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Fix “The app you’re trying to install isn’t a Microsoft-verified app” in Windows 10

September 7th, 2020 by Admin

When you try to install an app or program in Windows 10, you may get the warning “The app you’re trying to install isn’t a Microsoft-verified app“.

Starting with Windows 10 build 15042, Microsoft has added a new setting which allows installing apps from Windows Store only. To get rid of the warning “The app you’re trying to install isn’t a Microsoft-verified app“, here are 3 methods to turn off app recommendations in Windows 10.

Method 1: Turn off App Recommendations via Settings

  1. Click the Start button and then click the gear icon to open the Settings app.

  2. Next, choose the Apps category.

  3. On the right side, click the “Choose where to get apps” drop-down list and change it from “The Microsoft Store only (Recommended)” to “Anywhere“.

  4. Close the Settings app and the warning will be gone away.

If the “Choose where to get apps” drop-down list is grayed out or missing, try to adjust the app installation policy using one of the following methods.

Method 2: Turn off App Recommendations via Group Policy

  1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and browse to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Defender SmartScreen -> Explorer.
  2. On the right pane, double-click on the “Configure App Install Control” policy to edit it.

  3. Select Enabled and then pick up the “Turn off app recommendations” setting from the drop-down list.

  4. Click Apply and then OK. Restart your PC and Windows 10 should never prevent you from installing third-party apps or softwares.

Method 3: Turn off App Recommendations via Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. Look for a string named AicEnabled on the right pane, then double-click it and change its value from “StoreOnly” to “Anywhere”.

  2. Next, navigate to another key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\SmartScreen. On the right side, double-click the string ConfigureAppInstallControl and change its value from “StoreOnly” to “Anywhere”.

  3. Close Registry Editor and reboot Windows 10 to apply the changes. The warning “The app you’re trying to install isn’t a Microsoft-verified app” will never appear again on the screen while you are installing any third-party software.

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How to Disable Edge Swipe Gesture on Touch Screen in Windows 10

September 1st, 2020 by Admin

How to disable the swipe from any edge of the touch screen? Swipe from left edge can open up the Action Center in Windows 10, but some users may find this feature annoying as they end up swiping accidentally. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple methods to disable edge swipe gesture on the touch screen in Windows 10.

Method 1: Disable Touchscreen Edge Swipe Using Group Policy

  1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to: Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Edge UI. In the right pane, double-click the on Allow edge swipe policy.

  2. To disable touchscreen edge swipe in Windows 10, select the Disabled option. Click Apply and then OK.

  3. Restart your computer to apply the changes. Now, if you swipe in from the left/right/top/bottom edge of your touch screen, nothing will open up.

Method 2: Disable Touchscreen Edge Swipe Using Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows. On the left side, right-click on the Windows key and select New -> Key. Name the new key as EdgeUI.

  2. Next, select the newly-created EdgeUI key. On the right side, right-click the blank area and select New -> DWORD (32-bit Value).

  3. Name the new DWORD as AllowEdgeSwipe and leave its value data as 0 to disable edge swipe gesture.

  4. Close Registry Editor and reboot your system to make the changes take effect.

If you ever need to re-enable the screen edge swipe gesture, simply delete the AllowEdgeSwipe value and you’re done. That’s it!

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How to Update Extensions (add-ons) for Microsoft Edge

August 31st, 2020 by Admin

Just like other web browsers, Microsoft Edge also supports extensions (add-ons) and you can install your favorite extensions directly from Microsoft Store. In this tutorial we’ll show you the easy way to update all existing extensions for Microsoft Edge at once.

How to Update Extensions (add-ons) for Microsoft Edge

  1. Open Microsoft Edge. Click the More Options button (three dots) in upper right corner, and then select Extensions from the drop-down menu.

  2. Turn on the Developer mode option at the bottom of the left panel.

  3. After you toggle it on, you’ll see three buttons appear next to “Installed extensions”. Just click the Update button and Microsoft Edge will immediately check and install any updates available for all installed extensions.

  4. When it’s done, you’ll get a pop-up message saying “extensions updated”.

You can use the similar method to update extensions for Chrome or other Chromium-based browsers. I would expect Microsoft Edge to give me a notification when a new update is available.

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Posted in Free Software, Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

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3 Ways to Disable IPv6 in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

August 20th, 2020 by Admin

IPv6 causes connectivity issues? IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol, which is supposed to replace IPv4. However, most websites or softwares don’t work with IPv6 yet. It is common for IT administrators to disable IPv6 to fix some unknown, networking-related issue. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 easy methods to disable IPv6 in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Disable IPv6 in Network Adapter Properties

  1. Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog. Type ncpa.cpl and hit Enter.

  2. It will open the Network Connections window. Right-click the network adapter you want to disable IPv6 on, and then select Properties.

