Software review series: KRITA

Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox are some of the leading browsers commonly used these days and they all include an embedded copy of the Adobe Flash Player. So if you are running a Windows 10 PC then you can have up to 4 copies of Adobe Flash Player; one for Microsoft Edge, one for Internet Explorer, one for Opera, one for Firefox. You might also experience cases wherein two flash players are simultaneously running, i.e. one installed in Chrome as a single plug-in and another one installed in Windows, trying to parse the data. And in such cases, you might consider removing or uninstalling one of the versions of Adobe Flash Player. If you do, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you in disabling the embedded Adobe Flash Player in Windows 10. Before you get started in removing the Adobe Flash Player in Internet Explorer & Microsoft Edge browser, you need to sign in with your administrative account even if don’t use it or set it as the default browser. After you’ve signed in to your administrative account, follow the steps below. Step 1: Open your browser, if you are using Edge then open it. Step 2: After opening your browser, go to its Settings and select Advanced Settings. Step 3: Next, Move the slider against the “Use Adobe Flash Player” option to off. Step 4: After that, open File Explorer and navigate to this address, “C:/Windows/servicingPackages” and from there, check on the following entries:

• Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64….(version number of the Flash Player)
• Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-WOW64-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64….(version number of the Flash player #)
• Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-onecoreuap-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64…(version number of the Flash Player)

Step 5: Take note of all the listed package names of Adobe Flash Player and tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “Regedit” in the field and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor. Step 6: Next, right-click on the three keys which have the name of the packages you listed and select “Permissions” one after the other. Step 7: Then check “Allow” to enable full control for the Administrators account and click OK to save the changes made. Step 8: Select the three keys one after the other and select Visibility DWORD located on the right side and then right-click on Visibility and change the Value data from 2 to 1. Step 9: Go over the same procedures again for the other keys. Once you’ve completed then you should now be able to remove packages using the DISM tool. Step 10: Simply open an elevated Command Prompt and execute the following commands:

• dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64-10.0.17134.1
• dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-WOW64-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64-10.0.17134.1
• dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-onecoreuap-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64-10.0.17134.1

Keep in mind that the numbers at the end could be different on your computer due to the difference of version number so you have to use the numbers on your system. After that, reboot your computer.

Windows 11 is released and its adoption goes slower than Microsoft would like but nevertheless, it is slowly getting adopted, especially among new computers. Windows 11 has brought us a new modern look of OS but if you would like to personalize it a little more you can. Follow the guide on various things that you can change inside Windows 11.

Personalize list of recently added apps, opened items, folders

The recommended section that shows recently added apps and recently open items can be turned off and hidden now to be shown. In order to do this follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Settings by pressing WINDOWS + I
2. Click on personalization in the sidebar
3. Click on START and go through the options
4. Turn OFF switch beside recently accessed files
5. Additionally, you can also change which folders appear on the Start menu.

Remove apps or change app order on the Start Menu

To remove application not to be shown in the Start menu at all follow this simple guide:

1. Right-click on app
2. Choose unpin
3. To place the application on Start click on All Apps, right-click on the app and choose Pin to Start
4. To drag and rearrange apps, simply click on them and drag them to the new place.

Change the Start Menu location

When Windows 11 was first released Start Menu could only be located in the middle of the screen but thanks to plenty of backlash from users now it is possible to move it on a more traditional left side.

1. Press WINDOWS + I to open the settings app
2. Click on Personalization
3. Look for taskbar behaviors
4. Inside taskbar behaviors look for Taskbar alignment
5. Change alignment to left

Change the Start Menu color

In order to change the color of the Start Menu follow the next steps:

1. Open Settings app
2. Go to personalization settings
3. Go to Colors
4. Switch to custom
5. Under accent color pick a color you like or make your custom one.

You will notice the blurred background on the login screen right away when you start your Windows 10 computer that’s running the v1903 and up. This kind of blurred background is known as “Acrylic Blur Effect on Sign-in Screen”. This new feature delivers a beautiful experience to users by adding more focus to the login screen. However, no matter how nice this feature is and even if it only stays for less than a minute, not all users like it and if you’re one of these users, read on as this post will guide you in disabling the blurred background login screen in your Windows 10 computer. Disabling the blurred background in the login screen can be done in two methods. The first one is via the Registry Editor and the second one is via the Group Policy Editor. Before you proceed, make sure that you are using an admin account and you must create a System Restore point first. Once you have that covered, follow the options provided below.

