Archive for May, 2020

How to Prevent Windows from Turning off Hard Drive after Idle

May 29th, 2020 by Admin

By default, Windows will automatically turn off your hard drive after 20 minutes of idle time. This can help save energy and extend a laptop’s battery life. When you try to access a hard disk that is turned off, you will notice a slight delay for the drive to spin back up. Constantly spinning down/up can reduce the life of the hard disk, so I recommend you leave the drive spinning all the time, or set the drive to turn off after a longer period (one or two hours) of inactivity. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 methods to prevent Windows from turning off hard drive after idle.

Method 1: Prevent Turning off Hard Drive via Power Options

  1. Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run box. Type the following and hit Enter to open the Power Options window.
    control.exe powercfg.cpl,,3

  2. Expand Hard disk and Turn off hard disk after, change the value to 0 and click OK.

    Your hard drive will never fall into sleep after idle.

Method 2: Prevent Turning off Hard Drive via Command Prompt or PowerShell

  1. Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator.

  2. Run the following commands one by one, replacing “seconds_of_idle” with 0.

    powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 6738e2c4-e8a5-4a42-b16a-e040e769756e seconds_of_idle

    powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 6738e2c4-e8a5-4a42-b16a-e040e769756e seconds_of_idle

  3. When it’s done, your hard drive should keep spinning all the time and it never goes to sleep after idle.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8

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How to Switch from RAID to AHCI without Reinstalling Windows 10

May 25th, 2020 by Admin

Is there a way to switch from RAID to AHCI without losing everything and having to reinstall Windows? Sometimes an SSD might not be detected by bootable CD when in RAID mode, and you have to enable AHCI mode. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to switch from RAID to AHCI without reinstalling Windows 10.

How to Switch Windows 10 from RAID to AHCI?

  1. To get started, you need to force Windows 10 to boot into Safe Mode by default. Just open the Command Prompt as administrator and run this command:
    bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal

    or launch Windows PowerShell with admin privileges and execute this command:
    bcdedit /set safeboot minimal

  2. Next, restart your computer and press either F2 or DEL key to enter the BIOS Setup depending on your particular computer.
  3. In the BIOS Setup, look for an option such as “SATA Mode”, “Configure SATA As” or “SATA Mode Selection”, and change it to from RAID to AHCI.

  4. Then, save and exit the BIOS. Your computer will automatically boot to Safe Mode. Once logged in, open an elevated Command Prompt again and run the following command to disable Safe Mode:
    bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot

    or launch an elevated PowerShell window and type this command:
    bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot

  5. Reboot again and Windows 10 will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled. Whenever you want to switch back to RAID again, just try the same process above to enable RAID mode. It is important you should first boot into Safe Mode after changing the SATA mode in the BIOS.

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Easy Way to Share Wi-Fi Password Between iPhones

May 22nd, 2020 by Admin

Is there a way to share Wi-Fi network without giving out your password? If your Wi-Fi password is very long or complicated, it could be a pain to share it with your friends, especially if it’s just a bunch of random characters. Since IOS 11, Apple makes it easy to share your Wi-Fi network without the hassle of inputting a password. This tutorial will walk you through the steps to share Wi-Fi password from iPhone with your friends.

How to Share Wi-Fi Password with Friends on iPhone

Before getting started, make sure both phones have iOS 11 or newer installed and your iPhone is already connected to your Wi-Fi network. If either device has Personal Hotspot on, turn it off.

  1. First, turn on Bluetooth on both phones. Just head to Settings -> Bluetooth, toggle the Bluetooth slider to the on position.

  2. Next, make sure your Apple ID is already in your friend’s contact list. If not, go to Contacts and click Edit in the top right corner to add your Apple ID under the email section.

  3. At this point, bring both phones physically close to each other. On your friend’s phone, go to the Settings -> Wi-Fi and tap your network, a password prompt will appear. In the meantime, a “Wi-Fi Password” screen should show up on your own phone and you need to click the Share Password button. Your friend will be connected to your Wi-Fi automatically.

So this is how you can share your Wi-Fi network with friends in a most secure and convenient way. No need to give out or typing in your Wi-Fi password.

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Easy Ways to Label or Rename Hard Drive in Windows 10

May 20th, 2020 by Admin

Each drive on your computer should have a unique and meaningful name, but they are usually named “Local Disk” or “New Volume” by default. The drive letters may change when a new disk is added, but you can have a persistent drive label. In this tutorial we’ll show you different ways to label or rename a hard drive in Windows 10.

