Windows 11 new features and preview

Windows 11 has brought some new features and changed some of the existing ones. One of these changes includes quick switching of audio devices which will play audio. Audio switching can still be done under the taskbar, it is just a little different and one could say even hidden. Follow this quick guide and you will be switching from your headphones to speakers as an example in a matter of seconds.

1. Click on the speaker icon located in the far-right part of the taskbar.
2. After the quick settings menu appears click on the right arrow located right of the volume slider. If the arrow is not present, instead of click on the pencil icon, then on add, and finally select Volume from the list.
3. After clicking on the arrow icon, a list of all enabled audio devices on the system will replace the volume slider. Click on the desired audio device in order to make it active.
4. Click anywhere outside the quick setting menu to save changes and close it.

Note: in the Quick settings menu if you choose More Volume Settings it will bring you to System > Sound where you can access more sound input and output options.

When you get an igfxem.exe error in Windows, it is not really clear what does this means, usually, Windows throw us some code or we get a DLL error, rarely we get an EXE error. So what does this error means? Intel Graphics Executable Main Module, shortly called as IgfxEM module is a part of the Windows operating system. When you run Microsoft .NET Framework applications that use the AS/400 Data Queue ActiveX control (Mseigdq.dll) to read from and to write to IBM iSeries (AS/400) data queues, you may experience this error. In order to overcome this error and cope with it try the following things:

1. Increase Virtual Memory

   Go to the Start Menu and click on Settings. Type performance. Choose Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows. In the new window, go to the Advanced tab and under the Virtual memory section, click on Change. At the bottom of the new window, check what the Recommended value is and how it compares to Currently allocated. If the current setting is significantly less than the recommended, uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives box at the top of the same windows and then click on Custom size. Enter the Recommended value in the Initial Size box, and a larger figure in the Maximum size box. Click OK to save the new settings.

2. Download and update .NET framework

   Go to the Microsoft website and download the latest .NET framework. Once the download is complete, install the package following onscreen instructions.

3. Reinstall INTEL graphic drivers

   Go to the intel website and download the latest graphic drivers for your graphic card model. Once the download is complete, install the package following onscreen instructions.

4. Run SCF scan

   If all else fails, run command prompt and inside type sfc /scannow

The error code 0X8019019A is shown when a user fails to add his Yahoo account to the Mail app due to the outdated or corrupt installation of the Mail app. Not using an App-specific but a normal Yahoo account password may also result in the error at hand. In this guide, we will show you how to effectively fix this error so you can set up Yahoo mail.

1. Reboot PC

   Perform a restart of your system to rule out a temporary glitch in the system. Also, check if you can successfully access your email through a web browser using the same credentials as you are using with the Mail app. Additionally, make sure that no VPN or proxy server is being used to access the internet (VPN/proxy may work fine with the web version of Yahoo mail but may hinder the access through a mail client).

2. Update Windows and the Mail App to the Latest Build

   If your system is not updated to the latest build it can create incompatibility between the OS modules. Updating the Windows and Mail app of your system to the latest build may solve the problem.

3. Re-add the Yahoo Account to the Mail App

   The Yahoo account issue could be a result of a temporary glitch in the communication modules of the system. The glitch may get cleared if you remove and then re-add the Yahoo account to the Mail app.

4. Reset the Mail App to the Defaults

   You may fail to add the Yahoo account to the Mail app if the installation of Mail itself is corrupt. In this scenario, resetting the Mail app to the defaults may solve the problem.

5. Generate an App Password and Use it to Add the Yahoo Account to the Mail App

   Yahoo has implemented tons of security features to its accounts. One such feature is the use of app-specific passwords for less secure apps like the Mail app. If your Yahoo username or password is not working with the Mail app, then using the App-specific password may solve the problem.

Speech Recognition is a technology used to control computers using voice commands. Through this feature, you can say commands that your computer will respond to, and aside from that, you can also dictate text to your computer which eliminates the need to type words in any word processing program or text editor. All in all, the Speech Recognition feature allows you to communicate with your computer and improves your computer’s ability to understand your own voice better as well as improve its diction accuracy. However, before you can improve its accuracy, you need to “train the feature” first. And if so far you are not satisfied with its performance, you actually have the option to disable it. So in this post, you will be guided on how you can disable the Speech Recognition feature in Windows 10 v1809.

