Category Archives: Windows

Prevent Installation of a Specific Driver WITHOUT Group Policy

You can prevent Windows from automatically installing or updating a specific device or driver using the “Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs” Group Policy, but what if you’re using Windows 10 Home and don’t have Group Policy Editor? You can do the same thing using Registry Editor.

  • For convenience, we can edit this template REG file to our needs and install it, instead of manually creating each registry in Registry Editor.
  • Once you’ve downloaded the REG file, right click on it and Edit. We’re going to replace the Device ID in the template with the correct Device ID of your device.

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My AutoHotkey Script for Typing Special Characters

This is the AutoHotkey script I use to type common special characters, including Spanish accented letters, superscripts, math and science symbols. I’ve also included shortcuts to simulate the media control keys.

You can copy and paste the script, or download a precompiled version that doesn’t require AutoHotkey to run.

You can put it in %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (navigate to this quickly by running “shell:startup” in the Run box) to have it automatically run at Windows startup.

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Easily Disable Intel DPTF / IPF (Power Throttling) for Good

Important: this is no longer necessary for many laptops because ThrottleStop‘s “Disable and Lock Power Limits” option can override DPTF. If that doesn’t work, try the following.

If your CPU frequency is being reduced under load, even at low temperatures, you’re probably experiencing power throttling. Most of the time, you can solve this by disabling or raising the power limits, and disabling DPTF explicitly is not required. But sometimes, you need to disable Intel’s Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework (now called Innovation Platform Framework), which tries to set the power limit dynamically on your behalf.

Your laptop may have an option to disable DPTF in the BIOS menu. If not:

Easy MethodManual Group Policy Method
  1. Download and extract NoDPTF. It’s a tool we made that modifies the registry in order to disable and “blacklist” DPTF/IPF devices. Here’s the repository on GitHub.
  2. Right click on RemoveDPTF.bat and run it as Administrator. This script disables all the DPTF/IPF devices so you don’t have to disable each manually in Device Manager. It also blacklists those devices using the Registry to prevent Windows from automatically reinstalling them.
  3. Reboot.

From now on, you should see a few disabled devices in Device Manager instead of DPTF/IPF devices in the “System” category.

If any DPTF devices are still present, please tell me their hardware IDs in the comments. (To check hardware ID: right click on the device, Properties, Details, select “Hardware Ids” in the drop-down menu.)

This method only works if you have Group Policy Editor (Windows Pro/Enterprise/Education, or using this hack in Windows Home).

  1. Open the Group Policy Editor.
  2. Go to Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Device Installation/Device Installation Restrictions.
  3. Open “Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs“.
  4. Click “Enabled“.
  5. Checkmark “Also apply to matching devices that are already installed“.
  6. Click “Show“.
  7. Now you will enter the device ID of each of the DPTF-related devices. You can find them all by finding those devices in Device Manager/System Devices or by copying all the values from NoDPTF.reg.
  8. Click “OK” and “OK” again. You should see each of those devices become “Unknown device” in Device Manager. That means they are disabled.
  9. Reboot.

Keep in mind: the removal of DPTF will not inherently change anything until you raise the power limits using ThrottleStop or Intel XTU.

Warning: if your computer can’t cool its CPU VRM properly, then raising the power limits may cause it to suddenly shut down. If that’s the case, you need to give the VRM more cooling like I did here.

Reversion Instructions

  1. In Registry Editor, delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceInstall\Restrictions.
  2. Reboot.

Changelog

2023.6.26

  • Updated “Easy Method” instructions for RemoveDPTF.bat. Thanks NyaMisty for simplifying this process!

Fix Equalizer APO Not Working in Windows 10

The Problem

Equalizer APO is not taking any effect in Windows 10.

The Solution

  1. Open the Configurator program by searching for it in Start.
  2. Select your device and check “Troubleshooting options“.
  3. Choose “Install as SFX/EFX (experimental)“.
  4. Restart Windows.

In recent versions of Windows 10, UWP apps like “Movies & TV” may not get processed by Equalizer APO even with this fix.

Improving MateBook X Pro’s Speakers

May 26, 2020 update: MXPro_stock.txt has been updated with better measurements and EQ techniques! Go download it again in the “Frequency Response Correction” section.

 

The MateBook X Pro has some of the best speakers on any ultrabook. Unlike most laptops, it has 4 speakers instead of 2: there are a pair of up-facing tweeters under the speaker grill and a pair of down-facing woofers on the laptop’s bottom corners. The crisp up-firing tweeters greatly enhance soundstage and imaging. Nevertheless, these speakers are not perfect, and here’s some ways we can improve them.

Analysis in Stock Form

You can refer to this graph to adjust your equalizer setting in the Dolby app, but to get much better sound, read on.

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