How to Fix Windows Update Error 0x80070103

Quest 2 has been crowned as the best overall VR headset by many websites, and to be honest it is really a great piece of equipment deserving of every praise it gets. It seems that Meta feels that it can do better so the new upcoming Quest Pro is upgraded and a new line of VR sets from this company. The economic standard Quest line will not be shut down and it will still remain as an economic version of Meta's VR product line.

Quest Pro will be added as a new line of the better product line with better performance and better quality. It is the first VR headset that is packing Qualcomm Snapdragon XR3+ Gen 1 chipset, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, and 10 high-resolution sensors. Of course, this much power and improvement come with a higher price tag, this time that price tag is $1,499.99.

The new VR headset promises industry-leading visuals with a new optical stack instead of Fresnel lenses in Meta Quest 2 with thin-layer pancake optics that fold light reducing the depth of the optical module by 40% and at the same provides clear and sharp visuals.

The headset will give display more vivid colors, richer colors, and higher contrast by incorporating local dimming and quantum dot technology. It composes of specialized backlight hardware accompanied by software algorithms that can control more than individual LED blocks independently.

The Quest Pro will also come packed with new Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers. They will feature three built-in sensors to track the controller's position completely independent of the headset which means that tracking and range of motion will be improved. These new controllers will also be sold separately at the cost of $299.99 and they can be used with Quest 2.

The headset is available for preorder and it will start shipping in late October on the Meta website

Hello and welcome to our software series review. Weel this time we could say this is more of a service review since the application we are going through today is online and you can use it freely without ever needing to install it.

When we choose software that we are going to review and recommend we really try to recommend something that is worth your time and money, Cartoonize fits in both categories in my opinion.

First of all basic plan of this graphic software is completely free and as mentioned it is working online, also as one more feature basic plan does not even require you to have an account of any kind, all you need to do is go to the website of the application and you can start using it right away. There is also paid plan for extra features if you need them billed monthly or annually.

Features

First things first, this is not Photoshop or GIMP and it does not aim nor want to be. This is something else, directed and pointed at the different types of users. This application is aimed at people that want to make some quick graphics and post them on social media and it does that very well. Even without knowledge to use graphic software this one is so well designed and straightforward that even a complete newcomer can do something right away.

So as the application that wants to be used by people that want to place some cool pictures or ads on their social media what it offers. For starters simplicity and ease of use, every option that you can use is on the left side of the screen nicely packed into the vertical toolbox. Inside the toolbox, you have access to various tools, effects, and filters that you can apply to your image.

Tools explained

Image manager

The first section on the tool panel is the image manager, here you can upload your images, delete them, search stock images, and so forth. nothing more to say about this one as it is only a basic file manager.

Edit

In this tool panel, there are a lot of basic settings for your image manipulations divided into 3 sections: Basics, Enhance, and Creative. In the basic section, you can crop, resize and rotate your image. Enhance panel will let you set exposure, color, vibrance, tint, and details (sharpen). Finally, the Creative part will let you remove the background with AI in a single click, replace colors in the image, and add a vignette and round image.

Effects

In the effects panel, you will be given 4 options to choose from Cartoonizer, Digital art, Sketcher, and painting. Each option once clicked will open another set of options tied to chosen preset where you will be able to choose a different style from chosen template. Once you click on the desired template it will be applied to your image and in the upright corner, you will have edit options to tweak it to your liking. You can play around as much as you want because only once you click on the apply button, the effect will be applied to your image.

Filters

Same as in the effects tool panel here you will also get a series of different filters that you can apply to your image. As in the previous tool once clicked on the chosen filter, you will be given options for its variations and details edits. How there is really plenty of filters options and combined with its own presets I will not focus on explaining what each one is doing since picture thumbnails are pretty accurate and just one look at them will explain to you everything you need to know.

Overlays

In the overlays panel, you can as the name says overlay different kinds of effects on your image. You can add snow, fog, sun flares rain, and many more. Presets work identically to previous effects and filters.

Masks

If you want to place your image in a certain shape or in-text this is the section for you. You will be presented with sections as custom text, shapes, brushes, floral, animals, and patterns. Each section will once again lead to plenty of variations on the chosen subject where you can pick one that you like the most and tweak its options.

