Remove GIFables - Malware Removal Guide

Instaling and removing applications from your Windows can sometimes leave some traces that are unpleasant and can cause annoyances. One of these annoyances is the program in the startup section of the task manager.

If you ever opened task manager and went into the startup section trying to disable some of the startup items on your Windows boot there might be a chance that you have experienced and seen a program without any icon or information about it just sitting there.

This is due to some applications being removed from the system but for some reason, it still shows itself in startup and it is quite annoying. So here we will show you how to get rid of this annoyance so your startup is clean again without junk in it.

Removing a program from startup

Locating the source of the issue

The first thing of course is to open the task manager itself and navigate to the startup tab. Inside the startup tab right-click on the column header and tick or enable Startup type and command line. Now you will see the location of the supposed file (that is missing or you could just go there by right-clicking on the item, but here it is greyed).

99% of the time startup type will be registry since the file is missing, if it was a file fix would be just to simply delete the file in the folder but since it was installed and not properly removed registry key is still present but the file cannot be found. After confirmation that the file is indeed missing and that the startup type is registry open the registry editor by typing Regedit in search and pressing enter.

Removing the key from registry

Inside Registry editor navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Inside on right part, you will see all auto-start entries added by installed applications.

Locate one that is causing issues by comparing its path with the path inside the task manager command line and delete the key. Once the key is deleted right-click on RUN on the left part and choose HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to quickly jump on that key location and repeat the process of key deletion if needed. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE will delete startup entry for all users and sometimes entry will not be present here since the application is not installed for all users or there are no other users on the machine.

After the procedure is finished, reboot your systems in order to apply changes.

Still sitting on the fence about upgrading to Windows 11 because you don’t know what to expect? Interestingly, the new edition somehow manages to be both a total revamp and still very similar to its predecessor in many ways. It’s really something to experience for yourself.

We do want to give you a sneak peek, though. So here’s an overview of the biggest changes Windows 11 brings to the table.

What’s different in Windows 11?

1. Visual changes

The first thing anyone will notice after switching to Windows 11 is the striking visual difference. The entire interface is smoother, cleaner and more minimalistic than on Windows 10, even resembling the macOS in some instances.
Perhaps the most obvious change in appearance is the Start menu and Taskbar location, which is now at the bottom center. It’s actually very neat, but if you’re someone who loves familiarity, don’t worry, you can move it back to the left.

Moreover, you’ll notice that the Taskbar includes a Microsoft Teams icon by default (which you can, of course, remove) and that Live Tiles are gone. The News and Interests section has also been removed - or, shall we say, replaced. As opposed to Windows 10, news, weather forecasts and other information are now displayed as widgets.

To add to the cleanliness of the UI, Microsoft also enhanced the ‘Snap Layouts’ feature to help you better organize your windows and maximize screen real estate. It’s similar to app grouping on your smartphone. In Windows 10 this feature is slightly restricted, as it requires some manual resizing and dragging. In Windows 11, you can just hover over the minimize/maximize option on a window, select a layout and throw the windows in there. 

2. New accessibility features

Microsoft has certainly paid attention to accessibility with Windows 10, but Windows 11 takes this to a whole new level.

One of the ways Windows 11 has taken things up a notch is by adding the long-awaited ‘Live Captions’ feature and advanced Narrator options.

Live Captions apply both to media played on your PC as well as your own speech when you’re using the microphone. Keep in mind that, as with almost all kinds of subtitles, you have to be prepared for a potential delay. However, it’s barely noticeable and doesn’t take away from the usefulness of this awesome new feature whatsoever.

As for the Narrator, there are three new voice packs to choose from. Microsoft has tried to put emphasis on a more natural voice than we are used to. So, now you can choose between Aria, Jenny and Guy, who will read pretty much anything off your screen out loud. Aside from this, Microsoft has also expanded the list of braille displays supported by the Narrator feature. 
For users with anxiety or trouble concentrating, a welcomed addition is the Focus app, which is no longer part of the Clock app. It’s now separate and called ‘Focus Sessions’, automatically triggering the Do Not Disturb mode when activated. It blocks all pop-ups and flashes and lets you work in peace until you’re ready to switch it off.

