Archive for the ‘Windows 10’ category

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3 Ways to Enable or Disable Cortana on Windows 10 Lock Screen

January 3rd, 2019 by Admin

By default, Cortana is available on the lock screen in Windows 10, so you can chat with Cortana without first unlocking your computer. If you want to improve the security level, it’s better to turn off Cortana as needed. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to enable or disable Cortana on Windows 10 lock screen.

Method 1: Enable or Disable Cortana on Lock Screen from Settings App

  1. Press the Windows key + I on your keyboard to open the Settings app, then click on Cortana.

  2. Select the Talk to Cortana tab, and turn on or off the “Use Cortana even when my device is locked” option.

  3. If you allow Cortana to access your personal information, you can check the box for “Let Cortana access my calendar, email, messages, and Power BI data when my device is locked“.

Method 2: Enable or Disable Cortana on Lock Screen Using Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following location:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Speech_OneCore\Preferences
  2. Double-click on the VoiceActivationEnableAboveLockscreen entry in the right pane, and set its value data to 1 or 0. 1: enable Cortana on lock screen; 0: disable Cortana on lock screen.

  3. Close Registry Editor and you’re done.

Method 3: Enable or Disable Cortana on Lock Screen Using Group Policy

  1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to:
    Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search

    Next, double-click on “Allow Cortana above lock screen” policy to edit it.

  2. Select Enabled to put Cortana on the lock screen for all Windows accounts. If you don’t like Cortana on the lock screen, choose Disabled to get rid of it.

  3. Close Local Group Policy Editor and reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

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3 Ways to Disable or Turn off Storage Sense in Windows 10

December 29th, 2018 by Admin

Windows 10 comes with a new feature called “Storage Sense”, which will automatically delete temporary files created by apps and erase old files that have been in the Downloads folder or Recycle bin for over 30 days. If you’re not satisfied with this feature, you can disabled it permanently. This tutorial will show you 3 simple ways to turn off Storage Sense in Windows 10.

Method 1: Disable Storage Sense in Windows 10 from Settings App

  1. Open the Settings app and then click the System category on the main page.

  2. Click the Storage in the left navigation menu. You can then turn off the Storage Sense on the right side.

  3. Since Storage Sense is turned off, it will not automatically delete temporary files to free up disk space.

Method 2: Disable Storage Sense in Windows 10 Using Group Policy

  1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to:

    Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Storage Sense

    Next, double-click on the Allow Storage Sense policy on the right pane to edit it.

  2. Select Disabled and click OK.

  3. Now you’ve successfully disabled Storage Sense on your Windows 10 PC. This method will also prevent users from turning on Storage Sense from the Settings app.

Method 3: Disable Storage Sense in Windows 10 Using Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\StorageSense

    Right-click on any blank area in the right pane, and then select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  2. Name the new DWORD as AllowStorageSenseGlobal, and leave its value data to 0. (0: disable Storage Sense, 1: enable Storage Sense)

  3. After completing these steps, Restart Windows 10 to apply your changes immediately.

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How to Convert FAT32 / FAT to NTFS in Windows 10 without Data Loss

December 27th, 2018 by Admin

How can I convert a FAT32 volume to NTFS without losing data? Both FAT and FAT32 are legacy file systems and Windows only supports FAT32 partition up to a size of 32 GB. When you try to copy a single file larger than 4GB to a FAT32 drive, you might also get the error “The file is too large for the destination file system“. To fix this issue, you have to convert the file system over to NTFS. This tutorial will show you an easy way to convert a partition or volume from FAT32 / FAT to NTFS in Windows 10 without data loss.

How to Convert FAT32 / FAT to NTFS in Windows 10 without Data Loss

  1. To begin, you need to open an elevated Command Prompt. In Windows 10, just type cmd in the Cortana Search box. Right-click on Command Prompt in the search result and select “Run as administrator“.

  2. Type the command below, and press Enter. You must replace drive_letter with the actual drive letter of the FAT32 / FAT volume you want to convert to NTFS.

    convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

  3. Before converting the file system, you might be asked for the current volume label of the volume that is going to be converted. The volume label is the name of your drive displayed in File Explorer.
  4. When finished, close Command Prompt and you can right-click on that drive to access Properties and check if the file system is already converted to NTFS.