To disable Speech Recognition on your computer, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Go to Settings > Ease of Access. Step 2: From there, go to Speech. Step 3: Now switch off the toggle button for Speech Recognition to disable this feature. On the other hand, you can also disable the Online Speech Recognition feature if you really don’t want to have anything to do with it. You have two options to do that – you can either do it using Settings or using the Registry Editor.

Disable Online Speech Recognition feature via Settings:

• Click on the Start button and select Settings.
• Next, go to the Privacy section and click on the Speech option located at the right pane.
• Then switch the toggle button off to turn off the Online Speech Recognition feature.

Note: Speech services exist on your computer and even in the cloud since Microsoft collects essential information from these services in order to enhance user experience and if you want to stop this, you have to turn off the “Getting to know you” option under the “Inking and typing Personalization” section.

Disable Online Speech Recognition feature via Registry Editor:

Before you proceed, you need to create a System Restore Point first.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Then type “Regedit” in the field and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• Next, navigate to the following registry path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftSpeech_OneCoreSettingsOnlineSpeechPrivacy

• After that, check the default value of the “HasAccepted” key located in the right pane. As you can see its value is set to “1” which means that the Speech Recognition feature is enabled. And so to change it, you have to set “0” as its new value to permanently disable the feature.
• Just double click on the key and change the value from “1” to “0”. Keep in mind that even if you are using a 64-bit Windows 10 computer, you still have to create a 32-bit DWORD value.
• After that, restart your computer to apply the changes made.

In case you don’t know, Windows contains a feedback mechanism that generates error reports from hardware and software problems. These reports are temporarily stored in the system and send them back to Microsoft so that it can find solutions to the reported problems and fix them in the upcoming updates.  However, as time goes by, these reports actually take a lot of space in your computer which is why end-users like you are free to delete them with the help of the new Free Up Space feature in Windows 10. As useful the Free Up Space feature may be, there are times when you won’t be able to use it for some reason which is why in this post, you will be guided on how to use alternative ways in deleting very large System queued Windows Error Reporting file, some of which may run in Gigabytes. Every time the Windows Error Reporting or WER sends out an error file and looks for a solution, the WER server at Microsoft sends out a solution instantly. And if the solution is under investigation or is unknown, then you will be notified about it right away and will be asked for more details. As mentioned, even though the Free Up Space feature in Settings will be able to clear the error reporting files, there are instances when it won’t be able to delete very large System queued Windows Error Reporting files. Alternatively, there is an option to delete these files using the Disk Cleanup Utility. Feel free to select which option you’d like to use to get rid of Windows Error Reporting Files.

Option 1 – Delete Windows Error Reporting Files via Settings

• Go to Settings.
• From there, go to System > Storage > Free Up Space and then click on it to launch it.
• Afterward, give it some time to populate all the files and folders. Once it’s done, select “System created Windows Error Reporting files” to mark its checkbox while leaving the other options unchecked.
• Next, click on the Remove files button to delete all the Windows Error Reporting files from your computer.

Option 2 – Manually delete the Windows Error Reporting Files

• Tap the Win + E keys to open File Explorer.
• Next, enable the Hidden Files view from the menu.
• Then go to C:/ProgramData/MicrosoftWindowsWER.
• From there, you will see various folders like LocalReportArchive, ReportArchive, ReportQueue, and Temp.
• Open each one of the aforementioned folders and delete the archive files. Note that these files will have names similar to “00c58c1f-b836-4703-9bcf-c699ca24d285”.

Note: If you are not able to delete any of these files, you have to take ownership of the folder. To do so, refer to these steps:

• Right-click on the folder and then select Properties.
• Next, click on the Edit button in the Properties window and click OK to confirm if you got a User Account Control elevation request.
• After that, select user/group from the permission windows or click on the Add button to add another user or group. It would be best if you add “Everyone” to give permission.
• Then check “Full Control” under the “Allow” column to assign full access rights control permissions.
• Now edit the permission to Full Control for “Everyone”.
• Click OK to save the changes made and then exit.

On the other hand, if you do not want to go through all these troubles in deleting the Windows Error Reporting files, you can just disable it especially if it already becomes a daily annoyance as the files generate every day and their sizes are mostly gigabytes. And besides, there are times when these files do not make it to the Microsoft WER server and end up only occupying a lot of space for nothing.

Enter Cooler Master XG850 PLUS PLATINUM, a new, in-house designed power supply from Cooler Master. I will admit that in last years I was a big fan of Cooler Master and their components, well not all but power supply and PC cases were always products from them that I liked and used. The latest power supply from them does not disappoint and I must say that I like it very much, it is hi-quality, it is silent, it has a large LCD display where you can see its current state and also has some RGB lights so it looks cool in your case.

