Disabling File Grouping in Explorer in Windows

Prompted For A Product Key – What Is It?

Some Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 users are having a hard time upgrading to Windows 10 as they are being prompted for a product key. By default, the Windows 10 operating system does not require a product key and users should not be prompted for one, given you upgraded your computer from an activated Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 license or from the Windows 10 Preview build. However, there are some users encountering this problem and there are several reasons for this.

Solution

Error Causes

There are a few reasons why some users are being prompted for a product key when upgrading to Windows 10:

• Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 license is not activated.
• You’re upgrading to Windows 10 final release from a preview build.
• There are broken operating system files.
• Activation servers get overwhelmed due to the high volume of upgrades.
• The Windows 10 copy you downloaded does not correspond with the current Windows system you are upgrading from.

Further Information and Manual Repair

Before you can fix this problem, you need to know why you’re being prompted for a product key. Some things you should know about Windows 10 product key activation are the following:

• You cannot activate Windows 10 using your Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 product key. Windows 10 has a unique product key.
• Error codes such as 0x8007232b, 0XC004E003, 0x8007007B, or 0x8007000D might pop up during system upgrade especially when the activation servers get overwhelmed with the high volume of upgrades.
• You don’t really need to know your Windows 10 product key.

Now, if ever you’re prompted for a product key when you’re upgrading to Windows 10, you can apply the following methods:

Method One: Give It A Few Days

If you’ve been prompted for a product key upon upgrading to Windows 10, you should click on the “Do this later” option. Wait for a few days then Windows 10 will get activated automatically.

Method Two: Download A Copy of Windows 10 Corresponding Your Current System

One of the reasons Windows users are being prompted for a product key when upgrading to Windows 10 is that they have downloaded a wrong edition of Windows 10 and do not correspond with your current system.

• Users of Home Basic, Home Premium, Windows 7 Starter, Windows 8.0 Core, and Windows 8.1 Core should download Windows 10 Home ISO.
• Users of Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 8.0 Pro, and Windows 8.1 Pro should download Windows 10 Pro ISO.

NOTE: Users of Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8.0 Enterprise, and Windows 8.1 Enterprise are not eligible for the free upgrade offer.

Method Three: Ensure Windows Is Activated

If your Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 is not genuine or activated, you will get prompted for a product key. You need to make sure first your current system is activated.

1. Click on Start then right-click Computer. For Windows 8 and up users, you can simply press on Windows key + X then select Choose Properties.
2. When the Properties window appears, check if the Windows you’re running is activated.

Method Three: Reset License Status

1. Press on Windows key + X.
2. Select Command Prompt (Admin).
3. Once the command prompt window appears, type vbs –rearm then press Enter.
4. Exit Command Prompt then restart your PC.
5. Input the product key by following the instructions given.

Method Four: Force Activation

1. Press on Windows key + X
2. Select Command Prompt (Admin).
3. Once the command prompt window appears, type vbs –ato then press Enter.
4. Exit Command Prompt then restart your PC.

Method Five: Run System File Checker

Another thing you can try doing is to run the system file checker utility to scan if there are any broken operating system files. In doing so, you’ll be able to detect problems that might be preventing the product activation of your Windows 10 upgrade.

Method Six: Contact Microsoft Activation Center

If in case you’ve exhausted all your resources and you are still being prompted for a product key when upgrading to Windows 10, you can try contacting the Microsoft Activation Center for further details. Check here for the appropriate telephone numbers to contact.

Method Seven: Download An Automated Tool

If you still experience the error after doing the methods above, you might want to try a powerful and trusted automated tool to fix the job.

BIOS is software that is running in a chip located on your motherboard, you can enter BIOS usually by hitting DEL once the computer is turned ON but this sometimes varies and it depends solely on the motherboard manufacturer. Inside BIOS you can configure your computer components and set up some other important things including passwords for BIOS itself or for the entire system. Password itself is meant to protect access to BIOS from other non-technical users or to prevent access to the system from other people if for example computer is in one household and you would like to be the only one having access to it. However, passwords can be forgotten, and sometimes you can even purchase a second-hand computer with a password on it. In this guide, we will lead you through ways on how to remove your BIOS password so you can regain access to your BIOS settings.

1. Use Manufacturers master password

   Most motherboard manufacturers have built-in a couple of master passwords for BIOS access. If your motherboard has one you can easily find it on the manufacturer's website. Use the master password and remove other passwords inside BIOS, save and exit.

