System Cooling Policy allows you to specify the cooling mode you want to use for your Windows-based computer, for which you have two options: Active and Passive.

• The Active setting increases fan speed before slowing the processor to main cooling. You’ll get the best performance by leaving the System Cooling Policy set to Active.
• The Passive setting slows the processor before increasing fan speed. If the fan is always running and you would like to make it quieter, you can choose to opt for the passive mode.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change the system cooling policy in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Change System Cooling Policy in Windows 10 / 8 / 7?

1. Open the Control Panel in Large icons view. Click Power Options.

2. In the right pane, for the power plan that you have selected to use, click Change plan settings.

3. Click Change advanced power settings.

4. Click the link labeled Change settings that are currently unavailable.

5. In the Power Options dialog box, expand Processor power management and you’ll see the System cooling policy setting. Set the System cooling policy to Active or Passive, then click OK.

If the System Cooling Policy setting is not showing in the Power Options dialog box, you can restore it using a registry hack: Fix: System Cooling Policy Missing in Power Options.

Is there any way to run a program on Windows 10 logon screen? How do I take a screenshot of Windows login screen? You might want to start some programs (e.g. Command Prompt) before a user logs on to the system. In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple way to run desired app from Windows 10 / 8 / 7 login screen.

How to Run Any App from Windows Login Screen?

1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options
2. In the left pane, right-click on Image File Execution Options and then choose New -> Key.

3. Name the new key utilman.exe, and then select it. Right-click on the empty space in the right pane, and then select New -> String.

4. Name the new value Debugger. Double-click Debugger to modify. In the Value data field, type the path of the app you want to run on Windows logon screen. For example, If you want to run Snipping Tool on login screen, set Debugger value as C:\Windows\System32\SnippingTool.exe.

5. Now sign out or restart your computer. When you get to Windows login screen, click the Ease of Access icon. It should open the app that you have set in registry.

   In my example, the Snipping Tool is launched. I can use it to take full screenshot of the login screen.

This registry trick makes it easier to open any app on Windows login screen. If you want to restore the functions of the Ease of Access button, just delete the utilman.exe registry key and you’re done.

How can I export / backup the passwords saved in Microsoft Edge? Many people save the passwords for different websites so that they don’t have to enter the passwords again and again, but what if you forgot the password?

Microsoft Edge stores all passwords in Windows Vault (also known as Credential Manger). In Windows 10, you can easily find Windows Vault files by accessing the following locations:

• C:\Users\user_profile_name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Vault
• C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Vault
• C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Vault

All web credentials are stored in an encrypted form and Microsoft Edge doesn’t provide an option to view the saved passwords. In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple way to view & export Microsoft Edge saved passwords using a reliable tool – Password Recovery Bundle.

How to View or Export Edge Saved Passwords in Windows 10?

1. To get started, click here to download Password Recovery Bundle. Once the download process is complete, double-click the setup file to install it on your Windows 10 computer.
2. Run the Password Recovery Bundle program. Click the Start Recovery button, and then select “Internet Explorer (Edge) Password” option from the drop-down list.

3. It will decrypt the encrypted Vault files, and show you all saved passwords in both Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. Select all passwords and paste them into a text file for safe keeping.

The most painful part of a computer crash is often the loss of data. It’s an important best practice to keep a backup of Edge saved passwords, especially if you use Microsoft Edge as your primary browser.

How to delete a drive letter for a device that is no longer connected? Look for a way to hide all drive letters in Windows Explorer? This tutorial shows you how to hide or remove drive letters in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Part 1: Hide Drive Letters

1. Open File Explorer, click the View tab from the ribbon toolbar and then click Options.

2. In the Folder Options window, select the View tab. Under the Advanced settings, uncheck the “Show drive letters” option and click OK.

3. You’ll find the drive letters of all your partitions are disappeared.

   If you want to restore the drive letters, just repeat the above steps and check the “Show drive letters” option.

Part 2: Remove Drive Letter for Windows Partition

This method allows you to remove / delete drive letter that was assigned to your partition. The partition will be invisible to all your Windows accounts and will continue to exist with its content intact.

