Lost your Surface password? Locked out of your Surface RT tablet? At present, there is no any password recovery utility available to Windows RT system, so you might have to reset your tablet to factory defaults. This tutorial explains how to remove or reset Surface RT password by performing a factory reset.

Reset / Remove Forgotten Password on Surface RT Tablet

Windows RT integrates a built-in rescue method that allows you to reset the OS from the login screen. Here’s how to restore Surface RT tablet to factory default condition, without knowing your password:

1. From the Windows login screen, click the Power icon at the bottom right of the screen. Holding down the SHIFT key on your keyboard and then click Restart.

   If your tablet doesn’t have a physical keyboard, you need to open the on-screen keyboard in order to access the SHIFT key. In the lower-left corner of your screen, you should see the Ease of Access icon. Click on that icon and then select the “On-Screen Keyboard” option. The on-screen keyboard will open. From there tap / click the Shift key once, then click on the Power icon and select Restart.

2. The tablet will reboot and take you to the troubleshooting option screen. Click Troubleshoot.

3. Click on “Reset your PC” and then click Next.

4. You’ll now be prompted with two options. “Keep my files” and “Remove everything“. In this case, I click “Keep my files” as I want to keep the personal files intact. No matter whichever option you pick, all of your system settings will return to their defaults and apps will be uninstalled.

5. Click Reset. Now, you can sit back and relax. Windows will now start the long process of resetting your entire PC, all files, software, users, and apps you have installed will be gone, and the PC will be like the first day it was purchased.

After resetting, you’ll be presented with a nice clean install of Windows RT with the best performance. Perform a factory reset is always a good move if you’re locked out of your Windows admin account, or plan to sale or donate your tablet.

Once you’ve switched to a Microsoft account, Windows encrypts your text password with a reversible encryption algorithm. Therefore, any user of the PC with the administrator privileges can easily recover it (refer to this article). This is a security hole discovered in Windows 10 and 8. For security or privacy reasons, you might think of disabling Microsoft account logon sign-in option.

In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to block or disable Microsoft account, making users unable to add or log on Windows 10/8 with Microsoft account.

Method 1: Block Microsoft Account with Group Policy

1. Press the Windows Key + R combination, type gpedit.msc in the Run dialog box and hit Enter.

2. The Local Group Policy Editor should open. Navigate to the following location:
   Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Polices > Security Options
3. On the right-side, locate the entry named “Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts” and then double-click on it to open its properties.

4. Under Local Security Setting tab, click on the drop-down box and you can see the following three options:
   • This policy is disabled
   • Users can’t add Microsoft accounts
   • Users can’t add or log on with Microsoft accounts

5. If you select “Users can’t add Microsoft accounts“, users on the PC will not able to add new Microsoft account. This also means that one can’t switch a local account to Microsoft account. But you can still log on with your existing Microsoft account.

   If you select “Users can’t add or log on with Microsoft accounts“, uses on the PC will not able to add new Microsoft account. The existing Microsoft account will disappear from Windows sign-in screen and you’re unable to login with it. So if you’re already using a Microsoft account, you should first switch to local account before applying this policy.

   After selecting the right policy, click Apply and then OK. Sign out or restart your computer for the policy to take effect.

Method 2: Block Microsoft Account with Registry Trick

Group Policy Editor is not available in all versions of Windows 10/8. If you don’t have access to Group Policy Editor, you need to block Microsoft account through the Windows Registry. Here’s how:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following keys:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. In the right pane, you’ll see a value named NoConnectedUser. If the value doesn’t exist, right-click on the empty space to create a DWORD value and name it NoConnectedUser.
4. Set the NoConnectedUser value to 1 if you just want to block users from switching to Microsoft account, or set it to 3 if you want to block users from either adding or logging on with Microsoft account.
   • 0 = Allow Microsoft Accounts
   • 1 = Users can’t add Microsoft Accounts
   • 3 = Users can’t add or log on with Microsoft accounts

5. You can now close the Registry Editor window and reboot the machine.

Method 3: Block from Switching to Microsoft Account

Here is another registry trick that could also be used to block users from switching to Microsoft account. Follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following keys:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Settings\AllowYourAccount
3. In the right pane, double-click on the entry “value” and set it to 0.

4. Log off and log in. Open the Settings charm and select Accounts, you’ll find the option lablelled “Sign in with a Microsoft account instead” is now greyed out. That’s it!

