Every time a new version of the Windows operating system or an Upgrade is released, you get to see some new keyboard shortcuts. Many of you, may have already read our post on Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts, today let us have a look at some new keyboard shortcuts that Windows 10 introduces – some of which were introduced by Windows 10 Update. Several new hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts were introduced with Windows 10 Upgrade too.
Windows 10 new keyboard shortcuts
Let us check out 10 of the most useful keyboard shortcuts in Windows 10.
Win+D : Show or Hide Desktop
Win+T : Open taskbar, when on the Windows 10 Start Screen. On the desktop, it selects the first app on the taskbar.
Alt+F4 : This will completely shut down a Windows Store app and bring you to the desktop. But if you are on the Desktop, it will still bring the old Shutdown dialog box.
Win+Tab : Switches between apps and the desktop
Alt+Tab : Switches between all apps, including desktop apps
Home key : When on the Start Screen or Desktop, pressing Home key takes you to the first or top left most Tile or Icon as the case may be.
End key : When on the Start Screen or Desktop, pressing End key will take you to the last or left-most Tile or Icon of the bottom-most row.
Escape key : When on the Start Screen, pressing Esc key takes you to the Desktop. It doesn’t work the other way around.
Win+.+Right Arrow or Win+.+Left Arrow : Place up to four apps side by side.
Win+Down arrow : Closes Windows Store app and makes it run in the background.
Let me know if I missed out any!
You can see the full list of shortcuts here at Microsoft.
Check out this video by Scott Hanselman of Microsoft which talks about using hotkeys effectively.
Windows 7 users may want to download our free Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts eBook.
In this post, we will see how to disable your webcam or the integrated camera in Windows 10 using the Device Manager. Most laptops today come with a built-in integrated web cameras, which are rather useful when it comes to having video chats with friends, associates or relatives. But there are many who never use a webcam. It is fine if you let it be as it is.
These days, using Remote Access Technology (RAT), hackers can compromise your system and watch you, monitor your activities and even record your actions, using your own webcam! So, if you are one, who never uses the webcam and who fears being watched or monitored, using it, you may want to consider disabling it. You can of course always enable it again anytime in the future, should the need arise.
Read: Am I being watched through my computer.
Disable Webcam
In Windows 10, to disable the webcam, right-click on the start button to open the WinX Menu. Select Device Manager.
Once your Device Manager window opens, expand Imaging devices. You will see Integrated webcam. If your web camera is not integrated, you may see some different entry.
Right-click on it and from the context menu which opens, select Disable. You may be asked for confirmation. Select Yes.
This will disable your webcam. You may need to restart your Windows computer.
To enable it again, you have to select Enable.
Turn off / on Webcam
You can also use a freeware called WebCam On-Off to turn off or turn on your webcam in a click. Create a hotkey shortcut for it, if you wish!
If you have deleted the Recycle Bin icon by mistake from your desktop, then this post will show you how to restore Recycle Bin in Windows 10, using the Control Panel UI, by creating a folder, by tweaking the Windows Registry, changing a Group Policy setting or using a Microsoft Fix It. The process is more-or-less the same for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista too.
Restore deleted Recycle Bin
There are several reasons for the Recycle Bin to disappear from the desktop. The most common is that you deleted it yourself. Maybe you clicked on Delete instead of Empty Recycle Bin! Alternatively, some third-party software could have hidden the Recycle Bin as a result of which some system setting may have become corrupted. You could restore it using the UI, by creating a folder or by using the Windows Registry, Group Policy or a Fix It.
Using UI
Right-click on the desktop and select Personalization.
Now in the left side pane, you will see Change desktop icons. Click on it to open the Desktop Icon Settings box.
Select the Recycle Bin check-box and click Apply.
The Recycle Bin icon will appear on your Windows desktop.
Create a folder
Righ-click on the desktop and select New folder. In the name field, copy-paste the following and hit Enter:
Recycle bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
You will see the folder convert into the Recycle Bin!
For the geeks … You can also use the Windows Registry or the Group Policy to restore the deleted Recycle Bin.
Using Windows Registry
Run regedit to open The Windows Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace
Right-click the registry key > Key, type the following and hit Enter:
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
Now click this new {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} key you created, and in the right pane, double-click the (Default) entry. Now in the Edit String dialog box, type Recycle Bin in the Value data box.
A value of 0 will show the Recycle Bin icon whereas 1 will hide it.
Click OK and exit.
Using Group Policy
If your version of Windows has the Group Policy Editor, do the following.
Run gpedit.msc to open the Local Group Policy Editor. Select User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Double-click Desktop. Now double-click Remove Recycle Bin icon from the desktop and click on the Setting tab.
Disabled or Not Configured will show the icon. Selecting Enabled will hide it. Make your selection, click Apply/OK and exit.This setting removes the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop, from File Explorer, from programs that use the File Explorer windows, and from the standard Open dialog box. This setting does not prevent the user from using other methods to gain access to the contents of the Recycle Bin folder. To make changes to this setting effective, you must log off and then log back on.
The Certificate Manager or Certmgr.msc in Windows lets you see details about your certificates, export, import, modify, delete or request new certificates. Certificates are digital documents used to manage network authentication and the exchange of information.
