By default, Windows will automatically turn off your hard drive after 20 minutes of idle time. This can help save energy and extend a laptop’s battery life. When you try to access a hard disk that is turned off, you will notice a slight delay for the drive to spin back up. Constantly spinning down/up can reduce the life of the hard disk, so I recommend you leave the drive spinning all the time, or set the drive to turn off after a longer period (one or two hours) of inactivity. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 methods to prevent Windows from turning off hard drive after idle.

Method 1: Prevent Turning off Hard Drive via Power Options

1. Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run box. Type the following and hit Enter to open the Power Options window.
   control.exe powercfg.cpl,,3

2. Expand Hard disk and Turn off hard disk after, change the value to 0 and click OK.

   Your hard drive will never fall into sleep after idle.

Method 2: Prevent Turning off Hard Drive via Command Prompt or PowerShell

1. Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator.

2. Run the following commands one by one, replacing “seconds_of_idle” with 0.

   powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 6738e2c4-e8a5-4a42-b16a-e040e769756e seconds_of_idle

   powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 6738e2c4-e8a5-4a42-b16a-e040e769756e seconds_of_idle

3. When it’s done, your hard drive should keep spinning all the time and it never goes to sleep after idle.

Recycle Bin is a hidden folder in Windows which can store deleted files. Once the maximum storage size for the Recycle Bin is reached, Windows will automatically delete the oldest files permanently to make space for newly deleted files. If your Recycle Bin’s storage capacity is too small to hold a large file, you’ll get the following warning.

“This file is too big to recycle. Do you want to permanently delete it?”

To get rid of this warning, you need to increase the maximum storage size for the Recycle Bin. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to change storage capacity for Recycle Bin in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

How to Change Storage Capacity for Recycle Bin in Windows

1. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and then select “Properties” from the context menu.

2. In the Recycle Bin Properties window, select a drive listed in the box and click the Custom size option, then specify the maximum size that it can hold deleted files. Each drive has its own Recycle Bin folder so you can set the storage capacity differently.

   The default maximum storage size of a Recycle Bin location is about 5% of its space available.

3. Click OK to save your changes.

That’s it!

IPv6 causes connectivity issues? IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol, which is supposed to replace IPv4. However, most websites or softwares don’t work with IPv6 yet. It is common for IT administrators to disable IPv6 to fix some unknown, networking-related issue. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 easy methods to disable IPv6 in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Disable IPv6 in Network Adapter Properties

1. Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog. Type ncpa.cpl and hit Enter.

2. It will open the Network Connections window. Right-click the network adapter you want to disable IPv6 on, and then select Properties.

3. In order to disable IPv6, uncheck the box next to Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6). Click OK.

4. You can use the same method to disable IPv6 for other network adapters.

Method 2: Disable IPv6 Using PowerShell

1. First, you need to open Windows PowerShell as administrator. Next, run the following command to check the status of IPv6 for all network adapters available in your computer.

   Get-NetAdapterBinding -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

   In my example, “Wi-Fi” is the name of the network adapter I want to disable IPv6 on.

2. To disable IPv6 on a specific network adapter only, type the following command. Replace “Wi-Fi” with the name of your network adapter card.
   Disable-NetAdapterBinding -Name "Wi-Fi" -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

   You can use the wildcard * to disable IPv6 on all network adapters, instead of disabling them one by one.
   Disable-NetAdapterBinding -Name "*" -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

3. Whenever you need to enable IPv6 again, just run this command:
   Enable-NetAdapterBinding -name * -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

Method 3: Disable IPv6 Using Command Prompt

1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator, and execute this command to disable IPv6 completely:
   reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters" /v DisabledComponents /t REG_DWORD /d 255 /f

2. Restart the computer for changes to take effect. To verify if IPv6 is disabled, run ipconfig /all and see if the interface shows IPv6 address.

   To revert and enable IPv6, you can delete DisabledComponents registry key with this command:
   reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters" /v DisabledComponents /f

That’s all there is to it.

How can I change a Windows password before expiration on Remote Desktop session? Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del doesn’t give you options to change the password in the remote session, as that command will execute on your local PC instead of the remote one. In this tutorial we’ll show you 4 easy ways to change Windows password from Remote Desktop session.