Conclusion

So this is how you can use the built-in Convert.exe command in Windows 10 to convert a hard disk or USB drive from FAT32 / FAT to NTFS. Note that this command doesn’t support converting NTFS to FAT32. In order to change the file system of your drive to FAT32, you can move the files elsewhere, then format the drive as FAT32 and move them back.

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2 Ways to Set Default Tab for Task Manager in Windows 10

December 26th, 2018 by Admin

Task Manager lets you gain access to the essential information regarding the running processes and the real-time performance in Windows. Whenever you launch Task Manager, it will open to the Process tab by default. Starting with Windows 10 19H1, you can change the default tab for Task Manager according to your usage habits.

Method 1: Set Default Tab for Task Manager from GUI

  1. Right-click on the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen and select Task Manager.

  2. In the Task Manager UI, click on Options on the menu bar and choose “Set default tab“. There should be a check mark next to your current default tab, and you can change it to other tab like “Details”.

  3. The next time you open Task Manager, it will open to the new default tab you set.

Method 2: Set Default Tab for Task Manager via Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TaskManager

    In the right pane, double-click on the DWORD named StartUpTab to modify it.

  2. Enter one of the following values and click OK. If you want to set the “Details” tab as the default tab, just change its value data to 5.
    • 0: Processes tab
    • 1: Performance tab
    • 2: App history tab
    • 3: Startup tab
    • 4: Users tab
    • 5: Details tab
    • 6: Services tab
  3. Close Registry Editor. Relaunch Task Manager and you can see the change immediately.

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Prevent the use of security questions for local accounts in Windows 10

December 25th, 2018 by Admin

Adding security questions for a local account will provide an extra way to restore PC access if you forget your Windows 10 password. If you think this feature is neither secure nor reliable, you can remove security questions using a registry tweak. Since Windows 10 build 18237, there is a new group policy that lets you disable / prevent the use of security questions for local accounts in Windows 10.

The following methods will prevent users from changing or adding security questions to local accounts. If your security questions are already set up, you’ll be unable to reset forgotten Windows login password by answering the security questions.

Method 1: Prevent Use of Security Questions for Local Accounts via Group Policy

  1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to:
    Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Credential User Interface

    In the right pane, double-click on the “Prevent the use of security questions for local accounts” policy.

  2. Select Enabled and click OK.

  3. To make this group policy to take effect, you need to restart Windows 10.

Method 2: Prevent Use of Security Questions for Local Accounts via Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and go to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

    On the right panel, right-click any blank area and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Note: if the System key doesn’t exist, you have to create it first.

  2. Name the new value as NoLocalPasswordResetQuestions. To disable the Security Questions feature, set its value data to 1.

  3. Close the Registry editor. Restart your computer to make the changes take effect.

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How to Turn on Windows Sandbox in Windows 10

December 24th, 2018 by Admin

Windows Sandbox is a new feature coming to Windows 10 build 18305, which lets you install and run any suspicious software in the Sandbox without affecting the host PC. When you close the Sandbox, any programs you installed or files you created will be discarded and permanently deleted. The next time you run Sandbox, it’s back to a clean slate.

By default, the Windows Sandbox feature is turned off. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to enable Windows Sandbox in Windows 10.

How to Turn on Windows Sandbox in Windows 10

  1. Open the Control Panel and set the View by option to Large icons, then click Programs and Features.

  2. Click Turn Windows features on or off link in the left sidebar.

  3. In the Optional Features list, check the Windows Sandbox box and click OK.

  4. Restart your computer to finish installing Windows Sandbox.

  5. The next time you sign into Windows 10, click the Cortana Search box in the taskbar and type “sandbox“. You can launch the Windows Sandbox app as administrator.

  6. You can then drag and drop files and programs into the Sandbox to do experimenting.

    Any software installed in the Sandbox stays only in the sandbox and cannot affect your host.

