Finally, some good news for Blizzard entertainment after tons of bad stuff happening around it regarding lawsuits and people layoffs. Diablo 2 has become the most-watched game on Twitch after its official release and sold copies are on a satisfactory level.
For people not familiar with recent events, the state of California has sued Blizzard for various things including discrimination and offensive behavior. Later Blizzard executives were caught shredding some evidence and things just started to go to worse from there.
After much drama, many people believed that this is the end for Blizzard entertainment and that they would not be able to recover from this since the community has sided with California and Blizzard has received a large punch as many subscribed WOW players have left the game.
Things are not so grim as they were looking as their Diablo 2 remake has made moderate success despite being released in these troubling times and there are rumors of Overwatch 2 planned release date as of the first quarter of 2022.
When trying to run Computer Management, or when running mmc.exe or compmgmt.msc from a command prompt you get the error that the application has been blocked for your protection then keep reading in order to solve the issue. This is a permission issue where if a regular user tries to run such system tools will result in saying that it has been blocked. Along with this, you may have a Group Policy issue. This can be fixed, but you will need admin permission to achieve it. It’s because when they are run from the command prompt with elevated privileges, it works.
Change Group Policy Settings
If your account is an admin account, and you are still facing the issue, then change the group policy settings:
Open Group Policy Settings by typing gpedit.msc in the run prompt followed by pressing ENTER
Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Management Console > Restricted/Permitted snap-ins
Locate Computer Management policy, and double click to open it
Enable it, exit Group Policy.
When Enabled: The snap-in is permitted and can be added into the Microsoft Management Console or run from the command line as a standalone console.
When Disabled: The snap-in is prohibited and cannot be added into the Microsoft Management Console or run from the command line as a standalone console. An error message is displayed stating that the policy is prohibiting the use of this snap-in.
Temporarily disable UAC
UAC is the user access control panel, and if you need to run the command right away, you can choose to disable it for some time. Click on the Start button, and then type UAC to find the User Account Control Settings.
Click to open, and then slide down the notification setting at the bottom. It will temporarily allow launching the application as there is no check. However, make sure to switch to default once you are done.
As you know, any software needs sufficient CPU power when it downloads, updates and installs so if you encounter an error code 0x80200070 when you tried to install or update the Microsoft Edge browser on your Windows 10 computer, then read on as this post will guide you on how to fix it.
This kind of error occurs when the Edge browser installation does not get enough CPU power to update or install and the only way to fix it is to kill programs that are consuming a lot of PC resources as well as stop or remove any unnecessary programs that are running in the background. This kind of error can also be encountered in the new Microsoft Edge Chromium. For more details, follow each one of the options provided below.
Option 1 – Try to kill applications that consume high resources
Tap the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to open the Task Manager.
Go to the Performance tab and sort by CPU usage.
Next, close a few additional programs that are consuming maximum CPU power.
After that, try to update or install Microsoft Edge again and check if the error is fixed. If not, try to restart your computer and then start the installation or update again.
Option 2 – Try to remove or stop unnecessary programs and services
If the applications or processes that are consuming a lot of CPU resources reappear even after you kill them or end their processes, then you can try the following suggestions to remove or stop these unnecessary programs and processes.
The first thing you can do is to stop the Service. If the program happens to be a service, then you have the option to disable the Windows Service. All you have to do is open the Services Manager and stop the service. How? Refer to these steps:
Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run utility and type “services.msc” in the field and tap Enter to open the Services Manager.
After that, identify which service is consuming a lot of power and then stop it temporarily.
The next thing you can do is to uninstall the problematic program. If the one that consumes a lot of resources is not a service but a program, then you can try to uninstall the program for the meantime until you’ve updated or installed the Edge browser. Once you’ve uninstalled the program, try to update or install Edge again.
You can also try booting your computer into Safe Mode and then update or install Microsoft Edge. This will make sure that all the unnecessary programs and services won’t consume a lot of CPU resources as well as memory.