3. Android apps

Android users may rejoice! Windows 11 supports the use of your favorite applications now. 

Microsoft has done this by integrating the Amazon Appstore to the Windows 11 Microsoft Store. From there, you can download your favorite Android apps and use them on your PC in a smartphone-like window.

Unfortunately not too many apps are supported at this time, but Microsoft is working on making the emulation possible for many more. Also, the option is only available in specific regions at this moment - check out if you’re one of the lucky ones.

4. Improved gaming performance

Avid gamers will be happy to hear that Microsoft has put some effort into streamlining Windows 11 for their gaming needs.

To give gamers a supreme visual experience, Windows 11 offers the ‘Auto HDR’ feature. As long as your monitor is HDR-compatible, this feature will automatically adjust the colors, brightness and contrast of games without any input from you. 

Another update is DirectStorage, which we were introduced to in Windows 10 already. In Windows 11, it’s been improved to tweak loading times and overall gaming performance efficiency even better. The predisposition for it to work optimally is that your device has an NVMe SSD. 

The Xbox Game Bar also helps gamers towards a smoother experience. It allows in-game screenshots, viewing processes that are running (similar to the Task Manager), monitoring the CPU and GPU performance and frame rate, integrating the Xbox App and more. There’s also a number of widgets you can now use with the Game Bar, for example the Spotify widget.

Another cool addition is the Xbox Game Pass, which unlocks hundreds of games to play on your Xbox App, with new additions coming in every month.

5. Smart App Control

Aside from a sleek new look and better accessibility for all users, Windows 11 also comes with a security power-up. Bear in mind that this feature is only available on clean Windows 11 installs. 

Smart App Control (SAC) is an AI-powered new feature designed to protect your PC from potential threats. It blocks untrustworthy apps and adware and helps detect potentially unwanted apps, maintaining your PC’s performance and keeping your system safe.

It comes with an ‘Evaluation’ mode, which you should definitely select when running SAC for the first time. That way, the app monitors your usage and assesses whether you’re a candidate for SAC. Some users need it to be on all the time, for others it might be too distracting. Evaluation mode will turn SAC on or off based on your usage.

Don’t disable SAC again unless you’re absolutely sure you don’t need it, since reenabling it will require a fresh install. We recommend you don’t turn it off, as it is a neat feature protecting your data and files from malware at all times.

Summary

Have we piqued your interest in trying Microsoft’s latest OS? It’s a pretty exciting new iteration, but we’ll let you find out for yourself. We hope you like it!

Error Code 12 - What is it?

Error code 12 is a typical Device Manager error code. It usually pops on the computer screen when the computer experiences device driver problems or system resource conflicts.

Error code 12 is mostly displayed on the computer screen in the following format:

‘This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system.’

Solution

Error Causes

The error code 12 occurs when 2 devices installed on your PC are accidentally assigned the same I/O (input/output) ports or the same direct memory access channel.

This assignment is known to be made either by BIOS (Basic Input/output system) or by the operating system. It can sometimes be assigned by a combination of the two. Also, code 12 can also appear on your monitor screen if the BIOS didn’t allocate enough resources to the device.

Although this error code is not fatal, it is nonetheless advisable to fix it immediately to avoid inconvenience and hassle. This error is most likely to lower and hamper the performance of your system.

Further Information and Manual Repair

Here are some of the easiest and most effective do-it-yourself methods to resolve error code 12 on your PC. To perform these fixes, you don’t have to be technically sound or a computer programmer for that matter. Simply follow the steps to fix the problem right away.

Method 1 - Use the Troubleshooting Wizard to identify the Conflict

To repair error code 12, simply go to the start menu and type Device Manager in the search box. Now go to the Device Properties dialog box. After that click on the ‘General Tab’ and now access Troubleshoot to start the Troubleshooting Wizard.

The Wizard will ask you some questions and provide you a solution accordingly. Follow the instructions and resolution steps provided by the troubleshooting wizard to repair error code 12 on your PC.

Method 2 - Disable the Device to Resolve

By disabling the problematic device in the Device Manager, Windows will ignore that piece of hardware. Once disabled, Windows will then no longer assign system resources to that device and no driver/software will be able to use that device.

