ClickLock is a built-in feature in Windows that lets you drag and drop files without the need of holding down the mouse button. This feature comes to handy if you have trouble holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse at the same time. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to enable ClickLock on Windows 10 / 8 / 7 to simplify drag & drop with touchpad.

If you use a touchpad (or trackpad) on your laptop, the drag-and-drop operation requires you to use both your hands on touchpad to click and drag. After turning on ClickLock, put the cursor on your selected files and hold down the left click for a while, then start moving your cursor to drag and click again to drop.

How to Enable ClickLock on Windows 10 / 8 / 7?

1. Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run window. Type main.cpl and press Enter to open the Mouse Properties dialog.

2. In the Buttons tab, check the “Turn on ClickLock” option and then click the Settings button.

3. The popup window allows you to adjust how long you need to hold down the left touchpad button before your click is locked.

4. Once you have done this, click OK and then Apply.

When your computer comes with more than one network adapter (such as Ethernet and Wi-Fi), Windows will use priorities to decide which adapter to use. If both Ethernet and Wi-Fi are connected at the same time, we should give priority to LAN over WI-FI as the wired connection is faster. In this tutorial we’ll show you the simple way to change priority of wired / wireless network adapter in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Change Network Adapter Priority in the Adapter and Binding tab

If you’re running Windows 8 / 7, you can adjust the priority of wired / wireless network adapter from the “Adapter and Binding” tab. Follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run command, type ncpa.cpl and hit Enter to open the Network Connections window.
2. You should see a list of network adapters. Press the Alt button (if the menu bar is not already visible) and click on the Advanced menu, and then choose Advanced Settings.

3. Click the Adapters and Bindings tab. Under Connections, you’ll notice that “Local Area Connection 2” has the highest priority. You can use the up or down arrow button on the right side to change the priority.

4. Click OK. Traffic will go over the network adapter with the highest priority first (when connected) when all adapters are connected.

However, the “Adapter and Binding” tab was already removed in Windows 10, and you have to use PowerShell cmdlet to change the network adapter priority.

Method 2: Change Network Adapter Priority Using Windows PowerShell

By default, Windows uses the interface metric to determine which network adapter has the highest priority. Adapters with a lower metric number are prioritized over adapters that have a higher number. Here’s how to change network adapter priority using Windows PowerShell:

1. Open Windows PowerShell as administrator. Type the following command and press Enter.
   Get-NetIPInterface

   The ifIndex column lists a unique number of each adapter, while the InterfaceMetric column lists the priority of the adapter. As you can see from the screenshot above, Wi-Fi has a higher connection priority over Ethernet.

2. Now, you can use the following command to modify the priority for Ethernet.
   Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex "ifIndex" -InterfaceMetric "InterfaceMetric"

   In my example, I want to assign higher priority to Ethernet over Wi-Fi, so set its metric to a number smaller than 10 (Wi-Fi’s metric number).

3. Close the elevated PowerShell window and you’re done!

How can I change the screen orientation back to normal when it appears sideways or upside down? Is there a keyboard shortcut to turn Windows 10 screen 90 degrees or 180 degrees? In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 simple ways to rotate your computer’s screen in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Rotate Your Screen in Windows with Keyboard Shortcut

While hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys, pressing the Left, Right, or Down arrow key could rotate the screen a different direction. To restore the screen back to its normal upright rotation, just press Ctrl + Alt + the Up arrow.

Method 2: Rotate Your Screen via Windows Display Settings

Right-click on the desktop and choose “Display settings“. If you’re running Windows 7, select the “Screen Resolution” option instead.

Click the Orientation drop-down menu, and then choose your preferred screen orientation — Landscape, Portrait, Landscape (flipped), or Portrait (flipped).

A confirmation message will let you decide whether to use the changed orientation or revert back to the current one.

Method 3: Rotate Your Screen in Windows with Intel / AMD Graphics

If your computer comes with have Intel graphics cards, right-click on your desktop and select Graphic Option, then navigate to Rotation and you can change the rotation of the display by 90, 180, and 270 degrees. Note: the “Rotate to 0 degrees” option will get your screen orientation back to normal.

