LSCE Windows 10 Configuration (recommended by JYP)

Other Windows 10 related notes

Accessing the Windows Settings

The easiest way to access the main Windows Settings panel is to press the special Windows key on the keyboard and the I key: Win + I

This is same thing as clicking on the Windows Start icon (at the bottom left of the screen) and then on the Settings (cogwheel) icon

The main panel looks like this, by default

You can click on C'est parti! and then make sure that you click on the Remind me later in the device configuration window

The new Settings panel will then have a direct shortcut to the Windows Update panel

Knowing your LSCE computer

Some practical details

Your LSCE computer is your (best) friend. It can be useful to know its name, if you need to get technical help from the LSCE admins. One of the ways to determine the computer name is to use the msinfo32 command.

The available accounts

You will use some of the following accounts on your Windows computer:

your regular your_login LSCE account, followed by the @LSCE.IPSL.FR string: your_login@LSCE.IPSL.FR

you should see your account information at the top of the Settings window you get when you type Win+I

the password is the same one you use to access the LSCE obelix servers

this account will fortunately work even when you are not connected to the LSCE network! Read Starting your computer faster if you don't like waiting when opening a session

you will also have to use your_login (without @LSCE.IPSL.FR) and your LSCE password when accessing some links on this web page (that you are reading now), pointing to pages located on the LSCE intranet, if you are outside of LSCE

the administrator account, that you will need when changing some of your computer's settings, or when installing/updating some programs: .\admin

use .\admin in the popups asking you for an account with admin privileges, or possibly on the Windows login screen

the specific admin password was initialized by the sysadmins when they configured your computer. Send a mail to help-lsce if you forget it

your local account that you may need in some very rare cases (e.g. when trying to activate your Microsoft account on your LSCE computer, which you probably do not want)

use .\your_login on the Windows login screen if you need to use your local account

if you don't know the local password of your local account, use the .\admin account to change it, or ask help-lsce

there is a good chance that you don't really need to use your local account… Ask help-lsce

Your Microsoft account

Warning! Using a Microsoft account on a LSCE computer may have some inconvenient side effects

More information in the Connecting to your Microsoft account section

Starting your computer faster

If your computer has been configured at LSCE, it will always try to connect to the LSCE (local) network to check if your password has changed, when you type your password on the login screen.
If you are not on the LSCE wired network (e.g when you use the eduroam or ORME ACCES (aka guest) WiFi or when you are outside LSCE), there will be a 1-2 minutes delay until Windows is sure that it can't connect to the LSCE password server before starting the session… Windows is not slow, this is just an annoying connection timeout delay.
The easy workaround is just to temporarily interrupt the network, type your password, and then restart the network

laptop + WiFi: you just have to activate the airplane mode, type your password, and leave the airplane mode

Activating airplane mode from the login screen: look for disable Wi-Fi in How to enable or disable Airplane mode on Windows 10

Turning off airplane mode from an active session: Turn airplane mode on or off

Desktop or laptop connected to an ethernet cable outside LSCE: in this rare case, just be patient, or temporarily unplug the network cable

When you (re)start your computer, you have to wait for Windows to start, launch your applications, type your passwords, etc… Fortunately, you can also restart from the exact same state when you stopped using the computer, by using the hibernation mode (aka Mise en veille prolongée).

Your computer will not use the battery when it is hibernating

All network connections will of course be brutally closed when your computer enters hibernation, so it is better to cleanly close the remote applications (text editors, etc…) and terminals before hibernation

Laptop: touchpad settings

There are many actions that you can perform with a touchpad, instead of using a 2-3 buttons mouse, including simulating a right-click and middle-click. Impress your friends and Mac users with what you can do with your fingers

Be sure to:

at least have a quick look atTouchpad gestures for Windows page

check and configure/improve the default Settings: Win+I ⇒ Devices ⇒ Touchpad

this is The Place where you can specify that tapping the touchpad with THREE fingers will simulate clicking on the Middle Button of a mouse

Reminder: tapping the touchpad with TWO fingers will simulate clicking on the Right Button of a mouse

Using keyboard shortcuts

There are more shortcuts than CTRL-C, CTRL-V and CTRL-Z!

