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Additions:

• Bitlocker (Windows 11 Pro) and Drive Encryption (Windows 11 Home) detection
• System Restore status detection (click on status to open System Restore)
• Status dialog during Driver Backup indicating it is doing something

If you experience any issues, please let us know!

Be sure to check out the Optimizer’s Documentation page for more information on program usage.

If you don’t have it already, what are you waiting for?

Fixes:

• TPM not properly detected on some systems.
• Fixed some big issues when running from a Standard User Account:
  • Username and Account type was not detected properly.
  • Some features would not working properly under a standard user including Disable Startup App Delay, Disable Notifications, Disable Search Highlights, Disable Web Search Permissions, Disable Task View Icon, and Best Visual Performance.
  • Some affected features may appear as not optimized when running the Optimizer after this update even if they appeared as optimized previously, because they are legitimately not for that specific standard user account (though they may still be for other user accounts.)  To resolve, simply optimize again.  

• Added confirmation dialog to Backup Drivers task button when completed.

Special thanks for these releases:

* Special thanks to Carey and users Steve, Greg, and Mark for the assist with issue reports and troubleshooting.

If you experience any issues, please let us know!

Be sure to check out the Optimizer’s Documentation page for more information on program usage.

If you don’t have it already, what are you waiting for?

General Additions and Fixes:

• Added Info drop down menu next to options, containing links to the Release Notes as well as the new Documentation page on the website.
  • Release Notes links currently resolve to a blog category for all Uncle Carey’s software news, so they may contain occasional posts for other Uncle Carey’s software.
• Added post-update prompt to open the Release Notes on the website.
• Added a total disk space freed message after Disk Cleanup finishes.
• Fix:  Quick Machine Recovery was not being detected accurately and not enabling/disabling properly on some systems; this should be fully resolved.

PC Manager installation failures (outside the US): 

• Added region check/modify/retry offer if PC Manager fails to install for non-US regions (where it may be restricted by Microsoft.)
  • If region is US, there is no change in behavior.
  • If region is non-US, the Optimizer offers the option to temporarily change region and retry installation.
  • If user selects to change region temporarily, it will automatically be changed to the United States, then the installation will be attempted again.
    • Region is automatically reverted to original value after the installation attempt (whether successful or not.)
    • If installation still fails with US region set, you are informed of the failure and offered the option to change it manually (but be aware region may not be the cause of the failure.)
  • NOTE:  Installation is always attempted first, and option to change region is always offered on failure from non-US regions (even if this may not be the cause of the failure.)  This is because we do not have a list of regions where installation is restricted, and these restrictions may be lifted as Microsoft enables installation in more regions.

Other fixes specific to non-English systems:  

• SID detection
• TPM detection
• Fix Network Browsing was not functional on some systems, resolved.

Special thanks for this release:

* Special thanks to users Steve and Fabrice for the assist with non-English system issue reports and troubleshooting.

If you experience any issues, please let us know!

Be sure to check out the Optimizer’s Documentation page for more information on program usage.

If you don’t have it already, what are you waiting for?

My apologies for the long post, but it’s all directly related to the live stream and (in the interest of full transparency) I’m combining multiple releases with a good story time on why those releases were necessary and lessons learned.  I also tend to be detail oriented and long-winded about it, so please feel free to skim.

A quick note on version numbers and release dates, to give you a better timeline of events.  The version number scheme for the Optimizer this time is based on the date of release.  So the initial release v25.11.5.0 broke down shows v25 (year 2025) .11 (month of November) .5 (5th day of the month) and the last digit will always be .0 for the first release of the day, and each subsequent release will increase this by 1.  Therefore, v25.11.5.1 is the second release of November 5th, 2025.  This is important to the story later on.

Be sure to check out the Optimizer’s Documentation page for more information like this.

Lessons learned from the live stream failures:

• Added update check failure message “Failed to reach update server, check internet connection.” when no internet is available, rather than simply reporting no updates found (which was true, but the reason why they weren’t found was infinitely more important, since there were in fact updates at the time.)
• Added message prompt when program is not running as Administrator, just in case the manifest is ever left out or misconfigured again in a future release.
• Added status window popup when clicking on an individual Optimization (just like the Optimize All button.)  Reason being that the optimizations apply in real-time when clicking those slider toggle switches, and for those longer optimizations that might take 3-5 seconds on some systems you might otherwise think it’s not working until the slider toggle changes to green.  (This exact thing occurred with the Fix Network Browsing demo during the show.)
• Added notification for failure of any Optimization when clicking on them one at a time.  Previously failures were only reported when using the Optimize All button.