Text

As the name suggests, this section is to add text to your picture or design. If you are making some cool ad for Facebook, Instagram, or other social media I believe that you will spend most of your time in this section adding text and tweaking it so it looks best. You have all the tools that you will need to make a catchy title or smaller block of text and you can add multiple texts to your picture tweaking their own visual appearance, the font used, color, and some effects like a drop shadow.

Draw

In the draw section, you will be able to freely draw whatever you like with your mouse or pen if you have one. you have basic options for a brush and eraser so you can erase stuff. Pretty basic tool but it gives a nice touch to underline something, circle it, etc.

Graphics

This panel will let you place various already made graphic assets into a picture. You have hearts, hats, glasses, etc. There really are tons of premade graphics along with thematic ones like new year, st. Patric day and more.

Frames

As the name suggests this section will place a frame of your choice around your picture. You can choose the style of frame, position, color, and many more. There are various styles and each style has its own options.

Conclusion

Cartoonize is a great online application that will let you quickly and easily do cool and nice image edits. As mentioned you can also add various effects, text, and graphics and use this app to make some quick and nice ads for social media. You have the option to publish to your social media right from the app in the save dialog but you can also of course download your image or design to your local computer.

Please note that for this review we used the pro, paid version so all of the features were unlocked. We wanted to give you a full overview of the full potential of the app. In my opinion, the small monthly fee that they charge is well worth it when you see all things that you can do with it.

Go to the cartoonize website and check it out, basic option is completely free and it does not even require making an account. Have fun, be creative and take care, I hope to see you again tomorrow.

On September 18th, 2017, Cisco’s Talos announced that CCleaner, a popular utility with billions of worldwide users, had been compromised by hackers, and was used to unwittingly distribute hidden malware in its installer. Later in the day, Piriform, the publisher of CCleaner, confirmed the problem.

Undetected by all but 1 major antivirus including CCleaner’s own parent company, this occurred for over a month and impacted over 2.7 million users. Users of CCleaner v5.33.6162 and CCleaner Cloud v1.07.3191 for 32-bit Windows are affected. These downloads were live on CCleaner’s official site from August 15th to September 12th, 2017. Anyone who downloaded the program during this time could be affected. The company claims that while the hackers set up the backdoor and many users were impacted, that the perpetrators have been arrested and that the malware never successfully performed its full task and compromised user’s PCs or sent out their data; in the wake of recent security breaches such as Equifax, users are understandably worried. Given the severity of the threat of hacking and data theft, users should take action immediately if they have CCleaner.

Technical Details of CCleaner Malware Injection

First reported by Talos, the malware, which was hidden in the CCleaner installer without the publisher noticing (despite them being owned by Avast, a massive Anti-virus company), modified a core program DLL file to evade detection, and creates several registry keys. Not only were these files not flagged by any major Anti-Virus, but they were also even digitally signed by Piriform via their Symantec certificate, meaning your PC and security program would likely whitelist and trust the malicious installer. The malware gathers personal information on a user’s PC, including IP address and running programs, and sends it to a remote server. In our testing, the program sent data to IP 216.126.225.148.

Restore Your PC (If Possible)

As of the publication of this article, there have been no assurances given that updating or even uninstalling CCleaner will remove the malware is installed. The only action thus far has been shutting down the remote server where user data was being sent has been shut down by authorities. For this reason, it is best to remove the underlying malware separately, as its presence represents a serious security threat. Unfortunately, as this could have been installed as far back as August 15th, 2017, your System Restore points may not go back that far, or even if they do, restoring to such an outdated point may cause unintended problems with other programs you use and potentially lost files and data. Manually backing up files and doing a full format or clean Windows installation would likely be successful in fully removing the malware, but is extremely time-consuming and can be difficult for many PC users. Unfortunately, this makes a PC Restore or format an unattainable option for many.

Update CCleaner to the Latest Version

While CCleaner has told users to update to the latest version of the program. Prior to doing so, we recommend fully uninstall CCleaner, ensuring you check its program files folders and registry keys, manually deleting any remnants, and then re-downloading the latest version from the official site and reinstalling clean.

AMD and ATI Technologies ULC have filed a complaint in the United States International Trade Commission against Realtek Semiconductor and TCL Industries Holdings claiming that they have violated five patents.

The complaint has automatically triggered an investigation from USITC which has responded that they will look into certain graphics systems, components thereof, and digital televisions with components from Taiwan-based Realtek and the China/Hong Kong-based TCL Industries Holdings (and its subsidiaries).