You can easily save some time by learning other Windows keyboard shortcuts. Have at least a quick look at the page and visit it again later

Examples:

Win + I: open Windows Settings

That's faster than clicking on Start and then clicking on Settings…

Win + L: lock screen

Laptop and WiFi

LSCE guest network

This is the network your guests can use when they visit LSCE, but this is also a way for you to get WiFi access at LSCE when eduroam is not configured yet. Do not forget that you will need to download a configuration package before you can use eduroam

guest network configuration

eduroam network

This is the most convenient way to use WiFi at LSCE, and when you travel to other research labs (including foreign labs)

Do not forget to take care of the eduroam network configuration when you are at LSCE and when you can easily make sure that eduroam is working correctly!

Activating system protection by Recovery

Visit Recovery options in Windows 10 and follow the steps below to make sure that the system protection by recovery is activated:

English: follow the steps in Restore from a system restore point and make sure that Turn on system protection option is activated for the C:\ drive

Français: suivez le début des instructions dans Restaurer à partir d'un point de restauration système et vérifiez que la protection du système est Activée pour le disque C:\

Plus précisément: Panneau de configuration ⇒ Chercher recovery ⇒ Configurer la Restauration du système ⇒ Vérifier si la protection de C:\ est Activée dans l'onglet Protection du système du panneau Propriétés système. Sinon sélectionner C:\ puis cliquer sur Configurer…

Updating your computer (Windows, MS Office, drivers, ...)

LSCE users: January 2022 - Windows Update may tell you that your computer is ready to upgrade to Windows 11 ⇒ Do not upgrade to Windows 11 yet!

Even if your computer is brand new, it may not be completely up-to-date… Check the windows and computer manufacturer updates several times when you are configuring your new computer.

Keep on checking regularly for updates later. Depending on your settings, you may receive notifications that some updates are available, but it is safer to check regularly yourself

Displaying the Computer icon on the desktop

This will allow you to access your disks more conveniently/quickly. Follow the steps below and move the Computer icon (This PC or Ce PC) to the top left of the screen, and the Recycle Bin icon to the bottom left

Show desktop icons in Windows 10

Using the VPN

A correct VPN (Virtual Private Network) configuration will allow you to access CEA resources (LSCE is outside the CEA network), and LSCE resources (e.g. disk servers, jupyterhub) as if your computer was physically connected to the LSCE network

VPN usage and configuration

Configuring folders and shortcuts

If you have followed the steps above to display the Computer icon on the desktop, you should now be able to easily access your disks!

The most important folders

You should have most of your files in (sub-folders of) the two following folders (create them if they don't exist yet). If you are moving from another computer, maybe you just have to copy these folders from the previous computer

Local HOME FOLDER: <some_disk_different_from_c>:\Users\<your_login>

This is where you keep your work. Do not put this folder on the C:\ system disk/partition (unless you have only one partition on the computer)

This folder is different from your Windows User folder! ⇒ C:\Users\<your_login>

Note: documents on your desktop are located in C:\Users\<your_login>\Desktop

Remember to make a backup of this folder regularly!

You can use a Backup program to easily and quickly save your work

Local SCRATCH FOLDER: <another_disk>:\Scratch\<your_login>

The place where you store your temporary files, installation programs, etc…

It's OK to put this folder on the C:\ drive, if you have enough space on C:\

Remember to clean this folder from time to time, especially if you need some disk space

Local OWNCLOUD FOLDER: <some_disk_different_from_c>:\Users\<your_login>_owncloud

You can take care of this later, only if you need to use sharebox and ownCloud

It's convenient to have your HOME (<your_login>) and OWNCLOUD (<your_login>_owncloud) folders close together (i.e. as sub-directories of the same folder)

Remember that your space on the sharebox server is limited !

Only put in the OWNCLOUD folder the data that you want to mirror to the LSCE cloud, and possibly share with other computers

Creating folder shortcuts on the desktop

Local folders

Use the file explorer to go to your local HOME folder, click on the small folder icon at the left of the bar displaying the folder location, and drag the icon on the desktop. This will create a shortcut that you can rename Home Local

Do the same thing to create a Scratch Local shortcut on the desktop, pointing to the local SCRATCH folder

if the Scratch folder is on C:\, right-click on the <your_login> folder in Scratch and select Create a shortcut, then drag the created shortcut to the desktop

Note: if you install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Ubuntu later, you can also create a Home WSL shortcut to your local Linux home directory in \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\<your_login>

Folders on the LSCE servers

When your computer is physically connected to the LSCE network (or connected to the LSCE VPN !!), open the file explorer, type \\dfshost\dfs\home in the location field and press Return to display the content of your Linux home directory. Grab the folder icon at the left of the location field, drop it on the desktop and rename it Home Linux.

Do the same thing with \\dfshost\dfs\scratch01\<your_login> and create a Scratch Linux shortcut

You can access other LSCE remote disks by starting from the \\dfshost\dfs location and navigating to the disk you are interested in For security reasons, only backed up disks and scratch01 can be accessed from Windows with dfs

Displaying hidden folders and files, and the files' extension

Follow the steps in Show hidden files (Windows 10) in order to open the File Explorer options' panel

In the View(EN)/Affichage(FR) tab:

select Show hidden files, folders, and drives

FR: Afficher les fichiers, dossiers et lecteurs cachés

uncheck the option Hide extensions for known file types

FR: Masquer les extensions des fichiers dont le type est connu

Checking power settings and activating hibernation

You may want to use different settings for a desktop that is always connected to a power source and the LSCE network a laptop with a battery you want to spare You can also spare a laptop's battery by disabling Wifi and Bluetooth when you don't need them

Go to the Power panel: Win+I ⇒ System ⇒ Power and sleep

Check/choose when the screen and PC should go to sleep

If you have to maintain a network connection (ssh, VcXsrv, etc…) you have to set up the options so that the computer will never go to sleep (at least not when it's connected to a power source, for laptops!)

Select Never (or a duration longer than your lunch break) in the Sleep pull-down menu

Go to Additional power settings ⇒ Choose what the power button does ⇒ Change settings that are currently unavailable

Select when the computer should sleep (FR: Veille), hibernate (FR: Veille prolongée) or shutdown, depending on buttons/keys you use

If you have a laptop that has a dedicated Sleep button (e.g. Fn key and the function key with a moon logo), it is really useful to enable Hibernate when you press the Sleep button of the laptop

If your laptop has no dedicated Sleep button, you can still choose to sleep/hibernate in the Start⇒Power menu

When your laptop is in Sleep mode, it will still use some of the battery, but no power is required for the Hibernate mode.

More details

Tech notes:

If you want to save space and remove the hibernation file (C:\hiberfil.sys) on a desktop because you know that you will never use hibernate, you can just type powercfg -h off in a cmd shell (powercfg -h on to re-activate). You should always use hibernation on a laptop, for performance reasons

On a laptop, you can generate an HTML file with useful battery information (that will be saved to C:\Users\jypeter\battery-report.html)
powercfg /batteryreport

Working with virtual desktops

Usage

Open the Task View with Win+Tab, or by clicking on the Task View button, and click on New desktop. You can click on a desktop name to rename it and organize your work more efficiently (existing desktops and names will be preserved when you reboot your computer).

It's very easy to move windows from one desktop to another, and to use keyboard shortcuts to switch between existing desktops, but you should start with a quick tutorial (or an older tutorial)

Keyboard shortcuts

Open Task view: Win + Tab

Cycle through the virtual desktops: Win + CTRL + left or right arrow

Hint! On a laptop, you can swipe left or right with four fingers on the trackpad to go to the previous/next desktop

Create a desktop: Win + CTRL + D

Close current desktop: Win + CTRL + F4

More Windows keyboard shortcuts

Restoring applications' settings from another computer

It is possible to restore some applications' settings, when they are located in a standard folder

Thunderbird

Firefox

Activating Microsoft Office update

It seems that you will not automatically receive Microsoft Office updates. You have to manually activate this

More things to check and configure

Check the Windows 10 activity history and your privacy settings to determine the activity history information (the files you have opened) you want to keep locally, and share with your other Windows devices (through your Microsoft account) and Microsoft.

Warning! Using settings that are too strict may have side effects and prevent applications from working correctly: e.g. if you specify that to application can use the camera, the camera will never work even if you have correct drivers!

Using ownCloud and sharebox to synchronize folders

More information on the dedicated page.

Connecting to your Microsoft account

It's possible that you have a Microsoft account linked to some email address (e.g. a gmail address) that you use on a non-LSCE computer.

Using a Microsoft account makes it possible to recover some settings from another Windows computer, or reinstall applications that you have bought through the Microsoft Store. But using a Microsoft account on a computer configured at LSCE can have some unforeseen side effects that you probably want to avoid… If your computer wants you to configure Windows Hello instead of using your LSCE password, you have probably done something wrong!

Adding useful applications

Visit the Installing extra applications for Windows 10 and get what you need

Configuring WSL to use Ubuntu on your computer

If you work on remote Linux servers, but also want to do some Linux stuff locally (possibly when you are offline or have a poor network connection), follow the steps on the Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Ubuntu page!

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