digital maintenance:

weekly backup

monthly cleanup

organize downloads

update apps

clear cache

note:

consistent naming

regular backups

easy navigation

clean desktop

organized bookmarks

pro tip: create a digital dashboard in notion or your preferred app to access everything quickly!

sweet thoughts, mindy x

p.s. what's your favorite organization app? let me know! ✨

[copperbadge]

Migrating Off Evernote

Evernote, a web-based notes app, recently introduced super-restrictive controls on free accounts, after laying off a number of staff and introducing AI features, all of which is causing a lot of people to migrate off the platform. I haven't extensively researched alternative sites, so I can't offer a full resource there (readers, feel free to drop your alternative sites in notes or reblogs), but because I have access to OneNote both in my professional and personal life, I decided to migrate my Evernote there.

I use them for very different things -- Evernote I use exclusively as a personal fanfic archive, because it stores fics I want to save privately both as full-text files and as links. OneNote I have traditionally used for professional purposes, mainly for taking meeting notes and storing information I need (excel formulas, how-tos for things I don't do often in our database, etc). But while Evernote had some nicer features it was essentially a OneNote clone, and OneNote has a webclipper, so I've created an account with OneNote specifically to store my old Evernote archive and any incoming fanfic I want to archive in future.

Microsoft discontinued the tool that it offered for migrating Evernote to OneNote directly, but research turned up a reliable and so-far trustworthy independent tool that I wanted to share. You export all your Evernote notebooks as ENEX files, then download the tool and unzip it, open the exe file, and import the ENEX one by one on a computer where you already have the desktop version of OneNote installed. I had no problem with the process, although some folks with older systems might.

I suspect I might need to do some cleanup post-import but some of that is down to how Evernote fucked around with tags a while ago, and so far looking through my notes it appears to have imported formatting, links, art, and other various aspects of each clipped note without a problem. I also suspect that Evernote will not eternally allow free users to export their notebooks so if nothing else I'd back up your notebooks to ENEX or HTML files sooner rather than later.

I know the number of people who were using Free Evernote and have access to OneNote is probably pretty small, but if I found it useful I thought others might too.

[voxofthevoid]

JJK Teasers: April 2025

Skipping the teaser for my two-chapter kenita fic since the first intro chapter has already been posted. The rest are here ✨

Chapter 3/10 of taking the flesh is the only virtue

“Exactly what do you want from me, Itadori-kun?”

Itadori holds up the toy. “I’ve never used one of these before.”

Of course he hasn’t; he’s fifteen. But— “It’s not rocket science. The…design is rather intuitive.”

Itadori finally pries his eyes away from Kento to give the toy a dubious look. If not for the unnaturally strong scent radiating from him to drench the room and seep into Kento, it’d be easy to think he’s just a boy confronted with the unpleasant realities of a very hands-on sex-ed class.

“Is it?” Itadori asks doubtfully. “It looks weird.”

“It looks—” Kento isn’t paid enough for this. He’s also not drunk enough for this. “And what do you want me to do about that?”

Itadori shakes the thing’s artificial vagina at him. Kento promptly files that as one of the many images that’ll haunt his nights.

He almost misses Itadori saying, “Can you show me?”

Kento just gapes.

Itadori’s expression is wholly, suffocatingly earnest.

Kento doesn’t know what possesses him to ask, “Did you find the lube?”

“Oh, no.” Itadori turns the opening of the toy to his own face, squinting at it with a seriousness that’d be comical in any other situation. “Guess I’ll need that, huh? Are you sure it’ll fit in this, Nanamin? It’s so small.”

Chapter 1/14 of the ghost in me was true (but you were haunted too)

“Guess we could stage a break-up.”

Every bit of amused exasperation vanishes from Yuuji’s mind, leaving him cold.

“What?” It’s a faint, whispery thing.

