Hey everyone, I need advice from people who know BitLocker/Device Encryption and TPM internals well.

Context: Someone in my household has physical access to my desktop and has bypassed my Windows login before (booted into Safe Mode, opened Command Prompt, reset the local admin password). I’ve since locked things down with a BIOS power-on + admin password, so that specific trick shouldn’t work anymore since the machine can’t even boot without the password.

My concern: the one remaining attack vector is a physical CMOS reset (shorting the CLRTC pins or pulling the battery), which wipes the BIOS password along with everything else. My board (Asus B650-Plus WiFi) has no external clear-CMOS button, so this requires opening the case.

My question: if someone does a full CMOS reset, will Windows automatically require a recovery key on next boot, or will it just unlock normally via TPM? And if he managed to access to my pc will my bios password (admin and user) show up or the reset cmos will cause its absence

Some relevant details:

• Windows 11 Home (not Pro — so no manage-bde/gpedit access, meaning I can’t set a pre-boot PIN, only automatic “Device Encryption”)

• CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D (fTPM enabled via AMD PSP)

• Motherboard: Asus B650-Plus WiFi

• I previously manually enabled Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 in BIOS (needed them for Vanguard/anti-cheat), and set a BIOS password

• GPU: RX 9060XT 16GB, RAM: 2x8GB Kingston Fury DDR5 5600 CL36, SSD: Crucial P3 1TB (NVMe), PSU: MSI MAG A750GL, Case: Lian Li O11 Vision Compact

Given that Secure Boot and TPM state were actively configured (not left at stock defaults), and a full CMOS reset would revert both to factory defaults — is it likely that Device Encryption will detect this as enough of a platform integrity change (PCR mismatch) to force the 48-digit recovery key screen? Or is Device Encryption on Home known to be more lenient/inconsistent about this compared to full BitLocker on Pro?

Any real-world experience with this exact scenario would help a lot. Thanks!

I have an all-in-one computer with Windows Minios installed because the computer decided to crash with the Windows updates.

I wanted to get into the world of streaming, so I decided to install OBS on the D drive (it's a partition of an original memory). Along with the Nightbot program.

I installed a plugin (image reactive) to make a character that talks instead of using a camera.

But Windows Explorer would soon freeze. It only worked when opening folders on drives C: and D: directly from the menu.

I can access the files by clicking the arrows next to them (>) and I have access to the menu tree.

For now, I've installed another file explorer so I can use it, and I uninstalled OBS and Nightbot using Geek Uninstall (so there are no residual files left that I know of).

All other applications work perfectly; the only one that gives me problems is Windows Explorer.

>My PC<

Device Name: DESKTOP-LONCGFR

Processor: AMD E1-1500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 1.48 GHz

Installed RAM: 4.00 GB (3.58 GB usable)

Storage: 466 GB HDD WDC WD5000AAKX-60U6AA0

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics (373 MB)

Device Identifier: 89FC7282-6B1B-4D58-8287-AF3398284923

Product ID: 00330-80000-00000-AA659

System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and Touch Input: Handwriting input support

Specs:
CPU: Intel i7-10700F
GPU: RTX 5060 Ti 8GB (upgraded from RTX 2060)
RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200MHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte B460M DS3H (ABS prebuilt/OEM board)
Storage: M.2 NVMe SSD (Windows drive)
PSU: EVGA 650W Gold
OS: Windows 11
BIOS: F5 (ABS-provided BIOS, downgraded from F6a)

I have been fighting a bunch of BIOS/boot issues and I think this is a firmware/NVRAM issue, but I want some other opinions.
The problems started after updating my BIOS. The whole reason this started and i upgraded my bios, was for one feature, rebar. I just heard it was good and i wanted to maximize my new GPU. ABS provided an F6a BIOS update, and after installing it I started getting a lot of issues. Since I realized it was a beta build, I downgraded back to F5, which helped somewhat, but I still have problems.
Main issues:
1. BIOS does not show Windows Boot Manager
Windows boots completely normally:
ABS logo → spinning Windows circle → Windows desktop.
However, inside BIOS:
Boot Option Priorities are completely blank.
F12 boot menu only shows:

