Install Microsoft Precision Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

https://www.howtogeek.com/325347/how-to-enable-microsofts-precision-touchpad-drivers-on-your-laptop/

Download and extract the Lenovo driver
https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/n1mgx14w.zip

Open Device manager, right click on the touchpad and select Update driver

Update Touchpad driver

Browse My computer for Driver Software

Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer

On the pop up select have disk

Navigate to the extracted Lenovo driver and select Autorun.inf

Open, select next, install, accept the warning

Restart computer

After you restart your computer you can go to the Windows settings and tweak the precision settings

Windows 10 precision touchpad settings

Other interesting touch pad stuff

https://www.multiswipe.com

Recovery, Your PC/Device needs to be repaired

File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Error code: 0x000000f 
The Boot Configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

The following notes may be of some help when trying to resolve the above error. Think the primary issue had to do with cloning a GPT drive to a RAID array that was using MBR. So think everything worked after converting it to GPT

All the commands are/were run from a recovery Command Prompt

Convert MBR disk to GPT

After running the following command the EFI directory was automatically created.
The command is supposed to be non destructive. Change the disk to whichever disk your trying to change to gpt.

gpt2efi /validate /disk:0

Other commands

If running the above command did not work then you may give the following command a try. Change the drive names where appropriate.

bcdboot c:\windows /s s: /f UEFI /v

You may be able to get away with just using

cdboot c:\windows

You can check if the above worked by seeing if it created any files in the directory, if new efi partition is S:, then from a command prompt run

S:
dir

Commands for recreating the EFI partition (WARNING! MAY DESTROY DATA!)

diskpart
list disk
select disk # Note: Select the disk where you deleted the EFI System partition.
list partition
create partition efi
format quick fs=fat32
list partition
list volume


Windows 10 – How to “fully” shutdown

Windows 10 by default does a hybrid shutdown which is supposed to make it quicker to start back up.

To fully shutdown you can hold the Shift key down while clicking the shutdown button.

Side note. A Restart will do a full shutdown before starting back up.

More info.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/625963/details-of-shut-down-vs-restart-please/#entry4079503
https://superuser.com/questions/974553/what-does-shiftshutdown-do-in-windows-10

Can’t set default app for .blend file on Windows 10

Problem: Can’t set default program for .blend files to Windows store version of Blender

Usually is not a problem as you’ll get asked if you want to set a default program. When you hit yes, blender does not show up in the list of apps. That wouldn’t be a problem, except Blender is from the Windows Store, so there is no launcher in the ordinary places.

Resolution: Install regular Windows installer from Blenders website.

Other Info

Not sure if the issue is with the Store or Blender. The .blend file type does not show up in the Windows Settings under “Apps -> Default apps -> Choose default apps by file type” and Blender doesn’t show up under “Apps -> Default apps -> Set defaults by app”


How to replace Grub with default Windows Bootloader

Note that running this procedure could render any Linux partitions inaccessible.

Boot up into recovery, launch the Command Prompt and run the following command

BootRe.exe /fixmbr

The command should remove Grub and replace it with the Windows bootloader, so when you reboot it should go straight to Windows.

Issues installing or repairing Windows 10

Error : Windows could no prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of the installation
Notes : This happens right after you finish partitioning and installation never gets past 0%
Fix : Disconnect all drives except the drive you want to install Windows 10.  This includes laptops.

Issue : Can’t reach login screen
Notes : Can happen after an update, auto repair should fix it
Fix : Start up the computer normal and when it starts to load windows force shutdown the computer.  Repeat the process 2 times, on the third start up it will Automatically try to fix the issue.

Other Issues

Windows 10 seems to be a little weird when you have two installs on two different drives and your trying to repair one.  I have had issues when trying to repair one, or boot into safe mode.  Removing all other other drives seems to resolve most of the issues.

Issues with multiple drives with an install of Windows 10

  • Reset Drive resets the wrong drive
  • Boot into safemode doesn’t work

 

 

How to make a bootable Windows 10 Tech Preview thumb drive

  1. Format drive as NTFS.  You can do this by opening up your drive in Windows Explorer and right clicking on your drive and clicking format.  Make sure to back up any information you have on the drive as you will lose it during the format.
  2. Mount your Windows 10 Tech Preview iso with your favorite iso mounter
  3. Next open an elevated Command Prompt by clicking the start button, typing in cmd, and hitting the Ctrl +Shift + Enter keys all at once.
  4. In the Command Prompt type “F:” (change F to your mounted Windows 10 iso drive)
  5. now run the following commands
  6. cd BOOT
  7. bootsect.exe /NT60 G:

    Change “G” to your usb drives letter

  8. Copy all of the files from your mounted Windows 10 iso to your thumb drive.
  9. Eject thumb drive.
  10. Boot up your test machine from the drive and install Windows 10 Tech Preview.