How to Remove AtoZ Manuals from Windows

Error Code 0xC004F00F – What is It?

Error Code 0xC004F00F can appear during the Windows 10 installation and activation process. It is a fairly straightforward error code that occurs when a product key is entered in that is unable to be used to complete the final activation of the new operating system. This error code is most commonly related to the installation of new pieces of hardware on a machine that was already running Windows 10 at a previous time.

Error Code 0xC004F00F can also appear on other versions of the Windows software, so if you are not specifically trying to install and activate Windows 10 when this message appears, you may want to contact a qualified Windows technician to help resolve your system error, as the error code has different causes and resolution methods on other versions of the Windows operating system.

Solution

Error Causes

In some cases, Error Code 0xC004F00F will show up if you are attempting to install Windows 10 on a computer in which the hard drive has been replaced or significantly altered. It can also appear when other major pieces of hardware, like the motherboard, have been changed out.  These pieces may be changed as part of an upgrade to new or better hardware or be changed due to the malfunction of the original pieces of equipment. Because it may appear to the Windows activation servers that you are attempting to use the same product code that you have used before to activate what appears to be a new machine (even if the machine is the same one, just with some new parts), you may see Error Code 0xC004F00F arise.

Error Code 0xC004F00F can also come up if you have installed Windows 10 on your machine in the past and have already used the product key that you are attempting to use again.

Further Information and Manual Repair

Error Code 0xC004F00F most commonly appears for users who have made major hardware or software changes done on their machine. Because this error specifically arises from the Windows activation servers believing that your computer is a new one, you’ll need to get in touch with the Windows support team in order to resolve the error. From their database, they will be able to confirm that you are not using a new computer and will be able to bypass the error, allowing you to complete the Windows 10 Activation process.

If you haven’t installed or replaced any of the hardware on the computer, but are still seeing Error Code 0xC004F00F arise during your Windows 10 installation, you will still need to get in touch with the Windows support team to bypass the error code.

Calling the Windows' Support Team

When you call into the Windows support team, you’ll want to specifically have a list of the following information readily available: Which pieces of hardware have been changed out on your computer prior to the installation and activation, what method you were using to install Windows 10, which version of Windows 10 that you were attempting to install, whether it was a single-use or multiple-use license, and basic details about your PC like its make, model, and age.  You may also want to have the product key that you were attempting to use when Error Code 0xC004F00F first appeared.

By having all of this information ready and on hand ahead of time, you’ll have a greater likelihood that your error will be able to be resolved quickly and efficiently, avoiding long periods spent on the phone with customer service. Make sure that you specifically mention that you are experiencing Error Code 0xC004F00F during the Windows 10 activation process when you call into the Windows support team so that you can be connected to a representative who is equipped to help you resolve this specific problem.

Getting a Qualified Technician

If you are not comfortable in working with the Windows support team or have not been able to successfully resolve Error Code 0xC004F00F even after getting in touch with customer support, contact a qualified technician who is familiar with the Windows 10 activation process and can walk you through the things that you will need to communicate to the Windows support team in order to have them bypass or resolve the error code.

If you wish to always have at your disposal a utility tool to fix these Windows 10 and other related issues when they do arise, download and install a powerful automated tool.

You might be trying to play music files using the Windows Media Player, but were unable to do so since you encountered an error saying, “Windows Media Player Error – Server Execution Failed” error. If you encountered this error, worry not for this post will guide you on how to fix it using some potential fixes. In the error message, the “Server execution failed” indicates that the “wmplayer.exe” is still running or shutting down at that point and it is possible that it is stuck which is not able to close properly. To fix this error, there are several potential fixes you can try. The first one is to run the Video Playback troubleshooter. While you could also try to disable the WMP Network Sharing Service or register both the jscript.dll and vbscript.dll files. For more information, refer to the options provided below.