1. First, you need to open the Disk Management tool. In Windows 10/8, just press Windows key + X and select Disk Management. If you’re using Windows 7, right-click My Computer icon on your desktop and select Manage, you can then find Disk Management in the left pane.
2. Right-click the partition you want to remove drive letter, then select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

3. In the resulting dialog box, click Remove.

4. You are asked to confirm the removal of the drive letter. Click Yes.

5. The partition is now hidden and it is no longer accessible from the operating system you are currently using. If you assign a drive letter to that partition later, the partition will be visible again and all your files remain intact.

How do I know if I have a Microsoft account in Windows 10? In Windows 10/8, users are encouraged to use a Microsoft account (Hotmail, Live, Outlook.com, etc) to log into the system, but you can continue using a traditional local account. It’s a little confusing and you may not know which type of Windows account you have. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to find if you use a local account or a Microsoft account in Windows 10 / 8.

Method 1: Find If You Use Local or Microsoft Account from PC Settings

To get started, press Windows logo key + I simultaneously to open the Settings app. Click Accounts and then select the Your info tab in the left pane.

If you are logged in as a local account, you’ll see the text label Local Account under your account name (see the screenshot below). There is also an option underneath which allows you to switch it to a Microsoft account.

If you are logged in as a Microsoft account, you’ll see a Microsoft email address under your account name (see the screenshot below). There is also an option underneath which allows you to switch it to a local account.

Method 2: Find If You Use Local or Microsoft Account from Windows Login Screen

Couldn’t sign into Windows 10 / 8? You can also find if your account is a local account or a Microsoft account. When booting to Windows sign-in screen, type an incorrect password and press Enter.

If your selected user is a local account, you’ll get a failure message that says “The password is incorrect. Try again.”

If your selected user is a Microsoft account, you’ll see the following error message that prompts you to reset password online via Microsoft website:

“That password is incorrect. Make sure you’re using the password for your Microsoft account. You can always reset it at account.live.com/password/reset.”

That’s all!

How can I get a list of users currently logged on? If you’re wondering how to find out how many users are currently logged into your Windows 10 computer, there are several ways to view who’s logged on. In this tutorial we’ll explain 2 methods to get a list of currently logged in users in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: See Currently Logged in Users Using Query Command

1. Press the Windows logo key + R simultaneously to open the Run box. Type cmd and press Enter.
2. When the Command Prompt window opens, type query user and press Enter. It will list all users that are currently logged on your computer.

Method 2: See Currently Logged in Users Using Task Manager

1. Right-click on the taskbar and select Task Manager to launch Task Manager. If you’re using Windows 10/8, you might need to click the More details button at the bottom to see active processes.
2. Click the Users tab at the top of Task Manager, you can see a list of currently logged in users and their status.

Is there a way to check battery health in Windows 10? How to troubleshoot laptop battery drain issues? There is a hidden tool available in Windows 10/8 that can examine your laptop’s battery usage / health, and give you a detailed report for energy efficiency and battery life problems.

Part 1: Generate a Battery Report

1. Press the Windows key + X to open the Power User menu, then select the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option.
2. At the elevated Command Prompt, type the following command line and press Enter:
   powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery_report.html"

3. It will generate a report file named battery_report.html under the root path of C: drive. Double-click on it to review the report in your default browser e.g. Microsoft Edge, Chrome or Firefox.
4. The most important details in the battery report are the Design Capacity, Full Charge Capacity and Battery capacity history. If you have a new laptop or tablet, it may actually have a higher current Full Charge Capacity than its Design Capacity. That number will decrease over time as the battery chemistry changes.

5. Under the “Battery capacity history” section, you can see how your battery’s full charge capacity gradually decreased over time compared to its design capacity. If you see a sudden drop, there’s probably a problem with your battery.

Part 2: Generate a Power Efficiency Diagnostic Report

The Power Efficiency Diagnostics will analyze your system for common energy efficiency and battery life problems, and report any errors, warnings, and informational details found.

1. Press the Windows key + X to open the Power User menu, then select the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option.
2. At the elevated Command Prompt, type the following command line and press Enter:
   powercfg /energy /output "C:\energy_report.html"

3. The program will analyze your computer for 60 seconds then produce an HTML report in the root path of C: drive. When it’s done tracing, you’ll see a generated report named engery-report.html, which shows you everything that’s going on with your power configuration, and gives you some ideas as to what prevents your laptop from automatically entering sleep.

