No network adapter (and other questions)

[nroth]

My selfmade test image has the issue that no network adapter is visible after installation.

I have tried GamerOS, and when I install that, a network adapter is present and works properly. So clearly I removed something that I shouldn't have touched - I'm just not sure what.

After comparing the two presets, here's what my preset removes that GamerOS doesn't:

Spoiler: Components

activedirectory
adamclient
appid
audit
autoplay
axinstall
consentux
dafproviders
directml
diskquota32
driver_battery.inf
driver_c_battery.inf
driver_cmbatt.inf
driver_hidbatt.inf
driver_wdmvsc.inf
driver_wfcvsc.inf
driver_wgencounter.inf
driver_whvcrash.inf
driver_whyperkbd.inf
driver_wnetvsc.inf
driver_ws3cap.inf
driver_wstorflt.inf
driver_wstorvsc.inf
driver_wvmbushid.inf
driver_wvmbusvideo.inf
driver_wvmgid.inf
driver_wvmic.inf
driver_wvmic_ext.inf
driver_wvpci.inf
embeddedmode
encprovider
f46d4000-fd22-4db4-ac8e-4e1ddde828fe
hwsupport_internetprintingclient
hypervguest
ias
iis
internetexplorer
internetexplorer32
ipt
kl-00040409
langamharic
legacycomponents
location
lusrmgr32
mail
mediastreamingreceiver
mediastreamingtransmitter
microsoft.aad.brokerplugin
microsoft.accountscontrol
microsoft.creddialoghost
microsoft.ecapp
microsoft.getstarted
microsoft.heifimageextension
microsoft.lockapp
microsoft.microsoftofficehub
microsoft.windows.apprep.chxapp
microsoft.windows.callingshellapp
microsoft.windows.oobenetworkcaptiveportal
microsoft.windows.oobenetworkconnectionflow
microsoft.windows.parentalcontrols
microsoft.windows.peopleexperiencehost
microsoft.windows.xgpuejectdialog
microsoft.windowscamera
msmq
multipointconnector
naturalauthentication
ncb
ncdauto
ndu
netlogon
nfc
openssh
pla
printworkflow
projfs
rascmd
refs
screensavers
secedit
simpletcp
stici
telnetclient
tempcache
tftpclient
universalprintsvc
vwifi
wallet
wmitools

I'm suspecting it might be "microsoft.windows.oobenetworkconnectionflow", but I don't actually know for sure. (It's a weird setting anyhow. Not protected by OOBE compatibility setting even though it clearly belongs to it, and not marked red as essential either... and I don't remember turning it off manually so why is it even off...)

Before I spend the hour it takes to build a new image, switch periphery over to the other machine, install the image, and test, could you guys offer your thoughts as to what else in that list might interfere with getting a network connection / should not be removed for some other reason?

Additionally, I have the following questions:

- I'd like to enable standby mode. Or sleep, not sure what's the correct term. The crescent moon option in the menu when turning off the PC. Not the one that writes the memory to disk, but the suspend-to-RAM mode. GamerOS has that disabled, IIRC, so I can't use that as a comparison point. What do I need to configure to get it?

- Is there a way to remove some of the media libraries (3D objects, music, videos, etc) from showing up under the "This PC" header in the File Explorer? I don't mind the libraries continuing to exist under their own header; it would just be convenient to not have them in multiple places as I rarely ever touch any of them.

Thanks for your advice

 

[garlin]

OOBENetwork* components assist in setting up WiFi networks during Setup, with the justification of "helping" you connect to a Microsoft Account during user setup. They're optional and don't impact not having an adapter.

You don't mention if the network adapter is missing from Device Manager, or not pre-configured. Is this a WiFi connection?

Power profiles for Standby mode is a tricky question. Newer PC's moved to the "Modern Standby" model, where the old S3 power state no longer exists. This question can't be simply answered because it depends on your PC's model.

There is nothing in GamerOS or NTLite which removes power management support.

Hiding the different File Explorer pinned folders depends on which version of W10 or 11 is running. The rules of what can be modified by reg settings is something you need to search for online, on sites like TenForums or ElevenForum.

A quick sanity check is try the GamerOS preset, but remove the optional PS script in Post-Setup. See if that makes any difference for you.

 

[nroth]

You don't mention if the network adapter is missing from Device Manager, or not pre-configured. Is this a WiFi connection?

It's the motherboard's onboard LAN port.

I... haven't actually looked into the device manager, to be honest. I looked in the network and sharing center, under adapter settings. That window is completely empty.

Power profiles for Standby mode is a tricky question. Newer PC's moved to the "Modern Standby" model, where the old S3 power state no longer exists. This question can't be simply answered because it depends on your PC's model.

It's a brand new AM5 board. Guess I will need to do research and figure out what "modern standby" actually means.

The goal is honestly just to have a mode I can put the PC into that remembers my open desktop session, without writing the entire 64 GB memory to my SSD every time I decide to put it to sleep.

Hiding the different File Explorer pinned folders depends on which version of W10 or 11 is running. The rules of what can be modified by reg settings is something you need to search for online, on sites like TenForums or ElevenForum.

Understood, thanks! (It's Win10 Home, for what it's worth.)

 

[garlin]

GamerOS doesn't remove any drivers. Your PC might need something like a Realtek LAN driver.

Some of the advanced BIOS features will disable the S3 sleep mode. Check your motherboard's docs, or Reddit.

 

[nroth]

I fixed it. Documenting here for posterity:

You can use powercfg /a to list available sleep states. It will report problems in case something renders a state inoperable.

In my case, I had a device in my system that didn't support S3 sleep. That device was the graphics adapter.

Why? Because it was still using the built-in standard VGA driver that has literally zero features and only exists to produce some sort of image to be able to install a real driver.

...which I couldn't do because I had no network adapter!

As for that can of worms, I have no idea what went wrong. I couldn't get the adapter to install no matter what, not even with a completely untouched, stock Windows ISO. In the end I saw no other recourse but to reset my BIOS to default settings.

This worked, but I don't know why. The onboard LAN device had always been enabled (I checked like five times), and the only things the reset changed were stuff like turning the onboard wifi and bluetooth and RGB devices back on. For some unknown reason, this allowed the network adapter to be installed (and to be clear, I don't even have a WLAN to connect to, it's turned off in the router). I went back into the BIOS after the Windows installation finished, and turned those unneeded devices back off, and it had no negative impact at all. Network adapter still functions just fine.

Completely lost as to why it went down this way, but I guess the takeaway is: if you intend to customize your BIOS settings, no matter how little and how irrelevant you think those changes are - do it after you install Windows.

Now that I have internet, I was able to install a proper graphics driver, and S3 sleep promptly started working without issues.