Manage certificates using Certificate Manager or Certmgr.msc
The Certificates Manager Console is a part of the Microsoft Management Console in Windows 10. The MMC contains various tools which can be used for managing and maintenance functions. As mentioned earlier, using certmgr.msc you can view your certificates as well as modify, import, export, delete or request new one’s.
To manage your certificates, from the WinX Menu in Windows 10, select Run. Type certmgr.mscin the Run box and hit Enter. Remember, you will have to be logged on as an administrator. The Certificate Manager will open.
You will see that all the Certificates are stored in various folders under Certificates – Current User. When you open any certificates folder, you will see that the certificates are displayed in the right pane. In the right pane, you will see columns like Issued To, Issued By, Expiration date, Intended Purpose, Friendly Name, Status and Certificate Template. The Intended Purposes column tells you what each certificate is used for.
Using the Certificate Manager, you can request a new certificate with the same key or a different key. You can also export or import a certificate. To carry out any action, select the certificate, click the Action menu > All Tasks, and then click the required action command. You can also right-click on the context menu to carry out these actions.
In case you wish to export or import certificates, an easy-to-follow wizard will open which will take you through the required steps.
It is to be noted that Certmgr.msc is a Microsoft Management Console snap-in whereasCertmgr.exe is a command-line utility. If you want to learn about the command line options in certmgr.exe you can visit MSDN.
In this post, we will see how you can search from the taskbar in Windows 10. We have seen how to add the address bar to the taskbar in Windows 10. This lets users type the URL directly into it and hit Enter to open the web page in your default browser. What is little less known, is that in Windows 10, you can also carry out your searches on the Internet, by typing your queries in the address bar and clicking Enter. One drawback however is that single word searches do not work.
Search from the taskbar
How can we search our computer from the taskbar? Windows Desktop Search offered a Search Deskbar, that let you search from the taskbar. There’s no Windows Search Deskbar like this, in Windows 8 or Windows 10.
In Windows 10 you can open the Start Menu and start typing. You can also create a shortcut using the following path, and pin it to your taskbar:
%SystemRoot%explorer.exe search-ms:
In Windows 10, you can tap the Win key and start typing to search. Or you can simply press Win+S and the Search Charms will open.
You can also carry out this interesting little exercise, that lets you pin a shortcut to search everywhere on your Windows 10 computer from the taskbar.
Navigate to the following folder:
C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
Right-click, select New > Shortcut. In the location of the item box, type the following:
explorer.exe shell:::{2559a1f0-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}
Click Next, give it a name and icon if you want.
Read: Shortcuts, Shell Commands and CLSID in Windows 8
Now clicking on this new icon in your taskbar will open the Search Charms. You can search your computer from here.
A small tip, that some of you may find useful.
You can also check out some free Windows Search alternative tools, that can help you search faster on your Windows PC.
Microsoft has updated and released Windows 10 in Education eBook, that highlights the benefits of using Windows 8.1 in the field of education. Released by Microsoft Education team, UK, the eBook has been written in association with Ollie Bray. A bunch of Office 365 in Education guides and other resources have also been made available.
Windows 10 in Education eBook
Specifically, the eBook provides information on how Windows has changed since Windows 10, and talks about the new features and benefits of Windows 10 in education, schools and classrooms.
Targeted at teachers and school leaders, its demonstrates how the new operating system along with the Windows Store apps, can be used to enhance the quality of your teaching.
You can view the Windows 10 in Education eBook below as a slide show or you can download it from SlideShare. To save a copy to your computer you need to have an account with Slideshare – or you can log in with your LinkedIn account.
If you are looking for more, then these Windows 10 guides for Educational Institutions may also interest you.
Microsoft Office 365 in Education guides
Microsoft in Education, South Africa has created a comprehensive collection of guides and other resources, that can help anyone understand and explore the potential of Office 365 – and its application in the field of education and teaching.
You can get more details about it, including the download links here.
Unnecessary start up programs, usually cause Windows to boot slower, and hence many decide to disable unwanted startup programs. There several good freeware like WinPatrol, CCleaner,MSConfig Cleanup Tool, Malwarebytes StartUpLITE, Autoruns, Startup Sentinel, etc, that can help you disable or remove you startup programs easily, thereby making Windows start faster.
Apart from simply disabling or removing them you can, if you wish, you can also delay the running of such start up programs using software like WinPatrol, Windows Startup Helper or Startup delayer. Then again, these three freeware can help you, not just to delay the start up of programs, but also set the time of delay. This means you can configure Windows in such a way, that these programs start only after the lapse of a particular period of time.
Set Delay time for Startup programs
Let us check out these 3 free tools that can let you time the delay for start up programs in Windows.
WinPatrol
WinPatrol is a great free software to have installed on your Windows computer, as it keeps a watch on it, as well as lets you makes changes to it quickly. You can use WinPatrol for setting the time delays too. Under the Startup Programs tab, select the program startup which you wish to delay and right-click on it and select Move to delayed start program list. Now select the Delayed Start tab and select this program. Clicking on Delay Options, you will be offered various Delay startup options.
You can set it to start after several minutes or seconds from the drop-down menu. WinPatrol also offers additional options which you can decide on.