AMD and ATI are seeking an exclusion order and cease and desist orders for the sale of the products. The investigation officially started on July the first. AMD and ATI claim that Mediatek and TLC Industries violated five patents on various technologies used in graphic cards.

The ATI patents include texture decompression techniques, a graphics processing architecture with a unified shader, and a multi-threaded graphics processing system (patents 7,742,053 claims 1-9, 8,760,454 claims 2-11, and 11,184,628 claims 7-12). The AMD patents cover a method and system for synchronizing thread wavefront data and events. A patent covers a processing unit that enables asynchronous task dispatch (patents 8,468,547 claims 16-21, and 8,854,381 claims 15-20).

This is not the first time AMD and ATI have asked for a USITC investigation, in 2017 they were targeting LG, Vizio, Mediatek, and Sigma Designs. The previous investigation has been concluded with the settlement between parties, how this one will go we shall see and keep you updated as we move along.

Dynamic Wallpapers introduced with Mojave Update in macOS are pretty cool. Dynamic Desktop is a feature introduced in macOS Mojave (10.14), in which the desktop background changes according to the time of Mac's current location. If Location Services are turned off the Privacy pane of the System Preferences, then the time zone specified in the Date & Time preferences will be used. To apply macOS Dynamic Wallpaper on Windows 10 we need to download & use WinDynamicDesktop, a free application that lets you apply macOS Dynamic Wallpaper. After the installation, you will be asked to Configure the Schedule. While doing that you need to make sure that you enter your location correctly. You can even set specific sunrise and sunset timing by selecting “Use specific sunrise and sunset times” and changing the Sunrise and Sunset times manually. Now, you will be greeted with some of the coolest dynamic wallpapers in the market. Select a theme of your choice, click on the Download button (file size can range between 20-200 MB), and click Apply to enjoy macOS Dynamic Wallpaper on Windows 10. If for some reason you want to go back to the default Windows theme but not necessarily delete the application then right-click on the WinDynamicWallpaper icon from the taskbar, click Select Theme, select None (from the theme section) and click Apply.

If your Windows 10 computer is downloading or installing updates but suddenly an error pops up saying, “GWXUX has stopped working”, read on as this post will show you what you can do to resolve the problem. GWXUX is a process responsible for downloading and installing Windows updates and is installed on your computer via Windows Updates. That particular update is known as “KB3035583”. Through this process, the “Get Windows 10” pop-ups are installed and initiated by Microsoft. This process is also capable of checking the compatibility of your PC to run Windows 10 as well as preparing it for installation. However, this process might also result in excessive usage of Disk and sometimes, CPU. So in this post, you will be guided on how you can fix the issue with the GWXUX. Follow the instructions given below carefully.

Option 1 – Disable GWXUX in the Task Scheduler

You will have to disable the gwxux.exe process to run from the Task Scheduler. Thus, you need to follow the steps below to do so.

• Open the Cortana Search box and then type “task scheduler” in the field.
• Then click on Task Scheduler from the related search results that appear to open it.
• After opening the Task Scheduler, navigate to Microsoft > Windows > Setup > gwx on the left panel from the Task Scheduler Library.
• Once you select the GWX folder, you will see two tasks that are listed under that folder. Select both of these tasks and permanently disable them.
• Restart your computer to apply the changes made and check if the issue is now fixed or not.

Option 2 – Uninstall the KB3035583 Windows Update

• To uninstall the KB3035583 Windows Update, you need to go to Control Panel, and for you to do that, type “control panel” in the Cortana Search box.
• After that, click on Control Panel from the related search results given.
• Once Control Panel is pulled up, search for “View Installed Updates” in the search field from the top right part of the window.
• Next, click on a link labeled, “View Installed Updates” under the Programs and Features menu.
• After clicking the link, you will see the list of all the installed updates in your computer from the Windows Updates.
• Now look for an update named “KB3035583” and select it.
• You should notice the Uninstall button located at the top portion of the sub-menu ribbon as you can see on the snippet below. Click on that button to uninstall the KB3035583 Windows Update.
• After uninstalling the update, make sure to restart your computer to apply the changes made.

Option 3 – Try using the System File Checker

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 causing the error 0x80200056. 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.

After running the System File Checker, restart your computer and check if the error with the GWXUX.exe file is now fixed or not.

