How to paste just plain text anywhere

There is no doubt that the VLC media player is one of the best kinds of media players available today. However, it is not without any issues and one of the common issues encountered by users is VLC’s inability to be updated. And when you try to update VLC, you only get an error message saying, “An error occurred while checking for updates”. This inability to update VLC can be quite a headache for many users especially the ones who are facing other issues in VLC and has to update it in order to resolve them. So how will you update VLC and fix its issues when you can’t even update it in the first place? Worry not as this post will help you out. Refer to the suggestions laid out below to resolve the issue in updating VLC.

Option 1 – Check if VLC is not being blocked by the Firewall

There are instances when the Firewall like the Windows Defender Firewall blocks VLC for some unknown reason without your knowledge. Thus, you need to allow VLC to get past the Firewall in order for you to fix the issue else you won’t be able to send out a network communication. To do that, follow the steps below.

• Tap the Windows key + I to open the Settings app.
• Then click on the Update & Security option.
• After that, click on Windows Security and click the Open Windows Defender Security Center option. This will open the Windows Defender antivirus and antimalware program.
• From there, click on Firewall & network protection.
• Next, click on Allow an app through Firewall. You should see a list of programs. Scroll down until you see VLC and make sure that all the boxes are ticked including the Public and Private ones.
• Once you’re done, restart your PC and then try updating VLC again.
• Just open VLC and select the Help menu and click on Check for Updates.

Option 2 – Try running the VLC media player as an administrator

There are programs designed for Windows 10 that won’t work fully unless some parameters are met. In most cases, starting the program as an admin should resolve the problem, thus, that’s what you have to do to try and fix the “An error occurred while checking for updates” in VLC.

• First, right-click on the VLC Media Player desktop icon and then select the “Run as administrator” option or you could also right-click on the icon and click on Properties.
• After that, click the Compatibility tab and then tick the box labeled “Run this program as an administrator”.
• Next, click the OK button and then open VLC again and try updating it. That should fix the problem.

Shortcut virus is an easily spreadable and annoying combination of Worm and Trojan that hides all of your files and folders and then replaces them with shortcuts that look identical to replaced files and folders. Once disguised it will wait patiently for a user's click and once that happens it will replicate itself and further infect the system. This rapid spread can lead to stolen personal data, some system hick-ups, and other system-related issues. This malware mainly affects physical file transfer devices like for example and most USB drives, hard drives, and SD memory cards and it can easily transfer itself to the computer. The advantage of this shortcut virus comparing it to others is that it is mostly undetected by a vast variety of antivirus software. So running just anti-virus software maybe not be enough to remove it from your system. Luckily for all unfortunate users that have caught this annoyance, it can be easily removed fully manually in a short time.

How to Remove Virus from USB and other removable media

Firstly plugin USB, SD, or removable drive. The infection will transfer to your computer when the infected drive is plugged in so before we go to clean the computer itself, clean each removable drive that you have. Also know that infection will spread from computers into removable devices as well if it is not cleaned. Open the File Explorer and remember under which letter is removable drive registered. Open Command prompt but with administrator privileges and go to infected rive by typing its letter followed with “:” (for example D:) and press ENTER Once you have successfully gone to infected drive type in command prompt: Attrib -s -r -h /s /d *.* This will unlock all original files back into removable storage, next copy all files to your computer, and format the removable drive. Once the format is complete, unplug the removable device. Continue to clean all devices with the same method.

How to Permanently Remove a Shortcut Virus from Your PC

Now once we have cleaned all removable devices it is time to fully clean the PC Firstly open the task manager ( CTRL + SHIFT + ESC ), in the process tab find wscript.exe or wscript.vbs, right-click on it (or both if present), and select End Task. Now close the task manager and press Start. Inside start typing in registry editor to search for it and once found open it. Find the following key inside the registry editor: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run In the right panel, look for any strange-looking key names, such as odwcamszas, WXCKYz, OUzzckky, etc. For each one, run a Google search to see if it's related to shortcut viruses. If any returns a positive match, right-click on them and select Delete. !!! Accidentally deleting an important key can cause Windows to become unstable, so double-check everything !!!. Close the Registry Editor Now press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog and type in it Msconfig followed by ENTER. Once the System Configuration window opens go to the Startup tab. In the Startup tab, look for any strange-looking .EXE or .VBS programs, select each one and click Disable. Close the Window. Once again open the run dialog and type inside %TEMP% and press ENTER in order to open the Windows temp folder. Inside this folder delete everything. Next in the File explorer go to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup Look for any strange-looking .EXE or .VBS files and delete them.