Picture password is new and innovative way to unlock your Windows 10 / 8 devices by drawing predefined gesture on a selected picture. It seems better suited for touch-screen tablet users, and PC users might choose to turn off picture password logon. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to disable / turn off Picture Password sign-in in Windows 10 and 8.

Once your Picture Password sign-in is disabled, you are unable to create / add a new Picture Password. There is also no option at the logon screen that allows you to sign in with Picture Password, even if you’ve already set up a Picture Password.

Option 1: Disable Picture Password Sign-in with Group Policy

If you are not using Windows 10 / 8 Professional or Enterprise, you will not have access to the Group Policy Editor. Instead you should skip to the Option 2.

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
2. In the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to:
   Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon
3. In the right pane, you can see a policy named “Turn off picture password sign-in“, double-click on it and set it to Enabled. Finally, click Apply / OK and reboot to apply the changes.

Though the policy description states that this will disable the Picture Password for domain users, it will also disable it for non-domain users.

Option 2: Disable Picture Password Sign-in with Register Editor

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter. This will open the Registry Editor.
2. Next, navigate to following entry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

   If the System subkey doesn’t exist, you’ll have to create it.

3. In right pane, look for an entry named BlockDomainPicturePassword. If it doesn’t exist, right-click on empty space and create a DWORD value and assign name as BlockDomainPicturePassword.
4. Double-click the BlockDomainPicturePassword value and set it to 1.

   If you want to re-enable the Picture Password sign-in later, set the value back to 0.

5. Close the Registry Editor and reboot the computer. Now Picture logon is disabled and a user can’t set up and use a picture password any longer.

In previous posts we’ve covered how to turn off Windows 10/8 Picture password and Microsoft account sign-in via group policy. There is also a similar group policy setting that seems to allow users to turn on PIN sign-in: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon.

However, even if you have the “Turn on PIN sign-in” group policy set to Disabled, Windows still lets you to add a new PIN and sign-in with PIN. Eventually I find out a workaround to disable the create PIN option in Windows 10 / 8. Hopefully this method will save some else the effort in troubleshooting.

How to Disable PIN Login in Windows 10 / 8?

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following location:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Settings\AllowSignInOptions
3. In the right pane, you can see a value DWORD entry named “value“. Double-click on it and set it to 0. (If you want to enable PIN logon later on, just change the value back to 1.)

4. Now open the Settings charms to access the User Account Settings, you’ll find the Add PIN option is disabled (This method will also disable the Picture Password logon). However, if you’ve already set up a PIN before disabling PIN logon, you can still sign in to Windows with your existing PIN.

Is it possible to stream your favorite movies from a Windows PC to TV or Xbox 360? Nowadays most of new TVs support the DLNA feature, just turn on the Media Streaming in Windows, and you can then watch your videos on TV connected to LAN, without having to transfer the videos over a USB drive. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to turn on media streaming in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Method 1: Turn On Media Streaming from Windows Media Player

1. Launch Windows Media Player.
2. From the Player Library view, click on Stream and choose “Turn on media streaming“.

   If “More streaming options” is shown in the drop-down menu, it indicates media streaming is already turned on.

3. Click on Turn on media streaming.

4. Here you can give your media library a name. You’ll also see a list of detected media devices and players on your network. You can allow or block each player from accessing your media. Simply select “Local network” and click on “Allow All“, it will allow all devices on the LAN access to your media library.

   If you want to turn off media streaming later, just click on “Block All“.

However, the “Turn on media streaming” option is not available in all versions of Windows Media Player, and you might have to turn on media streaming using the Control Panel.

Method 2: Turn on Media Streaming from Control Panel

1. Open the Control Panel. If you’re running Windows 10 or 8, just press the Windows key + X to open the WinX menu and then select “Control Panel“.
2. By default, the Control Panel should open in Category view. Click Network and Internet.

3. Click Network and Sharing Center.

4. In the left pane, click Change advanced sharing settings.

5. To enable media streaming and other options, select “All Networks” type and click on “Choose media streaming options” as shown below.

6. Click on Turn on media streaming. If you don’t see that button, media streaming is already turned on. You’re done.

7. On this screen, you’ll see all of the DLNA-compatible devices that Windows Media Player recognized on your local network. Click on Allow All and this will allow all networked machines access to your media library. (If you want to turn off media streaming later, just click on “Block All“.)

Like many people, you probably have lots of music, video and photo files stored on your computer. There might be times when you want to play them on your TV. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps of streaming video / audio from a Windows PC to Sony TV wirelessly. No need to install any third-party software.