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Fix: Can’t select Pro edition during Windows 10 installation

December 21st, 2018 by Admin

Unable to select Windows 10 Pro edition during clean installation? When you try to perform a clean install of Windows 10, the setup process may not give you options to select the edition type (Home, Pro, Education, etc).

This problem usually happens on computers that came preinstalled with Windows 10 Home. Because the OEM product key is embedded into the UEFI firmware,  the installer will detect the product key in the UEFI and automatically select the corresponding edition of Windows 10 to install.

In this tutorial we’ll show you a way to prevent Windows 10 installer from using the preinstalled product key in the UEFI, so you can install the desired edition of Windows 10.

How to Fix Can’t Select Pro Edition during Windows 10 Install

  1.  To start, use the Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool to download Windows 10 ISO file and create a bootable installation USB.
  2. Open the sources directory in your USB drive and create a text file named PID.txt.

  3. Double-click the PID.txt file to open it with your text editor (or Notepad). Copy the following lines and paste them.

    [PID]
    Value=VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

    Note: The default product key for Windows 10 Pro is VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. If you need to install Windows 10 Enterprise edition, use this default key XGVPP-NMH47-7TTHJ-W3FW7-8HV2C instead. These keys are for evaluation purposes and will not activate the system.

  4. Once you have done this, boot your computer from the Windows 10 installation USB. It will let you install the Pro edition instead of the Home edition.

  5. After installation is complete, you have to activate it using a valid Pro key. That’s it!

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Turn off Numerical Sorting in Windows 10 File Explorer

December 20th, 2018 by Admin

How can I disable automatic sorting in File Explorer? In Windows 10, numerical sorting is enabled by default and file explorer will sort files by by increasing number value (for example, 3 < 22 < 111).

This tutorial will show you how to turn off numerical sorting in Windows 10 so the file names are sorted by each digit in file name (for example, 1111 < 222 < 3).

Method 1: Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer Using GPO

  1.  Open the Local Group Policy Editor and expand to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File Explorer. Double-click on the policy named as Turn off numerical sorting in File Explorer to edit it.

  2. Select Enabled and click OK.

  3. The changes should be applied immediately. If not, restart the PC or File Explorer.

Method 2: Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer Using Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Right-click any blank area in the right pane and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  2. Rename the newly created DWORD to NoStrCmpLogical.

  3. Double-click on it and change its value data to 1 to disable numerical sorting.

    If you want to enable numerical sorting later, just set the value to 0.

  4. Close Registry Editor. After restarting your PC or logging out, File Explorer should sort your files by digit and not by numbers.

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Quick Way to Copy Full Path of a Folder / File in Windows

December 13th, 2018 by Admin

Is there a quick way to copy the file path instead of typing it? Just right-click on your selected file and select Properties from the context menu. The path is shown next to the Location header, and you need to append the file name at the end to get the full file path.

However, this method has inherently low efficiency, especially if you need to frequently copy the file path and paste it into a tool like Command Prompt or PowerShell. In this tutorial we’ll show you the fastest way to copy the full path of any folder or file in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7.

Steps to Copy Full Path of Folders/Files

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the files or folders whose path you want to copy. Once you are there, hold the SHIFT key and right-click the desired folders/files, then select “Copy as path” from the context menu. If you’re running Windows 11, you don’t need to hold down the SHIFT key.

Next, you can paste the full location of the selected folders/files anywhere including NotePad, Command Prompt or PowerShell.

That’s it! Hope you found this tip useful.

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How to Find All EFS Encrypted Files on your Windows 10 PC

December 12th, 2018 by Admin

Is there a way to keep track of all encrypted files in Windows 10? When you forgot where you put your EFS encrypted files on your hard drive, here is a quick way to find them.

How to Find All EFS Encrypted Files on your Windows 10 PC

Open an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell.

Run the following command. It will search all your local hard drives and list any EFS encrypted files it finds.
cipher /u /n /h

If you have a number of EFS encrypted folders/files on the hard disk, you can save the list as a text file by running this command:
cipher /u /n /h > %UserProfile%\Desktop\MyEncryptedFiles.txt

When it’s done, you can open the MyEncryptedFiles.txt file created on your desktop, which contains all your encrypted files with the location.

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