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  • Windows 11 Installation

    Last Updated 26 August 2026

    The procedure for installing Windows is constantly changing and the current Windows 11 installation requires the PC to be connected to the Internet and a Microsoft Account. To install Windows 11 as standalone PC with a local account and also enable access to shared drives has become a quite complicated.

    Windows 11 Installation and Enabling Access to Shared Drives Overview

    The last version of Windows 11 that can be configured to access shared drives without having to enter usernames and passwords each time is version 22H2. Unfortunately version 22H2 has now reached end of life and cannot be updated to the latest version via Windows Update, so the procedure for getting Windows 11 up and running has become quite complicated.

    • If it’s a new PC with Windows 11 pre-intalled, set the PC up and connect it to the Internet
    • Power up the PC and follow the onscreen instructions to install Windows 11 ( Installation will require a Microsoft account )
    • Use Double Driver to create a backup of the PC’s device drivers and copy them to USB flashdrive
    • Use Rufus to create a Windows 11 22H2 local user installation flashdrive
    • Disconnect the PC from the Internet and do a clean install of Windows 11 22H2
    • Check for missing device drivers and if nessary install any missing drivers from the Double Driver backup
    • Use RegEdit to fix Shared Drive Access
    • Use Rufus to create a Windows 11 local user installation flashdrive using the latest version of Windows 11
    • Update the PC to the latest version of Windows 11
    • Check that Shared Drives is working

    Pre-Installed Windows 11 Installation


    This will will configure the hard drive and install Windows 11. Use Double Driver to create a backup of the device drivers.

    • Set the PC up and connect it to the Internet
    • Power the PC up and follow the onscreen instructions
    • Select – Set up for Personal Use
    • Select – Set up as new PC
    • Say ‘No’ to all of the offers and options which collect data
    • Windows installation will now complete
    • Run Windows Update
    • Run Dell Command Update to install Dell updates
    • Open Device Manager and check for missing drivers
    • Create a backup of the device drivers using Double Driver
    • Copy the device driver backup to a USB flash drive

    Windows 11 22H2 Local User Install

    • Use Rufus to create a local user Windows 11 22H2 installation USB flash drive
    • Disconnect the PC from the Internet (Disconnect the LAN cable)
    • Plug in the Windows 11 installation USB flash drive
    • Power up the PC and repeatedly press F12 to bring up the boot menu
    • Select the Windows 11 installation USB flash drive
    • Follow the onscreen instructions
    • Select Custom Install to keep nothing and overwrite the previous installation
    • Windows installation will now complete
    • Open Device Manager and check for missing drivers
    • If nessesay, install any missing drivers from the Double Driver backup

    Shared Drive Access – Registry Change

    • Open the Run command by Pressing windows + R
    • Enter regedit and press enter
    • Navigate to the following path:
      Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
    • Expand the Windows Registry Key and look for the LanmanWorkstation registry key. If it’s not already there, you will need to create it
    • Right click on the Windows registry key
    • Choose New > Key and name the key as LanmanWorkstation
    • Click on the LanmanWorkstation registry key
    • From the right-hand window right click and choose New > DWORD 32 bit Value and name it AllowInsecureGuestAuth
    • Double click on the AllowInsecureGuestAuth DWORD and set the value to 1
    • Close Regedit
    • Restart the PC
    • Connect the PC to the network
    • Check that Shared Drive access is working

    Set Password to Never Expire

    • Press Win + R, type lusrmgr.msc, and hit Enter
    • Click on Users in the left-hand menu
    • Under the General tab, check the box that says Password never expires
    • Click Apply and then OK

    Update Windows 11 to the Latest Version

    • Download the ISO for the latest version of Windows 11
    • Use Rufus to create a local user Windows 11 installation USB flash drive
    • Plug in the Windows 11 installation USB flash drive
    • Open Explorer and click on the USB flash
    • Click on Setup to start the installation
    • Follow the onscreen instructions
    • Windows installation will now complete
    • Open Device Manager and check for missing drivers
    • If nessesay, install any missing drivers from the Double Driver backup
    • Check that Shared Drive access is still working

    Final Tasks
    Before installing user application software, check that all of the Windows 11 and Dell updates installed.

    Windows Updates

    • Settings -> Windows Updates -> Check for Updates
    • Reboot the PC if required
    • Repeat until no more updates are found

    Disk Clean-Up
    Run Disk Clean-Up to tidy up the hard drive and delete the old Windows installations

    • Open Run command by Pressing windows + R
    • Enter disk cleanup and press enter
    • Click on Clean-up system files
    • Select everything
    • Click Ok to delete old versions of Windows

  • Windows 11 – Password Expiry

    Set password to never expire.