If you were trying to open File Explorer but it suddenly stopped working and you encounter an error message that states, “An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist”, read on as this post will guide you in fixing this problem. This problem was initially reported after the April Update and Microsoft was able to fix it right after correcting the build. However, this effort seems futile for some users as recently, some reported getting the same error when they try to open not just Windows File Explorer but also with utilities like Microsoft Management Console or MMC, Visual Studio, Task Manager, Printer, Recycle Bin, etc.
Two of the most likely causes of this error are a troublesome Windows Update and corrupted system files. Whatever the cause is, here are some suggestions you can follow to fix the “An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist” error.
Option 1 – Try to re-register the problematic DLL file
You may have to re-register the ntdll.dll file using the regsvr32.exe before you can successfully install the program and fix the ntdll.dll file crash error. The Regsvr32 tool is a command-line utility that can be used to register and unregister OLE controls like DLL and ActiveX (OCX) control in the Windows operating system. Follow the steps below to use it.
Open Command Prompt as admin from the WinX menu.
Next, type the following commands in the elevated Command Prompt and hit Enter to execute the command. This will re-register the affected DLL file using the Windows operating system tool, regsvr32.exe.
exe /[DLL file]
exe [DLL file]
Note: Replace “[DLL file]” with the name of the DLL file that was pointed out in the error.
After you execute the given commands, you should see a message saying, “DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded” if the Regsvr32 tool was able to run successfully. After that, try to install the program again and see if it now works.
Option 2 – Replace the DLL file 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 ntdll.dll” command and hit Enter.
Restart your PC and check if the error is now fixed.
Option 3 – Perform a System File Checker scan
The System File Checker or SFC scan could detect and automatically repair damaged system files that could be causing the “An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist” error to pop up. 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 with 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 and hit Enter.
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:
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Option 4 – Try reverting back to the previous build of Windows
This kind of error might have something to do with a Feature Update so you can try to revert your computer to a previous build of Windows 10 as it could help you fix the problem. In this case, it would better if you refrain from updating your Windows 10 computer until this problem is completely resolved by Microsoft.
When your computer is slow, you don’t have much choice but to wait until it gets done with a task at its own pace, albeit a slow one. So if you want to switch user accounts on your computer a couple of times daily, then a slow computer can get really irritating. What makes system processes slow is that the accounts have some programs or applications running and resources allocated to them. And besides, if your computer is already low on performance, it will kill the natural fluidic flow of the user. But worry not, for this post will guide you in switching user accounts with the help of some minor tweaks in your Windows 10 computer.
To disable or enable Fast User Switching, you have two methods to do that using the Registry Editor and the Group Policy Editor. Either way, refer to the instructions laid out below.
Option 1 – Enable or disable Fast User Switching via Registry Editor
Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
After that, type “Regedit” in the field and tap Enter to open the Registry Editor.
Next, go to this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem
Then right-click on System and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name this newly created DWORD as “HideFastUserSwitching”.
Now double click on it. If you want to enable Fast User Switching, input “0” as the value, and if you want to disable it, input “1” as its value.
Restart your PC to successfully apply the changes made.
Option 2 – Enable or disable Fast User Switching via Group Policy Editor
Take note that this option will not work if you are using the Windows 10 Home edition since the Group Policy Editor does not come with Windows 10 Home. Refer to the steps below to enable or disable Fast User Switching using Group Policy Editor.
Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and then type in “gpedit.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Group Policy Editor.
Next, navigate to this path inside the Group Policy Editor: Computer ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesSystemLogon
Now double click on the configuration listing labeled as “Hide entry points for Fast User Switching” to open the configuration page.
Note: On the configuration page, you will see the following description:
“This policy setting allows you to hide the Switch User interface in the Logon UI, the Start menu, and the Task Manager. If you enable this policy setting, the Switch User interface is hidden from the user who is attempting to log on or is logged on to the computer that has this policy applied. The locations that the Switch User interface appears in the Logon UI, the Start menu, and the Task Manager. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the Switch User interface is accessible to the user in the three locations.”
From there, you can choose to enable or disable the Fast User Switching depending on your preferences. After you’ve selected, click OK and exit the Group Policy Editor.
Now restart your PC to apply the changes made successfully.
