Getting the blue screen of death when starting your Windows can be scary, to say the least. And not being able to get it running again can be incredibly stressful. So here is how to create a disaster recovery plan for your Windows computer.

Getting your computer back running after a disaster can be a nightmare. But with a bit of work, you can be prepared. You can create a good disaster recovery plan using the built-in programs inside of Windows, a couple of external drives, and a little information. Let's look at what you need and how to use it for your disaster recovery plan.

Hardware

External USB drive: You will need an external USB drive with at least the same amount of space as the drive in the computer you want to back up. So if your computer has a 1TB drive, you should get a 1TB or larger drive. This drive will also need to be dedicated to use only for backups.

There are two (2) types of external drives: Portable and Desktop.

• Portable drives work well if you have a laptop and work from different locations, but they tend to be a little slower since they get their power from the USB port.
• Desktop drives work great but use a power adapter, so you will have to consider the DC adapter's size and orientation if you use a power strip.

USB flash drive or blank DVD: You will need to create a device that you can boot your computer up on to recover your computer. This can be a recovery drive (USB flash drive), system repair disk (DVD), or installation media (USB flash drive or DVD). The capacity of the USB flash drive required varies from installation media (8GB) to a recovery drive (16GB).

USB flash drive: For additional drivers when required (see below)

Software

Windows Backup: The backup program built into Windows.

Drivers: Some systems may require special drivers that are not included with Windows (see below).

Important information

BitLocker recovery key: Most people do not know if their computer's drive is encrypted with BitLocker. The easiest way to find out if any of your drives are encrypted is by checking their properties in File Explorer.

1. Open File Explorer using one of the following:
1. Left-click on the File Explorer icon (manilla folder) on the Taskbar.
2. Press the Windows logo key + E at the same time.
3. Use the Power User menu by right-clicking on the Start button and selecting File Explorer.
2. In the left-side column, left-click on This PC.
3. In the right-side column, check the icons for the drives. Drives that are encrypted should have a little padlock in the icon.

If your drive is encrypted, use the following link to log in to your Microsoft account and find your recovery key. If another person set up your computer, they might have the recovery key inside their Microsoft account. Once you get the BitLocker recovery key, print it out or write it down for future use.

Locate my BitLocker recovery key

Set up

Once you have all of the drives, you can go ahead and get everything set up. The first step is to create the boot media. This is the USB drive or DVD disk that you will use to boot up your computer if it cannot successfully boot on its own.

Boot drive

Recovery drive: Recovery drives are the most straightforward boot media to create and use. Make sure that you use a 16GB or larger USB drive and follow the steps outlined in the link below.

How to create a recovery drive in Windows 10 and Windows 11

System repair disk: Creating a system repair disk is pretty simple and can be made inside Windows Backup. Just follow the Windows Backup instructions below to open up the program. When it opens, left-click on the Create a system repair disk link in the left-hand column. And make sure that your blank DVD disk is loaded inside of your DVD burner before you click on it.

Windows installation media: Microsoft has a really cool app for creating installation media called, aptly, Windows Media Creation Tool (WMCT). All you have to do is download the program, and run it and WMCT will see the version of Windows you have and automatically select it. You can have WMCT create a bootable USB drive (8GB or larger) or an ISO image that you can write to a blank DVD.

Note: The size of the ISO files may exceed the size limit of a single-layer DVD disk (4.7GB) and may require using a dual-layer DVD disk. Use the following links to download the WMCT for your version of Windows.

Windows Media Creation Tool for Windows 10

Windows Media Creation Tool for Windows 11

Drivers

Some newer computers may require a system-specific driver for Windows to read and write to the drive installed in your computer. Case in point, 10th and 11th-generation Intel processors require Intel's Rapid Storage Technology Driver to be loaded before the Windows installer will 'see' a connected drive.

If you have an Intel 10th or 11th generation processor in your computer, do a Google search for the Make / Model of your computer and Rapid Storage Technology Driver. Once you find the driver package, you will need to extract the contents to a folder on your computer.

In the extracted files, you should find a folder labeled F6. Copy this folder to the second USB flash drive and put it away for safekeeping. You may or may not need it, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Windows Backup

Windows has a decent backup program built in called Windows Backup. Many people get worried when they see the program's name in the Control Panel is Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Not to worry, it is just a name; the program works extremely well on Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Now when setting up Windows Backup, you want to select Let Windows choose (recommended). This option will back up everything on your computer; Windows, all installed programs, and your files. Most importantly, it creates a system image that can be used to recover your computer. As long as the capacity of the external drive you purchased explicitly for Windows Backup is larger than the capacity of your internal drive, you should be good.

