Windows 10 Folder Shortcuts

I have to admit, I did not know about that:

The shell: command can be used to open a special folder directly from the Start, Search menu or from the Run dialog. For example, the command shell:sendto opens the SendTo folder (%userprofile%\sendto) of your user profile. To launch the Documents folder of your user profile, you’d type shell:Personal. Below is a complete shell: commands listing for Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista. The entire listing is stored in the following registry key in Windows Vista and higher:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\FolderDescriptions

So e.g. Windows-R and "shell:startup" opens the startup folder.

I used to play around with "%appdata%" etc etc where I knew there was an environment variable for it, but the shell: shortcut enables a lot more.

Found - amongst others - here 

https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/shell-commands-to-access-the-special-folders/

and of course on superuser.com

https://superuser.com/questions/673960/shell-shortcuts-in-windows-os

How do I stop my Firestick from optimizing?

Well, the other day I noticed that my USB charging cable for my Amazon Fire Stick was broken. So I just dug into my USB cable carton and get the next best USB micro charger and replaced the broken one.
Done.

I thought.

A couple of days later I found the stick busy  "Optimizing systems storage and applications...", letting me know "This will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.".
Fair enough... You do your thing then...

Well, it never completed, Even rebooting did not help.



So I googled, and found a bunch of useless videos, that show you the stuck message for minutes and complain about the stick being stuck... and that not even Alexa would work.  No sh$t, Sherlock.


Oddly enough, the cause (as those google searches revealed) was related to me changing the power supply/cable. Shouldn't have picked the cheapest one.
Went back to the USB cable box, took a more expensive looking cable, and - voila - after completing the optimization the stick is now back running as it should.

And I just saved you half an hour of your life watching those not-really-helping videos.
You're welcome.