Making improper changes to the Registry can cause Windows to become unusable or unbootable. To prevent, restrict or block anyone from accessing Registry Editor in Windows 10, 8 and 7, you can disable Registry Editor using group policy, registry trick or third-party software.

Method 1: Disable Registry Editor Using Group Policy

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

2. When Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System. Double-click on Prevent access to registry editing tools on the right panel.

3. Select the radio button next to Enabled, click Apply and then OK, then close out of Group Policy Editor and reboot your computer.

4. When a user tries to access Registry Editor, they will get an error message saying “Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator“.

This method will prevent all users from accessing Registry Editor, including yourself. To regain access to Registry Editor, you have to open Group Policy Editor again, and change the policy to Disabled or Not Configured.

Method 2: Disable Registry Editor Using Registry Trick

1. Press the Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter.
2. When Registry Editor opens, navigate to:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > System

   If the System key doesn’t exist, you need to create it.

3. In the right pane, right-click on any empty space and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it DisableRegistryTools and set its value to 1.

4. When you try to access Registry Editor, you’ll also get the same error message “Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator“.

This method will prevent your current user from accessing Registry Editor. To regain access, you have to log on as another administrator account and delete the registry value DisableRegistryTools.

Method 3: Disable Registry Editor Using Third Party Software

Using Protect My Folders you can lock & protect Registry Editor with a password. Anyone can’t access Registry Editor without knowing your password.

1. Download and install Protect My Folders program on your computer. The first time you launch this program it will prompt your to set a password. Don’t forgot it as you’ll need it next time you run it.
2. When Protect My Folders starts, click on Add/Lock button.

3. The File/Folder selection dialog should open, choose the C:\Windows\regedit.exe file and click Add, next click OK.

4. Now you’ll see the regedit application is locked. Close Protect My Folders program.

5. When you try to access Registry Editor, you’ll receive the following error message:

This method will block all users from accessing Registry Editor. To regain access you have to relaunch Protect My Folders, enter your password and unlock the regedit.exe app.

Just like earlier versions of Windows, Windows 10/8 File Explorer includes real-time search feature to let you search files and folders quickly. While typing your keyboard in the upper-right hand corner of File Explorer, it will display a history of your past searches in the list.

This tutorial will show you how to clear the search history typed in the search box of File Explorer in Windows 10 / 8.

Method 1: Clear Search History Directly from File Explorer

1. Open File Explorer. Click in the search box in the upper-right hand corner of File Explorer.

2. The Search tab will appear then. In the Search tab, click on Recent searches, and then select Clear search history from the drop-down menu.

3. Now you will not see the search history while typing in the search box of File Explorer. But the new keywords you typed later will also be saved and you might need to delete them again and again.

Method 2: Disable Search History Using Group Policy

If you want to disable the search history altogether, then you can do so by using the Local Group Policy Editor. Follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
2. When Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to:
   User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer
3. From the right panel, double-click on “Turn off display of recent search entries in the File Explorer search box“, then change the setting to Enabled and click OK.

4. Now whenever you do a search in File Explorer it will not keep your search history.

While typing a path in the address bar of File Explorer, Windows will display a history of all previous locations you’ve typed. You can also view the address bar history by clicking the down arrow icon placed on the right end of the address bar.

In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to delete File Explorer address bar history in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Method 1: Delete Address Bar History by Right-clicking Address Bar

After opening File Explorer (or Windows Explorer), right-click on the address bar and select the “Delete history” option.

This will clear all address bar history from File Explorer. Now, if you click the down arrow button in the address bar, you’ll see all history has been cleared.

Method 2: Delete Address Bar History from Folder Options

From File Explorer (or Windows Explorer), select the View tab and then click on Options.

Once the Folder Options window has been opened, click the Clear button to delete all the File Explorer history. This action clears the File Explorer address bar history and the recent files and folders in quick access.

How to prevent others from deleting browsing history in your browser? There are situations where you need to share your computer with your friends or family members but you want to restrict them from deleting your saved logins and cookies. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to block users from deleting browsing history in Internet Explorer.

Method 1: Prevent Access to Delete Browsing History Using Group Policy

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
2. This should open the Local Group Policy Editor. Navigate to the following location:
   Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Delete Browsing History
3. In the right pane, double-click on “Prevent access to Delete Browsing History” to open its settings box. Select Enabled and click Apply / OK.