Method 1: Rename Hard Drive from Context Menu

  1. Open File Explorer and select the drive you want to rename and press F2, or right-click the drive and select “Rename” from the context menu.

  2. Type a new name and press Enter to apply the change.
  3. When you get a message saying: “Access Denied – You will need to provide administrator permission to rename this drive.” click on Continue.

Method 2: Rename Hard Drive from Drive Properties

  1. Right-click on the target drive in File Explorer and select “Properties” from the context menu.

  2. When the Properties window opens, type a new name in the text box and click OK.

Method 3: Rename Hard Drive from Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator. Type the following command and hit Enter. Do not add quotation marks even if your new name contains space.
    label drive_letter: new_name

  2. This will change your drive label immediately.

Method 4: Rename Hard Drive from PowerShell

  1. Open an elevated PowerShell window and run the following command. Replace “D” with your actual drive letter, and “My Backup” with the new drive name.
    Set-Volume -DriveLetter D -NewFileSystemLabel "My Backup"

  2. When it’s done, open File Explorer and you’ll see the drive with the new label.

That’s all there is to it.

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3 Ways to Configure Windows to Create Crash Dumps on BSOD

May 19th, 2020 by Admin

The blue screen of death (BSOD) usually happens when a critical error occurs and Windows is unable to recover and repair it automatically. In order to identify the cause of the blue screen, you need to configure Windows to create minidump on every crash.

Method 1: Enable Minidump Creation Using System Properties

  1. Press the Windows key and R to bring up the Run box, and type SystemPropertiesAdvanced and hit Enter to open the System Properties window.

  2. Click on the Settings button under the “Startup and Recovery” section.

  3. The memory dump options are in the “Write debugging information” section. By default, it is Automatic memory dump. Just change it to “Small memory dump (256 KB)” and click OK.

  4. Whenever your PC presents a blue screen, it will automatically collect some diagnostic information and store them in a minidump file which you can find under the directory C:\Windows\Minidump.

Method 2: Enable Minidump Creation Using Registry Tweak

  1. Open Registry Editor and browse to the following location:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl
  2. On the right side, double-click on the 32-bit DWORD CrashDumpEnabled and change its value from the default value 7 to 3.

    • 0x0: None
    • 0x1: Complete memory dump
    • 0x2: Kernel memory dump
    • 0x3: Small memory dump (64 KB)
    • 0x7: Automatic memory dump
  3. You must restart Windows in order for your registry changes to take affect.

Method 3: Enable Minidump Creation Using Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator. Enter the following command to find out which type of memory dumps you are using.
    wmic RECOVEROS get DebugInfoType

  2. If you want to enable minidump creation, run the below command:
    wmic RECOVEROS set DebugInfoType = 3

  3. When it’s done, reboot your computer.

Minidump file is stored in a binary format. In order to view and analyze its content, you need to use the third-party software like WinDbg or BlueScreenView.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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Enable Multiple Remote Desktop Connections in Windows Server 2019 / 2016 / 2012

May 18th, 2020 by Admin

By default, Windows Server allows only a single Remote Desktop session. When the limit is reached, you should get one of the following warnings:

“The number of connections to this computer is limited and all connections are in use right now. Try connecting later or contact your system administrator.”

or

“Another user is signed in. If you continue, they’ll be disconnected. Do you want to sign in anyway?”

Sometimes you may need to increase the number of simultaneous remote connections so that multiple users are allowed to connect via RDP at the same time. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to enable multiple Remote Desktop connections in Windows Server 2019 / 2016 / 2012.

How to Enable Multiple Remote Desktop Connections?

  1. Press the Windows key + R together to open the Run box, type gpedit.msc and hit Enter to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.

  2. In the left pane, navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Connections. On the right, double-click on the “Restrict Remote Desktop Services users to a single Remote Desktop Services session” policy.

  3. Select the Disabled option and click OK.

  4. Next, double-click on the “Limit number of connections” policy to modify.

  5. Choose the Enabled option and you can increase the “RD Maximum Connections allowed“.

  6. Once it’s done, reboot the server and the group policy changes will automatically apply. Now your server should allow multiple users to connect via RDP at the same time.

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3 Methods to Stop Sharing a Folder in Windows 10

May 13th, 2020 by Admin

How do you delete or remove a shared folder that you no longer want to share? File Explorer lets you share a folder or file to other users on the local network using SMB protocol. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll show you 3 methods to stop sharing a folder in Windows 10.