If you have an AMD graphics card, right-click on the desktop and select “Catalyst Control Center“. You can also find the similar option to rotate the display on your PC or laptop. That’s it!

Is there a way to block users from deleting the printers in a public computer? This tutorial will show you how to use group policy or registry trick to prevent users from removing local and network printers in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Use GPO to Prevent Users from Removing Printers

1. Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run dialog box, type in gpedit.msc and press Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2. Navigate to User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Control Panel –> Printers, and then double-click “Prevent deletion of printers” from the right pane.

3. Select Enabled and click OK.

4. If a user tries to delete any printers from your computer, a message will appear saying “This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator“.

Method 2: Use Registry Editor to Prevent Users from Removing Printers

If you have the standard or home edition of Windows, you can modify the registry instead to prevent the deletion of existing printers on your computer.

1. Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run dialog box, type in regedit and press Enter. This will open the Registry Editor.

2. Go to the following registry location:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

   Double-click the DWORD entry “NoDeletePrinter” from the right panel, change the Value Data field to 1, then click OK.

3. Now close the Registry Editor and reboot your computer. If you don’t want to prevent users from deleting printers any longer, just change the NoDeletePrinter value to 0 and you’re done!

A power plan lets you customize how long it takes your computer to turn off monitor / hard drive, or go into sleep after your computer is idle. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to create a power plan in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 to customize how your computer uses power.

How to Create a Power Plan in Windows 10 / 8 / 7?

1. Press the Windows key + R to bring up the Run dialog, type powercfg.cpl and press Enter to open the Power Options window.

2. Click the “Create a power plan” link in the left navigational menu.

3. Select an existing power plan as the base for your new plan, type in a plan name you want and click Next.

4. Choose how long before your monitor turns off and how long before your computer goes to sleep. You can either set a certain amount of time, or set it to never. Finally click on Create.

5. When you come back to the Power Options window, you can see that new power plan is automatically set as active.

That’s it!

How do I delete a power plan that I no longer need? Windows allows you to use the built-in power plans (Balanced, Power Saver, and High Performance) or create a new power plan from scratch. This tutorial will show you 2 methods to delete custom or built-in power plan in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Delete Custom Power Plan Using Control Panel

1. Press the Windows and R keys together to open the Run dialog box. Type powercfg.cpl and press Enter to access one of the Control Panel applets – Power Options.

2. To delete a custom power plan, you first have to choose another power plan as the active one. Then click on the link “Change plan settings” next to the custom power plan you want to delete.

3. In the next window, click on Delete this plan link at the bottom.

4. Click OK to confirm the operation.

5. After deleting the power plan, it will disappear from the Power Options window.

Method 2: Delete Custom or Built-in Power Plan Using Command Prompt

In addition to deleting custom power plan, this method also allows you to delete built-in power plans in Windows 10 / 8 / 7. Follow these steps:

1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator. Run the powercfg /list command and it will list all existing power plans in your system along with their GUIDs.

   If the power plan you want to delete is active, then you have to set another plan as active by running this command:
   powercfg -setactive GUID

2. Now, you can delete the desired power plan using the following command.
   powercfg -delete GUID

3. When it’s done, the selected power plan is deleted and you cannot use it anymore.

How can I get a list of installed certificates on Windows? Is there a way to check if my certificate has the private key attached? In this tutorial we’ll show you easy ways to view all certificates installed on your Windows 10 / 8 / 7 computer, so you can check the certificate status, export, import, delete or request new certificates.

Method 1: View Installed Certificates for Current User

1. Press the Windows key + R to bring up the Run command, type certmgr.msc and press Enter.

2. When the Certificate Manager console opens, expand any certificates folder on the left. In the right pane, you’ll see details about your certificates. Right-click on them and you can export or delete it.

   By default, the EFS certificate could be found under the “Personal” -> “Certificates” folder. Double-click on the EFS certificate and you can know if it has the private key attached. Without the private key, you’re unable to decrypt your EFS files.

