Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ category

5 Ways to Boot Windows 10 into Advanced Startup Options

December 26th, 2016 by Admin

Advanced Startup Options lets you boot Windows in troubleshooting mode. If you want to reset, refresh, restore your computer or get into Safe Mode, you have to access the Advanced Startup Options. In this tutorial we’ll show you 5 ways to boot Windows 10 into Advanced Startup Options.

If you Windows 10 doesn’t start, use method 4. If you can’t log on to your PC when you forgot Windows 10 password, method 3 will be the easiest way to access Advanced Startup Options.

Method 1: Boot into Advanced Startup Options Using Settings App

Open the Settings app by clicking the Settings icon on the Start Menu, or pressing the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut.
Click Update & security.
Click the Recovery tab on the left, and then click Restart now under Advanced startup.
The computer will log you off and bring up the Choose an option screen.

Method 2: Boot into Advanced Startup Options Using Command Prompt

Press the Windows key + X keyboard shortcut to bring up the Power User menu, and select the Command Prompt from the list.
Type or paste the following command in the Command Prompt, and press Enter.
shutdown.exe /r /o
You are about to be signed off. Windows 10 will reboot automatically and you can see the Advanced Startup Options.

Method 3: Boot into Advanced Startup Options from Windows Login Screen

At Windows 10 sign-in screen, click on the Power button in the lower right hand corner to bring up the Power menu.
Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard, and then click Restart from the Power menu. This will bring up the Choose an option screen.

Method 4: Boot into Advanced Startup Options Using Windows Install Disk

Start your computer with Windows 10 installation media (or Windows RE). You can read this previous Windows 10 guide to create bootable USB drive for Windows 10 Setup.
When you see the Windows Setup screen, click Next.
Click Repair your computer. You can then see the Choose an option screen.

Method 5: Create Advanced Startup Options Shortcut

Right-click an empty area on your desktop, and select New -> Shortcut.
In the Create Shortcut wizard, copy and paste the following command into the location box and click Next.
%windir%\system32\shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00
Type Advanced Startup for the shortcut name, and click Finish.
Right-click on the newly-created shortcut on your desktop and select Properties. In the Properties dialog, go to the Shortcut tab and click the Change Icon button.
In the Change Icon window, copy and paste the following in the “Look for icons in this file” field, and press Enter. Highlight the icon and click OK.
%windir%\System32\bootux.dll
You’re almost done! Just double-click the desktop shortcut and you can boot Windows into Advanced Startup Options immediately.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: advanced boot options windows 10 advanced startup options advanced startup options windows 10

Fix: Can’t Sign Into Microsoft Account in Windows 10

December 19th, 2016 by Admin

Just upgraded to Windows 10 and skipped the sign up process at the beginning. But now when I click on the “Sign in with a Microsoft account instead” link, nothing happens at all. I can’t even make the sign up dialog box appear. Please help!

Unable to sign into Microsoft account in Windows 10? Or it won’t accept your credentials? In this article we’ll show you 4 possible ways to fix the issue “cannot log in to your Microsoft account in Windows 10”.

Method 1: Disable All Non-Microsoft Services

Press the Windows + R key combination, type msconfig and press Enter.
When the System Configuration dialog opens, click the Services tab. Put a tick in the “Hide all Microsoft services” box at the bottom left, and then click Disable all.
Click Apply and then OK. Restart your computer and try to sign in to Microsoft account.

Method 2: Enable Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant Service

Press the Windows + R key combination, type services.msc and press Enter.
In the Services window, scroll down and look for the “Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant” service. Double-click on it to modify.
When the Properties window opens, set the Startup type to Automatic. If the service status is Stopped, click Start button there. Click Apply followed by OK.
Restart your computer and then try to sign in Windows 10 with Microsoft account.