Recently, a lot of users reported to Microsoft about getting an error code 0x80096004 while trying to update their Windows 10 computers. This kind of Windows Update error occurs during the initial download and verification process. It also affects the Windows features (FODs) and when you encounter this error, you will also see this error code, “TRUST_E_CERT_SIGNATURE”. This error code indicates that the signature of the certificate could not be confirmed. This is caused by a broken certificate store or a corrupt copy of the Windows operating system is installed. Here’s the complete error message:

“There were some problems installing updates, but we’ll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help: (0x80096004).”

To fix Windows Update error 0x80096004, you can check out the options provided below.

Option 1 – Delete the contents in the Software Distribution folder and Catroot2 folder

• Open the WinX Menu.
• From there, open Command Prompt as admin.
• Then type in the following command – don’t forget to hit Enter right after typing each one of them.

net stop wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver

• After entering these commands, it will stop the Windows Update Service, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Cryptographic, and the MSI Installer
• Next, go to the C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution folder and get rid of all the folders and files thereby tapping the Ctrl + A keys to select them all and then click on Delete. Note that if the files are in use, you won’t be able to delete them.

After resetting the SoftwareDistribution folder, you need to reset the Catroot2 folder to restart the services you just stopped. To do that, follow these steps:

• Type each one of the following commands.

net start wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver

• After that, exit Command Prompt and restart your computer, and then try to run Windows Update once more.

Option 2 – Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

Running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter is one of the things you can first check out as it is known to automatically resolve any Windows Update errors like error code 0x80096004. To run it, Refer to these steps:

• Tap the Win + I keys to open Settings.
• From there, click Update and Security and go to the Troubleshoot section.
• Next, select Windows Update and click the “Run the troubleshooter” button and wait until it’s finished, and then try to run Windows Update again.

Option 3 – Try to temporarily disable anti-virus and Windows Defender Firewall

As mentioned, the error could be due to the antivirus program or the Windows Defender Firewall installed on your computer. Thus, disabling them or any security software installed in your computer is always a good idea you can try when you’re not able to access the shared drive on your computer. There are times when you encounter problems like Error Code 0x80096004 due to interference of antivirus or security programs. Thus, you have to disable both your antivirus program and Windows Defender Firewall for the meantime and check if it fixes the error or not.

Option 4 – Try to replace the DLL file with a trusted source

You can also try to replace the crypt32.dll file as it could help in fixing the Windows Update error. Just make sure that you get one from a trusted source.

• First, you need to get the new DLL file from another computer with preferably the same file version number.
• After that, you need to boot your PC into Safe Mode and navigate to the paths listed below and then replace the file using a USB drive or other external storage devices.
  • x86: This PC > C:/Windows/System32
  • x64: This PC > C:/Windows/SysWOW64
• Next, type “cmd” in the Cortana search box and right-click on Command Prompt, and select “Run as administrator” to open it with administrator privileges.
• Now type the “regsvr32 crypt32.dll” command and hit Enter.
• Restart your PC and check if the error is now fixed.

Option 5 – Try downloading and installing the Windows Updates manually

Error Code 0x80096004 might be due to a Windows Update that has failed. So if it is not a feature update and only a cumulative update, you can download the Windows Update and install it manually. But first, you need to find out which update has failed, and to do so, refer to the following steps:

• Go to Settings and from there go to Update and Security > View Update History.
• Next, check which particular update has failed. Note that Updates that have failed to install will be displayed under the Status column which has a label of “Failed”.
• After that, go to the Microsoft Download Center and look for that update using its KB number and once you find it, download and then install it manually.

