Archive for the ‘Others’ category

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How to Show Hidden Files in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Vista

July 1st, 2015 by Admin

One accidental deletion of a single system file can render your computer unusable. By default, Windows hides certain system files from view in Windows Explorer. This protects important files from being accidentally deleted, modified or altered.

But there are times when it’s necessary to view the hidden files and folders when coming to troubleshoot Windows problems. Here’s how to show hidden files in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Vista.

How to Show Hidden Files in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Vista?

  1. Open up a Windows Explorer window, choose Organize -> Folder and search options.

    win7-folder-options

    In Windows 10 or 8, click on the View tab at the top of Windows Explorer, and then click Options.

    win8-folder-options

    In Windows 11, open File Explorer and click on the See more button (three dots) on the right side of the toolbar, and then select Options.

  2. From the opened Folder Options box, go to View tab.
  3. Under the Advanced settings section, click to select “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” radio button. If you are trying to get into the Windows directories, you might want to also remove the checkbox from “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” as well.

    show-hiden-files

  4. When you are done, just click Apply and OK, and your changes will take effect immediately.

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

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Fix the Error “Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination file could not be created”

June 3rd, 2015 by Admin

Windows has built-in support for zip files. It can create, extract, browse through zip files which is a nice feature but this feature can also give you troubles in some situations.

When you try to open a .zip file you’ve downloaded using Windows Explorer, you might receive the follow error:

“Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination file could not be created.”

error-open-zip

By default, Windows will extract the files into the temp folder when you double-click on a .zip file to open it for viewing. This error means there is a problem with the permissions of the temp folder.

Here is a workaround:

  1. Move the .zip file into one of your user profile sub-folders, like Downloads, Documents, Pictures, etc.
  2. Right-click on the .zip file and select “Extract All”. This allows you to decompress all of the files into a folder of your choice.

Actually this problem has been faced by lots of Windows users. If you open the zip file with some third-party tools such as 7-zip or WinRAR, every file could be opened without error.

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How to Fix “Your connection is not private” in Chrome

May 27th, 2015 by Admin

Whenever you try to login to Yahoo Mail, Facebook or YouTube using Google Chrome, you might get the ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID error:

Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from site (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards).

connection-not-private

After searching the web for solutions, most of which where pointing to system time not in sync. If your computer’s date and time is not correct, you’ll face this strange problem.

If you confirm the date is up to date, then check the anti-virus software installed on your computer which might block the website’s security certificate.

  • If you’re using Avast, you need to turn off HTTPS scanning in Avast: go to Settings > Active Protection > Web Shield > Customize, uncheck the “Enable HTTPS scanning” box.
  • For Bitdefender, open the main Bitdefender interface and go to Settings (upper right corner). From there, click on Privacy Control. Select the Antiphising tab. Switch Scan SSL to OFF.

For some situations, the problem might happen as the root certs were messed up. You have to clear all certs on your computer and rebuilt new once using Microsoft fix it tool.

Hope this helps others!

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How to Change Local or Domain Password Policy from Command Prompt

May 10th, 2015 by Admin

How to disable the password complexity policy for Windows Server Core installation? If your Windows system comes with a GUI interface, you change the password policy from within the Group Policy Editor, but the steps are still a bit complicated for a Windows domain controller.

In this tutorial we’ll show you a quick yet simple way to change local / domain password policy from the Command Prompt. This method works with all versions of Windows, including Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and Windows Server 2012 (R2) / 2008 (R2) / 2003.

How to Change Local/Domain Password Policy from Command Prompt?

If your computer is a domain controller, follow the steps below and you can change the default domain password policy. To change the local password policy on a domain controller, you must boot your server in Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) and then perform the steps below:

  1. Open an elevated Command Prompt. If you’ve forgotten the local or domain administrator password and couldn’t log on, try the PCUnlocker bootdisk for bypassing the password.
  2. Type the following command and hit Enter:
    secedit.exe /export /cfg C:\secconfig.cfg

    export-group-policy

    This will dump the local policy or domain policy for the system, including account policies, audit policies, and so on.

  3. Open the C:\secconfig.cfg file with your text editor. For Windows Server Core, you can type notepad.exe in the Command Prompt. When Notepad launches, click the File -> Open menu to open C:\secconfig.cfg.
  4. Now you can view and edit all of the relevant policies as shown below. In this example, we’ll disable the password complexity policy. So we replace PasswordComplexity = 1 to PasswordComplexity = 0, and change the value of MinimumPasswordLength to 0.

    edit-group-policy

  5. When done, save your changes. To load the edited file as your new policy configuration, use the following command:
    secedit.exe /configure /db %windir%\securitynew.sdb /cfg C:\secconfig.cfg /areas SECURITYPOLICY

    update-group-policy

  6. The new password policy will apply to all password changes and new password. After disabling the password complexity policy, you should be able to change Windows account password to whatever you like.

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

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Using Windows Firewall to Block A Program from Accessing The Internet

May 6th, 2015 by Admin

Have you ever installed a program that you only needed for offline use, but it kept on trying to connect to the Internet? Or need to stop a program from gathering your personal information and sending them out to the Internet? With Windows Firewall you can easily block any program of your choice from connecting to the Internet.

How to Block A Program from Accessing The Internet?