To disable, go to the Device Properties in the Device Manager and then click the Driver tab. Click disable located at the bottom of the window. Then you will be prompted with a message stating ‘Disabling this device will cause it to stop functioning. Do you wish to disable it?’ Click yes to continue and then click OK to save changes.

Method 3 - Restore Your PC to its Previous State

Another method to resolve error code 12 is to restore your PC to its previous state when it was working properly.

For this, it is important to backup all your data first to avoid data loss issues that are likely to occur during this process. Creating backups manually can be a time-consuming and tedious task. To save time and quicken the process, it is best to install a program like DriverFIX.

DriverFIX is a user-friendly and intuitive device driver management software that helps backup all your data automatically and efficiently, while simultaneously restores your PC back to its previous state before you encountered problems.

Click here to download DriverFIX on your system to resolve error code 12

In case you don’t know, there is a feature in Windows 10 computers that allows them to function a lot better. This feature is called Full-Screen optimization and it is enabled by default for several applications such as games and video players. If enabled, the Full-Screen optimization feature enhances the video playback and gaming by simply putting the CPU and GPU process as a priority. However, there are times when it can also result to a drop in the frame rate or FPS while in full-screen mode. And of course, the obvious solution to this dilemma is by disabling the Full-Screen optimization feature which is why Microsoft took action and removed this feature themselves in the recent Windows 10 Update releases. However, there is another way for you to enable it back or disable it yourself if you haven’t installed the recent updates yet and there are plenty of ways you can do both. All you have to do is follow the options given below carefully.

Option 1 – Try using Windows 10 Settings

If you haven’t installed the recent updates yet and all you have are the earlier releases, then this method would suit you.

• Open the Windows 10 Settings app.
• Next, navigate to System > Display > Graphics Settings or Advanced graphics settings.
• From there, uncheck the “Enable Fullscreen optimization” option if you want to disable the feature, else just keep it checked.

Option 2 – Try using the Registry Editor

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and then type “Regedit” in the field and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• Afterward, if a User Account Control or UAC prompt appears, click on Yes.
• Once the Registry Editor is pulled up, navigate to this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSystemGameConfigStore
• Next, right-click on Explorer and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and then name it to “GameDVR_DSEBehavior and tap Enter to save it.
• Now double click on the newly created GameDVR_DSEBehavior DWORD and set its value to “2” if you want to disable it, or “0” if you want to enable it.
• Once you entered the value, close the Registry Editor and restart your computer to successfully apply the changes made.

Option 3 – Try running the application in Compatibility Mode

If the first two options didn’t work, the next thing you can do is to run the application in a Compatibility Mode. Follow the steps below to do so:

• Go to the location of the application or game on which you need to disable or enable the Full-Screen optimization feature.
• After that, right-click on it and select Properties.
• Next, switch to the Compatibility tab where you can see the “Disable fullscreen optimization” option to disable the feature and vice versa.
• Now click on the Apply and OK buttons to apply the changes made in the application’s settings.

A PC that turns on by itself every so often can get quite annoying. Many users have faced this problem countless times. There are lots of possible reasons why your Windows 10 PC turns on by itself, wakes up from sleep, standby, or even when it’s shut down. To find out what exactly woke your computer, simply open Command Prompt as admin and type the following command:

powercfg –lastwake

Once you enter the command given above, it will show you the last device that woke your PC up. After that, you need to type in the next command:

powercfg –devicequery wake_armed

After entering the command, it will show you a list of all the devices that could wake your PC up. The goal in running these commands is to understand the reason what’s really causing your PC to turn on and see the reason is on the hardware level or not. Here are a couple of options you can try if your Windows 10 PC turns on by itself.

Option 1 – Try disabling Fast Startup

As you know, Windows 10 comes with a mode called Fast Startup which does not turn off the computer in the usual manner. This mode keeps your computer in a mixed state so that when you turn it on again, it will be a lot faster. However, as useful as this feature appear to be, some security experts find this an issue, for numerous reasons – for one, it can turn on your Windows 10 PC by itself. Thus, you need to disable this feature to fix the problem.