We are all waiting for the release of Intel’s Alder Lake series of processors and real-world results on its performance. Sadly lately it came to our attention that some games might have issues with the processor. Now before you go on the bandwagon on bashing Intel itself take note that it is not Intel’s fault at all. The issue that arises is mostly due to DRM software and how it works. As you might know or not, Alder Lake has two sets of cores, standard performance cores, and power cores, and with Intel’s Thread Director on-chip right cores will be used for the right tasks, and here lies the issue. DRM software might detect Thread Director as something suspicious and malicious, and then cut access to the game because of this. Intel, of course, has reached DRM manufacturers and places documentation about how software should be developed with this hybrid technology in mind. Of course, newer games will be updated if needed and everything will work fine, also games on GOG will work fine because of GOG’s policy of no DRM store but some older ones might be left in limbo. They could work fine but DRM might be triggered and prevent them from loading, usually, game developer itself removes DRM protection after some time but that is not really always the case and there is a chance that some games might simply just not work on Alder Lake CPU only because of DRM protection.

Conclusion

I will admit that I have not been a great fan of DRM in general, I understand that game developer want to protect themselves from piracy but how it looks they were not really successful with it. Even today single-player games get pirated on the day they are released and legally bought ones always make trouble for people that actually paid for them. I remember times when DRM was awful and you could install a game a limited number of times, luckily this was removed but it seems that many old habits still remain sadly and DRM is present even today in various forms. GOG is proof that people will buy DRM-free games and that they will support this kind of model. Maybe it is time to forget about fighting against piracy, you will not make it go away and people who do not want to buy games will not buy them, on other hand many users that do buy games, if they cannot use them they will rest to pirated version since that one will work. It is sad to see that pirated software can work better than a legal one and offer a more pleasant experience.

Recently, a lot of users reported getting several error messages when they upgraded their Windows 10 computers. One of these error messages users encountered during a Windows 10 upgrade is the Error 0x8007002C-0x4001E. if you are one of the users who is facing this error, read on as this post will help you fix it. When you encounter this error, you will see the following error message on your screen:

“We couldn’t install Windows 10 We’ve set your PC back to the way it was before you started installing Windows 10 0x8007002C-0x4001E, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error during PRE_OOBE operation.”

To resolve the 0x8007002C-0x4001E, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase error, here are some suggestions that might help.

Option 1 – Try flushing the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folders

You have to stop a couple of services such as BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer, and Windows Update Services. And to do that, you need to flush the contents in the SoftwareDistribution folder. The Software Distribution folder in the Windows operating system is a folder that can be found in the Windows directory and is used to store files temporarily which might be required to install the Windows Update on your PC. Thus, it is required by the Windows Update and maintained by WUAgent. Aside from that, it also contains all the Windows Update History files and once you delete them, you will most likely lose the Update history. As a result, the next time you run the Windows Update, it may result in a longer detection time.

• 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.

After flushing 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.

Option 2 – Select the Keep your files option

You can also select the option to perform an in-place upgrade and opt for the “Keep my files” option during an installation as it might make the process a lot smoother and if you need to perform a clean install, you can do so once the setup is completed.

Option 3 – Try to run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

Running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter could also help you resolve the 0x8007002C-0x4001E, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase error. 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.

Option 4 – Try to run Microsoft’s online troubleshooter

Aside from the Windows Update Troubleshooter, you can also run the online troubleshooter of Microsoft as it can help you with Windows 10 upgrade errors.

Option 5 – Perform a clean install

If none of the options worked, you can try to clean install Windows 10. Just make sure that you have the ISO from the official Microsoft Website and then a bootable USB drive to install Windows 10 again. Take note that this will delete all the data from your drive where Windows 10 was installed previously.

If you have been stuck on allocating disk space on steam you know how annoying this error could be. Here you are, with your new game eager to play it and relax a little and all of the sudden steam gets stuck on allocating disc space. Luckily this error is fixable, follow provided guide to fix the error and continue with installing the game.

1. Restart computer

   An old age solution of turning it off and turning it back on but in this case, it works 90% of the time.

2. Run Steam as administrator

   Allocating disk space when done by a third-party application can be a task that requires privileges higher than the normal user. Find the steam executable file in the installation folder, right-click on it and run it as an administrator

3. Clear Steam cache

   Launch Steam in admin mode. Once in the client, click on Steam at the top left corner of the screen. From the drop-down box, click on Settings. Once in the Settings, navigate to the Downloads tab. Click the Clear Download Cache option. Click OK on the prompt to confirm your action. Wait for the process to complete. When done, save changes and exit the client.

