Software review series: KRITA

RocketDock is one of the most popular app launchers as it has been used excessively back in several windows versions. This was modeled based on the Mac OS X launch bar and offers an animated response when you hover the mouse over the apps gathered on the Dock. This is perched at the top of your screen, and you can easily drag your favorite app icons to have them in one place. The dock keeps all your most favorite shortcuts intact for faster and easy access. Like other apps, you can easily customize the dock with skins and other add-ons. If you would like to read more helpful articles and tips about various software and hardware visit errortools.com daily.

Diablo 2 resurrected has hit official release and servers seem to be finally taken care of and everything seems to be running smoothly now. The game also received great praise from gamers and attracted old players of the original Diablo 2 game. Speaking of old players of old Diablo 2, they can transfer their old characters into remaster and continue playing them within this new great HD environment. There are some steps and requirements but we are here to help and transferred characters will bring full stash, inventory, and equipped items with them.

Requirements

There are not many requirements for this transfer to occur but they must be respected in order to be successful. The first thing is a minor requirement and somewhat annoying but it needs to be done, firstly fire up Diablo 2 resurrected and create a character, any kind of character with any kind of name, any kind of class. This strange requirement is to actually create a character folder and register it inside D2 resurrected so we can copy old ones there. The second requirement will be that characters that you wish to be transferred must be offline characters. Old battle net online characters cannot be transferred at this moment and probably will not be in the future as well. So for all of you that wish to transfer online characters, bad luck, for the rest of us casuals playing offline single-player mode, we can enjoy our characters.

Process of diablo 2 character trasfer

The process itself of transferring characters when previously mentioned requirements are met is just a simple and copy operation. If you have somewhere backed your characters go into your backup folder and copy files in c:\users\*current user*\saved games\*diablo 2 resurrected folder* If you do not have characters backed up and just have old Diablo 2 installed and playing it, you can go to c:\users\*current user*\saved games\*diablo 2 folder* and just copy all characters files into c:\users\*current user*\saved games\*diablo 2 resurrected folder* Your old characters end with .d2s extension, grab all that you want to transfer, and copy them into D2R. Take note that copied characters cannot be brought back into Diablo 2, once they are copied into Diablo 2 resurrected all further progress on them will be tied to the new game.

Conclusion

That’s it about the transfer process and requirements for it. Fire up the new game version and enjoy.

Recently, a number of users reported not being able to use the Restore, Minimize and Close buttons on their Windows 10 computers. This kind of issue can be quite annoying as you won’t be able to use your computer properly, especially when you navigate between programs and windows. In such cases, the buttons on the right side of the title bar won’t respond to any inputs which could be caused by a number of factors such as different input modes, corrupted system files, and many more. If you are one of the users who are currently facing this problem, worry not for this post will guide you on what you can do to resolve it. There are several potential fixes you can check out to fix the issue. You can try to check if Tablet Mode is enabled and if it is, you have to disable it. You could also boot your computer in a Clean Boot State to check if a third-party program is the one that’s causing the problem. In addition, you could also reinstall the program where you experience the problem or run built-in utilities like System File Checker and DISM tool.

Option 1 – Make sure that you are not in Tablet Mode

Since Windows 10 is designed to work on both desktop and mobile devices, it could be that your computer has slipped into Tablet Mode which explains why you’re not seeing the Taskbar. To check if your computer is really in Tablet Mode, follow these steps:

• Go to the Start menu and select Settings.
• Next, select the System setting and from the left pane select the Tablet Mode.
• From there, make sure that the buttons next to the options given below are set to the off position:
  • Hide app icons on the taskbar in tablet mode
  • Automatically hide the taskbar in tablet mode

Option 2 – Put your computer in a Clean Boot State

As pointed out, it is possible that some third-party program or service is the one that’s behind the problem. To isolate this possibility and to identify the culprit, you have to put your computer into a Clean Boot State. To do so, follow the steps below.

• Log onto your PC as an administrator.
• Type in MSConfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
• From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
• Clear the “Load Startup items” check box and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.
• Next, click the Services tab and select the “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box.
• Click Disable all.
• Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)
• Once your computer is in a Clean Boot State, try to open the program where the problem occurred.

Option 3 – Try reinstalling the program

If the first two options didn’t work, then you might want to consider uninstalling the program and then install it back with its latest version. This should resolve the problem.

