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Fix Operating System Not Found When Booting Windows 10 / 8

August 19th, 2016 by Admin

While booting Windows 10 or 8 computer, you might receive the following error message:

“Operating system not found. Reboot and select proper boot device.”

This issue can be caused by various reasons, such as MBR (Master Boot Record) or DBR (DOS Boot Record) is damaged, the BCD (Boot Configuration Database) is corrupt, or your system partition is not active. In this tutorial we’ll guide you how to troubleshoot the problem of operating system not found / missing in Windows 10 or 8.

Solution 1: Enable / Disable UEFI Secure Boot

Most Windows 10/8 computers come with UEFI firmware and Secure Boot enabled. The operating system installed on a GPT partition can only be booted in UEFI mode. If you configure a UEFI system to boot in Legacy mode, you’ll get the error message that saying operating system is missing or not found. If you installed Windows 10/8 on a MBR disk, it also cannot boot in UEFI mode.

When you get the error message “Operating system not found or missing” during boot, try to change the boot mode from Legacy to UEFI, or turn off UEFI and Seure Boot, it might fix your problem. To learn more about how to change the boot mode, please check these articles:

Solution 2: Fix MBR/DBR/BCD

To fix the corrupted MBR, DBR or BCD, you just need your Windows installation DVD. Follow these steps:

  1. Start your problematic PC, insert your Windows DVD and hit a key when you are asked to to boot from DVD. It is possible that you have to change the boot order in your BIOS to boot from DVD.
  2. After a few minutes, you’ll see the Windows Setup screen for specifying your keyboard and language settings, just click Next.

    windows-setup

  3. On the next screen, click “Repair your computer” in the lower left.

    repair-windows-10

  4. When the Choose an option screen appears. Click Troubleshoot.

    troubleshoot

  5. Click Advanced options.

    advanced-options

  6. Click Command Prompt in the Advanced options screen.

    command-prompt

  7. At the Command Prompt, enter the following commands one after the other and hit Enter after each:
    bootrec.exe /fixmbr
    bootrec.exe /fixboot
    bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

    fix-os-not-found

  8. Reboot your computer. This should hopefully make your problem go away!

Solution 3: Mark Windows Partition Active

When the computer is turned on, the BIOS will look for an active partition to boot. If your system partition is not marked as active, you’ll also receive the error message “Operating system not found or missing”. Here’s how to make your Windows partition as active:

  1. Boot your computer from Windows installation DVD. Open the Command Prompt again by the above method.
  2. At the Command Prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. Then type list disk. You will see the list of disk currently attached to your computer. Now type in select disk n, where n is the disk number. In my example, I would type select disk 0.

    diskpart

  3. Now type list volume to get a list of all the partitions on your selected disk. Find the partition where your Windows is installed and type select volume n, where n is number of your Windows partition.

    list-volume

  4. To mark your selected partition as active, just type active and press Enter.

    mark-volume-active

  5. Close the Command Prompt and reboot your computer. Hopefully your problem has been resolved now!

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

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2 Ways to Set Windows 10 PC to Never Sleep

August 12th, 2016 by Admin

It could be quite annoying if your computer goes to sleep at all the wrong times or if you have trouble coming out of sleep state. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to put your computer to never sleep & disable sleep mode in Windows 10.

Method 1: Set Windows 10 PC to Never Sleep Using Control Panel

  1. Open the Control Panel in Windows 10. Change your view to either Large icons or Small icons. Look for and click on the Power Options.

    power-options

  2. This will bring you to a place where you can choose your power plan. From the left hand side of the window, select Change when the computer sleeps.

    change-when-pc-sleep

  3. From the drop down box next to Put the computer to sleep, select the amount of time you would like Windows 10 to wait before entering sleep state. If you want to stop Windows 10 from going to sleep, select Never from the list. From there, you can also see an option for making your computer never turn off monitor display.

    put-pc-never-to-sleep

  4. When done, click the Save changes button to exit.

Method 2: Set Windows 10 PC to Never Sleep Using Settings App

  1. To get started, open the Settings app by pressing Win + I keys together, or clicking on the Start button and selecting Settings.
  2. From the Settings window, click on System.

    settings

  3. Select Power & sleep on the left pane. Under the Sleep option, select Never from the drop-down list. You can also click the Screen drop-down list and then select Never if you want your PC to never turn off screen display.

    set-pc-never-to-sleep

  4. That’s it! Your PC will never go to sleep mode again.

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6 Ways to Open Registry Editor in Windows 10

August 9th, 2016 by Admin

Most PC troubleshooting tasks can be done by tweaking the registry settings. To access Windows registry, you need to open the built-in tool – Registry Editor. In this tutorial we’ll show you 6 common ways to open Registry Editor in Windows 10.