Windows Startup Helper
Startup Helper is another program made to help ease the load during Windows startup, by allowing users to select the order, startup delay and the time between each program startup. It will let you set the order and the delay time for your startup programs, so that they start only after the set time, after your PC boots.
To use it, click on Add new item, and use the Program Path button to brwose to the executable. Next, you can set the Delay times.
Startup Delayer
Startup Delayer Standard Edition is free. You can use it to start some programs on a priority basis. You can also use it to delay programs, as well as set the time of delay.
During installation, this tool may download and install Visual Studio C++ Runtime automatically on your Windows computer as the program requires it.
If you are like most regular computer users who keep on customizing their desktop, try somewallpaper clocks for Windows 10. These specially designed simplistic wallpapers display a real-time working clock, directly on your desktop, with beautiful and attractive designs as your desktop background. Dexclock is one of the better programs who can do this for you.
Wallpaper clocks for Windows
Dexclock is a simple piece of software which lands and gets installed in your system in no time and creates an icon in your system tray. The tool provides four clock wallpapers by default namely – A Cheshire Kitten, Kiwi Kiwi, Letter Eater and Squares1. You can select anyone of them just by double-clicking on the Dexclock icon in the system tray.
Like most of the clock applications, Dexclock also offers settings options like time format of 12/24 hr and position of the clock on your screen. If you are looking for some more customization options or flexibility, Dexclock is certainly not your choice.
The best thing about Dexclock is that it has an extensive collection of beautified wallpaper clock available for free download. Just download the wallpaper clock of your choice and add it in your Clock folder. If you search for them on the Internet, you will be able to find them.
Apart from English, Dexclock supports several languages like French, Greek, Indonesian, Chinese, Russian, Hungarian, Japanese and Turkish languages. Dexclock in a nutshell is an excellent tool for those who want a quick and simple makeover of their desktop.
Dexclock free download
Download Dexclock here. It works on all running versions of Windows including Windows 8.1, Windows 10.
Organizing files and folders is a very tedious task and time consuming too but you can easily overcome the task by using some of the simple utilities like DropIt, QuickMove, Files 2 Folder, etc.
Automatically move files to folders
In this post we’ve reviewed three utilities of such kind that can let you neatly organize your files into folders easily and automatically.
DropIt
DropIt is an open sourced file organizer that works on the principal of file associations. File Associations are basically the rules that you define on a particular set of files. You can create a file filter on the basis of name, directory, size, date, properties, content, regular expressions and associate it to one of the following tasks: Move, Copy, Compress, Extract, Rename, Delete, Split, Join, Encrypt, Decrypt, Open With, Upload, Send by Mail, Create Gallery, Create List, Create Playlist, Create Shortcut, Copy to Clipboard, Change Properties and Ignore.
You can add as many associations you want. You can even create different profiles and add different associations under it, by default there are around seven profiles available, each of them is very useful. Some of the profiles are: Extractor, Archiver, Eraser, Gallery Maker and etc. Some of other features of DropIt include file encryption, folder monitoring, drag and drop interface.
Click here to download DropIt.
QuickMove
QuickMove is a similar software that runs in the context menu instead of a drag and drop functionality. Unlike DropIt, QuickMove can only perform one action that is moving the files in a systematic way. You can create as many rules you want but remember the rules are not created beforehand but are created when you perform a task first time on a particular file type.
The rules are very easy to create and they do not involve any advanced steps. QuickMove maintains a log of actions done by it, if you’ve accidently moved some files then you can undo the changes from the log itself. If you want to edit or change the rules, you need to go to the Rules menu from the QuickMove UI. Overall, QuickMove is a wonderful and an easy application and the best part is it runs from the Context Menu.
Click here to download QuickMove.
Files 2 Folder
Files 2 Folder is a simple right click shell extension, that when selected automatically create a folder based upon the file selected and then moves the file into that folder. If you are working with multiple files then the program would offer you two choices, whether to move all the selected files into one folder or move them separately into different folders based on their filenames.
Each of them is good at doing its task. If you want something advanced and with more actions, then you may consider DropIt. If you want something very easy and simple then you can consider QuickMove.
Since the release of Windows 10, I have been using Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mail App – a remarkable platform to manage my emails on my device. But, recently I came across another visually beautiful mailing app called TouchMail.
TouchMail review
1. Unique Layout
TouchMail presents your emails in form of live colorfully designed tiles. Apart from it, this app gives a 3D visual enhancements to your emails which involves color coding of the tiles, adding profile pictures or logos to specific mails (which comes from specific senders or belongs to a specific category).
TouchMail works perfectly with variables screen size and hence allows you to work and check emails side-by-side. Additionally, you can perform zoom-in and zoom-out to adjust the view of emails as per your need.
2. Add, Sync and Manage Accounts
TouchMail allows you to add, manage and sync your accounts directly from the tab in the upper right corner.
Click on Add an Account to add a new account.
Click on Sync Now to sync your mails together in a go.
Click on Manage Accounts to manage your email accounts from the Charms Bar Menu.
3. Support to Email Providers
TouchMail supports Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Office 365 and many other IMAP email providers.
4. Easy to Delete and Select mails
You have to just push the desired mail tile up in order to Delete the mail directly and swipe the tile down or right click to Select your preferred email.