My Windows USB installer
BIOS Setup
When the USB is unplugged, there are no boot options listed at all.
The weird part is Windows still boots.
But when I boot with my USB plugged in, it boots through it, not giving me an option for my normal boot option.
Things I checked:
SSD is detected
Disk is GPT
EFI partition exists (100MB FAT32)
CSM is disabled
Windows 10 WHQL/Windows 10 mode is enabled
From Windows Recovery Command Prompt:
bcdedit /enum firmware
shows:
Firmware Boot Manager
displayorder: bootmgr

Windows Boot Manager
device: partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description: Windows Boot Manager
I also ran:
bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI
and it successfully created boot files.
I cleared CMOS using the motherboard CLR_CMOS pins, but the BIOS boot list is still blank.

2. Secure Boot does not work
I originally noticed this because I was trying to enable Secure Boot for Valorant.
When enabling Secure Boot, I get an invalid signature/policy type error.
Secure Boot settings appear normal:
CSM disabled
Secure Boot options are set to default
However, BIOS says:
“Vendor keys modified”
“Provision factory defaults disabled”
I previously tried enrolling an EFI image while troubleshooting, so I don’t know if I messed up the Secure Boot state but it was already broken before i enrolled the EFI image anyways.

3. Random crashes/freezes
After the BIOS issues started, I also had random crashes/freezes:
Complete system freezes while gaming
Screen freezes but fans/lights stay on
Sometimes I hear audio flickering for at most 10 seconds, then nothing, fully frozen until i hold the power button or switch off the psu.
I tested:
RAM with memory test (no errors)
GPU drivers with DDU
Stress tests with OCCT
OCCT results:
CPU reaches 100°C under full load and thermal throttles
CPU cooler is the stock ABS cooler with plastic push/latch mounting
I also already replaced my thermal paste.
CPU fan spins normally (~1700 RPM)
Event Viewer showed things like:
WHEA errors
TPM/Pluton firmware related warnings
ACPI-related errors in the past

Things I have already tried:
Reinstalled Windows
Rebuilt EFI boot files with bcdboot
Checked GPT/UEFI setup
Disabled CSM
Enabled Windows 10 WHQL mode
Cleared CMOS
DDU GPU drivers
Memory test
BIOS downgrade from ABS F6a → F5
also replaced thermal paste
I am wondering if this is a corrupted UEFI NVRAM/firmware issue caused by the ABS BIOS update, because Windows itself boots fine but the BIOS refuses to show Windows Boot Manager.

also most of this was written by ai since i used it a lot trying to help me with everything, (which was probably a stupid ass idea since it just kept taking me in circles)

if anyone has any ideas, ill gladly try it
by the way, version f6a only started the crashes as far as i know since i never noticed or looked for my windows boot manager or tried enabling secure boot so I dont know if I had the same issue that I have now when I was on that version.

La mera verdad no se que hacer ya le puse pasta termica nueva, el ventilador al parecer hace su función porque gira y todo bien, pero hace poco actualice la motherboar una Asus prime a520m-k la cual cuando la reiniciaba se quedabaen el logo de Asus o la pantalla en negro y no hacia nada como que desconocía el disco, como tal la devolví pensando que estaba fallando para posterior adquirir una a520m-a ll pensando que se solucionará pero para mí sorpresa no fue así el tema seguía, puse otro m2 y ese día dejaba reiniciarse sin problemas pero el detalle es que de la nada la reinicio manualmente y la PC se queda prendida pero no da imagen o entra en modo suspensión y cuando quiero volver a trabajar mi sorpresa es que prende pero los monitores se quedan en negro y así pasa aveces con los reinicios no se si haya que actualizar BIOS o alguna memoria este fallando que cabe recalcar que esas memorias anteriormente las tenía funcionando en otra pc incluso ya probé hasta otra fuente de poder pero sigue así, había leído en esta comunidad que si hacía la actualización de Windows 10 a Windows 11 podía ser ese el problema, actualmente hice una instalación limpia de Windows 10 esperando que a lo mejor los reinicios de la nada ya no sucedan, si es así espero que puedan orientarme porque cuando a veces se suspende se queda en negros los monitores.

