Uh, I can fix Windows using HTML? That's weird. But remember, I can't seem to get the DOS prompt to run, and if I go into Windows I can't run anything.

No, you need to open a command prompt (CLI) and type sfc and press enter (return) SFC stands for 'System File Checker', and does a scan of all Windows system files and checks that they all exist on your system and that they are all the correct versions and are all complete (non-corrupted)...

As for the 'Refresh Install/In-place Install'. All it does is copy over everything that Windows needs to run (like a fresh installation) but keeps everything else (your programs, personal files, bookmarks etc) all intact. Hence the name 'In-place install)...

Oh, so the HTML was just formatting that didn't work right. Never mind that. But remember, I can't access the prompt.

I'll look into the in-place install, thanks.

linux can never be true plug and play with windows software right? been a while since I tried completely kicking off the windows partition, though you can get very close, at some point having windows around is just the lazy n00b way.

by which I mean just execute the executable and get the default windows style behavior for that executabl, you will need some config right?

Shrug. Depends on the game. A whole lotta em' just work. Some might work better in a virtual desktop. Others have source ports which render their executables redundant. (OpenRCT2, ScummVM, J2R, et al.) And some of them will run without fail while you'd have to scream at the walls to get them to run on Windows.

You can download the Windows File Manager from the Microsoft Github and it will run.

Sorry for the necro, but I wonder what happened here? Did you progress at all @HeresMyAccount?

I realise this is an older thread, but since it's been bumped anyway...

I've skim read most posts; and I think I can shed some light on to what has actually happened here. It looks like Windows didn't perform a "full" shutdown prior to you (re-)installing your Linux, doing its usual "fake shutdown" - which is basically just like hibernation.

This can cause some real funny things to occur if you so much as look at the Windows partition(s) in the wrong way because they're not properly unmounted.

If you then go ahead and mount that not-fully-unmounted windows partition from Linux? Well you're going to corrupt something. And that sounds like exactly what has happened here.

You can try many things to try to fix the damage caused, but really it'll be fighting a losing battle. It's far easier to just re-install windows at that point.

As for GRUB? This has nothing to do with GRUB, not even a little bit.

If it was a broken or misconfigured GRUB, you'd have one of four problems:

1) Missing boot entries, perhaps windows would simply not show.
2) Unusable boot entries, throwing file not found or such.
3) Dumped to a grub prompt instead of a menu. (You don't want to be in this situation!)
4) Grub is corrupted, your computer simply can't even boot to it and will report no drives bootable (You don't want to be in this situation!).

In any case, considering you can boot to both OSes, this isn't a GRUB problem.

For future purposes, I suggest making sure Windows is configured to *always* perform a full shutdown/reboot via the windows power options :-)

Coincidentally, I finally got around to fixing it just last night! I did have to reinstall Windows after all, but that's interesting information to keep in mind for the future, and I'll check the power settings to prevent it from happening again. But I know it wasn't hibernating, because I always have that disabled completely.

I knew it wasn't a GRUB problem though, and I've had them before, but I know how to get around them.

Thanks though, I hadn't thought of improper shutdowns and mounting in Linux being a possible cause of the problem.

You bastard! After all this time you're letting us hang like that... :p /s

But technically, if you needed to reinstall Windows you didn't actually fix it?

Digressing; In Norway we have something called the "Swedish button", which is to shutdown via the power button by holding it in a few seconds. This increases the likelihood of corruptions, but it was worse back in the day. Which can be prevented by disabling some of the disk write cache on a disk.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/21904-enable-disable-disk-write-caching-windows-10-a.html (Don't ask me why it's called that way. Norwegians and Swedish have always had this "little brother" syndrome thing going on. It's probably because Norway is quite "young" and had to exist under Sweden for so long. idk.)

Well, I fixed the problem, in that now I can use Windows again, and play my games again. I had been worried about activation but I tested it first on a small partition and got it to work, so then I reinstalled it on my main partition.

EDIT: And what do you mean I'm letting you hang? I just told you what happened, didn't I?

LOL. It was mainly a joke since I fixated on this part

"but that's interesting information to keep in mind for the future"

Never mind. It's late and I read that wrong. Regardless. glad you fixed it. :)

Oh, well whatever. I figured that you were joking but i just didn't understand it I guess. Anyway, thanks, and I'm glad too. Now I'll play some games that I just got.

Yeah.. I probably should have described that a bit better :-P. I described the method it uses rather than its name. My apologies!

Anyway, the option I was referring to is called "Windows Fastboot" (Or fast startup). Plenty of information online regarding and enabling and disabling this :-)

Alright, I'll look into it. Thanks.