Satoru raises a hand, waving it around. “Not for real! Relax. We could have a screaming match in the courtyard or something. It’ll be fun. Pretend you’re one of the women in those melodramatic romances you like. Or maybe I’ll be the woman? I’m a better actor. You can stand there and look all handsome and stoic. Cry a single perfect tear—just think of something really sad. And then…hm, I’ll storm off for a while, do some cleanup along the countryside. You can pretend to rebound with Megumi. Or maybe one of the first years. Even a Ten Shadows user might spook the council at this point. Anyway, they’ll forget about it eventually. I have full faith in my ability to be a bigger problem than even Sukuna incarnated would be. What do you th—oh.”

Yuuji’s not sure what the expression on his face is. He’s not even sure what he’s feeling.

But it must be something special if it’s making Satoru look borderline wary.

“That's a very serious face,” he says, standing up from the couch. But he doesn’t come any closer. The smile he puts on isn’t real at all. “Are you afraid you’ll find greener pastures? Don't worry, Yuuji. I’m gourmet fare. You won’t get me out of your system so easily.”

“I already knew that.” Yuuji’s mouth feels numb, but it’s moving, speaking. “It’s you. It’ll always be you.”

Satoru looks like Yuuji slapped him.

Chapter 14/18 of (let me be clear) every version of the story ends with you being slaughtered

When the flames clear, the cursed spirit is there.

It looks like a hunched old man—almost. There’s nothing human about the blue-grey skin and black teeth and cycloptic eye.

Or the head.

“Why does your head look like Mount Fuji?” Yuuji asks, distracted for a second.

That single, centered eye blinks once.

“Sukuna’s vessel,” it starts—

“I have a name,” Yuuji cuts in. “You know it. You’ve used it. Keep doing that.”

“I don’t care about your name. It’s Sukuna I want.”

“Why?” Yuuji asks, genuinely confused. “He’s a dick.”

Another blink, distinctly nonplussed.

Friend of yours? Yuuji asks his resident parasite; there’s no response, and he doesn’t expect any, but he knows the answer anyway. Sukuna doesn’t know this cursed spirit any more than Yuuji does. He’s interested though. He’s more interested than he has been in anything in a while, and Yuuji doesn’t really like it, how Sukuna’s focus has settled like sharp-edged razors along the insides of his skull. His eyes feel hot, and it has nothing to do with the blistering heat still permeating the air.

“You can’t have him,” Yuuji tells the cursed spirit; he smiles, and that feels like a knife too. “That’s my burden to bear. If it helps, you really don’t want him either. Trust me.”

Chapter 1/7 of bloodstains on the collar means just don’t ask

In the end, Yuuji arranges himself into the world’s most awkward seiza, right there on top of his panting, trembling uncle.

It’s a good look on Sukuna. A good feel.

“Alright,” Yuuji says, slowly sliding his hands from Sukuna’s shoulders to the twin blades jutting out under them, thick and hard even through the tank. “You can move now.”

He thinks Sukuna snarls.

But he does move. A slow, steady descent. A very long pause. A staggering rise.

His muscles flex and bulge under Yuuji, sweat slicking his palms and heat seeping into his flesh.

Fuck, Yuuji thinks, biting his lip till skin splits.

The pain and the blood don’t calm him down any.

Sukuna does another push-up, slower but steadier than the last. Veins pulse on his neck and his arms, the skin there turning an alarming red. Yuuji wants to touch it, but his hands are frozen.

All of him is frozen.

Sukuna again lowers himself, his muscles swelling and shifting. Yuuji stares and stares and feels, his own body pulling tighter and tighter. The sounds Sukuna’s making are even worse—grunts and gasps, subtly different from how he sounds when they’re sparring and so, so dirty.

His forehead presses against the ground. His torso alone moves with a great, heaving breath.

Yuuji moves with it.

“Get off,” Sukuna says, as brusquely as he ordered Yuuji to get on. “You’ve had your fun.”

Sukuna has no idea how right he is—or how wrong.

“One more,” Yuuji rasps, digging his fingers into the thick muscle between Sukuna’s shoulder blades. “Come on, Sukuna. One more.”

