Fix Windows 7 getting stuck on "Checking for updates...", high CPU usage or installing updates

So my friend's computer has had issues with getting updates since day 1. I didn't really know why, but at the time a lot of the responses online was to leave it running overnight and hope for the best.

Eventually, my computers became victim to the same issue. For months, Windows Update would get stuck on the "Checking for updates..." or hang when trying to download the updates.

It also pegs a CPU core to almost 100% usage (or 25% in quad cores and 50% in dual cores) under the process "svchost.exe" while it searches aimlessly, wasting valuable battery life and compute cycles on something that should be sitting quietly in the background.

Note: svchost.exe is used to host many services, but in my case after stopping the "Windows Update" service, the CPU spike stopped. If this isn't the case for you, then you have another problem.

I stumbled upon some information by chance which described the issues. Apparently there were some changes to Windows Updates which fixes these issues, but only made available through optional rollup patches.

Great logic there Microsoft. You've fix your updater but made it optional, so anyone who uses it has to go on a wild goose chase in order to get it working.

These rollup patches come in a form of rollup updates, which basically mean they're a monthly service pack.

Before you continue... Service Pack 1 is required!

Make sure you're on Windows 7 SP1!

Right click on "My Computer" and select Properties. That'll give you the service pack information under "Windows edition".

If you're not on SP1, go to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB976932), click download and select either:

• windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe (64 bit)
• windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe (32 bit)

And depending on how long your updater has been broken for, you'll also need the April 2015 service servicing stack update. For most people this shouldn't be a problem. Only download and install it the fix process complains.

The fix

• I beleive the fix containing the goodies required to fix our issues with Windows Update is in the July 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 rollup, but I'll also run through the install of the latest rollup patches while we're at it.
• Download and install the July 2016 rollup you need (x86 / x64)
• Restart

• Now fire up Internet Explorer (yep, it's required so I can't do much about that) and open up: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB3125574
• Allow the page to install the add-in
• In the list displayed, download the "Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems" one (should be 476mb)

• When it's done, disable the Windows Update service from running in the background. This will speed up installation of the update by a great amount.
• To disable it, find command prompt in the start menu, right click, run as administrator and paste in:

sc stop wuauserv

• Go to the Update for Windows 7 file and run it
• Click through the prompts and let it do its thing. After a while, it'll ask you to restart. Hope you've got some time because it takes a while!

Stays on 13% for ages! Worst quality photo, no apologies.

• Once you're back into Windows, make sure that Windows Updates works by clicking on "Check for updates". It should work much faster (within a few minutes) like it used to!

As you can see, this computer hasn't had a proper update since June...

• If it shows new updates available quickly then you should be on your way.
• Install the updates to test it out. Everything should be working perfectly now.

So now you should have gone from a computer which takes about 10 minutes to scan for updates to one that scans within a minute. And now the updates should actually work!

Sources

• 64 bit - Windows 7 - Windows Update Hangs On "Checking For Updates" - Super User
• July 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  
• April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
  
• Convenience rollup update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Windows: How to disable WinSat.exe (System Assessment Tool)

So I was coding away at 1am on Sunday (as night owls would) and suddenly my computer switches off Aero and goes crazy with CPU usage, causing heat hot enough to cook an egg and the fan to go absolutely ballistic.

I checked out the cause and it turned out to be WinSAT.exe started up on it's own and decided to max out one of the cores. Turns out this is a task it runs periodically to rate the computer's performance.

Well, I personally don't need this and odds are you won't either.

To turn it off:

• Start > Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc)
• Find Task Scheduler (Local)
• Task Scheduler Library
• Microsoft > Windows > Maintenance
• Right click WinSAT
• Select disable.

Enjoy the full use of your computer again.

Windows: EXE files locked by System Process PID 4

Firefox downloads were failing, I couldn't delete files properly, Steam wouldn't update/install, there were random issues with moving files. That's just to name a FEW things that was driving me batshit insane over the past few hours with my new computer.

Get out of my way! I ain't in the mood for your shit!

An easy way to test this is to copy a new exe file somewhere and try to delete it. It may disappear, but when you refresh the folder it'll still be there. Checking out the locks on Process Explorer will show 2 processes locking it, System (pid 4) and Explorer.

For some reason, this manic behaviour was all caused by disabling the "Application Experience" service. Simply re-enable it and everything should just work again.

