Author Archive

How to Create a Run Shortcut on Windows 10 Desktop

April 26th, 2017 by Admin

Using the Run command in Windows, you can run quick commands and programs, open folders or files, etc. In previous post we’ve covered all kinds of ways to open the Run command box, here we’re going to show you how to create a Run shortcut on Windows 10 desktop.

windows-run-desktop-shortcut

How to Create a Run Shortcut on Windows 10 Desktop?

Right-click any empty area on the desktop and select New > Shortcut.
This will open the Create Shortcut wizard. Copy and paste the location below into the location area, and then click Next.
explorer.exe shell:::{2559a1f3-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}
Name the shortcut as ‘Run‘ and click Finish.
The default icon for your newly created shortcut is a folder icon. To change the icon, right-click on the new Run shortcut on the desktop, and then select Properties from the context menu.
Under the Shortcut tab, click the Change icon button.
In the Change Icon window, browse to select the file C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll. Next choose the Run command icon and click OK.
Now, the Run shortcut should now show up on the desktop with the original Run command icon. You can double-click on it to open Run command box for quick access.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: create run shortcut on windows 10 run command shortcut windows 10 run shortcut windows 10

2 Ways to Reset Chrome to Default Settings without Reinstall

April 25th, 2017 by Admin

Have you messed up with your Chrome profile settings? Chrome is running slow and you have adware or pop-up ads problems? In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to reset your Google Chrome settings and data to default without reinstall.

Method 1: Reset Chrome to default from Chrome settings

This will reset your homepage, new tab pages, and search engine, disable your extensions and unpin all tabs. It will also clear other temporary and cached data, such as cookies, content and site data. However, your saved bookmarks and passwords will not be cleared or changed.

Open your Chrome browser, and then click the More icon (with three lines or dots) in the upper-right corner and select Settings.
Chrome’s Settings should now be displayed in a new tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Show advanced settings link.
Scroll down to the Reset settings section, as shown in the screenshot below. Click on the Reset settings button.
A pop-up window will come up and ask for confirmation the restoration process.

Once you click Reset, you will get clean and default Google Chrome.

Method 2: Reset Chrome to default by deleting the user profile

Another way of resetting Chrome to default settings is to delete your Chrome profile. This will completely reset all Chrome settings to default and delete your browser profiles, themes, extensions, bookmarks, history, cache, passwords, cookies, and web form auto-fill information. Here’s how:

Open your Chrome browser, and then click the More icon (with three lines or dots) in the upper-right corner and select Settings.
In the People section of the Settings page, select your current profile and click the Remove button underneath. After deleting, Chrome will automatically set up a new profile with default settings.
All of your chrome user data, bookmarks, history, cookies and cache will be cleared, and you will get fresh Google Chrome running on your computer.

If you want to remove data and settings for all Chrome profiles, just open Windows Explorer and go to the directory C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data, delete all files in it. That’s it!

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Posted in Free Software, Others, Tips & Tricks

Tags: reset chrome settings reset chrome to default

How to Restore Missing Command Prompt to Win+X Menu in Window 10

April 21st, 2017 by Admin

If you’ve installed Windows 10 Creators Update (build 1703), you may find that Command Prompt is missing from the context menu when you press WIN + X shortcut keys. Microsoft has replaced it with PowerShell, which is a bit annoying if you are a fan of Command Prompt. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to replace PowerShell with Command Prompt in Windows 10, so you can access Command Prompt in the Win + X menu again.

windows-10-replace-cmd-with-powershell

How to Restore Missing Command Prompt to Win+X Menu in Windows 10?

Right-click on any empty space on the taskbar, select Taskbar settings (or “Settings” for earlier build of Windows 10) from the context menu.

windows-10-taskbar-settings

The Settings app will be opened directly at the Taskbar page. Turn the “Replace Command Prompt with Windows PowerShell in the menu when I right-click the Start button or press Windows key+X” option to Off.

replace-cmd-with-powershell

This change will take effect immediately. When you right-click the Start button, or hit the Windows + X keyboard shortcut, the Power User Menu will pop up as usual but the PowerShell will be replaced with Command Prompt. That’s it!

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: command prompt missing windows 10 replace command prompt with powershell windows 10 replace powershell with command prompt windows 10

Set Mouse Wheel to Scroll One Screen at A Time in Windows 10

April 20th, 2017 by Admin

When you roll the mouse wheel one notch, a webpage or a document will be scrolled up or down 3 lines. If this default scroll speed is too slow for you, you can increase the mouse wheel scrolling speed in Windows 10 and make it scroll one screen at a time.

How to Set Mouse Wheel to Scroll One Screen at A Time in Windows 10?

