Unable to Delete Single Shadow Copy Restore Point with Error: Invalid option value.

I was looking to delete a specific restore point on a Windows 10 machine using the command line.  There are several guides available out on the web. For example:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/how_to_delete_some_or_all_system_restore_points_on_windows_10.html

https://softwarekeep.com/help-center/delete-windows-restore-points

Also the ofifical Microsoft guide:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/vssadmin-delete-shadows

You can also reference the built in help for vssadmin using the command line (e.g, type vssadmin delete shadows)

Delete Shadows /For=ForVolumeSpec [/Oldest] [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /Shadow=ShadowId [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /All
– For the given ForVolumeSpec deletes all matching shadow copies.
If /Oldest is given, the oldest shadow copy on the volume is deleted
If /All is given, then all shadow copies on all volumes that can be deleted will be deleted. If /Shadow=ShadowId is given, the shadow copy with that Shadow Copy ID will be deleted. Only shadow copies that have the ClientAccessible type can be deleted.
– The Shadow Copy ID can be obtained by using the List Shadows command. When entering a Shadow Copy ID, it must be in the following format:
{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}
where the X’s are hexadecimal characters. This ID can be obtained
through the List Shadows command.

Example Usage: vssadmin Delete Shadows /For=C: /Oldest

I was using the /Shadow=ShadowId option, but always received the error:

vssadmin delete shadows /shadow={aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee}

Error: Invalid option value.

What finally solved it for me was to NOT use PowerShell.  Using the identical command in Command Prompt was successful and you should be presented with:

Do you really want to delete 1 shadow copies (Y/N): [N]?

Ubuntu Focal Error NO_PUBKEY B7B3B788A8D3785C When Apt Update for MySQL

I was getting this error on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with MySQL version 8.0.35.

Err:1 http://repo.mysql.com/apt/ubuntu focal InRelease
The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY B7B3B788A8D3785C

After some research, I tried several suggestions that I found at the links below, but they did not resolve the issue.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1497140/how-to-fix-apt-update-after-to-upgrade-the-mysql-list-file

https://www.reddit.com/r/mysql/comments/18jj4hm/terminal_update_error/

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1389928/mysql-an-error-occurred-during-the-signature-verification

https://github.com/apache/airflow/issues/20911

However, finally came across this link which did have a solution:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1498081/no-pubkey-and-some-of-the-file-has-an-unsupported-filetype

Below are the steps to quickly fix it:

  1. Download an updated .deb file from the official mysql site:
    https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/repo/apt/
  2. Install the deb (e.g., mysql-apt-config_0.8.29-1_all.deb):
    sudo dpkg -i <filename>
  3. Then run apt-get update again and the error should not appear.

 

Windows Store (and other Windows Apps) Crashes and Closes Automatically in Windows 10

Some background: On a Windows 10 machine I had to recreate an existing user profile  due to some corruption. I followed this guide (except for the step related to ProfileGuid in the registry, since it does not exist in Windows 10):

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/121165-re-create-user-profile-windows

Everything worked great and I was able to log on. However I quickly realized none of the built in Windows Apps worked.  They would open and then very quickly close without any error message window.

Each of these apps could be fixed quite easily using the Start Menu -> type: Apps -> launch Apps & features.  Find the problematic app, click Advanced options. First choose the Terminate button. Then choose the Reset button. The app then worked without crashing instantly.

However this same issue occurred with Microsoft Store, but that app unfortuantely is not in the Apps & features list.

Event viewer did have information for these crashes. For example

Faulting application name: WinStore.App.ex
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.3758
Exception code: 0xc000027b
Fault offset: 0x000000000012db22
Faulting application start time: 0x01da427eb19954ed
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_22311.1401.2.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\WinStore.App.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Faulting package full name: Microsoft.WindowsStore_22311.1401.2.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Faulting package-relative application ID: App

I tried to reset Microsoft Store using Start menu -> type: wsreset utility.  However that failed and would generate the error -2147219196 related to PurgeCaches.

I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling Microsoft Store via PowerShell.  Each of these was successful but didn’t fix the problem.

Finally I stumbled on this article:

Microsoft Store missing in Apps & Feature – Microsoft Community

This helped me resolved the issue and you can follow these quick steps:

  1. Uninstall Microsoft Store using PowerShell (admin):
    get-appxpackage *WindowsStore* | remove-appxpackage
  2. Start Menu -> type: Apps -> launch Apps & features
  3. Uninstall Xbox app
  4. Uninstall Xbox Live app
  5. Reinstall Xbox app via this link https://aka.ms/XboxInstaller
  6. Launch Xbox app
  7. At the top you should see a notification that Microsoft Store is needed.
  8. Click it to install Microsoft Store using the Xbox App
  9. Once complete, Microsoft Store should now be functional!