Method 2: View Installed Certificates for Local Computer

1. Press the Windows key + R to bring up the Run command, type mmc and press Enter to open Microsoft Management Console.

2. Click the File menu and then select Add/Remove Snap-in.

3. Select Certificates from the list of snap-ins, and click Add.

4. In the next dialog box, select Computer account and click Next.

5. Select Local computer and click Finish.

6. Now you’ll back at the “Add or Remove Snap-ins” window, just click OK.

7. When you open any certificates folder, you will see that the certificates are displayed in the right pane.

A user profile is a set of files and folders to store all the personal preferences, app settings, desktop information and other data. If your user profile is corrupted, it can cause unexpected issue with your Windows account, or even lock yourself out of the computer. When you’re unable to fix it, you can delete the user profile and start over.

In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple ways to delete user profile to fix problematic account in Windows 10 / 8 / 7. After your user profile is deleted, Windows will automatically create a new profile the next time you log in to the relevant account.

Note: You’re unable to delete the user profile of a Windows account you’re currently logged into. Make sure you sign into another admin account before getting started.

Method 1: Delete User Profile in Advanced System Properties

1. Press the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog. Type sysdm.cpl and press Enter.

2. In the System Properties window, select the Advanced tab and click on the Settings button under User Profiles.

3. Select the user profile of the problematic Windows account, and click on Delete.

   If the Delete button is greyed out, it’s possible that you’re logged into the user profile you wish to delete. To proceed, you have to log in as another admin account.

4. Click Yes to confirm. The selected user profile will be deleted in a minute or two.

Method 2: Delete User Profile Manually

1. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

   In the left pane, you will see a list of SID keys for all user profiles on your computer. Click each SID key, and then check the ProfileImagePath entry in the right pane.

2. Once you find the SID key which points to the user profile you want to remove, right-click it and select Delete.

3. Now, open Windows Explorer and browse to the folder C:\Users. Just delete the corresponding user profile folder, or rename it to something else if you don’t want to lose documents and files on the desktop.

4. The next time you sign into the account associated with the deleted profile, Windows will set up a new user profile just as you first time turn on your brand new computer.

The Phone Dialer is a built-in app in Windows that lets you use a modem to dial people on the Internet. By default Phone Dialer is not added to the Start Menu and you’re unable to access it easily. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 quick ways to open Phone Dialer on Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Open Windows Phone Dialer from the Run Command

Press the Windows key + R together to open the Run command, type dialer and press Enter. This will launch Windows Phone Dialer immediately.

Of course, you can also open Phone Dialer by running the above command at Command Prompt or PowerShell.

Method 2: Open Windows Phone Dialer via Search

In Windows 10, type dialer into the Cortana Search box next to the Start button, and you can launch the Phone Dialer utility from the result.

If you’re running Windows 8 or Windows 7, just click the Start button and type dialer in the search box to access Phone Dialer.

Method 3: Create a Desktop Shortcut to Open Phone Dialer

Right-click any blank place on the Desktop, and choose New -> Shortcut.

Type the following in the box marked Type the location of the item, and click Next.
%windir%\System32\dialer.exe

Give the shortcut a name, and click Finish.

A new shortcut will appear on your desktop. You can double-click it to open Windows Phone Dialer every time you need to access it.

How can I force the server to log off idle RDP session automatically? An idle or inactive session will also consume precious CPU resources and memory. When the number of concurrent connections has reached the limit, your best bet is to kick out idle users. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to use group policy to configure Windows to automatically log off idle remote desktop sessions.

Automatically Log off Idle Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor and browse to:
   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Session Time Limits

   In the right panel, double-click the “Set time limit for active but idle Remote Desktop Services sessions” policy.

2. Change it to Enabled, then set the desired amount of time in the drop-down list right below. Click Apply and then OK. Reboot your computer to put the policy into effect.

3. When any RDP user is idle for the group policy specified amount of time, they will receive the following warning:
   

   “Session has been idle over its time limit. It will be disconnected in 2 minutes. Press any key now to continue session.”

   You have the chance to click OK to extend the session. Otherwise, the idle session will log off automatically two minutes later.

That’s it!