2. Remove CMOS battery

   If you could not find the manufacturer's master password or your motherboard model does not have one remove the CMOS battery to reset BIOS. Note that this method will reset the whole BIOS not only the password. Open on side of your computer casing and locate the round battery on it, do not worry, there is only one battery so you can not make mistake. Remove the battery and leave it outside for around 20 to 30 minutes then place it back as it was, CMOS is reset now and you can access BIOS.

3. Reset BIOS via jumper

   If you want to remove only the password and do not touch other BIOS setting you can locate the BIOS password reset jumper. How the location of this jumper and position is different from the motherboard to motherboard we can not cover them all here and it is advisable to read the manual or find information on the official manufacturer's website.

If you would like to read more helpful articles and tips about various software and hardware visit errortools.com daily.

There are several kinds of errors you could encounter when you are running Windows 10 on a virtual machine. The Windows OS knows the difference between booting up in a standalone computer or in a virtual machine. This is why some specific drivers and system capabilities are used while emulating the Windows OS on software and during this phase, there are times when the System Preparation may throw up an error that says, “A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine”. This kind of error arises due to a race condition wherein the Sysprep command tries to stop the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator or MSDTC service and the VMware tool tries to start the MSDTC service. You may also see the following messages logged in the Setuperr.log file:

• [0x0f0082] SYSPRP LaunchDll:Failure occurred while executing ‘C:Windowssystem32msdtcprx.dll,SysPrepDtcCleanup’, returned error code -2146434815[gle=0x000000b7]
• [0x0f0070] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = -2146434815[gle=0x000000b7]
• [0x0f00a8] SYSPRP WinMain:Hit failure while processing sysprep cleanup providers; hr = 0x80100101[gle=0x000000b7]

To fix the 0x0f0082, 0x0f0070, 0x0f00a8 Sysprep errors, you can check out two potential fixes. First, you have to check the status of the MSDTC service and the second one is to check the settings in the Windows Registry. Note that these fixes are proven to be effective on many users and apply to several versions of Windows, including Windows 10.

Option 1 – Check the status of the MSDTC service via Command Prompt

As mentioned, the error could be caused by the malfunctioning of the MSDTC service or it. Thus, you have to uninstall and reinstall the MSDTC service to resolve the problem and you can do that using Command Prompt. Follow the steps below.

• In the Start Search, type “command prompt” and from the results, right-click on Command Prompt and then select the “Run as administrator” option to open it with admin privileges.
• If a User Account Control or UAC prompt appears, just click on Yes to proceed.
• Once you’ve opened Command Prompt, execute this command: msdtc –uninstall
• The command you just entered will uninstall the MSDTC service. After that, you need to execute this second command to reinstall the service: msdtc –install
• Now exit Command Prompt and check if the error is now fixed.

Option 2 – Check the Registry settings

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “Regedit” in the field and click OK or hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• After opening the Registry Editor, navigate to this registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionSoftwareProtectionPlatform
• From there, look for a DWORD value that’s named “SkipRearm” and double click on it.
• Then change its value data to “1”.
• Restart your computer to apply successfully apply the changes made and check if it was able to fix the error.

Did you know you can use emoji in file names inside Windows 10? It is no secret that emojis are basically everywhere and Microsoft has seen this and integrated them into Windows itself, so you can name files using emojis or combine them with text. Placing emojis in file names or in the text is extremely easy, all you have to do is press ⊞ WINDOWS + . and the emoji dialog will open from where you can find which emoji you would like to use. And that's it, you just used emoji for the file naming.

!!!NOTE!!!

In theory, some applications may not like these emojis if they don’t support Unicode characters. However, modern applications are designed to work with a broad set of languages that should properly support emojis. For example, the classic Windows Command Prompt can’t see emoji characters in file names properly, but both PowerShell and Microsoft’s new Windows Terminal can display them properly. If you do run into a problem, you can always open File Explorer and rename the affected files and folders to remove the emoji characters. You can then use those files in applications that don’t properly support emoji file names.

Both the Windows 10 and Windows Server operating systems have a number of common system files that vary from the ones that support the installation, boot process, and other operations or tasks in the system. However, if any of these files get corrupted, it might cause some errors during the setup of the Windows 10 operating system. One of these errors is the “Windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms” error.

“Windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms. Make sure the installation sources are valid and restart the installation.”

The only option given when you encounter this error is to click on the OK button and nothing else and then the setup gets interrupted and won’t push through. To fix this error and proceed with the installation, you can try to get a new installation image or switch ports, or fix the CFG file. For more details, follow each one of the potential fixes provided below.