Option 1 – Disable the Blurred background in the login screen via Registry Editor

• First, tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “Regedit” in the field, and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• After that, navigate to this registry path: KEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsSystem
• Next, right-click on any empty space in the right pane and create a new DWORD (32 bit) and name it as “DisableAcrylicBackgroundOnLogon”.
• Once you’ve created the DWORD, double click on it and set its value to 1 to disable it and 0 to enable it.
• After you make the necessary changes, restart your computer. You won’t now see the blurred background on the login screen.

Note: No matter what option you select to change the background, it will stay blurred when you click on the login button. At the time of writing, there is no way to disable this feature in the Personalization section so the Registry Editor will have to suffice for now.

Option 2 – Disable the Blurred background in the login screen via Group Policy Editor

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run utility and type “gpedit.msc” in the field and tap Enter to open the Group Policy Editor.
• After that, navigate to this policy setting: Computer ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesSystemLogon
• From there, double click on the “Show clear logon background settings” and since its default value is “Not configured”, set it to “Disabled”. You will see the following description under this setting:
  • “This policy setting disables the acrylic blur effect on the logon background image.”
  • “If you enable this policy, the logon background image shows without blur.”

• Now click on OK and then check the login screen.

Note: If you don’t configure or if you disable this policy, the logon background image adopts the acrylic blur effect. However, if it didn’t work, you have to restart your computer and then check.

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.

KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED seems to be connected primarily to a third-party driver, e1d65x64.sys associated with the Intel(R) Gigabit adapter, NIC/Wired network NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) 6.x driver. Error is known to produce the dreaded blue screen of death or BSOD. Most usually error is connected with gaming on Windows 10 computer and it manifests itself during gaming sessions. If you are unlucky and you are faced with this unfortunate error we will be happy to try to help you and present with tips and tricks in order for you to find a solution for it. Before you proceed with the provided solutions, be sure you have sufficient disk space on the Windows drive, run Disk Cleanup and then run CHKDSK.

1) Run the Blue Screen Online Troubleshooter

Open Control Panel, change the view setting to icons. Click Troubleshooting, and click “View all” in the tasks pane. Click “Blue Screen”. This opens the Blue Screen Troubleshooter.

2) Run Driver Verifier

1. Start a Command Prompt window by selecting Run as an administrator, and type verifier to open Driver Verifier Manager.
2. Select Create standard settings (the default task), and select Next. You can also choose to Create custom settings to select from predefined settings, or to select individual options. For more information, see Driver Verifier options and rule classes and Selecting Driver Verifier Options.
3. Under Select what drivers to verify, choose one of the selection schemes described in the following table.

   Driver verifier table:

   Option	Recommended use
   Automatically select unsigned drivers	Useful for testing on computers that are running versions of Windows that do not require signed drivers.
   Automatically select drivers built for older versions of Windows	Useful for testing driver compatibility with newer versions of Windows.
   Automatically select all drivers installed on this computer	Provides maximum coverage in terms of the number of drivers that are tested on a system. This option is useful for test scenarios where a driver can interact with other devices or drivers on a system. This option can also exhaust the resources available for Special Pool and some resource tracking. Testing all drivers can also adversely affect system performance.
   Select driver names from a list	In most cases, you will want to specify which drivers to test. Selecting all drivers in a device stack allows the Enhanced I/O Verification option to track objects and check compliance because an I/O request packet (IRP) is passed between each of the drivers in the stack, which allows for a greater level of detail to be provided when an error is detected. Select a single driver if you are running a test scenario that measures system or driver performance metrics, or if you want to allocate the greatest number of resources available for detecting memory corruption or resource tracking issues (such as deadlocks or mutexes). The Special Pool and I/O Verification options are more effective when used on one driver at a time.

4. If you chose Select driver names from a list, select Next, and then select one or more specific drivers.
5. Select Finish, and then restart the computer.

3) Update network device drivers

Go to the official Intel website and try to find newer versions of drivers, if there are none perhaps you will need to revert back to the previous version.

4) Scan memory for issues

Run a memory test on your system, sometimes these errors can be traced back to a faulty RAM bank.

5) Stop over-clocking your PC

If you have overclocked your PC please reverse it back to its original state and see if that would solve the issue

6) Perform System Restore to the previous restore point

If none of the previous solutions have bared fruit, roll back to a previous restore point and that should solve the issue.

Anytime when a new folder is created in Windows name "New Folder" is offered and set as the default name. If by any chance you would like to change this and set your own default name instead of the standard one, follow this guide. Please be aware that this guide will require you to change the registry of Windows, it is common practice to make a backup of your registry each time you want to manually change any values in it, just in case something goes wrong.

