Error code 0xc004f034 occurs when Windows users are unable to activate their operating system. It affects Windows 8 and Windows 10 users and features common symptoms which include the following:
Inability to activate Windows
Message box with error code 0xc004f034
Solution
Error Causes
Error code 0xc004f034 often occurs due to an issue with the Windows product key. This may occur when users enter an invalid product key or use one that is appropriate for use on a different version of Windows. To correct the issue, users will need to use the correct product key for their system or contact an IT professional if their device is connected to a Key Management Service (KMS). Windows users affected by this error code may also need to check their system for viruses or missing system files since these issues can result in error codes on Windows devices.
Further Information and Manual Repair
Manual repair methods enable users to fix problems related to error codes. Though some manual repair methods require the use of Command Prompt and utility tools like the System File Checker, even non-technical Windows users can find success simply by following the instructions provided below.
However, note that some issues can be complex, thus requiring the use of an automated tool or help from a Windows repair technician. Consider these options if the manual repair methods below do not resolve error code 0xc004f034 on your Windows 8 device.
Method One: Enter Valid Windows Product Key
Microsoft currently offers several ways for customers to activate their Windows operating system, the most common of which is the product key. This 25-character code verifies that users have access to an authorized version of Windows.
You may get a valid product key from an authorized dealer, a new PC with Windows, or access a digital copy from a Windows website when you purchase your Windows operating system online. Once you have a valid product key, use it to activate Windows and resolve error code 0xc004f034 in Windows 8. Follow the steps below to access the Product Activation Wizard.
Step one: Click or tab Start button then select Settings
Step two: Tap or click PC Settings, then select Activate Windows
Step three: Type invalid product key
Once a valid product key is used, the Product Activation Wizard should complete the activation process. If you are unable to complete the process, however, and error code 0xc004f034 remains unresolved, click the link or instructions the Product Activation Wizard provides regarding activation via phone or customer support.
Method Two: Run System File Checker
Another option available to Windows 8 users is System File Checker (SFC). This tool enables Windows users to scan and repair corrupted or missing system files. Follow the steps below to access SFC.
Step one: Go to Start and type Command Prompt or CMD.
Step two: Run as Administrator
Step three: Type sfc /scannow ensuring a space is between “sfc” and “/scannow”.
System File Checker will repair any corruptions found on system files within your machine once you successfully follow the instructions provided. The tool will also replace missing files which will lead to better performance on your PC.
When the process is complete, restart your device then check if you are able to activate Windows. If error code 0xc004f034 is still present, you will need to find another solution via repair method three.
Method Three: Scan for Viruses and other Malware
Viruses and other forms of malware are one of the main issues resulting in poor PC performance and Windows error codes. To fix this issue on your PC, scan your machine for signs of these malicious programs. If you do not have anti-malware software and would like to download one from the Internet, ensure the software you choose is effective before attempting to download it.
Once you have powerful antimalware software on your PC, begin a scan for viruses, Trojan horses, and other forms of malware. If the Windows error code occurred due to issues related to malicious programs, you will be able to resolve the issue. If, however, this manual repair method proves ineffective in resolving error code 0xc004f034, download a powerful automated tool or contact a Windows repair technician to assist you.
Method Four: Use an Automated Tool
If you wish to always have at your disposal a utility tool to fix these Windows 8 and other related issues when they do arise, download and install a powerful automated tool.
The Windows Subsystem for Linus, also known as WSL, is a useful and excellent tool for developers. However, it isn’t without flaws as users can still encounter some errors when using it. One of these errors is the error code WslRegisterDistribution, 0x8007019e,0x8000000d. Although it seems like the error is have something to do with the installation of WSL, it could be a false positive since some users who’ve installed WSL still encountered the same problem. Here’s the context of the error:
“Installing, this may take a few minutes…WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x8007019e/0x8000000dError: 0x8007019e/0x8000000d The parameter is incorrect.Press any key to continue.”
Error code 0x8007019e or 0x8000000d could be due to the absence of supporting Windows 10 features since the error does not even let one use the WSL-based command line. If you are one of the users facing this problem, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will provide you with a couple of suggestions to fix it.