Technical specifications

So without further detours here are the technical specifications and then we will talk a little about it.

Opinion about Cooler Master XG850 PLUS PLATINUM

If we put aside the technical characteristics of the power supply itself we are left with visual and real working experience. Now real working experience will not be covered here since yea it is working great but it needs some time and a long period of testing in order to be able to say that it is indeed reliable and great but considering I have never had any issues personally with power supplies from Cooler Master I will assume that this one is also very reliable and hi-quality.

That leaves us basically with looks and feels of supply itself and I must say that I like it, and I mean I like it a lot. It feels hi-quality and it looks hi-quality. The LCD display is very good looking and it is very crisp and readable. With power supply some proprietary software so you can choose what you want on display on the screen and also you can control RGB and display colors with it.

I have not opened the power supply to see how it looks inside but from what I could see I think this would be my new power supply if I were building a new PC now. I recommend it and if you decide to get it I hope it will serve you long long time.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next time.

Cyclic Redundancy Check Error - What is it?

To begin with, Cyclic Redundancy Check is basically an error checking technique. This technique is used for data verification. It detects accidental changes in the data. It is used by computers to specifically check the data stored in the hard drive or optical disks (DVD’s and CD’s). The Cyclic Redundancy Check error occurs when the data being verified on the hard drive or optical disks is corrupt. Symptoms for this error code include program lock-ups, slow PC performance, inability to run and execute the desired program, system freeze and shutdown and startup issues.

Error Causes

The Cyclic Redundancy Check error code occurs due to the following reasons:

• Cluttered hard disk
• Registry corruption
• Misconfigured files
• Unsuccessful program installation

All these causes points towards registry issues and poor PC maintenance. The registry is the main database of the computer. This part of the PC saves practically every activity you perform on it including activities like application installation and deletion and web browsing to name a few. With time and frequent PC usage, the files generated from every activity you execute on your system begin to load the registry. These include even the unnecessary files like junk files, internet files and files of applications that you’ve uninstalled. All these files overload the registry and acquire a lot of hard disk space. And when you don’t remove these files on your system, eventually it leads to file misconfiguration, cluttered disk, and registry corruption. New program versions that you want to install and run on your system also don’t function because the files of the old program version still saved in the registry.

Further Information and Manual Repair

As the Cyclic Redundancy Check Error causes data corruption on the hard disk, it is advisable to fix this error right away. The reason is that it can have serious consequences. It can lead to data loss, fatal crashes, and system failures. When it comes to resolving Cyclic Redundancy Check Error, there are two ways to fix it:

Run the CHKDSK application.

This is a built-in feature in your Windows system. It checks for hard disk damage and attempts to resolve it.

As of the time of writing this article you no longer need or are required to have a password if you plan to log in to your Microsoft account. Microsoft explored various options for account security and came to the conclusion that passwords are obsolete. Microsoft is letting you access your account through the Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, SMS verification, or email verification code. All of these methods are way better in terms of security than passwords.

How to turn these features on?

To get rid of your Microsoft password, the process is simple. You simply need to go to your Microsoft account, click “advanced security options,” then “enable passwordless accounts” under the Additional security section.

As you know, you can find the number keys in two spots on your keyboard – one is above the letters while the second one is at the number pad. Recently, a number of users reported not being able to type any numbers on their keyboards while some reported that their keyboards only type numbers. This issue could occur on both sets of the number keys or on the one at the number pad. This is a rare situation and seldom happens to users. So if you are one of the few who experience the same problem then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you on what you can do to fix the keyboard issue. This issue is most likely due to a switched-off number pad, outdated or corrupted keyboard drivers, turned on mouse keys or it might have something to do with the physical connections. Whatever the cause is, here are some options you have to try to resolve the problem.

Option 1 – Try to enable Numlock

The first thing you can do to fix the issue with the keyboard is to enable the Numlock since one of the most common reasons for this kind of problem is where the keyboard won’t type numbers because the Numlock key is disabled. Thus, you have to enable this key by pressing it once to enable the number pad.

Option 2 – Turn off the Mouse key

• From the Start Menu, go to Control Panel.
• Navigate to Ease of Access Center.
• Then select the option “Make the keyboard easier to use”.
• Navigate to the option “Control the mouse with keyboard” and then uncheck the “Turn On Mouse Keys” option to turn off the Mouse key.
• Click on Apply and then on OK to save the changes made.