4. Reboot your computer. When you open the Internet Options of Internet Explorer, you’ll find the button for deleting browsing history is greyed out.

Method 2: Prevent Users from Deleting Browsing History Using Registry Editor

If Local Group Policy Editor is not accessible in your computer, you can also use the following registry trick to block users from deleting browsing history in Internet Explorer.

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter.
2. When you see the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel

   If both the Internet Explorer key and the Control Panel key don’t exist, you need to create them firstly.

3. Now in right side pane, right-click the empty space to create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named DisableDeleteBrowsingHistory and set its value to 1.

4. Close Registry Editor and re-open Internet Explorer. Now users will not be able to access the option for deleting browsing history in Internet Explorer. That’s it!

In May of 2016, Microsoft began forcing a Windows 10 upgrade to all Windows 8/7 users who haven’t requested it – and who might not want it. If you have software or hardware that isn’t compatible with Windows 10, you might no want this forced upgrade. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to stop your computer from force upgrading to Windows 10.

Method 1: Block Windows 10 Upgrade Using Group Policy

1. Open up Group Policy Editor by using the Windows + R key combination, entering gpedit.msc and hitting Enter.

2. From the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to:
   Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
3. Double-click the “Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update” policy on the right pane, Select Enabled and then click OK.

4. Now you’ve disabled Windows 10 upgrade. Reboot your computer and you will not be pushed to download & install Windows 10 upgrade.

Method 2: Block Windows 10 Upgrade Using Registry Trick

If you’re unable to access the Group Policy Editor or the group policy for blocking Windows upgrade is missing, you can then use the following registry trick:

1. Open up the Registry Editor by using the Windows + R key combination, entering regedit and hitting Enter.

2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

   If you do not see the WindowsUpdate key, right-click the Windows key above it, point to New, and create a key named WindowsUpdate.

3. Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named DisableOSUpgrade. Double-click the DisableOSUpgrade and enter a value of 1.

4. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer. So this is how you stop a forced Windows 10 upgrade.

It’s a good idea to put Windows in the energy-saving mode (Sleep or Hibernate) when you’re away from your computer. However, most of users don’t know the exact differences between Sleep mode and Hibernate mode. In this article we’ll try to explain the differences in detail.

Sleep:

Sleep mode (also known as Standby mode) is useful when you’re going to be away for a short period of time. It’s similar like pausing a DVD movie, all your running programs are suspended. The computer immediately stops most system operations and your open documents and applications are put in the RAM. Power is cut from all components apart from RAM: the display, the hard drive, and ports.

However, the power must NOT be cut off while your PC is in Sleep mode, and must be continue to supply to the computer. A power outage would cause all data that aren’t saved to hard disk to be lost.

When you wake the computer up, all processes and programs resume working within seconds. This is because your computer is still on and all your data is still kept in the computer’s memory.

Hibernate:

Hibernate mode will take everything you have running on RAM (including open documents and apps) and saves it to a special file (C:\hiberfil.sys) on your hard drive, and then turn off your computer completely. That means it consumes almost no power, but it takes a bit more time to wake up than Sleep mode.

When you wake your computer from hibernation, the system will load everything saved in the hiberfil.sys file and all programs you had open will reopen in the same state you left them.

Hibernation is ideal for users who would be away from the computer for an extended period, especially when you have to cut off the power to travel but want to continue working from where you left off, without having to open your programs and documents again.

The downside of Hibernate is that it will take up a huge amount of disk space because it saves the full memory of the RAM into hard drive, you can see a gigantic hiberfil.sys file sitting in the root of your system drive.

Conclusion

Now you should have found out the main differences between Sleep mode and Hibernate mode. It’s up to you to decide which option is best for you to save power for your computer.

How often does Windows sync time? Is there a way to set a frequent period for Windows to sync time automatically? By default, domain controller will sync clock once per one hour, and standalone computer will sync clock once every week. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change the time synchronization interval/frequency and make Windows automatically sync time more often than default.

How to Make Windows sync time more often than default?

1. To change the time synchronization interval, we have to access the Registry Editor. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter.

2. Once the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient
3. Look for the SpecialPollInterval entry in the right pane. This entry specifies the interval in seconds for the Windows Time service to sync the time. The default value on standalone computer is 604800 seconds, that is equal to 7 days.

