Windows settings and Control Panel matching lab

Match power, firewall profile, indexing, and Explorer extensions; leave disable-firewall and SSD-defrag unused.

Match each Windows settings ticket. Leave disable-firewall and defrag-SSD unused.

CompTIA 1.6 is Control Panel / Settings utilities: power, firewall profiles, indexing, and Explorer options techs actually change on tickets.

Laptop drains overnight on the dock

Sleep/hibernate and lid/power plans.

Home Wi-Fi blocks a needed game; corp profile was fine

Network profile + Windows Firewall rules.

File search is glacial after a big media dump

Search Indexer scope and rebuild.

Users cannot see extensions; malware .pdf.exe slips by

File Explorer Options — hidden extensions.

Still on the bench

Power Options — balanced/high-performance, lid close, hibernate — Docked overnight drain is often sleep vs hibernate and USB selective suspend.
Windows Firewall — private vs public profile rules — Public is stricter. Wrong profile looks like a broken port.
Indexing Options — include folders / rebuild catalog — Huge unindexed trees make Start search crawl the disk every time.
File Explorer Options — show file name extensions — Hiding extensions is how .pdf.exe fools users. Show them.
Turn Windows Firewall off entirely for convenience — Never the A+ answer. Open the needed rule/profile instead.
Defrag the SSD nightly to speed Start search — SSDs do not want classic defrag; search needs indexing, not fragmentation theater.