Archive for the ‘Windows 10’ category

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How to Restore Missing Power Plans in Windows 10 / 8

July 5th, 2019 by Admin

High Performance power plan missing after Windows 10 updates? Only balanced power plan is available on your DELL Inspiron laptop? By default, every Windows installation should come with three predefined power plans: Power Saver, Balanced, and High Performance. If any power plan is missing on your PC, here are easy ways to restore it.

Method 1: Disable Connected Standby

Connected Standby is a new feature introduced since Windows 8 that offers a fast sleep/wake. By default, Connected Standby is enabled and it will limit what power settings or plans are available to users. To restore your missing power plans, you may need to turn off Connected Standby using this registry tweak:

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power. In the right pane, double-click on the DWORD CsEnabled to modify it.

  2. Change the value from 1 (enable) to 0 (disable), and click OK.

  3. Close Registry Editor. After rebooting you should have your default power plans back.

Method 2: Restore Missing Power Plans Using Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator.
  2. Copy and paste the command below for the missing power plan you want to restore into the Command Prompt, and hit Enter.

    • Power saver:
      powercfg -duplicatescheme a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a
    • Balanced:
      powercfg -duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
    • High Performance:
      powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
    • Ultimate Performance (available since Windows 10 April 2018 Update):
      powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
  3. When done, open the Power Options and you can immediately access the missing power plans that you just added.

Conclusion

The above methods should work on most Windows 10/8 systems. If you still couldn’t get the power plans back, just open the Control Panel and add a new power plan for your own purpose.

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How to Turn on Automatic Registry Backup in Windows 10

July 2nd, 2019 by Admin

Starting with the April 2018 Update (version 1803), Windows 10 stopped backing up the registry automatically to the RegBack folder, and Microsoft encourages users to use a system restore point in the event of registry corruption. Navigating to the Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder and you’ll find that it’s empty.

This change is by design, and is intended to help reduce the overall disk footprint size of Windows. For those who still want to restore the functionality of creating registry backup automatically, here is a registry tweak to turn on automatic registry backup in Windows 10.

How to Turn on Automatic Registry Backup in Windows 10

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog, type regedit and hit Enter to launch Registry Editor.

  2. Browse to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Configuration Manager. On the right pane, right-click on blank space and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  3. Name the new DWORD EnablePeriodicBackup. Next, double-click it and set the value to 1.

  4. After a reboot, Windows 10 will automatically backup the registry to the RegBack folder, and create a RegIdleBackup task to manage subsequent backups.
  5. If you need to create backups of the registry manually, just open Task Scheduler and navigate to Microsoft\Windows\Registry. Right-click on the RegIdleBackup task and select Run.

    It will immediately save your registry to the Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder.

That’s how you can easily turn on automatic registry backup in Windows 10. When your registry gets damaged and corrupted, you can restore the registry backup to the folder Windows\System32\Config with a Live CD.

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How to Disable Windows Hello PIN Setup in Windows 10

July 1st, 2019 by Admin

How do I stop Windows 10 from asking you to set up a PIN at startup? Is there a way to disable the add a PIN option in the Settings app? In this tutorial we’ll show you how to disable Windows Hello PIN setup using group policy in Windows 10.

How to Disable Windows Hello PIN Setup in Windows 10

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog, type gpedit.msc and hit Enter to open Local Group Policy Editor. If you’re running Windows 10 Home, Local Group Policy Editor is not available and you can use other ways to disable Windows 10 PIN login.

  2. Navigate to: Computing Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Hello for Business. On the right-side pane, double-click on the “Use Windows Hello for Business” policy.

  3. Select Disabled. Click Apply and then OK.

  4. Reboot your computer to apply the changes. The next time you open the Settings app and go to Accounts -> Sign-in options. You’ll find that the options to set up Windows Hello PIN / Face / Fingerprint are unavailable any longer.

If you’ve already set up Windows Hello PIN before applying the above policy, you can still sign in to Windows 10 with PIN or remove the existing PIN sign-in option. But you’re unable to change the PIN any longer.