Next, you have to decide how often to have Windows Backup run. At this point, you have to ask yourself, "If my computer were to crash today, how far back in time would I want to recover my computer from?". When you think about it, nightly does work best. The default Windows Backup schedule is every Sunday at 7:00 PM, but you can change it by clicking on Change schedule.

Click on the link below for your version of Windows to learn how to set up Windows Backup.

Backup your files with File History and Windows Backup in Windows 10

How to backup your Windows 11 computer using Windows Backup and File History

Does your computer go to sleep too fast? Do you want to change what the power button does on your laptop? If so, here is how to manage the power settings inside Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Did you know that Windows has different default power schemes for laptop and desktop computers?

Only a few people do. If fact, if you own a laptop running Windows 10 or 11, pressing the power button, by default, does not turn it off but puts it to sleep,

But you can change all of that with a few simple mouse clicks. You can make it so that your display never turns off and your system never goes to sleep. And, of course, you can tweak the power settings for wifi adapters, USB devices, and batteries (laptops).

Now there are two (2) places in Windows 10 and Windows 11 you can change power settings: the Settings app and the Control Panel. The Power and sleep category inside the Settings app is basic but straightforward. But the Power Options in the Control Panel have more advanced features.

How to get to Power and sleep in the Settings app

Windows 11 only

1. Left-clicking on the Start button to bring up the Start menu.
2. In the list of pinned apps on the Start menu, left-click on Settings.
3. In the right-hand column, left-click on Power.
4. In the Power category, left-click on Screen and sleep.

Windows 10 only

1. Left-click on the Start menu and select Settings (the gear icon).
2. Left-click on System.
3. In the left column, left-click on Power and sleep.

Windows 10 or 11

1. Right-click on the Start button to bring up the Power User menu.
2. In the list of programs that appear, left-click on Power options.
3. Windows 11 only: Left-click on Screen and sleep.

When you get there, you will find only two (2) settings (two (2) sets on laptop computers (plugged in & battery)) that can be changed: When the screen turns off and when the computer goes to sleep.

Relatively simple and straight to the point. But if you want more options, including changing what happens when you press the power button or closing the lid of your laptop, you will need to use the Power Options inside the Control Panel.

How to get to the Power Options inside the Control Panel

Windows 11

1. Left-click on the Start button to bring up the Start menu.
2. In the upper right-hand corner of the Start menu, left-click on All apps.
3. Scroll down the list of programs and left-click on Windows Tools.
4. Double left-click on Control Panel.

Windows 10

1. Left-click on the Start button to bring up the Start menu.
2. Scroll down the list of programs until you get to Windows System, and then left-click on it to expand it.
3. Left-click on Control Panel.

By default, the Control Panel opens up in the category view but can be changed to large or small icons. There is a pull-down menu in the top-right corner labeled View by: that allows you to change the view.

• If viewing the Control Panel by Category, left-click on Hardware and Sound, then Power Options.
• If viewing by Large/Small Icons, left-click Power Options.

Once you have the Power Options open, you will find several options in the left-hand column:

• Choose what the power button does
• Choose what closing the lid does (laptops only)
• Create a power plan
• Choose when to turn off the display
• Change when the computer sleeps

If you click on Choose what the power button does or Choose what closing the lid does (laptops only), you will bring up the System Settings. If you click on Create a power plan, you can create a power plan that suits your computing style. And if you click on either Choose when to turn off the display or Change when the computer sleeps, it allows you to edit the current power plan.

Now, if you really want to manage the power of your computer, create a power plan. Once you have made your custom power plan, you can edit the advanced options by selecting Change plan settings, then Change advanced power settings. This will bring up every possible power setting available for the components inside your computer, from hard disk and USB settings to display and multimedia.

Are you thinking about upgrading your computer from Windows 10 to Windows 11? Does your computer meet the Windows 11 hardware requirements? If you answered yes to both questions, consider performing a manual in-place upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

Upgrading Windows has never been a really popular undertaking, but rather a chore that we put off as long as we can. In the corporate IT world, you usually do not deploy a new operating system until the second version is released.

The reasoning behind waiting for the second version is that all of the major bugs should be worked out by then. And it also gives software developers more time to perfect their software for Windows 11.

