How can I expunge the Windows 10 upgrade scheduler component from my computer?

I'm not yet ready to upgrade to Windows 10. Apparently, I or someone else inadvertently reserved the upgrade, so after the release, I got a prompt to schedule the upgrade. There wasn't a button to cancel it, only "do it now" or "do it in the future, up to 2 days from now". Since there wasn't even a close button, I scheduled it as late as possible, then proceeded to attempt to cancel the upgrade. Among other things, I cancelled the reservation, uninstalled the GWX update (KB3035583), etc.

I successfully got rid of the pending upgrade. However, the components that hook into the system to schedule a reboot to kick off the upgrade are apparently still there. This has two manifestations. First, every 2 days that scheduling window pops up again, giving me a 1-hour countdown and offering to either start immediately or reschedule for up to 2 days later. And if I'm not around when that happens, it will reboot, and then start rebooting by itself every 5 minutes in a vain attempt to begin the upgrade until I stop it. Second, it's hooked into Windows Update, giving me the yellow message about needing to reboot to complete update installation (or in this case, to upgrade), essentially locking me out of Windows Update entirely, and if I try to check for updates I get a popup telling me it can't check while an update is pending reboot. Since I did remove the pending upgrade itself, all these mechanisms just reboot the computer. I can click the "start upgrade" button all I want, all it does is reboot. I've been trying to figure out how to get rid of this for over a month, including tens of hours with 5 different useless Microsoft support technicians. Does anyone by any chance (MS dev?) know in depth how this mechanism works and how to uproot it?

sata - Can you point me to a cable that will connect this motherboard port with this DVD drive?

(Note: This is not a duplicate of my earlier question, in case you're wondering. This question has an entirely different DVD drive!)

Here is an image of my laptop motherboard's SATA connector (for a DVD drive):

I don't see any model number on the motherboard. The laptop is Acer Extensa model MS2394, purchased a few months ago (came with Windows 8 or 8.1 installed).

This is a matching SATA port for an internal DVD drive:

Problem is, the DVD drive doesn't fit into the laptop.

QUESTION: Can you point me to a cable that will connect the two together? This way, the "internal" DVD drive could be used as an external DVD drive. It's an ugly setup with a permanent SATA cable coming out of an opening of the laptop, but I don't care about that.

I've been searching for "SATA cable" but there are so many alternatives. I don't know which to pick. Isn't there a simple (and long enough) SATA to SATA "extension" cable, so to speak?

Is there a way to type instead of on a Mac keyboard?

Even though Macs have only one keyboard key for it, there is a difference between (carriage) return and enter. I need to type an enter (not return) into a field (it's a macro utility, and there's no ability to enter ASCII codes).

I know there used to be a way to do this (maybe it's because I used to have a keyboard with a numeric keyboard where the Enter key sent an enter command) but I don't have a full-sized keyboard anymore. On my MacBook Pro keyboard, the return key has an "enter" label, too (in smaller type above "return") and I thought I might be able to use a modifier key (Shift/Option/Command/Control), but that doesn't seem to be working.

windows 7 - Can't take ownership of files

On my data drive I have roughly 800 files for which I have only read and execute permissions, but no others.

When trying to change the permissions via Windows Explorer, all fields relating to changing permissions are greyed out. When running...

icacls FILE /grant UserName:F

...in CMD, I get the error FILE: Access denied.

Note that these behaviours apply even when activating the logging into the hidden administrator account (net user administrator /active:yes) in Safe Mode.

Upon detailed inspection I have found that the files allow full permissions to a user from an installation that no longer exists. The other listed users ("Jeder", German for "Everyone", and one other non-existing user) have only read/execute permissions.

Is there some solution short of moving the whole drive to an external drive and formatting the current drive? With more than 50,000 files on this drive, doing so would be rather time-consuming, especially since this seems to be a recurring problem.

EDIT: The /reset option to icacls doesn't work either.