Note: The problem with the keyboard could stem down to a simple issue in its settings so if you have successfully followed the steps for this solution then you should be able to fix the problem.

Option 3 – Reinstall, update or rollback your keyboard driver

Once you’ve determined that the problem is in the software part of the keyboard, it is now time to try to reinstall, update or roll back your keyboard drivers. To reinstall the driver for your keyboard, refer to these steps:

• From the WinX Menu, open the Device Manager.
• In the Device Manager, you should find your laptop’s keyboard under the “Keyboards” option. Right-click on it and select the “Uninstall” option.

Note: If you’re not quite certain about your laptop’s keyboard, you can uninstall all the keyboards if there’s more than one.

• After that, restart your PC and see if the keyboard driver is installing automatically. If not, open the Device Manager again and right-click on Keyboards, and select the option “Scan for hardware changes” to install it.

Once the keyboard driver is installed again, check if your keyboard is now working properly or not.

Option 4 – Try connecting the keyboard to a different USB port or another computer

The problem might have something to do with the USB port that’s currently in use by your keyboard. It could be that it’s not working so it makes sense to unplug it and attach it to another USB port. You can also clean the USB port on both ends to ensure that they are not affected by corrosion. In addition, you can also try connecting the keyboard to a different computer and see if the Shift key works there or not.

Option 5 – Try to check your connections

You can also try checking if the connection mode you are using for your keyboard is functioning properly. For instance, if you are using a Surface 2-in-device, you can clean the connection pins and see if it resolves the problem.

Option 6 – Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooters

• 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 Keyboard 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.

As you know, each one of the Windows 10 versions is priced differently and one of the considered more expensive compared to the Windows 10 Home version is the Windows10 Pro. The good thing is, Microsoft allows its users to upgrade from the Windows 10 Home version to the Windows 10 Pro version at a reasonable cost instead of buying the entire license again. However, upgrading your Windows 10 computer is not always that easy and you might encounter some errors along the way. One of the reported errors you could encounter is an error message that says, “Something happened, and we couldn’t start the upgrade”. This kind of problem is due to the problems with the Microsoft Store or the key authorization and to fix it, there are several options you can check out. You can try to run the built-in troubleshooters such as the Windows Update troubleshooter, Windows Store Apps troubleshooter, or Microsoft Accounts troubleshooter. You could also try to reset the Windows Store cache or re-register the Windows Store app. For more details, refer to each one of the given options below.

Option 1 – Try to run the Microsoft Accounts troubleshooter

Since the Microsoft Accounts troubleshooter is not built-in into the Windows operating system, you can download this troubleshooter by clicking on this link.

Option 2 – Try running the Windows Update Troubleshooter

Running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter could also help you resolve the “Something happened, and we couldn’t start the upgrade” error. To run it, go to Settings and then select Troubleshoot from the options. From there, click on Windows Update and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button. After that, follow the next on-screen instructions and you should be good to go.

Option 3 – Run the Windows Store App troubleshooter

The Windows 10 Store Apps Troubleshooter will help you in fixing the problem in Microsoft Store. This is a great built-in tool from Microsoft that helps users fix any app issues. To use the Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter, follow the steps below.

• Tap Win + I keys again to open the Windows Settings panel.
• Go to Update & Security and then go to Troubleshoot.
• Under the Troubleshoot section, on your left-hand side, scroll down to find Window Store Apps.
• Then click on the Run the troubleshooter option and follow the on-screen instructions and then see if it fixes the problem.

Option 4 – Try to reset the Microsoft Store cache

As you know, like any other apps, Microsoft Store also caches as you view apps and games so it is most likely that the cache is no longer valid and must be removed. To do so, follow the steps below.

• Right-click on the start button and click on Command Prompt (administrator).
• Next, type in the command, “wsreset.exe” and tap Enter. Once you do, the command will clear the cache for the Windows Store app.
• Now restart your PC and afterward, try opening Microsoft Store again and then try to install your app or update your computer again.

Option 5 – Try to re-register the Microsoft Store app via Windows PowerShell

• Tap the Win + X key combination or right-click on the Start button and click on the Windows PowerShell (Admin) option.
• If a User Account Control or UAC prompt appears, just click on Yes to proceed and open the Windows PowerShell window.
• Next, type in or copy-paste the following command to re-register the Microsoft Store app and tap Enter:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRootWinStoreAppxManifest.xml

• Wait for the process to be completed and then restart your computer.

Option 6 – Try contacting Microsoft

If none of the options worked, you might also want to contact Microsoft for further assistance in fixing the error.