Should you build a custom PC

If you are tried encrypting or decrypting a file using the default EFS engine but you receive an error message instead saying, “Error Applying Attributes, An error occurred applying attributes to the file: The specified file could not be decrypted”, read on as this post will help you sort out the problem. If you encounter this error you can use the error code in it. You will most likely get error code 0x80071771. This kind of error occurs when the File Explorer’s copy and paste feature was not able to read the source file being encrypted or decrypted. It could also occur if you try to access a file that has been on another computer previously.

To fix error code 0x80071771 when decrypting or encrypting a file, refer to the instructions provided below.

Step 1: You need to check first if you can decrypt the files encrypted by EFS. However, if you can’t, just proceed and then take full control of the file. Step 2: To take control of the file, open File Explorer and right-click on the partition, and then click on Properties. Step 3: After that, click on the Edit button under the Security tab. Step 4: Next, make sure that “Everyone” is selected under the Group or user names section. Step 5: Afterwards, the Permissions for Everyone section will be activated. Just make sure that all the checkboxes for Allow are checked and then click on the Apply button. Step 6: Once you’re done, click on the Advanced button. This will open a new window labeled Advanced Security Settings. From there, click on the Change link under the Owner section. Step 7: Now type your account name in the field and click on Check Names to verify the account name and click OK. Step 8: After that, select the “Replace owner on sub-containers and objects” option and then click OK. Step 9: Next, select Administrators in the Group or User names list and select Full Control in the Permissions for Administrators panel and click OK.

Building a custom PC is a great feeling but it can sometimes not be ideal and we are not talking about breaking or losing parts. What we mean is that choosing the right components can be sometimes a difficult task. Of course, picking a PC case can have its issues, choosing the right power supply can be tricky but pairing all components together, especially CPU and GPU can be tricky. Builders with no depth knowledge and experience can sometimes choose improper CPU or GPU, picking one of them to be much more powerful than another thus not using it to its full potential because another component cannot handle stuff at the same speed. In order to not be trumped by this kind of stuff, there is a website that is completely free and you do not even need to be registered in order to use it. Bottlenet calculator link here What is even better, once you input your components you will get advice on what to change in order to tweak the system a little more to avoid bottlenecks even more. It is a very useful tool and we are advising you to use it in order to save money but not throwing it on some component that will be half used.

• In your Graphics Settings, select r5apex.exe and change the Graphics performance preference to Classic App, set it to High Performance, and then launch the game as an administrator when you want to play.
• Inside the Nvidia Control Panel, click “Manage 3D Settings”, and select Apex Legends and change it to “Prefer Maximum Power”
• You can also change “pre-rendered frames” to 1, but it will make you lag just a tiny, tiny bit.
• Turning the shader cache on can help improve FPS, but on some systems, it may cause additional negative performance changes.
• If you have the ability to use G-Sync, use that as well (Only available on some monitors and graphics cards)
• From the task manager, change the priority of r5apex.exe to “High” and close out of other applications.
• Update your graphics drivers.
• Ensure your PC complies with the games minimum system requirements:
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz / AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
  • RAM: 6GB
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 / Radeon HD 7700
  • GPU RAM: 1 GB
  • HARD DRIVE: Minimum 30 GB of free space
• Check to see if your system has the game’s recommended hardware requirements:
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • CPU: Intel i5 3570K or equivalent
  • RAM: 8GB
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290
  • GPU RAM: 8GB
  • HARD DRIVE: Minimum 30 GB of free space
• Within the game, try to set the settings to:
  • Full Screen
  • Disable V-Sync
  • Anti-Aliasing to Disabled/TSAA (slight performance difference)
  • Use Native Resolution
  • Keep Field of View at around 80-100
  • Texture Streaming Budget to High
  • Texture filtering as low as possible while still being playable
  • Ambient occlusion as low as possible
  • Shadow all to Low / Lowest
  • Model detail low
  • Effects detail low
  • Volumetric lighting / Dynamic spot shadows Disabled
  • Ragdolls low
  • Impact marks the lowest
• Make sure other applications are not placing overlays (Discord, GeForce, Xbox Gaming)
• Clean your temporary files and uninstall other games to give your PC room to have the game run.
• Don’t use products like CCleaner as they may remove necessary files from your computer.
• Closeout of Chrome when you’re playing the game or follow our guide on Optimizing Chrome Performance

Call of Duty is a fun and good game, a great time killer with a squad of friends, however sometimes the game crashes, and fun is interrupted. In this guide, we will address and solve this unpleasant issue.

