The Windows Update service (wuauserv) enables the detection, download, and installation of updates for Windows and other programs. If this service is disabled, users of this computer will not be able to use Windows Update or its automatic updating feature, and programs will not be able to use the Windows Update Agent (WUA) API.Read more
The Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) service transfers files in the background using idle network bandwidth. If the service is disabled, then any applications that depend on BITS, such as Windows Update, will be unable to automatically download programs and other information.
If the BITS service is missing in the Services MMC console in Windows 10/11, use the registry fix in this article to restore it.Read more
The Details tab in the Properties sheet shows the file version, product name, copyright, and other details. However, Windows doesn’t let you copy the information to the clipboard.
In this article let’s see how to copy the file info to the clipboard using PowerShell. You can also incorporate the command to the right-click menu if desired.Read more
Clipchamp is a video creation and editing suite from Microsoft. This software is available via the Microsoft Store. This app will be installed as an inbox app in the upcoming builds of Windows 11. Note that this app is pre-installed in Windows 11 Insider build 22581.1 and higher.
Clipchamp installation would add the “Edit with Clipchamp” item in the context menu of image and video files. Notably, the “Edit with Clipchamp” and “Share with Skype” context menu entries are also shown in the Windows 11 fast context menu.
There are some bugs in the Clipchamp context menu. If you open the classic context menu by clicking “Show more options,” you may see that the “Print” command (or “Set as desktop background”) is the default option. This means that double-clicking on image files will open the Print dialog or set the image file as the desktop background.
The above bug could be simulated in the current version (v2.3.0.0) of Clipchamp.
See also: Troubleshoot Shell extension issues in Windows.
Also, the Clipchamp context menu removes the “Enqueue in Winamp” context menu option. A Winamp user reported this:
After installing the latest Beta release build of Windows 11, the Enqueue in Winamp option has disappeared from the right-click menu for media files. In Winamp, I tried unchecking “Show Winamp actions in folder context menus” and then re-enabling it, but I can’t seem to bring it back. I use this feature on a daily basis, so it’d be terrible to lose it. Anyone has any ideas on how I can get it to show back up?
Just figured it out. It replaced “Enqueue in Winamp” with “Edit with Clipchamp”, a new video editing program Microsoft just added in the Beta update. I went to add/remove programs and uninstalled Clipchamp, and my enqueue option returned.
If you wish to remove the “Edit with Clipchamp” context menu entry, you can do it using a simple registry edit.
Microsoft recently introduced the Search Highlights feature in Windows 10 and 11. Search Highlights is designed to help Windows users discover more information and related content. Search highlights present noteworthy, informative, and interesting information about what’s special about each day—like holidays, anniversaries, and other moments in time both globally and in your region.Read more
Every time when you place a file or a shortcut on your Desktop, you may get 2 identical icons. If one icon is deleted, the other icon will also be removed if you refresh the Desktop. The path for both icons would be the same. You may be wondering what causes the display of duplicate desktop icons in Windows.
This problem is caused by inadvertently dragging the desktop folder about in the person’s profile folder or All Users. Or, the user may have incorrectly changed the “User Shell Folders” registry value.
The Desktop is composed of two folders, one is the current user’s Desktop, and the other is the “All Users” (a.k.a, Public) Desktop. The Desktop is a special folder that displays the icons from both these locations.
Duplicate desktop icons issue occurs if both are set to the same folder. For instance, if the current user “Desktop” and All users’ “Desktop” paths (in the registry) are pointing to the same folder (e.g., %USERPROFILE%\Desktop), the Windows shell enumerates the items twice and displays the same set of icons twice on the desktop.Read more
Many Windows 11 users have reported a Windows Search issue wherein the PDF content search in File Explorer does not fetch anything. When you do a search in File Explorer, the results for other documents (e.g., Word, Excel, etc.) are discovered but not PDF files.
Even if you use the content: or contents: search operator (e.g., contents:contoso) in File Explorer to search for file content, the search results may be empty.
This post tells you how to fix PDF search indexing (file content search) issues, especially in Windows 11. The instructions apply to all versions of Windows.Read more
The PATH is a variable that Windows uses to locate needed executables, especially from the command line. Unfortunately, there are situations where users accidentally delete the PATH variable. This can happen when users inadvertently overwrite the PATH data rather than appending them.
There are also cases where some buggy applications or installers have wiped out the entire PATH environment variable data. This article explains the different ways to recover the PATH variable that was accidentally erased.Read more
Windows 11 comes with the modern Notepad app that automatically replaces the old/classic Notepad program. The new Notepad UWP app supports color emojis, dark mode, RichEdit editing enhancements, Ctrl+} for toggling between matching brackets/parentheses, multilevel undo, drag & drop, and automatic URL detection.Read more
When you preview PDF files in File Explorer or Microsoft Outlook on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer, the preview pane may show the directory index of the current folder instead of previewing the PDF file’s contents.
In some cases, it shows the following error:
File not found It may have been moved, edited, or deleted. ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND
