Photo missing from sign-in screen

Curious! I have three printers (B/W laser, color laser, and ink-jet photo) and a scanner connected to my PC by USB cables, but I can find no indication that drive letters are assigned to their USB ports. Besides, if I want to change a drive letter using either M$ Disk Management or Acronis Disk Director (I've done this many times), all drive letters not already assigned, as shown in my previous post, are available.

I should add that I use two USB flash drives; one is assigned the drive letter I:, and the other one K:. Those letters don't change, even if only one flash drive is in use.

 

I've updated the screenshot in post #20 to show Win7 with both USB flash drives plugged in AND my laser printer turned on. As you can see, the printer does not appear in the list. It seems to me that if your printer is assigned the letter Y: you must have done it yourself, but I don't understand how you can even see your printer, as it's not a drive.

I don't think you need to worry. I DID your test, and found that, as long as your HDD is not connected, the drive letter(s) you've assigned to it are available for use. When you connect it, the OS will assign the next available letter(s). I have two external HDDs; the 1TB is not partitioned, but the 500GB has three partitions. After connecting them and inserting the flash drives, the screenshot on the left shows the flash drives assigned the letters J: and K:. After removing the flash drives I re-assigned the letters for the two HDDs to include the drive letters previously assigned to the flash drives. After re-inserting the flash drives I took the screenshot on the right. As you can see, the OS didn't blink; it just assigned the next two available letters to the flash drives.

 

This afternoon I successfully installed Win10 Pro from a USB flash drive. I know now why several previous attempts were unsuccessful ... I simply didn't wait long enough after the initial Win10 logo appeared. It took more than 10 minutes before the next screen appeared, but then things went smoothly. Even though it was a clean install, information from the first installation must have been stored somewhere as, when it rebooted, there were my picture and the PIN box on the sign-in screen.. Also, Win10 was already activated. Now, I just have to get it customized.

 

Great news Jim! Thanks for keeping all of us updated.

 

Right out of the box. I think I'm going to have to repair the installation. Two examples: 1) the Action Center doesn't seem to exist, as there's no reference to it anywhere in the OS. 2) I can find no way to disable the lock screen.

 

Don't think a repair is needed. Things are located in different places and/or have been renamed.

Action Center

Lock Screen requires Registry Hack found on
Quickly Disable the Lock Screen

 

Thanks, Judy. I was running on fumes by the time I posted that, or I’d have done the research myself.

 

You're welcome.

 

Either we're talking apples and oranges or we're beating a dead horse (sorry about the clichés). It suddenly occurred to me that you're talking about what's happening in Win10, while I'm still looking at Win7! After I get back into Win10 I'll see if I can duplicate your experience.

In the meantime, can you open Disk Management and remove the drive letter? Possibly not, since the printer's USB port isn't actually a drive. To quote Lewis Carroll's Alice, "curiouser and curiouser!".

 

Sorry, but I can't answer that question, as none of my three printers has a USB port, nor does my scanner.

I'm back in Win7 right now, as I'm still setting up Win10. However, when I was in Win10 I turned on my printer, but it was displayed only in the setting that shows attached peripherals.

I have Win10's Tablet Mode turned off, but I still have the problem with windows opening and immediately minimizing unless I can get the mouse pointer into the window before it minimizes. There must be a solution for that behavior, but I have no idea what it might be.

 

To Maximize all windows just move the cursor to the bottom right on the screen (Right side of Taskbar) and click Mouse button

 

Thanks, Judy. I'm in Win7 right now, but I'll try your suggestion as soon as I boot back into Win10.

 

Another suggestion Jim, install Open Shell to make navigation through and with Windows 10 more what you are used to with other OS's. I do like it and therefore I also really like Windows 10 a lot. In fact I like it enough that when I have to use my Windows 7 computer I find it somewhat an irritant.

 

Looks like we're playing "post tag", Judy . I have OpenShell installed in Win10, but haven't had a chance to do any customizing.

You do know, don't you, that you can use OpenShell with Win7? I'm still using ClassicShell with Win7, but don't want to take the chance that I might mess things up by switching to OpenShell.

 

Yes I have always had it installed on Windows 7 that is why I put it on Windows 10. I still like Windows 10 better but to each his own. Of course Windows 7 is no longer supported because it reached its end of life cycle in January 2020 so no security updates will be released for Windows 7. That said, I do use Windows 7 when I have to use it but otherwise I upgraded my travel computer from 7 to 10 because I do use it when I can travel...few and far between times now of course..and I want to keep my accounts safe.

 

I "may" have found something. Have read several places that this behavior may be due to the built-in "Aero Snap" and "Aero Shake" features may also cause the automatic minimize problem in computers. Disabling Aero Snap and Aero Shake features fixes the issue.
Here is how you do this:
Open Control Panel and click on "Ease of Access Center" icon.
Now click on "Make it easier to focus on tasks".
Now enable "Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen" option given at last and click on Apply button.
This should disable "Aero Snap" feature and hopefully correct your minimizing problem.