1. Scan game files

   inside launcher choose options and under them, choose scan and repair game files This process can take 5-30 minutes, as the game is 60GB large. This will look through all your game files and make sure they’re all valid and that none are corrupted, which may cause crashes. When it’s complete, you’ll get a notification that the game is now playable. Try again and see if your crashes continue.

2. Update drivers

   Keeping drivers updated is crucial for the game to run smoothly, GPU drivers are possibly important. Go to your GPU manufacturer's website and get the latest drivers.

3. Lower graphic settings

   Intensive graphic requirements can overload GPU and cause crashes, try lowering details in-game and see if this will fix the issue.

4. Disable overlays

   If you’re using a program like Discordthat has an overlay, you’ll want to disable it as it may be causing the graphic error

Many Windows 10 users often change the IP addresses of their computers’ network adapter in order to connect to the internet or network they belong to in times when there is no automatic connection for their computers. In most cases, access to modifying this setting is restricted for some odd reason even if you are an administrator. So if you are one of the users whose Windows 10 VPN IPv4 Properties are not working, this post can help you remedy that so that you can open and edit the IPv4 Properties on your Windows 10 PC. The common way to change IP settings is by going to Settings > Network and then to Internet > Change adapter options > Select Network adapter > right click and open Properties. From there, you can select TCP/IP 4 and modify it. If you aren’t able to do this, refer to the instructions laid out below to troubleshoot the problem in accessing the IPv4 Properties.

Option 1 – Try using PowerShell to manually set the IPv4 properties

As you are not able to set it using the interface, you can do so using PowerShell instead. Note that this option will only work for you if you run PowerShell with administrator privileges. After opening PowerShell, according to many users, you have to run the this command – set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias “Ethernet” -ServerAddresses xxx.xx.xxx.xxx,x.x.x.x,xxx.xx.xxx.xxx,x.x.x.x Usually, Ethernet is the name of your network adapter which is set by default. If you want to see the actual name of your network adapter, you can just type this command and tap Enter after doing so – Get-NetAdapter -physical | where status -eq 'up' After entering the given command, you will see a list of active Ethernet adapter in your computer as you can see on the image above. Note that the 4 sets of X like the one on the image below should match with the sequence:

Option 2 – Try editing the rasphone.pbk files

The rasphone.pbk files stores property for the connections and since you are not able to access the IPv4 properties, it is most likely that it has been disabled here. The good thing is that you can open these files and edit them using Notepad. Refer to the steps below to do so.

• Open the Windows Explorer and then enable the show hidden files option.
• After that, look for the files at this location – C:Users <username>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftNetworkConnectionsPbk_hiddenPbkrasphone.pbk
• Then right-click on it and select the “Open with” option and choose the Notepad app.
• After opening the file, look for “IpPrioritizeRemote” from the long list.
• Once you found it, set its value from “1” to “0”.
• After that, look for “IPInterfaceMetric” and set its value to “1” and tap Ctrl + S to save the changes you’ve made, and then exit and try accessing the IPv4 properties again. It should work, but if you’re still unable to access it, try the next option below.

Option 3 – Enable the Split Tunneling if you use VPN

All data goes back and forth when you are using a VPN service on your computer. And since you are using VPN, it could be that it disables the IPv4 interface. If that’s the case, you need to stay connected with both the local network and VPN and to do so, you have to enable Split Tunneling. How? Follow these steps:

• Open PowerShell with administrator privileges.
• Next, type in “Get-VpnConnection” and tap Enter. After doing so, it will give you the exact name of your VPN.
• After that, type in “Set-VpnConnection -Name “yourVPNName” -SplitTunneling $True” and tap Enter. Once you enter the command, it will free your IPv5 settings so that you can change it to connect with your local network if you prefer it to.