4. Double-click on the SpecialPollInterval entry. From the pop-up dialog, click Decimal and enter the time interval (in seconds). For example, if you want to let Windows sync time each hour, just type 36000. Click OK and close Registry Editor.

5. Now we need to check if the Windows Time service is configured to start during boot. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type services.msc and press Enter.

6. From the service list, find the service named Windows Time and then double-click on it.

7. Change the Startup type to Automatic and click OK.

   Reboot your computer and Windows will automatically sync the time at the interval you specified. Every time Windows loads up or you start or restart the Windows Time service, it will also sync time immediately.
   That’s all there is to it.

After enabling automatic login, you don’t have to type in your password every time Windows starts up. What if you need to type the password somewhere but you forgot it? Here’s a simple way to recover auto login password in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Recover Auto Login Password in Windows 10, 8 and 7?

Download and install Password Recovery Bundle on your local computer. After installing, launch the program and click on Start Recovery.

Choose Windows Cached Password from the long password list.

The program will decrypt and show you the login credentials (Windows account, password) immediately. It’s that simple!

How can I get into Safe Mode on the new Windows operating systems such as Windows 8, Windows 10 and Server 2012? Starting from Windows 8, the system boots very quickly and the time to press F8 key to access Safe Mode is smaller than 200 milliseconds, so it’s almost impossible to enter into the Safe Mode by pressing F8 during boot time.

In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 workable ways to boot Windows Server 2012 into Safe Mode. The methods should also work with Windows 10 and Windows 8/8.1.

Method 1: Boot Windows Server 2012 into Safe Mode Using Command Prompt

1. Press the Windows key + X to open the WinX menu, select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the list.

2. In order to make Windows display the Windows Boot Manager, type the following command at the Command Prompt and press Enter. You will get a confirmation stating that The operation completed successfully.

   bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes

   If you want to stop displaying the Windows Boot Manager later, run this command instead:
   bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu no

3. Now restart your computer and you’ll see the Windows Boot Manager screen. Just press F8 to bring up the Advanced Boot Options.

4. Select Safe Mode and press Enter. This will open Windows Server 2012 in Safe Mode.

Method 2: Boot Windows Server 2012 into Safe Mode Using System Configuration

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

2. Now the System Configuration dialog box will be opened. Under the Boot tab, check the Safe boot option and click OK.

3. Reboot your computer and it will boot directly into Safe Mode automatically. If you wan to stop Windows from booting into Safe Mode next time, you need to open the System Configuration utility (msconfig) again and uncheck the Safe boot option.

Method 3: Boot Windows Server 2012 into Safe Mode Using Settings App

1. To get started, you need to open the Settings panel. This can be done by hovering your mouse to the top right-hand corner of the screen, or press the Windows key + I on your keyboard.
2. Hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard, and then click on Power icon and select Restart.

3. You will need to click on the Troubleshoot option.

4. Click Startup Settings.

5. Click Restart.

6. The computer will boot automatically to the Advanced Boot Options screen. From there you can select Safe Mode to start Windows Server 2012 in Safe Mode.

Unable to access Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc? When you right-click on the taskbar, you might find that “Task Manager” option has been grayed out:

Also when you press the Windows key + R and type taskmgr, you’ll receive the following error message:

“Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator.”

Task Manager is probably disabled by an administrator or a virus or spyware. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to fix “Task Manager is disabled or greyed out” in Windows 10, by using Group Policy, Registry Editor or Command Prompt. Either way, you need to log in as administrator before following the steps.

Method 1: Fix ‘Unable To Access Task Manager’ Using Group Policy

1. Press Win+R to open Run box, and type gpedit.msc command to start the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate down to the following:
   User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Ctrl+Alt+Delete Options
3. Since you’re facing the issue that Task Manager has been disabled by administrator, you’ll see that the “Remove Task Manager” policy in the right pane is enabled. Double-click on it to modify.

4. To enable Task Manager, you should set this policy to Not Configured or Disabled.

   Click Apply followed by OK. Reboot and your problem should be fixed now!