    • Press Win + R, type lusrmgr.msc, and hit Enter
    • Click on Users in the left-hand menu
    • Double-click on the user account to open Properties
    • Under the General tab, check the box that says Password never expires
    • Click Apply and then OK

  • Adobe Photoshop Elements – Windows 11

    Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 will install on Windows 11 but it can cause a device driver issue , ‘PX Engine Device Driver for 64-bit Windows’. This error should not be ingored as the PC may well ‘blue screen’ on the nexty start up.

    The PX Engine Device Driver,  pxhlpa64.sys, is a SONIC/ROXIO DVD burner driver is automatically installed by Adobe Photoshop Elements but it is not required for the program to run. To fix the error go to ‘Windows\System32\Drivers’ and rename pxhlpa64.sys to something else or delete it. To be safe, also check the ‘C:\Program files (x86)\common files\sonic shared; directory and anywhre else you can find it as well.

    • Before begining the installation, create a restore point
    • Install Adobe Photoshop Elements
    • Open Explorer and go to Windows\System32\Drivers
    • Rename or delete pxhlpa64.sys
    • Go to C:\Program files (x86)\common files\sonic shared (if it exists)
    • Rename or delete pxhlpa64.sys
    • Reboot the system

  • Use Gmail to Send From Another Address

    Use Gmail to send from other email addresses.

    1. Go to Gmail account settings. Click the Settings icon at the top right, and click on “See all settings”.
    2. Go to the “Accounts and Import” tab.
    3. Look for the “Send email as” section and click on “Add another email address”. A popup should appear.
    4. In this popup, type in the name recipients will see.
    5. Enter the email address, eg max@example.com.
    6. Set the SMTP server to smtp.gmail.com and the port to 587.
    7. The username should be the part of the Gmail address before the @. So, if it’s max.example@gmail.com, just use max.example.
    8. Now, the password part gets interesting. Normally, the Gmail password would go here, but there’s a twist (thanks to Google’s tight security regarding its own products). The steps would be different depending on whether you have Two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled on your account or not.
      1. Without 2FA: Visit https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps and enable access for “less secure apps”. Then, use the Gmail password in the still-open Gmail popup.
      2. With 2FA: Head to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords, create a new “App password” named “Gmail” or something similar. Copy the provided code and use it as the password in the Gmail popup.
    9. After navigating through these steps, a field asking for a confirmation code should appear. Check the inbox for an email containing this code. Copy it into the popup field to finalize the setup.
    10. In Gmail settings under “Accounts and Import” → “Send mail as”, and in the “When replying to a message:” section, choose “Reply from the same address the message was sent to”, for convenience.

  • Sharing Phone Internet via Bluetooth to PC

    To share the internet, follow the steps below:

    Change settings on your phone:

    1. Open Settings on your phone.
    2. Navigate to Internet section and go to Hotspot & tethering.
    3. Enable Bluetooth tethering.

    You may want to check your phone manual as options may be represented differently.

    Change settings on your computer:

    1. Press Windows logo key + I, to open Settings.
    2. Click on Devices and turn on Bluetooth.
    3. Click on Add Bluetooth or other device, select Bluetooth and pair your phone.
    4. After pairing the phone click on the arrow on the System tray of Taskbar.
    5. Right click on Bluetooth icon and select Join a Personal Area Network.
    6. Now, right click on the phone, select Connect using and select Access point.

  • Windows 11 – Install Without a Microsoft Account

    May 2025

    How to bypass the need for an MS online account when first setting up Windows 11:

    • Hit Shift + F10 to open command line
    • Type “start ms-cxh:localonly”
    • This will pull up a new window that will allow you to create a local account.
      (Note – this is updated – Microsoft recently disabled the “OOBE\BYPASSNRO” command)

  • Reinstall Windows 10 and Keep Your Personal Files, Apps, and Windows Settings

    Providing a PC is still bootable, and Windows 10 is up and running, you can reinstall Windows 10 from an ISO image file and keep your personal files, apps, and Windows settings. An ISO file, commonly known as ISO image, is an archive file that contains an identical copy or image of data found on an optical disc, such as a CD or DVD.

    Before starting the process, make sure that you have a good backup of all the personal files on the PC.

