APC_INDEX_MISMATCH  - What is it and how to fix it?

Sometimes, some applications after they are installed will put their shortcut in the context menu (right-click on desktop) for easy access, most of the time these are some system tied applications like AMD and Nvidia control panels or archives like WinRAR or 7ZIP but it can happen even for some usual application to do this.

There are some applications that you use frequently and they could be worth putting in the context menu, if you want to avoid clutter on the desktop or in the taskbar this is the third place that you should consider placing shortcuts.

Doing this will require some playing and tweaking in the Windows registry editor so be careful when editing the registry since bad entries can lead to system crash or instability. Follow step-by-step instructions.

Adding apps to the context menu in the registry

Creating entry

Open the registry editor by searching Regedit and pressing enter than inside of the registry editor search for the next key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

Select shell and right-click on it, hover over New and in the submenu click on Key. In the next step, you need to name a key, this name will be the thing that will be shown in the context menu when you right-click on a desktop so type in the name that you would like or the name of the application that you wish to add to the menu.

If you wish you can even add a keyboard shortcut to launch this specific application. To do this select entry that you have created and edit the default value, inside the edit string in the Value data field type first & and after that key that you would like as a shortcut. Now after right click if you hit your shortcut key app will be launched right away.

Adding command

The next task is to create a command key that will actually hold the command to launch the application. Right-click on the entry that you have created, hover over New, and click on Key.

Next, you’ll need to create the command key that will actually hold the command used to launch the application. Right-click on the new Notepad key, and then choose New \ Key from the menu. Name this key 'command', all in lower case and without hyphens.

Now in order to finish setting the launcher, you need the full path of the file that you would like to run. Locate your file in file explorer or in another tool and copy its path by SHIFT + right-clicking on the file itself and choosing copy as path option.

Now click on the command key and double click on the default key on right to edit it, inside the field value data paste your path to executable. close and save the registry and you are done.

What is Stop Error 7B?

Stop error 7B is a blue screen of death error code that occurs during Windows XP setup or after installation. The error message is displayed in either of the following formats:

• STOP: 0x0000007B (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)
• INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
• ‘A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damages’
• Setup has encountered a fatal error that prevents it from continuing.
• Setup cannot continue. Power down or reboot your computer now.

Solution

Error Causes

There is no one particular cause for this error. The Stop error 7B may be triggered due to multiple reasons. These include:

• Boot Sector Viruses
• Device Driver Issues
• Poor Windows XP installation
• Registry Corruption

If you come across this error code on your PC, it is advisable to fix it right away particularly because it is a blue screen of death error that can cause severe damages to your system. It can lead to system failure, crash, and valuable data loss.

Further Information and Manual Repair

Here we’ve listed for you the best PC repair solutions to resolve and fix stop error 7B.

Cause: Boot Sector Viruses

Solution: Stop error 7B can occur when infected with a boot sector virus. If this is the cause, then first download a powerful antivirus on your system. After downloading it, run it to scan your PC for viral infection. Immediately delete the viruses if found. However, if the virus is too powerful, the antivirus may fail to remove it. In such an event, you will have to repartition and format your hard disk and then later reinstall Windows XP.

Cause: Device Driver Issues

Solution: If the boot controller is not properly configured or the driver is not updated, Stop error 7B can occur.  When this happens, simply restart your system and press F8 to go to the advanced boot options. Here choose the Last Known Good Configuration option. After that boot into Windows and then perform a system restore. Now go to the start menu and type Device Manager in the search box. To access the Device Manager window it may prompt you to enter an administrator password, insert it to proceed. Now go to Device Manager and perform a driver rollback to reinstall the drivers generating this stop error. By following these simple steps you can easily resolve device driver and configuration issues.

Cause: Poor Windows XP Installation

Solution:  In this case, you will have to perform a Windows start-up repair. This can be done by booting Windows XP from CD. Simply press enter at setup Windows Screen when prompted. Then press R to repair Windows XP installation. This procedure copies the original Windows files over the bad ones.

Cause: Registry Corruption

Solution: Sometimes the stop error 7B is also triggered by the registry corruption. When this happens, it is advisable to download and run Restoro software for PC scan and repair. Restoro is a powerful, advanced, and highly functional registry cleaner. It is deployed with intuitive algorithms that detect registry issues and errors like Stop error 7B on your system in seconds.  It wipes out clutter from your hard disk, repairs damaged files and the corrupted registry. It is safe, efficient, and bug-free. It is also compatible with all Windows versions. In addition to this, it is also embedded with other utilities like an antivirus, a system optimizer, and Active X controls, and a class ID scanner. Click here to download Restoro and resolve to stop error 7B on your PC immediately!