Option 1 – Try to run the Video Playback troubleshooter

The first thing you can do to fix the problem, you can try to run the Video Playback troubleshooter instead. To run it, simply go to Settings > Update & security > Troubleshoot. From there, scroll down until you see the Video Playback option and then click on the “Run the troubleshooter” button to get started. This troubleshooter will detect and automatically fix any problems related to video playback so it should help fix the error.

Option 2 – Try to disable the WMP Network Sharing Service

If the Video Playback troubleshooter didn’t work in fixing the problem, the next thing you need to do is disable the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service. The WMP Network Sharing Service is used to share the libraries of the Windows Media Player to other users on the network as well as media devices using the Universal Plug and Play. And since you are not using any network here, then you can disable this service to fix the problem. How? Refer to the given steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “services.msc” in the field and tap Enter to open the Services Manager.
• Next, look for the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service from the list of Services and right-click on it.
• After that, click on the Stop option and see if it fixes the Windows Media Player error.

Option 3 – Try to register the jscript.dll and vbscript.dll files

• Tap the Win + X keys and from the menu select the Windows PowerShell (Admin) option to open an elevated Command Prompt.
• Next, type this command to register the jscript.dll file and click on the confirmation box: regsvr32 jscript.dll
• After that, execute the regsvr32 vbscript.dll command to register the vbscript.dll file.
• Once you’re done, these DLL files will be re-registered and should fix the Windows Media Player error.

When performing a Windows Backup to the NAS device (backup to a network share) that is running Samba, fails with an error message The backup failed, The version does not support this version of the file format (0xC03A0005). The problem occurs because of a conflict with the VHD file that is created by Windows Backup and is mounted during the process. There are three types of VHD files:

1. Fixed,
2. Expandable
3. Differencing

If the VHD file is a sparse file that is not supported by the native VHD driver, the mounting will fail, and you will get this error. An example VHD file is one that keeps expanding depending on the backup size. The problem occurs only in the case of  File Level backup (file/folders in a volume) but not on the block level backup as the vhd file is never mounted. However, in the case of File Level Backup, the vhd is mounted, created by Windows Backup, which does not support the mounting of sparse files.

The solution is to use Strict Allocate: option in the smb.conf file

Login to SMB using SSH. Open the configuration file using the VI editor located at /etc/samba/smb.conf. If the option is not there, you can manually add strict allocate = yes which will make sure there are no sparse file that is created.

Microsoft wants to escalate the situation from Australia to the EU, what a surprise. Hello all and welcome to another news article, this time we are focusing on Microsoft pushing the EU to accept law proposition from Australia. For all of you who are not familiar with the given situation let me quickly explain. The feud began when the Australian government proposed a new law that targeted Facebook and Google specifically. The government said that it believed that both of the tech giants were using content from news outlets without paying. Have you ever seen the little news snippets that Google or Facebook sometimes show its users to keep them up to date? These are lifted directly from news websites, and the Australian government claimed that this practice meant that people didn't bother visiting the news website. This then staved news websites of revenue. As such, the government put forward a new law that would mean Google and Facebook would have to pay the source website for every time they displayed a news snippet. Facebook responded by removing its Australian news coverage in light of the law. Google, however, put up a fight. It argued that its snippets encouraged people to click on it to read more, thus driving more traffic to the news website. It also said that such a law would be too expensive to maintain in the long run. As such, Google threatened to remove itself from Australia if the law passed. This was likely a scare tactic, as 95 percent of Australian web users use Google; however, it actually opened the door for its rival, Microsoft. Microsoft saw how it could push its own search engine BING to replace google. It of course went and reached the Australian government to assure them that BING is more than capable to fulfill its needs and fully abide by the proposed law. Now Microsoft knows that if this law passes it could see a similar situation happening in Europe and it is pushing it. US News reported on how Microsoft plans to encourage EU countries to adopt this new law too. The company has teamed up with the European Publishers Council and News Media Europe to make the following statement: Publishers might not have the economic strength to negotiate fair and balanced agreements with these gatekeeper tech companies, who might otherwise threaten to walk away from negotiations or exit markets entirely

Downloading Windows Updates does not always go smoothly as you can encounter several issues like the “Some updates did not finish downloading, We will keep trying, Error code 0x80246007” error. In fact, this error can also occur on other Windows applications like OneNote. According to security experts, this error happens for many reasons. For one, it could be that the Windows Update database is corrupted. It could also be that there is another process that’s in conflict with the Windows Update components or there might be some issue with the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). Whichever the cause may be, you can fix it by following the solutions given below.