5. Notifications for New Mail
TouchMail offers push notifications on arrival of a new mail. Even, the app distinguishes a new mail by a colored boundary around the tile.
6. Filter Emails on a click
You can filter your emails based on unread, tasks, file attachments, high priority, and ranges of date.
7. Select senders from App Bar
You can filter mails based on type of senders. Click on the app bar to select you preferred sender or on the VIPs icon to do the same.
8. Group Emails
You can group your emails in the inbox, sent, trash or outbox based on time, type of sender or conversation.
9. System Support
TouchMail works efficiently with any Windows 10 devices & PCs and also enables you to explore the colorfully visual tiles with your fingers or mouse.
Limitations:
- Unlike Windows Mail, you cannot add many accounts with this app as TouchMail allows you to manage only 3 accounts all together.
- Windows Mail supports both the POP3 and IMAP email providers but TouchMail is limited toonly IMAP email providers.
Video in Action
The developers of TouchMail, Matthew Carlson, has introduced this immersive app in the following video. Check it out!
Get TouchMail today and start experiencing a new way to manage your emails across your Windows devices! It is a free app which gives you a great experience – although its missing a few important pieces.
Windows 10 Sleep Study Tool is a new program from Microsoft that helps you study what exactly is draining your battery power in a Windows 10 InstantGo supported computer. InstantGo as we explained earlier is a new power mode on select Windows 10 devices, that allow your system to sleep while updating apps in the background, keeping it ready to resume, when required.
A blog post from Microsoft explains, even in the sleeping state your system continues to work although at lower frequency. This exercise consumes power and the battery drain is not readily perceptible. Here, Windows 8.1 Sleep Study Tool has a role to play. The tool generates a report as an HTML file, where you can see the top five reasons why your device is running out of battery at a time when you need it most.
If it does exist, you can fire the tool to review all the sleep sessions that last longer than 10 minutes on your PC and provides you with a report that color codes each session according to its power consumption. Running powercfgsleepstudy will generate a sleepstudy-report.html report, which you can open in any browser.
A session is defined as the period from Screen Off to Screen On. In cases when the system is plugged into AC power, the policies are less stringent than when on battery power. And while the tool still tracks connectedstandby activity on AC power, it is more useful to identify unexpected drains on battery, or DC power.
Sleep Study is a very useful tool to track your battery drain while in sleep mode on an InstantGo capable system. It helps users better understand the subtle ways under which different activities can affect battery life.
A blog post from Microsoft explains, even in the sleeping state your system continues to work although at lower frequency. This exercise consumes power and the battery drain is not readily perceptible. Here, Windows 8.1 Sleep Study Tool has a role to play. The tool generates a report as an HTML file, where you can see the top five reasons why your device is running out of battery at a time when you need it most.
Windows 8.1 Sleep Study Tool
At first, you have to determine if your hardware and software support InstantGo by entering powercfg /a into a Command Prompt window, and then looking to see if Standby (Connected)is included in the list of sleep states:If it does exist, you can fire the tool to review all the sleep sessions that last longer than 10 minutes on your PC and provides you with a report that color codes each session according to its power consumption. Running powercfgsleepstudy will generate a sleepstudy-report.html report, which you can open in any browser.
A session is defined as the period from Screen Off to Screen On. In cases when the system is plugged into AC power, the policies are less stringent than when on battery power. And while the tool still tracks connectedstandby activity on AC power, it is more useful to identify unexpected drains on battery, or DC power.
Sleep Study is a very useful tool to track your battery drain while in sleep mode on an InstantGo capable system. It helps users better understand the subtle ways under which different activities can affect battery life.
We all use WiFi on our Windows computers to access the Internet. But many a times, we run into different kind of issues pertaining to usage of WiFi. We have already seen how to fix poor WiFi performance, limited WiFi networks, WLAN AutoConfig service not starting, etc. Today, we are sharing with you, the way to fix the issue of WiFi getting disconnected after you resume from Sleep mode. If you’re connected to a WiFi network and you move your system into sleep mode, after waking up, the system loose the WiFi network connectivity.
In this scenario, after resuming from sleep, Windows 10 would show that WiFi connections are available but it doesn’t automatically reconnect or it doesn’t stays connected during sleep. This would affect your user experience, if you rely upon background processes running on your system like to downloading using Windows Store or Download Manager, etc. So if you’re getting frustrated with this problem, you can try these steps referenced from this wiki article:
1. Press Windows Key + R and type devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog box to open Device Manager.
2. In the Device Manager window, expand Network Adapters and look for your WiFi driver, do a right click over it, selectProperties.
3. In the property sheet, switch to Power Management tab and uncheck the option Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Click OK.
You may now close Device Manager and restart the machine to get your issue fixed.
Substitute your system root drive with C: and wireless adapter name which you can get from Device Manager window shown previously in this article. In our case the wireless network adapter was Intel(R) Pro/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection, so the command becomes:C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe restart-netadapter -InterfaceDescription 'Intel(R) Pro/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection' -Confirm:$false
Click Next.
2. Moving on, name this shortcut like WiFi Reset and click Finish.
3. Finally, right click the shortcut so created and select Properties. Click Advanced and in the Advanced Propertieswindow, check option Run as administrator. Click OK, then Apply followed by OK.
