USB – Windows Blog by Brink

USB

Enable or Disable USB Selective Suspend in Windows 11

USB selective suspend is the ability to power down and later resume an idle USB device while the computer to which it is attached remains in the working state (S0). For energy-efficient operation—especially on mobile PCs—all USB devices and drivers should support selective suspend. Powering down a device when it is idle, but while the system remains in the S0 state, has the following significant advantages:

  • Selective suspend saves power.
  • Selective suspend can help reduce environmental factors such as thermal load and noise.

The USB selective suspend feature allows the hub driver to suspend an individual port without affecting the operation of the other ports on the hub. Selective suspension of USB devices is especially useful in portable computers since it helps conserve battery power. Many devices, such as fingerprint readers and other kinds of biometric scanners, only require power intermittently. Suspending such devices, when the device is not in use, reduces overall power consumption. More importantly, any device that is not selectively suspended may prevent the USB host controller from disabling its transfer schedule, which resides in system memory. Direct memory access (DMA) transfers by the host controller to the scheduler can prevent the system’s processors from entering deeper sleep states.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off USB selective suspend for a power plan in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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Create Recovery Drive in Windows 11

If your PC won’t start, you can use a recovery drive to restore from a system restore point or recover your PC.

It’s a good idea to create a recovery drive. That way, if your PC ever experiences a major issue such as hardware failure, you’ll be able to use the recovery drive to reinstall Windows 11. Windows updates to improve security and PC performance periodically, so it is recommend you recreate the recovery drive annually. Personal files and any apps that did not come with your PC will not be backed up.

This tutorial will show you how to create a bootable USB recovery drive that boots to advanced startup (WinRE) to troubleshoot, restore, or recover Windows 11.

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Enable or Disable BitLocker to Unlock OS drive at Startup with PIN and USB in Windows 11

BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature that integrates with the operating system and addresses the threats of data theft or exposure from lost, stolen, or inappropriately decommissioned drives and computers.

New files are automatically encrypted when you save them to a drive encrypted by BitLocker. However, if you copy these files to another drive or a different PC not encrypted by BitLocker, the files are automatically decrypted.

BitLocker checks the PC during startup for any conditions that could represent a security risk (for example, a change to the BIOS software that starts the operating system when you turn on your PC, or changes to any startup files). If a potential security risk is detected, BitLocker will lock the operating system drive and you’ll need a special BitLocker recovery key to unlock it.

BitLocker will automatically unlock a OS drive encrypted by BitLocker with TPM at startup by default in Windows 11.

You can enable the Require additional authentication at startup policy to allow BitLocker to unlock the operating system drive with a PIN or USB flash drive.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable BitLocker to unlock the operating system drive at startup with a PIN or USB flash drive in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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How to Download a Recovery Image for a Surface Device

Normally, your Surface comes with Windows recovery info that allows you to refresh it or reset it to its factory condition.

If you are having trouble with the recovery options on your Surface, you can download the recovery image files you need to get your Surface working again.

A downloaded recovery drive image lets you recover or reset your Surface to its factory settings and can help you troubleshoot and fix problems with your Surface device.

If your Surface is not working and you don’t have another Windows 10 device that you can use to download the factory recovery image, it may be possible to contact Microsoft to have a USB recovery drive mailed to you.

From any Windows 10 computer, you can downloaded the recovery image files for your Surface device and create a recovery drive with them.

This tutorial will show you how to download a recovery image for a Surface device and use it to create a bootable USB recovery drive in Windows 10.

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How to Turn On or Off Stop Devices when Screen is Off in Windows 10

On some Windows 10 devices, you can turn on or off to stop devices when your screen is off to help save battery. This is turned on by default.

If you are having problems with connected devices while this is turned on, you should turn this off.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off stop connected USB devices when the screen is off to help save battery life for all users in Windows 10.

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