Is there a way to lock the screen saver settings so they cannot be changed by others? If you share your computer with other family members or friends, you might want to lock out your favorite screensaver so that nobody will be able to change it. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to prevent users from changing screen saver in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Note: Preventing users from changing screen saver doesn’t turn off or prevent the current screen saver from running. If you want to prevent screen saver changes for an individual user, just log on as that user and perform the following instructions.

Method 1: Prevent Users from Changing Screen Saver Using Group Policy

1. Press the Windows key + R at the same time to open the Run command box. Type gpedit.msc and hit Enter.
2. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor. Navigate to: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization, and then double-click on the Prevent changing screen saver setting on the right pane.

3. In the properties window that opens, choose the Enabled option and then click OK. This change will take effect immediately, so you don’t need to restart your computer.

4. Now, if you try to change the screen saver settings, you’ll see an error message that says “Your System Administrator has disabled launching of the the Display Settings Control Panel“.

Method 2: Prevent Users from Changing Screen Saver Using Registry Hack

If you have the Home edition of Windows 10/8/7, Local Group Policy Editor is not available and you have to use the following registry hack to prevent users from changing screen saver.

1. Press the Windows key + R at the same time to open the Run command box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

   If the System key doesn’t exist, you’ll need to create one. Right-click the Policies key and choose New -> Key. Name the new key System.

3. Once the System key is selected in the left pane, right-click the empty space in the right pane and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

4. Name the new value NoDispScrSavPage.

5. Double-click on NoDispScrSavPage. In the properties window that opens, change the value from 0 to 1 in the “Value data” box and then click OK.

6. Close Registry Editor. The next time other users try to change the screen saver, the action will be denied by the system. To reverse the change later, just simply delete the NoDispScrSavPage value and you’re done.

Windows Taskbar has an auto-hide feature that can hide the taskbar when not in use. When this feature is turned on, the taskbar disappears whenever you click elsewhere, or whenever your cursor moves away from it. To make the taskbar appear again, you have to move your cursor to the bottom of the screen or press Windows + T keyboard shortcut. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to automatically hide the taskbar in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Part 1: Auto Hide Taskbar in Windows 10

Right-click a blank spot on the taskbar, and then click Settings from the context menu.

This will open the Taskbar panel in the Settings app. You’ll see two options: Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode, and Automatically hide the taskbar in tablet mode. Toggle one or both of these options.

Part 2: Auto Hide Taskbar in Windows 8 and Windows 7

Right-click a blank spot on the taskbar, and then select Properties in the context menu.

This will open the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” window. Under the Taskbar tab, check the “Auto-hide the taskbar” option and click Apply.

That’s it!

In Windows 10/8/7, you can create a shortcut by right-clicking on an existing folder or file, and then selecting “Send To” -> “Desktop (Create shortcut)“. But this will automatically append the “- Shortcut” text to the end of the shortcut’s filename. If you want to keep the filename short, here’s a registry trick to stop Windows from adding “-Shortcut” text when creating shortcuts.

Tips: If you want to remove shortcut icon from your desktop shortcuts, please check out this tutorial: How to Remove Shortcut Arrow from Desktop Icons in Windows 10 / 8 /7.

How to Stop Windows from Adding “- Shortcut” Text When Creating Shortcuts?

1. To get started, press the Windows key + R at the same time to open the Run dialog box. Type regedit and press Enter.

2. Once the Registry Editor loads, navigate to the following location in the left pane:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
3. On the right-hand side, double-click on the link value to modify. If you don’t see that value, right-click on empty space and select New -> Binary Value, then name the new value link.

4. In the Value data box, replace the current value with 00 00 00 00 and click OK. Note that the current value you see will vary based on the specific version of Windows you’re running.

5. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer (a logoff is not sufficient to make the registry changes take effect). This time, you’ll see that your new shortcut is created without the “-Shortcut” text appended to the end.

“This app is turned off by group policy.” This is the message I am getting when I am trying to access Windows Defender. How can I sort out this issue?