Option 1 – Try to get a new installation image

It is possible that there might be some issues with the installation image. It could be corrupted or was modified illegally. Or it could be that the bootable storage device created might have damaged sectors or installation. To resolve this problem, you need to download a fresh copy of the Windows 10 installation image using the Windows Media Creation tool or simply use the ISO image separately and then build a bootable USB.

Option 2 – Try to switch Ports

The error might be caused by the connection to the USB port. It could be that the port is unstable due to a number of factors that resulted in the interruption of the installation process. To fix this problem, you can try switching the USB port or if you are using an optical drive, you can get an external USB optical drive or connect it to another port internally and see if it fixes the problem.

Option 3 – Try to fix the CFG file

If none of the first two options worked, then you might want to fix the CFG file. This file is a configuration file format used for storing settings. All you have to do is download the CFG file. Once you’ve downloaded this file, copy this file to the root of your bootable drive and then check if it fixes the error. If not, then try to copy the same file inside the “/sources/” folder inside the root of the drive. This should fix the error.

As you know, just like other web browsers, Google Chrome offers Incognito Mode or private browsing which you can use to make sure that your browsing activities are not being tracked by any websites you visit and it also keeps targeted ads at bay. On the other hand, signing in to a website, even when in Incognito Mode is a different thing since that website can track your browsing activities. Thus, Incognito Mode is still useful especially if you want to browse the web safely and without getting tracked except when you log in to some site. However, there have been reports recently that Incognito Mode is missing in Chrome and users are clueless as to how or why it happened. If you are one of them, worry not for this post will walk you through what you can do if there’s no Incognito Mode in Chrome on your Windows 10 computer. This is an unusual and strange issue since the Incognito Mode in Chrome is available by default and you don’t have to do anything to enable it. It is possible that there might be corruption in the Windows Registry which caused the disappearance of Incognito Mode, worry not though for there are some tweaks you can apply to restore the missing Incognito Mode. To apply these tweaks, you need to create first a System Restore point, and then once you’re done, follow the instructions provided below carefully. Step_1: Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “Regedit” in the field and then hit Enter to open the Registry Editor. Step_2: Next, after opening the Registry Editor, navigate to this path – ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPolicies Step_3: From there, look for ChromePolicies and locate the DWORD named “IncognitoModeAvailability” and double click on it. Step_4: Edit the value of the “IncognitoModeAvailability” DWORD by changing its value from 1 to 0 so you can enable Incognito Mode in Chrome. Step_5: Once done, exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer and then check if you can now see Incognito Mode in Chrome. On the other hand, there is also another option that allows you to force open your Chrome browser in Incognito Mode. All you have to do is set the value of the “IncognitoModeAvailability” key to “2” instead of 0. This can be useful especially if you always browse the web in this mode. But you need to remember that you won’t be able to go back to the normal mode once you do this. Here are what the values of the IncognitoModeAvailability DWORD actually mean:

• 0 – Incognito mode is enabled by default
• 1 – Incognito mode is disabled
• 2 – Chrome is forced to always open in Incognito mode

The color settings in a Windows computer certainly matter a lot especially when it comes to printing pictures. Users who are found or edit photos for a living change their computer’s color settings in order to ensure that the printout looks like the actual colors. However, those settings might not be appropriate for computer display and you can really tell right away that there something’s not right in the display. You might also notice some weird tint which isn’t easy to get rid of. You can’t actually tell the difference at first, not until you look at some other computers and then wonder what’s wrong with yours so, in this guide, you will know how to restore the display color settings back to their default state on your Windows 10 PC. Make sure to follow each one of the steps laid out below carefully to restore the default Display Color settings.

Step 1: Set the Color Management Settings to default.

• In the Start search box, type in “color management”. Once you see it in the search results, open it.
• Once you’ve pulled up the Color Management window, go to the Advanced tab. From there, make sure that every single option is set to default – from all the options in both the “Windows Color System” and “ICC rendering intent to WCS gamut mapping”.

Note: You also have the option to reset it for everyone by simply clicking on the “Change system defaults” button.

• Finally, you can also try to calibrate your display.

Step 2: Set the Graphics Properties to default.

After making changes in the Color Management settings, you need to also set the Graphics Properties to default.

• Start by right-clicking on any empty space on your desktop.
• Then select the Graphics properties from the context menu. From the Graphics properties window, you will see that most sections have to restore defaults.

Step 3: Try using Nvidia Color Settings for Desktop

The next thing you can try is using the Nvidia Color Settings if you have Nvidia graphics installed on your Windows 10 PC. Just the Control Panel to reset the color settings.

