Many people are fed up with Windows Updates. They can't be turned off, and they're a serious nuisance. In an earlier post I covered how to effectively turn Windows Updates off through Group Policy. However, If you don't have Windows 10 or 11 Pro, you don't have access to the Group Policy objects, or even the Group Policy Editor.

Never fear, there is a way to install the Group Policy objects and editor in Windows 10 and 11 Home edition.

Before we get into it, it I have put up the usual disclaimers:

1. Backup your computer before starting.
2. Backup the Windows Registry before starting.
3. Ask your doctor if Windows Group Policy is right for you.
4. WindUpRubberFinger.com may contain testimonials by users of our products and/or services. These testimonials reflect the real-life experiences and opinions of such users. However, the experiences are personal to those particular users, and may not necessarily be representative of all users of our products and/or services. We do not claim, and you should not assume, that all users will have the same experiences. YOUR INDIVIDUAL RESULTS MAY VARY.
5. Void were prohibited.

Now that we have that out of the way we can start. If you've attempted to correct issues on a corrupted Windows 7 and up installation you might be familiar with DISM. DISM (Deployment Imaging Servicing Management [tool]) is used to repair corrupted Windows Images, pulling files either from some local repository or an online Microsoft repository.

DISM is often used in conjunction with the SFC (System File Checker) command.

The sfc /scannow command will scan all protected system files, and replace corrupted files with a cached copy that is located in a compressed folder at %WinDir%\System32\dllcache.
The %WinDir% placeholder represents the Windows operating system folder. For example, C:\Windows.

DISM is how you add the Group Policy Objects and Editor to your Windows Home installation.

I found the instructions below on Microsoft TechNet, somebody must have flown under the RADAR, or it was their last day working for M$. I would credit the author, but I only copied the text. I was in the middle of migrating my VMs from ESXi 6.0 to Proxmox 8.2.2 (but that's a story for another day). I came across this tutorial while looking for something completely different -- but I new it was worth saving.

I haven't personally done this but I have no reason to believe that it wouldn't work.

Fortunately, Windows 10 Home has the undocumented option to install the gpedit.msc editor from the Windows image packages and manifests repository (\Windows\servicing\packages).

How to Enable the GPEdit.msc on Windows 10 and 11 Home?

To install the Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Home edition, open a command prompt as administrator and run two one-line commands in sequence:

FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F")

FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F")

Also these commands can be used to install gpedit.msc console in Windows 11 Home.

For convenience, you can save this code to a text file gpedit-install.bat and run it as administrator. Wait a while until DISM installs the packages from the Windows 10 component store.

In my case, the ClientTools and ClientExtensions packages were installed in Windows 10 Home:

Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~…~amd64~~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~…~amd64~en-US~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~…~amd64~~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~…~amd64~en-US~….mum

Now try to run the gpedit.msc console. The Local Group Policy Editor interface should open (no reboot required). The GPO editor is fully functional even in the Home edition of Windows 10 or Windows 11, and contains all the necessary policy sections that are available in the Pro/Enterprise editions."

Once this completes, you'll be able to use the information in my previous post How To Stop Constant Windows Updates (Windows 10 and 11).

I would test this in a VM, but I don't have a copy of Windows Home.

If you use this method, let me know in the comments.

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I'm sure that anyone using Windows 10 or 11 is tired of the constant "forced" updates.

You might have something open in a word processor, or maybe you're even testing something for work. The updates that are pushed are a problem -- because you can't be sure that your computer isn't going to be restarted when you're not looking.

For me, it reminds me of pausing a game on the Nintendo Game Console from the 1980s. Sure you can pause it, and go back to it the next day (for games that have no save feature or codes) but is the machine actually going to work the next day? Well, I'm sure anyone who has play Nintendo back in those days remembers, normally the console is frozen the next day.

Micro$oft Windows should (definitely by now) be more reliable than a 1980s Nintendo Game Console. But alas, because of constant updates -- it's really not.