  3. In order to disable IPv6, uncheck the box next to Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6). Click OK.

  4. You can use the same method to disable IPv6 for other network adapters.

Method 2: Disable IPv6 Using PowerShell

  1. First, you need to open Windows PowerShell as administrator. Next, run the following command to check the status of IPv6 for all network adapters available in your computer.

    Get-NetAdapterBinding -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

    In my example, “Wi-Fi” is the name of the network adapter I want to disable IPv6 on.

  2. To disable IPv6 on a specific network adapter only, type the following command. Replace “Wi-Fi” with the name of your network adapter card.
    Disable-NetAdapterBinding -Name "Wi-Fi" -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

    You can use the wildcard * to disable IPv6 on all network adapters, instead of disabling them one by one.
    Disable-NetAdapterBinding -Name "*" -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

  3. Whenever you need to enable IPv6 again, just run this command:
    Enable-NetAdapterBinding -name * -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

Method 3: Disable IPv6 Using Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator, and execute this command to disable IPv6 completely:
    reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters" /v DisabledComponents /t REG_DWORD /d 255 /f

  2. Restart the computer for changes to take effect. To verify if IPv6 is disabled, run ipconfig /all and see if the interface shows IPv6 address.

    To revert and enable IPv6, you can delete DisabledComponents registry key with this command:
    reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters" /v DisabledComponents /f

That’s all there is to it.

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

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How to Enable the new Start Menu in Windows 10 version 2004

August 12th, 2020 by Admin

Microsoft has redesigned the Start Menu for Windows 10 and the new look Start Menu is expected to arrive in the the upcoming version – November 2020 update. The new Start Menu removes the ugly square backgrounds for app icons and the tiles are now also partially transparent. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to enable the new Start Menu in Windows 10 version 2004.

How to Enable the new Start Menu in Windows 10 version 2004

  1. Open up the Settings app and navigate to Update & Security – > Windows Update. Click on the “View optional updates” link. If this link is missing, click on the “Check for updates” button first.

  2. Expand the “Other updates” category. Check the “2020-07 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10 version 2004 for x64-based systems (KB4568831)” option and then click on Download and install.

  3. Once the update is installed, reboot your computer. Next, open NotePad, copy the following lines into it, save the file with .reg extension.
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FeatureManagement\Overrides\0\2093230218]
    "EnabledState"=dword:00000002
    "EnabledStateOptions"=dword:00000000
  4. Double-click the saved .reg file to import the settings into Windows Registry. Restart your system again and you’ll see the new Start Menu, which removes the the solid-color backplates behind the logos in the app list of the Start Menu.

If you need to disable the new Start Menu later, just open Registry Editor and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FeatureManagement\Overrides. Right-click on the 0 subkey and select Delete.

Reboot and the old Start Menu will come back!

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How to Change Default Font Size for Chrome Browser

August 9th, 2020 by Admin

The size of text in Chrome is too small or too large? Improper font size can make the text on the web pages hard to read. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 easy methods to change default font size for Chrome browser.

Method 1: Change Font Size for Chrome Using Zoom Mode

Zoom mode allows you to quickly change the size for both text and images of any web site. You can set different zoom levels for each website. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Chrome browser and go to the web page for which you want to change the font size. Click on the Menu button (three vertical dots) to the right of the URL bar.
  2. In the menu that pops up, look for the “Zoom” option. The default value of Zoom is 100%. You can click + to make everything on that page bigger, or click – to make things smaller.

Method 2: Change Default Font Size for Chrome via Settings

This method lets you change Chrome’s default text size for every website at once, but it won’t affect the size of images. Here’s how:

  1. Open Google Chrome on your PC, click on the Menu button (three vertical dots) on the top-right corner and then select Settings.

  2. Scroll down to the Appearance section. Click the Font Size drop-down list and you can choose the new font size for web pages: Very large, Large, Medium, Small or Very small.

  3. If you still can’t get the fonts to the proper size, just click on Customize fonts.

    You can move the slider to change the default font size to any value between 9 and 72.

That’s all there is to it!

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3 Ways to Quickly Clear All Event Logs in Windows 10

August 4th, 2020 by Admin

Event Viewer is a built-in Windows application that lets you view all the important events that occur on your PC. Sometimes, you may need to delete old event logs at once if nothing has gone wrong. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to quickly clear all event logs in Windows 10 Event Viewer.

Method 1: Clear Windows Event Logs Using Event Viewer

Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type eventvwr.msc and click OK to open Event Viewer.

On the left sidebar of Event Viewer, expand “Windows Logs” and right-click one of the events categories, then select Clear Log from the menu that comes up.

Click either the “Save and Clear” or the Clear button to confirm.

The event logs will be cleared immediately.

