Windows on handy tech tips & reminders

Windows 11 on an older PC

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:41:12 +0100

How to get an old PC or laptop to run Windows 11

If you have an old laptop which is running Windows 10 very nicely, but when you tried to upgrade it to Windows 11 you got a message telling you your PC was too old and not supported by Windows 11, it’s quite likely that your PC is perfectly able to run Windows 11, but Microsoft have put some artificial limits in place to prevent older PCs and laptops from upgrading.

Reminders for Microsoft Windows

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 11:51:46 +0100

Various handy tips and shortcuts

Shift-F10 : (during OOBE) open a Command Window
Control-Shift-F3 : (during OOBE ) logs you in as Administrator
Control-Shift-Win-B : Windows desktop manager/display reset

Useful command-window commands:

Reboot now : C:> SHUTDOWN /R /T 0
see who is logged on : C:> QUERY USER
see if PC is joined to a domain : C:> SET USER
see when last rebooted : C:> NET STATISTICS WORKSTATION OR C:> SYSTEMINFO (also shows lots of other useful info, such as which Hotfixes have been installed)
recursive search for a file : C:> DIR /S *REALTEK* ( /S meaning “scan subfolders too” )
Laptop battery health report: C:>POWERCFG /BatteryReport - will write the report to a file and show you the filename

Useful Powershell/‘Terminal’ commands :

How to reset Windows password

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:52:10 +0100

Locked out of your PC ?

If you forget the password of the account on your Windows 10/11 PC/laptop, and you’re not able to log into it, here’s how you can reset your password.

Note: this method probably won’t work if you have BitLocker encryption set up on your PC/laptop.

find a USB stick or CD/DVD which can be used to boot your PC. This could be

a USB stick or DVD which was used to install Windows;
a ‘system repair disk’ DVD created by Windows Backup (in Windows Control Panel).
Or if you have a blank USB stick, you can create your own bootable USB stick using Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool which you can download from the Microsoft Windows website . But obviously you will need access to another PC or laptop to do this download & write onto the USB stick.

Boot your PC or laptop from the USB stick or DVD you created in Step 1.

Choose ‘Repair my PC’, then ‘Troubleshoot’ , then ‘Command prompt’. A black Command window should appear.