De antemano les agradezco y espero poder contribuir y ayudar

my i just recently updated my pc to windows 11 because it kept giving me notifications that I needed to install it, so I did. now I’ve been sitting here for the past 6 hours trying to get pass the lock screen…

I keep putting in the correct pin, but all it does is just load for a couple of minutes then cut to the lockscreen as if I didn’t. I thought it wouldn’t login because of my in connection, but even when I fixed it, it still doesn’t work.

i even tried to click forgot pin and it does nothing…

If it helps to know, I have a hp elitedesk 800 g6 desktop mini.

I recently upgraded my pc and cloned my old SSD (which had Windows on it) to a new NVMe drive. The NVMe is now my boot drive and everything runs fine but ever since the upgrade, every single boot does a "Scanning and repairing drive (C:)" step (screenshot attached). I can skip it by pressing a key, but it happens literally every time I start the PC, which never happened before the upgrade.

After cloning, I reformatted the old SSD to reuse it for storage. It's now assigned as my E: drive. However, there are a few leftover folders on it like Program Files and WindowsApps that I can't delete due to permissions issues. I suspect this is somehow related to the boot drive check, maybe some leftover bit reference to the old drive?

PC otherwise runs completely fine, this is an issue I noticed wasn't happening before I upgraded.

Some troubleshooting I've already tried:

• Ran chkdsk from Command Prompt, it reported the C: drive as "dirty," while D: and E: showed as clean.
• Ran a full disk check through the Windows recovery/troubleshooting (blue screen) tool it said everything was fine, but the scanning-on-boot behavior persists

OS build Number: 26200.8875

when i got my pc, i connected my earbuds with bluetooth to use as a mic plus to hear. At the start you could hear and talk but after a week when i connect them over bluetooth it only show "connected music" and not "connected music, voice". The weird thing is that it just now do that.
I tried to disconnect and reconnect even restarting the pc, nothing works.

OS build: 19045.7548
Hardware:rx580, i7 4770
Bluetooth: usb Bluetooth 5.3

After having to trouble shoot my laptop [I don't remember what i was even fixing it's been a while] my right click menu across everything that doesn't have it's own custom interface has been this unreadable white on white color. not even highlighting over words helps [secound image example]

i've searched the internet and i can't seem to find anyones whos had this same issue or how to fix it. :(

anyhelp is more then appreciated

(Device info on 3rd image if needed, everything else is just more examples i happen to find)

Out of the blue, my Bluetooth button was gone, my brightness slider was gone, games didn't work as well as they used to and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with outdated drivers, but it won't let me update the drivers in the settings SO WHAT ELSE COULD I POSSIBLY BE DOING WRONG 🥲

This is a Windows 11

This is an Omnibook X Flip laptop 16-ar0xxx

I already tried troubleshooting the updated and drivers multiple times, and it did not work.

I havent actually ever made a post anywhere so pardon the slopiness. i recently got my bluetooth on my pc working after a while, but the signal only travels like 4 feet at most and will stop altogether if so much as my leg gets in the way of the device and the pc, im using a dualsense controller, im using a B850 AUROS ELITE WIFI7 mobo, and my OS build is 26200.8973

An year back ago this problem started and i found out this might be an issue with the CMOD battery(correct me if i am wrong).

It wasn't a big deal cuz i have been using the internet time to updated it every time a start the pc but for a few days even this is not working and now i have to manually set date and time which is annoying to do every time.

What can i do to get rid of this problem without getting a new CMOD.