To change mouse wheel scroll speed, you need to access the Settings app. To do so, click the Settings icon from Windows 10 Start Menu, or press the Windows + I keyboard shortcut to open the app.
When the Settings app launches, click on Devices.
Choose Mouse on the left, you’ll see various mouse configuration settings. Under the “Roll the mouse wheel to scroll” setting, you can choose between “Multiple lines at a time” or “One screen at a time“. The first is the default setting, which makes scrolling smoother and slower.
If you choose the “Multiple lines at a time” option, you can use the slider underneath to choose the number of lines that are moved up/down with each notch of the wheel.
If you choose the “One screen at a time” option, the slider below will gray out and when I roll the mouse wheel one click, the wheel will skip an entire page of content at once, rather than going through it line by line. This setting is drastic if you have a large monitor with a high resolution.

After changing the mouse wheel scroll settings, you can open a webpage or a document, and check which scrolling method you prefer, and adjust the scroll speed to what you want.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: change mouse scroll speed windows 10 choose how many lines to scroll each time in windows 10 roll mouse wheel to scroll one screen at a time scroll one screen at a time with mouse wheel

How to Pause the Windows Update Download in Progress

April 19th, 2017 by Admin

Is there a way to pause the downloading update without having to turn off completely the Windows updates? Sometimes Windows will force you to start downloading the critical updates, even when you use a mobile internet with slow and strict traffic limits. In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple way to pause a Windows Update download while in progress, so you can resume it later.

How to Pause the Windows Update Download in Progress?

This method works by stopping all the Windows update services temporarily, and you can then resume them when you’re ready to download the updates. Here’s how:

To start, you need to open the Command Prompt as administrator. To do so, press the Windows key + X on your keyboard and select Command Prompt (Admin). Click Yes when you see the UAC prompt.
The first thing we need to do is stop the Windows Update service. Execute the below command:
net stop wuauserv
Next, stop the Background Intelligent Transfer service and for that execute the below command:
net stop bits
Now, stop the Delivery Optimization service. Just execute the below command:
net stop dosvc
You’ve now successfully paused all the Windows update downloads.
Whenever you want to resume the download, simply execute the below commands one by one, press Enter after each.
net start wuauserv net start bits net start dosvc

You can also turn on the Metered Connection feature in Windows 10 to stop automatic updates. However, this command line method is the most direct way to pause and resume Windows Update downloads while in progress.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: pause windows update download pause windows updates stop downloading updates in windows

Add OEM Support Information to Your Windows 10 Computer

April 18th, 2017 by Admin

Windows 10 allows you to add OEM support information in the System Properties. The OEM information includes your company name, phone number, website URL, and even a custom logo. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to easily add OEM support information to a Windows 10 computer, with the sole purpose of assisting customers.

How to Add OEM Support Information to Your Windows 10 Computer?

Press the Windows key + R to open the Run command box. Type regedit and press Enter.
Once Registry Editor is opened, navigate to below following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation

With the OEMInformation key selected on the left, right-click any empty space on the right side and choose New > String Value.
Name the new value as Manufacturer, and then change its value to your company name or the vendor’s name.
Repeat the above step to add other OEM support information: Model, SupportHours, SupportPhone, SupportURL, Logo. The logo must be a BMP image file and cannot be bigger than 120×120 pixels in size.
Now open System Properties by right-clicking on This PC icon on the desktop and selecting Properties, you’ll see your customized Manufacturer information listed under the System section. If you add a support telephone number or website, they’ll appear in a separate Support section of the window.

With these simple steps, you can add completely custom OEM support information to a Windows 10 PC. This can come in handy if you’re building PCs for others, or if you just want to add a unique and custom aspect to your system.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: change oem information windows 10 oem information windows 10

2 Ways to Hide Certain or All Settings Pages in Windows 10

April 17th, 2017 by Admin

In Windows 10, most Control Panel features have been moved to the Settings app, and Settings will eventually replace the Control Panel. Starting with Windows 10 Creators Update (build 1703), there is a new feature that allows you to hide certain pages of the Settings app. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to use group policy or registry editor to hide certain or all pages of the Settings app in Windows 10.

Method 1: Hide Settings Pages in Windows 10 Using Group Policy

Press Windows + R keys together on your keyboard, then type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
When the Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel. In the right pane, you will find the option named Settings Page Visibility. It is a new policy in Windows 10 Creators Update.
Double-click the Settings Page Visibility policy. Set it to Enabled. In the text box, you can specify a list of settings pages to show or hide. For example, if you want to hide the “Sign-in options” page from the Settings app, then type:
hide:signinoptions

Note: signinoptions is the URI of the Sign-in options page. To look up URIs for every pages of the Settings app, please check this article.

For example, to hide the the Bluetooth page and the Display page, type the value:
hide:bluetooth;display

If you want to specify that only About and Bluetooth pages should be shown and all other pages hidden:
showonly:about;bluetooth

If you want to hide all settings pages, type:
showonly:
Next click Apply and then OK. Re-open the Settings app to check if it takes effects. In my case, the Sign-in options page is disappeared.