Updates from other feedback in the live stream and shortly after:

• Added Windows Update button based on feedback during the show.
• Removed PC Manager, Driver Backup, and Disk Cleanup options from Optimize All after a discussion with Carey, as they are already in the On-Demand tasks and should be run from there on an individual basis.  Particularly the last two were causing confusion as evident during the show.
• Removed “Non-MS” redundancy text after Local Account in the description of the user name/account.  The “Non-Microsoft” account (shortened to MS) verbiage was redundant, but I wasn’t giving people enough credit in understanding what a “local” account is vs. a Microsoft user account, since Microsoft is getting very ambiguous with their terminology about local accounts in an attempt to force everyone into a Microsoft/online based account.
• Added “Refresh Information” under the Options drop down menu at the top, which just rescans the system for everything it did at startup.
• Update check now occurs before scanning the system for the current state of the optimizations, since it is just a waste of time prior to the update check should an update to be found.
• Clicking Driver Backup now reports the date/time of the last driver backup if one exists, giving the user a more informed choice when choosing to delete and create a new backup.

Although released just prior to the live stream, both this and the .0 previous version of the day are featured in the live stream due to an unfortunate mistake, and trouble ensues.  Read about below.  

• Added application manifest forcing the program to Run as Administrator, which was mistakenly left out of the first public release v25.11.5.0

A number of things did not work correctly with the Optimizer during the first live stream (below) demonstrating the Optimizer for the first time.  Unfortunately I was not able to make the show until near the end, so I wasn’t there to see the failures and point out the problem from the live chat as it was happening.  I am confident that everything which went wrong with the Optimizer’s functionality in the show was well tested and working prior to the show, but this was with a pre-release version that was running with Administrator privileges (as it should.)

Here’s what happened behind the scenes: 

The initial public release was actually v25.11.3.0 a few days prior to the live stream, and it worked great.  Carey had used the tool in testing for a while even before that, and several people purchased the November 3rd release and used it with no issues detected.  I believe it was definitely ready for prime time, but there were a few very minor additions based on early adopter feedback I wanted to get in before the live demo, just a few little niceties to add.  We wanted it to look super impressive in the live stream, of course!

The morning of the Optimizer’s first live stream on November 5th, I released the update with those minor improvements.  Unfortunately, the application manifest embedded into the final EXE file was missing the flag that causes Windows to show the UAC (User Account Control) prompt, stating the program can make changes to Windows and getting user consent to run the EXE with administrator privileges.

Note that administrator privileges are needed to perform some of the Optimizations, and without the “requireAdministrator” flag in the application manifest, a user would need to right click the EXE file, and select “Run as Administrator” allowing the program to function as intended.

Realizing my error when testing again shortly thereafter, I uploaded v25.11.5.1 which was the same EXE with no code changes, except I embedded the corrected manifest, forcing the UAC prompt and administrator privileges.

I knew that Carey would update the Optimizer in the demonstration because there is an update check prompt, and that Carey would demonstrate that first.  Knowing this, all should work smoothly, and no one would notice the error with the first .0 release of the day on the show.

Unfortunately it didn’t go down that way.  It was almost as amusing as it was embarrassing for me, in that users in the live stream chat who had already purchased and ran the Optimizer (even the November 3rd release, or the updated/second November 5th release) were reporting it running without failure on their systems, and only Carey seemed to be having difficulties in his live stream, who at one point said something to the effect of “so it’s just me then?”

But why only on the live stream, and no one else had these issues?  

At the 1:11 mark in the show, Carey runs the Optimizer for the first time.  You will notice it started without the UAC prompt to get administrator privileges due to the bad manifest, BUT it also found no updates when Carey demonstrated the update check.  As a result, the program is running in the standard user context with limited privileges, and a number of failures followed during that first run.

But why didn’t the Optimizer find an update? 

At around the 1:16 mark, Carey realizes he didn’t have his USB Network dongle plugged in when he is demonstrating the problem with network browsing before he demonstrates the Optimizer’s fix for it.  There was no internet connection, so the Optimizer of course didn’t see the v25.11.5.1 update on that first run.

So even after he has the network cable plugged in, and continued to demo the Optimizer (and subsequent failures), it wasn’t until he restarted the laptop and ran the Optimizer again that it had internet connection and saw the update that resolved the missing manifest forcing administrator.

In fact, at around 1:39 mark, Carey realized the program wasn’t running as administrator the whole time and that this may be causing the issues, and he did the right-click Run as Administrator to start it up.  Of course, having internet this time when the Optimizer started, it immediately found the update to v25.11.5.1 and updated, making even the right-click Run as Administrator a moot point.

Important lessons learned:

While there weren’t any real “bugs” to fix from the issues in the stream that weren’t already with the corrected manifest, I did learn a few valuable things from this perfect storm of events to improve upon, just in case.  I’d consider these oversights mostly, namely lack of failure checks, such as adding a message when the app isn’t running in the administrator context, and a failure message when no internet is detected during an update check!