Is it possible to run an elevated Command Prompt from standard account? Though Standard account has limited privileges as opposed to administrator account, most people still like to use it for everyday computer use in order to lower the risk of being infected with malware. When an administrative task needs to be performed, they would do it from an elevated Command Prompt. In this tutorial we’ll show you different ways to open elevated Command Prompt from standard user in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Open Elevated Command Prompt from Standard User via Run or Command Line

Use the Windows key + R keyboard combination to open the Run dialog box. Type the following and press Enter.
powershell -Command "Start-Process cmd -Verb RunAs

Or run the above command in a Command Prompt window that has already been opened with normal privileges.

A pop-up window will appear asking to enter your administrator password.

Once you’ve entered the correct password and click Yes. It will run an elevated Command Prompt immediately.

In addition, the command “runas /user:Administrator cmd” can also let you run Command Prompt using an administrator profile, but note that the cmd is still running without elevated privileges.

Method 2: Open Elevated Command Prompt from Standard User via Windows Search

Click on the Start button and then type “cmd” in the search box that appears. Right-click on the Command Prompt in the result and select “Run as administrator“.

You will see a UAC pop-up window asking you to type the administrator password before opening up the elevated Command Prompt.

Method 3: Open Elevated Command Prompt from Standard User via Start Menu

Click on the Start button. In the Start Menu, scroll down to the “Windows System” folder and expand it. There you can right-click on the Command Prompt shortcut, and select More -> Run as administrator.

These are all the methods we know of running elevated Command Prompt from standard user. If you need to access elevated Command Prompt frequently, it’s a good idea to pin the Administrator Command Prompt to the Windows taskbar. That’s it!

How can I change other user password without logging in as that user? Provided you are the administrator, you have many ways to reset any Windows user password. If you try to change another user’s password from a standard account, you may receive the “access denied” error message.

Here we’re going to show you several ways to change another user’s password from standard account in Windows 10 / 8 / 7. Privilege elevation is required for this task.

Method 1: Change Another User’s Password from Control Panel

1. Open the Control Panel in Large icons view, and click on User Accounts.

2. Click on the Manage another account link as shown in the image below.

3. If you’re logged on as a standard account, a UAC prompt will ask you for the administrator password in order to gain elevated privileges.

4. Select another user that you want to change password for.

5. Click the “Change the password” option.

6. Type new password and confirm it, then click on the “Change password” button on the lower right hand side.

Method 2: Change Another User’s Password from Elevated Command Prompt

1. Click on Start, and begin typing “cmd“. You’ll see the Command Prompt appear at the top of the search results. Right-click on it and select “Run as administrator“.

2. In the UAC elevation prompt, enter your administrator password and click Yes.

3. In order to change another user’s password, type net user user_name * and press Enter. It will ask you to type a new password twice. For security purpose, the new password you typed won’t appear on the screen.

If you’re still unable to change another user’s password, follow our tips for promoting your standard account to administrator in Windows 10 / 8 / 7. That’s it!

How can I determine if my computer has TPM available? Need to check if the TPM on a Windows machine is enabled or activated? TPM (Trusted Platform Module) is a security chip that is soldered to the motherboard on most new PCs. It provides a hardware-based approach to store cryptographic keys and ensure it is tamper-free. In this tutorial we’ll show you 4 ways to find out if your Windows PC has a TPM chip, and check out TPM version and status.

Method 1: Check if Your PC has TPM Using TPM Management Tool

Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog window. Type tpm.msc into it and press Enter.

This opens the built-in utility – Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Management. If TPM is installed, you can see the manufacturer information about the TPM in the PC. In my case, the TPM version is 2.0.

If you see a “Compatible TPM cannot be found” message instead, your computer does not have a TPM or it’s turned off in the BIOS/UEFI.

Method 2: Check if Your PC has TPM Using Device Manager

Open the Device Manager and look for a node called “Security devices“. Expand it and see if it has a “Trusted Platform Module” listed.

Method 3: Check if Your PC has TPM Using Command Prompt

Open the elevated Command Prompt and run the following command:
wmic /namespace:\\root\cimv2\security\microsofttpm path win32_tpm get * /format:textvaluelist.xsl

This will let you view the current status of the TPM chip: activated or enabled. If there is no TPM installed on your computer, you’ll get the message “No Instance(s) Available“.

