Miscellanous Notes on PC Annoyances

[Editor's Note: This is not intended to be a final post; I expect to add to the initial post over time. Last update 10/18/15.]

• Setting the PC time after a system reset  [9/23/15]. After I've done a reset, I've found that the time zone and/or time itself is off. This may manifest itself in unusual ways. For example, after a reset on my workhorse notebook PC I  checked my online gmail account, the most recent messages showed a timestamp off by hours. I scanned the gmail forums and stumbled across a note to check the properties of the system time display at the right end of the tray. This was not obvious because the time looked fine, but when I checked the properties, I saw it listed PDT vs. the relevant EDT zone setting. And changing the time zone advanced the correct wall time by 3 hours. The solution is to use the Internet Time option to sync the PC (after you've set the correct time zone). The navigation to the desired target Internet Time pane may differ by version of Windows; on my Windows 10 PC I click on date and time settings link under the month view after clicking the time display in the tray. I then click on the "different clock" link on the bottom of the settings page which brings up the target 3-pane display; Internet time is the third/rightmost pane. (There may be alternate easier pathways, but this sequence works for me.) I then click on the Change Settings button. Here's the key point: I think the default setting is time.microsoft.com. For some reason, that setting has never worked for me; there is a menu dropdown, and I typically select time.nist.gov. This has generally resolved my system clock issues.
• Windows Update History in Windows 10. [10/18/15].  Granted, I knew there would be nuances to Windows Update in Windows 10. Probably the biggest from a user's perspective is that it's no longer accessed via Control Panel but as the trailing option (Updates & Security) under Settings, which you can select from the lower left region of the start menu (Window icon at the bottom low corner of your screen).  Microsoft has largely automated the update process, but there are ways to manually configure things. Frequently updates require PC reboots to make certain file changes or execute processes, and one way you'll know that Microsoft has updated automatically is that by default, you will get up a reboot scheduling popup. (I have backup PC's, also on Windows 10, so after I update my primary PC, I'll usually manually check for updates on the others after updates have been completed on my primary system.) What bothered me was an inconsistency of how to review applied patches. Under Control Panel Windows Update there was a left menu panel option to review patch history; there is no comparable interface in the Windows 10 version. I eventually discovered that if you click the Advanced Options link at the bottom of the Updates screen (which allows you to reconfigure Update functionality), there is an update history link on the Advanced Options page (in the "Choose How Updates Are Installed" region).  (I personally find the placement/grouping somewhat nonintuitive.)