Method 3: Turn Off Group Policy Which Blocks Microsoft Account

Press the Windows + R key combination, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
In the Local Group Policy Editor window, navigate to:
Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Polices > Security Options

Find the policy “Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts” in the right pane, and then double-click on it to modify.
From the drop-down menu select “This policy is disabled“, and then click Apply and OK.
Reboot Windows 10 and check if you can sign into Microsoft account later.

Method 4: Clear Cached Microsoft Account Credentials

When you try to sign into Microsoft account, Windows 10 might not accept your credentials. That is because the cached logon credentials are out of update. If you’re that case, you need to clear the cached Microsoft account credentials in Windows 10:

Press the Windows + R key combination, type regedit and press Enter.
When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\StoredIdentities
You’ll find your Microsoft account there. Right-click on it and select Delete.
Now close Registry Editor, and head to Settings -> Accounts -> Sign-in options. Try to add your Microsoft account again.

If you forgot the password of an existing Microsoft account and locked out of Windows 10, please refer to this tutorial: 2 Options to Reset Windows 10 Microsoft Account Password.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: cannot sign into microsoft account windows 10 sign in with microsoft account instead not working windows 10 cannot sign into microsoft account

3 Ways to Turn On / Off UAC in Windows 10

December 15th, 2016 by Admin

When you try to install programs in administrator mode or make any system change, a UAC prompt will pop up that alerts you to confirm your changes or operations. As a personal computer user, you may not want to disable these UAC prompts. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to turn on or off UAC (User Account Control) in Windows 10.

uac-prompt

Method 1: Turn On / Off UAC in WIndows 10 via Control Panel

Open the Control Panel in Windows 10. Set the View by option to Large icons, and then click User Accounts.
Click on the Change User Account Control settings link.
In order to turn off UAC, move the slider to the bottom (Never Notify) and click OK. If you want to turn on UAC, move the silder to the top (Always notify).
If prompted by UAC, click on Yes to continue. Reboot your computer for the change to take effect.

Method 2: Turn On / Off UAC in WIndows 10 via Registry Editor

Open Registry Editor by pressing Windows + R key combination, type in regedit and press Enter.

If prompted by UAC, click on Yes to continue.
In the left-side pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

In right-side pane, double-click EnableLUA to modify.
In the Value data box, type 0 if you want to turn off UAC, or type 1 to turn on UAC. Click OK.
Exit Registry Editor and reboot your computer.

Method 3: Turn On / Off UAC in WIndows 10 via Command Line

Press the Windows + X key combination, and then select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the popup menu. When prompted by UAC, click Yes.
To turn off UAC, copy and paste the following command in the Command Prompt, and press Enter.
reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

To turn on UAC, paste the following command into Command Prompt and press Enter.
reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
After you enable or disable UAC, you will have to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: disable UAC from command line disable UAC windows 10 registry turn on UAC in windows 10

Windows 10 Fix: This app has been blocked for your protection

December 14th, 2016 by Admin

When you try to install a driver or application in Windows 10, you might get the following UAC error message:

This app has been blocked for your protection. An administrator has blocked you from running this app. For more information, contact the administrator.

app-blocked-for-protection

Even if you run the application with administrative rights, you’ll get the exact same error. This problem happens when your application was digitally signed with a revoked or untrusted certificate. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to fix the issue “This app has been blocked for your protection” in Windows 10.

Method 1: Install the Application from Elevated Command Prompt

To get around the error “This app has been blocked for your protection”, you can run the application from an elevated Command Prompt. Follow these steps:

Open File Explorer and locate the application (.exe) in question. Right-click on it and select Properties.
When the Properties dialog box opens, note down the full path that you need later. In my example, the path is C:\Users\pcunlocker\Downloads\uTorrent_3.2_build_27568.
Now open an elevated Command Prompt. This can be done by pressing the Windows key + X and then selecting “Command Prompt (Admin)“.
At the Command Prompt, type the full path of the application that you want to install and press Enter.