You can pin this shortcut to Start Screen and double click as soon as you came around the issue. After double clicking, let the system execute the command and reboot the machine. This should fix the problem.
In this scenario, after resuming from sleep, Windows 10 would show that WiFi connections are available but it doesn’t automatically reconnect or it doesn’t stays connected during sleep. This would affect your user experience, if you rely upon background processes running on your system like to downloading using Windows Store or Download Manager, etc. So if you’re getting frustrated with this problem, you can try these steps referenced from this wiki article:
WiFi gets disconnected or does not automatically reconnect
Using Device Manager1. Press Windows Key + R and type devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog box to open Device Manager.
2. In the Device Manager window, expand Network Adapters and look for your WiFi driver, do a right click over it, selectProperties.
3. In the property sheet, switch to Power Management tab and uncheck the option Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Click OK.
You may now close Device Manager and restart the machine to get your issue fixed.
Using Windows PowerShell
1. Go to Desktop, right click and select New -> Shortcut. In the Create Shortcut window paste this command:C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe restart-netadapter -InterfaceDescription '<WIRELESS ADAPTER NAME HERE>' -Confirm:$falseSubstitute your system root drive with C: and wireless adapter name which you can get from Device Manager window shown previously in this article. In our case the wireless network adapter was Intel(R) Pro/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection, so the command becomes:C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe restart-netadapter -InterfaceDescription 'Intel(R) Pro/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection' -Confirm:$false
Click Next.
2. Moving on, name this shortcut like WiFi Reset and click Finish.
3. Finally, right click the shortcut so created and select Properties. Click Advanced and in the Advanced Propertieswindow, check option Run as administrator. Click OK, then Apply followed by OK.
You can pin this shortcut to Start Screen and double click as soon as you came around the issue. After double clicking, let the system execute the command and reboot the machine. This should fix the problem.
Today, we will see how to create blank folder names in Windows. I have used this trick earlier on Windows 10 as well. I do not remember if it worked on Windows XP and earlier.
Using this trick, you can display a folder without a name. There is one caveat however. Your computer needs to have a Numeric keyboard pad. In case some of you do not know, Numeric keypad or NumPad is the section of the keyboard on the right side, which usually contains 17 keys, viz. 0 to 9, +, -, *, /, ., Num Lock and Enter keys.
To create blank folder names in Windows 10, right-click on the Windows desktop and select New > Folder.
The folder will get created on the desktop.
If you right-click the folder, select Rename and enter only spaces, the operating system will not accept it.
To remove he name and display a blank name, right-click on the folder and select Rename. Now press the Alt key and from the Numeric keypad, press 0160.
Now press Enter or click anywhere on the desktop.
A folder with no name will be created. Change its icon and you could have a smart looking folder on your desktop.
Looks pretty cool!
Do not have a NumPad? Check if this forum post on how to have blank folder names in Windows on a laptop without a Numeric pad works for you. Fortunately my new Dell Inspiron 15 7537 laptop has a numeric pad, so I was easily able to create such name-less folders.
Create blank folder names
To create blank folder names in Windows 10, right-click on the Windows desktop and select New > Folder.
The folder will get created on the desktop.
If you right-click the folder, select Rename and enter only spaces, the operating system will not accept it.
To remove he name and display a blank name, right-click on the folder and select Rename. Now press the Alt key and from the Numeric keypad, press 0160.
Now press Enter or click anywhere on the desktop.
A folder with no name will be created. Change its icon and you could have a smart looking folder on your desktop.
Looks pretty cool!
Do not have a NumPad? Check if this forum post on how to have blank folder names in Windows on a laptop without a Numeric pad works for you. Fortunately my new Dell Inspiron 15 7537 laptop has a numeric pad, so I was easily able to create such name-less folders.
There may be times when you may want to prevent users from accessing the Control Panel in Windows. This post shows how you can restrict access to Control Panel and PC Settings in Windows 8 or Control Panel in Windows 10, using Group Policy setting and Registry Editor.
If your version of Windows 10 has the Group Policy Editor, Run gpedit.msc to open it. Navigate to the following setting:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates, and Control Panel
In the right pane of Control Panel, double click/tap on Prohibit access to Control Panel and PC settings.
This setting disables all Control Panel programs and the PC settings app. It prevents Control.exe and SystemSettings.exe, the program files for Control Panel and PC settings, from starting. As a result, users cannot start Control Panel or PC settings, or run any of their items. It removes Control Panel from the Start screen and File Explorer, and removes PC Settings from the Start screen, Settings charm, Account picture and Search results. If users try to select a Control Panel item from the Properties item on a context menu, a message appears explaining that a setting prevents the action.
Using Registry Editor
If your version of Windows does not have Group Policy, you can use the Registry Editor to disable access to Control Panel and and PC Settings. To do so, Run regedit and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In the left pane, create a new DWORD (32-bit). Name it NoControlPanel and give it value 1. The following are the possible values and how they work:
0 will enable Control Panel and PC Settings
1 will disable Control Panel and PC Settings
After you prohibit access to Control Panel and PC settings, if any user tries to access them, they will receive the following error box:
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.
Hope you are able to get it to work.
