Trouble with the update for Windows 11: The patch KB5034204 causes, among other things, installation errors, problems with the taskbar and file explorer.
Something like this shouldn’t be the case: The patch released on January 23, 2024 KB5034204 for Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2 should actually be a series Windows 11 problems fix, but causes further trouble. In addition to an installation abort with the error code 0x8007000d, users complain about, among other things, problems when shutting down, with the taskbar and Windows Explorer. SamaGame has the information.
KB5034204 fails with error code 0x8007000d
The Windows update KB5034204 upgrades the operating systems to build 22621.3085 (version 22H2) or build 22631.3085 (version 23H2). Windows Latest but reports user criticism about crashes, rollbacks and bugs. Accordingly, the Windows 11 patch cannot be installed for some users; instead, the installation aborts with error code 0x8007000d. This indicates corrupt files during the update, even if the installation of KB5034204 appears to have already reached the 100 percent mark. As a result, the system is reset to the old update status – a so-called rollback occurs. Despite all efforts to… Update troubleshooting The problem persists on many computers.
Problems with Explorer, taskbar and start menu
In addition to installation cancellations, the previously optional Windows 11 update apparently causes unexpected problems with the file manager. Windows Explorer stopped responding for some users after a failed update attempt. Even if the installation was successful, there were still errors. In some cases the desktop remained empty for a short time. Others reported that Windows gave an error message about an explorer.exe error when they shut down, that they could no longer interact with desktop icons like the trash or access the taskbar icons. Furthermore, in some cases the taskbar disappeared.
Microsoft has not yet confirmed the problems. KB5034204 could be installed without any problems on test devices in the editorial office. If you experience one or more of the problems described, you should Uninstall Windows Update and wait for Microsoft to offer an update for the update.
Deutsche Bahn still relies on systems with Windows 3.11, which was released almost 30 years ago. This is at least proven by a job advertisement in which the company is looking for a suitable IT administrator.
It is not unusual that companies today still rely on operating systems such as Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. In particular, systems that do not require much maintenance and carry out their tasks without any problems despite the outdated software are often forgotten during regular update cycles. After all, when installing a new version, IT administrators not only have to worry about the fact that there are no longer any drivers for the installed components, but they also worry that the system will no longer perform the tasks assigned to it properly after the update. However, if something happens at some point, there is a lot of screaming. The employee responsible for setting up and maintaining the system is usually already retired, so a replacement needs to be found as quickly as possible. Deutsche Bahn is now apparently in this difficult situation.
IT administrator for Windows 3.11
This is loud PC world at least from a job description that has since been deleted. The federally owned railway company or a company that cooperates with it was looking for an IT administrator with Windows 3.11 knowledge. Explosive: Windows 3.11 is an operating system that Microsoft released almost 30 years ago as an update for Windows 3.1, which was released in 1992. The most important innovations of the latter operating system included, among other things, support for TrueType fonts and the OLE interface. In addition to “Drag and Drop”, Microsoft introduced the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + X, Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V for cutting, copying and pasting, which are still used today. In terms of graphics, Windows 3.1 supported color depths of up to 32 bits.
Sibas knowledge is an advantage
The advertisement listed the main tasks of the job as updating drivers and maintaining legacy systems and their interfaces to the vehicle control system. Under the “required knowledge” it was said that the perfect candidate must be familiar with “Sibas” in addition to Windows 3.1. The abbreviation stands for “Siemens Railway Automation System”, which was developed by the company of the same name in the mid-1980s. Erlangen was named as the location. Since Siemens has a large branch there, the German conglomerate was probably behind the job offer.
Microsoft is well known for putting Easter Eggs in their software.
Naturally, these small and larger functions are not that easy to find.
We’ll help you find it!
Software developers like to leave humorous gimmicks in their products with so-called Easter Eggs. Like real Easter eggs, these are not immediately visible and must first be found or activated. As with Windows 10, Windows 11 has fewer digital Easter eggs than older Windows versions.
1. Star Wars IV as a text-based telnet story
2. Animated cog in the editor
3. Godmode for the control panel
4. Shut down on touchscreens with a swipe gesture
5. Windows 3.1 File Explorer
6. Playing games with Cortana
7. Hidden surfing game in Edge browser
However, the Microsoft developers have not completely lost their urge to play. Here we present you the previously known Easter Eggs from Windows 11. Some are not part of the system. But they’re still fun.
1. Star Wars IV as a text-based telnet story
You can use the optionally available telnet client in Windows 11 to watch the science fiction classic Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope as a text film.
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Opens the “Turn Windows features on or off” menu via the search.
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Check the “Telnet Client” box and click “OK”.
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Start the Run dialog with the shortcut “Windows + R” and execute the command “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl”.
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You can then watch Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope as a text film in a telnet window.
2. Animated cog in the editor
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The wheel for opening the settings in the Windows 11 editor turns wildly in circles when you right-click. Once you know the hidden animation, the “nudge” by right-clicking should bring a small smile to many people’s faces.
3. Godmode for the control panel
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As in Windows 10, there is a hidden Godmode for the remnants of the control panel in Windows 11. Once activated, you can use it to display all control panel items as an ordered list. We will show you how to do this in a separate guide.
