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How to Change Number Format in Windows 10

October 25th, 2016 by Admin

In some situation, comma is used instead of a dot to separate the fractional part of decimal numbers. This might cause some issues with certain software. How can you change the decimal separator from a comma to a dot in numbers? In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change / customize the number format in Windows 10.

decimal-symbol-use-comma

How to Change Number Format in Windows 10?

  1. Open the Control Panel in Large or Small icons view. Click on Region.

    region

  2. When the Region window opens, click on the Additional settings button.

    advanced-region-settings

  3. The Customize Format window opens. In the Numbers tab, you can customize how numbers are displayed by Windows. For example, change decimal symbol from , (comma) to . (dot).

    customize-number-format

  4. If you’ve messed up the number format, just click the Reset button on the bottom-right of the window. It will restore your number format to default.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

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How to Disable or Turn Off Notification Sounds in Windows 10

October 25th, 2016 by Admin

Keep hearing the annoying notification sound? Windows 10 notification sounds might drive you crazy. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to disable or turn off notification sounds in Windows 10.

Method 1: Turn Off Windows 10 Notification Sounds from Settings App

  1. Click the Start button and then click the Settings icon, or press Windows key + I to open the Settings app.

  2. On the main settings screen, click System.

    system-settings

  3. On the left side of the window, click on Notifications & actions. Then, on the right side, scroll down to the “Get notifications from these senders” section, and click on the app that you want to block from playing notification sound.

    notifications-actions

  4. Turn off the option named “Play a sound when a notification arrives“. Repeat these steps and you can disable notification sounds from other apps.

    not-play-sound-for-notification

Method 2: Turn Off Windows 10 Notification Sounds from Control Panel

  1. Open the Control Panel in Large or Small icons view. Click the Sound option.

    control-panel

  2. When the Sound Settings dialog opens, click the Sounds tab.
  3. Select the Notification option under the Program Events section. Click the Sounds drop-down list at the bottom and select None. Click OK to save your change.

    sound-settings

  4. Now your Windows 10 system will still be able to receive all the notifications, but it won’t play sounds any longer.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

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How to Set Up An Alarm in Windows 10

October 24th, 2016 by Admin

It’s most common to use alarm in mobile phone to get up in the morning. Now Windows 10 also comes with the Alarm & Clock feature, and we can use alarm in the PC to notify ourselves of the task we need to do. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to set up an alarm in Windows 10.

How to Set Up An Alarm in Windows 10?

  1. Click the Start button. When the Start Menu appears, scroll to the A letter and select Alarm & Clock.

    alarm-and-clock

  2. To set an alarm in Windows 10, you can either edit any existing alarm or create a new one by clicking the plus sign + in the bottom-right corner.

    add-alarm

  3. The first thing you can do is set the alarm time, by selecting the hour and minute you want it triggered. Next give your new alarm a name.

    set-alarm-time

  4. By default, the alarm is set to sound only once. You can set the alarm to sound in certain weekdays by clicking Repeats.

    set-alarm-repeats

  5. Click Sound to choose the alarm sound you want to hear.

    choose-alarm-sound

  6. Finally, set the Snooze time span by picking up the needed time from its list.

    alarm-snooze-time

  7. When you’ve finished setting everything, click the Save button on the right lower corner of the screen.
  8. Now, your alarm is set. If you want to turn off the alarm, just set the switch to Off.

    windows-10-alarm

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

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How to Disable & Clear Location History in Windows 10

October 24th, 2016 by Admin

Windows 10 enables location tracking by default, Cortana and other apps can use the geographic location of your computer to provide more accurate results for things like maps and web searches. But users concerned about privacy might want to turn off location tracking permanently. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to turn on/off location tracking, and clear location history in Windows 10.

How to Disable & Clear Location History in Windows 10?