[yureiyaps]

ִֶָ☾. See You Later!

cw: war au pairing: megumi x OC, dad!Satoru wc: 1.3k part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 >>> coming soon!

TWO MONTHS LATER The sun hadn’t even peeked over the mountains yet when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I blinked, groggy and still half-dreaming about a life where I wasn’t being dragged out of bed before dawn. “Lieutenant Arata?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

“Get up,” she said softly, almost… nicely? “Just you. The others are still out cold.”

I followed her, boots barely laced, my brain trying to piece together whether I was in trouble or about to be forced into some extra push-up punishment for yesterday’s sprint sass.

But she didn’t lead me to the training yard. She led me to her office.

The lights were dim, the heater humming quietly. It smelled like old coffee and something faintly floral—maybe those weird herbal things adults who don’t sleep properly drink. Arata sat behind her desk, arms folded, a file open in front of her. My file. No—the file. Actually, the copy of it.

My stomach twisted. “If this is about the thing I took, I—”

“Relax, Akira,” she said, cutting me off before I could spiral into a full-on defensive speech. “Buzzcut already told me. If it makes you feel any better, he only ratted you out because he figured I’d be less dramatic about it.”

“Rude,” I muttered, sitting down. “So… what happens now? You going to wipe my memory or something?”

“I’m not the Men in Black,” she replied, smirking slightly. “But I wanted to talk to you. Just us.”

That got my attention.

She tapped her fingers on the folder. “You’re looking into Project Blind Sun. Buzzcut gave me the short version. I figured it was time I gave you mine.”

I blinked. “You know about it?”

“Only pieces,” she admitted. “Most of it was sealed above my clearance. But I knew your mom. I knew her best friend, too. Back then, before everything went to hell, we weren’t in uniform all the time. We were just... women trying to survive the system. Friends. A little reckless. Definitely too smart for the brass.”

She smiled faintly at the memory, then looked me dead in the eyes.

“Fengxian - your mom - and Kiyomi. They weren’t just civilians caught in the crossfire. They were part of something bigger. Your mom especially. She was one of the best hackers I’ve ever met—she could dismantle an entire surveillance web with a radio and a coffee machine.”

That sounded exactly like her.

“But something changed near the end. They started getting nervous. Like someone was watching them, or like they knew too much. I asked once. Your mom smiled, tapped her temple, and said, ‘They want us dumb. And we’re not dumb, are we?’ Then she left it at that.”

I didn’t speak for a moment. The heater buzzed.

“I think they were working with your father,” Arata continued. “Maybe not officially, maybe not even legally. But there’s a reason why all three of them—Fengxian, Kiyomi, and Toji—‘died’ in the same explosion. That’s not a coincidence. That’s cleanup.”

I leaned forward. “So you believe me.”

Arata raised an eyebrow. “You think I dragged you in here to scold you? I’m not Buzzcut. I’m not here to shut you down. I’m here to help. Your dad saved a lot of us. Your mom saved me personally. If there’s even a chance they’re still alive, I’ll do what I can to help you find out.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but my throat tightened instead. All the sarcasm and bravado in the world couldn’t cover up how much I needed that—someone finally standing with me, not just behind me.

“Thank you,” I said, quieter than I expected.

She leaned back, all business again. “Don’t thank me yet. We’re just getting started. You’ve got half a trail and a whole forest to navigate. Buzzcut’ll keep an eye on you, and I’ll help from the inside. But you need to play it smart. No more breaking into restricted files without a plan.”

I tried to smile. “So... you’re saying I need two toothbrushes to scrub the barracks next time?”

She rolled her eyes. “Make it three.” -------- (Megumi's POV) (TWO MONTHS AGO, WHEN AKIRA DISSAPEARED) The last time I saw her, she was curled up beside me, breathing slow and steady. It was one of those rare nights where neither of us had nightmares. I remember thinking how peaceful she looked, like the war hadn't touched her - like we weren’t living in the rubble of everything we’d lost.

I gave her my blanket. She always kicked hers off.