Restrict access to Control Panel
Using Group Policy EditorIf your version of Windows 10 has the Group Policy Editor, Run gpedit.msc to open it. Navigate to the following setting:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates, and Control Panel
In the right pane of Control Panel, double click/tap on Prohibit access to Control Panel and PC settings.
This setting disables all Control Panel programs and the PC settings app. It prevents Control.exe and SystemSettings.exe, the program files for Control Panel and PC settings, from starting. As a result, users cannot start Control Panel or PC settings, or run any of their items. It removes Control Panel from the Start screen and File Explorer, and removes PC Settings from the Start screen, Settings charm, Account picture and Search results. If users try to select a Control Panel item from the Properties item on a context menu, a message appears explaining that a setting prevents the action.
Using Registry Editor
If your version of Windows does not have Group Policy, you can use the Registry Editor to disable access to Control Panel and and PC Settings. To do so, Run regedit and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In the left pane, create a new DWORD (32-bit). Name it NoControlPanel and give it value 1. The following are the possible values and how they work:
0 will enable Control Panel and PC Settings
1 will disable Control Panel and PC Settings
After you prohibit access to Control Panel and PC settings, if any user tries to access them, they will receive the following error box:
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.
Hope you are able to get it to work.
Did you know that Windows 10 will not restart if your Registry Hives are larger than 2GB. This is another small bit of interesting information.
The Windows Registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, users, preferences of the PC, and so on. A Registry Hive is a logical group of keys, subkeys, and values in the registry that has a set of supporting files containing backups of its data and are located in the \system32\, \winnt\, etc locations.
If you are running 64-bit Windows 10 or Windows Server 2012, and the size of your Windows Registry Hives are larger than 2 GB in size, your computer just will not restart.
This is because the registry hives in x64-based version of Windows have a 2 GB size limit, and if the size exceeds this limit, the system is unable to restart.
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem and a known issue.
If you are experiencing this particular issue, then you can download Hotfix 496812 via KB2978366.
Once you have applied this hotfix, you may be required to restart your computer.
The Windows Registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, users, preferences of the PC, and so on. A Registry Hive is a logical group of keys, subkeys, and values in the registry that has a set of supporting files containing backups of its data and are located in the \system32\, \winnt\, etc locations.
If you are running 64-bit Windows 10 or Windows Server 2012, and the size of your Windows Registry Hives are larger than 2 GB in size, your computer just will not restart.
This is because the registry hives in x64-based version of Windows have a 2 GB size limit, and if the size exceeds this limit, the system is unable to restart.
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem and a known issue.
If you are experiencing this particular issue, then you can download Hotfix 496812 via KB2978366.
Once you have applied this hotfix, you may be required to restart your computer.
There may be times when you may want to terminate explorer.exe. Maybe your explorer hangs or freezes frequentlyand you need to exit or restart explorer. To do this, you will normally start the Task Manager. Select explorer.exe from the processes, and click on the End Task button.
Windows 10 offers you something more! It even offers the option to terminate explorer from the Start Screen. You need to go to he Start Screen, press Ctrl+Shift and then right-click. You will then see the option to Exit Explorer.
To restart explorer, while in earlier version of Windows, you needed to do the following to restart explorer – Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch Task Manager > Open the File menu > Choose Run New Task > Type explorer.exe > Click OK. Windows 10 Task Manager lets you restart explorer using the Task Manager context menu.
There are several other ways where you can exit or even restart the Windows File Explorer. For instance, you could even restart Windows Explorer easily with a shortcut or you could use Right Click Restart Explorer to add it to your desktop context menu. There is another interesting was where you could kill Windows 7 & Windows Vista explorer.exe in 3 clicks.
Exit Explorer in Windows 8
But did you know that the Taskbar too offers this option. This is not exactly a new option, but has been around for a while. If you simply right-click on the Taskbar you will not see this option. To see it, you will have to press Ctrl+Shift and then right-click. You will then see the Exit Explorer option.Windows 10 offers you something more! It even offers the option to terminate explorer from the Start Screen. You need to go to he Start Screen, press Ctrl+Shift and then right-click. You will then see the option to Exit Explorer.
To restart explorer, while in earlier version of Windows, you needed to do the following to restart explorer – Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch Task Manager > Open the File menu > Choose Run New Task > Type explorer.exe > Click OK. Windows 10 Task Manager lets you restart explorer using the Task Manager context menu.
There are several other ways where you can exit or even restart the Windows File Explorer. For instance, you could even restart Windows Explorer easily with a shortcut or you could use Right Click Restart Explorer to add it to your desktop context menu. There is another interesting was where you could kill Windows 7 & Windows Vista explorer.exe in 3 clicks.
Very few of us may have bothered to have a look at these settings, but Windows 10 does offer some privacy control options that let you control how applications can access your information, which ads can be shown, and more. Let us have a look at these settings, so that you can change the defaults, should you wish to.
To change the privacy options and settings in Windows 10, open Charms > Settings > Change PC settings. Select Privacy from the left side, and you will see the options displayed in the image above.
Once here, under the General sub-heading, you will be able to change your privacy settings for the following:
You will also see a link to the Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard. Clicking on Manage my Microsoft advertising and other personalization info will take you there.