Method 2: Fix ‘Unable To Access Task Manager’ Using Registry Editor

1. Press Win+R to open Run box, and type regedit command to start the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the following keys:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3. In the right side panel, you’ll see a 32-bit DWORD value named DisableTaskMgr. In order to re-enable Task Manager, double-click and change the value to 0. (If you want to disable Task Manager, just change its value data back to 1.)
4. Go ahead and reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

Method 3: Fix ‘Unable To Access Task Manager’ Using Command Prompt

1. Press Win+X shortcut keys on the keyboard and select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the Power User Menu.
2. At the Command Prompt, type the following command and press Enter. This will enable the Task Manager.
   REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

   If you want to disable Task Manager again, just run this command instead:
   REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Note: If you receive the “access denied” error, it’s likely that you’re running Command Prompt in non-Administrator mode.

Did you ever play a game in full-screen mode and accidentally press the Windows key? This might cause your game to minimize or exit full-screen mode. What to do if the Windows keyboard shortcuts conflict with some software shortcuts? In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 simple ways to disable Windows key shortcuts (hotkeys) in Windows 10.

After testing, the first two methods seem to disable only these keyboard shortcuts: Windows + D, Windows + R, Windows + S, Windows + A. It won’t disable the shortcuts like Windows + X, Windows + L, Windows + PrntScr or Windows + Tab in Windows 10. If you want to disable the single Windows key on your keyboard, the 3th method is your choice.

Method 1: Disable WIN+ Keyboard Shortcuts in Using Group Policy

1. Type edit group policy in the Search or Run box and press Enter. It will open Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> File Explorer. In the right-side pane, double-click on the Turn off Windows + X hotkeys policy to edit it.

3. Select the Enabled option and click Apply and then OK.

4. Reboot the computer to apply the changes.

Method 2: Disable WIN+ Keyboard Shortcuts in Using Registry Editor

If you’re unable to access the Local Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these steps:

1. Type regedit in the Search or Run box and press Enter. It will open Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. In right-side pane, right-click on the empty space and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.
3. Rename the newly created entry as NoWinKeys and set its value to 1.

4. Close Registry Editor and restart your system. After reboot the WIN+ hotkeys will be turned off in your system. If you want to re-enable the WIN+ keyboard shortcuts, just delete NoWinKeys entry.

Method 3: Disable Windows Key Completely

This method allows you to completely disable the Windows logo key for all users in Windows 10, 8, 8.1 and Windows 7. Follow these steps to disable Windows key virtually:

1. Type regedit in the Search or Run box and press Enter. It will open Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout. In the right-side pane, right-click on the empty space and select New -> Binary Value.

3. Rename the newly created entry as Scancode Map. Right-click on Scancode Map and click Modify. Type in the following value as the value data manually (copying and pasting will not work), then click OK.

   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
   03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0
   00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00

4. Close Registry Editor and restart the computer. When you boot back into Windows 10, press the Windows key and nothing will happen. If you want to re-enable the Windows logo key, open the Registry Editor again and delete the Scancode Map entry.

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.

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

3. Click the File menu and select 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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:

• How to Set Windows 8 PC to Boot with Legacy BIOS Mode Instead of UEFI Mode
• How to Disable UEFI and Enable Legacy/CSM Boot Support

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.

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

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

5. Click Advanced options.

6. Click Command Prompt in the Advanced options screen.

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

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.

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.

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

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

“I tried to restart my computer into Safe Mode using msconfig without thinking. Now I can’t log in because I couldn’t remember the Administrator password. How can I disable Safe Mode and start my PC normally?”

Stuck at Windows login screen but your computer keeps booting into Safe Mode? Is there a way to turn off Safe Mode without logging into Windows? If you could log into Windows, you can easily disable Safe Mode using Msconfig or Command Prompt. What to do if you forgot the Safe Mode administrator password? In this tutorial we’ll show you how to turn off Safe Mode by booting your PC with Windows installation disc.

How to Turn Off Safe Mode without Logging into Windows?

1. Boot your computer from Windows installation disc and press any key when prompted. If your computer still boots into Safe Mode, you need to enter into BIOS and change the boot sequence to CD/DVD first.
2. When you see Windows Setup, press the Shift + F10 keys to open a Command Prompt.

3. Type the following command and press Enter to turn off Safe Mode:

   bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot

4. When it’s done, close the Command Prompt and stop Windows Setup.

   Reboot without installation disc, and your computer should boot in normal mode by default. This method works with Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 and Vista.