EDIT: For further readers: For me for files where changing permissions failed, takeown /f FILE worked, see Tetsujin's answer and its comments.

Answer

Essentially, you need to take ownership of some of them yourself, but give ownership to TrustedInstaller for others. If you're not sure which should be which, then it might be best to let a tool do it for you...

I've used the tweaking.com tools to successfully recover mashed system perms before, including when someone 'cleverly' managed to remove TrustedInstaller as owner of half the system & took ownership of everything they could find.

You could, to be honest, do the same yourself from the command-line, but frankly unless you have a very pedantic setup, it's simpler to set things back to Windows' defaults.

Try the all-in-one tool or one of the more specific tweakers if you know exactly where you're heading...

They also have some very good notes on how to boot into the cleanest possible setup so the tools can do their job - clean boot

For non-system files, taking ownership is probably easiest, & you shouldn't need TrustedInstaller if they're all non-system files

On an elevated command prompt, use takeown /F to force ownership of files.

truecrypt - Filesystem for few large files

I am looking for a filesystem suited for a few (no more than 5 or so) large-ish files (ranging from 10GB-100GB). The files are already compressed (sparse support not needed).

The FS will be used to format a truecrypt container. The filesystem will occupy the entire container and the container will be sized to its contents.

I have been considering XFS for its large file handling but it does seem to provide more features than I need. Are there any really lightweight solutions or is XFS the way to go?

Why does Windows store temporary files outside the TEMP folder? How to avoid that?

I have seen quite often that Windows (7 and above, maybe even since XP) creates folders with names like 4efc85e3bb644236da736f0e22bfd0 for storing files while an installation is running. Usually it also deletes these folders when the installation has been finished. But sometimes they remain at their place, maybe because the installation routine forgets to delete them or due to failures in the routine, or maybe because Antivirus software blocks access to the files/folder when it's being deleted.

These folders are sometimes created directly on c:\, but also on my data disk d:\ directly at root or in subdirectories, and even on my external usb drives and usb sticks if they're connected when an installation started.
Most times I have seen that it was in connection with Windows Updates. But today I have seen that it happened many times during the installation of Visual Studio 2015, too.

I would not care if deletion of these folders failed if they were put where they belong, which is in the user's TEMP folder or in the Windows TEMP folder.
Why does Windows put them on data disks and external drives?
How can I stop that behaviour?

Basically it's the same question as
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-writing-temporary-folders-and-files-to/1d933f34-71f1-4def-ab6a-1aa1f0637dad
which has a reply, but you couldn't call that reply an answer.

Answer

These folders are almost always generated by the installation of Microsoft products
or patches.
(Microsoft is the only company that can permit itself such behavior.)

They are not generated in the TEMP folder, since that folder may be subjected to
being cleaned out from time to time, while Microsoft intended them to stay and
not be deleted when TEMP is emptied, as it is possible to
set the TEMP folder to be deleted on every boot.

Some of these folders are used when modifying a product via Control Panel,
for example when installing additional features.
Microsoft Office used to do that a lot, even though this meant doubling
the installation disk space.

They can almost always be deleted without hesitation, as they may either contain
log files or installation files that will automatically be downloaded again
if required.

As to why Microsoft didn't aggregate them in some semi-temp folder,
I can't answer. All I can say is that I see less and less of these folders
with the latest releases of Microsoft products.

My computer freezes randomly, what can I do to fix this?

I tried to run check disk and it retuned no errors or bad sectors. I also run CCleaner and also no effect.

What else can I do to determine the problem and solve it?

OS: Windows 7

I installed different application for data recovery and uninstalled them.
Also I uninstalled any application that I installed recently

EDIT:
I need to do hard reset to get out of freeze state

EDIT1:
In safe mode it doesn't freeze

EDIT2:(Solved)
I disabled all the services and the programs that loads on startup accept for security & microsoft services. My computer worked all night without freezing!