Method 4: Enter into UEFI/BIOS to Check if Your PC has TPM

If you’re unable to find any TPM on your PC using the above methods, it’s possible that the TPM is disabled in the UEFI/BIOS firmware. To check for this, restart your PC into the UEFI / BIOS screen. Navigate to the Security tab or the Advanced tab, look for a setting called “TPM Support“, “Security Chip“, “TPM Security” or something like that. Make sure it’s enabled.

If there is no such setting, your computer probably doesn’t have TPM chip.

How can I switch to the desktop without closing all opened windows? You can use the Windows key + D shortcut to minimize all open windows at once to view the desktop. If you want to get to the desktop with a single click instead of keyboard shortcut, you can add a “Show Desktop” shortcut icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

How to Add “Show Desktop” Shortcut to Taskbar in Windows?

Right-click an empty area on your desktop and select New -> Shortcut.

Paste the following into the location box and click Next.
explorer.exe shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}

Name this shortcut something meaningful, and click Finish.

The icon of your created shortcut should appear on the desktop. Right-click it and select Properties.

Under the Shortcut tab, click the Change Icon button at the bottom.

Select the icon highlighted in blue, and click OK.

Now, right-click on the “Show Desktop” shortcut on your desktop, and you can pin it to the taskbar or pin it to the Start Menu as a tile.

Every time you need to switch to the desktop, just click the “Show Desktop” icon in the taskbar and it will hide all your open windows without closing.

That’s it!

Control Panel exposes lots of crucial settings that you might not want somebody else to mess with. In previous post we’ve covered a way to hide specific Control Panel items using GPO, but that can’t prevent others from opening the hidden Control Panel item using Command Prompt. Here we’ll show you another way to disable specific Control Panel applets in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

How can I Disable Specific Control Panel Applets?

Each tool in Control Panel is represented by a .cpl file in the directory: C:\Windows\System32. In order to prevent anybody from accessing specific Control Panel applets, we can lock down the .cpl files with the application – Protect My Folders.

1. Download and install the Protect My Folders program. The first time you launch the program, you’ll be asked to set up a password to help prevent unauthorized users from opening it.
2. Before locking down the .cpl files, you have to modify the program settings. Click on the Settings button.

3. Under the “Exclude List” tab, select your Windows directory and click on Remove.

4. Next, open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\System32. You can search for all files with .cpl filename extensions, and double-click on each .cpl file to know if the Control Panel applet is the one you want to disable. For example, timedate.cpl is the “Date and Time” applet, appwiz.cpl is the “Programs and Features” applet, etc.

5. Just drag the .cpl files you want to restrict others from accessing, and drop them into the Protect My Folders program.

6. Close the Protect My Folders program. Now, if you try to access the blocked Control Panel applet, it won’t open up any longer.

That’s it!

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

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

Steps to Copy Full Path of Folders/Files

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the files or folders whose path you want to copy. Once you are there, hold the SHIFT key and right-click the desired folders/files, then select “Copy as path” from the context menu.

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

That’s it! Hope you found this tip useful. Let’s know your comments.

Firefox stores all your settings (including home page, bookmarks and passwords) in a profile folder that keeps your personal information separate from the Firefox program. When Firefox keeps crashing or your PC can’t boot, your information won’t be lost (at least your Firefox saved passwords could be recovered). In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to find your Firefox profile location in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Find Your Profile Folder When Firefox is Running

1. After opening Firefox, click on the Menu button (the icon with three lines) in the upper right side of the address bar, and then select Help.

2. Select Troubleshooting Information.

3. When the Troubleshooting Information tab appears, click on the Open Folder button under the Application Basics section.

4. This will launch Windows Explorer and display your current Firefox profile directory.

Method 2: Find Your Profile Folder without Opening Firefox

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run command. Type the following and press Enter.
   %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox

2. After Windows Explorer opens to that directory, double-click on the profile.ini file to open it with Notepad or other text editor.

3. You can view the relative or absolute path for all your Firefox profiles. But there is only one default profile. In my example, the default profile is located under the directory: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\einxo22v.default.

That’s it

How can I disable automatic updates in Firefox Quantum? It could be frustrating for Firefox to push the update notifications and interrupt what you’re reading.