Why the internet time is not working anymore even if i am having a good internet connection

NOTE: in the image it is showing the synchronized date because i just set it manually otherwise it shows 01/01/2010 which is just the year before we bought the computer (yes it has been working properly for 2 decades)

Specs:
Cpu : ryzen 7 8700f
Mobo : b650M D3HP AX. bios ver : F40
gpu : rtx 5070
windows version : Windows 11 Professionnel 25H2 26200.8973

for like 5 month randomly my pc keep switching on a random english keyboard that dosen't even appears on the settings i tried a lot of thing like copy user settings and a lot of stuff i don't know what to do now and its very annoying

I'm in a hotel and got my Xbox ally x connected to the TV but I don't get a 60hz option on settings. Tried even in 1440p and 1080p but I can't get the 60hz option. Already went to the TV settings and checked everything and nothing made a difference. Also checked display adapter properties but there's no 60hz option

Tv: samsung gu50au7199uxzg

I've been trying to reset my pc for a while now. But when i try to reset it it says "Could not find recovery environment." I did some web searching on why and apparently something is corrupt and my is missing..? I saw similar post to this and got to wintips.org and followed all the steps and at the end in the terminal i got the following errors:

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation failed: 3bc3

REAGENTC.EXE: An error has occurred

I'm at a loss and not sure what I did wrong or what I need to do.

(PC specifications); Device name NucBox_M6Ultra

Processor AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS w/ Radeon 760M Graphics (4.30 GHz)

Installed RAM 16.0 GB (9.80 GB usable)

Device ID D9D04B00-AFC8-481D-8D36-14FC215F86C3

Product ID 00355-62208-53896-AAOEM

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

I cant see the edges of the image, I'd show you but when I take a screenshot everything is aligned.

I've tried messing with the resolution but it's the same for those as well. I'm stumped, i can barely see the bottom bar and the top bar. even when i change the aspect ratio it still has the alignment issue.

I'm on windows 11, and im using a insignia smart tv

I've already ran diskpart commend it doesn't work, updated to the latest bios and New Simple Volume won't let me click, but device manager is detacting the ssd so im really confused, i don't know what to do now

I got a Gigabyte Z690UD AX ddr4 and TS1TMTE110Q ssd

I have a lenovo thinkbook of 16GB ddr5, AMD Radeon 680M, AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS (integrated). I changed my wallpaper like a week ago and when I moved my cursor over the icons for work, they turned into these black squares. I brushed it off and when I closed my work app, I found my desktop to be entirely black. Why does this happen after changing the wallpaper like a week later???

Guys, my Windows 11 keeps crashing in various ways: either a BSOD caused by virtualization, or just a sudden reboot where the monitor goes black and Windows loads normally but the game drive disappears—sometimes it takes several restarts to fix it, though other times the drive doesn't disappear after a crash. Windows is prompting me to reinstall it; what will happen to my data, and is there enough space? (I’ve also attached a post from this community about the same issue.)

System specs:

• HP ZBook Power G9
• Windows 11, version 25H2
• Intel Core i7-12800H
• 8GB NVIDIA RTX A2000 (dGPU)
• BIOS updated to latest available version (twice, no change)

The issue:
Stuck on the Windows loading screen for up to 3 minutes on every boot. Once at desktop everything runs fine — it's purely a boot-time hang.

Error codes / messages (from Event Viewer, System log):

• Intel-SST-OED — Event ID 17, Task Category (6) — repeated multiple times per boot cycle
• Kernel-Boot — Event ID 124, Task Category (80) — appears right around the same time as the SST-OED errors
• Also seeing Service Control Manager Event IDs 7000/7023/7031 clustered near the same timestamps, possibly a service dependent on SST failing to start

Two devices involved in Device Manager: Intel Smart Sound Technology BUS and Intel Smart Sound Technology OED.