Method 2: Tweak Local Security Policy

To fix the error “This app has been blocked for your protection” permanently in Windows 10, you have to tweak the local security policy:

Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
In the left pane, navigate to:
Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options

Look at the right pane and double-click the policy “User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode“.
Change the security setting to Disabled and click OK.
Close Local Group Policy Editor and restart your computer. After logging in, you can install the application without encountering the error “This app has been blocked for your protection”.

Note: tweaking the policy above will also cause UAC to be turned off automatically. But just turning off UAC won’t fix the error “This app has been blocked for your protection”.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: run all administrators in admin approval mode the app has been blocked for your protection windows 10 This app has been blocked for your protection

2 Ways to Hide or Unhide Worksheet in Excel 2016 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007

December 14th, 2016 by Admin

Is there a way to prevent others from viewing a sheet in an Excel workbook? If you don’t want people to change data or formula in a cell, you can hide the sheet. But this shouldn’t be used as a security measure. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to hide / unhide worksheet in Excel 2016 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007.

Note: Excel doesn’t let you hide all sheets in a workbook. At least one has to be displayed.

Method 1: Hide/Unhide Excel Worksheet with GUI

Right-click on the worksheet you want to hide, select Hide from the pop-up menu. Your worksheet will no longer be visible, however, the data contained in a hidden worksheet can still be referenced on other worksheets.
To unhide a worksheet, just right-click on any visible worksheet and select Unhide.
In the Unhide dialog box, you can see all of the currently hidden sheets in the list box. Select a sheet you want to unhide and click OK.

Method 2: Hide/Unhide Excel Worksheet with VBA

Excel has a more secure setting known as “Very Hidden”. A very hidden worksheet can’t be unhidden using the Excel user interface because it doesn’t appear in the Unhide dialog box. Here’s how to hide / unhide a worksheet with VBA editor:

To open the VBA editor, press the Alt+F11 keyboard shortcut, or right-click on any worksheet and select View Code.
From the Project window in the upper left pane, you can see all hidden and visible sheets in your workbook. Select a sheet you want to hide.
In the lower left pane, you can see all properties of your selected worksheet. In the Visible drop-down list, select xlSheetVeryHidden.
Close the VBA editor. Your worksheet will no longer be visible. When the Very Hidden attribute is set on a worksheet, the Hide option is greyed out.
Very hidden sheets can only be made visible through the VBA editor. If you want to unhide a very hidden sheet, open the VBA editor and change the Visible attribute back to xlSheetVisible.

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Tags: hide sheets in excel vba hide worksheet in excel unhide excel worksheet unhide sheets in excel

2 Ways to Prevent Excel Sheet from Being Deleted

December 13th, 2016 by Admin

How can I protect an Excel worksheet from being deleted? Looking for a way to prevent sheets from being deleted while still allowing them to be hidden or rearranged? In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to protect a particular or all sheets from being deleted in Excel 2016/2013/2010/2007.

Tips: If you want to protect an Excel file (.XLS, .XLSX) from being deleted accidentally, please try the Protect My Folders program which can lock any folders or files with password.

Method 1: Protect Entire Workbook Structure with Password

Open your Excel workbook. Select “Review” Ribbon menu and click “Protect Workbook” from the changes group.
A Protect Structure and Window dialog box opens. Make sure the Structure option is checked. Type your password and click OK.
Reenter the password and click OK.
Now all your sheets in the workbook are protected. You cannot insert, delete, rename, move, copy, hide or unhide worksheets anymore.

Method 2: Protect A Particular Sheet from Being Deleted Using VBA

If you just want to prevent users from deleting a particular sheet you designate, try this solution. This works flawlessly for me on a test workbook in Excel 2016.