The SearchUI.exe file is the one that manages the search feature of Cortana. However, a number of users have recently reported that this feature stops responding within minutes of booting their Windows 10 computer. This kind of problem could be caused by missing system files or some issues with the Cortana program itself. And so if the SearchUI.exe file is not responding, then you wouldn’t be able to use the search feature of Cortana. But worry not for this post will walk you through fixing this problem. Before you troubleshoot the problem, you can try to restart your computer and see if it helps, if it doesn’t, then proceed to the given options below.

Option 1 – Try to run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter

You might also want to run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter in Windows 10 as it checks whether the settings for Cortana are in place and automatically corrects any issues if the update or software installation has changed the settings. To run it just click on the Start button and select Settings > Updates and Security > Troubleshoot. From there, select the Search and Indexing Troubleshooter.

Option 2 – Restart Cortana’s process in the Task Manager

Restarting Cortana’s process in the Task Manager could also help you resolve the problem. Refer to the steps given below to do so.

• Tap the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys to open the Security options window.
• From there, look for the Task Manager in the given list and open it.
• Next, look for the process of Cortana and right-click on it, and then select the End Task option to end its process.
• After that, the Cortana process will restart by itself and re-initialize.

Option 3 – Try resetting Cortana

• Open Cortana and go to the Settings section where you’ll see the “Turning off Cortana clears what Cortana knows on this device, but won’t delete anything from the Notebook. After Cortana is off, you can decide what you’d like to do with anything still stored in the cloud” option. Turn this option off.
• Restart your PC.
• After your computer boots, launch Cortana again and check.

Option 4 – Try running the DISM tool

You can try running the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management or DISM tool to fix the Windows Upgrade problem. Using this built-in tool, you have various options such as the “/ScanHealth”, “/CheckHealth”, and “/RestoreHealth”.

• Open the Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• Then type in the following commands and make sure to hit Enter right after you type each one of them:
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  • exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
• Do not close the window if the process takes a while as it will probably take a few minutes to finish.

Option 5 – Try to reinstall Cortana

If none of the options given above works, you must consider reinstalling Cortana.

• First, right-click on the Start button and click on the Windows Powershell (Admin) option from the list.
• Next, type the following command and hit Enter to execute it:

Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"}

• Restart your computer and check if Cortana is now able to connect.

Option 6 – Try troubleshooting the problem in a Clean Boot State

There are instances that some conflicting programs installed in your computer might be the one that’s causing some issues with Cortana or causing the SearchUI.exe process to stop. To identify which program is causing the problem, you need to put your computer in a Clean Boot State. To do so, follow the steps below.

• Log onto your PC as an administrator.
• Type in MSConfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
• From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
• Clear the “Load Startup items” check box and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.
• Next, click the Services tab and select the “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box.
• Click Disable all.
• Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)
• From there, start to isolate the problem by checking which one of the programs you installed recently is the root cause of the problem.

User32.dll Error Code - What is it?

User32.dll is a Dynamic Link Library file. Windows stores instructions for graphical elements such as dialog boxes and Windows in this file. This file is a crucial file, necessary to run Windows operations. If this file is damaged, deleted, or removed from the system you may not be able to run the programs on your system that use and share the User32.dll file thereby causing you inconvenience. The User32.dll file error is displayed in the following format:

“This application has failed to start because USER32.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.”

Or

“[Program] illegal system DLL relocation”

Program here refers to the name of a program that caused the User32.dll error message.

Solution

Error Causes

User32.dll errors are triggered by the following reasons:

• Missing and damaged .dll files
• Viral infection
• Registry corruption

User32.dll error is also referred to as C0000135 blue screen of death error. When the User32.dll error occurs it not only locks you out of your desired program but also turns your computer screen blue. If the error is not repaired timely it may expose your PC to serious threats such as abrupt system shutdowns, system failure, and crash.

Further Information and Manual Repair

To resolve the User32.dll error on your PC, try the following solutions:

1. Reinstall Programs Causing User32.dll errors

Sometimes User32.dll error may occur due to missing DLL files.  This happens when you delete a program from your PC and accidentally the DLL file also gets deleted which is shared by other programs on your system. Therefore to resolve this first find out what programs on your system use User32.dll to load and run on your system. To do this use the Tasklist command-line tool. It displays the names of all the programs that currently use the User32.dll file. After this, reinstall the programs that use User32.dll files on your system. This will hopefully resolve the error.