Option 2 – You need to stop the Task Scheduler from waking up your computer

There are times when the issue has something more to do with the software than hardware. It could be that you are using a Scheduled Task to get some work done on your computer at a particular time of the day or many times a day. That’s why if you really are using Task Scheduler, you need to change the Power settings of Windows to make sure that it ignores those tasks rather than deleting them instead when your computer is either on Hybrid or Standby mode.

• Open the Power Options and then click on “Change Plan Settings”.
• After that, make sure to choose the correct power plan and then select the “Change advanced power settings” option.
• Next, look for the Sleep tree and expand it to view the “Allow Wake Timers” option and then disable it. Disabling this option will make sure that none of the program that could wake your PC up when it’s either on shutdown or sleep mode. However, this only applies to laptops.

Option 3 – Try to disable Automatic Restart

There are instances when the computer crashes and the system restarts itself. This is actually by design – when your computer has been left on standby, the computer will restart and if the program repeats, it will keep on waking your PC up.

• In the Search bar, type in “system”.
• Once it appears from the search results, click on it.
• Next, select Advanced system settings on the left side and then go to the Advanced tab.
• From there, click on Settings under Startup and Recovery.
• Then unmark “Automatically Restart” and click on OK.

Option 4 – Adjust the Power Management option of both the Keyboard and Mouse

As you know, two of the culprits in waking your PC up are the keyboard and the mouse. If they’re slightly moved or hit, your PC turns on. To prevent these two from waking your computer up, you need to make some adjustments to their power management option since they have one. You can disable this option to ensure that they won’t wake your PC up unless you really want it to.

• Tap the Win + X keys and then tap M to open the Device Manager and list all the hardware on your computer. From there, select your keyboard or mouse.
• Next, right-click and then go to Properties and go to the Power Management tab.
• In this tab, uncheck the “Allow this device to wake the computer” box.

Note: Aside from the keyboard and mouse, if you are also using any gaming rig to play games on your computer, then you might have to disable their power options as well as they could also wake your computer. Just make sure that either the keyboard or the mouse has the ability to wake your computer up at the very least as it can be quite inconvenient to tap the Power button every time you want to turn on your computer.

Option 5 – Modify Wake On Lan

The Wake On Lan feature can bring back your computer online if it is connected to a network. This feature is useful especially when a computer wants to communicate or to send data or files to a network computer which should come online only when it’s requested. Wake On Lan is built into the hardware, i.e. network adapter so it is one of the possible reasons why your PC turns on by itself.

• Tap the Win + x keys then hit M to open the Device Manager and then under the Network adapters, look for the one that was listed above. Take note that you must not change anything with the ones that are listed as Miniport.
• Next, right-click and select Properties and then go to Power management and from there, uncheck the “Allow this device to wake up the computer” option. This will ensure that no PC on the network can ever wake your computer up.

Option 6 – Prevent any scheduled Windows Update and Automatic maintenance

It is also possible that the Windows Update has restarted your PC to complete the update. This depends on your active hours or a predefined schedule. AS you know Windows has a built-in Automatic Maintenance mode which wakes the computer up at the scheduled time and performs the system update. This could be one of the possible reasons why your computer turns on by itself. so to prevent any scheduled updates and maintenance, you can simply change the time for Automatic maintenance. How? Follow these steps:

• Open Settings then go to Windows Update and Security >Windows Update and select Active Hours.
• After that, type in “Automatic maintenance” in the search bar to change the time for Automatic maintenance.
• From there, you can adjust the timing or just uncheck the “Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time” box.

DOTA2 involves teams of five players each, where each player chooses a “hero” character. Each game has two teams pitted against each other, on opposite sides of a map. Once you start, you and your teammates try to level up by fighting and defeating heroes from other teams as well as non-player characters who exist within the game universe. Once you have a strong enough team, you would then try to attack an opposing team’s base. If you destroy their “ancient,” your team wins. The teamwork and interactivity required to play the game are some of its biggest attractions. You can text and voice chat as part of the Dota 2 gameplay, enabling you and your team to come up with strategies to take over your opponents’ base and fortifications. For this reason, a properly working microphone and headset are important if you are to get the most out of this exciting online game. However, there are many times when you find that there are audio dropouts when you try to speak into your microphone. The question “How do I get my mic to work on Dota 2?” is one of the most commonly asked on gaming forums related to this game. Here are solutions for why this can happen:

1. You are logged in to another computer that is running the STEAM client

   While entirely rare, there are cases where the microphone in Steam is disabled because the same account is active and in use on a different computer. It may not notify you that your account is in use elsewhere. If this is the error, try to log out on other devices and then test it on only one system. If you cannot access the other computer that has access to your account, then change your password. This will automatically disconnect your Steam account from the other computer and let you enjoy voice chat in Dota 2 and other Steam games.