Note: You can also use the Microsoft Update Catalog, a service from Microsoft that provides a list of software updates that can be distributed over a corporate network. With the help of this service, it can be easier for you to find Microsoft software updates, drivers as well as fixes.

Option 6– Run System File Checker or SFC scan

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. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• 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.

 Reboot your PC.

Option 7 – Try to run the Windows Update Service in a Clean Boot State

There are some instances that some conflicting programs installed in your computer might be the one that’s causing Windows Update error. To identify which program is causing the problem, you need to put your computer in 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.)
• Now try to run the Windows Update Service again and see if Windows Update error 0x80096004 is now gone.

As you probably know, uTorrent is one of the best software you can use to download torrents over the web. It has been around for many years now and is trusted by lots of users despite having competition here and there. Over the years, uTorrent has changed as it is now packed with tons of features. What’s more, is that this program is no longer the smallest client when it comes to file size. However, just like other software, it is not always working smoothly as there are instances when it’s not responding even when it’s already running. The first thing you can do is to close all the processes of uTorrent and then try opening it again. There are various reasons why your uTorrent program fails to respond. However, it is most likely caused by some virus that was brought on by the file you’ve just downloaded. On the other hand, it could also be caused by other factors as well but whichever the case is, here are some fixes you can check out to resolve the uTorrent issue.

Option 1 – Delete the file you’ve downloaded

As pointed out earlier, uTorrent might have failed to respond due to some file you’ve just downloaded which is why you have to delete it since there really is no point in keeping a file that’s causing this kind of issue. After deleting the file, try opening uTorrent again and see if it now works or not.

Option 2 – Allow uTorrent to run via Windows Defender Firewall

• Click on the Cortana or the Start button and type “firewall” in the field.
• From the search results that appear, click on the “Allow an app through Windows firewall”.
• After that, a new window will pop up and from there, you will see a list of apps that can be allowed or disallowed using a Windows firewall. From this list, you have to search for uTorrent and once you find it, set it to Publick if you are on a public network or Private if you’re in a private network.

Option 3 – Uninstall or reinstall uTorrent software

You can also try to completely uninstall uTorrent from your computer and then reinstall it right back. to do so, follow the steps below.

• In the search box, type in “control” and then click on Control Panel (desktop app) among the search results.
• After that, select Programs and Features from the list which will give you a list of all the programs installed on your computer.
• From there, look for uTorrent and select it and then uninstall it.
• Once uTorrent is uninstalled, go to uTorrent’s official website and download its latest version.

Option 4 – Try scanning your computer using Windows Defender

• Tap the Win + I keys to open Update & Security.
• Then click on the Windows Security option and open Windows Defender Security Center.
• Next, click on Virus & threat protection > Run a new advanced scan.
• Now make sure that Full Scan is selected from the menu and then click the Scan Now button to get started.

On April 7th Microsoft has released Windows build 21354 for their flagship OS and updates are rolling. Alongside the new update builds Microsoft has decided to create and release Windows 21354 build as an installable ISO image for anyone who wishes to do a clean installation of Windows without the need to update it after the installation. We have not seen this move by Microsoft in a long time and honestly, we are welcoming it, it is always great to have updated ISO Windows build than to install the old version and sit through an hour or more of updates. If you are interested in getting this ISO image and you are part of the insider program you can download it from here. If you would like to read more helpful articles and tips about various software and hardware visit errortools.com daily.

After so many years World of Warcraft is still among the most played MMORPG games in the world. It is still constantly updated with new content and tweak graphically in order to be relevant and fresh. But even the best or most popular ones can still have some minor issues and bugs from time to time. CAS System Was Unable to Initialize is the error that was reported lately by WOW players all around the globe and it happens in multiple Windows systems. In this guide, we will take with this issue and provide you with solutions on how to fix it so you can get back to enjoying the game itself.