Option 4 – Try to run System File Checker

System File Checker or SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files to good system files that might be the cause why the Restore, Minimize and Close buttons don’t work. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Type “cmd” in the Start search and then right-click on the appropriate search result.
• Next, select “Run as administrator” to open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow

The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:

1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

• Now restart your computer and see if the problem is fixed or not.

Option 5 – Run the DISM tool

You can try running the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management or DISM tool to fix the problem. Using this built-in tool, you have various options such as the “/ScanHealth”, “/CheckHealth”, and “/RestoreHealth”.

• Open the Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• Then type in the following commands and make sure to hit Enter right after you type each one of them:
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  • exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
• Do not close the window if the process takes a while as it will probably take a few minutes to finish. Once it’s done, restart your computer.

If you are trying to start a service using the Windows Services Manager but you got an error message stating, “The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service”, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will provide you instructions on how you can fix this error. Since almost all program requires service to run on your computer, if the service is not listed in the corresponding registry key, then you will most likely encounter this error on your Windows 10 computer. Here’s the entire content of the error message:

“Windows could not start the service on Local Computer. Error 1083: The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service.”

To fix this error, you have to add the service name in the respective host in the Registry Editor, and to do that, here are some steps you need to take on. Step 1: The first thing you have to do is to take note of the service name that’s given in the error message. For instance, you get the “Windows Management Service. Step 2: Next, you need to open the Services Manager by tapping the Win + R keys and typing “services.msc” in the Run dialog box, and then tapping Enter. Step 3: After opening the Services Manager, look for the Windows Management Service and once you see it, double click on it. This will open a new mini window. Step 4: From the newly opened window, copy the Service name and the Path to executable under the General tab. If the path to the executable is displayed as “C:/Windows/system32/svchost.exe -k netsvcs –p”, you need the “netsvcs” part only. Note that it can be different for different services and you need the part that comes after “-k”. Step 5: Now tap the Win + R keys again to open Run utility and type “Regedit” in the field and click OK to open the Registry Editor. Step 6: After that, navigate to the following registry path:

ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionSvchost

Step 7: From the given registry path, look for a key named “REG_MULTI_SZ” located on your right-hand side. This key is named after the “Path to executable” part. For instance, you should see “netsvcs”. Step 8: Double click on the REG_MULTI_SZ key and enter the Service name that you’ve copied earlier and then write it down at the end of the preset list. Step 9: Now save the changes you’ve made and try to open the program or run the service again.

If you’re having some problem browsing multiple websites on the Firefox browser on your Windows 10 computer, then this post might be of help. One of the most common problems you could encounter in Firefox is mostly related to HTTPS and one of them is the MOZILLA PKIX ERROR MITM DETECTED or ERROR SELF SIGNED CERT or SEC ERROR UNKNOWN ISSUER error which means that Firefox was unable to trust certificates issued on secured websites. If you encounter the MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_MITM_DETECTED error in Firefox, this indicates that something in your network or system is interrupting your connection and injecting certificates and when that happens, Firefox won’t trust it. In such cases, one of the culprits is malware. Malware will try to replace a legitimate certificate with its certificate. Another cause is security software where it keeps a tab on a secure connection and creates a false positive, for instance:

“In Microsoft Windows accounts protected by Family Safety settings, secure connections on popular websites like Google, Facebook and YouTube might be intercepted and their certificates replaced by a certificate issued by Microsoft in order to filter and record search activity.”

And if you are connected to a corporate network, there might be a monitoring/filtering product that could be replacing certificates. Moreover, there are also users who reported getting this issue when they use the Nightly version of Firefox. And if that’s the case, you have to try accessing secure websites using only the stable build especially when it comes to payments. However, if you are not doing that, then here are some options you need to check out.

Option 1 – Try turning off HTTPS Scanning on your security and antivirus programs

Each security-based software has a security option that allows you to turn off the HTTPS scanning functionality. They may be available under different names such as HTTPS Scanning, Scan SSL, Show safe result, Do not scan encrypted connections, etc. Find what is applicable for your security or antivirus software and then try turning it off temporarily and see if it helps in fixing the MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_MITM_DETECTED error in Firefox.

