When you change the desktop wallpaper, Windows remembers the file name and path of the last four wallpapers. The Personalize page (“Choose your picture”) displays the thumbnail image of five wallpapers; first thumbnail image is usually the current background, followed by thumbnails of previous four background images. This post tells you how to clear the wallpaper history using Registry Editor.Read more
Add “Settings” Cascading Context Menu on the Desktop in Windows 10
Microsoft has moved most of the Control Panel features into the Settings UI in Windows 10, and at some point the classic Control Panel may be removed altogether. The Settings panel has different categories: System, Devices, Phone, Network & Internet, Personalization, Apps, Accounts, Time & language, Gaming, Ease of Access, Cortana, Privacy, Update & security, and Mixed reality.Read more
How to View Your Windows 10 Product Key Using Script or Command-line
There are many tools to extract the Product Key from a live system or from the registry hive of an offline computer. Additionally, here is a neat little Vbscript that gets the Product Key of your current Windows installation–no third-party program required. The script works on Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10.Read more
Pin Any File or Folder to the Taskbar in Windows 10
Windows 8 and Windows 10 lets you pin folders to the Start screen, but pinning data files and folders to the taskbar is not allowed. The context menu entry Pin to Taskbar never exists for data files and folders. However, here is a neat little trick that lets you pin any file or folder (directory) to the taskbar.Read more
How to Replace Notepad With Notepad++ or Any Other Text Editor?
Notepad is a light-weight program suitable for users who need only very minimal text editing features. For additional features and functionalities, third-party editors like Notepad++ and Sublime Text are awesome with a lot of features built-in.
If you’re looking how to completely replace the plain old Notepad with Notepad++ or any third-party editor, this post tells you how to do it. Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Let’s see how you can replace Notepad with Notepad++ without replacing any system files.Read more
[Windows 10] “The Username or Password is Incorrect” Error at Every Restart
After installing a Feature Update like Fall Creators Update, you may face yet another weird issue. Whenever the computer is restarted, the first screen that may show up even before the login screen is: “The username or password is incorrect. Try again.“Read more
State Repository Service High CPU Usage in Fall Creators Update
After clean installing Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, some users face a problem where the State Repository Service consumes high CPU usage (anywhere between 20% to 100%) when an external link is clicked in Microsoft Edge. The system may stall for 20-30 seconds and then the link is opened.Read more
How to Reset a Windows 10 App When it Fails to Work
Windows 10 includes a feature where you can quickly reset a store app without having to uninstall and reinstall it. Universal Apps store their settings in per-app registry hives and resetting the app is probably the only way you can clear the settings.Read more
How to Clear Customize Notifications (System Tray) Icons in Windows?
Over time, many invalid or obsolete taskbar notification icons may show up in the “Customize notifications” or the “Select which icons appear on the Taskbar” page with invalid or missing icons.
This article describes how to clear the past and current items list in the Customize Notifications dialog in Windows. Information and the script here applies to all versions of Windows, including Windows 10.Read more
Fix Spooler Service Error 1068 “The dependency service or group failed to start”
When you attempt to start the Print Spooler service (via services.msc), one of the following error messages may appear and the Print Spooler service fails to start:
Could not start the Print Spooler service on Local Computer. Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion.
Could not start the Print Spooler service on Local Computer. Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start.
The event log may display the following messages:Read more
How to Prevent Auto redirection from IE to Edge for unsupported sites
Since Windows 10 version 20H2, Internet Explorer redirects users to Microsoft Edge (Chromium) when they visit websites that don’t support Internet Explorer. Microsoft Edge Chromium version 84 and higher have this feature. Many modern websites have designs that are incompatible with Internet Explorer. When the Internet Explorer user visits an … Read more
Windows 7 Stuck at “Checking for Updates” Screen and Consumes High CPU
Your Windows 7 computer may hang or get stuck when checking for updates, and consume high CPU time, thus bringing the system to a halt. This happens even though you have the Windows 7 SP1 installed.
This post tells you how to fix the problem.Read more
What is PortableBaseLayer Partition in Windows 10 Disk Management
After upgrading to Windows 10 version 1903 (Codenamed “19H1”), the Disk Management window may show an additional drive named PortableBaseLayer of size 8191 MB (8 GB) When the PortableBaseLayer drive is right-clicked, all the options (except Properties) are grayed out. PortableBaseLayer also shows up in the defragmenter (“Optimize drives”) window … Read more
How to Install Chrome Themes & Extensions on Edge Chromium
Microsoft decided to discontinue its EdgeHTML proprietary browser engine which was used in the Edge web browser. In December 2018, Microsoft announced that Edge was being rebuilt as a Chromium-based browser, which means using the Blink engine and terminating EdgeHTML. Let’s call the new Edge browser “Edge Chromium” or Chromium-based Edge.
This article focuses on how to install themes and extensions in Edge Chromium from the Chrome Web Store or other third-party sources.Read more
Replace Default User Account Avatar in Windows 10
Windows 10, by default uses a simple user picture with a grey background and the persona image represented by white curves. The user picture is visible during sign in, as well as in the Start menu as a small rounded thumbnail image. This post explains how to replace the simple user avatar/image with any other image of your choice. After completing the procedure below, new accounts use this image by default.Read more
Change Drag & Drop Sensitivity to Avoid Accidental Move of Files
Is your mouse or touchpad too sensitive which causes accidentally dragging of items on your desktop or File Explorer when clicked/tapped? By default, if you drag a file or folder by a distance of 4 pixels and release the mouse button, the default “drag and drop” action (move or copy, depending on whether you are dragging it to another folder on the same drive, or to a folder on another drive.) will take place.Read more
How to Prevent Installing Extensions in Microsoft Edge
It’s been more than a year since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update was released and Microsoft Edge got extensions support. To date, there are only 60+ Edge extensions available at the Windows Store, which is very less compared to the number of extensions available for mainstream browsers like Chrome or Firefox. Also, there are non-Store extensions that you can side-load into Edge.
Note: Information in this article does not apply to the new Microsoft Edge (Chromium). It’s applicable to the old Microsoft Edge browser only.