1. 1. Repair WOW

      In battle.NET launcher select WOW and click on Options Click on Scan and Repair Let the process finish and then launch the game again

   2. Clean Windows registry

      Windows cleaning registry operation is a complex task and we will not cover each possible scenario here, instead of trying manually to find issues and clean registry download and install third party registry cleaner software.

   3. Run WOW with command line argument

      One of the solutions for this particular error is to run WOW with a specific command line switch: Run battle.NET client as administrator by right-clicking on it and choosing run as administrator If you are not signed in, sign in now Click on World of Warcraft to select it Click on options Click on Game settings Check the box associated with Additional command-line arguments When the box is selected you should've able to add inline argument or switch, add -uid wow_engb and confirm Run World of Warcraft

   4. Enable Secondary logon service inside Windows

      It was reported that enabling this service can fix the issue. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog Inside run dialog type in services.msc to open services windows Locate the Secondary Logon service Right-click on Properties from the context menu Inside the properties, screen click on the general tab Change the Startup type to Automatic and hit Apply to save the changes Run World of Warcraft

   5. Delete the cache folder

      Both indices and cache folder needs to be deleted in order to reset corrupted data. Make sure that both World of Warcraft and battle.NET are fully closed For this step to work, you will need to go into the folder where you have installed the World of Warcraft game. By default this is in C:/Program Files/World of Warcraft/ but if you have used another folder go there via file explorer. Once you are inside the folder locate the indices folder and delete it After that locate and delete the cache folder as well Restart your computer and start battle.NET

   6. Remove read-only attribute from WoW folder

      Another reason for CAS System Was Unable to Initialize error is because the World of Warcraft folder has been set to read-only and since the client does not have write privileges it will throw this error. To remove the read-only attribute from the folder go to your World of Warcraft installation folder but do not enter it Right-click on it instead and choose properties Under properties uncheck the read-only box and confirm. Run World of Warcraft

There are several kinds of errors you could encounter when you are running Windows 10 on a virtual machine. The Windows OS knows the difference between booting up in a standalone computer or in a virtual machine. This is why some specific drivers and system capabilities are used while emulating the Windows OS on software and during this phase, there are times when the System Preparation may throw up an error that says, “A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine”. This kind of error arises due to a race condition wherein the Sysprep command tries to stop the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator or MSDTC service and the VMware tool tries to start the MSDTC service. You may also see the following messages logged in the Setuperr.log file:

• [0x0f0082] SYSPRP LaunchDll:Failure occurred while executing ‘C:Windowssystem32msdtcprx.dll,SysPrepDtcCleanup’, returned error code -2146434815[gle=0x000000b7]
• [0x0f0070] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = -2146434815[gle=0x000000b7]
• [0x0f00a8] SYSPRP WinMain:Hit failure while processing sysprep cleanup providers; hr = 0x80100101[gle=0x000000b7]

To fix the 0x0f0082, 0x0f0070, 0x0f00a8 Sysprep errors, you can check out two potential fixes. First, you have to check the status of the MSDTC service and the second one is to check the settings in the Windows Registry. Note that these fixes are proven to be effective on many users and apply to several versions of Windows, including Windows 10.

Option 1 – Check the status of the MSDTC service via Command Prompt

As mentioned, the error could be caused by the malfunctioning of the MSDTC service or it. Thus, you have to uninstall and reinstall the MSDTC service to resolve the problem and you can do that using Command Prompt. Follow the steps below.

• In the Start Search, type “command prompt” and from the results, right-click on Command Prompt and then select the “Run as administrator” option to open it with admin privileges.
• If a User Account Control or UAC prompt appears, just click on Yes to proceed.
• Once you’ve opened Command Prompt, execute this command: msdtc –uninstall
• The command you just entered will uninstall the MSDTC service. After that, you need to execute this second command to reinstall the service: msdtc –install
• Now exit Command Prompt and check if the error is now fixed.

Option 2 – Check the Registry settings

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “Regedit” in the field and click OK or hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• After opening the Registry Editor, navigate to this registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionSoftwareProtectionPlatform
• From there, look for a DWORD value that’s named “SkipRearm” and double click on it.
• Then change its value data to “1”.
• Restart your computer to apply successfully apply the changes made and check if it was able to fix the error.