Method 1: Open Registry Editor via Run

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

regedit-via-run

This should be the simplest and quickest way to open Registry Editor in all versions of Windows.

Method 2: Open Registry Editor Using Command Prompt

Press Win + X keys. Choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the given options.

command-prompt-admin

Type regedit at the Command Prompt and press Enter. It will launch Registry Editor immediately.

regedit-via-cmd

Method 3: Open Registry Editor Using Cortana Search

Click inside the Cortana Search box from the taskbar, type regedit and press Enter.

regedit-via-search

Click regedit from the search result.

Method 4: Open Registry Editor Using PowerShell

Open Windows PowerShell. This can be done by pressing Win + R keys to open Run and then type powershell in the box given.

regedit-via-powershell

Type regedit and press Enter. Click Yes when the UAC confirmation box is displayed.

Method 5: Open Registry Editor via File Explorer

Open File Explorer in Windows 10. Browse to the system32 folder: C:\Windows\System32.

right-click-regedit

Locate the regedt32.exe file. Right-click on it and select Run as administrator.

Method 6: Open Registry Editor By Creating Desktop Shortcut

If you need to access Registry Editor frequently, you can create a desktop shortcut for quick access. Follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on any empty area of your desktop, select New -> Shortcut.

    create-desktop-shortcut

  2. This will open the Create Shortcut wizard. It will ask you the location of the item you want to create a shortcut for. Type %windir%\regedit.exe and click Next.

    regedit-shortcut

  3. Give your shortcut any name you prefer and click Finish.

    type-name-for-shortcut

  4. You’ll see the shortcut on the desktop. Double-click on it and you can open Registry Editor quickly.

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How to Edit Offline Windows Registry from WinPE

August 7th, 2016 by Admin

When your computer no longer boots up or you’re unable to login to Windows, a registry hack might fix your problem. To access the registry for an unbootable Windows installation, you should use a WinPE bootdisk. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to load / edit offline registry hive from WinPE.

Before get started, we need to know the locations of Windows registry hives:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM: %windir%\system32\config\SYSTEM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM: %windir%\system32\config\SAM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY: %windir%\system32\config\SECURITY
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE: %windir%\system32\config\SOFTWARE
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT: %windir%\system32\config\DEFAULT

How to Edit Offline Windows Registry from WinPE?

  1. Boot your computer into WinPE. Open a Command Prompt and run regedit.exe to open the Registry Editor.

    command-prompt-from-winpe

  2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, highlight the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive (or HKEY_USERS).

    highlight-registry-key

  3. Click the File menu and select Load Hive.

    load-hive

  4. Browse to your Windows partition and select the registry hive which you wish to load. In my example, the registry hives are located in the directory D:\Windows\System32\Config.

    select-registry-hive

  5. Type a key name whatever you like (e.g. “OfflineReg“) and click OK. The name will be used to create a new node in the tree so one can browser the offline registry.

    enter-key-name-for-loading

  6. Now under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key, you should see a new key named after the name you typed previously.

    offline-registry

  7. Expand the new key, browse to the desired key or value for editing. In my example, I browse to OfflineReg\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\StoredIdentities and delete its subkey.

    modify-offline-registry

  8. When you finish with the modifications, highlight the key you created previously (e.g. “OfflineReg“). Click the File menu and select Unload Hive.

    unload-hive

  9. This will unload the hive and all changes made will be saved to the offline registry.

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

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Fix: Cannot Change Desktop Background on Windows 10

August 4th, 2016 by Admin

Have you tried different methods of changing the desktop background to no avail? The option to change desktop background image is greyed out? You can select the background picture but the desktop still doesn’t show it? In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to fix the problem “Cannot change desktop background on Windows 10”.