4. Shut down on touchscreens with a swipe gesture
The function known from Windows 8 for shutting down the computer by swiping from the top edge of the screen is available in Windows 11 in the form of an Easter egg. You can activate this as follows via a new link.
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Right click on the desktop and select “New – Shortcut”.
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Enter the command “%windir%\System32\SlideToShutDown.exe” and click on “Next”.
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Enter any name.
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By double-clicking on the shortcut you can now activate the shutdown with a swipe gesture.
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A kind of overlapping slider with wallpaper appears, which you can drag down with your finger or mouse.
5. Windows 3.1 File Explorer
If there were still traces of the old file manager from Windows 3.1 in older versions of Windows, you can now completely install and use it in Windows 11.
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To do this, download the ZIP file provided by Microsoft from Github and unzip it.
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In the x64 subdirectory you can then start the old Windows 3.1 file explorer with a double-click.
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The window-in-window mode is quite impractical. Some nostalgia and joy comes up when clicking around with the file manager.
6. Playing games with Cortana
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Cortana also has its own “Easter Egg”. You can use the language assistant as a playmate or as a random decision-making aid via the “rock, paper, scissors” or “heads or tails” commands.
7. Hidden surfing game in Edge browser
The Edge Browser is the first browser that you can use on Windows 11. But did you know that the program also comes with a game? It’s a clone of the classic game SkiFree, which is based in a tropical setting and can be easily accessed via the address bar.
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Microsoft is already telling you what you have to do on a website dedicated to the Easter Egg: Open the Edge browser for the Easter Egg and navigate to the address bar. Here you give edge://surf and press the Enter key.
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The game window opens. Choose your surfer of choice here and press the spacebar to start surfing in the game. Use the arrow keys to control your character. But be careful: Don’t get caught by the squid.
You can find more Easter Eggs in other programs and in services like Google or in popular games in another article.
On other occasions we have delved into some of the best Windows keyboard shortcuts. A few weeks ago, we told you the virtues of ALT + space bar, a combination that everyone should know because of its usefulness. In addition, we also gave space to a secret shortcut that, for 16 years, has been the last resort of many to restart Windows. However, what no one knew is that Microsoft has a combination that, in short, helps you look for work.
Although it is somewhat cumbersome, the shortcut in question is Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win + L and is available in Windows 11. Thus, those users of the new Microsoft operating system will have the opportunity, once they press this combination, to open LinkedIn. Regardless of the main browser, this shortcut allows interested parties to open their LinkedIn profile, a social network focused on offering job opportunities. And, in case anyone was surprised by this possibility, it is because Microsoft has owned LinkedIn for a few years.
Other combinations available with Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win
If you are a Windows 10 user, the combination Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win (without pressing any letter) will open Word 365exactly the same thing that happens in Windows 11 if you enter this combination and add the letter W. In fact, there are several aspects of the shortcut that, in short, open different functions in the default browser of Windows 11 users:
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win + L = LinkedIn
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win + W = Word 365
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win + T = Teams
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win + X = Excel (browser version)
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win + P = PowerPoint (browser version)
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Win + O = Outlook
So, this is a multifunctional shortcut that users of the new Microsoft operating system can take advantage of. However, from the PC Gamer media they indicate that, although it is mostly related to programs from the Redmond firm, the fact that there is the possibility of opening LinkedIn may become intrusive for some people. Be that as it may, the existence of this combination and its possibilities, beyond how cumbersome it can be to press 5 keys At the same time, it gives a range of possibilities to users who make the most of the keyboard’s possibilities.
Windows Vista, released in 2007, had a welcome center. It contained quick start links for calling up on-board functions and loaded when booting up (can be switched off). Can something like this be retrofitted under Windows 10 and 11?
The Windows 7 predecessor operating system Vista had something in common with the welcome center that was exclusively integrated into it: both were unpopular. The Welcome Center wasn’t the main contributor to Vista’s bad reputation, but for some it was the negative icing on the cake that users shattered in reviews. The main problems with Vista were its high resource requirements and software and hardware/driver incompatibilities. Microsoft managed to fix some of this, but its reputation is still ruined to this day – and the operating system often appears in mentions of bad OS, also in the context that a bad one should be followed by a good Windows and so on.
The OS makers had good intentions with the welcome center: a PC layperson would certainly appreciate the fact that the on-board function included assistance and possibly that it loaded automatically when booting up – similar to the desktop mini-applications (gadget.) introduced with Vista , widgets) did posing in a sidebar. Since Windows 7 there is no longer a welcome center, which is essentially the successor to the XP tour was (Windows Vista followed Windows XP); In Windows 7, a sidebar is no longer mandatory for running the mini-applications, and they no longer load automatically on a freshly installed OS after the user logs in. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that mini-applications are on hold under Windows 8 and higher . Microsoft saw security risks with them, but they probably weren’t that bad. With the 8GadgetPack retrofit the pretty helpers.