  1. To get started we need to open up Windows Firewall. One quick way to do this is from the Control Panel. Just click the Windows Firewall icon.

    control-panel-items

  2. On Windows Firewall window, click on the Advanced settings link.

    windows-firewall

  3. Here you can see all your Firewall rules: Inbound or Outbound. When it comes down to it I think Outbound rules are usually enough for most applications. When Outbound connections are blocked, this means that the application can’t send any of your data to the Internet.
  4. Right-click on Outbound Rules from the tree at the left, and then select “New Rule…”

    new-outbound-rule

  5. Select the Program as the rule type and click Next.

    rule-type

  6. Select the “This program path:” option and then click on Browse to locate the program which you want to stop from accessing the Internet.

    apply-rule-to-specific-app

  7. Select the “Block the connection” option and click Next.

    block-connection

  8. When comes to the Profile tab, select all of the available boxes: Domain, Private, and Public.

    when-rule-apply

  9. Give your new rule a name whatever you like. Click on Finish.

    set-firewall-rule-name

  10. In the Name column, your newly blocked program will be listed. In the Action column, you’ll see that your newly created rule is set to Block.

    firewall-rules

    Repeat the same steps to block as many programs as you want from accessing the Internet.

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

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How to Fix IE Issue “This program couldn’t be downloaded”

May 4th, 2015 by Admin

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you might frequently experience an issue with your download: “This program couldn’t be downloaded”. The file would appear to download but then after the last bit was done, it would fail and no further indicators of what the problem was.

couldnt-be-downloaded

I contacted Microsoft support and they suggested me to install the most recent cumulative security update for Internet Explorer. But it also doesn’t solve the problem. Eventually I figured out a way to fix the problem. Here’s how:

  1. From Internet Explorer main menu, click on Tools and choose Internet Options.
  2. Click the Advanced tab.

    don't-save-encrypted-pages

  3. Check the “Do not save encrypted files to disk” option, and then click OK.

Restart your Internet Explorer and you should then be able to download your application without any issue.

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Can’t Delete Files Containing Special Characters in Windows

March 16th, 2015 by Admin

There might be situations where you need to delete some folders or files contains special characters in the filenames. When you try to delete, move or rename such a folder/file from Windows Explorer, you’ll receive the error message “The file name you specified is not valid or too long“.

unable-delete-file

Or get a similar error message “The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect” when you try to delete the folders/files from Command Prompt.

filename-syntax-incorrect

I have tried many third-party softwares such as unlocker, 7-Zip File Manager, and other tricks discussed in various forums. But none of them work. This problem is very tricky because a set of special characters can’t be used in filenames, such as
\ / : * ? " < > |

Almost all Windows apps are unable to process these stubborn files. To get around this problem, you need to use a Ubuntu Live CD or Linux distribution. In my example, I boot my computer from Ubuntu Live CD and I can then easily create, open, rename or delete any folders or files with special characters.

ubuntu

Almost anything (only the / character is not allowed) will be allowed in the filename after booting to Linux or Ubuntu. Using this method, you can delete or rename any Windows folders/files located in your hard drive.

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How to Create Multiple Profiles in Firefox

February 23rd, 2015 by Admin

Firefox stores your personal data – bookmarks, cookies, passwords, user preferences, and everything else – in a directory known as a profile. Each profile stores separate set of user information. You can set up separate profiles for work use, personal use, extension testing, secure browsing – anything you like. In this article we’ll show you how to create multiple profiles in Firefox.

Part 1: Launch The Profile Manager

The built-in Profile Manager can’t be accessed from within Firefox’s GUI interface. To launch the Profile Manager, you need to close Firefox completely if it’s running, and then follow the steps below:

  1. Press the Windows key + R to bring up the Run box.
  2. Type firefox.exe -p and hit Enter.

    start-firefox

  3. You’ll see the Choose User Profile dialog window. By default, you’ll have a single user profile named “default”. From this window you can create a new profile, rename existing ones, and delete them.

    firefox-profile-manager

Part 2: Create New Profile

To create a new profile, click the Create Profile button and go through the wizard. The only important option is the profile name – you can use the default folder location unless you want to store your profile folder elsewhere.

create-firefox-profile

If you don’t want a profile anymore, you can delete it by clicking the Delete Profile button. This wipes all browsing data associated with a specific profile, including its bookmarks, saved passwords and other settings.

Part 3: Switch Between Multiple Profiles

To switch between multiple profiles, just launch the Profile Manager and choose which profile you want to load. If you uncheck the “Use the selected profile without asking at startup” box, Firefox will load the selected profile by default without prompting each time you start it.

choose-firefox-profile

Normally, if you start Firefox when a copy is already running, it’ll just open a new browser window using the current profile. To start a completely separate instance of Firefox, press the Windows key + R, type the following command into the Run dialog that appears, and press Enter.

firefox.exe -profilemanager -no-remote

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Windows 10 to Add Native Support for FLAC and MKV

February 10th, 2015 by Admin

Microsoft has already confirmed that Windows 10 will come with native support for MKV (Matrsoka Video) and FLAC. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a commonly used lossless audio format that provides a more accurate reproduction of recordings. In other words, it sounds better than other formats, such as MP3, which compress recordings down to a more manageable size but lose quality in the process.

It’s also worth mentioning that MKV and FLAC are currently supported in Windows 10 Technical Preview and that file support will continue on to the final version when it hits the market. Here’s a look at playing some .flac audio files with Windows Media Player on Windows 10 build 9901 (The download is available through the Windows Insider Program website).

windows-media-player

MKV and FLAC are two file formats that have been increasing in popularity over the years. They produce great quality audio and video, are compressed so the files aren’t too large and are feature rich. Windows 8.1 and prior did not provide any supporting software out of the box, requiring end users to download third party apps to convert FLAC/MKV formats, such as the Video Converter Assist. With Windows 10, Windows Media Player will be able to handle those duties.

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