Method 1: Pressing Ctrl + Alt + End

While connected to Remote Desktop session, press the Ctrl + Alt + End keyboard combination and it will open the Windows Security Screen. You’ll see the option to change your Windows password.

Method 2: Using On-Screen Keyboard

From within the Remote Desktop session, press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type osk.exe to bring up the On-Screen Keyboard.

Hold down both Ctrl and Alt keys on your physical keyboard, and then click the Del key in the On-Screen Keyboard. This will also open up the Windows Security screen.

Method 3: Using Command Prompt

Open an elevated Command Prompt. Type the following command and press Enter.
explorer.exe shell:::{2559a1f2-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}

The new screen will show the option to change the password. If you need to frequently change a Windows password from RDP, you can create a batch file or desktop shortcut to run the above command.

Method 4: Using Windows PowerShell

Open Windows PowerShell as admin, and then execute this command:
(New-Object -COM Shell.Application).WindowsSecurity()

This will bring up the Windows Security screen. There you can select “Change a password” to update your password.

Conclusion

In contrast to resetting Windows password, changing a password requires you to remember the current password. After changing your Windows password using the above methods, you should still have access to the EFS protected files.

Could I keep a browser window or Notepad on top of all other windows? Most of Windows programs don’t natively support “Always On Top” feature. Today we’ll show you an easy way to keep Notepad or any other window always on top in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

How to Keep Notepad or Any Window Always On Top in Windows

1. Before getting started, you need to download and install a lightweight, free software – AutoHotkey, which lets you create a simple script to make any window stay on top.
2. After installing, right-click any blank area on the desktop or a File Explorer window, and then select New -> AutoHotkey Script from the context menu.

3. Enter a meaningful name for the new script file. Right-click it and select Edit Script.

4. Remove the auto-generated text, and then paste the following command. Save and close the script.

   ; Always on Top (CTRL + SPACE)
^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A

   Note: This command will make the active window always on top when you press Ctrl + Space. The “^” character represents the Ctrl key. If you want to assign a different keyboard combination, just refer to the AutoHotkey help page and edit your script.

5. Next, double-click your script to run it. You’ll see a green “H” icon appear in the system tray.

6. Now you can make any open window always stay on top. Just bring your target window to the foreground and then press the Ctrl + Space keyboard shortcut to keep it on top of all other windows.

   If you want to disable “Always On Top” for the current active window, just press Ctrl + Space again or exit the AutoHotkey app.

How can I set a password for my .OST file in Outlook 2013? It’s super simple to password protect a .PST file, but Outlook doesn’t offer built-in encryption for OST file. If you need to prevent other users from accessing the email messages stored in an .OST file, you can protect Outlook .OST file using third-party software – Protect My Folders.

Part 1: Find the location of OST file

Before getting started, you need to find the location of OST file in Outlook application. Follow these steps:

1. Open the Control Panel in Large icon view, and click on the Mail option.

2. When the Mail Setup window appears, click on the the Data Files button.

3. The Account Settings dialog should list .pst or .ost files for all your email accounts in Outlook. Choose the .ost file you want to protect, and then click on the “Open File Location” button.

4. File Explorer will open the folder that contains the specified outlook .ost file.

Part 2: Protect Outlook OST File from Unauthorized Access

1. Download and install the Protect My Folders application on your computer. The first time you launch the program, it will prompt you to set up a master password in order to manage protected folders / files.

2. Just drag your desired .ost file from File Explorer and drop it to the Protect My Folders app, it will be hidden and locked down.

3. Nobody can access, copy, or delete a secured .ost file. If you launch Outlook application, you’ll get the error that says the ost file can’t be opened.

4. Whenever you need to access the secured .ost file, just launch Protect My Folders and enter the master password. Select your .ost file and click on “Unlock“. You can then start Outlook application and access anything stored in that .ost file.

That’s it!

F2 key doesn’t rename file in Windows 10? Function keys for brightness control (F11, F12) do not work any longer? Most laptops have a Fn key on the keyboard which can change the behavior of function keys (F1 – F12). On my laptop, the default function of F2 is to rename files, while pressing Fn + F2 will lower volume. If I accidentally activate the Action Keys (Hotkeys) mode, then F2 will lower volume and I have to press Fn + F2 for renaming files.