Sources

• windows 7 - Why would SYSTEM continue locking executable file handles after the app has exited? - Super User
• Problem with locked EXE files - Page 2 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Windows 7: Randomly loses focus and returns to desktop

OK, this thing was REALLY annoying me. It's not exactly random either, because it happens approximately 5-7mins into use after boot.

What happens is my HTPC boots straight up into XBMC, full screen program which plays movies. After about 5 minutes, something minimises XBMC and then displays the desktop. Very annoying!

I thought it was the notification bubbles, but it wasn't. I even turned them off system wide.

After a quick search or two, there have been suggestions it's fault of either Windows Action Center (which I already have disabled) or bluetooth drivers.

Could it be, THIS?

I took a punt at it and ripped out the USB dongle. Lo and behold, it worked. A whole episode of Top Gear and no kickback to desktop!

This solution whoever, isn't quite ideal. Why? Because I use bluetooth!

So I did what I do best, I fiddled. After a little experimenting, it turns out that having the icon in the tray was causing it to steal focus from the current program and flick you back to the desktop.

So, right click on the icon and select "Open settings".

Untick the box that says "Show the Bluetooth icon in the notification area"

*update!* Also untick "Alert me when a new Bluetooth device wants to connect" (I forgot to put a red circle around this one as well!)

This way, Bluetooth is still enabled and as far as I know, the other settings should be fine. Hopefully this solves the problem for you.

 
If it's anything else, sorry but you're gonna have to deal with yourself.

Formatting Sony Vaio Z 2011 (VPCZ2390X) with a clean copy of Windows 7 and working dock/external GPU

I've searched far and wide for a solution to this but only found scraps of information here and there. As with my Dell, I'm not a fan of manufacturers filling up the computer with their own bloated software which only slow down the computer.

Before you begin this journey with me, you should make the most of the "Sony Vaio Care" ability to upgrade your BIOS firmware.

Ensure you've got your copy of Windows 7 x64. The drivers for the x86 version aren't available from the site so good luck with that!

You can customise your Windows image using a combination of either RT7Lite (abandoned but still works) and Win Toolkit.

Do not slipstream drivers into the disc. I'm going to provide instructions on how to install them manually. For the external dock to work, the order of installation is important!

I've never had a device be so fussy about reboots or driver install order, so please take the time to reboot when instructed. It's a bloody fast notebook anyway, so you don't really have a reason not to.

Let's get ready to free your Vaio Z from bloat!

Downloads

• WinToFlash to put the setup into a USB drive (if you don't want to install from the DVD dock)
• Now to make yourself familiar with the drivers download page.

Note that some of these are pretty big, it's about 1.1gb all up!

So it'd be a good idea to skim through the tutorial and start downloading these before you begin formatting.

When saving, name them as such;

Formatting

1. Windows 7 x64

I installed off USB rather than DVD, but the instructions shouldn't be too different from the regular install process. Just remember the main points:

• Set BIOS to boot off "external device" (aka USB)
• Follow the prompts and install Windows
• Keep an eye on it until you reboot. When it reboots, get back into the BIOS and switch back to HDD as primary boot device
• Follow the prompts until you get to the desktop

 
Now the fun/tedious part, installing drivers!

Before you continue ...

Tip: Before you begin, plug in your dock and leave it plugged in!

Tip: Reboot whenever it asks you to!

Tip: Follow these instructions in the order presented. Otherwise you run the risk of the dock not working.

Tip: It's a good time to disable UAC even if it's temporarily.

Installing the drivers

2. Chipset

Go nuts and install these. They'll knock off the majority of the unknown devices in the device manager.

• Intel 6 Series C200 Series Chipset Family Driver (INDCHI-00244636-0042.EXE)
• Intel Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller (INDOTH-00254794-0042.EXE)

3. External Graphics

The external graphics in the dock is next. I've got an ATI Radeon HD 6650M with my Vaio Z so that's being served.

• AMD Radeon™ HD 6650M and Mobile Intel® HD Graphics Driver (A2DVID-00259747-0042.EXE)
• AMD Radeon™ HD 6650M and Intel® HD Graphics Family Update (A2DVID-00268818-1042.EXE)

4. Audio

Sound is up next. Follow these in order and you'll have working onboard sound, HDMI output as well as working noise-cancelling headphones.