However, there is a work-around, but it requires that the user have a Windows 10 or 11 Pro or Enterprise installation. If you don't have a Windows 10 or 11 Pro or Enterprise installation, you won't be able to make the necessary settings changes.

I'll have to do another post on how to enable Group Policy settings on Windows Home installations. I have seen the instructions to do it, but I've never personally implemented them because I've always run Pro versions of Windows since the XP days.

You'll have to open the Group Policy Editor, in order to do this, open a Windows run dialog by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard, then typing "gpedit." The group policy editor should show up.

I'll illustrate how to stop the automatic updates here:

Then there's this:

You might notice where I have a comment of just "y" in the Group Policy Editor. I did this so that when I make changes, I can easily find the objects I have changed. In the Group Policy Editor, you can sort by comment "yes" or "no." This makes it easy to go back to objects I have changed in the past.

With these two settings configured, your machine will auto download updates, but will not auto install them. Furthermore if the updates are installed, the machine will not auto restart, a user will have to allow it to restart.

The only reason I allow for the auto downloading of updates is because there were issues in the past when Windows would go too long without downloading updates. There sometimes could become corruption of the files that are used in the updates. So, I allowed them to be downloaded, only because there would be a running history of whatever updates should be done, stopping the Windows Installer from going wonky.

If you implement these changes, you'll still be nagged by Windows, but you will not be forced to update, and your machine will not restart on its own.

Give it a try and tell me what you think.

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I'm sure that this isn't a particularly interesting subject, but if you've used Linux as a desktop OS you might just be interested.

I've become more and more annoyed by Micro$oft as the years have gone by.

That being said, Linux is the obvious choice. Linux has come so far in recent years that it rivals any paid-for operating system -- even for novice users. Linux is stable and runs the same software (for the most part) that you might run on a Windows or a Mac machine.

I'm writing this post on a Toshiba laptop running MX Linux, It was given to me by a relative. It originally had Windows 7 on it. I put 16 gigs of RAM in this machine for $18 after tax. The only downside was that it had a mechanical hard drive, not an SSD, but I fixed that.

I installed MX Linux 23.4 and began setting things up.

I love the OS, it's snappy and things work well. Most of the software I use is preinstalled as part of the standard package.

The only downside was the mouse sensitivity. I'm running the vanilla XFCE version, which allows for lots of configurable options, themes, and tweaks to the GUI to make things look and feel the way you would like them. However, when I plugged in my Logitech M17c wireless mouse, things got squirrelly. So I went to adjust the mouse settings and go about my business, but something was missing!

Notice there is acceleration and sensitivity.

Here's what I saw.

There is no sensitivity. These newer mice all have really high DPI so their sensitivity is insane. That's why mouse pads are now made of super smooth cloth-type material.

Without a sensitivity setting, there was no way to tamp down the overly sensitive mouse. Highlighting things was a nightmare, because 1/16th of an inch of movement was equal to 7 characters of a size 12 font!

After searching for quite some time about how to change the mouse sensitivity I found that the driver used by XFCE had changed, the current one lists different properties than the older one did. It's not that things can't be adjusted, they just have to be adjusted a different way.

More searching revealed that not many people knew how to adjust the mouse sensitivity. Normally with anything Linux related you can find where people have run into and solved the vast majority of issues you might run into. But not this time.

There are commands you can issue that will show what the mouse settings are, but first you have to find out which device it's listed as.

$ xinput -list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad              	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse                 	id=13	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                               	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ TOSHIBA Web Camera - HD: TOSHIB         	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ACPI Virtual Keyboard Device            	id=12	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse                 	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]

Now that you know the device ID you can issue another command to show the properties for that device ID, the Logitech mouse:

