Fix one driver error leads to fun times
I periodically forget how much of a pain Windows is. Most of the time, I’m using macOS for work and for my personal laptop. However, my gaming machine runs Windows because most games don’t run on (or don’t run well) on macOS. I also got tired of using Windows emulators like Wine and Crossover.
My MSI laptop was having stuttering issues with the nVidia 3070 graphics card. (Yes, did lots of research, tried lots of different solutions, all drivers up to date including BIOS firmware.)
Clean install #1: Oh look, new problems
I finally got fed up enough that I did a clean install of Windows. The first time, I kept my files but reinstalled the OS. While the graphics driver issue was resolved, there were two other issues introduced. 1) I could no longer see the Virus and threat protection section of Windows Security. Trying to access this page and others popped up an error message noting I didn’t have rights to view that page and to contact the help desk. (!!)
2) Device security said it wasn’t enabled and wouldn’t let me see the options to enable it.
Clean install #2: Problems persist
Lots of troubleshooting later, I gave it the finger and reinstalled Windows and wiped the hard drive. The install used the recovery partition from my laptop so it kept the drivers but had a fresh Windows copy.
The issues above persisted. I managed to resolve some of the issues by resolving some of the missing capabilities for device security. Installing a third-party AV app resolved the other issue. EXCEPT this IT policy issue persisted.
No, there wasn’t a virus on the machine. I used several AV scanners and malware detectors; all came back fine.
Clean install #3 did the trick
After about 20+ hours of troubleshooting and trying different solutions, I just re-wiped the machine for the third time. This time, using a USB drive as install media. AND! It appears the file permissions issues are also resolved.
Created a restore save point. Sigh.
I really would have preferred using the terminal instead of Power Shell, admin-rights CMD, etc.
Have I mentioned how much I love Windows? (/sarcasm)