  1. Open Settings app by clicking its icon in Start menu or pressing Windows logo + I keyboard shortcut.

  2. Click on Privacy.

    privacy-settings

  3. Select Location from the list on the left side. Scroll down to the Location history section, click the Clear button under Clear history on this device.

    clear-location-history

  4. Windows 10 can find your general location using IP address. In order to disable general location, switch the “General location” switch to Off.
  5. Windows 10 can also determine the precise location using your router details. Scroll down to the bottom, you can choose whether apps can access your precise location.

    disable-precise-location

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

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2 Ways to Turn On or Off Screen Saver in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

October 20th, 2016 by Admin

Screen saver is a nice way to protect your computer from prying eyes when you walk away without locking it. After a short time of inactivity, screen saver will automatically lock the screen and apply password protection. But sometimes screen saver will bother you while playing movie. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to turn on or off screen saver in Windows 10 / 8 /7.

Method 1: Turn On / Off Screen Saver from Screen Saver Settings Dialog

  1. Right-click the empty space on your desktop and select Personalize.

  2. It now opens up the Personalization settings. Click on Lock screen in the left pane, then click the Screen saver settings link in the right pane.

    screen-saver-settings

    If you’re running Windows 7, simply click on the Screen Saver link at the bottom of the window.

    screen-saver-personalization

  3. Once Screen Saver Settings dialog is launched, you can customize the screensaver and change the idle time before the screen saver is activated. If you want to turn off screen saver, just set the screen saver as None and Uncheck the box to On resume, display logon screen.

    screen-saver

  4. Click Apply and then OK.

Method 2: Turn On / Off Screen Saver Using Group Policy

  1. Press Windows key + R and type gpedit.msc and hit Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor.

    gpedit

  2. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization. Double-click on the policy labeled “Enable screen saver“.

    enable-screen-saver

  3. Set it to Disabled if you want to turn off screen saver. After disabling, all the screen saver settings options will be greyed out. If you want to turn on screen saver later, you need to set that option to Enabled.

    turn-on-off-screen-saver

  4. Click OK and reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

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

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Fix: Screen Saver Settings Greyed out in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

October 17th, 2016 by Admin

Unable to change screen saver settings? All screen saver options are greyed out or disabled? This problem is caused by a group policy setting that got screen saver disabled. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to fix this problem in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

screen-saver-greyed-out

Method 1: Fix Screen Saver Settings Greyed out Using Group Policy

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.

    gpedit

  2. In the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to:
    User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization
  3. In the right pane, locate the following two policies:
    • Enable screen saver
    • Password protect the screen saver

    screen-saver-group-policy

  4. Double-click on each policy to modify, set both of them to Not Configured. Click Apply and then OK.

    enable-screen-saver

  5. Reboot your computer and you should be able to change the screen saver settings.

Method 2: Fix Screen Saver Settings Greyed out Using Registry Hack

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter.

    regedit-via-run

  2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop

    ScreenSaveActive

  3. Delete both ScreenSaveActive and ScreenSaverIsSecure in the right pane. Reboot your computer and the screen saver settings should be editable from now on.

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

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4 Ways to Open Screen Saver Settings in Windows 10

October 17th, 2016 by Admin

To turn on or disable screen saver, you have to open the Screen Saver Settings dialog. Windows 10 has buried it where you might not be able to find it. It certainly isn’t in any obvious place, so here we’ll show you 4 ways to open Screen Saver Settings in Windows 10.

screen-saver-settings

Method 1: Open Screen Saver Settings by Right-clicking the Desktop

Right-click on any empty space of your desktop, and select Personalize from the context menu.

personalize

When the Settings app launches, select Lock screen on the left side. Click the Screen saver settings link on the right side at the bottom.

lock-screen-settings

Method 2: Open Screen Saver Settings from Run or Command Prompt

Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type the following command and press Enter.
control desk.cpl,,@screensaver

open-screen-savers-settings-via-run

Or run the above command at the Command Prompt, it will also open Screen Saver Settings dialog in Windows 10.

Method 3: Open Screen Saver Settings Using Windows 10 Search

Click the Cortana Search box at the taskbar. Type in Screen Saver.

open-screen-saver-settings-via-search

Click on “Change screen saver” and it will take you to the Screen Saver Settings right away where you can turn on or off screen saver in Windows 10.