Update Error 0x80070003, 0x20007 One of the most common errors encountered by users who updated to Windows 10 is the Error Code 0x80070003-0x20007. Normally, this error code is accompanied by the message saying “Windows could not search for new updates. An error occurred while checking for new updates or your computer” or “Error(s) found: Code 0x80070003 Windows update encountered an unknown error”.
This update-related error is often encountered any time while your device automatically installs updates once there’s an available system update or during manually installing updates for a specific app. Regardless if you are using a tablet, laptop, or PC, this update-related error could occur after upgrading your system to Windows 10.
Solution
Error Causes
There are several reasons why the update-related Error Code 0x80070003-0x20007 occurs. This includes the following:
Windows Firewall-related problem
A conflict in your device’s system might be present
Not enough space in your RAM
Not enough space in your installation disk
Problems in your system memory
Further Information and Manual Repair
An effective way to address problems like the Error Code 0x80070003-0x20007 is by applying certain manual repair methods. However, ensure that you strictly follow instructions since one slight slip-up might result in critical issues. If you’re not knowledgeable enough, it would be best to consult help from a professional Windows technician or you can make use of an automated tool to solve any issues you’re encountering.
When you encounter the update-related Error Code 0x80070003-0x20007, you must take action immediately to address the problem to lessen the risk of losing all your data or damaging the Windows registry host.
Uninstall your antivirus prior to upgrading your system
Ensure that you have a simple machine name with no periods, dashes, or hyphens.
Restart several times then try again.
Disable the General USB Devices in your machine like the Smart Card Reader.
If you use a SCSI hard disk, ensure that you have available drivers you can use as your storage such as a thumb drive, and ensure as well that it is connected. Once you’re on the Windows 10 setup, click on Custom Advanced Option then use the Load Driver command in order to load the right driver for the SCSI drive. If this fails, try switching to an IDE-based hard disk.
Once done, perform a clean boot then try restarting the device again.
If you are upgrading your system using the .ISO file, disconnect your device from the Internet during setup. If your device is connected to the Internet by LAN or Wi-Fi, you need to disable both first then proceed to set up again.
If you’re performing the update through Windows Update, disconnect from the Internet LAN or Wi-Fi once the download reaches 100% then proceed with the installation.
If this still does not work, you can try using the .ISO file in upgrading.
Switch to a local account if your machine is connected to a domain.
Disconnect all external devices attached to your machine including gaming controllers, external hard disk, USB keys, and printers.
If the above steps still do not work, you can try performing a repair by doing the following steps:
Put the installation disc into the disc drive. Afterward, boot the computer.
Once the message: “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…” appears, press any key.
Choose a language, currency, time, and a keyboard or another input method. Click Next.
Click on Repair your computer
Select the operating system that you wish to repair then click Next
Open the Command Prompt by clicking it in the System Recovery Options dialog box.
Type BOOTREC /FIXMBR then hit Enter
Type BOOTREC /FIXBOOT then hit Enter
Type Drive:bootBootsect.exe /NT69 All then hit Enter
This post will guide you in what to do if you are trying to share the internet connection from your Android smartphone to your Windows 10 computer but USB tethering is not working. Although you can always connect your Android phone to your computer using a USB cable, you still won’t be able to access the internet. However, if you’ve already enabled the USB tethering option in your smartphone, you should be able to access the internet but if you still can’t then you can fix this issue by reading this post.
There are several potential fixes you can check out to fix the USB tethering issue. You can try running both the Internet Connections and Network Adapter troubleshooters or try installing the USB RNDIS adapter or disable any unnecessary network adapters.
Option 1 – Try to run the Internet Connections and Network Adapter troubleshooter
There are various built-in troubleshooters in Windows 10 that can help fix system issues. Since you are dealing with an internet connection problem, you can try running both the Internet Connections and the Network Adapter troubleshooters. To run them, follow these steps:
Go to Settings > Update & security > Troubleshoot.
From there, you can select the Internet Connections troubleshooter.
Click on the Run troubleshooter button to troubleshoot the problem.