$ xinput -list-props 13
Device 'Logitech Wireless Mouse':
Device Enabled (177):	1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (179):
0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000,
0.000000, 0.370000, 0.000000,
0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (323):	0
libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (324):	0
libinput Scroll Methods Available (327):	0, 0, 1
libinput Scroll Method Enabled (328):	0, 0, 0
libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (329):	0, 0, 0
libinput Button Scrolling Button (665):	2
libinput Button Scrolling Button Default (666):	2
libinput Button Scrolling Button Lock Enabled (667):	0
libinput Button Scrolling Button Lock Enabled Default (668):	0
libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (333):	0
libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (334):	0
libinput Accel Speed (335):	0.440000
libinput Accel Speed Default (336):	0.000000
libinput Accel Profiles Available (337):	1, 1
libinput Accel Profile Enabled (338):	1, 0
libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (339):	1, 0
libinput Left Handed Enabled (340):	0
libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (341):	0
libinput Send Events Modes Available (300):	1, 0
libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (301):	0, 0
libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (302):	0, 0
Device Node (303):	"/dev/input/event14"
Device Product ID (304):	1133, 16468
libinput Drag Lock Buttons (342):	
libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled (343):	1
libinput Scrolling Pixel Distance (344):	15
libinput Scrolling Pixel Distance Default (345):	15
libinput High Resolution Wheel Scroll Enabled (346):	1

However, there is no sensitivity setting listed -- only acceleration. This is why it didn't show up under the mouse settings.

The question then becomes, "Is this the result of using a Logitech mouse, or is this a just the way that the XFCE driver works?" It appears that it's at the driver level. I tried multiple different mice, and none of them show properties for sensitivity.

Some versions of Linux use the "evdev" kernel-level driver and others use "libinput" the xorg-driver. That's where the difference is. Apparently the libinput driver is better suited for touch pads from what I've read.

Wanting to modify the OS as little as possible, I looked for some way to adjust the mouse sensitivity natively. Again this was a long and exhaustive search. Eventually I started poking around on my own.

I decided to change the Coordinate Transformation Matrix values. They appear in (3) groups of (3) numbers.

The first two groups of 3 represent the (x) and (y) coordinates, the last value of 1.000000 needs to be left unchanged, if it is changed to anything other than "1" none of the other changes will take effect. I started by changing all of values of 1.000000 to 5.000000, and nothing changed at all. So then I tried changing them to fractional values, this also resulted in no change. Lastly, I tried changing just the first two from 1 to 5 -- that made the mouse nearly useless it was so sensitive. But there was a change. Next I tried with fractional values and found that the sensitivity was reduced. After messing around with the sensitivity and acceleration I found what worked best with my wireless mouse.

Here's what the optimal settings look like.

$ xinput -list-props 13
Device 'Logitech Wireless Mouse':
	Device Enabled (177):	1
	Coordinate Transformation Matrix (179):
0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000,
0.000000, 0.370000, 0.000000,
0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000

The downside is that if I unplug the mouse, or reboot the computer the defaults return. I'm sure there is a way to make the changes persistent, but I wasn't sure what might happen if I use a different mouse at some point. So I decided to write a simple shell script and place it on the desktop so I can double click it and put the mouse settings to where I want them.

#!/bin/sh

# This will set the mouse properties for a Logitech M317 wireless mouse.
# The default sensitivity is too high.

#Mouse Sensitivity
xinput --set-prop 13 179 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000

#Mouse Acceleration
xinput --set-prop 13 335 0.500000

exit 0

For now this will suffice. I don't change the mouse that often, and I usually suspend this computer when I'm not using it, so I don't have to change the settings frequently enough to worry about it.

I read many articles where people were searching for a way to adjust the mouse sensitivity -- and that was the only reason that they weren't using Linux as their primary operating system. Maybe this can help someone to make the switch!

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Polls come out all the time. Trump is up, Kamala is down, it’s all over the place.

Usually the differences can be explained, but sometimes it’s not so easy. Recent polls for North Carolina shows that Trump is ahead, but a democrat is leading in the race for governor.

There are plenty of reasons that this could happen, but how likely are they. For example, let’s assume that the republican candidate for governor is not very well liked, it’s possible that someone could vote for a democrat governor, and a republican presidential candidate — but how realistic is that? It’s hard to say.

Most polls are, “within the margin of error.” The question then becomes, “How many democrat voters are going to vote for Trump?”