Method 4: Open Screen Saver Settings from Control Panel

Open the Control Panel in Windows 10. You’ll see a Search box in the upper right corner. Type Screen Saver and press Enter.

change-screen-saver-via-control-panel

Click on “Change screen saver” from the search result. This will open the Screen Saver Settings dialog immediately.

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How to Export and Copy Local Group Policy Settings to Another PC

October 14th, 2016 by Admin

“I am editing local group policies here and would prefer not to edit each machine manually. How do I export the policy, and then import it to other machines? Please help!”

LGPO.exe (Local Group Policy Object Utility) is a small command-line utility released by Microsoft, which allows you to export and import local group policy easily. It’s really convenient if you want to make a backup of local group policy, or import it later on another computer.

This tutorial shows you how to use Microsoft’s command line tool LGPO to export / backup local group policy settings, and import them into another computer.

Download LGPO from Microsoft

Download the LGPO zip archive from Microsoft’s website. Unpack it locally and copy the resulting LGPO.exe file to C:\Windows\System32. Afterwards you can open an elevated Command Prompt for running the LGPO command to automate the management of local group policy.

LGPO

Export Local Group Policy Settings

To create a backup for local policy policy settings on your local PC, run this command at Command Prompt:
LGPO.exe /b backup_path

backup-local-group-policy-via-cmd

A new folder with GPO GUID appears in the target directory. It will contain all local policy settings for this computer. You can restore this backup to your local machine at any time you need it, or import it later into another computer.

group-policy-backup

Import GPO into Another PC

To restore Local Group Policy settings from the backup, import them by running the following command:
LGPO.exe /g backup_path

import-group-policy-via-cmd

Once imported, restart your computer for the local group policy settings to take effect.

Conclusion

This method can help you easily deploy local group policy settings to other computers. As we all know, the Local Group Policy Editor is not present in Windows Home edition so you’re unable to edit the group policy locally. The LGPO utility makes it possible to copy the group policy settings from Windows Pro/Enterprise to Windows Home.

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

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Fix: Sound Icon Missing from Taskbar in Windows 10

October 13th, 2016 by Admin

The sound / volume icon is missing from the taskbar….how do you get it back? With the sound icon disappeared, it’s extremely inconvenient to adjust the sound volume on your PC. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to fix the issue: sound icon missing from taskbar in Windows 10.

sound-icon-at-taskbar

Method 1: Restore Windows 10 Sound Icon from Settings

  1. Open Settings app by clicking its icon in Start menu or pressing Windows logo + I hotkey.

  2. Click on Personalization.

    personalization

  3. Select Taskbar from the left-hand navigation, then click the Turn system icons on or off link.

    taskbar-settings

  4. Make sure that the Volume is set to On.

    turn-volume-system-icon-on

    If it’s greyed out, you need to turn on Windows 10 Sound Icon using the following group policy or registry hack.

Method 2: Restore Windows 10 Sound Icon Using Group Policy

  1. Press Windows Key + R and enter gpedit.msc. Press OK to open Local Group Policy Editor.
  2. In the left pane navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar. In the right pane locate “Remove the volume control icon” and double-click it.

    remove-volume-control-icon

  3. Make sure that Not Configured or Disabled option is selected. Click Apply and then OK.

    enable-volume-icon

    Restore your computer and the sound icon should be back at Windows 10 taskbar.

Method 3: Restore Windows 10 Sound Icon Using Registry Editor

If Local Group Policy Editor is not available in your PC, try this registry hack to restore the sound icon in Windows 10. Follow these steps:

  1. Press Windows Key + R and enter regedit. Press OK to launch Registry Editor.
  2. In the left pane, navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
  3. On the right-side, look for the HideSCAVolume entry, double-click on it, change value date to 0 and then click OK.

    HideSCAVolume

  4. Restart your computer and you should see the Volume / Sound icon at the taskbar in Windows 10.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

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