Apart from this, you will also be able to see various other Privacy settings and sub-headings like Location, Webcam,Microphone and Other devices. You can chose whether you want Windows and apps to use your location information and let apps use your webcam, microphone, etc.
Hope you find this bit of information useful.
Privacy settings & options in Windows 10
To change the privacy options and settings in Windows 10, open Charms > Settings > Change PC settings. Select Privacy from the left side, and you will see the options displayed in the image above.
Once here, under the General sub-heading, you will be able to change your privacy settings for the following:
- Do you want the SmartScreen Filter to check web links that the Windows Store or Universal apps use?
- Can apps use your advertising ID?
- Would you like to see text suggestions as you type?
- Do you want to allow websites to provide you with locally relevant content?
You will also see a link to the Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard. Clicking on Manage my Microsoft advertising and other personalization info will take you there.
Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard
Here you will be able to manage your Interests, set which Microsoft ads you want to see, subscribe to or unsubscribe from Microsoft newsletters, configure Bing Search results and more. In short, it lets you manage how Microsoft can use your information.Apart from this, you will also be able to see various other Privacy settings and sub-headings like Location, Webcam,Microphone and Other devices. You can chose whether you want Windows and apps to use your location information and let apps use your webcam, microphone, etc.
Hope you find this bit of information useful.
If you have wanted to set up Work Folders in Windows 10, then this post is sure to interest you. Microsoft introduced Work Folders in Windows 10. This new feature is basically a Bring Your Own Device enhancement, that will allow you to work from anywhere, from your different devices.
To set up Work Folders in Windows 10, you can open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Work Folders and click on Set up Work Folders. But if you are using Windows 10 and are looking forward to using this feature, you will now be able to do it, after applying this update.
Work Folders for Windows 10 will enable you to use a Windows 10 computer to access your Work Folders only if the following conditions are true:
You have a Windows 10 computer that is joined to your organization’s domain
Your organization offers Work Folders and has set it up for your domain account.
There are a few known issues, you may want to know about, before you decide to install Work Folders for Windows 10:
If you upgrade from Windows 10, and the data is kept on the computer without the partnership information. If the local folder that stores Work Folders is encrypted on Windows 10, the same path cannot be used again on Windows 10. By default, it is located in C:\Users\Username\Work Folders. You may have to employ workarounds.
When a user migrates the computer from Windows 10 by using User State Migration Tool and configures the migrate settings to include the user partnership information, the Work Folders data is not migrated.
If the client installs a localized (non-English) version of the Work Folders on Windows 10, after migration, the Work Folders shortcut under the Favorite folder is displayed in English.
Client computers must use Internet Explorer 9 or later, otherwise, users cannot be authenticated against the server.
After installing this update, Work Folders Group Policy template may indicate that it only applies to Windows 10 only, but you can apply it in Windows 10 too. You will also find the settings for Work Folders in Group Policy under:
Users > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Work Folders
The Work Folders shortcut is added to user’s Favorites folder in Windows Explorer on Windows 10. If the Favorites folder is redirected to a network share, the shortcut for Work Folders will not be present.
If the Work Folders client experiences slow sync performance install hotfix 2665206
Download Work Folders for Windows 10 Updates from the links mentioned at KB2891638. It is available for Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Professional and Windows 10 Ultimate, 32-bit as well as 64-bit systems.
To set up Work Folders in Windows 10, you can open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Work Folders and click on Set up Work Folders. But if you are using Windows 10 and are looking forward to using this feature, you will now be able to do it, after applying this update.
Work Folders in Windows 7
As we had mentioned in our earlier post, Microsoft was planning to release an add-on client for Windows 10 and an App for the iPad too. And true to its promise, Microsoft has today released Updates for Windows 10, that will allow you to install Work Folders in Windows 10 Service Pack 1 too.Work Folders for Windows 10 will enable you to use a Windows 10 computer to access your Work Folders only if the following conditions are true:
You have a Windows 10 computer that is joined to your organization’s domain
Your organization offers Work Folders and has set it up for your domain account.
There are a few known issues, you may want to know about, before you decide to install Work Folders for Windows 10:
If you upgrade from Windows 10, and the data is kept on the computer without the partnership information. If the local folder that stores Work Folders is encrypted on Windows 10, the same path cannot be used again on Windows 10. By default, it is located in C:\Users\Username\Work Folders. You may have to employ workarounds.
When a user migrates the computer from Windows 10 by using User State Migration Tool and configures the migrate settings to include the user partnership information, the Work Folders data is not migrated.
If the client installs a localized (non-English) version of the Work Folders on Windows 10, after migration, the Work Folders shortcut under the Favorite folder is displayed in English.
Client computers must use Internet Explorer 9 or later, otherwise, users cannot be authenticated against the server.
After installing this update, Work Folders Group Policy template may indicate that it only applies to Windows 10 only, but you can apply it in Windows 10 too. You will also find the settings for Work Folders in Group Policy under:
Users > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Work Folders
The Work Folders shortcut is added to user’s Favorites folder in Windows Explorer on Windows 10. If the Favorites folder is redirected to a network share, the shortcut for Work Folders will not be present.
If the Work Folders client experiences slow sync performance install hotfix 2665206
Download Work Folders for Windows 10 Updates from the links mentioned at KB2891638. It is available for Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Professional and Windows 10 Ultimate, 32-bit as well as 64-bit systems.
