December 2015 – Doug's Blog

Windows 10 DVD Player Not Showing Up

My first big problem was I was going to rip a Christmas CD and my new Windows 10 upgrade no longer saw my DCD/CD Asus player! It worked fine in Windows 7, but it would not even show up in the device manager (hint: windows-key + “R”, then type “control” and choose hardware -> device manager)

I tried a bunch of things before discovering I had to create a registry subkey! Follow these steps:

Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run box. (or right-click on windows icon in lower left corner)

Type regedit in the Run box, then press Enter. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow
In the navigation pane, locate the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi
Right-click atapi, point to New, then click Key
Type Controller0, and then press Enter
Right-click Controller0, point to New, and then click DWORD(32-bit) Value
Type EnumDevice1, and then press Enter
Right-click EnumDevice1, click Modify
Type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK
Exit Registry Editor
Reboot

Now let me say to Microsoft, what the hell? One of the better things about the recent versions of Windows has been that it autodetects and installs drivers VERY well, and the fact that this happened to me (and frankly a LOT of others based on the dozens of online posts I had to wade through) really shows a lack of QA and continued driver support I would expect from MSFT.

Windows 10 Background Themes

I sure do like me a nice background theme! Whenever you start to realize that holy Hell I’ve been sitting in front of a computer for hours and why am I not outside enjoying the wonderful San Francisco weather — that is when you need to tune into a nice background theme and trick your mind into thinking you are on the beach or up in the mountains or playing Angry Birds?! Who the hell thought that was a good theme to make?

In any case, go check out the panoramic themes especially made for multiple monitors. Download and pick your favorite!

Then, make sure you go to control panel -> appearance -> personalization (you should be here already if you just downloaded and installed a theme), then click “Desktop Background” at the bottom and at the bottom of that settings page, make sure “Choose a fit” is set to “Span”. Note that you will need to do that for each theme since it doesn’t apply to all at once.

Enjoy!