Windows Vist
a: Get the welcome center as a clone
Some people don’t swim with the crowd and emancipate themselves from the monotony with their opinions. Are you, like the article author, a fan of Windows Vista and its concepts? – Some of the system’s features live on in Windows to this day, one example being the Breadcrumb Explorer address bar. If you have a mix of sympathy and a desire for nostalgia, it might be a good idea to recreate the welcome center under Windows 10 or Windows 11. You don’t do this because the feature would be so useful. Rather, the motive “because it works” plays a role here and that the look is nice.
Let’s review the functional range of the welcome center: The window displayed the name of the operating system and edition (e.g. Home Premium), as well as the name of the processor (in a virtual machine alias VM, when researching for this article we got the Intel Core i7-6700K model listed), the amount of RAM, information about the (VGA) graphics card and the computer name.
By clicking on buttons you could “View computer details”, “Transfer files and settings”, “Add new users”, start a “Windows Anytime Upgrade”, you could explore “Connect to the Internet” and “What’s new in Windows Vista”. . Displaying the computer details with a click corresponds to the Windows-Pause key combination. Transferring data comes from calling Windows Easy Transfer same, which you also use Windows-R and migwiz transact. Under Windows 7 and Windows 8, the EasyTransfer on-board tool was still included in a variety of ways, under Windows 8.1 it was considerably deprived of its functionality, while under Windows 10 and Windows 11 it no longer appears at all. The welcome center was part of the Control Panel and also linked to online resources. Retrofit the welcome center: Microsoft does not offer a Welcome Center for download. A resourceful user but has published a replica on DeviantArt, which you can download there after registering for free. Functionally, the clone doesn’t come close to the original, but it doesn’t have to. Visually, the construct should be sufficient to transport you back to ancient times in a sufficiently authentic way. On the linked page you will receive a zipped EXE file. Unzip it, but don’t open it yet. To get it started, open the properties of the file (double-click on it while holding down the Alt key) and activate it there Compatibility mode; select “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)” as the pretend OS. Double-click the EXE file. The “Welcome Center 2.0” is in English, but has an impressive design with a transparent title bar. It also transports the typical Vista colors into modern times. In terms of options and smooth operation, the presentation is less convincing, among other things because some of the system information provided (amount of RAM installed, operating system) is incorrect – whereas the Welcome Center should display the processor and the computer name correctly.
The more modern way to a welcome center: Go for Linux. The Distribution”Linux MX“, for example, brings an equivalent. Nostalgia in the form of Windows features that live on under Linux also exists in the sense that on some Linux systems the window title bar text is centered. This is reminiscent of Windows 8(.1) , where this optical property is also common Ribbon GUI based programs is.
Alternative to the welcome center: build your own launcher
During the Vista era, professionals were busy modifying the welcome center: the buttons in it could be enriched with their own counterparts with other functions. The file “oobe.xml” served this purpose. That no longer makes sense today – at best in a virtual machine. But in this way the welcome center could be upgraded to become a more useful launcher.
Windows XP, however, brought with it the Active Desktop, a function that allowed websites to be integrated into the desktop as elements. This option has been a thing of the past since Vista. In our testing in an XP VM in 2023, Active Desktop performed poorly with online/WAN resources. As an alternative to both the rudimentary welcome center launcher qualities and the Active Desktop, there are software tricks and tools: On You will find a tool that displays websites on the desktop in a freely positionable location within its own environment; the frame around it can be moved. This gives you a replacement, especially for the Active Desktop feature. You can create one for this and the welcome center by setting up your own small local HTML website from which you can start programs by clicking on the links. It’s not extremely useful, it has a fiddly character – but the fiddling with XML file internals with regard to the Vista welcome center was also a problem back in the day.
To create such a “website starts programs” tool, use the editor (accessible with Windows R, notepad and the Enter key) a file that you save to the drive with Ctrl-S with the ending “.htm”. Give her the following content:
Program starter
Program starter
Click on the links below to start programs:
Start Notepad
Call Winver
Call CMD
Call Explorer
function startProgram(programPath) { try { var shell = new ActiveXObject(“WScript.Shell”); shell.Run(programPath); } catch (e) { alert(“An error has occurred – any error message can appear here”); } }
Important: Edit the code so that it says “Script” instead of “Xscript”. For technical reasons, we are publishing the two phrases differently here. Modern browsers do not run the work because it relies on ActiveX technology, which practically only Internet Explorer can handle. This is not a problem if you use the add-on “IE Tab” install to the IE rendering engine to spill over into the modern Google Chromium fork. Before a program starts when you click on the associated hyperlink on the HTML page, a security warning must be confirmed. ActiveX is suitable as an attack vehicle in other contexts. Better safe than sorry. In this respect, Microsoft has not built support for this into its Edge browser and other web clients do not support ActiveX either.
We have designed the example HTML code so that the website accessed via it with links triggers the start of Winver, CMD and Explorer. The whole thing is just as outdated as the tool from stefanbion.de linked at the top of the article, which is based on the Internet Explorer renderer “Trident”. Browser bookmarks and are useful in everyday life Taskbar shortcuts. But they don’t have the nostalgic charm of old technologies that lies dormant in Windows Vista and Windows XP.