System Restore has been around since Windows 7. It’s very useful feature of Windows that helps you to restore your computer to previous working condition. If your computer gets messed up, corrupted or becomes unbootable, you can revert the operating system back to the recent restore point created. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to enable system restore and create a system restore point in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Create System Restore Point in Windows 10 / 8 / 7?

1. Right-click on This PC (or My Computer) icon on your desktop and then select Properties from the context menu. For Windows 10, you might need to configure Windows 10 to display This PC icon on the desktop.

2. Click the Advanced system settings link on the left side of the screen.

3. Click System Protection tab. Make sure Protection is turned on for your system drive (most of the time it’s C:\ drive).

   If protection is turned off, select the system drive and click Configure, next select Turn on system protection option in the resulting dialog.

4. To create a restore point manually, click on the Create button.

5. Enter a name or description for your new restore point, and then click Create button again.

6. Restore point creation are fast, it shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.

   Once the restore point is created, you will see the “Restore point was created successfully” message.

The above process is very simple to create a restore point in Windows 10, 8 and 7. Afterwards, you can use System Restore to restore Windows to your created restore point when your computer becomes damaged in future.

What to do if your Windows computer has become corrupt, unusable or unstable? Most of the time, it’s very difficult to find out the exact cause of the problem and we’re suggested to roll back all recent changes to the operating system. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to recover unbootable Windows 10 or 8 system with your previously-created restore point.

How to Recover Unbootable Windows 10 or 8 with Restore Point?

When your computer is crashed, unbootable or it’s not working as you expected, you can use System Restore to restore your computer to the latest restore point. Follow these steps:

1. Boot your computer with Windows 10/8 installation DVD. If you don’t have a install disc, you can use a working PC to download the ISO file from Microsoft and create a bootable USB drive for Windows Setup.
2. Once booted to the Windows Setup screen, you’re prompted to select language and keyboard layout. Click Next.

3. Click Repair your computer at the bottom.

4. Select Troubleshoot from Choose an option screen.

5. Click Advanced options.

6. Click System Restore.

7. Click on the operating system you’re going to perform a system restore on.

8. When the System Restore wizard opens, click Next.

9. You’ll be presented with a list of previously created restore points. Select the restore point you want to restore to and click Next.

10. Confirm the restore point and click Finish.

11. A dialog box will pop up to ensure you really want to perform a system restore. It can’t be undone. If you’re sure, click Yes. This starts your system restore.

12. Your PC will restart and begin the system restore process. This may take a few minutes to revert back to the selected restore point.

13. After successful restoration, you’ll have a message saying system restore completed successfully.

    Click on Restart and your computer should boot successfully into Windows. You’ll still have all of your documents, but might be missing a couple of programs that you’ll just need to reinstall again.

The lock screen appears as a background image that is displayed when a user locks the PC. You need to tap any key or click the lock screen before you reach the login prompt.

By default, the lock screen will automatically turn off the display after one minute of idle time. You might want to increase the idle time to make the lock screen stay longer, or set your PC to never turn off monitor. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change the lock screen timeout in Windows 10 / 8.

Part 1: Add Lock Screen Timeout Setting to Power Options

To add the lock screen timeout setting to Power Options, you need to change the registry setting. Follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. After the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7
3. In the right-hand pane, double-click the Attributes entry and change its value from 1 to 2 (Or set it back to 1 if you want to hide the lock screen timeout settings later).

4. Immediately after editing the registry, you will see a new option (Console lock display off timeout) to adjust in the advanced power settings for your power plan.

If you want to quickly make the registry changes without opening Registry Editor, simply open Notepad and copy / paste the following lines, save as any name with .reg extension.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7]
"Attributes"=dword:00000002

Then right-click on the .reg file and select “Open with” -> “Registry Editor” from the context menu. This will import your registry settings immediately.

Part 2: Change Lock Screen Timeout in Power Options

1. Open Control Panel in large or small icons view. Click on Power Options.

2. From the settings on the left-hand side, select Choose when to turn off the display.

3. Click Change advanced power settings.

4. Now, scroll down to Display, and expand it. You’ll see the new setting “Console lock display off timeout” that is only available after we’ve made the registry change above. As you can see, the lock screen timeout is set to 1 minute by default.

5. You can adjust the timeout for however many minutes you want, or set it to 0 so the lock screen will never time out and turn off the monitor.

   Click Apply and then OK. Now you’ve successfully changed the lock screen timeout settings in Windows 10/8.