We made a fort out of bedsheets and stuffed a stolen can of peaches between us like it was treasure. She mumbled something in her sleep. I didn’t catch it. I think it was my name.

When I woke up, she was gone.

No note. No goodbye. Just the peaches. And her bracelet on her pillow.

I tore the fort apart looking for her. Searched the entire block. Thought maybe she was out for a walk or on a snack run or pulling some kind of Akira-level prank.

But when her dad’s old jacket was missing - the one with the burn on the sleeve and the rip in the pocket she always kept stitched shut, the one he didn't take with him when he disappeared, what, five months ago now - I knew.

She had left.

She left me.

(CURRENT TIMELINE)

I threw the file across the room. It didn’t say anything new. Nothing we didn’t already know.

Project: Blind Sun. Status: Top Secret. Casualties: [REDACTED]. Purpose: [REDACTED]. Ethics Review: Never Happened.

Great. Government-sanctioned amnesia.

I shoved my hands through my hair and stared at the ceiling of the underground briefing room. Concrete. Cold. Like everything else in this place.

“Throwing files won’t make the truth come faster,” came a voice from the door.

I didn’t even look. “Neither will staring at them until my eyeballs dry out.”

The voice belonged to a woman named Kuroiwa — my contact in this task force. Not military. Something… deeper. Black-ops level. The type of place that didn’t exist on paper.

She stepped inside and kicked the file back toward me with her boot. “We’re not looking for paper trails, Fushiguro. We’re looking for shadows. You want answers? Learn to see in the dark.”

I sighed. “That’s not ominous at all.”

“You think this project has rules? You think your father and mother died in an airstrike like the records say?”

I looked up.

“Because we don’t,” she said. “And neither did your sister.”

The file felt heavier now.

“Why me?” I asked.

“Because you're reckless,” she said. “And angry. And because when we ran your psych eval, you said the only thing keeping you alive was a girl with white hair and too many secrets.”

My hands clenched. “She’s not a secret.”

“Exactly,” she said. “She’s the key.”

Flashback again: That night, two months ago, I found her combat boots by the door. Laces still double-knotted the way she liked them. She must’ve slipped out barefoot. Quiet.

My heart was a war drum.

I ran outside. Called her name.

Akira. Akira, come back. Akira, what are you doing?

I sat on the curb until morning.

I didn’t cry. I never do.

But the world felt colder.

Like she’d taken the sun with her.

They told me to forget about her. "She's too much trouble, too dangerous," they said.

But they don’t know what it’s like to lose the only person who ever made you believe in something again. They don’t know what it’s like to wake up cold - every morning - for two months, because she was the only thing that made you feel alive.

They don’t know her laugh.

They don’t know how she looked at me when we were kids and said, “If the world ends, I’m still finding you.”

So no.

I’m not detached.

I’m focused.

She vanished into the light.

I’ll dig through the dark to bring her home. ______________________ taglist: @crimsonhallucinations

[tumble-tv]

Ghostbusters brainrot, because I can't stop thinking about it

This is just me talking about all the different units that make up the Ghostbusters business because I have zero self control. Long post, so there's more below the cut.

SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE

There's the motorcycle unit, which is pretty self-explanatory. They're mainly used for small busts or quotes since they can't carry a lot of equipment on them, really just a downsized proton pack and one, maybe two traps depending on the model of the bike.

Then we have the Ecto units, from Ecto-1 to Ecto-3. Ecto-1 is retired due to it's age and how hard it is to repair and update to the times, so there's actually only two Ectomobiles available. All Ectos have top notch technology, but are still 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteors. They are custom made for the Ghostbusters so that they can keep their iconic car model but still be functional in modern times. They have a gunner seat (as much as the mayor hates it), pull out rack for the proton packs (fits up to four packs), proton cannon, folding ramp for the remote trap vehicle, and drone trap. The Ectomobiles can fit one gunner, one driver, one front passenger, and three back passengers. These units are used for pretty much any busts.