Method 2: Clear Windows Event Logs Using Command Prompt

Open an elevated Command Prompt window. Copy and paste the following command into the Command Prompt, and then hit Enter.
for /F "tokens=*" %1 in ('wevtutil.exe el') DO wevtutil.exe cl "%1"

This will delete all types of Windows event logs at once.

Method 3: Clear Windows Event Logs Using PowerShell

Press the Windows logo key + X to open the Quick Link menu, and then click on “Windows PowerShell (Admin)“.

To clear all event logs in Windows 10, just enter the below command and press Enter.
Get-EventLog -LogName * | ForEach { Clear-EventLog $_.Log }

That’s it!

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How to Turn On Device Encryption in Windows 10 Home

July 25th, 2020 by Admin

Although BitLocker is not available on Windows 10 Home, you can still use a similar feature called “device encryption” to protect your data from unauthorized access. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to check if your computer supports device encryption, and walk you through the steps to turn on device encryption in Windows 10 Home.

Part 1: Check if Your PC Supports Device Encryption

Device encryption is usually available on most tablets or 2-in-1 laptops running Windows 10. These are the hardware requirements for device encryption:

  • Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 or higher
  • Modern Standby support
  • UEFI firmware

The easiest way to check if your PC supports device encryption is by using the System Information tool. Follow these steps:

  1. Click the Search box in the taskbar and enter “system information”. When the results appear, select the System Information app and click on the “Run as administrator” option.

  2. At the bottom of the System Summary window, look for the “Device Encryption Support” item. If the value says Meets prerequisites, then device encryption is available on your PC.

Part 2: Turn on Device Encryption

If your PC meets the hardware requirements, you can proceed to enable device encryption on Windows 10 home by following these steps:

  1. Press the Windows key + I to launch the Settings app. Click on the Update & Security category.

  2. Select Device encryption from the left pane, and click on the Turn on button on the right side. Windows will begin encrypting all current and future files automatically.

    If you’re logged in with a local account, Windows may prompt you to convert to Microsoft online account before turning on device encryption so it can upload your recovery key to OneDrive. This can help recover your files in case you forgot Windows password.

That’s it!

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How to Prevent Windows 10 from Downloading Feature Updates

July 14th, 2020 by Admin

How can I stop or defer Windows 10 feature updates only? Feature updates are also known as major updates that are actually a new version of Windows 10, while cumulative updates are traditional security patches we’ve known over the years. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 methods to prevent Windows 10 from automatically downloading the next feature updates, without blocking cumulative updates.

Method 1: Prevent Windows 10 Feature Updates via Group Policy

  1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business.

    In the right pane, double-click the “Select the target Feature Update version” policy.

  2. Select the Enabled option. Enter a version number (for example, “2004”) you want to stay on or upgrade to, and then click OK.

    If you’re running Windows 10 1909 and set the version ‘1909’, it will stop Windows 10 from installing any later version including Windows 10 v2004.

  3. When it’s done, close Local Group Policy Editor and reboot your computer.

Method 2: Prevent Windows 10 Feature Updates via Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate. In the right pane, right-click the blank area and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  2. Name the DWORD TargetReleaseVersion and then double-click it to set the value to 1.

  3. Use the similar way to create a string named TargetReleaseVersionInfo and set the value to the Windows 10 version number that you wish to stay on. If want to stick to Windows 10 2004 and block newer feature updates, then set it to “2004”.

  4. Close Registry Editor and restart the system to apply the changes.

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How to Remove “Restore previous versions” Context Menu in Windows 10

July 13th, 2020 by Admin

When you right-click a folder or a file in File Explorer, the “Restore previous versions” option will always appear as an option in the context menu. It lets you recover old versions of your files and folders that were backed up by File History or system restore points.

If neither File History nor system restore is enabled, then there will be no old versions available for your folders and files and the “Restore previous versions” option is useless. In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple way to remove the “Restore previous versions” option from File Explorer’s context menu in Windows 10.

How to Remove “Restore previous versions” Context Menu in Windows 10

  1. Open Registry Editor and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions.

    Expand “Shell Extensions” and look for the subkey “Blocked“. If it doesn’t exist, you can create it by right-clicking on the “Shell Extensions” key and selecting New -> Key.

  2. While the “Blocked” subkey is selected, right-click any blank area in the right pane and select New -> String.

  3. Rename the string to “{596AB062-B4D2-4215-9F74-E9109B0A8153}” and leave its value data empty.

  4. Close Registry Editor and reboot your computer. Now you’ve successfully removed the “Restore previous versions” option from File Explorer’s context menu in Windows 10.

If you decide to restore that “Restore previous versions” option in future, just delete the “{596AB062-B4D2-4215-9F74-E9109B0A8153}” string you’ve created and it’s done!

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