2. Your microphone is not properly set up in Dota 2

   From the main Dota 2 menu, before you start a match, you can set up your microphone for voice chat. At the top, left-hand corner, click the gear icon to open Settings Select the AUDIO tab and ensure that the Sound Device and Speaker Configuration are set to default. On the same tab, activate Voice (Party) and set your Push to Talk shortcut key for your team. Select the appropriate Open Mic Threshold using the slider at the bottom of this tab to get your microphone recorded at a comfortable level.

3. The Windows Audio Enhancements setting is turned on

   If you still cannot get your microphone to work properly, then your problem could be Windows Audio Enhancement. It is possible to get your microphone to work with Dota 2 by disabling these features. Right-click your volume icon on the system tray and select Recording Devices. Choose your active microphone then click its Properties button. On the Microphone Enhancements tab, make sure the checkboxes marked Voice enhancements and Acoustic Echo cancellation is unchecked Reboot your PC and retry using your microphone to chat.

4. Your audio drivers need to be updated

   If you try all of the steps above and still have Dota 2 not recognizing your mic input update mic drivers by going in device manager and choosing update driver.

If you have a USB that has stopped working and does not show any signs of life do not throw it away just jet. Hello and welcome to another great tutorial on errortools.com, today we will explore how to bring back to life dead USB memories.

Detect a Corrupted  Drive:

If your computer is still able to detect your USB drive, you might want to know if it’s been corrupted. Select the Properties of the drive folder and check the device status. If it says This device is working properly this USB drive is worth saving. There’s no need to worry if you can’t see the USB drive folder.

Erase the USB Drive with Diskpart Tool

Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X top open start menu and choose Command prompt (admin) Type diskpart and press ENTER Type in list disk and press ENTER Locate your USB drive by size and type in select disk#, where # is the number of removable disks.

Reallocate the USB Drive Volume

Press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog and type in diskmgmt.msc Select the USB drive and Right-click on it and select create simple volume. It will lead to a new simple volume wizard window. Once you click next, you can specify the volume size for the pen drive. Select the maximum volume, which is shown as a default unit in MB. As soon as you see the next step, select assign drive letter which will help you view your pen drive once again. Format the partition in the next step. This may be just an extra step because you have already wiped the data clean. But it is always better to be sure. Click Finish to complete the new simple volume wizard which will now be allocated to the USB drive. After you reallocate the unallocated USB drive space, you will be able to view the USB drive storage once again.

0x80042109 - What is it?

0x80042109 is a Microsoft Outlook error. The 0x80042109 error code occurs mostly while sending emails. The error message is often displayed in the following format:

“Sending reported error (0×80042109): Outlook cannot connect to your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server.”

Solution

Error Causes

It is not easy to narrow down the cause for the error code 0x80042109. This error can occur due to many reasons. This includes:

• Corrupt emails and PST files
• Incorrect Outlook account settings
• Unavailability of the mail server
• Incomplete Outlook installation
• Spyware or viral infection

Further Information and Manual Repair

To resolve the 0x80042109 error code on your PC, here are some easy and effective DIY solutions you can try:

Method 1 - Check Mail Settings

Check your mail settings to see if your outgoing server SMTP is selected or not. If it is not, then it could be the reason for the issue. To check mail settings and select the option, here’s what you need to do:

1. Click Tools, select Account Settings, and then POP 3 account and click change.
2. Now check your name field and email address.
3. Check the incoming and outgoing mail server fields and make sure that it is correct.
4. Now click on the outgoing server and make sure that the option ‘My Outgoing Server (SMTP) requires Authentication is selected.
5. After that, click Advanced and tick the option that says ‘This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL).
6. Now click OK to confirm settings.