Option 2 – Try to disable security.enterprise_roots.enabled

The next thing you can do if the first option didn’t work is to disable security.enterprise_roots.enabled which is an HTTPS certificate check on Firefox. Note that this is not recommended but you have to at least try in order to fix the error.

• Open Firefox and then type “about: config” in the Firefox address bar and hit Enter.
• After that, if an info message appears, confirm it.
• Next, search for the security.enterprise_roots.enabled preference and once you found it, double click on it.
• Then change its value to true and restart the Firefox browser once. This will import all the custom certificates from the other security software into Firefox. As a result, it will make sure to mark those sources as trusted and you won’t get the MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_MITM_DETECTED error.

BigTech platforms Google and Facebook were hit with a series of antitrust lawsuits by the US federal government and states on charges they are operating monopolies and abusing their power. Below is the status of the cases, as well as government probes of Apple and Amazon in their current states

Two lawsuits against Facebook

In a defeat, Judge James Boasberg said the Federal Trade Commission, which had sued Facebook in December asking that Facebook be forced to sell WhatsApp and Instagram, failed to show that Facebook had monopoly power in the social-networking market, among other problems. However, the FTC could file a new complaint by July 29. He threw out a related state lawsuit entirely, saying that the attorney's general had waited too long. They are looking at their options.

Four lawsuits against Google

The US Justice Department sued Google in October, accusing the $1 trillion company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals. A trial date was set for September 12, 2023. A lawsuit by 38 US states and territories accuses Google of abusing its market power to try to make its search engine as dominant inside cars, TVs, and speakers as it is in phones. This was consolidated with the federal lawsuit for purposes of discovery. Texas, backed by other states, filed a separate lawsuit against Google, accusing it of breaking antitrust law in how it runs its online advertising business. Dozens of state attorneys general sued Google on July 7, alleging that it bought off competitors and used restrictive contracts to unlawfully maintain a monopoly for its app store on Android phones.

Justice Department investigates Apple

This probe, revealed in June 2019, appears to focus on Apple's app store. Some app developers have accused Apple of introducing new products very similar to existing apps created by other developers and sold in the Apple Store, and then trying to banish the older apps from the store because they compete with Apple's new product. Apple says it seeks to have only the highest-quality apps in the app store.

Justice Department probing Facebook and Amazon

In July 2019, the Justice Department said it was expanding its Big Tech probes to include "search, social media, and some retail services online", an apparent reference to Facebook and Amazon.

Federal Trade Commission on Amazon

In its investigation of Amazon, the FTC is likely looking at the inherent conflict of interest of Amazon competing with small sellers on its marketplace platform, including allegations that it used information from sellers on its platform to decide what products it would introduce.

Interrupts are designed so that the resource requests don’t get into a headlock when it comes to the hardware level. To simply put it, it is used to break a loop that never ends. Aside from that, developers also designed levels in order to prioritize interrupts. It is also known as “Interrupt Request Level” or IRQL. And if you suddenly encounter a “Bugcode 0xA –IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” error, this means that a driver has accessed a memory location illegally while NT is operating at a specific IRQL. The Bugcode 0xA –IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is a fatal driver coding error and as an end-user, there isn’t much that you can do to resolve it but if you’re a developer, then this means that your code is trying to access an invalid memory location. You could check on different parameters such as memory location that was referenced and code addressed which referenced memory. The technical parameters are:

• a memory location that was referenced
• IRQL at time of reference
• 0 = read, 1 = write
• code addressed which referenced memory

As mentioned earlier, if you are an end-user, there is nothing much that you can do to resolve this problem, but worry not for there are still possible solutions that could help you in fixing it. Refer to the suggestions laid out below to fix Bugcode 0xA –IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error.

Option 1 – Try running the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

The first thing you can do to fix the problem is by running the Hardware Troubleshooter. Although it won’t make much of a difference, there’s still a possibility that it could automatically fix the problem. To use it, refer to these steps:

• The first thing you need to do is click on Start and then on the gear-like icon to pull up the window for Settings.
• After opening Settings, look for the Update and Security option and select it.
• From there, go to the Troubleshoot option located on the left-hand side of the list.
• Next, select Hardware and Devices from the list and open the Troubleshooter and run it. Once it is doing its job, wait for it to complete the process and then restart the system.
• After the system restarts, check if the problem’s now fixed. If not, refer to the next option given below.