Going forward, obviously a little more failure check / inform user type of information will be planned out with this line of reasoning, at the very least to remove any accidental or incident specific issues such as occurred on the live stream.  For example:

• • Had there been a “Couldn’t check for updates, no internet” type message rather than a “No updates found” prompt, Carey would have noticed the USB network dongle not plugged in and none of the resulting failures would’ve occurred had he been able to update to begin with.  Entirely a lack of forethought on my part.
  • Had there been a “Oops, this program isn’t running as Administrator” check and prompt, even if there weren’t an update with the fix, Carey would have been informed and known to relaunch with a right-click Run as Administrator.  Also, entirely a lack of forethought on my part.

About my process:

I wrote a post processing tool to ready my compiled software for release, which applies the correct manifest settings (among other tasks) based on the file name of the EXE that I’m releasing.  Among other tasks it adds the dated version number, the application icon (Carey’s power logo in this case), and signing the EXE with my digital signature verifying trust and ensuring the code is from who it says it is (d7xTech, Inc) before uploading the EXE to my update server, and altering the version information on the server that the Optimizer looks at during the update check.

So this is all normally a 1-click operation for me, and that’s how it worked with the Windows 10 Optimizer.  However prior to release, I was doing these tasks manually for the Windows 11 Optimizer, as I had not yet updated my tool for the “11” in the name of the EXE to apply the correct settings.  As a result, I simply messed up the option in the application manifest.

For the record, it is now a 1-click process for the Windows 11 Optimizer as well.  At least going forward this particular failure should not occur again, and the next issue one might run into will not be over something so simple and embarrassing.

Uncle Carey’s Windows 11 Optimizer was conceived by Carey Holzman and developed by d7xTech.com to make life easier when optimizing Windows 10.

Carey originally contacted us to create a tool for Windows 10, customized to his own specifications for his use in PC builds and repair work, and we learned from his subscribers who expressed an interest it was a great tool for them as well.

With Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 ending on October 14th, we knew it was time for a tool with new optimizations specific to Windows 11.

This tool is perfect for:

• • Anyone who wants to easily apply these optimizations to their own systems.
  • PC technicians who wish to apply the same optimizations to every PC they work on.

Uncle Carey’s Windows 11 Optimizer is a portable application, one single .exe file which has no need for an installation procedure and no other external dependencies.

v23.5.3.0

• Fixed an issue sending email with Office 365 SMTP authentication failing, which can be due to an external firewall.
• Added support for incorrect configurations with Office 365 in particular, as well as any email provider, where CryptoPrevent will auto-correct settings on failure and retry sending email several times with different or suggested settings depending on the specific failure.
• Removed “Test Protection” button on Windows 11 22H2 (and future versions) as it is no longer necessary.  The button will remain in previous versions of Windows 11, Windows 10, and previous versions of Windows.  Here’s why:
  • Windows 11 22H2 update removed SRP (Software Restriction Policies) functionality from Windows itself, therefore CryptoPrevent can no longer leverage its configuration.  The removed Windows SRP protections were the first/original protection offered by CryptoPrevent, but they are the least effective against newer malware that has emerged and evolved since that time. Over the years they have been overshadowed by the other 3 newer and more comprehensive protection mechanisms offered by CryptoPrevent, which provide coverage for both older and newer malware types just the same.  As such, a Windows 11 22H2 PC is no less secure against ransomware/malware than a previous version of Windows 11 or Windows 10, because these older ransomware types (which were largely protected against by the SRP features) are all no longer used or seen in the wild.
  • The “test protection” button in CryptoPrevent was only designed to test the Windows SRP (Software Restriction Policies) feature, as this is the only protection (of 4 core protections) which CryptoPrevent offers that it doesn’t explicitly control, therefore it will tell you the test fails/protection not applied when only SRP is not working.  This test does NOT reflect the status of other core protections that CryptoPrevent puts in place — if there were any issue with the other core protections not working as configured, you would get specific errors regarding that on startup and WITHOUT having to use the test protection button.  Be assured that in the absence of other errors, you are assured that CryptoPrevent’s core protections are in fact enabled and working as expected. 

v23.5.5.0

• Updated Bulk/White-Label Editions to include external/WAN IP address in email alerts.

• Resolved an issue where DataGrab would backup everything except your selected user accounts under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a double “Backup Complete” prompt when DataGrab completes.

• Resolved an issue with the “Reset Networking” and “Repair Winsock” (Proceed with Defaults option) on Windows 10 and 11 that caused several issues with the OS after reboot when running the repair from Windows Safe Mode.

• Resolved an issue with the “Set Time Zone” feature on Windows 11 that was causing Explorer.exe to crash constantly after time zone was changed.  Note this same issue appeared in our Tweaky app, and was also resolved in Tweaky v22.8.5.2.
• Updated Windows service repairs for recent updates to Windows (up to Windows 11 version 22H2.)