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How to Change Text Color in Windows 10 without Software

June 21st, 2019 by Admin

How do I change the color of the fonts in Windows 10? The text color in Windows is black by default and there is no GUI option available to change the text color for your current theme. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change text color in Windows 10 using a registry tweak.

This method doesn’t change the text color of all windows. Before getting started, make sure you have turned off High Contrast in Windows 10.

How to Change Text Color in Windows 10 without Software

  1. Press the Windows key and R to bring up the Run box, type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.

  2. Navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors

    On the right pane, locate WindowText and double-click it to modify.

  3. Just enter the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) value for your desired color and click OK.

    For example, white is 255 255 255, black is 0 0 0. You can use an online color picker to find the RGB value of any color.

  4. After setting new color, changes will take effect on the next login.

If you also need to change the title bar text color, just use the same method to change the RGB values for the following registry settings:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors\ActiveTitle
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors\TitleText
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors\InactiveTitle
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors\InactiveTitleText

That’s it!

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How to Uninstall Windows 10 Updates When PC Won’t Boot

June 19th, 2019 by Admin

Windows 10 won’t boot after installing updates? A problematic update could render the computer unbootable, or get stuck in a infinite reboot loop. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to uninstall Windows 10 updates when your PC can’t boot any longer.

How to Uninstall Windows 10 Updates When PC Won’t Boot

Boot your computer with Windows 10 installation media. When the Windows Setup screen appears, choose your language, time and keyboard input method, then click Next.

Click the Repair your computer link in the bottom-right corner.

It will take you to the advanced startup screen. Just select the Troubleshoot option.

On the next screen, you can choose to uninstall Windows 10 updates using either the “Uninstall Updates” option or Command Prompt.

Method 1:

If you select the “Uninstall Updates” option, it will give you two options: Uninstall latest quality update, Uninstall latest feature update.

Feature updates are technically new versions of Windows 10, which become available twice a year. While quality updates (also known as “cumulative updates” or “Security update”) are pushed out every month.

Method 2:

If you choose the Command Prompt option, you can manually uninstall updates that were installed on a particular date, by following these steps:

  1. When you’re at the Command Prompt, use the DIR command to find the drive letter of the drive where Windows 10 is installed. In my case, Windows 10 is located on drive D:.

  2. Next, run the following command to list all the installed updates on your system. Make sure you use the drive letter that you found in the step above:
    dism /Image:D:\ /get-packages /format:list

    If you need to find detailed information (such as KB number) about a specific package, type this command:
    dism /Image:D:\ /get-packageinfo /PackageName:Package_Identity

  3. Now, you can uninstall the problematic update package using this command:
    dism /Image:D:\ /Remove-Package /PackageName:Package_Identity

That’s it!

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How to Turn off Problem Reporting in Windows 10

June 18th, 2019 by Admin

Problem reporting is also known as “Error reporting”, which is a service turned on by default in all versions of Windows. When Windows detects a hardware or software error, it will automatically collect diagnostic data and report it to Microsoft. For privacy concern, you may want to disable it. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to turn off problem reporting for all user accounts in Windows 10.

Method 1: Turn off Problem Reporting in Windows 10 via Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting. Right-click on the “Windows Error Reporting” key in the left side and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  2. Name the new DWORD “Disabled“, and set its value data to 1. If you need to turn on problem reporting later, just change the value to 0.

  3. Close Registry Editor and you can now check if problem reporting is turned off. Open Control Panel in Large icons view and click on Security and Maintenance.

    Expand the Maintenance section and you should find the “Report problems” option is set to Off.

Method 2: Turn off Problem Reporting in Windows 10 via Group Policy

  1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and browse to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Error Reporting.

    In the right pane, locate the “Disable Windows Error Reporting” policy and double-click it to modify.

  2. Choose the Enabled option. Click Apply and then OK.

  3. You can now close out of the Local Group Policy Editor window, and restart your PC to apply the changes.

There is a registry key corresponding to the above group policy. If you’re unable to access Local Group Policy Editor, just open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting, create a 32-bit DWORD Disabled and set its value to 1.