Option 2 – Try to update or rollback your device drivers

If the first option didn’t work for you, then it’s time to either update or roll back the device drivers. It is most likely that after you updated your Windows computer that your driver also needs a refresh. On the other hand, if you have just updated your device drivers then you need to roll back the drivers to their previous versions. Whichever applies to you, refer to the steps below.

• Open the Devices Manager from the Win X Menu.
• Then locate the device drivers and right-click on them to open the Properties.
• After that, switch to the Driver tab and click on the Uninstall Device button.
• Follow the screen option to completely uninstall it.
• Finally, restart your computer. It will just reinstall the device drivers automatically.

Note: You can install a dedicated driver on your computer in case you have it or you could also look for it directly from the website of the manufacturer.

Option 3 – Run the Memory Diagnostic Tool to check for Memory leaks

• Tap the Win + R keys to open Run and type exe and hit Enter to open the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool.
• After that, it will give two options such as:
  • Restart now and check for problems (Recommended)
  • Check for problems the next time I start my computer
• Once your computer has restarted, perform a basic scan or you could also go for the “Advanced” options such as “Test mix” or “Pass count”. Simply tap the F10 key to start the test.

Note: After you select the option, your PC will restart and check for memory-based issues. If it finds any issues, it will automatically fix them and if there’s no issue found, then it’s most likely not a memory-based issue so you should try the other options given below.

Error Code 30088-26 is shown when the user tries to install the MS Office suite to their PC. It is mostly due to several reasons including corrupted Office installation, the remnant of old office installation, or even Windows updates. We will cover all reasons along with provided solutions to each one. Follow the guide below to address each scenario with the fix for it.

Corrupted Office installation

In order to fix this issue, you will need to repair the installation itself.

• Press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog
• Inside run dialog type in Control Panel
• In the control panel double click on Programs and features
• In the list of installed application find MS Office and click on it to select it
• On top, just above the application list click on the change
• Office dialog will be opened with multiple choices
• Click and select Online repair and then click on Repair
• Make sure that you have a stable internet connection and leave the process to be finished

Remnants of old office installation

Manually cleaning remnants of old office installation is not an easy task and it can be different from system to system depending on the previous Office version. Luckily Microsoft has a dedicated office cleaning tool made for purpose of removing old tails and remnants of old office installations.

• Download tool here
• After the tool has been successfully downloaded, double-click on the .diagcab file to open it
• Click on Advanced and make sure that the box associated with Apply repair automatically is checked.
• Click the Next button to proceed
• Wait until the initial detection phase is complete, then click on Installing at the first prompt
• Select the program that you’re encountering issues with (most likely Microsoft Office) and click Next once again
• At the next screen, click on Yes, try to uninstall
• Wait until the operation is complete, then restart your computer and re-install the Microsoft Office suite

Windows Updates

After digging and trying out various solutions for this issue we came to the conclusion that this error can occur if Windows is not fully updated, and by fully updated we mean fully, not just critical updates, but all available ones. Check-in your setting to see if there are some uninstalled or pending updates waiting to be installed and if that is the case install them all. After completely updating your Operating system error should vanish and you should be able to install Microsoft office without issues.

The GeForce Experience on graphics card manufactured by NVIDIA is an advantage for users who loves gaming as it makes enhances users’ gaming experience. However, there are times when it may also encounter some problems. One of the problems users may encounter is the error code 0x0001. This kind of error occurs when users open the NVIDIA GeForce Experience utility. Here’s the full content of the error message:

“Something went wrong, try rebooting your PC and then launch GeForce Experience, ERROR CODE: 0x0001.”

Errors like this one diminish the overall experience of users due to the fact that when this error occurs, the NVIDIA GeForce experience wouldn’t even start which renders its features useless. There are several potential fixes you can check out to resolve this error but before you check them out, you can try to restart your computer first and then open the NVIDIA GeForce Experience once again, if you still encounter the error, then you need to check the NVIDIA Display Driver Services or update your NVIDIA display drivers or switch to the BETA release. You could also try to install and reinstall the NVIDIA display drivers or perform System Restore and see if it helps. For detailed instructions, follow the given options below.