With the release of Windows 11 22H2, we now have the second version of Windows 11, which should be ready for the corporate environment. And if it is good enough for corporate, it should be good enough for you and me.

Microsoft recommends using Windows Update to perform the upgrade, but some people like myself want to decide when it will happen. I don't particularly appreciate getting an alert from Windows Update about an update waiting to be installed, only to find out that it is to Windows 11 (it has happened twice to me now).

When I started working with computers, upgrading your version of Windows was an all-day ordeal. Insert the floppy disk, read the floppy disk, eject the floppy disk, and repeat until complete. I still have the thirteen (13) floppy disks for upgrading to Windows 95.

Yes, in the past, upgrading the versions of Windows has been tedious. At least the process has gotten a little easier, but the steps to getting there are still the same. I still follow the same procedures upgrading Windows now as I did years ago; check for hardware compatibility, backup the drive that contains Windows, clean up Windows, check the Windows drive for errors, and then upgrade.

Since Windows 11 was built on the code of Windows 10, all of the programs you have currently installed in Windows 10 should work perfectly fine in Windows 11. But remember that there may be apps presently installed that you would not be able to reinstall on Windows 11, Quickbooks 2021, and earlier versions, for example.

Consider taking note of a few things that have changed in Windows 11 before upgrading. If you use pinned apps/websites or tablet mode, these features have been removed from Windows 11.

Check for hardware compatibility

The minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10 and Windows 11 are similar but do have differences. The significant hardware requirement for Windows 11 is TPM (Trusted Platform Module) version 2.0. If your computer was manufactured between 2018 and now, it probably has TPM 2.0 and may need to be enabled. Motherboard manufacturers disabled this feature by default before the release of Windows 11.

Since then, manufacturers now enable TPM by default. If your computer fails the PC Health Check (link below), and is only a couple of years old, check with the manufacturer of your system/motherboard on how to enable the TPM, as each platform uses a different name for TPM (Intel has PTT, AMD has fTPM) .

Also, if your computer has less than 4 GB of memory or is running a 32-bit version of Windows 10, you will not be able to upgrade to Windows 11. A good rule of thumb is that any computer built before 2018 will not be compatible with Windows 11.

To be on the safe side, Microsoft has a tool called PC Health Check that you can use to check Windows 11 compatibility. Once you verify compatibility, you can proceed to the next step.

PC Health Check

Backup your Windows 10 drive

As I said before, the upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is pretty simple, but you never know what can happen. So as the old saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," so backing up the drive where Windows 10 is installed is suggested but not required.

Backup your files with File History and Windows Backup in Windows 10

Clean up Windows 10

A little general cleaning is highly recommended to help to ensure nothing goes wrong with the upgrade and to facilitate a faster upgrade process. Clearing out temp files, Internet caches, and Windows Update can also free up some disk space.

Clean up your Windows 10 computer using the Storage feature

Clean up Windows 10 with Disk Cleanup

Check your Windows 10 drive for errors

A quick check of the disk with Windows installed on it is recommended to ensure the upgrade goes without any problems. It is better to find any errors now instead of during the upgrade. Remember, taking a few minutes now to check the drive can save you from having to use the backup you created earlier.

How to check your drive for errors in Windows 10

Upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11

Microsoft currently has two (2) ways to upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 manually; the Installation Assistant or installation media. The Installation Assistant is the easiest way to go, but the complete instructions on using both methods are on the Windows 11 download page.

Download Windows 11

Have you ever wanted a program on your computer to run automatically at a specific time? Maybe you want to defrag a drive or clean up your computer in the background? If so, here is how to use Task Scheduler inside Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Task Scheduler has to be one of the most utilized of all of the programs inside Windows. It is one of those apps you never really think about because it works in the background and runs everything from syncing the time to running Windows Update.

And if you have your anti-virus software perform scheduled scans, it is more than likely to use Task Scheduler. There are so many things that Task Scheduler can do that are kind of mind-blowing.

I have been known to write script files containing multiple actions to have Task Scheduler run them. A simple script file can empty a network folder of temporary scanned files on a regular schedule.

But you do not have to know how to write code to use Task Scheduler. You only need to know what program you want to run, where it is located, and when and how often you want to run it. This is where we get into Triggers and Actions.

Simply put, their names, Triggers and Actions, are pretty self-explanatory. Triggers are the conditions that have to happen to start the Action, and the Action is what program or script is executed. With all this said, let's look at Task Scheduler.