2. Install and Run Restoro

If it doesn’t, then this probably means that the damage is deep-rooted. It is related to the damaged DLL files, registry corruption, or viral infection. To resolve all of these causes in one go, it is best to download Restoro instead of downloading 3 different software to resolve each cause for the error separately. This is basically an advanced, innovative, and multi-functional PC repair tool embedded with multiple powerful utilities including a registry cleaner, and a system optimizer. It is a one-stop solution for all your PC-related problems including the User32.dll error. The registry cleaner wipes the clutter and obsolete files damaging the hard disk and simultaneously repairs the DLL files and the registry. The antivirus feature removes all the viruses on your system while the system stability utility boosts the PC speed significantly. It is safe, user-friendly, and compatible with all Windows versions including Windows Vista, XP, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10. Click here to download Total System Care to resolve the User32.dll error right away.

A number of users have recently reported that they were going through an issue with their Bluetooth devices on their Windows 10 computers. This issue involves an error saying,

“Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52).”

If you are one of the users who encountered this kind of error on your Windows 10 computer, read on as this post will guide you on how you can fix this Bluetooth error. According to security experts, the key to fixing this error is to sign the Bluetooth A2DP files with the built-in tool, System File Checker. Apart from that, you could also run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter or perform System Restore, as well as update or reinstall the concerned drivers. For more details, refer to each one of the options provided below.

Option 1 – Try to check Bluetooth-related services

In Services, there is a Bluetooth-related service that helps users use Bluetooth so if that particular service suddenly malfunctions for some reason, you will most likely get the “Windows was unable to connect with your Bluetooth network device” error message. That’s why you need to check Services and to do that, refer to these steps:

• Tap Win + R keys to open Run prompt and type in “services.msc” then tap Enter to open Services.
• Next, look for the Bluetooth Support Service and double click on it to open Properties.
• From there, verify if the Service status is showing “Running” or “Stopped”. If it’s the latter, you have to click the Start button.
• Lastly, check if the Startup type is set to Manual.

Option 2 – Try running System File Checker or SFC scan

You could also run System File Checker or SFC scan to fix the Bluetooth error. It 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

The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:

1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

• Reboot your PC.

Option 3 – Try to perform System Restore

You might also want to perform System Restore as the error might be caused by system modifications. Thus, to undo them, you can use System Restore. Run it using these steps:

• First, 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.

Option 4 – Try running the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

The next thing you can do to fix the problem is to run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter. Although it won’t make much of a difference, there’s still a possibility that it could automatically fix the Bluetooth error. To use it, refer to these steps:

• The first thing you need to do is click on Start and then on the gear-like icon to pull up the window for Settings.
• After opening Settings, look for the Update and Security option and select it.
• From there, go to the Troubleshoot option located on the left-hand side of the list.
• Next, select Hardware and Devices from the list and open the Troubleshooter and run it. Once it is doing its job, wait for it to complete the process and then restart the system.
• After the system restarts, check if the problem’s now fixed. If not, refer to the next option given below.

Option 5 – Try to reinstall or update the Bluetooth driver

The issue might have something to do with the Bluetooth drivers. It could be that it is outdated and needs to be updated or that you recently updated it and since then you have trouble removing the Bluetooth devices and so to fix the issue, you can update, roll back or uninstall the Bluetooth drivers. How? Follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + X keys to open the Device Manager.
• Next, look for the Bluetooth device and right-click on it.
• Select the option “Update driver”.
• After that, a new popup window will appear. In there, select the option, “Search automatically for updated driver software”.

Note: Checking the update may take a few minutes so you’ll have to wait until it finishes. If it is able to find an update, you must install it. And if you want to reinstall the Bluetooth driver, just select the “Uninstall driver” option and follow the next on-screen instructions that follow.

Google's Pixel smartphone is one if not the best Android smartphone on the market. It regularly gets updates and Google is really trying to keep it as a top choice for Android smartphone users. One of the new things that Google has released for its smartphone series is a new emergency dialer.

With an emergency dialer, you will be able to quickly access local contact information for police, fire, and medical services. This dialer is able to contact before mentioned services even when the phone is locked and when you are traveling.

The idea is to quickly access the default emergency number no matter in which country you are currently in, service will find the appropriate number and set it as default so if you need it there is no delay in searching for the appropriate number and dialing it.

Once the service is enabled on the device you can swipe up and tap Emergency call without unlocking your phone or you can press and hold the power button for five seconds and tap Emergency.

If you have a Pixel smartphone go to the Google support page and follow instructions on how to enable this service. It costs nothing and it could potentially even save your life.

Building your skill set could be a very important thing, especially in today’s world, and what’s the best way other than online learning classes. You are not exposing yourself to pandemics, staying safe in the warmth of your home and most of the courses are free. Presented here are sites that I believe will and can help you with your goal of learning desired material whatever that might be. Sites are listed in no particular order with a description of what each has to offer.