Starting with Firefox version 63, Mozilla has removed the ability to disable updates completely. When you click on the Menu button at the top right corner and select Options.

Scroll down to the Firefox Updates section, you’re left with two options: Automatically install updates, Check for updates but let you choose to install them. The option “Never check for updates” is no longer available.

If you don’t like Firefox frequently installing the updates, here is a simple way to prevent Firefox Quantum from updating the version automatically in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Part 1: Stop Firefox Quantum from Updating Automatically

1. Open Windows Explorer and type %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profile in the address bar and press Enter.

2. The name of your default profile folder should start with eight random characters and end with .default. Just open the Firefox profile folder, then right-click on the prefs.js file and select Edit.

3. Add the following line to the file and save your changes.
   user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);

4. Now, Firefox Quantum should never download and install updates automatically.

Part 2: Install Firefox Updates Manually

After disabling automatic updates in Firefox Quantum, you can decide how often and when you want Firefox to install updates. Here’s how to install Firefox updates manually:

1. Open up Firefox and click on the Menu button in the upper right hand corner, and then select Help from the drop-down menu.

2. Click on About Firefox.

3. You can see the exact version number of Firefox you’re running. If a new version of Firefox is available, you can click on the “Check for updates” button to download and install it.

That’s it!

Can’t get past the password screen while the computer is booting? When you ran into this situation, it’s possible that you forgot the BIOS password or Windows password on your PC. In order to determine which type of password it is, you need to know the differences between a BIOS password and a Windows password.

BIOS Password:

BIOS (or UEFI) is non-volatile firmware used to perform hardware initialization before calling the boot loader to start the OS. BIOS has a setup utility which provides the ability to view and manage your computer’s hardware settings, such as changing the boot order or enabling CPU virtualization.

Through the BIOS Setup Utility, you can set up two different types of passwords:

• Setup password: The computer will prompt for this password only when you are trying to access the BIOS Setup Utility. This password is also called “Admin password” or “Supervisor password” which is used to prevent others from changing your BIOS settings.
• System Password: This will be prompted before the operating system can boot up. This password might also be called “User password” or “Power-on password” and it can stop someone powering up your computer.

If you forget any of these passwords, the reset process can be difficult or impossible. Depending on the motherboard of the computer in question, you can clear a lost BIOS password through jumper settings or removing the CMOS battery.

Windows Password:

Windows allows you to create separate accounts for different people to share a single PC. Each person can set a unique Windows password for their accounts to prevent unauthorized access.

If you forgot your Windows password and can’t log in to your PC, just boot your PC with PCUnlocker Live CD or USB and you can remove the password with ease.

Conclusion

BIOS password adds a hardware-level layer of security and locks the early stages of the startup process. After the BIOS passes the control to OS, you’ll see the Windows logo displayed on the screen. When your PC boots to the welcome/lock screen, you can click on the user name and sign in with a Windows password.

Pagefile is a hidden system file used by Windows to swap data back and forth between RAM and physical drive. When your RAM is insufficient to hold every running program, some of the program’s memory (including sensitive data and passwords) will be moved to the pagefile.

Pagefile is well protected while Windows is running, but the data within it persists after a shutdown. A malicious user who has physical access to your PC can extract sensitive data from the pagefile by booting a Live CD. To prevent such potential security risk, you can configure Windows to automatically clear the paging file on every shutdown.

Method 1: Make Windows Clear Pagefile at Shutdown Using GPO

1. Press the Windows logo key and the R key simultaneously. Once the Run dialog box is opened, type secpol.msc into it and click OK.

2. Navigate to Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options. On the right pane, double-click on the “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile” policy.

3. Select the Enabled radio option, and then click on Apply and then OK.

4. Restart your computer to make sure the changes take effect.

Method 2: Make Windows Clear Pagefile at Shutdown Using Registry Editor

1. Open the Registry Editor and browse to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

   Next, double-click on a 32-bit DWORD value named ClearPageFileAtShutdown in the right pane.

2. Change the current default value from 0 to 1. Click OK to save the changes.

3. Restart Windows to apply your changes. Whenever you shut down your PC, Windows will automatically clear the pagefile for added security.