• Realtek® High Definition Audio Driver (REDAUD-00261248-0042.EXE)
• Realtek® ATI HDMI® Audio Driver (REDAUD-00249116-0042.EXE)

5. Ethernet

Yay! Now we're getting the internet!

• Realtek® PCIe GBE Family Controller (REDETH-00244869-0042.EXE)

6. Card Reader

Ensures the memory stick/SD card reader is working.

• Realtek® PCIE Card Reader Driver (REDMCC-00259709-0042.EXE)
• Realtek® PCIE Card Reader Driver Update (REDMCC-00268924-1040.EXE)

7. Touchpad

Edge, horizontal and 2-finger scrolling with pinch/twist/sensitivity/etc options. You'll want this.

• Synaptics® PS/2 Port TouchPad (SPDOTH-00255632-0042.EXE)
• Synaptics® PS/2 Port TouchPad Update (SPDTPD-00268337-1040.EXE)

8. Sony Firmware Extension

This one can be found under "System Components". I have no idea what it does, but it gets rid of a yellow "!" mark in the device manager.

• Sony® Firmware Extension Parser Device Driver (SODFEP-00224384-0042.EXE)

9. Bluetooth

• Intel® Centrino® Wireless Bluetooth® 3.0 + High Speed Virtual Adapter (INDBLT-00260141-0042.EXE)
• Intel® Centrino® Wireless Bluetooth® 3.0 + High Speed Adapter (INDBLT-00261066-0042.EXE)
• Intel® Centrino® Wireless Bluetooth® 3.0 + High Speed Adapter Update (INDBLT-00265500-1042.EXE)

10. Intel Management Engine Interface

Another one of those "I have no idea what it is" packages. Just grab and go.

• Intel® Management Engine Interface (INDMEI-00247756-0042.EXE)

11. Wireless Network

Yay, more internet!

• Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 Driver (INDWLL-00260137-0042.EXE)
• Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 / Intel Centrino Wireless-N 6150 Update (INDWLL-00265544-1042.EXE)

* Update 15/10/2012: Had some issues connecting with wireless and random dropouts. Either re-install the wireless update or just install the update package without the initial.

12. Sony Shared Library

This seems to be a bunch of DLL files that Sony packages run off. Don't worry, I'll only install the important ones that do useful things.

This can be found under "System Components".

• Sony® Shared Library (SOASSL-00249674-0042.EXE)

13. Automatic brightness, backlit keyboard, battery checker and bluetooth control

These utilities let you control or disable the automatic options such as;

• Sony® Notebook Utilities (SOAOTH-60900000-0042.EXE)

For automatically dimming the screen when it's darker, enabling the backlit keyboard or swapping power profiles when battery levels change.

• VAIO® Smart Network Software (SOASNW-00260480-0042.EXE)

For turning on/off wireless or bluetooth individually, saving unnecessary battery drain.

14. Fingerprint reader and USB 3.0

Time to get rid of the last few "!" marks.

• AuthenTec® AES1660 Fingerprint Sensor (AUDFPD-00254781-0042.EXE)
• Renesas® Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller (RNDUSB-00254791-0042.EXE)
• Renesas® Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller Update (RNDUSB-00265238-1040.EXE)

I can't remember if I installed these or not, but it may be useful for you.

• Generic Marvell® 61xx RAID Controller Update (MRDOTH-00268979-1042.EXE)
• Generic Marvell® 61xx RAID Controller for Docking Station (MRDOTH-00248942-0042.EXE)

All done!

When it's done, reboot again to lock everything in.

You should now have working FN buttons to control various things from the keyboard such as volume, brightness, display out, etc.

Notice that Sony Vaio Care wasn't installed? That .NET 4.0 resource hog is gone!

Oh, and turn UAC back on if you really want it.

Another day, another victory.

Sources

• Sony Vaio VPCZ2390X drivers
• Intel My WiFi Technology - How to install Intel MWT
• Re: Vaio Z VPCZ1 Clean Install
• ATI Switchable Graphics Install Guide
• Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider 1.3b
• Default Formatted my 2011 Vaio Z - issue with external GPU

Windows 7: Automatically connect to wireless network

I was a little perplexed to why the network wasn't reconnecting after a reboot.

I've set it to automatically connect even if SSID isn't even detected.

To fix it, you'll need to have administrator access.