4. Change download server

   Launch Steam client in admin mode. Once in the client, click on Steam at the top left corner of the screen. From the drop-down box, click on Settings. Once in the Settings, navigate to the Downloads tab. Click the drop-down menu under the Download Region. Choose a different server to download from. Exit the Steam client.

5. Refresh installation files

   • Kill a Steam process in Task Manager.
   • Navigate to your Steam folder
   • Inside the Steam folder, select everything except the steamapps folder and the Steam.exe executable file.
   • Tap the Delete key on your keyboard.

6. Turn off firewall

   Firewall can prevent steam and cut access to system operations, disable firewall to fix this issue.

7. Stop overclocking

   If you have overclocked your PC, you can simply reverse the change. The steps you will need to take depends on the overclocking software. Launch the software and look for the option to stop the overclocking. Once done, restart your computer, rerun the game installation.

If your IP address expires, you will most likely experience interruptions when browsing the web. In such cases, you have to release and renew the IP address by executing the following commands:

• ipconfig /release
• ipconfig /renew

So if you are trying to renew the IP address of your Windows 10 computer using the commands given above but you encounter an error message instead that says, “Unable to contact your DHCP Server”, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you in fixing this error. This kind of error indicates that the NIC can’t communicate with the DHCP server which is why it’s not able to release new IP addresses. It could be due to many reasons. To fix this error, you can try to roll back, update or reinstall the Network Adapter drivers. You could also run the built-in Network Adapter troubleshooter, as well as start or restart the DHCP client service.

Option 1 – Try to rollback your Network driver

If you have updated the driver software as of late and you suddenly got this error, you might have to roll back the device driver – in other words, switch back to the previous working version. To do that, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run window and then type in the “devmgmt.msc” command and hit Enter to open the Device Manager window.
• Under the Device Manager, you will see a list of drivers. From there, look for the Network Adapters and expand it.
• Next, select the driver entries that are labeled appropriately other than anything in the context of the WAN Miniport.
• Then select each one of them and double click to open a new mini window.
• After that, make sure that you’re on the Driver tab and if you are not, just navigate to it then click the Roll Back Driver button to switch back to the previous version of your Network adapters.
• Now restart your computer to successfully apply the changes made.

Option 2 – Try to update the Network drivers

If rolling back to the previous version of the Network adapter drivers didn’t help, then you need to update them instead. To do so, here’s what you have to do:

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run window and then type in the “devmgmt.msc” command and hit Enter to open the Device Manager window.
• Under the Device Manager, you will see a list of drivers. From there, look for the Network Adapters and expand them.
• Then right-click on each one of the Network drivers and update them all.
• Restart your PC and see if it helped in fixing the BSOD error.

Note: If updating the network drivers didn’t help in fixing the problem, you can also try to uninstall the very same drivers and restart your Windows 10 PC. After that, the system itself will reinstall the drivers you just uninstalled. Alternatively, you can also download and install the drivers from the manufacturer’s website directly.

Option 3 – Run the Network Adapter troubleshooter

Running the built-in Network Adapter troubleshooter can also help in fixing the “Unable to contact your DHCP Server” error. To run the Network Adapter Troubleshooter, refer to these steps:

• Open the Search bar on your computer and type in “troubleshoot” to open the Troubleshoot settings.
• Next, scroll down and select the “Network Adapter” option from the right pane.
• Then click on the Run Troubleshooter” button.
• After that, your computer will check for any possible errors and will pinpoint the root cause of the problem if possible.
• Restart your computer.

Option 4 – Try disabling the IPv6 in the Network Center

• Tap the Win + X key combination and click on Network Connections.
• This will open the Settings app on a specific page. Now on the right-side panel, click on the Network and Sharing Center link.
• After that, it will open the Control Panel and from there, click on the network that your computer is connected to and then click on Properties.
• Next, uncheck the entry that says, “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)” in the list that populates.
• Now click on OK and close all other windows.
• Restart your computer and see if the error is now fixed.

Option 5 – Start or restart the DHCP client service

If the DHCP client service is either inactive or stopped, you can try to start or restart it to resolve the error. You can do this via the Services Manager.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run utility.
• Then type “services.msc” in the field and tap Enter or click OK to open the Services Manager.
• After that, look for the DHCP client service from the list of services displayed.
• Once you found it, right-click on it and select the Start or Restart option.