You’ll need:

• A computer running with Windows 10, 8 or 7
• Sony TV with built-in WiFi and DLNA support
• Wireless network with DHCP enabled (WiFi)

How to Stream Video / Audio from PC to Sony TV Wirelessly

There’s actually an open standard for sharing media files across a home network. It’s called the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), and you probably already have everything you need to use it. Here we’ll set up your PC as a DLNA media server, and the TV will work as a DLNA renderer to receive stream over the LAN.

Part 1: Connect Your TV to A Network Using Wireless Connection

It’s pretty easy to configure your Sony TV to connect to wireless LAN. Follow these steps:

Press the HOME button, then select [Settings] > [Network] > [Network setup] > [Easy].
Choose Wi-Fi and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the set-up.

Note: When entering Wi-Fi passwords, press OK to bring up the virtual keyboard. Click NEXT key on the virtual keyboard when it’s done.

Part 2: Set Up Your Computer as a Media Server

Windows Media Player is the built-in software available in Windows 10/8/7 that you can use to share your media over the network to DLNA-compliant devices. Before getting started, you need to turn on media streaming options in Windows.

You will then be prompted with a list of DLNA-compliant devices that Windows has found on your wireless network. Select the Sony TV you want to share with and then OK. In my example, my Sony TV is shown with its model KD-55X8000C.

Now open Windows Media Player. Drag your favorite movies, musics or photos stored on your computer, then drop them into Windows Media Player’s library.

Right-click on the videos or audios you want to watch on TV, select “Cast to Device” and choose your TV from the menu.

Once the “Cast to Device” remote control window is launched, you can reorder or delete items, add to the queue, or toggle repeat. It’s even possible to add new media items from Windows Media Player or Windows Explorer by dragging them into this window.

So this is how you can stream a video or audio fro a Windows PC to TV over a wireless network. Enjoy it!

Every time you press the Caps Lock key, you might see a popup notification near the bottom-right corner of your screen. This can be a big problem since it takes focus off of the window/app you’re typing in. If you’re playing a game and accidentally press Caps Lock, clicking the popup will minimize the game.

In this tutorial we’ll show you all possible ways to disable Caps Lock notification that pops up at the bottom right of your screen. The methods differ depending on the manufacturer of your computer.

Method 1: For HP computers

Here’s how to turn off Caps Lock notification on HP computers:

1. Press the Windows logo key + R to bring up the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. After the Registry Editor opens, navigate to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Hewlett-Packard\HP HotKey Support
3. In right pane, double-click on the CapsLockOSD entry and set its value to 0.

Method 2: For Dell computers

Dell Quickset is supposedly a helpful little program that helps you keep track of your power management and other system settings. To disable Caps Lock notification on Dell computer, you can uninstall Quickset, or make a registry change by following the steps below:

1. Press the Windows logo key + R to bring up the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. After the Registry Editor opens, navigate to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dell Computer Corporation\QuickSet
3. In right pane, double-click on the QuickSetControl entry and set its value to 1.

Method 3: For Lenovo computers

1. Open the Control Panel. Set the View by option to Large icons.
2. Click on Display icon, then click on Change display settings on left panel.
3. Click on the Advanced settings, then click on On-Screen Display tab.
4. Check Enable on-screen display.
5. Under “Indicator settings for NumLock and CapsLock” section, look for “While the numeric lock or caps lock is ON” section, choose the “Show the indicator for a few seconds” option.

6. Click Apply, then click OK.

Method 4:

The Caps Lock notification might be handled by BlueTooth (BTTray.exe) process. You must edit the following registry entries to ged rid of this ugly alert:

1. Press the Windows logo key + R to bring up the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Widcomm\BTConfig\General
3. Change the value of KeyIndication from 1 to 0.
4. Reboot your computer and the Caps Lock pop-up notification is gone!

Method 5:

This is a common method to decrease the display time for Caps Lock notification:

1. Open Control Panel. Set the View by option to Large icons.
2. Click Ease of Access Center.
3. Select “Make it easier to focus on tasks“.
4. Scroll down to the “Adjust time limits and flashing visuals” section, Check the checkbox to “Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible)“. Under the option “How long should Windows Notification dialogue boxes stay open“, select 5 seconds.

5. Click Apply/OK.

The end result is that you will still see the notification that Caps Lock has been turned on or off, but it will not cause a pause in your typing.

“My laptop came with Windows 8 preinstalled. I really don’t like the new interface of Windows 8. I want to uninstall Windows 8 and install Windows 7. How to go about it?”