Wait until the troubleshooter is done identifying and fixing the problem automatically.
Then follow the next on-screen instructions that may appear.
Once it’s done, check if the USB tethering issue is now fixed.
Note: You can also try to run the Network Adapter troubleshooter. It is also located under the Troubleshoot section. Just scroll down until you see it and then run it.
Option 2 – Try installing or updating the USB RNDIS adapter
RNDIS or Remote Network Driver Interface Specification can also help you resolve the USB tethering problem. If the pre-installed driver does not help you in connecting to the internet, then you can try installing the USB RNDIS driver that is, if it’s not installed yet. If it is already installed, you can try to update it instead.
Tap the Win + R keys to open Run and type “devmgmt.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Device Manager.
Next, expand the Network adapters section and look for the Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device. But if you are using a Samsung smartphone, you might see “Samsung” instead of under Network adapters.
Right-click on it and then select the “Update driver” option.
Then select the “Browse my computer for driver software” option.
After that, select the “Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer” option.
Now uncheck the checkbox for “Show compatible hardware”.
From the given list on your left-hand side, look for Microsoft and then select the Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device on your right-hand side.
Click on Next. A new popup will appear where you have to click on Yes. This will install the driver.
Now click on the Close button and restart your computer.
Option 3 – Try disabling any unnecessary network adapters/connections
Assuming that your Ethernet connection is showing ping loss which indicates that the internet is not stable. In such time, if you use the USB tethering functionality, you won’t be able to access the internet connection from your smartphone. The internet connection will be frequently disconnected since your computer gives priority to the Ethernet connection. Thus, you have to disable the Ethernet connection temporarily.
Right-click the network icon on your Taskbar and select the option “Network and Sharing Center”.
After that, click the network connection. And then click the Disable button from the status box that opens.
After that, check if you can now connect to the internet or not.
The Windows 10 operating system utilizes a variety of measures in order to track your app launches so that it can boost both your start and search results. It can personalize the start menu based on the apps that you use the most on the Start menu as well as the search results. This way, the App Launch Tracking is definitely useful especially when you want to access your favorite and frequently used apps quickly in the Start menu and search results on your Windows 10 computer.
On the other hand, Windows 10 provides users with the ability to control their privacy settings in order to protect the privacy of users. Windows 10 users can either opt to enable the app launch tracking to improve the start menu and search menu or opt to disable the app launch tracking in order to prevent the Windows operating system from tracking that you open if you really value your privacy that much. Whichever setting you prefer, you need to change the privacy control settings as well as make some tweaks in the Windows Registry in order to turn on or turn off the app launch tracking feature.
Option 1 – Turn off or turn on app launch tracking via Settings
Go to Settings and click on Privacy.
After that, toggle On the “Let Windows track app launches to improve Start and search results” option on the right side of the page under the General Settings to enable the app launch tracking feature.
And of course, if you wish to disable the app launch tracking feature, simply toggle Off the “Let Windows track app launches to improve Start and search results” option on the very same page under General Settings.
After that, close the Settings window.
Note: Keep in mind that when you disable the app launch tracking feature, the “Show most used app” setting will either be grayed out or labeled as “Disable” on your Windows 10 computer. Thus, if you want to keep viewing the most used apps, just re-enable the app launch tracking feature if you have disabled it.
Option 2 – Turn off or turn on app launch tracking via Windows Registry
Before you proceed, make sure to create a System Restore point
Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
Then type “Regedit” in the field and hit Enter or click OK to open the Registry Editor.
Mozilla Firefox has introduced a new feature known as Restart with Windows which allows the browser to automatically start when your Windows 10 computer boots. This means that if you leave the Firefox browser opened while shutting down your computer, Firefox will re-open automatically along with the tabs that were opened right before you shut down your computer.
Although some users may find this feature convenient, there are others who do not approve at all as it could be a nuisance. So if you’re one of the latter, then read on as this post will show you how you can disable the Restart with Windows feature in the Firefox browser on your Windows 10 computer. Refer to the instructions laid out below to get started.