• In order to change the default new folder name first press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog, type in it RegEdit, and press ENTER
• In registry editor find the key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

• Select the NamingTemplates key. If it is not present, you’ll need to create one.
• Right-click the NamingTemplates key to add a String Value.
• Assign it the following name: RenameNameTemplate.
• Double-click on the RenameNameTemplate data value to open the Edit String dialog box.
• In the Value Data field enter the new text you want to appear when you create a new folder. You have to make sure you are not using any of the following characters: \ / ? : * " > < |
• Close the Registry Editor and Exit.
• Now, when you create a new folder, it will be named Whatever you chose instead of the New folder.

And that is all to it, you now have your own personal new folder naming template.

If you don’t have the required drivers installed in your computer, the hardware that you try to connect to your computer will most likely fail. In order to keep the operating system running on your computer, manufacturers develop drivers that can work harmoniously with your devices and applications. However, internet Wi-Fi connections can fail if suitable drivers are not installed. Worry not though for this post will guide you in installing Wi-Fi drivers on your Windows 10 computer. As you know, a driver is an essential piece of software designed for a specific operating system like Windows 10, Linux, and many more. The operating system uses it to communicate with other hardware devices such as printers and mice. Most hardware manufacturers feature a support page of their own product where you can look for the necessary drivers available for download. You will see that the Windows operating system has a set of drivers that are already installed and you do not have to do anything except plug in the device. So if the driver is not locally available, it will pull it down from its web server and automatically install it for you after you connect the device. However, there are instances when you might encounter some issues while using your Wi-Fi and during these times, you might have to reinstall your Wi-Fi drivers so read on as this post will provide you guidelines in installing Wi-Fi drivers in Windows 10. Refer to the steps below to do so. Step 1: First, go to your manufacturer’s website and look for the right driver you want to install to download your Wi-Fi driver. Step 2: After that, you have to download the correct Wi-Fi driver if it’s available. You have to know the exact name and version of the driver so that you can download it and this information can be found from the Device Manager. Just make sure that you have the right wireless adapter driver downloaded. Step 3: Once done, open the setup of the new driver that you’ve downloaded earlier and run the file and then follow the next on-screen instructions that appear right after. Step 4: You’re not done yet as you need to verify if you have downloaded and installed the correct Wi-Fi driver. Refer to the sub-steps below to do so:

• First, right-click on the Start button and select the Device Manager to open it.
• From there, look for the Network Adapters and expand its category to make all the network adapters visible including the wireless adapter.
• You can easily spot the wireless adapter as it has the “wireless” term in its entry.
• Next, right-click on the wireless driver entry in the Device Manager and select Network adapters, and then click on Properties to check the version number of the driver.
• Now select the Driver tab and view the details. If it looks well then it means that you have the right version of the driver installed.

Step 5: Restart your computer.

If you are trying to run Windows Upgrade on your Windows 10 computer but suddenly interrupted by the error 0x800F081E – 0x20003, worry not for this post will guide you on how you can fix this Windows Upgrade error. This particular Windows Upgrade error is a Windows status code for CBS_E_NOT_APPLICABLE which indicates that some of the update requirements are missing or the files that are installed are already of a higher version compared to the ones that are still pending. In most cases, this error occurs when you try to upgrade to earlier versions of the Windows 10 N edition to a later version. Here’s the full content of the error message:

“0x800f081E-0x20003, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error during BOOT operation”

In case you don’t know, Microsoft distributes special “N” editions of Windows in Europe and the “KN” editions in Korea. These editions are the same as the standard editions of Windows except that they do not have the Windows Media Player as well as the multimedia playback features. Thus, when the Windows Upgrade fails with the error code and error message and it doesn’t provide much information as to why the update couldn’t be installed, there is something you can do about it to fix the error. Since Windows uses generic error codes and so if you see the error code 0x800f081e, you have to check the error log first. For more details, follow the instructions laid out below. Step_1: You need to navigate to C:$WINDOWS.~BTSourcesPanther and from there look for the text file named “setuperr.log” and open it with a text viewer/editor program like Notepad. Step_2: After opening the setuperr.log file, you should see content that’s similar to this:

C:WINDOWSSoftwareDistributionDownload80b2677d6e15a2a206625bb25a7124feamd64_Microsoft-Windows-MediaPlayer-Package~~AMD64~~10.0.17134.1. Error: 0x800F081E 2019-09-10 20:26:57, Error SP Operation failed: Add [1] package C:WINDOWSSoftwareDistributionDownload80b2677d6e15a2a206625bb25a7124feamd64_Microsoft-Windows-MediaPlayer-Package~~AMD64~~10.0.17134.1. Error: 0x800F081E[gle=0x000000b7]

Note: From the content above, it is clear that the Windows Upgrade failed due to complete due to the Windows Media Player. It could be that the log file may contain other error messages and other error codes and if you see the error code 0x800f081e from the list, then you need to uninstall the Media Feature Pack. Step_3: You have to uninstall the Media Feature Pack.