If you don’t like Windows 10 / 8, or the new OS doesn’t work as you expected, you might want to downgrade to Windows 7. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps of removing Windows 10 / 8 and then install a fresh copy of Windows 7.

How to Remove Windows 10 / 8 and Install Windows 7?

Before get started, you need to prepare a Windows 7 installation disc. Make sure any important files already on your PC are backed up on a portable hard drive or an online backup solution.

Part 1: Disable UEFI and Enable Legacy Boot

New Windows 10/8 PCs come with UEFI firmware and Secure Boot enabled. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft replaced BIOS with UEFI. Secure Boot will prevent Windows 7 installation disc from booting, so you need to disable the Secure Boot option and enable Legacy/CSM boot.

Here’s how to enable Legacy boot on a Windows 8 ASUS notebook:

1. When powering on the computer, quickly and repeatedly press F2 to enter BIOS Setup.
2. In the Security menu, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select the Secure Boot Control option. Press Enter to set it Disabled.

3. Go to the Boot menu, enable Launch CSM.

4. Press F10 to save and exit.

Your BIOS may be different. If you don’t know how to access the UEFI/BIOS or couldn’t find the UEFI secure boot option, please check out the following articles:

• 2 Options to Access UEFI BIOS Setup in Windows 8 / 10
• How to Set PC to Boot with Legacy BIOS Mode Instead of UEFI Mode

Part 2: Convert Partition Scheme from GPT to MBR

Now we need to convert the hard drive from GPT to MBR, because Windows 7 couldn’t be installed on GPT partition. Follow these steps:

1. Put the Windows 7 installation disc in your optical drive and restart to boot from it. You may have to change the boot sequence in your BIOS if it doesn’t boot to the CD. Watch for the “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” message. Press a key as indicated.

2. When Windows 7 Setup appears, you’re asked to choose your preferred language and keyboard method. Just press Shift + F10 to launch the Command Prompt.

3. In the Command Prompt, type the following commands one by one, press Enter after each.
   diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
clean
convert mbr
exit

   This will delete all partitions on your hard drive and convert it to a MBR disk.

4. Now close the Command Prompt. You’ll return back to Windows 7 Setup screen.

Part 3: Install Windows 7

1. Once you come back to Windows 7 Setup Screen, select your language and click Next.

2. You will be now taken to the Install now menu. Click on Install Now to proceed.

3. Review the license agreement, and click “I accept the license terms“.

4. On the Which type of installation do you want? window, click Custom (advanced).

5. The next step is to choose where you want to install Windows 7. Inexperienced users can simply highlight the unallocated space and click Next.

   If you want to split the hard drive into two or more partitions, click on “Drive options (advanced)” which allows you to create new partitions, format or delete them. When it’s done, select the partition you want to install Windows 7 on and click Next.

6. Windows will begin installing. Now you can sit back and relax for a while, because this part is automatic. During this process, the PC will also restart on its own—don’t panic, that’s just part of the installation process.

7. When the installation is complete, you’ll go through the first-time setup process: type your computer name, set up a user account and password, enter product key, etc.

After you log on to a Windows user account, you may face the temporary profile issue and some of your desktop icons & files are disappeared. A notification pops up in the right bottom corner of the taskbar, saying:

“You’ve been signed in with a temporary profile. You can’t access your files, and files created in this profile will be deleted when you sign out. To fix this, sign out and try signing in later. Please see the event log for more details or contact your system administrator.”

In Windows 7, the error message looks like:

“You have been logged on with a temporary profile. You cannot access your files and files created in this profile will be deleted when you log off. To fix this, log off and try logging on later. Please see the event log for details or contact your system administrator.”

So I did a quick Google search and it seems that this is a common issue. This problem usually occurs if the user profile was accidentally moved or deleted from the system. Any changes that you make to the current desktop are lost after you log off the system. In this tutorial we’ll explain the step-by-step procedure to fix temporary profile issue in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Fix “You’ve been signed in with a temporary profile” Error?

Before getting started, you need to find the SID (Security Identifier) of your user account that is experiencing the temporary profile problem. To do this, just press the Windows + R keys to open the Run box. Type cmd and press Enter.

When the Command Prompt launches, type the following command, replacing Tom with the name of your affected account. Press Enter and you’ll see the SID that will be used in steps below.
wmic useraccount where name='Tom' get sid

After finding the SID, close the Command Prompt. Now we begin to fix the registry settings. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter.