Option 1 – Delete the contents in the Temporary folder

You can also try deleting the contents in the Temporary folder – all the downloaded, pending, or failed Windows 10 updates. You can do that using the simple and easy steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Then type “%temp%” in the field and press Enter to open the Temporary folder.
• After that, select all the folders and files within the Temp folder and delete all of them.

Option 2 – Try running the Windows Update Troubleshooter

Running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter is one of the things you can first check out as it is known to automatically resolve any Windows Update errors like Error code 0x80246007. 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. After that, follow the next on-screen instructions and you should be good to go.

Option 3 – Try renaming or removing the pending .xml file

The problem might be due to some pending .xml file so you need to rename or remove it. To do so, just go to C:/Windows/WinSxS folder. From there, look for a pending .xml file – you can either rename it or delete it. This will allow the Windows Update to delete any pending tasks and build a new and fresh update check.

Option 4 – Restart the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)

The Background Intelligent Transfer Service or BITS is a part of the Windows Update service that manages the background download of Windows Update, as well as scans for new updates and so on. Thus, if your Windows Update fails a couple of times, you might want to restart BITS. For you to do that, make sure that you have admin privileges.

• Press the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Then type “msc” in the field and hit Enter to open Services.
• After opening Services, look for the Background Intelligent Transfer Service from the list of services and then double click on it to open Properties.
• Next, set the Startup type to Manual and click on the Start button. If it doesn’t help, you can try setting it to Automatic (Delayed) and then reboot your PC.

Option 5 – Run the DISM tool

Running the DISM Tool helps in repairing the Windows System Image as well as the Windows Component Store in Windows 10. 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 6 – Delete the files from the Software Distribution folder

The downloaded Windows Updates are placed in a folder called “SoftwareDistribution”. The files downloaded in this folder are automatically deleted once the installation is completed. However, if the files are not clean up or if the installation is still pending, you can delete all the files in this folder after you pause the Windows Update service. For complete instructions, refer to the steps below.

• Open the WinX Menu.
• From there, open Command Prompt as admin.
• Then type in the following command – don’t forget to hit Enter right after typing each one of them.

net stop wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver

• After entering these commands, it will stop the Windows Update Service, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Cryptographic, and the MSI Installer
• Next, go to the C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution folder and get rid of all the folders and files thereby tapping the Ctrl + A keys to select them all and then click on Delete. Note that if the files are in use, you won’t be able to delete them.

Option 7 – Reset the Catroot2 folder

After resetting the SoftwareDistribution folder, you need to reset the Catroot2 folder to restart the services you just stopped. To do that, follow these steps:

• Type each one of the following commands.

net start wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver

• After that, exit Command Prompt and restart your computer, and then try to run Windows Update once more.

If you encounter a Blue Screen error that points to the Wdf01000.sys file, then this post might be of help. Wdf01000.sys is a file related to the Windows Driver Framework which is the one that manages the system drivers. So if this file ends up being corrupted, the drivers would start to cause trouble in the system which would lead to a Blue Screen of Death error eventually. There are lots of error descriptions that are associated with the Wdf01000.sys file such as:

• DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
• System_Thread_Exception_Not_Handled
• Page_Fault_In_Nonpaged_Area
• System_Service_Exception
• Kmode_Exception_Not_Handled
• DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION

Although the troubleshooting steps you must take depends on the kind of BSOD error you are getting, there are a couple of options you can try to resolve the Blue Screen errors related to the Wdf01000.sys file. Refer to the options given below.