Page Fault in Non-Paged Area is a blue screen error usually happening with faulty drivers but it can come from different issues like faulty RAM. In this short article, we will cover usual ways on how to approach and solve this error.

Solving Page fault in Non-Paged Area

Rollback using system restore

Simple and easy solution, roll back to the previous system restore point where Windows was stable and working.

Fix Page Fault in Non-Paged Area using device manager

1. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the hidden menu
2. Click on device manager
3. Find a device with a question mark and right-click on it
4. Click on the rollback driver button

Fix via command prompt

1. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the hidden menu
2. Click on command prompt (admin)
3. Inside command prompt type in SFC / scannow and press ENTER
4. Wait for the process to be finished and then reboot the PC

Fix via DISM tool

1. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the hidden menu
2. Click on command prompt (admin)
3. Inside command prompt type in DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press ENTER
4. Wait for the process to be finished and then reboot the PC

Page fault in Non-Paged Area via a dedicated tool

Sometimes manual and provided solutions just simply cannot cut it because the issue is triggered also with something else and not just a single issue. Use DRIVERFIX to fix this specific issue with a single click.

Bad or good news, depending on your view comes from RIOT for their game Valorant. It seems that Riot has decided to enforce Windows 11 TPM 2.0 feature into Valorant running on Windows 11 and there is a rumor that it will be de facto standard and that it will move to Valorant in general no matter on which system it runs. Furthermore, there is a rumor circling around that other developers are also talking about implementing TPM 2.0 requirements so they can harvest advanced security features of Windows 11 in order to prevent hacks and other cheats in their games. This is an interesting point to stand on, on one side, sure, advanced features that will prevent cheating and hacking is a great thing. On other hand denying access to many computers that do not support TPM 2.0 and removing them from the game can be a permanent loss of customers and therefore loss of money. It is a risk to be sure and I am not really sure that alienating gamers is a good choice for long-term income, especially when you will be able to install Windows 11 on an unsupported PC as stated by Microsoft. We will all see how this Riot decision will reflect on their business, as not a big Valorant player myself I am not impacted too much with this decision, but it will be interesting to see if others will indeed go with this trend or they will decide to wait a while until much more PC’s are upgraded.

As you know, the Win + X menu, which is the shortcut context menu, is a useful way to launch several utilizes in Windows such as Power Options, Windows PowerShell, Event Viewer, Device Manager, and so on. However, there are times when you might experience difficulty in identifying the required utility. This is actually a part of the Windows 10 shell that goes out of scope in the customization of Windows 10. However, there is an easy trick you can use to do that. So in this post, you will be guided on how you can rename the options in the Win + X menu in Windows 10. In case you don’t know, the context menu is divided into three groups. Microsoft has categorized the bottom-most part as Group 1, while the middle part is categorized as Group 2 and the first part as Group 3. To rename these options, you need to use File Explorer and follow the instructions laid out below. Step 1: First, tap the Win + E keys to open File Explorer. Step 2: Next, navigate to this path: %LocalAppdata%MicrosoftWindowsWinX Step 3: From there, you should see three folders as Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3. Open the appropriate folder of your choice. Step 4: After that, right-click on the shortcut option you want to rename and then select Properties. Step 5: Next, navigate to the Shortcut tab under the Properties window. Step 6: Now in the text field of Comment, enter the new name of the option you selected. Step 7: Click on the Apply and OK buttons to save the changes made. Note: You can now either Sign back in or sign out of your Windows 10 User Account to see the result of the changes you’ve made. You could also restart the process of File Explorer via Task Manager. This will close the File Explorer as well as the shell components and then only launch the shell components again. In addition, you can check the Win + X menu to see the customized name that you’ve just set for a particular option. As you can see, even though it does not add anything extra, it is still a lot better in knowing how you can customize it.