Method 2 - Reinstall Outlook on your PC

The error may also occur due to incorrect Outlook installation. Therefore reinstall it on your PC. To do this first you will have to uninstall the software and then re-install it. Once the software is reinstalled try sending the email again. If it is sent successfully, then this means the error is related to incomplete installation. However, if the error still persists then it is advisable to restore the points by going to the System Restore option and choosing the option ‘Restore My Computer to an Earlier Time’ point. This will revert the changes.

Method 3 - Try Disabling Firewall

If you have firewall program installed on your PC, then try disabling it and then send an email through your Outlook account.

Method 4 - Scan for Viruses

Another way to resolve the error code is to scan for viruses. Viral infection and spyware and also affect your Outlook account and activities. However, installing an antivirus on your PC may slow down its performance as such programs are notorious for doing that. Therefore, it is advisable to download Restoro. Restoro is a next generation and a highly advanced PC Fixer embedded with powerful and multiple utilities including an antivirus and a system optimizer. Its intuitive algorithm enables it to scan your entire PC and remove all kinds of malicious software affecting your system including malware, adware, spyware, viruses and Trojans. The system optimizer utility works simultaneously and ensures your PC performs at its optimum speed. It is safe, bug-free, and efficient. It has a user-friendly interface which makes it simple and very easy to operate. You can download it on all Windows versions. Click here to download Restoro to resolve error 0x80042109 today!

Windows has a lot of built-in tools that help you fix tons of system-related issues. One of them is the System File Check which is the tool you can use to conveniently replace potentially corrupted or missing system files with good ones. But what happens when it does not work? Well, you’ve come to the right place as in this post, you will be guided on how you can replace a corrupted single Windows system file manually with a known good copy of the file if the System File Checker scan is not working. When you encounter this issue with the System File Checker, it will be unable to replace the corrupted system files and returns an error message instead. And so to fix and replace corrupted system files in your Windows 10 computer without the help of System File Checker, you can refer to the instructions provided below. Step 1: First, you need to open the log files listed below and identify which particular file has been corrupted:

• %userprofile%Desktopsfcdetails.txt
• Log %WinDir%LogsCBSCBS.log

Step 2: You will see all the details on the given log files. Once you find out the name and the path of the file, you have to take ownership of this corrupted system file. Step 3: To take ownership of the corrupted file, you need to pull up Command Prompt by tapping Win + R keys on your keyboard and then type “cmd” and tap Enter. Step 4: After opening Command Prompt, type and enter the command below to execute it:

takeown /f FileNameAndPath

Note: In the given command, “FileNameAndPath” represents the name and the path of the corrupted file. For instance, the corrupted file is named “wuapi.dll”, then you need to type “takeown /f C:/Windows/System32/wuapi.dll” Step 5: Next, you need to grant administrators full access & control to the corrupted file and you can do that via Command Prompt again. Step 6: In the elevated Command Prompt, type and enter the following command to execute it:

icacls FileNameAndPath /GRANT ADMINISTRATORS:F

Note: We’re going to use the wuapi.dll again as an example. So the command should be like this: icacls “C:/Windows/System32/wuapi.dll /grant administrators: F”. Step 7: Now all that’s left to do is replace the corrupted system file with a good copy from a trusted source. Once you have a copy, open an elevated Command Prompt again and execute the following command:

copy NewFileLocation FileNameAndPath

Note: In the command given above, the “NewFileLocation” is the location where you have saved the copy of the file. For instance, if you’ve saved it on your desktop, this is how it should look: “copy C:/Users/<username>/Desktop/wuapi.dll C:/windows/system32/wuapi.dll”

If by any chance your search result in Windows is misleading, missing, or incorrect then it is a high probability that your search index is out of date. To repair this issue follow this guide step by step. Please take note that rebuilding the whole search index can take a long time on some systems depending on the size of the index itself, CPU speed, HD speed, etc. Sometimes it can take even hours on large drives. First, press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog and type in it Control panel to open the control panel. Once you are in the control panel, switch your view to large icons and locate Indexing options. Inside indexing options, click on advanced. In advanced options click on the rebuild and confirm. Leave your computer to finish and your searches should be working fine now.