When your computer infected by any malware or virus, this may cause Windows Defender to be turned off. It’s also possible that Windows Defender gets automatically disabled after installing anti-virus software. In such situation, you’ll get the following error message when you open Windows Defender:

“This app is turned off by group policy. To allow this app to run, contact your security administrator to enable the program via group policy”

In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to fix the issue “Windows Defender is turned off by group policy” by enabling Windows Defender again in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Fix “Windows Defender is Turned off by Group Policy” Using Group Policy

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

2. When the Local Group Policy Editor window appears, navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender.
3. Now locate the Turn off Windows Defender setting in the right pane, and double-click on it to modify.

4. In order to turn on Windows Defender, select Disabled and click OK.

   Reboot your computer. The next time you try to open Windows Defender and you should no longer get “This app is turned off by group policy” message.

Method 2: Fix “Windows Defender is Turned off by Group Policy” Using Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows key + R together to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.

2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the key below:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender
3. Right-click on the DisableAntiSpyware value in the right pane, and then select Delete.

4. Close Registry Editor and reboot your PC to take effect. Now you won’t receive the error “This app is turned off by group policy” when you try to launch Windows Defender.

Could I log in to Windows without a password? How can I disable password at login screen? Looking for a way to turn off Windows password because you’ve forgotten it? In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 different ways to turn off Windows 10 / 8 / 7 password.

• Turn Off Windows Password by Deleting the Password
• Turn Off Windows Password by Enabling Automatic Logon
• Turn Off Windows Password When You’re Locked Out of Computer

Option 1: Turn Off Windows Password by Deleting the Password

Right-click on My Computer shortcut on your desktop. If you’re running Windows 10, right-click This PC shortcut in the left navigation pane of File Explorer. Next choose Manage from the context menu.

When the Computer Management window appears, navigate to Local Users and Groups -> Users. Right-click your local account and select Set Password. When get the warning prompt, click on Proceed to continue.

Type the new password and confirm. Click OK to remove the existing password for your Windows account.

Option 2: Turn Off Windows Password by Enabling Automatic Logon

This method allows you to disable Windows login screen without changing or deleting your password. After enabling automatic logon, Windows will automatically sign into your account every time you turn on or restart your computer. Here’s how:

Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type netplwiz and press Enter.

Uncheck the box “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer“, and then select your Windows account from the list. Click OK.

Type your current password twice and click OK.

From now on, Windows will automatically log into your selected account with the password you provided.

Option 3: Turn Off Windows Password When You’re Locked Out of Computer

If you have physical access to a machine then there is nothing to prevent you from gaining administrative access. When you forgot your Windows administrator password or need to access a locked or disabled account, you can take use of PCUnlocker to log back in to your computer without reinstalling Windows.

To get started, you need to prepare a PCUnlocker Live CD (or USB) on another PC you have access to. Download the ISO image of PCUnlocker and burn it to a blank CD (or USB thumb drive) using ISO2Disc.

Boot your locked computer from PCUnlocker Live CD (or USB). Once you’re at the PCUnlocker screen, select one of your local accounts and click on Reset Password button.

When the Change Password dialog box opens, just leave the password field empty and click OK. This will turn off Windows password completely.

Reboot your computer and you can then sign into Windows account without being prompted for a password.

How to disable a certain global shortcut key that conflicts with an application-specific hotkey? Sometimes or even frequently though, you may activate a hotkey accidentally? In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple way to disable specific Windows key shortcut in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Disable Specific Windows Key Shortcut in Windows?

1. Press the Windows logo key + R combination to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.

2. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Right-click on the Advanced key in the left pane, and then select New -> String Value from the context menu.

4. Name it DisabledHotkeys, and set its value data to the characters of hotkeys you want to disable.

   For example, set it to S. This will disable Win + S, Win + Shift + S, and other shortcuts that using Windows key and the disabled characters you specified.
   Set it to SA to disable both Win + S and Win + A hotkeys.
   And so on.

5. Reboot your computer and the hotkeys you specified will become disabled. If you want to restore the original hotkeys to work, just delete the DisabledHotkeys value and you’re done.

Password reset disk is a special disk that could be used to reset your Windows password if you forget it. Just go to Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts, you can click the “Create a password reset disk” link on the left pane to create such a disk.