After the Ecomobiles, we have the humvees, which are really just Ectomobiles but bigger, scarier, faster, and tougher. They also have a Super Slammer Muon Trap on top, and instead of the gunner seat being on the side, they're on the top like a regular gunner seat on any other humvee. They can fit one driver, one front passenger, one gunner, and two back passengers. They are known as Ghost-1, Ghost-2, and Ghost-3. There is a compartment in the back seat that carries four proton packs.

After the Busters we have the Cleaners, who arrive after the Busters do their thing and clean up after them. Sometimes all they have to do it take samples of whatever the ghost left behind, and other times it's a full on biohazard cleanup. The Slimer would've been a biohazard level cleanup for example, as well as the Pink Slime, but a spot in the middle of your hallway that created a sense of dread and cold would be a sample level cleanup.

Of course we have the receptionists, because without them Ghostbusters would not exist. They mainly take calls and send out crews, but occasionally help out during major events like Gozer the Gozerian, the Pink Slime, and Garraka.

We have the Paranormal Research Center, where, with time, had been expanded into a full facility with different units for different types of research. They also have an actual functioning containment system, with hundreds of containment units. Each has a database of what ghosts are in each unit and their full file and date they were caught. Once a week a researcher heads down to the Ghostbusters headquarters to gather all of the traps that had been filled that week to empty them into their containment system. The only ghost currently held under headquarters is Garraka, as it's too dangerous to move that one. The basement is fully off limits without authorization due to its containment. The Paranormal Research Center also has their own emergency units available in case of a major event. This is also where the majority of training for new Ghostbusters is done.

There is an entire wall dedicated to their standard gear (flight suits, boots, gloves) in the truck bay. This wall is almost exactly what the turnout gear racks look like for firefighters. Each Ghostbuster has their own little cubby to hold their gear, as well as a shelf above to hold any extras they may need. This cubby also contains a specialized jacket for cold weather (the red jackets that are seen in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and are worn by Lucky and Lars) and a helmet (Pacific Helmets WR5, for example). We've seen the Ghostbusters get thrown around enough to have a concussion at least once, and Janine probably had them ordered after the second time the boys came back from a call with welts on the backs of their heads.

After years of being in that falling apart firehouse, they finally have it renovated to fit their needs (and definitely splurging on the fun stuff). Think a glorified firehouse. There's a bar (in Venkman's name), recreation room, kitchen, gym, ready room, and bunk room. An entire floor is dedicated to offices and conference rooms, although those conference rooms are usually used for Super Smash Bros tournaments and gaming because they have large TVs that are awesome for multiplayer games. The containment unit used for Garraka is never touched, and the floor it resides on is off limits without authorization, as stated above. Of course it was renovated in a way, but the unit itself is never touched.

This will definitely be reblogged with more as I come up with it, and feel free to add on!

[techav]

On Boot Failures

Headlines everywhere on Friday, the 19th of July, 2024 were about the massive computer outages caused by a faulty update to the CrowdStrike antivirus software. It seems some config file choked up a kernel module causing Windows machines to fail with the infamous Blue Screen of Death.

I recently started a new job and was perhaps a little smug in the fact that in my new job I am no longer responsible for hundreds of endpoints running CrowdStrike.

Karma's a bitch though.

I shut down my home PC Friday night to install a memory upgrade and after powering it back on I was met with the very same Blue Screen of Death.

"A critical process died" it told me, with no information about what said process actually was.

And no log files.

And no dump files.

System Restore failed. sfc /scannow failed. dism /cleanup-image failed. Everything I could find failed. I couldn't even just reinstall Windows over the existing installation because apparently that requires being already booted into the OS that currently isn't running.

The log files from dism led me to believe the problem might be related to registry corruption, but my attempts at replacing system registry files with clean ones from an install wim were not successful.

I was grasping at straws. Starting from scratch with a clean install is daunting and would have set me back weeks. I was contemplating pulling out an old SSD and just running with Linux Mint for a while.