A surprisingly large amount of things present at your home can and do interfere with your wi-fi signal making it weak so devices are dropping it, having trouble connecting, or being slow.

Hello and welcome to our latest article where we will take a look at all things that are present in a lot of homes but are very bad for your WI-Fi signal.

Bad router placement

Having a router in a bad position can have some really large effects on WI-Fi signal strength and its availability. Usually, we do not give great attention to where we are placing our router but it has been proved over and over again that being close to certain objects does indeed have a great influence on the wireless signal strength and performance.

So, what are these objects and bad positions where we could place the router and effectively kill his Wi-Fi capabilities?

Fish Tanks

Water will block all radio waves including Wi-FI signals and waves themselves, so having a router next to the aquarium or any large source of water is a bad idea. You should always look at water as something bad for your Wi-Fi and move your router away from it as far as possible.

Bookshelves

Paper is another story and example of the dampening effect on radio waves. Did you know that various patterns of paper are used in silent rooms and recording studios in order to eliminate sound reflection from surfaces? Well besides absorbing sound waves, the paper also absorbs Wi-Fi signals and if you have a large bookshelf with a lot of books packed one beside another you just have a great wall of signal absorbing.

Mirrors

The problem with mirrors is in their coating that goes over the glass in order to turn it into the mirror, that coating is metal and as such, it is absorbing signals in large amounts. If you have an old or high-quality mirror that has a silver coating things are even worse since silver will absorb even more waves than modern cheap ones.

TV

Yup, TV is also on this list and for a similar reason as a mirror, although TV does not have coatings of metal, they have something even worse: a large metal plating on the back. Metal plating is there to produce structural integrity of the TV set and provide it with shielding from electromagnetic waves and as such it will prevent Wi-Fi waves as well. Do not place the router behind your TV.

Things that influence signals in homes

Any kind of metal decoration

Now when we covered mirrors and TV because of the metal they have, we must take a look at the metal itself. Any kind of metal stuff that you might have like baskets, figures, statues, frames, etc will effectively block your signal.

Kitchen appliances and Home utilities

Kitchen appliances like refrigerators, microwaves, ovens, stoves, etc. along with home appliances and utilities like dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, etc are large metal objects enclosed in a metal cage that will block signals from spreading further and it is no secret that most kitchens have weaker Wi-Fi because of this reason.

Home gyms

This is a logical conclusion as to everything explained so far if you have a workout room or small gym at home it is probably filled with weights that are metal and have mirrors inside, all of that will interfere and block signals.

Things blocking your Wi-Fi that you have no easy control over

Walls

Thick walls will dampen signals, thick walls from bricks will dampen even more and concrete walls will kill it almost completely. Any kind of metal reinforcement wiring inside walls will reduce and kill signals as well.

Floors and ceiling

This is somewhat important if you have a floor beneath or under the room where is your router located, but for the same reason how walls are blocking your signal floor and ceiling can do it as well, especially since most of the time they are made of some stronger material like concrete with metal fence inside.

Heating systems

If you have a heating system that is composed of metal radiators with water inside, then in terms of Wi-Fi signal strength you have an aquarium but in a metal box, and as such it will greatly reduce signal strength.

Microsoft just released Windows 11 Insider build 22000.71. Let’s dive in and see what it brings with you.

Changes and features

New entertainment widget. The entertainment widget allows you to see new and featured movie titles available in the Microsoft Store. Selecting a movie will direct you to the Microsoft Store to see more information about that title. Just open widgets and click or tap on the “Add widgets” button and choose the entertainment widget. For now, the entertainment widget is available for Insiders in the following countries: US, UK, CA, DE, FR, AU, JP. The new context menus and other right-click menus have been updated to use acrylic material. We are testing the usability of a SplitButton for making new folders and files in the File Explorer command bar. The Taskbar previews (when you mouse-over open apps on the Taskbar) have been updated to reflect the new visual design of Windows 11.