Method 1: Stop Sharing a Folder Using File Explorer

  1. Open File Explorer and browse to the folder which you want to stop sharing. Right-click on it and select Properties from the context menu.

  2. Go to the Sharing tab and click on the “Advanced Sharing” button.

  3. Uncheck the box “Share this folder” and click OK.

If you want to delete many network shares at once or you can’t remember where your shared folders are, the following methods can come in handy.

Method 2: Stop Sharing a Folder Using fsmgmt.msc

  1. Press the Windows + R key combination, type fsmgmt.msc and hit Enter to open the “Shared Folders” window.

  2. In the left pane, select “Shares“. On the right, you’ll see all shared folders on the local system. Right-click on the folder you no longer want to share, and select “Stop Sharing“.

  3. The selected folder will disappear from the list.

Method 3: Stop Sharing a Folder Using Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator.
  2. Run the “net share” command to list all folders you’re sharing over the local network.

    In the first column it shows the name of the share, while the second column shows the actual location. You need to find the name of the share you want to disable.

  3. To stop sharing a folder, enter the following command and hit Enter.
    net share your_share_name /delete

    If you want to disable all shared folders at once, use this command instead.
    net use * /delete

That’s it!

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How to Export a Directory Structure in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

May 11th, 2020 by Admin

How can I print the hierarchical structure of a particular directory so I can share it to other people? Printing a directory listing sounds so easy, but Windows doesn’t provide a straightforward way to do this. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to use Command Prompt or PowerShell to export a directory structure in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Export Directory Structure Using Command Prompt

  1. Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run box. Type cmd and hit Enter to open Command Prompt.

  2. You can run the “tree” command to export the directory tree of any folder to a text file. In our case, the “d:\demo” is the folder we want to export the directory tree, and the result is saved in a plain text file (*.txt).

    tree d:\demo /a /f > d:\list.txt

  3. Open the text file using Notepad and the entire directory tree is listed inside, and you can print them out.

If you look for a way to export the directory structure in .csv format so you can open it with Microsoft Excel, proceed to the next method.

Method 2: Export Directory Structure Using PowerShell

  1. To get started, you need to open the Windows PowerShell window. If you’re running Windows 10, press the Windows key + X together and select “Windows PowerShell“.

  2. Enter the following command and press Enter. Make sure you replace “d:\demo” with the folder which you want to export the directory structure.

    Get-ChildItem -Recurse 'd:\demo' | Select-Object FullName, name | Export-Csv -path d:\list.csv -noTypeInfo

  3. It will generate a .csv file which lists all files and sub-folders in your target directory. But it doesn’t show you the hierarchical levels like the Method 1 will.

That’s it!

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Prevent Windows 10 from Changing Screen Brightness Automatically

May 9th, 2020 by Admin

Your Windows 10 laptop keeps adjusting the brightness constantly? The screen becomes dim when the AC adapter unplugged? How do I disable auto-brightness/auto-dimming? On most modern computers, Windows can automatically adjust the screen brightness based on the light of surroundings, your power plan or battery life. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to prevent Windows 10 from changing screen brightness automatically.

Part 1: Disable Adaptive Brightness

If your computer monitor has an integrated light sensor, Windows can adjust the screen brightness depending on the amount of light around you. To turn off adaptive brightness on Windows 10, press the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app, then click on the System category.

Select the Display menu on the left. On the right, uncheck the “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes” option.

If the above option is missing or you’re using an old version of Windows, open the Power Options window from the Control Panel and expand the Display item, you can turn off the “Enable adaptive brightness” setting.

Adaptive brightness is available in Windows 10, 8 and 7, but it is only visible if your computer has an ambient light sensor.

Part 2: Disable Auto Screen Dimming While in Battery Saver

Windows 10 includes a new feature called Battery Saver that can extend battery life of your laptop or tablet. When the battery falls below 20%, Windows will automatically lower the screen brightness, which helps reduce battery consumption. To disable this behavior, just open the Settings app and navigate to System -> Battery, click the checkbox next to “Lower screen brightness while in battery saver“.

Part 3: Disable Power Saving for Graphics Card

If you’re using Intel graphics adapter, just download the Intel® Graphics Control Panel app from Microsoft Store, which lets you adjust most power management settings with ease. After starting the app, go to the “Power” section and look for a feature called “Display Power Saving Technology” and disable it.

NVIDIA also has a similar app named NVIDIA Control Panel so you can disable power saving mode too. For AMD users, the AMD Radeon software is also now in the Microsoft Store.

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