You may find many 0-byte files in the root of the C:\ drive. The file names may start with WAL. You wonder what causes these files to be created and whether they can be deleted.
Utilities
How to Block the Windows 11 (24H2) Feature Update
If you’re using Windows 10 or an earlier version of Windows 11, such as 23H2, you can block the Windows 11 24H2 Feature update from being offered or installed automatically via Windows Update.
Windows 10 22H2 is supported till October 2025, and Windows 11 23H2 till November 2025. Until then, you can defer the latest feature update (24H2) if you don’t need it now.
To block the 24H2 update, you can use the “ProductVersion”, “TargetReleaseVersion”, and “TargetReleaseVersionInfo” registry values or the equivalent Group Policy setting.Read more
How to Move a VirtualBox VM to another location
After you move a VirtualBox VM to another folder or drive using File Explorer, the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager fails to detect the new location and thus can’t load the VM. The following error message occurs when you load a VM after moving the corresponding VM folder or the .nvram, .vbox, .vbox-prev, and the .vdi file to another location.Read more
How to Download an Older version of Windows 11 ISO
Since Windows 11 24H2 has been released, the official ISO download pages now point to the 24H2 ISO. The earlier (23H2) ISO is no longer linked via the official download page. If you need an older version of the Windows 10 or 11 ISO, you can get it from UUPdump.net.
Fix: Cannot Delete the Cygwin64 folder
If you installed “cygwin64” earlier and want to delete the folder after uninstalling the tool, you may be unable to do so.
It may say, “Folder Access Denied.” This can happen if the NTFS permissions for the folder are tight or the profile that owned the folder no longer exists on the computer.Read more
How to Run a Boot Trace Using Process Monitor
Process Monitor is an excellent diagnostic tool from Microsoft Sysinternals. It can run a trace during the current Windows session or trace the boot process. Let’s see how to enable boot tracing using Process Monitor. Enable Boot Logging using Process Monitor Download Process Monitor and run it. Read and accept the license agreement. If the … Read more
Convert a Dynamic disk to Basic (using Freeware) without Losing Data
If you’ve inadvertently converted your disk to a dynamic disk using Disk Management, you can revert it to a basic disk using the built-in diskpart command. Dynamic disks have been deprecated in Windows and are no longer recommended. Here’s a Microsoft article that explains how to convert a dynamic disk to a basic.
Change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk | Microsoft Learn
However, the biggest drawback to using the built-in tools is that volumes on the dynamic disk must be deleted before converting it to basic.Read more
Fix: WMI consuming High CPU and Memory
When you open Task Manager to investigate a sluggish computer, you may see that the WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe) process uses a lot of CPU and memory. Read more
Remove PotPlayer from the Open With dialog
After uninstalling PotPlayer, the PotPlayer entry may still appear in the Open With dialog for all media file types. To remove the PotPlayer (64-bit) entries, use the REG file in this article. Resolution First, uninstall PotPlayer via the Programs and Features dialog in the Control Panel if you haven’t already done so. You may also … Read more
Can I Password Protect a Zip file in Windows 10 or 11?
Windows provides built-in encryption features such as EFS and BitLocker. You wonder if it is natively possible to password-protect (encrypt) .zip files in Windows 10 or 11.Read more