• From the system tray, launch the Nvidia control panel.
• Next, go to Display > adjust desktop color settings.
• From there, select the display and then select the Nvidia Settings.
• After that, change the options accordingly in order to get the correct combination though you can always leave them to default.

Microsoft has started building a unified store with Windows 8 and later with Windows 10 in order to make it easier for users to get safer and more modern applications for their Windows 10 devices. This unified store is called the Microsoft Store which is tied up with the Windows Update. The delivery for them both are quite similar which is why they also have some common errors as well as fixes for them. So in this post, you will be guided on how you can fix error 0x80246019 for both Microsoft Store and Windows Update in your Windows 10 computer. The error 0x80246019 might be caused by corrupted system files or missing ones or be due to some glitch in the component services and other possible causes but whatever the cause is, you can fix it with the help of the following fixes, make sure to follow each one of them carefully.

Option 1 – Reset Windows Update components

• Open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After that, type each one of the following commands and hit Enter after you key in one after the other.
  • net stop wuauserv
  • net stop cryptsvc
  • net stop bits
  • net stop msiserver

Note: The commands you entered will stop the Windows Update components such as Windows Update service, Cryptographic services, BITS, and MSI Installer.

• After disabling WU components, you need to rename both the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folders. To do that, type each one of the following commands below, and don’t forget to hit Enter after you type one command after the other.
  • ren C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
  • ren C:WindowsSystem32catroot2 Catroot2.old
• Next, restart the services you’ve stopped by entering another series of commands. Don’t forget to hit Enter after you key in one command after the other.
  • net start wuauserv
  • net start cryptsvc
  • net start bits
  • net start msiserver
• Close Command Prompt and reboot your PC.

Option 2 – Toggle the Windows Insider Program settings

This option is only applicable to you if you are a part of the Windows Insider Program. If you are, then follow the steps below.

• First, you have to open Settings and go to the Update & Security section.
• From there select the Windows Insider Program.
• After that, select the “Stop Insider Preview builds” option and then restart your computer.
• Now open the Windows Insider Program again and check if it fixes error 0x80246019 or not.

Option 3 – 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 with good system files that might be the cause why you’re getting error 0x80246019. 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 4 – Run the DISM tool

You can also run the DISM Tool as it 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” which could help in fixing error 0x80246019.

• 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 reset the Microsoft Store cache

Just like browsers, Microsoft Store also caches as you view apps and games so it is most likely that the cache is no longer valid and must be removed. To do so, follow the steps below.

• Right-click on the start button and click on Command Prompt (administrator).
• Next, type in the command, “wsreset.exe” and tap Enter. Once you do, the command will clear the cache for the Windows Store app.
• Now restart your PC and afterward, try opening Microsoft Store again and then try to install your app or update your computer again.

Option 6 – Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

You might also want to run the Windows Update Troubleshooter as it could also help in fixing error 0x80246019. 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.

Error Code 0xc0000001 – What Is It?

Error code 0xc0000001 on Windows 10 has been reported by some users when attempting to install Windows 10. When you encounter this error, the setup will be in a loop and the error message will keep popping up.

Solution

Error Causes

If you encounter the error code 0xc0000001 while trying to install Windows 10, it most probably be due to corrupted installation file. However, it can also be caused by any of the following:”

• Damaged SAM file
• Damaged system files
• File system integrity compromised
• Damaged RAM

Further Information and Manual Repair

Here are some methods that will help you fix the error code 0xc0000001 while trying to install Windows 10. Do not perform these methods unless you’re absolutely confident you can do it properly. Otherwise, you might make things worse.

If you’re not that confident, consider seeking advice from a technical expert. If you can’t afford one, you may want to consider getting an automated software to fix the job.

Method 1: Convert drive/partition to GPT

If you need to manually wipe the drive and then convert it to GPT, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Power down your computer and put your Windows 10 installation DVD or USB drive
• Step 2: Boot your computer to the USB or DVD key in UEFI mode.
• Step 3: Once you’re at the Windows 10 Setup, press the Shift+F10 keys. This will open the command prompt window.
• Step 4: Open diskpart tool from CMD. Just type diskpart and enter.
• Step 5: Then, type the list disk on CMD again. Press enter. This will allow you to identify your computer’s drive that you want to reformat.
• Step 6: Choose the drive and reformat it by typing the following on the command prompt:

select disk <disk number> (press enter)

clean (press enter)

convert gpt (press enter)

exit (press enter)

• Step 7: Proceed with the Windows 10 Setup installation.