After the Windows 10 Update, you may find that the Start Screen Tiles are behaving a bit differently. Apart from the several new features the Update adds, the introduction of the context menu – instead of the App Bar – for Tile operations is a new feature.
When you click on a Tile, the app or software or program opens. When you right-click on it, you see a context menu. Right-click on another tile and the first one gets de-selected and the context menu for the next tile opens.
You will no longer see the App bar at the bottom when you select any tile; but sure, you can still bring it up still – by simply pressing the Win+Z keys or the Space bar. What you see instead is the familiar context menu..
Once you have selected a bunch of Tiles that you wish to carry out the common operation on, right-click on any of the selected Tiles to bring up the context menu for the selected Start Screen Tiles.
You will see that you will be able to perform the following operations on the selected Tiles:
Not all may be visible; only those which are applicable may be displayed. Select the operation, and you will find that it is carried out and applied to all the selected Tiles. For instance, the Open file location option will be offered only when a single tile is selected.
Its a great way to uninstall multiple Windows Store apps in Windows 10 at once.
When you click on a Tile, the app or software or program opens. When you right-click on it, you see a context menu. Right-click on another tile and the first one gets de-selected and the context menu for the next tile opens.
Select multiple Tiles
If you wish to select multiple Tiles for performing any action, you can press Ctrl key and click on the Tile. The Tile will get selected. Do the same for the other Tiles too.You will no longer see the App bar at the bottom when you select any tile; but sure, you can still bring it up still – by simply pressing the Win+Z keys or the Space bar. What you see instead is the familiar context menu..
Once you have selected a bunch of Tiles that you wish to carry out the common operation on, right-click on any of the selected Tiles to bring up the context menu for the selected Start Screen Tiles.
You will see that you will be able to perform the following operations on the selected Tiles:
- Unpin from Start
- Pin to taskbar
- Uninstall
- Open new window
- Open file location
- Resize
- Turn live tile off
- Clear selection.
Not all may be visible; only those which are applicable may be displayed. Select the operation, and you will find that it is carried out and applied to all the selected Tiles. For instance, the Open file location option will be offered only when a single tile is selected.
Its a great way to uninstall multiple Windows Store apps in Windows 10 at once.
Yes, you read it right! Although Microsoft has in its Windows 10 Lifecycle Policy page stated that Mainstream Support for Windows 10 ends January 9, 2018 and Extended Support end January 10, 2023, those Windows 10 users who have not yet installed or been unable to install Windows 10 Update, will not be able to receive future security and general updates from the coming Patch Tuesday.
Microsoft has urged all to install this update by May 13th.
Starting patch Tuesday in May 2014 and beyond, if this Windows 10 Update is not installed on your computer, all future Windows Updates, including the Security patches will be considered as being not applicable to your system and NOT be offered to your computer.
This means that Microsoft will not offer Windows Updates to your Windows 10 or Windows 10 system, if the Windows 10 Update is not installed on it – effectively killing support for it, indirectly.
Of course this does not mean that Microsoft is actually ending support for Windows 10, but by not offering patches and update to it, the Redmond giant will in a way stop “supporting” its latest iteration of the Windows operating system.
Though it now appears that this issue has been resolved for most users, if you are one who has still not updated their computer to Windows 10 Update by installing KB2919355, we urge you to install it right away. If you facing issues, you might want to follow some troubleshooting steps. If this does not help, Microsoft Answers would be the best place to get help.
It is imperative that your computer has the Windows 10 Update installed, and I do not have to underline the urgency of it. If you do not have it installed, your Windows 8 too, like Windows XP, would be dead in the water, as it wouldn’t be able to receive any Windows Updates – critical or non-critical.
Windows 8.1 support ends May 2014 … sort of !
Windows 10 Update package KB2919355 introduces several new features. But Windows 10 Update has not been installing for many users. Microsoft did appear to have made some changes to the KB package, which included somechanges to the Windows Update client. It did make installation of the Windows 10 Update go though smoothly for many users – though initially, quite a few users did face issues while installing this update. But there are some who are still facing issues.Microsoft has urged all to install this update by May 13th.
Starting patch Tuesday in May 2014 and beyond, if this Windows 10 Update is not installed on your computer, all future Windows Updates, including the Security patches will be considered as being not applicable to your system and NOT be offered to your computer.
This means that Microsoft will not offer Windows Updates to your Windows 10 or Windows 10 system, if the Windows 10 Update is not installed on it – effectively killing support for it, indirectly.
Of course this does not mean that Microsoft is actually ending support for Windows 10, but by not offering patches and update to it, the Redmond giant will in a way stop “supporting” its latest iteration of the Windows operating system.
Though it now appears that this issue has been resolved for most users, if you are one who has still not updated their computer to Windows 10 Update by installing KB2919355, we urge you to install it right away. If you facing issues, you might want to follow some troubleshooting steps. If this does not help, Microsoft Answers would be the best place to get help.
It is imperative that your computer has the Windows 10 Update installed, and I do not have to underline the urgency of it. If you do not have it installed, your Windows 8 too, like Windows XP, would be dead in the water, as it wouldn’t be able to receive any Windows Updates – critical or non-critical.
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