When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Expand the ProfileList subkey, you will see the SID keys for all the users on the machine. As we’ve found the SID of your affected account above, just click that SID key (without .bak), you’ll see the “ProfileImagePath” entry in the right pane that points to a temporary profile.

Double-click the ProfileImagePath entry to edit the values data. Type the correct profile path and click OK. If you don’t know the correct profile location, open Windows Explorer and browse to C:\Users. In my example, I want to set the account to use the profile folder named Tom, so I point ProfileImagePath to C:\Users\Tom. If your profile folder was already corrupted or deleted, just delete the SID key.

Next, right-click on your old SID key that is maked as .bak, and then click on Delete.

That’s it. Log off or restart your computer. Windows will sign in to your account with a local profile instead of a temporary profile, and you will no longer receive the temporary profile error.

When you download a software with Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer, you might receive the error message saying “The signature of this program is corrupt or invalid“.

Recently we’ve also heard of our customers having this issue when downloading the Lock My Folders program in Windows 10, so we spend lots of time trying to reproduce this issue. We finally got to the bottom of the issue (we believe).

The signature was never corrupt or even invalid. Microsoft released a cumulative security update KB3140745 for Windows 10 that deprecated support for SHA1 code signing certificate. Any programs signed with SHA1 certificate after January 1st, 2016 will be flagged as an invalid signature. In this tutorial we’ll explain how to check if your downloaded program is signed with SHA1 or not, then discuss the methods to get around the download issue.

How do I know if a program is signed with SHA1?

1. Right-click on your program and select Properties.
2. Click on the Digital Signatures tab.
3. Select the signature and click on the Details button.
4. Click the View Certificate button.
5. Click the Details tab.
6. Look at the Signature hash algorithm.

Methods to fix “The signature of this program is corrupt or invalid”

If you are the software developer, just contact the CA to re-issue or replace your SHA1 certificate with a new stronger SHA2 certificate, then sign your program with SHA2 certificate and the issue will be resolved.

If you download software from a reliable website and get the “The signature of this program is corrupt or invalid” error message, here are 3 ways to work around this problem:

• When you see the a pop-up message that says the signature is corrupt or invalid, click on View downloads button.

  Next right-click on the file in downloads and choose Run anyway.

  If Windows 10 Smart Screen displays a warning that the app cannot be recognized, click More Info and click Run Anyway to install.

• Uninstall the Windows update that causes this issue. I can reproduce the problem by installing KB3140745 on Windows 10. I then uninstall this single update and it fixed the problem. If you’ve turned on automatic updating, you can block that specific update in Windows 10 so it won’t be installed any longer.
• Only the browsers from Microsoft block SHA1 code signing certificate now. Chrome and Firefox still accepts SHA1 certificate. So you can get around this problem by downloading with Chrome or Firefox browsers.

The update cache is a temporary folder used by Windows Update to store the temporary installation files. By default, Windows Update automatically cleans out the cached updates at a regular interval. But the temporary files will not be deleted when Windows Update fails or refuses to install an update.

Sometimes the obsolete update cache can take up Gigabytes of space and this can run out of disk space on C:\ drive. When you run into space issue or Windows Update doesn’t work properly, you can use this method to safely delete Windows Update cache in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Delete Windows Update Cache to Free Space?

In previous post we’ve covered how to delete temporary Windows installation files ($WINDOWS.~BT) using Disk Cleanup. But that utility doesn’t include an option for purging Windows Update cache. So we need to delete the update cache manually. Before getting started, make sure no update process is running, or your update will fail to install.

1. The first step is to temporarily turn off the Windows Update service. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type cmd and press Enter.
2. When the Command Prompt opens, type the command below to stop the Windows Update service.
   net stop wuauserv

3. Open the Windows Explorer and navigate to the following folder and delete all its content (not the folder itself).
   C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

4. Once you’ve deleted the update cache, open the Command Prompt again and run the following command to start the Windows Update service.
   net start wuauserv

When you right-click on an ISO file in Windows 10/8/7, you should see the “Burn disc image” option in the context menu. What to do if the “Burn disc image” option is missing or no longer appears in the right-click context menu? To restore this context menu item, you have to set the built-in app – Windows Disc Image Burner – as the default program for opening an ISO file. Here’s how:

How to Fix: “Burn disc image” Option Missing for ISO Context Menu

1. Open the Control Panel. Select Large icons from the View by option, then click on Default Programs.

2. On the Default Programs window, click Set your default programs link.

3. From the generated list of available programs in the left pane, select Windows Disc Image Burner, and then click on the Set this program as default option on the bottom right.