• Open up Windows Explorer
• Paste in "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\"
• Right click the folder "Profiles"
• Properties
• Security
• Click "Edit"
• Select "Everyone"
• Under "Allow", click tick "Full control"
• Click OK to save

Most people recommend deleting the "Interfaces" folder under "Profiles". Try my method first, since you won't lose any data.

Secondly if you delete the folder, you'll have to re-enter all the wireless password and settings back in.

 
Now get back to what you're doing before you lose any more time aging!

Sources

• Wireless Network Will Not Connect Automatically On Boot - Microsoft Answers
• Windows 7 does not connect automatically wireless
• Won't automatically connect to wireless - Windows 7 Forums

Windows 7: Fix thumbnail previews not showing in Windows Explorer

Man, what a pain in the ass this was to debug. The image file previews weren't showing up at all, no matter what the settings were.

(Note that this is a guide for fixing image thumbnails, not videos)

Well, they sorta did. The image/picture thumbnail would flicker and appear then disappear, showing only the file icon instead.

I've tried all of the following:

• Changing the settings in Windows Explorer > Folder View options
• Changing the settings in Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) > User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer
• Changing the settings in Advanced System Settings > Performance
• Rebuilding of icon cache (requires reboot)
• Using Disk Cleanup to delete thumbnail cache.
• Checking the registry values for the file types.

*update 6/6/2013* Some additional tips from readers are:

• Clear your recycle bin
• Right click on Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Performance > Settings > "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" > OK

None of them worked. And I am unwilling to:

• Format the drive (due to the time it'd take to reinstall and configure everything!)
• Install a codec pack as an alternate method of rendering thumbnails (extra bloat)

But then I found a solution by accident... without having to format. Here's a clue.

Yep. That's right! If you're low on disk space then it wont generate thumbnails for you.

I moved some big files off my desktop onto another drive and the thumbnails immediately started working again!

I think the minimum space you need on your Windows drive is 500mb. I could be wrong, but after moving the files everything was fine again.

*update 21/6/2012* Adding link to previous post: Windows: Regain disk space on C drive with some uncommon methods

 
I think this sums up the hidden side-effect of low disk space fairly well...

Sources

These sources didn't work for me, but in the case clearing up disk space didn't work for you, here were some of the more useful links I found.

• Thumbnails not working in windows 7 and windows 7 RC
• Pictures do not display as thumbnail preview
• Thumbnail preview of File not showing in Windows 7
• Windows 7: Image thumbnails fail to appear

Windows 7: Downloading Service Pack 1

My my, so many damn files to choose from for SP1.

Take a look for yourself!

Files of interest

• 7601.17514.101119-1850_Update_Sp_Wave1-GRMSP1.1_DVD.iso

The first one contains the whole SP1 she-bang for 32bit, 64bit AMD and 64bit Intel chipsets. It assumes that you're going to be using this DVD multiple times on various machines.

• windows6.1-KB976932-IA64.exe
• windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe
• windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe

The last 3 are the specific files for each chipset architecture. This saves you from downloading the packs you don't need.

• Windows_Win7SP1.7601.17514.101119-1850.AMD64CHK.Symbols.msi
• Windows_Win7SP1.7601.17514.101119-1850.AMD64FRE.Symbols.msi
• Windows_Win7SP1.7601.17514.101119-1850.IA64CHK.Symbols.msi
• Windows_Win7SP1.7601.17514.101119-1850.IA64FRE.Symbols.msi
• Windows_Win7SP1.7601.17514.101119-1850.X86CHK.Symbols.msi
• Windows_Win7SP1.7601.17514.101119-1850.X86FRE.Symbols.msi

The ones in between aren't terribly useful for the majority of us. It's for people who want to debug the installation process and stuff like that.

Source

• What files to Download for W7 SP1?

Windows 7: Disable "To help protect your computer, Windows has blocked access to this file"

So I was using the work PC to extract some files I received in my email.

Damn it I'm just trying to extract some files for work, stop treating me like a grandma!

Fuck this.

Right click on the file > "Properties" > "Unblock".

Try extracting again and it'll work.

To prevent files from being tagged as "unsafe", follow the instructions in my previous post Windows 7: Disable the "Open File Security Warning" message.

Source

• windows found that this file is potentially harmful - .js

Windows: No audio when plugging HDMI cable into TV

This had me stumped for some time. It was easy enough plugging the laptop into the TV via HDMI and getting the video to work.