As you know, Microsoft constantly releases new updates with the main goal of fixing bugs as well as deliver users with new and exciting features. However, there are times when the latest update comes with an unwanted bug. One of these bugs is an error message saying, “Low Disk Space. You are running out of disk space on Local Disk (G:). Click here to see if you can free space on this drive.” So if you have recently installed a Windows 10 update, then you’ll most likely see a completely new drive on your computer which will appear right after the installation of the update and you’ll also start seeing the aforementioned error message. It gets irritating as this error message keeps on popping up even if you still have a lot of free space on your other drivers. Obviously, the main reason why this error message pops up all the time is the bug brought along by the Windows Update. This bug unhides the recovery partition drive and allocates it a drive letter which is why you are seeing a new drive in your computer. Thus, you can get rid of the pesky error message by simply removing the letter of the new drive. Just remember that you must not delete anything from the recovery partition drive nor format the drive. Formatting or deleting the recovery partition drive can heavily affect the recovery of Windows since the data on the drive is used by the Windows Recovery Environment or your system’s manufacturer. A lot of users have reported that removing the drive letter has resolved the issue. And if you worry that removing the drive letter will delete the drive, you are mistaken. This solution is basically harmless and is proven effective to make the notifications go away. Carefully follow the instructions below to get rid of the Low Disk Space notification by removing the drive letter.

• Step 1: Tap the Windows key once.
• Step 2: Next. In the Windows Start Search, type in “command prompt” and right-click on Command Prompt from the search results and select the “Run as administrator” option or you could simply tap Win + R keys and then input “cmd” and hit Enter to open Command Prompt.
• Step 3: After opening Command Prompt, type in “diskpart” and tap Enter.
• Step 4: Next, type in “list volume” and tap Enter. After that, you will see a list of drives.
• Step 5: Take note of the letter associated with the newly created drive.
• Step 6: Afterwards, type in “select volume <drive letter>” and tap Enter. Take note that you must replace the <drive letter> with the drive letter you’ve found in Step 5.
• Step 7: Now type in “remove letter=<drive letter>” and then tap Enter. Once again, replace the <drive letter> with the letter you took note of in Step 5.

Microsoft's anniversary update has come with many new features and improvements. One of these features is that Microsoft's Cortana can now be installed on your Android phone and as long as you are logged in to your Microsoft account on different devices, she can pass information between devices. You can not see battery life on your desktop PC, notifications, etc. There are some prerequisites in order to get this going, first is to have a Windows version 1607 or newer. The second is to have the last Android version

Installing Cortana on Android

1. Download and install the Cortana app from the Google Play store.
2. Open the app and accept the license terms.
3. Enter the credentials for the Microsoft account you use to sign in to your PC.
4. After a few seconds, Cortana will open.
5. Click the settings button and select Sync Notifications.
6. By default, missed calls, incoming messages, and low battery notifications will be turned on. You can turn this on\off from here. The only option off by default is for App notifications. Any non-system apps such as Facebook and Instagram can also send alerts to your Windows box. You can choose to enable the App notification sync option or leave it off.
7. If you enable “App notification sync,” you will need to give Cortana permissions to read and control notifications on your phone.
8. You can then select exactly which applications will be synched to your PC.
9. Once done you can exit out of Cortana.

Configuring Cortana on PC

1. Click the Windows button and type Cortana. Click the icon for Cortana and Search Settings.
2. Scroll through the settings list and look for Send notifications between devices
3. Click the switch to turn it on.
4. Sign in to the same Microsoft account you used in the previous section
5. Navigate back to the Cortana & Search settings tool.
6. Click Edit Sync Settings. Make sure that your phone shows up on the list. You can also determine if you want PC notifications are sent to your phone.

With those settings in place, you should now start getting alerts for the items you enabled in your Action Center. As notices come in, you will see them pop up in a small bubble on the lower right of your screen. You can dismiss the notification or use the link to find a compatible app in the Windows store.