4. Click on Choose defaults for this Program. You will get a window that displays the list of file extensions registered by the program. Check the boxes against the file extensions (*.iso, *.img) that you want the selected program to open by default. Click Save and you’re done.

5. Restart your computer and the “Burn disc image” option should now appear in the right-click context menu of an ISO file.

“Whenever I type, my baby finger hits the Caps Lock key and all my typing ends up in caps. I want to disable it completely and just use the Shift key for capitals. How do I disable the Caps Loks key in Windows 10? Please help!”

Without the Caps Lock key, you can still type the letter you want to capitalize by holding down the Shift key. Pressing the Shift key once is much more efficient than pressing the Caps Lock key twice. If you don’t need to use the Caps Lock key, you can disable it permanently. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to disable Caps Lock key in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and Mac OS X.

Part 1: Disable Caps Lock in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP

There is no built-in settings available in Windows that allow you to disable Caps Lock key, so we have to use a registry hack to map the Caps Lock key to doing nothing. Follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type notepad and press Enter.
2. Copy the lines below and then paste them into the NotePad:
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00

3. Click the File menu and select Save as. Select “All Files” from the “Save as type” drop-down box. Type the file name as Disable_Caps_Lock.reg. Click Save.

4. Double-click the .reg file, or right-click on it and select “Open with” -> “Registry Editor“. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.

5. Registry Editor will confirm if you want to import the registry settings in your .reg file, click Yes.

   Now log out (and back in) or reboot to make this registry trick to take effect.

If you want to enable the Caps Lock key again, open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout, then delete the Scancode Map entry entirely.

Part 2: Disable Caps Lock in Mac OS X

It’s pretty easy to actually turn the Caps Lock key off if you’re using a Mac. Here’s how:

1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your desktop, then select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.

2. Click on the Keyboard icon to launch the preferences pane.

3. Click the Modifier Keys button in the bottom-right corner.

4. A new window will slide down with a setting for the Caps Lock key at the top. click on the drop-down menu next to the Caps Lock Key title, and choose No Action.

5. Click OK. Now, whenever you hit the Caps Lock key by mistake, nothing will happen.

Keep getting low disk space on C:\ drive even if you’ve deleted all files you can delete? There is no spare partition for another operating system? In this tutorial we’ll show you how to use the built-in Disk Management to shrink & expand partition in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Part 1: Open Disk Management

To access Windows build-in Disk Management tool, just press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter. This will open the Windows Disk Management utility. From there you can resize (shrink or expand) your hard drive partition without data loss.

Part 2: Shrink Partition

Need to create a new partition but you don’t have unallocated space? Just shrink an existing partition to free up space from which you can create a new partition. Here’s how to shrink a partition:

1. Right-click the partition you want to shrink (C: in our example) and select Shrink Volume.

2. Windows will take a moment to query the volume for available shrink space. Enter the amount of space you want to shrink. For example if want to free up 15GB space, enter 15000 Mb (1000 MB = 1 GB) in the text box. Next click Shrink.

3. When the process is complete, you will see a new unallocated partition right next to your shrinked partition.

Part 3: Expand Partition

Run out of space on one of your Windows partitions? You can also expand disk partitions, as long as there is free (unpartitioned) space available only after the partition you’re trying to expand. Here’s how to expand a partition:

1. Right-click the partition you want to expand (C: in our example) and select Extend Volume. Note that the Extend Volume option might be greyed out when there is no unallocated space right after your selected partition.

2. Now when the Extend Volume Wizard opens, click Next.

3. It will select the maximum number of unallocated space itself. But you can set any amount yourself too, keep in mind that it is calculated in MB not GB. After you are done here, click Next.

4. You’ll see a brief summary of the changes. Click Finish to apply them. Now you’ll see your partition is larger and the unallocated partition has been merged.

By default, Windows Firewall doesn’t allow inbound / outbound requests for SQL Server. If you try to connect to a SQL Server instance from network, you might get the error saying “The server was not found or was not accessible”. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to configure Windows Firewall to allow SQL Server access.

Method 1: Allow SQL Server Access Through Control Panel

1. Open Control Panel in Large icons or Small icons view, click on Windows Firewall.

2. Click the link “Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall” on the left of window.

3. You will now see a list with all the apps which are allowed to communicate through the Windows Firewall. To change the rules, you need to click the Change Settings button. The list of rules will no longer be gray and you will be able to edit it.