Fixes

Taskbar:

• We fixed an issue where if you drag app icons on the Taskbar to rearrange them, it was making the apps launch or minimize when you released the icon.
• Using a long press with a touch on an app icon in the Taskbar to open the jump list should now work.
• After right-clicking the Start icon in the Taskbar, clicking somewhere else should now dismiss the menu more reliably.
• Shift + Right-click on an app icon in the Taskbar will now bring up the window menu like it used to and not the jump list.
• We’ve addressed an issue that was making your mouse move slowly when hovering over the Taskbar previews.
• We’ve included the fix for an issue when using multiple Desktops where an app icon in the taskbar might give the appearance of multiple windows being open when that wasn’t the case on that Desktop.
• When using the Amharic IME you should no longer see an unexpected X next to the IME icon in the taskbar.
• The issue where if you click on the input indicator on the Taskbar and it would unexpectedly highlight Quick Settings has been fixed.
• When you hover over Task View, the preview flyout for your Desktops will no longer pop back up after using Esc to dismiss them.
• We made a fix to address an issue where explorer.exe might crash after hovering over the Task View icon in the Taskbar.
• We fixed an issue where the selected date in the calendar flyout was out of sync with the date in the Taskbar.
• We made an update to address a scenario resulting in some Insiders not seeing the lunar calendar text in the calendar flyout when enabled in Settings.
• This flight addressed an issue that could unexpectedly make the Taskbar background transparent.
• Right-clicking the focus assist icon in the taskbar should now show a context menu.
• The issue from the previous flight where icons in the taskbar corner were getting crushed against the top of the Taskbar has been addressed.
• The tooltip for the location in use icon in the Taskbar should no longer appear blank sometimes.

Settings:

• We fixed an issue making Settings crash on launch periodically.
• Using the volume mixer sliders in Sound Settings should be more responsive now, as well as the page responsiveness as a whole.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Disk and Volumes Settings’ change size option being clipped.
• There was a non-functional verify link under Backup Settings – this has been fixed.
• The Power and Battery Settings page should no longer be reporting that the battery saver is engaged if it’s not.
• The Power and Battery Settings page should also now not crash when launched from Quick Settings.
• We fixed a grammatical error in the Sign-in Settings text.
• The “I forgot my PIN” link was unexpectedly missing in Sign-in Settings when a PIN was set up and has now been returned.
• The issue where the Move option under Apps & Features in Settings wasn’t working reliably should be addressed in this build.
• We’ve mitigated a problem where some of the colors in Settings weren’t updating after switching between dark and light mode, leaving the unreadable text.
• We’ve done some work to help improve the performance of Settings when switching between light and dark mode.
• We addressed an issue where some of the elements of the Themes page in Settings would end up crowded together when the window size was small.
• We resolved an issue where the Pen menu toggle under Taskbar Settings was not in sync with the actual state of the feature.
• Changes made to “Dismiss notification after this amount of time” in Accessibility Settings should now persist.
• Some of the icons you could enable in Taskbar Settings were erroneously labeled Windows Explorer even though that’s not what they were – this should now be fixed.
• The Connect text in Quick Settings has been updated to say Cast.

File Explorer:

• Clicking the command bar button twice should now close any dropdown that appeared.
• The new command bar should now appear when “Open folders in a separate process” is enabled under File Explorer Options > View.
• This build addresses an issue where right-clicking a file and selecting Open With > Choose another app might launch the file in the default app rather than opening the Open With dialog.
• Fixed an issue the desktop and File Explorer context menu would stop launching.

Search:

• We fixed an issue where the option to verify your account in Search wasn’t working.
• Hovering over the Search icon on a secondary monitor will now show the flyout on the correct monitor.
• Search should now work if you open Start and start typing after having gone to the apps list and back.

Widgets:

• When using the Outlook client with a Microsoft account, Calendar, and To-Do updates should sync faster down to the widgets.
• We addressed an issue where if you added multiple widgets quickly from the widget's settings, it could result in some of the widgets not being visible on the board.
• We fixed a bug where widgets could all become stuck in a loading state (blank squares in the window).
• The traffic widget should now follow the Windows mode (light or dark).
• The title of the sports widget should no longer mismatch with the content of the widget.