If you’ve configured the policy to hide all settings pages, you’ll see nothing after launching the Settings app:

Method 2: Hide Settings Pages in Windows 10 Using Registry Editor

Press Windows + R keys together on your keyboard, then type regedit and press Enter.
When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

If you don’t see the Explorer key, then just create it yourself.
Right-click on the Explorer key in the left pane, and then select New > String Value. Name the value as SettingsPageVisibility.
Double-click on SettingsPageVisibility. In the Edit String window, if you want to hide certain pages in the Settings app, use the code:
hide:pageURI;pageURI;pageURI
Close Registry Editor and relaunch the Settings app to see the changes.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: hide settings page in windows 10

Restore Windows Photo Viewer to Windows 10 “Open With” Context Menu

April 17th, 2017 by Admin

Just upgrade to Windows 10 and find Windows Photo Viewer is missing from right-click context menu? Windows 10 comes with a new default image viewer app – Photos, which is meant to replace the old Windows Photo Viewer. Though Windows Photo Viewer hasn’t been removed from Windows 10. It’s just hiding so well you might never ever find it.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to restore missing Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10, and set Windows Photo Viewer as default image viewer.

Part 1: Restore Missing Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10

To get started, download the restore_windows_photo_viewer.reg file and save it to your Windows 10 computer. Next, right-click this file and select Merge. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.
Click on Yes to confirm that you want to add the registry keys.
This will register Windows Photo Viewer with Default Programs, and associate all image files types (.jpg, .jpeg, .bmp, .png, .tif, .dib, etc) to Windows Photo Viewer.
Now, right-click on an image and select Open with from the context menu, you can then click Windows Photo Viewer to view your image.

Part 2: Set Windows Photo Viewer as Default Image Viewer

After restoring the classic Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10, you can now set it as the default image viewer. Follow these steps:

Open the Control Panel. Set the View by option to Large icons and then click Default Programs.
Click Set your default programs.
Select Windows Photo Viewer from the list, and then click Set this program as default on the right-hand side.
Now, double-click on any image files and Windows 10 will open them with Windows Photo Viewer by default.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: restore windows photo viewer in windows 10 set windows photo viewer as default in windows 10 windows photo viewer missing in windows 10

Fix: Windows Defender is Turned off by Group Policy

April 12th, 2017 by Admin

“This app is turned off by group policy.” This is the message I am getting when I am trying to access Windows Defender. How can I sort out this issue?

When your computer infected by any malware or virus, this may cause Windows Defender to be turned off. It’s also possible that Windows Defender gets automatically disabled after installing anti-virus software. In such situation, you’ll get the following error message when you open Windows Defender:

“This app is turned off by group policy. To allow this app to run, contact your security administrator to enable the program via group policy”

defender-turned-off-by-group-policy

In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to fix the issue “Windows Defender is turned off by group policy” by enabling Windows Defender again in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Fix “Windows Defender is Turned off by Group Policy” Using Group Policy

Press the Windows key + R together to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and hit Enter.
When the Local Group Policy Editor window appears, navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender.
Now locate the Turn off Windows Defender setting in the right pane, and double-click on it to modify.
In order to turn on Windows Defender, select Disabled and click OK.

Reboot your computer. The next time you try to open Windows Defender and you should no longer get “This app is turned off by group policy” message.

Method 2: Fix “Windows Defender is Turned off by Group Policy” Using Registry Editor

Press the Windows key + R together to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.
In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the key below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender
Right-click on the DisableAntiSpyware value in the right pane, and then select Delete.
Close Registry Editor and reboot your PC to take effect. Now you won’t receive the error “This app is turned off by group policy” when you try to launch Windows Defender.

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

Tags: This app is turned off by group policy windows defender turned off by group policy

How to Force a Windows 10 Emergency Restart

April 11th, 2017 by Admin

Emergency Restart is a hidden feature in Windows 10 that allows you to force an immediate reboot when the operating system or apps are hanging or freezing. When perform an Emergency Restart, Windows 10 will terminate any running application forcefully and you’ll not see any warning about saving your work. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to perform an emergency restart in Windows 10.

How to Force a Windows 10 Emergency Restart?

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination to bring the security options screen. This will display Lock this computer, Switch User, Log off, Change a password and Start Task Manager options.
Press and hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, then click the Shutdown button at the bottom-right corner of the screen.
On the next screen, Windows will display the following information:

“Emergency restart. Click OK to immediately restart. Any unsaved data will be lost. Use this only as a last resort.”
Click OK to do a emergency restart. Windows 10 will force the PC to immediately shut down without saving your work you’re doing, and then boot back up into Windows. That’s all there is to it.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: emergency restart windows 10 force restart windows 10