Through desperation, I downloaded Hiren's BootCD PE so I could poke around a little more. None of the tools included there were able to resolve the issue either, but just having access to a standard Explorer shell and a web browser helped.

Finally I came across ShadowCopyView, a program that can explore the System Restore images that Windows (can) take regularly. In one last desperate effort, I moved out all of the system registry files from C:\Windows\System32\config and used ShadowCopyView to replace them with copies from an automatic restore point the previous Monday.

That actually did the trick. I was able to reboot into my primary Windows partition and sign in like normal.

I have no idea what may have been lost in a few days of registry updates, and I have no idea what may have caused the problem to begin with. But I am happy I was able to find something in the end that would get me back into my system without having to reinstall everything from scratch.

... Although maybe I should anyway.

And should anyone encounter something similar in the future, these were the kind of errors I was seeing that a Google search wasn't really coming up with anything useful:

dism.log: failed to open registry root

dism.log: failed to query for path to user profiles directory

dism.log: failed to load the default user profile registry hive

dism.log: failed to load offline store from boot directory

srttrail.txt: pending package install

strtrail.txt: boot manager generic failure

[ms-demeanor]

I downloaded CCleaner at the recommendation of an IT friend. I believe u know what ur talking abt but why is it bad

Short answer:

While running a registry cleaner is useless at best, it's dangerous at worst. As mentioned, the registry is home to lots of important values that both Windows and third-party programs use. If you delete, move, or damage these keys, critical system functions could fail to work.

Since registry cleaners are automated, there's a good chance that their registry scan could tag something as unnecessary when it's actually important. And unless you're a registry expert and check every entry before deleting them, you could cause major damage to your system by deleting something inadvertently.

Basically it's extremely unlikely that registry entries are going to cause problems simply by having a lot of them but it's extremely likely that registry entries are going to cause problems if they're messed with without a lot of really careful attention.

Your computer is a really, really, really smart machine and even with tens of thousands of entries your registry isn't a challenge for the computer to read or access*, but it is a challenge for YOU to read or access. So what registry cleaners have done over the years is marketed themselves as a way to "clean up" your registry and make things faster which doesn't actually make any sense in terms of how the computer works but makes *intuitive* sense to a human looking at a big confusing registry full of entries and extensions that you don't understand.

You shouldn't mess around with your registry unless you are very certain you know what you're doing and have taken a good, complete backup of your computer very recently. You shouldn't trust third parties to mess around in your registry at all.

People tend to like the other tools offered by programs like CCleaner but those are pretty much just a middleman doing stuff that there are already tools built into the OS for. You don't need special software to clean up junk files or adjust what runs on startup, disk cleanup and task manager can do that without installing a third-party software on your computer.

And that is *aside* from the fact that CCleaner specifically has had some incidents of running malware and registry cleaners generally trying to get you to either click on ads or purchase upgrades.

*back in the beforetimes of the 90s registry entries did sometimes cause problems and Microsoft made its own registry cleaner, which went out of support in 1998 because it did kind of help with some stuff but created more problems than it resolved and also it became obsolete when computers started having more processing power and memory and the underlying software was improved. And here's a post that's nearly 20 years old discussing why registry cleaners aren't necessary and can cause problems.

[woohoojuicesimoleons2]

Okay, so I think I have an answer on the disappearing mods folder.

*I recently updated my desktop’s operating system, a day before the folder vanished.

*The only folder deleted was the mods folder which contains the larger merged files

*The folder is completely wiped from the hard drive and people have used apps like Recuva to recover their files, but since I had everything backed up and some merged files backed up as well I just decided to remerge everything, and do a CC cleanup while I’m at it.

Conclusion:

Windows Updates can delete folders containing large files

this is a Windows software issue that dates back to the Windows 7 OS. All you can do is to make sure everything is backed up before updating your system. Good thing is this type of issue is pretty rare.

[blubberquark]

Things That Are Hard

Some things are harder than they look. Some things are exactly as hard as they look.