Option 1 – Try to check the NVIDIA Display driver services

• Tap the Win + R keys to open Run and then type “services.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Services Manager.
• From there, look for the following NVIDIA services and make sure that their Startup types are as follows:
  • NVIDIA Display Container LS – Automatic
  • NVIDIA NetworkService Container – Manual
  • NVIDIA LocalSystem Container – Automatic
  • NVIDIA LocalSystem Container – Automatic
  • NVIDIA GeForce Experience Service – Automatic (Delayed Start)
  • NVIDIA Geforce Experience Backend Service – Automatic (Delayed Start)
  • NVIDIA Telemetry Container service – Automatic
• Next, double click on each one of the services and go to Properties. Here, check if the service is running. If it’s not, just click on the Start button. On the other hand, if they’re already running, just click on Stop and then click on Start again.

Option 2 – Try to update the NVIDIA Display drivers

You can also try updating the NVIDIA display drivers as it might help in fixing the error. To update them, follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next type in “dxdiag” in the field and click OK or hit Enter to open the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.
• From there, you can see what type of NVIDIA graphics card that your system is on.
• Take note of your graphics card information and then look for the best drivers for your operating system. Once you’ve downloaded and installed the file, restart your PC.

Note: If you want to try out the beta release of the NVIDIA display drivers, click on this link. Beware though that the beta software is unstable and buggy and may cause some different bugs.

Option 3 – Try to roll back the driver to the previous version

If updating the NVIDIA display drivers didn’t work for you, then it’s time to roll back the device drivers. It is most likely that after you updated your Windows computer that your driver also needs a refresh.

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run window and then type in the “msc” command and hit Enter to open the Device Manager window.
• Under the Device Manager, you will see a list of drivers. From there, look for the NVIDIA Drivers and expand it.
• Next, select the driver entries that are labeled appropriately.
• Then select each one of them and double click to open a new mini window.
• After that, make sure that you’re on the Driver tab and if you are not, just navigate to it then click the Roll Back Driver button to switch back to the previous version of the NVIDIA Drivers.
• Now restart your computer to successfully apply the changes made.

Option 4 – Try to run System Restore

You could also run System Restore as it might help fix the error code 0x0001 in NVIDIA GeForce Experience.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
• Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and then check if the error code 0x0001 in GeForce Experience is now fixed.

Option 5 – Do a clean install on the NVIDIA driver

• Before you do a clean install on the NVIDIA driver, you have to download the latest version of the Display Driver first.
• Boot your Windows 10 PC into Safe Mode.
• After that, double click on the executable file of the Display Driver Uninstaller to run and install it.
• After the installation, open the program. Once you do, you should see the following window on your screen:
• In the program window, click on the “Clean and restart” button.
• After your PC has rebooted, download the NVIDIA drivers.
• Then select your Product Type, Product Series, Product, Operating System, and Language appropriate for your hardware specifications as well as personal requirements.
• Next, click on Search to display the latest available driver as per the information you entered.
• And click on Agree and Download to start downloading the latest driver executable file.
• Run the executable file after you finished downloading the latest driver executable file and then select Custom and click on Next.
• Afterward, select “Clean Install” and proceed. Doing so would install the latest driver on your PC.
• Restart your PC and check if the error’s now fixed. If not, you can try installing an older version of the driver instead.

As you know, the Windows 10 Action Center has a stack of all the notifications that come from different applications on your computer. So each time an app displays notifications, it will be displayed for about 5 seconds and then it disappears right away. Although the allotted time for the notifications to be displayed is quite enough to catch your attention and help you get a glance at the message, there are times when you might miss it and you hoped it could’ve been displayed a lot longer. So in this post, you will be guided on how you can increase or decrease the display time of the notification in Windows 10. The best way you can view the missed notification is to click on the Action Center. From there, you will see all the notifications that are grouped by the applications. This means that if you have a lot of notifications, it would be hard for you to find what you are looking for. Thus, in such cases, the best way you can do is to increase the display time for which notification to stay on the screen.

To get started, refer to the instructions given below.

Step 1: Tap the Win + I keys to open Settings. Step 2: Next, navigate to Home > Ease of Access > Display. Step 3: After that, scroll down to the end until you see the dropdown to change the notifications where you should see the “Show notifications for”. Step 4: Then you can change the time from the default 5 seconds to 7, 15, 30, and so on. Step 5: Once done, the display time of the notifications should stay longer but keep in mind that you must choose the length wisely so if you have notifications from a lot of apps, then the screen will also be filled with multiple notification cards.