If function keys or the Fn key don’t work as expected, then you need to disable or enable Action Keys (Hotkeys) mode on your Windows 10 / 8 / 7 laptop.

Method 1: Disable or Enable Action Keys Mode from UEFI/BIOS

1. Turn on your computer, immediately and repeatedly press a specific key (F2, F12, DEL, F10, ESC, etc.) to enter into the BIOS Setup. If you’re running Windows 10/8, you can access BIOS from Command Prompt, the Settings app or Windows sign-in screen.
2. Once inside the BIOS/UEFI Setup, navigate to the Configuration Tab (Advanced tab or System Configuration tab) and look for an option called “Hotkey Mode” or “Action Keys Mode“, set it to Disabled or Enabled.

   On modern DELL laptops, select “Function Key Behavior” and press Enter to choose one of the following options:

   • Function Key – Disable Action Keys mode. Requires pressing Fn key to perform the actions printed on the function keys.
   • Multimedia Key – Enable Action Keys mode. Does not require pressing Fn key to perform the actions printed on the function keys.

3. Now the behavior of the Fn key has been changed. Save and Exit the BIOS/UEFI Setup.

Method 2: Disable or Enable Action Keys Mode Using Fn Lock Key

The Fn Lock key is usually indicated by a lock icon with “Fn” printed on it. If your keyboard has a Fn Lock key, just hold down the Fn key and then press the Fn Lock key simultaneously, it will enable Action Keys mode. Pressing the Fn key and Fn Lock key again will disable Action Keys mode.

On some DELL or Lenovo laptops, the Fn Lock key is the Esc key. Pressing Fn + Esc can enable or disable the Action Keys mode with ease.

Conclusion

When Action Keys mode is enabled, function keys will work as multimedia keys by default. So you can press a single function key (F1 – F12) to mute/unmute the audio, adjust the volume or project to a screen, without having to hold down the Fn key. If you am very used to using the F2 key to rename files, just disable Action Keys mode and you’re good to go.

How to disable single click to open folders / files in Windows Explorer? Can’t change single click to double click? In order to change the behavior to open files with a single click or double click, you have to open the Folder Options. But what to do if you find the option “Single-click to open an item (point to select)” is greyed out? To fix this issue, you have to turn off Classic Shell group policy for Windows Explorer.

Method 1: Turn off Classic Shell Using Group Policy

1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and browse to: User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components, then click on “File Explorer” (or “Windows Explorer” for Windows 7/Vista/XP).

   In the right side, double-click on the “Turn on Classic Shell” policy to edit it.

2. Select either Not Configured or Disabled. Click OK.

3. Exit the Local Group Policy Editor and restart Windows. After that you can open Folder Options and enable single-click or double-click for opening folders / files.

Method 2: Turn off Classic Shell Using Registry Editor

1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. In the right pane, locate the DWORD ClassicShell and right-click it, then select Delete from the pop-up menu.

2. Use the same method to delete the ClassicShell value if it also exists under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
3. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer for the changes to take effect. You should then be able to select or deselect “Single-click to open an item (point to select)” setting in Folder Options.

Does your keyboard have input lag of about 0.5 second? If your keyboard responds too slowly, you may end up with missing letters unless you type really slow. If your keyboard responds too quickly, a keystroke may produce multiple letters. To fix such problems in Windows 10 / 8 / 7, you have to adjust the keyboard character repeat delay and rate.

How to Fix Keyboard Input Lag in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

1. Open the Control Panel and switch to “Large icons” view, then click on Keyboard. It will open up the Keyboard Properties dialog.

   Another way of accessing the Keyboard Properties is to press the Windows key + R and then type “control keyboard” in the resulting Run box, and hit Enter.

2. Under the Speed tab, you can move Repeat delay to Short and Repeat rate to Fast if you want to get the least input lag. You can use the text box with the caption “Click here and hold down a key to test repeat rate” to test the changes that you have just made.
   • Repeat delay: Configure how long you need to hold a key down for before it starts repeating.
   • Repeat rate: Configure how quickly the letter repeats itself once it starts.
3. Click Apply and then OK.