A password reset disk contains a single file named userkey.psw, which is an encrypted backup version of your password. You can only make a password reset disk while you still know your password. The process of creating a password reset disk is just like writing down your password on a piece of paper. So, if you’ve already forgotten your password, it’s too late to create a password reset disk. Still have questions about password reset disk? Please check out this article: FAQs for Password Reset Disk in Windows.

What to do if you forget Windows password but you don’t have a password reset disk? This happens so many times because we only aware that a password reset disk must be created before we forget the password. Fortunately, there are several good alternatives to password reset disk. PCUnlocker is the best alternative that could hep you reset forgotten Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP password instantly.

When you’re locked out of your own computer, just use an alternative PC to download PCUnlocker and create a bootable CD/USB drive. Next, boot your locked PC from CD/USB and it allows you to bypass & reset lost admin password easily.

How to turn off Narrator permanently or disable Narrator shortcut key in Windows? When you accidentally press the Windows + Enter (or Windows + Ctrl + Enter in Windows 10) hotkey, this will open up the built-in Narrator app. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 easy methods to turn off / disable Narrator in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Method 1: Disable Narrator Shortcut Key

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

2. When the Registry Editor opens up, navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Narrator\NoRoam

   Double-click the WinEnterLaunchEnabled value in the right pane.

3. When the Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value dialog box opens, type 0 in the Value data field and click OK.

4. Now you’ve successfully disabled Narrator shortcut key. Try to press the Windows + Enter or Windows + Ctrl + Enter shortcut, it won’t start Windows Narrator any longer.

After disabling Narrator hotkey, you can still open Windows Narrator using other methods descried in this tutorial. If you want to turn off Narrator permanently, proceed to the next method.

Method 2: Turn Off Narrator Permanently

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the directory C:\Windows\System32.
2. The Narrator.exe file is protected by system, and you need to take ownership of it before making any changes. If you don’t know how to change ownership, you can take use of the freeware TakeOwnershipPro.

3. Right-click on the Narrator.exe file and then select Properties from the context menu.
4. When the Properties window opens, choose the Security tab and click the Edit button to change permissions.

5. Choose your own user from the list, and then deny the Read & Execute and Read permissions and click OK.

6. Now you’ve turned off Narrator on your Windows computer.

How to change what power button does in Windows 10? Every desktop/laptop computer has a hardware power button without any exception whatsoever. By default, pressing the power button will put your computer to shut down, but in Windows 10/8 it just puts your PC into sleep. To shut down a computer running Windows 10/8, you might have to press the power button for long duration.

This tutorial shows you a simple way to change the default action of the hardware power button so that when it is pressed, Windows will go into sleep, hibernate, shut down, or even do nothing.

How to Change Power Button Action in Windows 10 / 8 / 7?

1. Open the Control Panel in Large icons view, and then click Power Options.

2. From the Power Options window, click the Choose what the power button does link from the left pane.

3. Click on the Change settings that are currently unavailable link.

4. You should see two drop-down menus to configure the default action when you press the power button. One is for when the laptop’s running on battery power, the other for when it’s plugged in.

   Select the action you want (Do nothing, Sleep, Hibernate, Shut down or Turn off the display), and click Save changes.

5. This change will take effect immediately. Press the hardware power button and it should now function as you expect. That’s it!

How can I transfer old sticky notes to a new computer? Looking for a way to import the legacy sticky notes into the new Sticky Notes application? This tutorial will show you how to backup and restore Sticky Notes to any computer running Windows 10, 8 or 7.

Part 1: Backup Sticky Notes

1. Before get started, you need to close the Sticky Notes application if it’s running.
2. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Copy and paste one of the following path and press Enter.
   • In Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 version 1511 and earlier:
     %AppData%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
   • In Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Build 1607) or later:
     %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState

3. Now, Windows Explorer will open the location where your sticky notes are stored. Just copy StickyNotes.snt or plum.sqlite to a backup location of your choice.

Part 2: Restore Sticky Notes

If you need to restore your notes to another computer for whatever reason, you can easily copy the same file you backed up earlier to the same directory on that computer. Before you copy the file, make sure the Stick Notes app isn’t running.

Part 3: Import Old Sticky Notes (StickyNotes.snt) into Windows 10 Anniversary Update or Later

1. First of all, close Sticky Notes application. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Copy and paste the following path and press Enter.
   %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState
2. This will open the LocalState folder in File Explorer.

