Reinstalling Windows 11

HDL said:

Here is the strange thing about this. I downloaded the ISO file and it became associated with a Blu-Ray player I have installed called Leawo Blu-ray Player. Once I set its default association to Windows File Explorer the option of MOUNT was there. Not sure why this happened but I'm sure it is the correct ISO file. It is called Win_English_64v1.iso and it is 5.18 GB.

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An Iso file is a kind of a zip file of a boot able CD, DVD or BR. A Iso file is used to "burn" CD, DVD or BR with programs like Nero or any other (Top 6 Free DVD Burners to Burn Videos Free 2019)
When you installed Leawo Blue Ray Player (that probably also can burn iso to a Blue Ray) it has changed the default way Windows 10 deals with iso files.

Ghot said:

Everything should be fine.
If you get stuck anywhere, not knowing which choice to make... check the full tutorial linked in post #2 above.

Mostly, the choices will just be common sense.

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All seems well and that pesty KB5016629 seems to have installed. However, and I believe it is a minor detail, that ISO MOUNTED drive did not show up in Windows File Explorer, after the installation completed, for me to eject it.

Megahertz said:

An Iso file is a kind of a zip file of a boot able CD, DVD or BR. A Iso file is used to "burn" CD, DVD or BR with programs like Nero or any other (Top 6 Free DVD Burners to Burn Videos Free 2019)
When you installed Leawo Blue Ray Player (that probably also can burn iso to a Blue Ray) it has changed the default way Windows 10 deals with iso files.

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Thank you for that information.

HDL said:

All seems well and that pesty KB5016629 seems to have installed. However, and I believe it is a minor detail, that ISO MOUNTED drive did not show up in Windows File Explorer, after the installation completed, for me to eject it.

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In some cases it auto-ejects.
You'll know for sure when you try to delete the ISO.
If it hasn't ejected... you won't be able to delete it.


Anyway... good job, glad things worked out.

Ghot said:

In some cases it auto-ejects.
You'll know for sure when you try to delete the ISO.
If it hasn't ejected... you won't be able to delete it.


Anyway... good job, glad things worked out.

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It deleted.

After reinstalling Windows 11 I get a dialog box when restarting or booting up the computer. I told it to not show the dialog box again. I remember when I first got this computer and hooked up my USB External drives I got the same message so I know it is not anything new caused by reloading Windows 11.

As you can see in the first attachment the message refers to a Western Digital drive. As you can see in the second attachment, I have 2 Western Digital drives connected. I have searched the WEB and this error message seems to be documented with no solution or new driver available for the drive. I have no idea which drive the error message is related to but have tried unsuccessfully to update the drivers for both of them. As far as I know they both are functioning as I need them to. I can copy to or from either of them so I think they are functioning as they are supposed to. My question is, what could the error dialog box mean about a driver not loading when all seems well? Or what setting would I need to adjust to allow this driver to load? Again, I found nothing to help on the WEB.

HDL said:

As far as I know they both are functioning as I need them to. I can copy to or from either of them so I think they are functioning as they are supposed to.

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Yes, they do not need that driver to be fully functional...

HDL said:

My question is, what could the error dialog box mean about a driver not loading when all seems well? Or what setting would I need to adjust to allow this driver to load?

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You do not need or want that wdcsam64.sys driver - full stop!

This driver is only ever needed if you use the encryption software supplied by WD with their usb HDDs. This driver is, if installed will prevent Windows Security from enabling Core Isolation/Memory Integrity protection. If it was installed before upgrading to Win11 it should be removed. If Memory Integrity is already enabled, as it is by default in your clean install, then it will block you from installing this incompatible driver, as shown in your first screenshot.

You don't need it and you are better off without it.

Bree said:

Yes, they do not need that driver to be fully functional...

You do not need or want that wdcsam64.sys driver - full stop!

This driver is only ever needed if you use the encryption software supplied by WD with their usb HDDs. This driver is, if installed will prevent Windows Security from enabling Core Isolation/Memory Integrity protection. If it was installed before upgrading to Win11 it should be removed. If Memory Integrity is already enabled, as it is by default in your clean install, then it will block you from installing this incompatible driver, as shown in your first screenshot.

You don't need it and you are better off without it.