Coursera

https://www.coursera.org/ Coursera was one of the pioneers when it comes to college education online. When it started all courses were free and offered certificates if the taker has done tasks with a passing grade. Today not everything is free but still, there are tons of free courses that can help you to learn something new and to advance in your work or hobby. Google is using the Coursera platform to deliver its courses to the audience and besides google a lot of academic professors from Princeton, Stanford, John Hopkins and many more are presently offering their course material.

edX

https://www.edx.org/ edX has evolved from MITx, MIT’s free initiative to place some free academic lectures from its classrooms free into the world. Since it was rebranded into edX it started including other big university names like Berkeley, University of Texas System, Harvard, and many more. Since its infant days, edX has expanded and included many areas that it offers coursework from arts to science. Certificated today are mostly not free but course videos are, so if you care to learn and not wave certificates around this is a great place to do it.

Udemy

https://www.udemy.com/ Udemy has a little different approach to course material than previously mentioned websites. Teachers on Udemy are mostly people that are working in a given field. Programmers will teach programming, fitness instructors will teach training, etc. There are vas variety of topics even on lifestyle, hobbies even gaming to more serious ones like software developing hardware, etc. There are free courses but mostly are one-time purchases with unlimited access to course material and with frequent discounts udemy might be a good place to look if you can find anything interesting.

Alison

https://alison.com/ Alison is kind of Udemy if we are talking about course material and who is teaching, the difference however is that it has more free content and it is one of the rare websites on this list that has Language courses. Courses vary from beginner level to more advanced ones.

Udacity

https://www.udacity.com/ Udacity was also one of the earlier websites to offer free courses, in today’s world it still has free material but there is also paying one. The big difference from other competitors is that Udacity focuses mostly on programming, data science, and web development and it is very strong in this field. There are no courses about art. Music or similar, mostly IT stuff is covered here. If this is something that interests you, make a free account and give it a go.

Codecademy

https://www.codecademy.com/ Codecademy is a website mainly focused on teaching you how to code. Pro plan is there but there are a lot of basic and free courses on the mentioned subject. The curriculum is really wide covering Python, R, Java, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, C#, C++, Swift, PHP, HTML, CSS and more so I am sure that if you are interested in coding this would be a pretty good place to find things. Besides pure language coding courses site offers also, Cybersecurity, Web design, Data science, web development, Game Development, Mobile Development, and many more courses on provided subjects.

Academic Earth

https://academicearth.org/ Academic Earth has been built with one simple premise: Everyone deserves access to education. Lead by this kind of mindset on Academic Earth you will find well, academic courses similar to ones found on edX and Coursera, but from mentioned sites here all courses are free and you will find only academic ones, there are no entrepreneur or expert courses here, just pure academic ones. If you wish to see and learn something the way it is taught in Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, etc this is the place for you.

Khan Academy

https://www.khanacademy.org/ Khan academy is completely free and it is offering courses matching certain grades for children. It is offering courses for all 8 years of elementary school, math courses for high school and college with some coursework on topics like science, arts & humanities, reading, life skills, etc. Despite not being on the same level as some university courses presented on other mentioned websites Khan Academy is a good place to learn a lot of basic skills that you could build upon later.

Conclusion

I hope that I have helped you in some way to expand your skill set and learn something new with provided sources and I hope to see you again on errortools.com

Microsoft store is ready and prepared for Windows 11 official release on October 5^th and it is coming with some surprises. It has officially confirmed that many open source and free applications will be in it like Opera, VLC, discord, Libre office, etc. It seems that Microsoft wants to place its store as one place to go for all of your software needs. Another great surprise is the coming of Epic games store implementation. It was officially confirmed but not explained in detail, will we have Epic store opened in Windows store or we will only get installer as a package we will see but this is some great news. As for how it states now, it seems that the Windows store aims to eliminate searching the web for applications and bring them all into one environment with reviews and ratings so you know which one to install and use. It also features a great search engine to find proper applications for your needs. The new store will come to Windows 10 as well but after all Windows 11 has been mostly released and adopted. So expect it via update in two or three months' time. It would be great if some larger companies decide to join MS stores like Autodesk, Adobe, the Foundry, etc so you can install everything you need from it but one can only hope.