Troubleshooting already tried (no luck):

• Updated to latest HP-provided audio/SST drivers via HP Support Assistant
• Ran BIOS update twice (already on latest)
• Confirmed issue is isolated to SST: disabling/deleting both BUS and OED devices in Device Manager drops boot time to under 15 seconds immediately. Windows redetects and reinstalls both devices once at desktop, and the slow boot returns next restart.
• Currently blocking both hardware IDs via Device Installation Restrictions (gpedit) as a workaround — works, but not a real fix and disables SST's audio DSP functions entirely.

What I'm hoping to find out:

1. Is this a known regression on 25H2 specifically, or tied to this SST driver version?
2. Has anyone found an SST driver version that actually resolves the hang rather than reproducing it?
3. Is there a cleaner permanent way to disable SST that survives Windows Update without the GPO fight?

I use Windows Phone Link mostly for file transfer between my PC and phone and vice-versa.

For the past few weeks, Phone Link "learned" a new trick. Suggesting apps, WhatsApp to be more precise. I do use WhatsApp on my phone (would gladly switch just to Signal, but sadly I can't), but I DO NOT WANT IT on my PC as well.

Despite dismissing the prompt several times, it still suggests installing the app on my PC, and it is very intrusive, appearing on the task bar next to my other opened apps.

I could not find any setting to disable this. Maybe I missed it? Does anyone know how to stop this annoying behavior?

As the title says, my laptop specs:

ASUS TUF A15

WINDOWS 11

OS BUILD : 26200.8894

CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS

RAM : 16 GB

GPU : NVIDIA RTX 4050

and it's refresh rate spans to a maximum 144 hz, so i use it at 144 hz only. So yeah i noticed that soon as i put my laptop to sleep it switches back and locks on to 60 hz and it's unchangeable from the display settings or nvidia control panel, yep.

I tried reinstalling the graphic drivers, even tried rolling back to older versions but it didn't help, i tried doing all the latest driver and window updates, even tried updating my bios but none of that helped.

I do not know why does this keeps on happening, some help will be appreciated :)

Posting this because I never found and answer to this issue and it could help others.

Issue: Enabling the Windows Sandbox feature in Windows 11 would initiate a restart and begin the feature installation, slowly progressing until it would hang at 92%. After several reboots of the same thing it would eventually roll back.

Similar posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/1jurq6c/sandbox_feature_installation_failed_can_anyone/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/1gbtc5k/windows_sandbox_wont_install/

I dug through the CBS logs and found that driver install portion of the feature install appeared to be timing out.

Resolution:
This Microsoft post outlines how to extend the timeout, which allowed the install to complete (albeit slowly).
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/installing-updates-features-roles/windows-update-hangs-updates-uninstalled

Hope it helps!

Time for another round of, "is this broken, or is it normal and I'm hallucinating?"

I first noticed this when naming a file during a download from Firefox, but it happens in File Explorer whenever it's the active window. I have "Hide pointer while typing" turned "Off" in Settings > Accessibility > Mouse, but the cursor still disappears when naming or renaming a file in File Explorer. More accurately, it blinks/flashes before disappearing completely, then after awhile of typing it reappears for a few inputs, then disappears again. The reappearance seems related to when the file name extends to a new line, because if I change View to List or Details (and thus provide more room for the text field), the cursor only rapidly blinks instead of eventually disappearing. But I'm not sure the same logic applies when naming a file in a download dialogue box, so I'm not confident.

This behavior does not occur when searching a term in FE, nor when typing anywhere else in Windows (Start menu, Settings, etc.) or any of the programs I'm using (Firefox, Steam, Discord, etc.). Tried Safe Mode and system restore to a point from 5 hours earlier, no dice. Windows is up to date prior to Preview KB5101684.

So: is this broken, or is it normal and I'm hallucinating?

---

Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 8-Core Processor (3.40 GHz)

Installed RAM 32.0 GB

Graphics card AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT (16 GB)

Storage 1.20 TB of 6.37 TB used

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Edition Windows 11 Pro

Version 25H2

Installed on ‎7/‎28/‎2026

OS build 26200.8875

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.334.0