Other:

• This build addresses an issue where ALT + Tab was getting stuck open sometimes after you released the keys and had to be manually dismissed.
• We made a fix for an issue where Narrator's focus wasn’t ending up on the emoji panel after using the keyboard shortcut to open it.
• Magnifier’s lens view has been updated so the lens now has rounded corners.
• We found an issue that was noticeably impacting Start launch reliability for some Insiders, and have addressed it with this flight.
• We’ve updated the “Most Used” text in the Start menu’s app list so it should no longer be getting clipped.
• Using the semantic zoom in Start’s app list should no longer result in the list being pushed down and to the right off the edge of the window.
• We fixed an issue where if you pressed ⊞ WIN + Z you would need to press Tab before you could use the arrow key to navigate through the snap layouts.
• We addressed an issue where an acrylic area could get left on the screen after repeatedly snapping and unsnapping a window with touch.
• We’ve done some work to mitigate an unexpected flash when moving a snapped window with touch.
• We made a change to help window borders have a little more contrast when “Show accent color on title bars and windows borders” was turned off.

Known issues in Windows 11 repaired

Start:

• In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press ⊞ WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.
• Based on feedback, we are working on adding access keys to ⊞ WIN + X so that you can do things like “⊞ WIN + X M” to launch Device Manager. Insiders may see this functionality in this build, however, we are currently investigating an issue in which sometimes the option is unexpectedly unavailable.

Taskbar:

• There is an issue in this build where Explorer.exe will crash when the date and time button on the Taskbar is clicked to access new notifications with Focus Assist turned off. The workaround for this is to enable Focus assist to priority or alarms mode. Note that when focus assist is turned on, notification popups won’t appear, but they will be in the notification center when opened.
• The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.
• Taskbar previews may draw partially offscreen.

Settings:

• When launching the Settings app, a brief green flash may appear.
• When using Quick Settings to modify Accessibility settings, the settings UI may not save the selected state.
• The button to rename your PC doesn’t work in this build. If needed, this can be done using sysdm.cpl.
• Settings will crash when clicking “Facial recognition (Windows Hello)” under Sign-in Settings if Windows Hello is already set up.
• Reset this PC and Go back buttons in Settings > System > Recovery does not function. Reset and rollback can be accessed from the Windows Recovery Environment by selecting System > Recovery > Advanced startup, and pressing Restart now. Once in Windows Recovery, choose Troubleshoot.
• Choose Reset this PC to perform a reset.
• Choose Advanced options > Uninstall Updates > Uninstall latest feature update to perform a rollback.

File Explorer:

• exe crashes in a loop for Insiders using the Turkish display language when the battery charge is at 100%.
• When right-clicking the desktop or File Explorer, the resulting context menu and submenus may appear partially off-screen.
• Clicking a desktop icon or context menu entry may result in the wrong item being selected.

Search:

• After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.
• When you hover your mouse over the Search icon on the Taskbar, recent searches may not be displayed. To work around the issue, restart your PC.
• The search panel might appear black and not display any content below the search box.

Widgets:

• Widgets board may appear empty. To work around the issue, you can sign out and then sign back in again.
• Launching links from the widgets board may not invoke apps to the foreground.
• Widgets may be displayed in the wrong size on external monitors. If you encounter this, you can launch the widgets via touch or WIN + W shortcut on your actual PC display first and then launch on your secondary monitors.

Store:

• The install button might not be functional yet in some limited scenarios.
• Rating and reviews are not available for some apps.

Windows Security:

• Device Security is unexpectedly saying “Standard hardware security not supported” for Insiders with supported hardware.
• “Automatic sample submission” is unexpectedly turned off when you restart your PC.

Localization:

• There is an issue where some Insiders may be missing some translations from their user experience for a small subset of languages running the latest Insider Preview builds. To confirm if you have been impacted, please visit this Answers forum post and follow the steps for remediation.

That's is so far, the latest update information on Windows 11 insider build. Stay tuned for more information when it comes as it comes.