4. Click the “Allow another program…” button.

5. From the “Add a Program” window, click the Browse button.

6. Navigate to the installation path for your SQL Server instance and select sqlservr.exe, and click Open. In my example, the location is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe.

7. You’ll back to the “Add a Program” window and see SQL Server is added to the list. Click the Add button.

8. SQL Server now appears in the list of Allowed programs and features. You can check any of the location types: private or public. When done, press OK.

Method 2: Allow SQL Server Access Through Command Prompt

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt.
2. You can run the Netsh advfirewall command to open all ports for SQL Server connections. Assuming the path of your SQL Server service is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe, copy / and paste the following commands in the Command Prompt, press Enter after each.

   netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Server TCP" protocol=tcp dir=in action=allow program="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe" enable=yes profile=any localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=any

   netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Server UDP" protocol=udp dir=in action=allow program="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe" enable=yes profile=any localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=any

3. When it’s done, you’ve successfully opened up all ports to allow SQL Server access through Windows Firewall.

AppLocker is a Window’s built-in application that gives the administrator a very granular control over which applications are allowed to execute and which are blocked for a Windows account. This feature is really useful if you share a computer and don’t want other users accessing certain applications.

Today we’ll walk you through how to create rules in AppLocker to prevent other users from accessing certain applications in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Restrict Access to Programs with Windows AppLocker?

1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.

2. Under Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to:
   Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Application Control Policies -> AppLocker -> Executable Rules
3. Right-click on Executable Rules in the left pane, and then select Create New Rule.

4. Click Next to bypass the Before You Begin screen. On the Permissions page, select Deny (Click Allow if you want to restrict what programs other users can access only).

   Click on the Select button to choose the user or groups you want the rule to apply. When it’s done, click Next to reach the Conditions page.

5. AppLocker rules can identify programs using the following conditions: Publisher, Path and File hash. Publisher condition relies on the digital signature of the executable file.

   Here we’ll choose File hash because AppLocker can still identify the program even if it’s renamed or moved.

6. On the File Hash page, click Browse Files and find the executable file for the application to which you want this rule to apply, or click Browse Folders if you want the system to calculate a hash for all of the executable files in a folder. Click Next.

7. Type a name for the rule that will make it easy for you to remember what it is, and then click on Create.

8. When prompted to create the default rules, make sure you click Yes. This is to ensure that the rules you created don’t block operating system files from running.

9. Now you will see three default rules and the new one you created.

   Restart your computer for the AppLocker rules to come into effect. When you try to run the blocked application, you’ll receive an error: “This app has been blocked by group policy. For more information, please contact your system administrator.”

AppLocker Doesn’t Work?

AppLocker doesn’t work under either an admin account or a standard account? AppLocker not blocking application even if you set up the executable rule correctly? AppLocker relies on the built-in Application Identity service, which is normally set to manual startup type by default. Administrators should configure the service to start automatically.

To bring AppLocker back to work, follow these steps to start the Application Identity service:

1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type services.msc and press Enter.

2. Right-click on the Application Identity service, and select Properties.

3. Set the Startup type to Automatic and click on the Start button to run the service.

4. Click on Apply and then OK.

Desktop icons are too big or too small? How can I resize the desktop icon size? In this tutorial we’ll show you how you can simply change the taskbar & desktop icon size in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Part 1: Change Desktop Icon Size

To change the size of desktop icons, right-click on an empty space on the desktop, and then click on View, and then select the size of the icons, either Large, Medium or Small icons. The default is Medium icons.

But what if you want to make the desktop icons smaller than the default small icon, or larger than the default large icon? Using the mouse wheel button you can set the icon size to any size you want:

To get started, make sure the desktop has the focus, this can be done by just clicking any empty space of the desktop. Press and hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, and then using your mouse wheel, roll it upward to make the icons size larger, or downward to set the icon size smaller.

Part 2: Change Taskbar Icon Size

The taskbar icons are really small? How can I make them appear larger? To do this, right-click on an empty space in the taskbar and then select Properties.

On the Taskbar tab, uncheck the “Use small taskbar buttons” box in Windows 10/8. If you’re running Windows 7, uncheck the “Use small icons” box. Click OK.

No users are shown at Windows Welcome/logon screen? You probably see only two empty boxes for you to type in the user name and password. In this tutorial we’ll show you two ways to make Windows login screen showing at least one user account, so you can simply the user icon at the Welcome screen to log into your account quickly.

Note: The procedure below requires you to log on to Windows as administrator. If you’re locked out because your admin account is locked/disabled or you forgot the password, please use the PCUnlocker bootdisk to unlock your Windows account.