If you suddenly see a system icon or an application icon that has a blue and yellow shield or icon overlay at the corner, this indicates that the application has to run with admin privileges and each time you run these kinds of applications, a UAC or User Account Control prompt will appear to confirm if you really want to run the application. Although this kind of behavior is for security reasons, it can get quite annoying especially if you use the application on a daily basis. To make it convenient for you, this post will walk you through how you can remove the blue and yellow shield icon from an application on your Windows 10 computer. The User Account Control or UAC setting is the one that ensures no program can run with administrative privileges unless it is allowed by the user. This stops any program that could be potentially harmful to the computer from making any changes which are why keeping this setting to its default state is for the best and making any changes in its setting is not recommended unless it is really needed. So if you really have to remove the icon overlay in an application, there are several ways you can do that. You can try reinstalling the program and set Compatibility or change the UAC level. For more information, refer to every option given below.

Option 1 – Try to reinstall the application and set Compatibility

As you know, the application icons where you can see the shields are shortcuts mostly and they signify that the User Account Control will appear each time you launch the app. Thus, if you have an app that you use regularly and you’re certain that the app can be trusted, you can try to reinstall the app and set its compatibility by following these steps:

• You need to uninstall the app first and then install its latest version. You must not run or open the app after you reinstall it, not until you’ve completed the steps.
• Next, you have to right-click on the shortcut icon of the app, and from the menu, select Properties.
• Afterward, go to the Compatibility tab and look for the checkbox labeled “Run this program as an administrator” and uncheck it.
• Now click on the Apply and OK buttons to save the changes made. This should remove the shield icon from the app.

Option 2 – Try changing the UAC level

• Tap the Win + Q to open the search bar and type UAC to see the User Account Control setting.
• From the UAC setting, lower the UAC level by selecting the settings that say, “Notify only when apps try to make changes to my computer”.
• After selecting that option, you shouldn’t be getting any warning now when you run the app with the shield icon. But keep in mind that this is not a temporary setting which can be risky especially if the app can’t be trusted.

Socket Error 10060 - What is it?

Socket Error 10060 is basically a connection time-out error. This error occurs when the remote FTP server does not respond to CuteFTP. This time-out error occurs after an FTP session is established but even the server doesn’t respond. The error message is displayed in the following format:

‘Connection timed out. A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host failed to respond.’

Solution

Error Causes

Socket Error 10060 may occur due to multiple reasons including:

• Blocked port
• Data connection incorrect settings
• When the web proxy connection setting does not allow enough time to receive a response from the destination website and therefore the connection is timed-out.
• Registry issues
• Viral infection

Further Information and Manual Repair

Here are some of the best and quick DIY methods to resolve Socket Error 10060 on your PC.

Method 1: Troubleshoot the Web Proxy Connection

This method is workable and effective if Socket Error 10060 occurs only when the web proxy service is used. To execute it, here’s what you need to do: install the Winsock Proxy Client on your PC. Disable the web proxy settings under the LAN settings on the Connections tab of the internet options. Once you disable the settings, then try to go to the website that you giving you the error. If the site is accessible, the error is resolved.

Method 2: Increase Web Proxy Time out Settings

If disabling the web proxy settings doesn’t work, then try increasing time-out settings. To do so, you will also have to modify the registry. Remember serious problems may occur if you modify the registry incorrectly.

• Here’s what you need to do, click start, run and then type Regedit in the dialogue box.
• Navigate to the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW3ProxyParameters.
• On the right side of the Registry Editor, right-click Request TimeoutSecs and then click Modify.
• Click decimal, they type the number of seconds that you want the proxy service to wait until the session times out.
• To confirm changes, click OK.
• Now restart WWW publishing service by going to start, run and type cmd. Click OK to continue.
• Type net stop iisadmin/y and then press enter. After that type net start iisadmin /y and then press enter. Test the new settings by going to the website that displayed the Socket Error 10060 message.

Method 3: Switch from Passive Mode to Active Port Mode

This method is effective if the error occurs due to incorrect data connection settings. CuteFTP uses passive mode by default so to ensure the error is resolved, you may have to switch from passive mode to active port mode. To make this switch, open the site manager and then click once on the name of the problem website. Now on the Type tab change the data connection type to use the port.

Method 4: Configure Firewall Settings

Sometimes the error may also occur due to Firewall.  To resolve, configure Firewall settings to allow FTP protocol.

Method 5: Download Restoro

Whether the error occurs due to viral infection or registry issues, it is advisable to download Restoro. This is an advanced and multi-functional PC fixer embedded with multiple utilities like antivirus and a registry cleaner. The registry cleaning utility removes junk files, cookies, and invalid entries damaging the registry. It cleans, repairs, and restores the registry while the antivirus removes all types of viruses like spyware and Trojans in seconds thereby resolving socket error code 10060. It is safe, user-friendly, and compatible with all Windows versions. Click here to download Restoro today.