Right-click on any sheet tab and select View Code from the popup menu. This will open the Visual Basic Editor (ALT+F11).
You’ll see a list of worksheets on the left. Double-click on every sheet you want to protect from being deleted, copy and paste the following code into the large white area on the right.
Private Sub Worksheet_Deactivate() ThisWorkbook.Protect , True Application.OnTime Now, "UnprotectBook" End Sub
Right-click on Microsoft Excel Objects on the left, select Insert -> Module.
Double-click on the newly-created module on the left. Copy and paste the following code into the right pane.
Sub UnprotectBook() ThisWorkbook.Unprotect End Sub
Click Save and you’re done. If you’re using a macro-free workbook, you’ll get the warning message “The following features cannot be saved in macro-free workbook“. Click No.
In the Save As dialog box, select “Excel-Macro Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm)” and click Save.
When you see the popup message “Be careful! Parts of your document may include personal information that can’t be removed by the Document Inspector“, click OK.
Close all of your opened windows. Open the .xlsm file in Excel, right-click your protected sheet tab and select Delete, next click Delete to confirm, you’ll see the failure message: Workbook is protected and cannot be changed.
That’s all there is to it.

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Tags: disable delete sheet in excel protect excel sheet with password protect excel workbook from deletion protect sheet from being deleted protect workbook structure

SysKey: Lock & Unlock Windows PC with USB Drive

December 6th, 2016 by Admin

Is it possible to set up a USB Drive to log into Windows without installing any software on the PC? SysKey is a built-in Windows utility that allows you to set up a Startup Key/Password to protect the SAM (Security Accounts Management) database. You can store the Startup Key to USB drive. Whenever the computer boots up, you will have to insert the USB drive to login.

In this tutorial we’ll walk you through how to enable SysKey in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP, and use a USB drive as a key to lock & unlock your computer.

How to Lock & Unlock Windows PC Using SysKey?

Syskey (also known as SAM Lock Tool) was introduced since Windows NT. It’s so old that it only stores the Startup Key on the A: drive. So you need to assign the drive letter A: to your USB flash drive before following the steps below.

Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type syskey and press Enter.
Click the Update button.
Choose the System Generated Password option, and then select Store Startup Key on Floppy Disk and click OK.
You will be asked to insert a disk into drive A: to save the Startup Key. Make sure you change the drive letter of your USB drive to A: and click OK.
After Windows writes the Startup Key into your USB drive, you’ll receive the message that the disk is now required to start up the system. Open your USB drive and you can see a single file named StartKey.Key, which is 16 bytes big.
Every time you computer boots up, you’ll be presented with the Startup Key Disk dialog which requires you to insert your USB drive. Without the USB drive, you’re unable to get past to access Windows login screen.

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

Tags: how to use syskey lock windows with usb syskey unlock computer with usb windows startup key

2 Ways to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

December 5th, 2016 by Admin

The drive letter you want is already used by another partition? Your drive doesn’t appear in File Explorer and no drive letter is assigned? In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to manually change drive letter of any volume on your hard disk or USB storage device. Quickly get the missing or desired drive letter back in Windows 10.

Method 1: Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 Using Disk Management

To get started, you need to open Disk Management. In Windows 10, you can access it by pressing Windows key + X and then selecting Disk Management.
In the right pane you can see the details of all volumes and partitions on your hard drive and removable media. Right-click on the volume or partition you want to change, and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.
In the next dialog box, click Change.
Choose the the Assign the following drive letter option, then click the drop-down list to select your desired drive letter and click OK.
A warning message box will pop up. Click Yes and your drive should now have the new letter assigned.

Method 2: Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 Using Command Prompt

Open the Command Prompt in Administrator mode. This can be done by press the Windows key + X and then selecting “Command Prompt (Admin)“.
At the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. Next type list volume to list out all volumes on your computer. Note down the volume number next to the drive that you want to change the letter of. In our case, that number is 4.
Type the following command to select the volume whose drive letter you want to change. Replace 4 with the volume number you noted down in above step.
select volume 4
Run the following command to assign a new drive letter. Substitute A for the new drive letter you’d like to use.
assign letter=A

Tips: if you want to remove the drive letter only, type “remove letter=F“. Replace F with the current drive letter.
Now you’ve successfully changed the drive letter in Windows 10. Your drive should show up with a new drive letter.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: assign drive letter windows 10 change drive letter change drive letter windows 10

Ophcrack No Tables Found? How to Install?