Note: when you’re prompted to choose the installation type, make sure to choose Custom. Then, choose unallocated space and click Next. This will automatically start the installation of Windows 10.

Method 2: Use Media Creation Tool to Perform Automatic Repair

Automatic Repair is a Windows feature/utility that allows you to fix certain system problems preventing you from installing or starting Windows. It works by scanning your computer system for any potential problem and tries to fix it.

• Step 1: Download the Media Creation Tool
• Step 2: Boot your computer using the Windows 10 DVD, or the System Repair disc. When you’re asked to press any key to boot, just press any key on your keyboard.
• Step 3: Choose the right time and the keyboard type.
• Step 4: Click Repair your computer. You’ll see this in the lower-left corner of your screen.
• Step 5: Choose Troubleshoot from Choose an option screen
• Step 6: Click Advanced options
• Step 7: Choose an automatic repair

This will automatically run the utility.

Method 3: Check Hardware Devices

Another possible reason why you are getting this error while installing Windows 10 is due to the connected external hard drives. To fix this, power down your computer. Afterward, unplug and remove all connected external hard drives. If you’re using USB device to install Windows 10, ensure your BIOS is set to boot your computer from the USB.

Method 4: Create New Copy of Windows 10 Installer

Another possible reason why you experience this error is that your copy of the Windows 10 installer is corrupted. To fix this, it’s better to create a new copy of the Windows 10 installer.

• Step 1: Go to this link
• Step 2: Click the Download tool now. Choose Run with admin privileges
• Step 3: On What do you want to do? section, choose installation media for another PC. Click Next.
• Step 4: Select edition, language, and architecture (32-bit or 64-bit).
• Step 5: Choose the media you want to use. If you want to use a USB flash drive, make sure the device at least has 5GB of free space. If you’re using an ISO file, you need to save the file first on your computer and then burn the file to a DVD.

Method 5: Use a Powerful Automated Tool

If you still encounter these errors after performing the above methods, find a trustworthy automated tool. As long as the automated tool is powerful and reliable, it will help you fix this error.

Error 12031 - What is it?

Error 12031 indicates that the connection with the server has been reset or is not properly connected. In other words, it signifies that the File Transfer Protocol which is the standard network protocol that is used to transfer files from one host to another over the internet is either reset or not working properly. For example, if you are using a wireless adapter, then you may experience this error code when the adapter loses its association with the access point. The error code is often displayed in the following format:

• "ERROR_INTERNET_CONNECTION_RESET"
• "Cannot Connect to the FTP Server"

Solution

Error Causes

Though the error 12031 is largely caused by poor internet connection and failure to obtain files from the FTP server, however, sometimes the error may be caused by invalid registry entries and outdated drivers. Furthermore, it may also be a Firewall issue.

Further Information and Manual Repair

To resolve this issue on your system, we have listed down the best and easy DIY solutions. These solutions are simple to perform and do not require any kind of technical expertise or knowledge. Just follow the steps and you will be able to resolve it in a couple of minutes.

Solution 1: Disable Firewall

If you are unable to connect to the server and you encounter the error code 12031 on your system, then to resolve this issue, disable the Firewall on your PC.

Solution 2: Reset IE (Internet Explorer) Settings

This error is typically experienced by IE7 users.  If you can’t access some websites in Internet Explorer and you come across a 12031 error code, then try resetting your IE settings. To do this, open Internet Explorer, click on tools, and then click on Internet Options. Now go to the advanced tab and select Use Passive FTP. After checking the box, exit and then try accessing those sites that were not accessible before. If after modifying IE settings you are able to access the sites without any error message display, then this means the error is resolved. Nonetheless, if the error still persists, then the error could be generated due to invalid registry entries.

Solution3: Download and Run Restoro

To remove invalid registry entries from your system and resolve the 12031 error immediately, it is advisable to download and run Restoro. This is a new, cutting-edge, and multi-functional PC repair tool integrated with multiple utilities like a powerful registry cleaner, an antivirus, and a system optimizer. The registry cleaning utility scans your PC for all registry errors. It wipes out unnecessary files, bad and invalid registry entries, repairs damaged files, and restores the registry thereby resolving the 12031 error on your PC. This error tool has a user-friendly interface and simple navigations. It is easy to use and compatible with all Windows versions. In addition to this, you can also use it to scan for malicious software and remove malware. It also functions as a system optimizer and boosts your computer’s speed dramatically. Click here to download Restoro on your PC and resolve error 12031 right away!