Game AI, Intelligent Opponents, Intelligent NPCs

As you already know, "Game AI" is a misnomer. It's NPC behaviour, escort missions, "director" systems that dynamically manage the level of action in a game, pathfinding, AI opponents in multiplayer games, and possibly friendly AI players to fill out your team if there aren't enough humans.

Still, you are able to implement minimax with alpha-beta pruning for board games, pathfinding algorithms like A* or simple planning/reasoning systems with relative ease. Even easier: You could just take an MIT licensed library that implements a cool AI technique and put it in your game.

So why is it so hard to add AI to games, or more AI to games? The first problem is integration of cool AI algorithms with game systems. Although games do not need any "perception" for planning algorithms to work, no computer vision, sensor fusion, or data cleanup, and no Bayesian filtering for mapping and localisation, AI in games still needs information in a machine-readable format. Suddenly you go from free-form level geometry to a uniform grid, and from "every frame, do this or that" to planning and execution phases and checking every frame if the plan is still succeeding or has succeeded or if the assumptions of the original plan no longer hold and a new plan is on order. Intelligent behaviour is orders of magnitude more code than simple behaviours, and every time you add a mechanic to the game, you need to ask yourself "how do I make this mechanic accessible to the AI?"

Some design decisions will just be ruled out because they would be difficult to get to work in a certain AI paradigm.

Even in a game that is perfectly suited for AI techniques, like a turn-based, grid-based rogue-like, with line-of-sight already implemented, can struggle to make use of learning or planning AI for NPC behaviour.

What makes advanced AI "fun" in a game is usually when the behaviour is at least a little predictable, or when the AI explains how it works or why it did what it did. What makes AI "fun" is when it sometimes or usually plays really well, but then makes little mistakes that the player must learn to exploit. What makes AI "fun" is interesting behaviour. What makes AI "fun" is game balance.

You can have all of those with simple, almost hard-coded agent behaviour.

Video Playback

If your engine does not have video playback, you might think that it's easy enough to add it by yourself. After all, there are libraries out there that help you decode and decompress video files, so you can stream them from disk, and get streams of video frames and audio.

You can just use those libraries, and play the sounds and display the pictures with the tools your engine already provides, right?

Unfortunately, no. The video is probably at a different frame rate from your game's frame rate, and the music and sound effect playback in your game engine are probably not designed with syncing audio playback to a video stream.

I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm saying that it's surprisingly tricky, and even worse, it might be something that can't be built on top of your engine, but something that requires you to modify your engine to make it work.

Stealth Games

Stealth games succeed and fail on NPC behaviour/AI, predictability, variety, and level design. Stealth games need sophisticated and legible systems for line of sight, detailed modelling of the knowledge-state of NPCs, communication between NPCs, and good movement/ controls/game feel.

Making a stealth game is probably five times as difficult as a platformer or a puzzle platformer.

In a puzzle platformer, you can develop puzzle elements and then build levels. In a stealth game, your NPC behaviour and level design must work in tandem, and be developed together. Movement must be fluid enough that it doesn't become a challenge in itself, without stealth. NPC behaviour must be interesting and legible.

Rhythm Games

These are hard for the same reason that video playback is hard. You have to sync up your audio with your gameplay. You need some kind of feedback for when which audio is played. You need to know how large the audio lag, screen lag, and input lag are, both in frames, and in milliseconds.

You could try to counteract this by using certain real-time OS functionality directly, instead of using the machinery your engine gives you for sound effects and background music. You could try building your own sequencer that plays the beats at the right time.

Now you have to build good gameplay on top of that, and you have to write music. Rhythm games are the genre that experienced programmers are most likely to get wrong in game jams. They produce a finished and playable game, because they wanted to write a rhythm game for a change, but they get the BPM of their music slightly wrong, and everything feels off, more and more so as each song progresses.

Online Multi-Player Netcode

Everybody knows this is hard, but still underestimates the effort it takes. Sure, back in the day you could use the now-discontinued ready-made solution for Unity 5.0 to synchronise the state of your GameObjects. Sure, you can use a library that lets you send messages and streams on top of UDP. Sure, you can just use TCP and server-authoritative networking.