Method 1: Make Windows Show Last User Name Using Group Policy

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type secpol.msc and press Enter. This should bring up the “Local Security Policy” window.

2. On the left side, expand Local Policies and then click on Security Options. Search for “Interactive logon: Do not display last user name” on the right panel. Right-click it, select Properties and switch the status from Enabled to Disabled. Click OK or Apply to save your changes.

3. Restart or log out your account. Windows will show your last logged on user at the Welcome screen now.

Method 2: Make Windows Show Last User Name Using Registry Editor

If you’re running the Home or Starter edition of Windows, you have to use this registry trick instead:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter.
2. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following registry path:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. Look for the entry dontdisplaylastusername at the right pane and double-click on it. Change the value data from 1 to 0.

4. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer. You’ll see at least one user account is shown at your Windows login screen.

The methods above works with all versions of Windows. If your computer is joined to a domain or it’s a domain controller itself, you can still make Windows show last user name but the steps are a bit different:

1. After logging into your domain controller, click Start > Administrative Tools > Group Policy Management Console.
2. Select your existing group policy for editing, and then navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.
3. Double-click on the policy “Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name” and set it to Disabled.

“I don’t know what happened but the taskbar (usually on the bottom of the screen) is missing. Without the taskbar, I couldn’t get to the Start Menu and ultimately launch any program. How do I get it back? Please help!”

There are 3 reasons why your taskbar or Start button disappeared on the computer screen:

• The taskbar is set to auto-hide.
• The explorer.exe process has crashed and the taskbar is completely gone.
• The display resolution or main display changed and caused the taskbar to go off the screen.

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to troubleshoot this problem and get your Windows taskbar and Start button back to your screen.

Method 1: Unhide Taskbar

Some users reported the Auto-hide feature is buggy. Disable the Auto-hide option and your Windows taskbar might be back again. Follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del on your keyboard. This will take you to the lock screen. From there, you can click Task Manager.

2. When the Task Manager opens, click More details button at the bottom of the window.

3. Click the File menu and select Run new task.

4. Type control panel and click OK.

5. In Control Panel, set the View by option to Large icons, and then click on “Taskbar and Navigation“.

6. Click the Taskbar tab, clear the Auto-hide the taskbar check box, and then click OK.

Method 2: Restart Explorer

There is a chance that your Windows Explorer is crashed or an infected program might have terminated it. If that is the case, then your desktop icons and taskbar must also be missing. If that is the case, restart the Explorer process should fix your problem.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys on your keyboard and Task Manager will open up.
2. The Task Manager in Windows 10/8 shows fewer details by default. Simply click More details at the bottom to access the full Task Manager.

3. Click the Details tab and select the explorer.exe process, click End task.

4. Click the File menu and select Run new task.

5. Type in explorer and press OK. This will restart the explorer process and hopefully get your taskbar back.

Method 3: Change Display

If the presentation display was changed, the taskbar may have moved off of the visible screen. To bring the taskbar back, you have to exit the presentation mode:

1. Press the Windows logo key + P on your keyboard to launch External Display selection screen.
2. You’ll get a pop-up dialog with a couple of choices like PC screen only ( or Computer Only), Duplicate, Extend, etc. Make sure it is set to PC screen only.

The lock screen appears when you boot your PC or press Windows + L key combination. It gives you only the basic information such as date, time and weather. You have to click it or swipe away before you can login into Windows 10/8. In this article we’ll show you 2 methods to prevent users from changing lock screen image in Windows 10 / 8.

Method 1: Disable Changing Lock Screen Using Group Policy

This first method is the easiest, but it may not work for some users, as the Group Policy Editor program is not included in the Home edition of Windows.

1. Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. From here, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
2. You should see the Group Policy Editor window pop up. Navigate to:
   Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Personalization
3. Double-click the “Prevent changing lock screen image” entry on the right side of the window. Change the setting from Not Configured to Enabled.

4. Close the Local Group Policy Editor window. When you want to change the lock screen image, you will notice that the options are grayed out.

Method 2: Disable Changing Lock Screen Using Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. From here, type regedit and press Enter.
2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization

   If the Personalization key is not present, create a new key under Windows and rename it to Personalization.

3. On the right side of the window, right-click on an empty space, and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it NoChangingLockScreen.
4. Double-click on the newly created DWORD value, and change its value from 0 to 1. Click OK.

5. Now you should be unable to change / modify the lock screen background image.