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How to View or Clear Problem Reports in Windows 10

June 17th, 2019 by Admin

When an app crashes or freezes, the built-in Windows Reliability Monitor tool will automatically create a problem report for the event and send it to Microsoft for analysis. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to view or clear problem reports in Windows 10.

How to View or Clear Problem Reports in Windows 10

  1. To start, click the Cortana Search box in the taskbar (or press WIN + S) and type “problem reports“, then select the “View all problem reports” entry to open it.

  2. Now you can review all the problem reports. Scroll down through the list and locate the particular application crash you are looking for, then double-click it to view the problem details.

  3. When the Problem Details window opens, you can see the diagnostic data collected from an application and Windows at the time an application crashes, hangs, or stops working. Using this data, Microsoft can find bugs based upon the similarities in multiple crash reports for the same program.

  4. In order to delete a particular problem report, just right-click it and select Delete from the context menu. When you need to delete all problem reports, simply click on the “Clear all problem reports” button at the bottom and you’re done.

That’s it!

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How to Change Desktop Icon Spacing in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

June 13th, 2019 by Admin

Windows 10 desktop icons too wide? How can I adjust the spacing of icons on the desktop with Windows 10? Is there a way to increase or decrease the horizontal and vertical spacing for desktop icons? In this tutorial we’ll show you a registry tweak to change desktop icon spacing in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Tips: If you want to make your desktop icons bigger or smaller, see this article on how to change taskbar & desktop icon size in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

How to Change Desktop Icon Spacing in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

    You’ll see two DWORD values named IconSpacing and IconVerticalSpacing on the right pane. The IconSpacing value lets you adjust the horizontal desktop icon spacing, while the IconVerticalSpacing value can control the vertical spacing between desktop icons. If you want to customize the horizontal spacing, double-click on IconSpacing to modify it.

  2. The default value is -1125. You can change it to anything between -480 and -2730, where -480 represents the minimum spacing and -2730 represents the maximum spacing.

  3. Click OK to save changes and close Registry Editor. After logging off or restarting your system, you can see the changes made to the icons on the desktop.

That’s it!

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5 Ways to Reset Firewall Settings to Default in Windows 10

June 12th, 2019 by Admin

Mess up the firewall settings accidentally? Need to delete all the custom firewall rules to troubleshoot your network connectivity issue? In this tutorial we’ll show you 5 ways to reset / restore firewall settings to default in Windows 10.

Method 1: Reset Firewall Settings to Default via Control Panel

  1. Open the Control Panel and change the View by option from Category to Large icons. Click on Windows Defender Firewall.

  2. Click on the Restore defaults link on the left side.

  3. Click on the Restore defaults button.

  4. When the confirmation dialog box appears, click Yes and your Windows firewall settings will be restored to default immediately.

Method 2: Reset Firewall Settings to Default via Windows Defender

  1. Open the Windows Defender app and select Firewall & network protection on the left menu bar. Next, click the “Restore firewalls to default” option on the right side.

  2. Click on the Restore defaults button.

  3. You will be asked for confirmation once again. Click Yes to reset all Windows Firewall settings.

Method 3: Reset Firewall Settings to Default via Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box, type wf.msc and hit Enter to open the “Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security” console.

  2. Right-click on the top item “Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security on Local Computer” in the left pane and select “Restore Default Policy“.

  3. Click Yes when you see the following confirmation dialog box.

  4. All the firewall rules are now reset to their initial values, as they were when you first installed Windows 10.

Method 4: Reset Firewall Settings to Default via Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator, and type this command:
    netsh advfirewall reset

  2. Once pressing Enter, all the firewall settings are now reset to their default values.

Method 5: Reset Firewall Settings to Default via Windows PowerShell

  1. Open Windows PowerShell as administrator, and run the following command:
    (New-Object -ComObject HNetCfg.FwPolicy2).RestoreLocalFirewallDefaults()

  2. Your Firewall rules will be restored to defaults in no time, without any additional confirmation.

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