unable-change-desktop

Method 1: Using Group Policy

  1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 10.
  2. Navigate to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Personalization. In the right pane, find the policy Prevent changing desktop background and double-click on it.

    personalization-policy

  3. In the Properties window select the Disable option, and save the changes by clicking OK.

    prevent-changing-desktop

  4. Restart your system and you should be able to browse and set your background image.

Method 2: Using Ease of Access Center

  1. Open the Control Panel in Windows 10. Set the View by option to Large icons. Click Ease of Access Center.

    ease-of-access-center

  2. Click Set up High Contrast to open the Make the computer easier to see menu.

    setup-high-contrast

  3. Scroll down to the bottom and uncheck the “Remove background images (where available)” option. Click Apply and then OK to save your changes.

    remove-background-image

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How to Change Default Location for Outlook Data File (PST & OST)

August 2nd, 2016 by Admin

Is there a way to change the default location of new .pst file when create a new e-mail account in Outlook? Different versions of Outlook use different default locations to store pst files. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change default location for Outlook .PST & .OST data file using a registry trick. It works with all versions of Outlook, including Outlook 2016 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007 / 2003.

How to Change Default Location for Outlook PST/OST File?

  1. Press the Win + R keys in a meanwhile to open the Run box. Type regedit and click OK.

    regedit

  2. When the Registry Editor launches, navigate to one of the following keys, depend on your Outlook version:

    • Outlook 2016:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook
    • Outlook 2013:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook
    • Outlook 2010:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook
    • Outlook 2007:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook
  3. At the right-side pane, right-click on any blank area and select New -> Expandable String Value.

    new-expandable-string

  4. Name the newly created value as ForcePSTPath, then double-click on it. On the Edit String dialog, enter the new default location where you wish to store the PST file for Outlook new profile, and click OK.

    ForcePSTPath

    Note: To change the default location folder of .ost files generated by exchange accounts, you can create an expandable string value and name it as ForceOSTPath.

    ForceOSTPath

  5. Close the Registry Editor and restart Microsoft Outlook application. From now on, when you set up a new email account, Outlook will automatically create a new PST file in the new default location.

This method won’t affect the location of existing .pst files. If you want to change the location of existing pst file, follow these steps:

  1. Exit the Outlook application. Locate your .pst file in Windows Explorer and move it to a new location.

    outlook-pst-location

  2. Restart Outlook. An error dialog box appears that notifies you that an Outlook Data File (.pst) could not be found. Click OK.

    pst-file-cannot-be-found

  3. It will open the Create/Open Outlook Data File dialog box. Browse to the new location, select the Outlook Data File (.pst) that you moved, and then click Open.

    open-outlook-data-file

  4. When you see a warning message, just ignore it by clicking OK. Now you’ve successfully moved your existing pst file to a new location.

    cannot-open-default-pst

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Convert Any Document to PDF Format with Windows 10 Print to PDF

August 2nd, 2016 by Admin

Do you want to convert Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, image, web page or any other document into a PDF file? Microsoft Print to PDF is a new feature comes pre-installed in Windows 10 as a virtual printer. Instead of printing on paper, it creates a PDF document from any document within any application, just as if it was printed.

Just open your document in any application that has printing capability, press Ctrl + P keyboard shortcut (or use the Print option from the menu). Now you should see Microsoft Print to PDF available in list of printers. Select it and click on Print. Choose where you want to save your PDF file and you’re done.

select-pdf-printer

If the Microsoft Print to PDF option is missing from the list of printers, or you’ve deleted it accidentally, you can restore it by following these steps:

  1. Open the Control Panel in Large icons view. Click Programs and Features.

    programs-and-features

  2. From the left panel, click on Turn Windows features on or off.

    turn-windows-features-on-off

  3. In the Windows Features dialog, uncheck Microsoft Print to PDF and click OK.

    microsoft-print-to-pdf

  4. Reopen the Windows Features dialog, and this time check the Microsoft Print to PDF checkbox, and click OK. After reinstalling that feature, you should be able to see the Microsoft Print to PDF option on Windows 10.

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