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run dialog box and type “optionalfeatures.exe” in the field and hit Enter to open the Windows Features wizard.
• Next, you need to wait until the list of Windows Features populates and then click on the + sign to collapse the folder of the Media Features.
• After that, uncheck the “Windows Media Player” option from the Media Features folder.
• Now click on the Yes and OK buttons to save the changes made and then close the Windows Features dialog box.
• Restart your computer and boot, try to run the Windows Upgrade process again, and check if the error is fixed or not.

Note: If the installation has been successfully completed, you have to go back to the Windows Features and enable the Windows Media Player again. And if you are using the Windows 10 N Edition, then you can just download and install the latest version of the Media Feature Pack for your Windows 10 N edition. On the other hand, running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter could also help you resolve any Windows Update-related problems, including the error 0x800F081E – 0x20003. To run it, go to Settings and then select Troubleshoot from the options. From there, click on Windows Update and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button.

System image backup error 0x807800A1 & 0x800423F3 appears when you are trying to create a system image backup and the operation fails to do so. If you’re faced with any of these error codes, try our recommended solutions in the order presented below and resolve the issue.

Check Volume Shadow Copy & Software Protection Services

To restart the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) on Windows 10, do the following:

• Press ⊞ Windows + X to bring up the Windows menu.
• Click on command prompt (admin)
• In the command prompt window, type the commands below and hit Enter after each line:

net stop vss net start vss

Once the commands execute successfully, try the system image backup again. The operation should complete successfully. You need to also check if the Software Protection Service is disabled. If it is, then Start it and ensure that it is set to default which is Automatic (Delayed Started).

Create System Image using PowerShell

Command lines are less prone to errors provided the syntax is correct, unlike GUIs that can suffer a glitch every now and then. To create a system image with PowerShell do the following:

1. Open the Windows PowerShell as administrator. To create a System Image in Windows 10 using PowerShell, you will have to run the Wbadmin command.
2. Inside the Powershell window type, then press Enter: wbadmin start backup-backup target: E:-include: C:-quiet-allCritical E: is the target drive where you’re going to save the system image, and C: is the system root drive where Windows is currently installed
3. To extract the created system image, starting over from Windows 10 USB installation media, select advanced startup or open run and type: C: \ Windows \ System32 \ Shutdown.exe / r / o

Use third-party imaging software

If the previous two solutions have not managed to solve the issue there is always an option to use a third-party imaging solution. There are free open source and buying options offering various advantages each. Find out which one works best for you and use it.

Although the UWP platform is still new, it is working efficiently and significantly and it’s apparent that Microsoft is betting big on it. It helps developers in building applications for Windows 10 that are more modern and beautiful as well as responsive with the help of the .NET Core and XAML. However, all things considered, it still isn’t perfect and it could still encounter some errors. One of these errors is the Windows.UI.Xaml.Markup.XamlParseException UWP app error. This particular error can occur to any Universal Windows Platform or UWP application and according to security experts, it is due to some XAML parsing error. To fix this error, you can try to reinstall the faulty program or check its privacy settings. You can also run both the Program Compatibility and Windows Store Apps troubleshooters as well as run System Restore. For more information, check out the given options below.

Option 1 – Try to reinstall the faulty application

If you encounter this error in an application that is not a system-related one, then you can just uninstall it from the Windows 10 Settings app and then reinstall it again from the Microsoft Store. On the other hand, if it is a system application like the Camera or Calculator app, you can just uninstall and reinstall it using a PowerShell script.

Option 2 – Try to check the Privacy Settings of the concerned app

You might also want to check if all the Privacy Settings required for a certain application are configured properly as it could also cause issues like the Windows.UI.Xaml.Markup.XamlParseException UWP app error.

Option 3 – Try to run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter

You might also want to run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter. This built-in troubleshooter is available in the Windows Update & Security section. From there, select Troubleshoot. This will find a list of programs for you and since you have already downloaded the driver files, just click on Not Listed located at the top of the program list. After that, browse and select the driver files and then let the program do its job. In addition, you can try to run the Windows Store apps troubleshooter as it can also help you resolve the problem.

Option 4 – Run System Restore

If you have recently made changes in your computer’s settings, you could also run System Restore to fix the Windows.UI.Xaml.Markup.XamlParseException UWP app error. How? Refer to these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
• Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed or not.