How can I turn off display on tablet without sleeping? You can configure the Power button to turn off the display, but what to do if the “Turn off the display” option is missing on your PC. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to create a desktop shortcut to turn off the monitor in Windows 10/8/7, without using third-party software.

How to Create a Shortcut to Turn Off the Monitor

1. Right-click on a blank area of the desktop and select New -> Shortcut.

2. When the Create Shortcut wizard launches, copy and paste the following command into the location area, and then click Next.

   powershell.exe -Command "(Add-Type '[DllImport(\"user32.dll\")]public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd,int hMsg,int wParam,int lParam);' -Name a -Pas)::SendMessage(-1,0x0112,0xF170,2)"

3. Type a meaningful name for this shortcut and click on Finish.

4. Double-click the new shortcut on your desktop and it will turn off the monitor immediately without putting your computer to sleep. If you move the mouse or tap on your keyboard (or press the Power button for 1 second), your monitor will immediately turn on again.

5. If you would like to press a keyboard shortcut to turn off the monitor, right-click the newly-created desktop shortcut and select Properties. Click the Shortcut key text box and type your own keyboard shortcut.

That’s it!

Wireless connection stops working suddenly? Windows 10 does not show available Wi-Fi networks? To fix any of such wireless connection issues, an easy first step is to reinstall wireless drivers. This article shows you how to reinstall wireless drivers in 4 steps on Windows 10 / 8 /7.

How to Reinstall Wireless Drivers in Windows

1. Hold the Windows key and the R key down at the same time, type devmgmt.msc in the pop-up box and hit Enter to open Device Manager.

2. Expand the Network adapters category, right-click on your wireless adapter and then select Uninstall device.

3. A new window will pop up. Click Uninstall to confirm. If you see the “Delete the driver software for this device” checkbox, make sure you leave it unchecked.

4. Click the “Scan for hardware changes” icon on the toolbar to automatically search and reinstall wireless drivers.

   Restart your computer to see if your connectivity issue has been resolved.

That’s it!

Experience any compatibility problem with your BIOS? How can I update UEFI firmware to fix security vulnerabilities? In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps of updating BIOS/UEFI from Windows 10 / 8 / 7 on your DELL computer.

How to Update BIOS / UEFI from Windows on Your DELL Computer

1. Before getting started, you can check BIOS version on your current system. Press the WIN + R keys together to open the Run box, then type msinfo32 and hit Enter.

   When the System Information tool opens, select the System Summary tab in the left navigation window. Look for BIOS Version/Date in the right window. In my case, the current BIOS version is 1.05.

2. Open up your Web browser and access the Dell Drivers & downloads page. Enter the service tag of your DELL computer and click on Search.

3. In the pull-down Category menu, choose BIOS. Click the download link next to the most recent BIOS update.

4. You will notice that the download is a Windows executable. Double-click it to run as administrator. If there is no other program interfaces with the BIOS update progress, click OK.

5. Click OK to proceed. The system will reboot and start to flash your BIOS. It will take you a minute or less to complete.

6. After successfully updating BIOS, you can log back into your Windows account and check if the BIOS version is updated.

That’s it!

By default, all open windows of a certain app will be combined into a single taskbar button. Click that button and you’ll see the preview thumbnail of every window, but it’s a bit difficult to find which one is the last active window. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to enable the Last Active Click feature in Windows 10 / 8 / 7, so you can switch to the last active window with just a single click.

How to Enable Last Active Click for Taskbar in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced. In the left pane, right-click on the Advanced key and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

2. Name the new value LastActiveClick.

3. Double-click the LastActiveClick value and change the value data from 0 to 1. Click OK.

4. Close Registry Editor and restart your PC. The next time you open multiple windows of Chrome, just click the taskbar icon and the last active window will open directly. Keep clicking on the taskbar button to cycle through the open windows of Chrome.

That’s it!

When you try to create a folder/file on Windows 7 that starts with a dot, like .htaccess, you may get the error message “You have to enter a filename“. To resolve this issue, you need to do it with Command Prompt. Since Windows 11, File Explorer allows to create and rename a folder whose name starts with a dot. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to create a folder starting with a dot(.) in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7.