That’s why AZ was so sketchy in 2022. The republican state treasurer received more votes than either of the two gubernatorial candidates?

That’s a pretty big difference. Who shows up to the polls for the state treasurer’s race?

Did any polls predicted that outcome? None that I can find. But they might be out there.

What do you think?

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Unless you work in the pharma industry, you've probably never heard of the term "excipient."

Excipient is a substance formulated alongside the active ingredient of a medication.

This can include any number of things from fillers, to adjuvants in vaccines, or preservatives. Basically anything that is part of the product, outside of the active ingredient, however; it can also be something that works to enhance the active ingredient.

The reason I bring this up is because of a post from Ann Tomoko Rosen on her Substack On Second Thought. She mentioned in a recent post "Why is the CDC deleting its list of vaccine ingredients."

As far back as at leas 2007, the CDC website had a directly linkable PDF, so people could go lookup what ingredients were in various vaccines that they, or their children, might be required to take. But that link has been removed.

A search with DuckDuckGo still shows the direct link to the PDF, which is now gone.

There is a link to the list on Wikipedia for vaccine excipients, but the Wikipedia article's "factual accuracy is disputed." These notes are from 2011 and 2020. Apparently nobody has been able to update it since then? Also, the CDC (the official source) is actively removing the sources for in-line links -- right now. Someone will have to update the article and provide a link for each of the vaccines in the summary -- one-by-one -- then hope the FDA doesn't move them the next day.

Searching with Google doesn't even get you very far either. Keep in mind that we're looking for "official" sources.

There are links to other resources, but those are not "official" government sites. Neither search engine gets you to the FDA website where the data actually is.

The timeframe in which the CDC removed it's link to the Vaccine Excipient Summary is rather suspicious.

October 25, 2007 is as far back as the Internet Archive goes back for that particular CDC file link.

But something happened in July of this year. Trump called RFK Jr. and talked with him about the child vaccine schedule. The call was very quickly leaked on X/Twitter. And then it was quickly deleted.

On Tuesday, the younger Kennedy — an actor — posted then quickly deleted a video of his father speaking on the phone with former President Donald Trump.

“I am a firm believer that these sorts of conversations should be had in public. Here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids this was the day after the assassination attempt,” Kennedy III wrote in the now deleted X — formerly Twitter — post, which he claimed he removed “for mistaking sarcasm for real life.”

...

In their conversation, Trump riffs at length on his concerns about vaccines — a pet issue for Kennedy, a longtime vaccine conspiracy theorist — discusses his brush with death at a weekend rally in Pennsylvania, and seemingly offers Kennedy a position in his administration.

“Anyway, I would love for you to serve,” Trump tells Kennedy. “I think it would be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re gonna win — we’re gonna win — we’re way ahead of the guy.”

“I agree with you, man,” Trump says. “Something’s wrong with that whole system, and it’s the doctors you find.”

“Remember I said I want to do small doses. Small doses,” the former president added. “When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a, you know, 10-pound or 20-pound baby.”

This phone call took place on July 14th the day after the Trump assassination attempt. July 14th also happens to be the last day that the CDC website hosted the link to the Vaccine Excipient Summary on their website. But I'm sure it's a coincidence.

Here's a copy of the last version of the file that I could find. I'll also put a list of files at the end of this post as well.

The question then becomes, "Where can I find the data now?" Well, it's still out there, just not in the same places, and not one click away.

As Ann pointed out, the CDC now directs you to the FDA website. You have to scroll way down to just above the footnotes to find this part.

Once on the FDA website, you can locate where they list all of the FDA approved vaccines. You can then click on each one of them and find the package inserts.

I found one more place that has information that might be considered "official," it was on a web page hosted by the Institute for Vaccine Safety, part of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health It is a joint effort by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The data is still out there, but it's not going to be as easy to find. And they will likely keep it moving, making it harder to reference. That's why I dropped those files at the end of this post.

Not a very good look for the CDC with regard to "transparency."

What do you think?

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