Option 1 – Try running the DISM tool

You can try running the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management or DISM tool to fix the Wdf01000.sys Blue Screen error. 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 2 – Try to update or rollback your device drivers

If the first option didn’t work for you, then it’s time to either update or roll back the device drivers. It is most likely that after you updated your Windows computer that your driver also needs a refresh. On the other hand, if you have just updated your device drivers then you need to roll back the drivers to their previous versions. Whichever applies to you, refer to the steps below.

• Open the Devices Manager from the Win X Menu.
• Then locate the device drivers and right-click on them to open the Properties.
• After that, switch to the Driver tab and click on the Uninstall Device button.
• Follow the screen option to completely uninstall it.
• Finally, restart your computer. It will just reinstall the device drivers automatically.

Note: You can install a dedicated driver on your computer in case you have it or you could also look for it directly from the website of the manufacturer.

Option 3 – Use the Driver Verifier Manager

The Driver Verifier Manager is another tool in Windows that could help you fix driver-related issues. And so if you want to fix the Wdf01000.sys Blue Screen error, you need to use the Driver Verifier Manager:

• Type in the keyword “Verifier” in the Cortana search box to search for Verifier in Windows 10.
• After that, select the option “Create custom settings”.
• Make sure that you have checked everything except the options “DDI compliance checking” and “Randomized low resources simulation”.
• Next, select the option “Select driver names from a list” option.
• Afterward, you have to select all the drivers from any unofficial or third-party provider. To simply put it, you have to select all the drivers that are not supplied by Microsoft.
• Then click on the Finish button.
• Open Command Prompt as administrator and execute this command – verifier /querysettings
• The command you just executed will display the Driver Verifier settings so if you see any of the flags enabled boot your Windows 10 PC into Safe Mode.
• Open the Command Prompt as admin again and run this command – verifier /reset
• The command will reset the Driver Verifier. Once the process is done, restart your PC and check.

Option 4 – Run the System File Checker Scan

System File Checker or 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 to 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 computer.

Option 5 – Run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter

The Blue Screen troubleshooter is a built-in tool in Windows 10 that helps users in fixing BSOD errors like Wdf01000.sys. It can be found on the Settings Troubleshooters page. To use it, refer to these steps:

• Tap the Win + I keys to open the Settings panel.
• Then go to Update & Security > Troubleshoot.
• there, look for the option called “Blue Screen” on your right-hand side and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button to run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter and then follow the next on-screen options. Note that you might have to boot your PC into Safe Mode.

When Windows 10 was introduced as an upgrade to Windows 7 and 8, a lot were thrilled because of its new features. One of the most interesting features that this has is the Microsoft Store. Just like in our tablets and smartphones, we can now download our favorite apps from a trusted source. Without the Microsoft store app, you can’t download any applications that you can use on your computer. But what happens if you can’t open your Microsoft Store or you accidentally uninstalled it? The most common error that users encounter when accessing Microsoft Store is the error code 0x80072efd. This error code appears when there is a problem with the internet connection. To resolve this, troubleshoot your modem by doing a simple power cycle. Turn off your modem and wait for a couple of minutes and turn it back on. It should refresh your internet. This works if there is really no problem on the Service provider’s side. Disable your Proxy server, if you are using one to access the internet. To do this, press Windows + R keys on your keyboard. Type “inetcpl.cpl” in the box and go to Connection. Next, click on LAN settings then tick on the box next to Automatically detect settings. Uncheck the box below Proxy Server Among the useful apps that came with the Windows 10 upgrade is PowerShell. It allows you to install and uninstall individual and all apps by using a series of commands. So you don’t have to worry if you can’t find your Microsoft Store or if you accidentally delete it. To access PowerShell, type in the word PowerShell into the search box found beside your Window Icon. Look for PowerShell from the results and right-click on it and hit Run as Administrator.

