Windows Specific Troubleshooting

Boot & Error History

Hit that Windows key and type in "Reliability History" this will open "Reliability Monitor." If you type "Reliability Monitor", nothing comes up lol.

The Reliability Monitor will give you 1 year of graphs charting out hardware and software related issues. This is inclusive of software and hardware issues (e.g., Windows Diagnosis, Hardware Error). If you want more than 1 year of history, the bottom left of the window has a "Save reliability history" button – this saves a log of all issues into a nice and easy-to-read (not sarcastic) XML file. Obviously, this only goes back as far as when you installed Windows. If you wipe your drive, this all goes away. 

To get an even finer comb, hit the Windows + R keys and type "eventvwr.msc". From there, you can create custom views. Set the event level to Critical, Warning, Error then By Log, Event Logs="Application,System" and then set the event ID to "41" to find all the naughty shut-downs. 

Naughty C: Drive

Run Powershell as an Admin to check if bad shutdown
fsutil dirty query C:
Result : "not dirty" is good

Run Command Prompt as an Admin to verify system 

sfc /scannow

Wait for results, then
Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /CheckHealth

Wait for results, then
Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /ScanHealth

Wait for results, then
Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

Wait for results, then
chkntfs /x C:

Naughty RAM

Download MemTest, install it on a thumb drive using the included exe (this will format a thumb for you). Launch your BIOS’ boot options and boot from the thumbdrive. Wait a while. Now you know which RAM is the naughtiest. Replace it!

Windows Bootable Recovery

Windows has a built-in recovery partition, just like a Mac, but sometimes (if not frequently), that recovery partition gets borked and you need to reinstall a fresh version of Windows. To do this, from another Windows PC, download the Create Windows Media tool here, and plug-in a USB flash drive that’s 8Gb or greater (and that you’re happy to reformat). Then, you can run the MediaCreationTool, and it will take care of the rest (including formatting your thumb drive). When finished, plug that bad boy into the problematic machine, and select the drive in the boot menu. From there: good luck!

You’ve Got A Ton Of Displays And The Window You Want is On the Wrong God-Damn Display and You Can’t Find It Anywhere, Or Your Mouse Is Hidden: Where The Fuck Did It Go?

See windows hotkeys here. Or login to the computer via a VNC client that allows you to see all screens at once 😀