But one thing that baffled me was why the audio wasn't coming out of the TV. Am I missing the latest drivers for my NVIDIA GeForce 8400M?

I followed the typical debugging checklist:

• Cable plugged in properly?
• Is something actually playing? Open an MP3 on loop to test.
• Doh, sound was on mute. Wait, still not working!

First thing I was doing wrong was spitting sound out to the default speaker. Once HDMI is plugged in, you should have a new option to stream the sound out to the HDMI channel.

To change that:

• Go to the Sound section in the Control Panel.

• Find the HDMI channel and set it to the default by clicking "Set Default" at the bottom.

But even then my sound wasn't coming through! What the hell!?

Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to go through the options. Lo and behold, my answer was found.

• Click on "Properties".
• Go to the "Levels" tab.
• Slide the bar to the recommended level (it was 50 for me)

Now you should have sound coming from your TV! Time to bask in the glory of baby armour.

 

Research

Despite all the research, nothing came up conclusive for me apart from the levels setting.

If the levels setting doesn't work for you, some other stuff to check are:

• Drivers MAY matter for some people.
• Turn your computer off and then plug in your HDMI cable. Start the computer up with the cable already in.
• Ensure the TV speakers are not muted and accepting audio from the right source.
• Check your volume control settings on Windows and see if you've selected the right output channel.

Windows XP/Vista/7: Run program as a service

Open up a command prompt in Admin mode and type in the following command.

If any of the paths include spaces, you have to use (escaped) quotes around the path, like this:

sc create subversion binpath= "\"C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin\svnserve.exe\" --service --root C:\ServerFiles\svn_repository" displayname= "Subversion" depend= tcpip start= auto

A simplified pseudo version of the call is:

sc create shortname binpath= "\"C:\Path\To\Your\program.exe\" --your-program-options" displayname= "Full Name of Service for Service Manager" start= auto

A breakdown of the command arguments is shown below. Strangely enough, the space after the = sign is required.

• "sc create subversion"
  Creates a service named "subversion".
• "binpath= "
  The executable file.
• "--service"
  (Argument to SVN) Run it within the Windows native service wrapper. Shows how you can pass arguments to the executable.
• "--root= "
  (Argument to SVN) The root folder for repositories. Also shows how you can send arguments to the executable.
• "displayname= "
  A nice name for the service in the Service Manager.
• "depend= "
  Dependencies for this service.
• "start= "
  The starting method.

For more information, see the Microsoft's KB251192.

If you typed something wrong, type "sc delete subversion" to delete the service and start again.

Once created, type "net start subversion" to start it.

Win7: How to change back to XP style taskbar

Wow I can't believe I've missed this simple write-up.

The superbar is pretty neat, but it isn't for everyone. Someone asked me today how to change it back to the more familiar XP-style layout, with text and without the gayish OS X task grouping.

So, right click on the taskbar to bring up the menu. Select "Properties" to bring up this screen.

Enable "Use small icons" and change the taskbar buttons to "Never combine".

Thanks Microsoft for adding this in for people like us =)

Win7/Vista: Disable password expiration

One day, I got an annoying message saying "Your password has expired". Wtf?

Anyway, to disable the password expiry feature:

• open a command prompt in Administrator mode.
• Then type "lusrmgr.msc" to load up the "Local Users and Groups" management console.
• Go into "Users" and edit the profile that has expired.
• Select "Password never expires" and apply.

If you get "Access is denied", that means you didn't run the console with administrative rights (step #1).

While you're at it, you might want to take the time to disable the Guest account as well.

Win7: Stop grouping of taskbar items when dragging with 7 Taskbar Tweaker

The Windows 7 superbar is great, minus a few exceptions.

I kinda hate the fact that sorting of taskbar items are grouped by application. Although you can sort within the same group, its not usually helpful.

Also, I prefer to have the right click as it used to be instead of the stupid jump menu. To get it to show up normally, I'd have to hold Shift and then right click.

Luckily some clever chap called RaMMicHaeL created a funky little program that does just that and a bit more.

You can also disable aero peek (if you don't like it) and change the behaviour when you drop files into the taskbar.

Screenshot of the options dialog.

It works in both 32 and 64 bit flavours and has worked wonderfully for me for over a year now without any bugs.

[ Download page ]

Synaptics Touchpad with Multi-touch

I stumbled upon this thread when looking for a way to improve Synergy+. Since my Dell XPS m1330 also uses a Synaptics touchpad, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to give it a go.