How to open Task Scheduler in Windows 11

1. Left-click on the Start button to bring up the Start menu.
2. In the upper right-hand corner of the Start menu, left-click on All apps.
3. Scroll down the list of programs and left-click on Windows Tools.
4. Left-click on Task Scheduler.

How to open Task Scheduler in Windows 10

1. Left-click on the Start button to bring up the Start menu.
2. Scroll down the list of programs to Windows Administrative Tools and left-click to expand.
3. Left-click on Task Scheduler.

Once Task Scheduler has opened, you will see three columns; Console Tree (left), Task Scheduler summary (center), and the Action Pane (right).

Left-click on the Task Scheduler Library in the Console Tree to display all of the tasks that have been scheduled.

In the task summary in the center column, you will find a list of general tasks.

This is where any custom tasks should be created. I recommend using the Create Basic Task... shortcut over the Create Task shortcut in the Action Menu. It is a straightforward interface and if you need to, you can modify the properties later.

For this demonstration, I am going to use the built-in Disk Cleanup program. Using the steps outlined in the following articles, I created a command-line configuration, and I am going to use that to create a task.

Clean up Windows 11 with Storage Sense and Disk Cleanup

Clean up Windows 10 with Disk Cleanup

How to create a basic task in Task Scheduler

The following instructions will create a task for the built-in Disk Cleanup program. A previous setup using an Admin Command Prompt was required to set the parameters for cleanmgr.exe (see articles above).

1. Left-click on the Create Basic Task... link in the Action Menu.
   
   The Create Basic Task Wizard appears.
2. Give the new task a Name and Description, and then Left-click on Next.
3. Select when you want the task to start (trigger) and then left-click on Next.
   
   If you select Daily, Weekly, Monthly, One time, or When a specific event is logged, you will be prompted for more specific parameters.
4. You now have to select what task you want to perform.
   
   Usually, you would select Start a program and then left-click on Next.
5. On the right side of the Program/script field, left-click the Browse button,
   
   navigate to C:\Windows\System32\, and select cleanmgr.exe.
6. In the Add arguments section, type /sagerun:n and select Next.
7. Then select Finish, and you're all set.

Have you ever had to use your Windows-based computer with only a keyboard? Do you think it is even possible? Here is how to navigate Windows using only a keyboard.

The idea for this article came to me the other day when I remembered one of my first computers. It was running Windows 3 and only had a keyboard for input. It was not easy, to say the least. But once I got used to all the different keys, I could get around Windows 3 pretty well.

So I was wondering, could I do the same with Windows 10 or Windows 11? And since I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts already, this should be pretty easy. I will admit that it was hard not to reach for the mouse at the beginning, as I had to relearn what keys to use and where to use them. But it all started returning to me once I remembered how the keyboard keys were arranged in groups.

There are five (5) groups of keys, and you will find four (4) on both desktop and laptop keyboards. They are Control, Function, Navigation, and Typing, and the fifth group is the Numeric keypad, which some laptops do not have.

As you can see from the image above, there are Control keys on the left and right sides of the keyboard. Typically, both sides have an Alt, Windows logo, and Ctrl keys, the left side has the Esc, and the right side sometimes has an Application key.

The Function keys are on top of the Typing keys with the Navigation keys to the right. The Numeric keypad (if your keyboard has one) is located on the right side.

So the best way I could think of showing you how to use just a keyboard for Windows is to create a video. The computer in this video has a keystroke visualizer which displays on-screen the keys on the keyboard being pressed.

Here are some commonly used keyboard key combinations that help when using only a keyboard with Windows. At the bottom of this article, you will find links to more Windows keyboard shortcuts.

Press	To
	Open Start menu
Ctrl + A	Select all
Ctrl + C	Copy
Ctrl + X	Cut
Ctrl + V	Paste
Ctrl + Z	Undo
Alt	Moves the focus of the keyboard to the menu bar of the active program
Alt + F4	Close the active item, or quit the active program
Alt + Enter	Displays the properties of the selected object
Alt + Spacebar	Opens the shortcut menu for the active window
Alt + Tab	Switch between open items
Alt + Esc	Cycle through items in the order they were opened
Esc	Cancel the current task
Tab	Move forward through options
Tab + Shift	Move backward through options
Enter	Carry out the command for the active option or button

Windows logo key shortcuts for Windows 11

Windows logo key shortcuts for Windows 10

General keyboard shortcuts

Dialog box keyboard shortcuts