Memory Integrity Turned Off

That driver is the SMARTVHidMiniVistaAmd64.sys driver for SMART HID Device from SMART Technologies ULC. These HID devices should be found in Device Manager under 'Human Interface Devices' (you may need to show hidden devices). If so, you should be able to unistall it from there. If not...

www.elevenforum.com

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Thank you for that reply and explanation. In your screenshot I believe it is saying it is going to uninstall the driver even though the first line says it is about to uninstall the device. I assume the external drive will still function if I remove the driver because I do not use the WD's software. Is that correct? Also I'm not sure which device to remove the driver from or should I remove the driver from both WD drives?

Windows Security's Core Isolation/Memory Integrity protection is enabled and I'll leave that alone. However, this was a new computer with Windows 11 already installed when I plugged these drives into it so not sure why they would have tried to install and use those bad drivers.

HDL said:

I assume the external drive will still function if I remove the driver because I do not use the WD's software. Is that correct? Also I'm not sure which device to remove the driver from or should I remove the driver from both WD drives?

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Nothing has been installed on your PC, so you have nothing you need to remove....

HDL said:

Windows Security's Core Isolation/Memory Integrity protection is enabled and I'll leave that alone. However, this was a new computer with Windows 11 already installed when I plugged these drives into it so not sure why they would have tried to install and use those bad drivers.

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That driver is probably the number one cause of people failing to enable Memory Integrity.

Anyone who has ever plugged a WD external usb HDD into their PC will be offered that driver as an optional update in Windows Update. That's fine for a Win10 PC where memory integrity is off by default, and that's how I ended up with it installed on (all) my W10 systems after plugging my usb WD drive into each.

But when such a system was upgraded to Windows 11 it stopped me turning on Memory Integrity, so had to be removed. I have since gone back and removed it from some of my W10 PCs, then turned on memory integrity there too. Some of the older W10 machines have other incompatible drivers, such as display drivers, for which there is no compatible update. Those I have had to leave with memory integrity turned off, whether I want to run W10 or W11 on them.

Bree said:

Nothing has been installed on your PC, so you have nothing you need to remove....

That driver is probably the number one cause of people failing to enable Memory Integrity.

Anyone who has ever plugged a WD external usb HDD into their PC will be offered that driver as an optional update in Windows Update. That's fine for a Win10 PC where memory integrity is off by default, and that's how I ended up with it installed on (all) my W10 systems after plugging my usb WD drive into each.

But when such a system was upgraded to Windows 11 it stopped me turning on Memory Integrity, so had to be removed. I have since gone back and removed it from some of my W10 PCs, then turned on memory integrity there too. Some of the older W10 machines have other incompatible drivers, such as display drivers, for which there is no compatible update. Those I have had to leave with memory integrity turned off, whether I want to run W10 or W11 on them.

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Thank you.

OK you brought up another question for me to ask you. I do have another Windows 11 machine that was upgraded from Windows 10. Those external drives are no longer connected to it since my new machine took its place. I checked and cannot find a way to turn the Memory Integrity on. It says that page is not available and and I am trying to access something that has no supported features. How to I enable Memory Integrity on that machine?

I found this and wondering if it is valid:
Enable or Disable Core Isolation and Memory Integrity using Registry

1. Press Win+R to open the Run dialog.
2. Type regedit and hit the Enter button.
3. Click on the Yes option.
4. Navigate to Scenarios in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
5. Right-click on Scenarios > New > Key.
6. Name it as HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity.
7. Right-click on it > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
8. Name it as Enabled.
9. Double-click on it to set the Value data as 1 to enable and 0 to disable.
10. Click the OK button.
11. Restart your computer.

The problem is when I search for the Registry Key named Scenarios I find about 6 different instances of it. If the above Registry hack is valid, how do I know which instance of the Registry Key Scenarios to use?

HDL said:

e. I checked and cannot find a way to turn the Memory Integrity on. It says that page is not available and and I am trying to access something that has no supported features.

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HDL said:

I found this and wondering if it is valid:
Enable or Disable Core Isolation and Memory Integrity using Registry

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You shouldn't need registry hacks to turn on Memory Integrity. Even if greyed out the settings should be there and visible. But you will get 'page not available' if you have virtualisation turned off in your bios.

Bree said:

You shouldn't need registry hacks to turn on Memory Integrity. Even if greyed out the settings should be there and visible. But you will get 'page not available' if you have virtualisation turned off in your bios.

Core Isolation not available?

I saw people talking about disabling vbs or not and went to see if mine was enabled and I noticed when I search core isolation it brought me to a page not available, and its not under device security in windows security. Just curious why it isn't available as this pc meets all the requirements...

www.elevenforum.com

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Well got me to the "Page" I guess but I could not turn on the Memory Integrity. It said it could not be turned on and to "try resolving any incompatibility with your drivers." Any ideas how to do that?