Alot of forum posts linked back to the HP's FTP site for a file named "sp47815.exe" which contained the v15.0.9.0 drivers. Everytime I tried to download from there, it would give me an empty file.

So I searched online for ages for "sp47815.exe" but found nothing.

I gave up and tried v14.0.3 from Synaptics' official site. Did it work? Nope.

Eventually I stumbled upon this thread on LaptopVideo2Go. Thinking that the latest version would just work, I downloaded the first one I saw and tried it out. Nope, didn't work.

The only one which worked for me was the previously suggested v15.0.9.0 driver.

• Download the drivers from LaptopVideo2Go.
• Uninstall your old Synaptic driver.
• Reboot.
• Extract and install the v15.0.9.0 driver.
• Reboot.
• Once its loaded, it'll ask you to configure to your liking but the majority of the features are already enabled.
• If you accidently closed it and want to configure it, go to your "Mouse" preferences in the control panel.

Can't get much easier than that!

Sources

• New HP Touchpad Driver that Unlocks Multi-Touch on older Touchpad
• Software & Driver Downloads HP Mini 210-1000SA PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)
• Synaptics drivers page
• Latest Synaptics Touchpad drivers (LaptopVideo2Go forums)
  

Windows Update Failed: Error 8007065B

When trying to install a new language pack on Windows 7, I ran into a strange error. The update had downloaded correctly, but upon installation it gave me this error code.

Thanks for the useful error description...

Quickly checking the free space available gave me a hunch on what was wrong.

With the added overhead of having to create a restore point and install a 130mb+ language pack, it was easily running out of space on C drive.

After freeing up some space, all was well and the update was installed without any issues (luckily without having to download the huge files again).

There are a bunch of tutorials and software suites available online to perform the common tasks (empty recycle bin, remove restore points, clean temporary files, etc), but also check out my other post on uncommon methods of regaining disk space.

Win7: Show "All Programs" in Start Menu when Most Recently Used List is Empty

(Skip blurb for download link. Report issues on the Genscripts Redmine tracker.)

Details

For alot of people, the start menu will display a list of recently used programs. Its a pretty handy feature to have, but its not for all of us.

 The default start menu, filled with recently used applications.

However you may have disabled application usage tracking for some reason such as privacy or to squeeze just a bit more performance out of your machine.

The configuration dialog for recently used applications.

Right click the taskbar and select "Properties" to display the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" dialog, and disable application tracking by unticking "Store and display recently opened programs in the Start Menu"
Note: This will also remove recently used files from your jumplists.
Now there is a horrible side effect to this option, theres nothing in the start menu when you first show it.

 Annoyingly, your start menu will now display an empty list.

Spasm

You've probably noticed it already, which is why you're here.
I've written a small program that displays all your Start Menu items automatically. Nothing spectacular, it just removes a small annoyance.
The program is called Spasm (Show Programs Automatically in Start Menu). I'll upload the app once its been polished a bit and I find an icon for it.

Download

• Spasm v1.41 (x64) - 64bit version
• Spasm v1.41 (x86) - 32bit version 

Usage

• Simply run the file for it to take effect.
• Close Spasm to stop it.
• Run with the argument "--no-icon" to disable the tray icon.

WTF Why Bother?

Some people may be wondering this and by all means its a good question! I've seen the issue being asked a few times on the forums so I suppose that's where I got the idea from.
The empty menu does annoy me a small bit, but I normally type in what I'm after anyway.
I guess it was also out of nerdy curiosity, a self set challenge to see if I could or not without any help. And I did :)

So far:

• It probably won't work in any language other than English.
• Checks the recently used list to see if its empty before displaying the full Start Menu items.
• Doesn't do much of anything else.

History

v1.41 (05/06/2011)

• Added argument "--no-icon" support to hide the tray icon.
  

v1.4 (14/03/2011)

• Added a timer to detect refreshed shell.
• Added icon to "already running" message.
  

v1.3 (06/02/2011)

• Rewrote how system information is shared between EXE and DLL files.
• Now detects if Spasm is already running.
• Only unload hooks if the DLL is being unloaded from Explorer.
• Hopefully prevented the issue with Spasm losing grip on Explorer's handle.
• Adds icon back to taskbar when Explorer crashes.
• Now works if used on startup!

v1.2 (16/05/2010)

• Fixed x86 version so it works (Thanks Andrey and Patrick Timms for the heads up)
• Added double click to show about

v1.1 (09/05/2010)

• Now works with any language.
• Fixed x86 DLL function name mangling.
• Added build version to executable.

v1.0 (07/03/2010)

• Initial release.

