Block unmanageable Windows updates temporarily(Windows Vista, 7)

               It sometimes so happens that an update is not installed properly, which delays the system startup. This problem often occurs at the time of a restart. You want to work faster again.
              Totally deactivating automatic updates is the wrong method, since you will then be taking unnecessary security risks. Instead, you can find out in the settings for updates as to which individual element causes problems and leads to delays when you try to install something. This update can then be blocked specifically.      

For that, click in the Control Panel on ‘System and security’, on ‘Security’ and then ‘Windows Update’.
               Follow the link ‘View update history’. In the ‘Status’ column, check which updates have ‘Failed’ and then check whether the relevant update with the same name (KN number) has been reported further up in the list as ‘Successful’. If an update has failed several times and if it is also the latest entry, there is clearly a problem, and you can block this update.
               For that, again switch to the ‘Windows Update’ page. Click the links ‘optional updates are available’ and then ‘important updates are available’. In the lists displayed there, search for the entry of the problematic update. As soon as you find it, right click it and select the context command ‘Deactivate update’. In future, Windows will not try to install this update automatically. If you however want to access it later, click the link ‘Show deactivated updates’. Then activate the desired entries clicking the link on the relevant checkbox followed by a click on the ‘Restore’ button. You will then have to confirm the User Account prompts.

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Move user profiles to another disk for security(Windows Vista, 7)

             For proper segregation of system and data, you want to move a user profile from the boot drive to another hard disk. Windows however does not think this should be easy.
             It is usually not possible to move user profiles under Windows. You thus have to use a trick to move the profile data to another location of your choice and let Windows continue to believe that everything still is where it should be.

              For this, set up a junction (connection). The prerequisite for this is that you are using the NTFS file system. Since the following steps are not reliable with Windows already running, start the system with the installation DVD and follow the steps up to the language selection. Use the key combination [Shift]+[F10] to open a command line window. Check the individual drive alphabets with ‘dir’ because they might become different from the normal assignments in Windows. Then copy the existing profile data to the new location via ‘robocopy’. The options you will need might include ‘/mir’ for a complete transfer of the directory structure, ‘/ sec’ for copying the security information and then ‘/xj’ for excluding the existing junctions. Since it is not very practical to move one single user profile and to leave the rest of them on the system disk, use the action for the entire folder ‘c:\users’. The command should then be robocopy c:\users d:\Newusers /mir /sec / xj if you want to save the profiles under ‘d:\Newusers’ for instance.
              Here, you must delete the original folders completely with the command rd c:\users /s /q. Then create the required junction in the file system with mklink c:\users d:\Benutzer /j. Then close the command window and cancel the Windows setup. Windows can now start normally and uses the profiles from the new location.
Note: The new path must be available at all times. If you need to restore the system for instance, the action cannot be undone. In order to bring the user profile back to the original location, you need to undo the specified steps in the same manner. For this, first delete the junction using the command rd c:\ users. The real data at ‘d:\Newusers’ is retained and can be copied to ‘c:\users’ on the system drive.

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