HDL said:

Well got me to the "Page" I guess but I could not turn on the Memory Integrity. It said it could not be turned on and to "try resolving any incompatibility with your drivers." Any ideas how to do that?

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Excellent, it's working correctly now.



You're almost there. Click the blue link to 'Review incompatible drivers'. On your past history you may well find that wdcsam64.sys is one of the culprits. If so remove it. For other drivers in the list (if any) determine if there is a later driver that is compatible. If not, decide if you really need the driver installed.

In the case of System Two in my specs below the incompatible drivers are all Intel graphics drivers for which Intel have declared end of support. There are no newer compatible drivers, so unless I uninstall then and use the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter driver (a really bad idea) then I'm stuck with not being able to use memory integrity on this machine.

I did find the incompatible drivers and have done a couple things to try to turn on the Memory Integrity all to no avail. Please see the attached because I believe I can remove both the culprits but I have not found a way to do that. From all I am reading, I am supposed to use Windows Terminal, locate the drivers, and then remove them. I have followed steps to run Terminal as the Administrator and after making that choice the program is dead. So I decided to use the next choice and create a desktop shortcut that would run it automatically. The shortcut's location is supposed to be %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wt.exe. When I put that in the message says the file cannot be found. So how can I either
make that work or locate the drivers and remove them by some other method? Do I search the Registry for them?

HDL said:

Please see the attached because I believe I can remove both the culprits but I have not found a way to do that. From all I am reading, I am supposed to use Windows Terminal, locate the drivers, and then remove them.

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That's one way, but the easiest is to locate the device in Device Manager and uninstall it along with its driver. To see the WD SES Device that uses that wdcsam64 driver you'll need to click View > Show hidden devices. By default devices that are not in current use are not displayed. Uninstall the WD SES Device, with the option to remove its driver ticked. My screenshot from earlier shows where to look for and delete this device.

Your rcblan.sys driver appears to be a driver for an old USB network adapter from around 2005. Belcarra Technologies provided this driver to many OEMs, who could customise to suit their particular USB LAN adapter. It is extremely unlikely that you still need this driver.

With hidden devices shown in Device Manager any such previously installed USB network adapter should be easy to locate and uninstall.

The problem is whatever devices these drivers were associated with apparently are no longer on the machine. They do not show up in Device manager anywhere.

I have a program called Everything that can search for any file and I managed to find the drivers but even running that program as Administrator it will not allow me to delete the drivers. It says I need permission from SYSTEM to make changes to this file. Do you have any idea how I get that permission?

HDL said:

The problem is whatever devices these drivers were associated with apparently are no longer on the machine. They do not show up in Device manager anywhere.

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That is why you need to 'Show hidden devices' in Device Manager. Once a device has been installed it is never forgotten until you specifically uninstall it. It lies dormant in case you ever plug it back in. For example, every usb drive you have ever plugged into the PC will still be listed there, still installed and ready to be used if/when you next plug it in.

I had made it 'Show hidden devices' in Device Manager but the WD device does not show up as far as I can see. Please see attachment. Also as far as the rcblan.sys - Remote Control driver goes I can't find any information as to what device it would have been used for.

I can find those drivers but I cannot set the SYSTEM folder to allow me full control for some reason, to delete them. I can see see and access the SYSTEM Folder and try to change the permissions but I am denied that privilege. If I try running File Explorer as the Administrator it says there is no association for that. This computer only has one account, me, and it is setup for me to be the Administrator. However, there are cases when I still have to choose Run As Administrator like when I use the Command Prompt. So I have no idea why I am stopped from making that change to the SYSTEM folder. I'm beginning to think I am not going to be able to enable Memory Integrity.

HDL said:

I had made it 'Show hidden devices' in Device Manager but the WD device does not show up as far as I can see....

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Its a software device. You need to scroll right down to the bottom to find it. Have another look at my screenshot earlier.

HDL said:

I can find those drivers but I cannot set the SYSTEM folder to allow me full control for some reason, to delete them...

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You cannot delete the driver files while the system is running with them still being registered. As a last resort, boot from something else such as booting a Windows install usb to a command prompt. Now while your Windows system isn't running you can delete the files using the command prompt.


You should also be able to delete them from a command prompt when booted to the WinRE recovery environment and choosing the Command Prompt option.