It can all work out, or it might not. Your netcode will have to deal with pings of 300 milliseconds, lag spikes, package loss, and maybe recover from five seconds of lost WiFi connections. If your game can't, because it absolutely needs the low latency or high bandwidth or consistency between players, you will at least have to detect these conditions and handle them, for example by showing text on the screen informing the player he has lost the match.

It is deceptively easy to build certain kinds of multiplayer games, and test them on your local network with pings in the single digit milliseconds. It is deceptively easy to write your own RPC system that works over TCP and sends out method names and arguments encoded as JSON. This is not the hard part of netcode. It is easy to write a racing game where players don't interact much, but just see each other's ghosts. The hard part is to make a fighting game where both players see the punches connect with the hit boxes in the same place, and where all players see the same finish line. Or maybe it's by design if every player sees his own car go over the finish line first.

[sirius-the-star-objectresources]

Hello, Sirius.

This is Deviled Egg from tech support and engineering.

Regarding MeRecorder's recent repairs, I would like to ask a few questions, if you wouldn't mind answering?

This way, employees from tech support can aid you and MeRec when it comes to future repairs, and possible issues in MeRec's systems, and possible ways to fix said issues.

It is important to ensure that more than one individual work to fix these issues, to ensure that no one can implement any features that point to malicious intent or bias, especially due to MeRec's position as CEO. I hope you understand this, and that tech supports' involvement in these possible issues doesn't come across as an invasion of privacy.

First question: What was the reason behind MeRec's recent repairs?

Second question: Were the files MeRec read moments before the repair tied to the repair itself? If so, why?

Last question(though this question is more for personal information, I believe the answer could help in the future):

What the fuck was in those files?

-> @devil3d--egg

Well first of all, she did end up reading the files, but they caused her immense emotional distress. So, as anyone would, I helped her out! Gave her a bit of a cleanup if you will. And the files?

If you want to find the files and figure out what's in them, be my guest! Just be warned - I can do worse then what I did to Merec

Oh and good luck getting her chip out! Even if you mange - its wiped some of her memories!

[capriccio-ffxiv]

FFXIV players on Windows! (This is Windows 10 but it should work in 11?)

If you get a crash with an error message that says something like

[bunch of gibberish].dll

There is a very simple fix. Start by closing all programs you have running. Then...

1) Run Command Prompt as Administrator. To run as Administrator, once you find Command Prompt, right click it, and select "Run As Administrator." If you get a pop-up asking if you're sure, say "yes."

2) Copy paste the following command into Command Prompt:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Press Enter.

Wait until the computer is done.

3) type or copy paste in the following command:

sfc /scannow

Press Enter

Wait for the computer to finish. This may take a while, so, go for a walk, read a book, use your phone, idk, stuff that's not on your PC.

And done!

Tl;Dr explanation of what's going on: sometimes system files get wonky when a program updates a lot, such as when you have a new MMO xpac that's updating. This gives your computer clean copies to compare to, scans for broken copies, & then fixes the broken ones.

[wishbonegame]

November update!

I finished the two quests I mentioned last time. They took a bit longer than I'd expected but that was mainly due to not being able to do as much personal project work as I'd hoped while on a business trip last month.

However, they are complete now! I'm working on some cleanup stuff presently but intend to start the Ask About revamp next weekend. Feeling very in the zone working on Wishbone right now and pleased with having more visible progress (as opposed to the less visible progress that comes from working on backend systems).

Another pleasing thing: as I was merging my project notes for the quest log revamp backwards into my master note and archive files, I skimmed through my "notes about the entire rest of the project" section and realized I could remove a lot of it because a lot of that stuff has been implemented. The "rest" of the project consists of fewer and fewer things as time goes on!

My current vague plan is to work on Ask About and Summer Y1 next and hopefully release another beta sometime around the end of first quarter 2024 featuring all of Spring and Summer Y1 playable--a complete vertical slice of the first 25% of the game. :)