Other Small Tweaks

• Windows Explorer BreadCrumb Remover

Windows: Regain disk space on C drive with some uncommon methods

I admit I've been lazy and slacking on the computer maintenance side of things lately (which translates to a few years). As a result, things have cluttered up and I'm starting to constantly run low on C:.

I do however perform the usual trimming of the temp folders and restore points, which usually do the trick. I find programs that clear the browser cache to be stupid because the files are eventually redownloaded again when you browse.

So I resorted to TuneUp Utilities' Disk Space Explorer which is a bloody brilliant computer maintenance suite. The Disk Space Explorer is a nice tool that lets you see what folders/files are hogging up space on your computer.

Adobe Acrobat 9

First on the list, and somehow unsurprisingly, Adobe Acrobat. Delete the stupid installer cache files, with half the files in languages I cant even read!

Shaved: 1.22gb.

Windows Installer Cache

Much like the the previous program, incomplete or unsuccessful installations may leave horrendous cache files on your computer.

Use the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility (which is basically MSI Zap with a nice frontend) to remove the files in a safer manner. Just be careful with it. Its sort of like a big hammer so if you go apeshit with it, something will break.

Some programs will have broken shortcuts after this is run. Just edit the shortcut and set a target, or recreate a shortcut that runs the appropriate executable.

It also removes the install logs, which makes it impossible to uninstall the software. Just be sure you want to keep it ;)

Shaved: 2.16gb to 793mb (and thats just by removing Visual Studio 2005!)

ACDSee Catalogue Database

You may have noticed that I use alot of "strange images" in my posts. I'm a massive image hoarder, and that causes my image manager to suffer.

Remember to clean your ACDSee catalogue database!

Shaved: 1.6gb to 860mb.

NOD32 Antivirus Quarantine

The quarantine will store a copy of all infected files, including the gigantic (and infected) setup files that you might of grabbed off torrents.

Go to "Tools" > "Quarantine" and remove any files you know you wont need. Its a shame you cant sort by file size.

Shaved: 530mb to 5.38mb.

Compact Thunderbird POP3 Accounts

IMAP accounts will just download content from the servers when needed, but POP3 will store a copy of the email even after you've deleted it.

To delete the unecessary emails, clear your folders (inbox, sent, etc) and then delete them again from the trash folder. Now select your account, go to "File" > "Compact Folders".

Depending on how much crap you deleted, this may take some time. The first time I discovered this functionality, I saved over 1.2gb of space! Now I do this quite often, so I didn't save as much space.

Shaved: 1.66gb to 1.63gb.

Compact VMWare Virtual Hard Drives

All your VM machines need some loving too. See here to find out how to compact the virtual disks.

This will take quite some time, and the space saved will really depend on how much you use the virtual machines. While you're waiting, you can do the next part.

Vista was disgustingly slow and took the longest to shrink by far. Its ridiculous, because there wasn't even anything installed on the damn image and it took longer than overnight to complete! Vista went from being 6.59gb to 7.9gb. WTF?

Shaved: 60.3gb to 55.19gb

Clean Up Your Mess

You always have the feeling that one day, some point in your life you're gonna have to clean your room. Same deal with your downloads folder, one day you're gonna have to clean it out and remove those duplicate downloads.

Eclipse Workspace History

See here to reduce the size of your Eclipse workspace folder by deleting the local history. The local history is a backup copy of anything you save.

Clearing this also seems to speed up your Eclipse loading times.

Shaved: 943mb

Vista/Win7: Disable Restart your computer to finish installing updates nag box

• Run "gpedit.msc"
• Expand "Local Computer Policy"
• Computer Configuration
• Administrative Templates
• Windows Components
• Windows Update
• Enable the option “No auto-restart with logged on users for schedule automatic updates installations“.

This won't prevent the popup above from nagging you, but at least it wont automatically restart and destroy any unsaved work.

Just another safety reminder kids, do not to take any candy from strangers.

Win7: Enable Hibernation

Go to the Command Prompt and run as Administrator.

Type in:

powercfg /hibernate on

It should now appear in your start menu shutdown options.