Part 1: Create a Folder Starting with Dot Using Command Prompt

Before getting started, open Command Prompt in the directory where you want to create a folder. You can then use the mkdir command to create a folder starting with a dot. For example, I can create a folder named .pcunlocker by executing this command:
mkdir .pcunlocker

or create an empty file named .tutorial.txt by running this command:
echo.>.tutorial.txt

This method works with all versions of Windows, including Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Part 2: Create a Folder Starting with Dot Using File Explorer

If you’re using Windows 11, you can create a folder starting with dot without using Command Prompt. Just open File Explorer and browse to your target location, right-click the blank area and select New -> Folder, and then type in a new name that starts with a dot.

File Explorer also lets you rename any existing folder by adding a dot in the front of its name.

Folders always open in new window? File Explorer opens every folder in its own folder window? This can be quite annoying because you may get too many new windows after navigating through some folders. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to stop folders from opening in new window on Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7.

Part 1: Use Folder Options to Set Folders to Open in New Window

1. Press the Windows key + R together to bring up the Run dialog box, enter the below command and press Enter to launch File Explorer Options.
   control.exe folders

2. Under the “Browse folders” section, select the “Open each folder in the same window” option.

3. Click Apply and then OK. You can now double-click a folder in Windows Explorer and see if it opens in the same window.

Part 2: Reset the Default Double-click Action

1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell. Look for the “(Default)” entry in the right pane. If its value data is not empty, double-click it.

2. In the Edit String dialog box, remove anything from the Value data field and click OK.

3. Next, browse to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open. If the LaunchExplorerFlags entry appears in the right pane, just right-click it and select Delete.

4. Close Registry Editor. Every time you double-click on a folder, it should no longer open in a new window.

That’s it!

How can I find duplicate files or images on my computer? After using the computer for a while, duplicate files may accumulate or clutter up your photo albums. If you are tired of duplicate files, you can use the following methods to quickly find duplicate files in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7 so you delete them to free up disk space.

Method 1: Find Duplicate Files Using File Explorer

A duplicate file usually has the same name as the original file, but with the word “- Copy” in the file name. Using File Explorer you can easily find such types of duplicate files on your computer.

1. Open File Explorer and browse to the location (for example, “This PC”) where may contain duplicate files. Enter the keyword “copy” in the Search box in the upper right-hand corner.

2. Click the “Search options” button in the toolbar, make sure the “File contents” menu is unchecked.

3. The system will quickly locate all folders and files which contains the keyboard “copy” in the file names. Then you may need to manually verify which files are duplicate.

Method 2: Find Duplicate Files Using Batch

1. Open Notepad or other text editor, copy and paste the following code, then save the file with .bat extension and close it.
   

   @echo off
   setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
   
   rem Group all file names by size
   for /R %%a in (*.*) do (
      set "size[%%~Za]=!size[%%~Za]!,%%~Fa"
   )
   
   rem Show groups that have more than one element
   for /F "tokens=2,3* delims=[]=," %%a in ('set size[') do (
      if "%%c" neq "" echo [%%a]: %%b,%%c
   )
   
   echo Press any key to exit
   set /p input=

   
   
2. Move the newly-created .bat file to the location where you would like to scan for duplicate files, and double-click it to run the batch.
3. It will check each file in the current folder and subfolders by file size. If two or more files have the same size, the batch will treat them as potential duplicate files, and display their file names in the same line but separated by a comma.

Method 3: Find Duplicate Files Using Freeware

If you want to find identical files in one or more directories with 100% accuracy, the freeware SearchMyFiles could be of help. This software is distributed as zip archive.

1. Download SearchMyFiles from Nirsoft website. After unzipping, double-click the executable file in the extracted directory to launch the program.
2. When the Search Options dialog box pops up, click the Browse button to add a target folder for finding duplicate files. If you want to scan duplicates across multiple folders or drives, just click the Browse button to add the locations one by one.

3. Click the Start Search button. It will compare all files with equal size. When it find two or more files with identical content, they are added to the duplicates list in the main window.

4. If you want to delete duplicate files, just select them and right-click to choose “Delete Selected Files” from the pop-up menu.

That’s it!