When you are in the PowerShell window, enter the command below:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.WindowsStore | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"

Another option is to download a Windows Update Troubleshooter. After you download it, open the troubleshooter tool and follow the steps. If you saved the file instead of directly opening it, go to the folder where the troubleshooter was saved and double click on the wu.diagcab file to rub the troubleshooter. One of the most interesting error codes that you might encounter when accessing the Microsoft store is error code 1. This particular error code is resolved by changing your PC’s region to the United States. To do this, go to Settings and look for Time & Language. Then go to region and language. Under the Country or region, choose the United States from the dropdown menu then restart your computer. The troubleshooting procedures above are the most common solution to resolve the problem on Microsoft Store issues but there are times that these procedures won’t work. If you are not confident to resolve this through the procedures mentioned in this article, there are so many tools online that you can download to help you out. It also helps to contact Microsoft or consult a technician to ensure that you are doing the correct procedure.

AI and neural networks are more and more being used in all parts of our lives. From face detections to deep fakes it is both amusing and frightening to watch at the same time. From some really bad uses of neural networks and AI overall, looking at you deep fakes, upscaling videos or images are mostly harmless pieces of work not harming anyone. There is one cool YouTube channel, well there are more but this one seems to have most of the videos on it and if I am wrong I apologize. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC33rC3GO1UZFAkMcCCwjyWg So upscale is like previously mentioned a YouTube channel that hosts old game trailers and into videos but in full 4K or 8K video resolution, fully upscaled using neural networks. There are some videos that are not maybe top-notch but the large quantity of them is pretty well upscaled and they do indeed look great. So if you have some time and want that old nostalgia fix, go and check it out. You might find something that will bring that old you out and you might even drop a smile or two remembering old good days, I know I have.

If you wish to continue where you have left off when you signed out of Windows follow this guide and learn how to continue your work after signing in, restart apps in your Windows. You can set Windows 10 to Automatically save your restartable apps when you sign out and restart them after you sign in. Here’s how:

1. Right-click on the Windows logo to open the secret menu
2. Select Settings
3. Click open Accounts
4. From the left side, select Sign-in options
5. Scroll down till you see Restart apps setting
6. Toggle the Automatically save your restartable apps when you sign out and restart them after you sign in setting to On position

When you try to open Outlook 20016 and other programs on your Windows 10 PC and end up getting an error instead saying, “Failed to register a VB Script DLL. Reinstall or run Regsvr32.exe Vbscript.dll to self-register”, read on as this post will help you resolve the problem and help you re-register the vbscript.dll file. Follow each one of the steps below carefully to fix the problem.

• Step 1: In the Start search, type “cmd” and from the search results that appear, right-click on Command Prompt and select the “Run as administrator” option from the context menu.
• Step 2: After opening Command Prompt as admin, type the regsvr32.exe vbscript.dll command and hit Enter to execute it.
• Step 3: After entering the command, it will re-register the concerned DLL file using the regsvr32.exe, a Windows OS tool. The Regsvr32 tool is a command-line utility that allows users to register or unregister OLE controls like the DLL and ActiveX (OCX) controls in the Windows operating system. After the command you entered has successfully run, you will see a message saying, “DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded.”

On the other hand, if re-registering the DLL file didn’t work, you might have to log on to your computer using an administrator account and then try re-registering the DLL file once more. But before you do that, you need to create a system restore point first so that if anything goes wrong, you can always undo the changes you’ve made. After creating a system restore point, double-click on the downloaded .reg file to add its contents to the Registry. After that, try opening the program you were trying to open but weren’t able to because of the error. If it doesn’t work, you can always reinstall the affected programs that throw up the error and see if it resolves the problem. You could also seek the help of a one-click solution to fix the problem for you. This program is a useful tool that does not only repair corrupted registries and optimize your PC’s overall performance but also resolves any DLL issues like the Failed to register a VB Script DLL. Reinstall or run Regsvr32.exe Vbscript.dll to self-register” error. Aside from that, it also cleans out your computer for any junk or corrupted files that help you eliminate any unwanted files from your system. This is basically a solution that’s within your grasp with just a click. It’s easy to use as it is user-friendly. For a complete set of instructions for downloading and using it, refer to the steps below.