“I am unable to login with any account even local administrator, while login it shows ‘The sign-in method you are trying to use isn’t allowed. For more info, contact your network administrator‘. Please help me out on this problem.”

If your account is not granted the permission to log on locally, you’ll get such an error message at login. To fix this problem, we need to tweak the local security policy, or domain controller policy if you’re facing the same login issue with a domain user.

For Standardalone Computer:

1. Press the Windows key + R and type secpol.msc in the Run box. Press Enter to open the Local Security Policy window.

2. Expand to Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment. In the right pane, locate the policy named Deny log on locally. Double-click on it to modify.

3. Check if your problematic user account or the user groups it belongs to is listed there. If it is there, select it and click on Remove.

4. When it’s done, click Apply and then OK. Reboot your computer and you should be allowed to log on to your account locally.

For Domain Controller:

There is also a corresponding security policy existing in domain controller that can cause the problem “The sign-in method you are trying to use isn’t allowed. For more info”. Follow these steps to fix it:

1. To get started, open the Group Policy Management. In Windows Server 2008, you can click Start, then select All Programs > Administrative Tools > Group Policy Management.

2. On the left hand side of Group Policy Management, expand Forest > Domains > your domain name, and then click Group Policy Objects. In the right-hand window, double-click on Default Domain Controllers Policy and select Edit.

3. This will open the Group Policy Management Editor window. Navigate to:
   Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignments

   In the right pane, double-click on Deny log on locally.

4. Check if your problematic domain account or the domain groups it belongs to is listed there. If it is there, select it and click on Remove.

5. Click Apply and OK to save your changes. Reboot your computer and you can then login without permission issues.

Looking for a way to disable or hide the Network icon from Windows sign-in screen? In previous posts we’ve explained how to remove the Power icon and disable the Ease of Access button available at login screen. Here we’ll show you 2 ways to remove the Network icon on Windows 10/8 login screen. This can prevent others from changing or disconnecting network without sign-in.

Method 1: Remove Network Icon on Login Screen Using Group Policy

1. Press the Windows logo key + R and type gpedit.msc in the Run box. Press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. In the left-hand pane, drill down to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon. On the right, find the “Do not display network selection UI” item and double-click it.

3. In the appeared window, click Enabled and then click OK.

4. Exit the Local Group Policy Editor and restart your computer. You’ll find that the Network icon is not displayed at the login screen or lock screen any longer.

Method 2: Remove Network Icon on Login Screen Using Registry Hack

1. Press the Windows logo key + R and type regedit in the Run box. Press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
3. Right-click on the System subkey on the left pane, then select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the newly created registry DWORD (REG_DWORD) as DontDisplayNetworkSelectionUI. Double-click on it and then change the Data Value from 0 to 1.

4. Close Registry Editor and reboot. After restart, you’ll find that Network icon is no longer present on your Windows login/lock screen.

All versions of Windows come with a useful disk checking feature which can check the integrity of your hard disk, fix file system errors and scan for bad sectors. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to run disk error check in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Method 1: Run Disk Check from Windows Explorer

1. Open Windows Explorer. Right-click on the drive you want to run the disk check on, and choose Properties.

2. Select the Tools tab. Under the “Error checking” section, click on the Check button.

3. Click on Scan drive button to run the disk check.

   If your selected drive is a system partition that is being used, Windows will let you schedule a disk check on the next restart.

Method 2: Run Disk Check Using the Chkdsk Command Line

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt.

   • In Windows 10/8, simply press the Windows key + X and select “Command Prompt (Admin)“.
   • In Windows 7, click on Start, navigate to Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
2. You can run the chkdsk command to run the disk check. Replace C: with the letter of the drive you’d like to run a disk check.

   chkdsk /f /r C:

   The /f flag tells windows to fix any issues and the /r flag tells it to do a deep scan. It locates bad sectors and recovers whatever information is readable.

Method 3: Run Disk Check By Setting The Dirty Bit

Sometimes if your PC is not properly shut down or crashed, a dirty flag is set on the disk to force disk check to be run at the next reboot. Here is a simple way to set a dirty bit for your drive manually:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt.
2. Type the following command and press Enter. Replace C: with the letter of the drive you want to set as dirty.
   fsutil.exe dirty set C:

3. Reboot your computer and Windows will force a disk check on your specified drive.