    Follow the steps below to reinstall Windows 10 using ISO image:

    • Download Microsoft’s media creation tool to create Windows 10 ISO file
      • Open a browser and go to: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
      • Scroll down to ‘Create Windows 10 installation media’
      • Download and run the media creation tool
      • When asked What doi you want to do, select ‘Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD or ISO file) for another PC’ and click next
      • The options for Language = English, Edition = Windows 10 and Architecture = 64-bit (x64) should be preselected for you
      • Deselect ‘Use the recommended settings for this PC’ and click next
      • ‘Choose which media to use’, select ISO file and click next
      • Choose where to create the ISO file, by default you will be offered the filename ‘Windows’ and Documents folder
      • The download process begins.
    • After downloading the newly-created ISO file, right-click on it and select “Mount” to continue
    • Double-click the Setup.exe file at the root directory
    • Choose the correct option when prompted to “Download and install updates.” Choose the option if your computer is connected to the internet. If not, select “Not right now.” Click “Next” to continue
    • Click on “Change what to keep” in the subsequent popup window
    • Choose the option to “Keep personal files, apps, and Windows settings”
    • Click “Next” to install Windows 10
    • At the end of the installation process , the PC will reboot and return to the Desktop

    The media creation tool will take around 10-15mins, the Windows 10 installation should take less than an hour.

  • Windows 10 – Block Update to Windows 11

    The automatic update from Windows 10 to Windows 11 can be blocked by changing some registry keys.

    Be careful while using the Registry Editor, if you change the wrong key, you can mess up your system.

    It is very important to keep your system updated, always check for updates on Windows Update.

    Now follow these instructions to block Windows 11 Update:

    • Right Click the Start Menu and select “Run”
    • Type regedit and press Enter
    • On the Registry editor window, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
      (You can copy and paste the address on the address bar)
      If you can’t find the Windows Update key, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows, right click > New > Key , and name it WindowsUpdate
    • On the right side of the screen, right click > New > DWORD (32-bit) > and name it TargetReleaseVersion, double click it and set Value Data to 1
    • Again on the right side of the screen, right click > New > String Value > and name it ProductVersion , double click it and set Value Data to Windows 10
    • Again on the right side of the screen , right click > New > String Value > and name it TargetReleaseVersionInfo , double click it and set Value Data to 21h2

    A TargetedReleaseVersion is a group policy introduced with Windows 10 version 1803. If you specify a TargetReleaseVersion as the current Version, Windows 10 will remain on this release until it reaches the end of service. This would, hence blocking the Windows 11 update. The first command enables the policy, and the second specifies the target version.

  • How to fix “You can’t access this shared folder” on Windows 10/11

    Error message when trying to access a shared drive or folder:
    “You can’t access this shared folder because your organization’s security policies block unauthenticated guest access. These policies help protect your PC from unsafe or malicious devices on the network”

    Fixing this problem involves editing the Windows Registry. Be very careful when using the instructions below. Follow the instructions exactly and do not change anything else. If you don’t feel confident to continue, please seek assistance.

    Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs.

    Please refer to the following steps:

    • Open Run command by Pressing windows + R and type regedit and hit enter to open the registry editor.
    • Navigate to the following path:
      Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
    • Expand the Windows Registry Key and search for LanmanWorkstation registry key. If you are not able to find the registry key, then you will need to create it.
    • Right Click on the Windows Registry Key and Choose New > Key and name the Key as LanmanWorkstation.
    • Now Click on the LanmanWorkstation Registry key and from the right-hand window right click and choose New > DWORD 32 bit Value and name it as AllowInsecureGuestAuth. Double click on the AllowInsecureGuestAuth DWORD and set the value to 1 and click OK.
    • As the picture below:
    • Restart the system and check that the shared file is accessible.

  • How to Fix “The referenced account is currently locked out and may not be logged on to” Error on Windows 10/11

    This message indicates that the PC user has entered a wrong password a number of times and as a result of which, Windows has locked the account and prevented them from signing in for a particular period of time Windows does not display the specified lock out time, but it’s typically somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes. While

    Once you encounter “The referenced account is currently locked out and may not be logged on to” error, we would strongly recommend you leave the PC for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the log-in screen may be unlocked, and you may get a second chance to access your desktop.

    From experience, it’s worth trying to log into the PC from another computer via Remote Desktop. The account lock out may only be set to prevent access to the PC using the keyboard.

    Once you have managed to access your desktop successfully, you should disable the Account lockout threshold policy to prevent “The referenced account is currently locked out and may not be logged on to” error from showing up again.

    Fixing this problem involves editing the Windows Registry. Be very careful when using the instructions below. Follow the instructions exactly and do not change anything else. If you don’t feel confident to continue, please seek assistance.

    Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs.

    • Press Windows key + R, type secpol.msc, and hit Enter.
    • When the Local Security Policy window opens, select Security Settings.
    • Open Account Policy and select Account Lockout Policy.
    • Double-click on the Account lockout threshold policy (on the right) to open Settings configuration window.
    • To disable account lockout, replace the existing value with 0 and click Apply to save the changes.
    • Then press OK and close the Local Security Policy window.
    • Restart the PC

    The information here was taken from this website:
    https://ugetfix.com/ask/how-to-fix-the-referenced-account-is-currently-locked-out-and-may-not-be-logged-on-to-error-on-windows-10/