3. From there create a new folder named Legacy. Copy and paste the backed up StickyNotes.snt file into the Legacy folder, and rename it to ThresholdNotes.snt.

4. Start the Sticky Notes app. It reads the legacy .snt file and transfers the notes to the database file plum.sqlite automatically.

Control Panel is the centralized configuration area in Windows. It contains a collection of applets (System Properties, Administrative Tools, Add/Remove Programs, Date/Time, etc) that let you make changes to various settings of your system. If you share a computer with others, you may not want users to access certain applets in Control Panel.

In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to hide specific Control Panel items (applets) and stop others from changing certain settings in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Hide Specific Control Panel Items in Windows 10 / 8 / 7?

1. After logging on, open the Local Group Policy Editor by pressing Windows + R keys and then typing gpedit.msc in the Run box.

2. In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel. Double-click Hide specified Control Panel items in the right pane.

3. Select Enable and then click the Show button.

4. Enter the canonical name of the Control Panel item you want to hide, and click OK. For instance, if you want to restrict users from accessing Administrative Tools, enter Microsoft.AdministrativeTools in the Show Contents dialog.

   How to find out the canonical name of a Control Panel applet? Please check the list below.

5. Close the Local Group Policy Editor and reboot your computer. Your specified item /applet will not show up in the Control Panel any longer.

Is it possible to create a hidden account in our home computer? If you share a computer, you might not want everyone who uses your PC to see your username at the login screen. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 options to create a hidden administrator account in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 from the Command Prompt.

Option 1: Create a Hidden & Disabled Administrator Account

Every Windows installation has a set of predefined accounts, including the built-in Administrator account. By default, the built-in Administrator account is disabled so it does not appear on the login screen at startup. Here’s how you can create a similar hidden administrator account from Command Prompt:

1. Open the Command Prompt with administrative rights.
2. Copy and paste the code below in the Command Prompt. Replace 123 with your own password and pcunlocker with your administrator name.

   net user pcunlocker 123 /add
net localgroup Administrators pcunlocker /add
net user pcunlocker /active:no

3. Once you press Enter, a new administrator account will be created but it is set to be disabled. A disabled user will not show up at Windows login screen until you enable it.

If you want to unhide a disabled account, run the following command at Command Prompt:

net user pcunlocker /active:yes

Option 2: Create a Hidden & Enabled Administrator Account

1. Open the Command Prompt with administrative rights.
2. Copy and paste the following code in the Command Prompt. Replace 123 with your own password and pcunlocker with your administrator name.

   net user pcunlocker 123 /add
net localgroup Administrators pcunlocker /add
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\Userlist" /v pcunlocker /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

3. This will create a hidden administrator account which is invisible in both your Windows login screen and Fast User Switch menu, though you’ll still be able to manually login via remote desktop.

This method is useful if you want to create a hidden account for remote access, but don’t let it show up on the login screen. If you want to unhide such a hidden account, just run this command at Command Prompt:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\Userlist" /v pcunlocker /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

That’s it!

How can I determine if my disk is formatted as GPT or MBR? Since the release of Windows 8, GPT partition style is becoming a popular alternative as newer computers are shipping with UEFI firmware, and Windows 10/8 can only boot from GPT disk on UEFI-based computers. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to find out where your disk uses MBR or GPT partition style in Windows.

Method 1: Check If Your Disk Is MBR or GPT Using Disk Management Tool

1. Press Windows key + X on your keyboard, and then select Computer Management from the pop-up menu.

2. Click on Disk Management, which appears in the left-hand side under the heading Storage. Right-click on the hard drive available in the center of the window, then select Properties.

3. This will bring up the Device Properties window. Click the Volumes tab and you’ll see if the partition style of your disk is GUID Partition Table (GPT) or Master Boot Record (MBR).

Method 2: Check If Your Disk Is MBR or GPT Using Command Prompt

1. Open the Command Prompt with administrative rights.
2. At the Command Prompt, type following commands one by one, pressing Enter after each.
   diskpart
list disk

3. It will list all disks that are connected to your PC. If a disk uses GPT, you’ll see an asterisk character (*) under the Gpt column. As you can see in the screenshot above, disk 0 is a GPT disk while disk 1 is a MBR disk.

That’s it!