December 5th, 2016 by Admin

When I launch Ophcrack Live CD on the computer, it boots up and says “No Tables Found”. However, when I look at the contents of the CD, tables are there. Any suggestions?

Ophcrack is a free Linux Live CD that cracks Windows login passwords by using LM/NT hashes through rainbow tables. The most common issue you may experience with Ophcrack is “Tables not found” or “No tables found”. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to manually install rainbow tables into Ophcrack Live CD.

Tips: A rainbow table is just a large database of precomputed hashes for a comprehensive set of passwords. But there are no guarantees Ophcrack will find a match for your password.

Ophcrack No Tables Found? How to Install?

Before getting started, browse to the Ophcrack Live CD you created and check if the “tables” directory is empty. If it’s empty, you need to download the rainbow tables from Ophcrack website. Unzip it and copy the contents to a USB thumb drive. Follow these steps to install rainbow tables into Ophcrack:

When you see the warning “No tables found“, press Enter key as the screen indicates.
Select “Ophcrack (Run Ophcrack QT graphical interface)” from the options that come up, and press OK.
When Ophcrack launches, click on the Tables button in the toobar. In the popup window, you might see no tables are installed. Click the Install button at the bottom.
Browse to the rainbow table directory located in your CD or the USB thumb drive, and then click the Choose button.
In the Table Selection dialog, you should see your table was installed on disk. Click OK.
Now you can load the SAM hive into Ophcrack, and click the Crack button to recover your password.

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Posted in Free Software, Tips & Tricks

Tags: ophcrack install tables ophcrack no tables found ophcrack tables not installed

2 Ways to Repair Corrupted or Damaged RAR / ZIP Files

December 2nd, 2016 by Admin

When trying to extract files from RAR/ZIP archive, you might come across the error message like “CRC32 failed”, “Checksum error”, “Unexpected end of archive”, etc. How to fix and extract corrupted archive?

zip-archive-corrupted

It’s quite common to get a corrupted RAR/ZIP file when you download it from the Internet with low or unstable Internet connection. Try downloading the file again and it may resolve the issue. When a redownload is not possible, you have to look for ways to repair the RAR/ZIP file. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to repair a RAR or ZIP archive whether it’s damaged, corrupted or partially downloaded.

Method 1: Repair Corrupted or Damaged RAR/ZIP File Using WinRAR

Before get started, you need to download and install WinRAR on your computer. If you don’t have a licensed copy of WinRAR, you can download a free evaluation copy which gives you about 40 days to try it out.

Right-click on your corrupted RAR or ZIP file and select “Open with WinRAR” from the context menu.
When WinRAR opens, click the Tools menu and select Repair archive.
Click the Browse button to select the destination location where the repaired RAR/ZIP file has to be saved. Leave the archive type as what it was and click OK.
After WinRAR has completed repairing the archive, click the Close button.

You’ll see a repaired archive created in the same folder as the corrupted archive.

Method 2: Extract Broken RAR/ZIP Archive

Unfortunately, after repairing RAR/ZIP archive, WinRAR may still say the file is corrupt. Then you can attempt to extract the content in the RAR/ZIP archive. WinRAR has an option to extract broken files using which you can actually extract the broken or corrupt files – ignoring all the errors no matter what.

Double-click your corrupted RAR or ZIP archive to open it in WinRAR. Click Extract to in the toolbar at the top.
Choose the destination folder where you want to extract the files. But most importantly, you have to check the Keep broken files option under the Miscellaneous section.
Click OK and wait while the files are extracted. Eventually you’ll have all the files present in your RAR/ZIP archive.

Conclusion

So that is how you can repair corrupted or damaged RAR/ZIP files. Of course, there are also many third-party RAR/ZIP repairing utilities available on the net, but I won’t recommend them as most tools might have even lower recovery rate than WinRAR.

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Tags: extract corrupted rar files repair corrupted rar files repair zip archive unexpected end of archive