Step 1: Open Mozilla Firefox and if it’s opened already, just open a new tab and then type the following text in the address bar:
about:config
Step 2: After typing the text given above, hit Enter and if a prompt with a warning message pops up, simply click on the “I accept the risk!” button to proceed.
Step 3: Next, type “Restart” in the search filter which should display the following preference in the window:
“toolkit.winRegisterApplicationRestart”
Step 4: After that, check for the preference value and then see if it’s set to true or not. If it is set to true, then it means that the Restart with Windows feature is enabled so obviously, to disable it, you need to set its value to false.
Step 5: Now restart your computer without closing Firefox. After restarting your computer, you should no longer see Firefox starting automatically.
The Restart with Windows feature by default is disabled for most users. On the other hand, Mozilla will have this feature enabled as the default configuration in the coming weeks so it’s best that you now know what to do when that time comes since the newer versions of Mozilla Firefox are already being shipped with the Restart with Windows feature. However, if this post did not help you, then you might want to check if the feature has been added to the Startup folder, and from there, you can disable this startup program using the Task Manager > Startup tab.
The author of the famous software library mode-ipc that gets over a million downloads per week found that it has some questionable code inside. The code itself behaves like this: if it finds out that your location is within Russia or Belarus it will try to replace the contents of all files on the computer with a heart emoji.
One important thing is that we here are not supporting the current Ukrainian situation and are against any type of violence or war but we also do not support this kind of behavior as well. If we look at this only from a technical perspective, we would then classify the mode-ipc library as malware and a harmful piece of code no matter the motivation behind it.
So this so-called protestware is well basically malware, but not always, it will protest when certain conditions are met. The issue with this is that companies and users should not be placed under harm if they do not share the personal view of the code author. Imagine if, for example, I would publish code to delete all pictures from your computer if my code found out that you do not like metal music. I guess you not liking metal music and war in Ukraine are two very different things but the source is the same, unreliable code that invades your privacy in order to serve one purpose, punishment for disagreeing with my personal views and that should not be allowed.
Not all protestware are equal, some will not harm your computer on purpose, they will just annoy you with some messages like viruses did in their infancy stages, others might place some developer sanctions but no matter the outcome basic principle is the same, it does something without user consent and without informing the user that something like that might happen.
On the internet, many blog posts and discussions were open about this issue and its morality. Discussion is still active with different takes on the situation and how to prevent it. Our take on this matter is that professional developers should have standards and not submit to doing harm for the sake of personal views and feelings.
In the long run, this kind of behavior and practice can only harm developers involved in this kind of entanglement. Infected libraries will in time stop being used since people would not trust them and authors will have a stain on their name as impulsive or not trustworthy.
Fatal error C0000034 happens during the installation of the Windows update and if you are one of the unlucky users who sadly run into this, keep reading as we will provide solutions to this error and how to get around it.
Start from point 1 to the bottom and hopefully you will have your PC back into working order in no time.
Run Windows Update troubleshooter
Usually, a built-in Windows troubleshooter can solve issues painlessly and fast, my advice is to try this as the first option, it is a simple and clean solution worth trying and in 90% it solves the issue all by itself.
Do a clean boot
Using task manager, remove all nonessential applications and services from starting up, reboot your computer, and once it is cleanly booted try re-running the update process again, if the issue was running the application this time everything will work since the problematic application is not running.
Reset Windows update components to the default
This solution requires you to use the Reset Windows Update Agent Tool to reset Windows Update components to default or use this PowerShell script to reset Windows Update Client. You can also manually reset each Windows Update component to default and then re-run the update.
Disable firewall and antivirus
Altho not likely it is still a possibility that some firewalls and antivirus can detect windows updates as malicious software and cut them off. If everything else failed, disable the firewall and your PC protection and when it is fully disabled try updating.
Do automatic startup repair
This should be the last thing to do but if everything else failed, do it. Perform Windows 10 Startup Repair. Once the startup repair completes successfully, you can re-run the update. The update should install without errors.
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For people not familiar with recent events, the state of California has sued Blizzard for various things including discrimination and offensive behavior. Later Blizzard executives were caught shredding some evidence and things just started to go to worse from there.
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