PHThe_Mentor
Enthusiast
How to make your PC boot faster"
Start with the BIOS
The BIOS is the best place to start when you’re looking
to decrease PC boot times. A lot of companies will
configure the BIOS making it easier to add additional
drives, boot from CDs, or enable WiFi or Bluetooth.
When you’re getting your computer setup for the first
time, many of these deault settings are reasonable. But
once you’ve got things working as you like, you can
return to the BIOS and disable those that don’t apply to
your configuration.
Here are a few tweaks I recommend:
-Move your boot drive to the First Boot Device position.
-Disable boot devices not in use. For example, if you
don’t need to boot to a CD, disable that option.
-Disable Quick Boot will bypass many system tests. Not
as important today as it once was.
-Disable hardware you aren’t using such as Firewire
ports, PS/2 mouse port, e-SATA, unused onboard NICs,
etc.Update to latest BIOS.
Any changes you make to the BIOS will need to be
saved and your computer will need to be rebooted. If
you decide you need to boot from media or enable a
device, you can always go back into the BIOS and
make those changes.
=================================
"Windows Commands to Get the wifi Key"
This trick works to recover a Wi-Fi network password
(aka network security key) only if you've previously
attached to the Wi-Fi in question using that very
password. In other words, it only works if you've
forgotten a password.
It works because Windows 8 and 10 create a profile of
every Wi-Fi network to which you attach. If you tell
Windows to forget the network, then it also forgets the
password, so this won't work. But most people never
explicitly do that.
It requires that you go into a Windows Command
Prompt with administrative privileges. To do so, use
Cortana to search for "cmd" and the menu will show
Command Prompt; right-click that entry and select
"Run as administrator." That'll open the black box full
of white text with the prompt inside—it's the line with a
> at the end, probably something likeC:\WINDOWS\
system32\>. A blinking cursor will indicate where you
type. Start with this:
netsh wlan show profile
The results will bring up a section called User Profiles
—those are all the Wi-Fi networks (aka WLANs, or
wireless local area networks) you've accessed and
saved. Pick the one you want to get the password for,
highlight it, and copy it. At the prompt below, type the
following, but replace the Xs with the network name
you copied; you only need the quotation marks if the
network name has spaces in it.
netsh wlan show profile name="XXXXXXXX" key=clear
In the new data that comes up, look under Security
Settings for the line "Key Content." The word displayed
is the Wi-Fi password/key you are missing.
On macOS, open up the Spotlight search (Cmd+Space)
and type terminal to get the Mac equivalent of a
command prompt. Type the following, replacing the Xs
with the network name.
security find-generic-password -wa XXXXX
Start with the BIOS
The BIOS is the best place to start when you’re looking
to decrease PC boot times. A lot of companies will
configure the BIOS making it easier to add additional
drives, boot from CDs, or enable WiFi or Bluetooth.
When you’re getting your computer setup for the first
time, many of these deault settings are reasonable. But
once you’ve got things working as you like, you can
return to the BIOS and disable those that don’t apply to
your configuration.
Here are a few tweaks I recommend:
-Move your boot drive to the First Boot Device position.
-Disable boot devices not in use. For example, if you
don’t need to boot to a CD, disable that option.
-Disable Quick Boot will bypass many system tests. Not
as important today as it once was.
-Disable hardware you aren’t using such as Firewire
ports, PS/2 mouse port, e-SATA, unused onboard NICs,
etc.Update to latest BIOS.
Any changes you make to the BIOS will need to be
saved and your computer will need to be rebooted. If
you decide you need to boot from media or enable a
device, you can always go back into the BIOS and
make those changes.
=================================
"Windows Commands to Get the wifi Key"
This trick works to recover a Wi-Fi network password
(aka network security key) only if you've previously
attached to the Wi-Fi in question using that very
password. In other words, it only works if you've
forgotten a password.
It works because Windows 8 and 10 create a profile of
every Wi-Fi network to which you attach. If you tell
Windows to forget the network, then it also forgets the
password, so this won't work. But most people never
explicitly do that.
It requires that you go into a Windows Command
Prompt with administrative privileges. To do so, use
Cortana to search for "cmd" and the menu will show
Command Prompt; right-click that entry and select
"Run as administrator." That'll open the black box full
of white text with the prompt inside—it's the line with a
> at the end, probably something likeC:\WINDOWS\
system32\>. A blinking cursor will indicate where you
type. Start with this:
netsh wlan show profile
The results will bring up a section called User Profiles
—those are all the Wi-Fi networks (aka WLANs, or
wireless local area networks) you've accessed and
saved. Pick the one you want to get the password for,
highlight it, and copy it. At the prompt below, type the
following, but replace the Xs with the network name
you copied; you only need the quotation marks if the
network name has spaces in it.
netsh wlan show profile name="XXXXXXXX" key=clear
In the new data that comes up, look under Security
Settings for the line "Key Content." The word displayed
is the Wi-Fi password/key you are missing.
On macOS, open up the Spotlight search (Cmd+Space)
and type terminal to get the Mac equivalent of a
command prompt. Type the following, replacing the Xs
with the network name.
security find-generic-password -wa XXXXX