There are two options you can check out to fix the problem, but before you do that, you need to make sure that the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature is enabled. The two options include enabling WSL using the “Turn Windows features on or off” option and using the Windows PowerShell.
Option 1 – Try to enable the WSL using the “Turn Windows features on or off” option
To get started, search for “Turn Windows Features on or off” in the Start Search and click on the appropriate result to open a dialog box.
After that, you will see a populated list in the dialog box and from there, look for the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” option.
Once you find it, select OK. This will search and install the system files needed and ask you to restart your computer.
Restart your computer. The Linux distro should now work without any trouble.
Option 2 – Try to use Windows PowerShell
The next thing you can do to fix the error code 0x8007019e or 0x8000000d is to use Windows PowerShell.
Tap the Win + X keys and click on the “Windows PowerShell (Admin)” option to open Windows PowerShell as admin.
After that, execute this command to enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature: Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
The command you entered will start to search for the required system files and install them.
If prompted, type “Y” to restart your computer. This should fix the problem.
Odyssey Neo G9 is a successor to Odyssey G9 curved gaming monitor and it is aimed again at the gaming community with its specifications but of course, it can be used for work as well.
Gapping at a stunning $2500 USD price it is not really a cheap piece of hardware so it is normal to see what do you get for this kind of price and do features justify it, so let’s dive in.
Size and resolution
The first thing that you can notice about the screen is that it is big and curved, 49 inches big which is pretty big, and with it, I believe you can forget about using 2 or 3 screens because this single one will cover everything you need really.
Going as far as 5120 X 1440 resolution is the strange definition, basically, this is 5K which is kind of nice but I do not see the advantage. Sure it is larger than 4K, but for the price of $2500 I expected an 8K monstrosity so if the resolution is not the main price justification then what is? Let’s move on and find out.
Odyssey tech specs
The monitor comes with HDR and 240Hz refresh rate which is very nice and coupled with 1ms pixel response time, adaptive sync, and Variable Refresh Rate you get pretty good other tech specs.
All of this is very nice but the monitor's strongest selling point is Mini Led tech. Mini Led is a next-gen tech currently found only in high-end TVs. With this technology, monitors can produce truer blacks sort of speak thanks to a greater number of dimming zones.
Odyssey Neo G9 is rated at 2000 nits in the brightness values and local dimming zones go to stunning 2048. It comes also with Quantum HDR that supports 10+, Freesync, and G-Sync capability. In connection, the department monitor comes with a single display 1.4 port and two HDMI 2.1 ports. It also includes a headphone jack along with two USB 3.0 ports.
Conclusion
While the resolution of the monitor is nothing impressive for the given price, its size and the rest of the tech specs surely are. Now I will not lie, the price is still a little too high but if you could afford it easily I think you should.
So, you have finished with work, game, movie, music, email, or whatever on your PC, you look at the clock, it is late, you decide to go to sleep or outside, you click on the power button and choose shutdown. Now when a PC is shut down you feel good and go with your business but the next time you power it up you get the same error like the computer never really shut down in the first place. You wonder why and reboot it, just in case and all of the sudden error is gone.
If something similar has happened to you or you had the feeling that after shutting down your computer has not really felt like shutting it down, do not seek professional help, everything is OK with you because when you click on shut down, your computer does not really shut down!
Truth is that Microsoft has changed how to shut down works and how rebooting works in Windows with an update but has not publicly said anything about it so some users may experience this feeling of not shutdown phenomenon and might even think there is something wrong with their PC.
Why this change?
A few years ago shutdown button and option in Windows were really shutting down OS, but things changed when Microsoft wanted to increase boot-up speed. Now when that decision was made shutdown option was changed. So, what was changed? Well in order to increase Windows booting time, the shutdown will now turn off power to PC components and it will look like everything is indeed shutdown but the Windows kernel will actually be saved to a hard drive with all settings and just awaken once the PC is turned back ON. This will result in all errors and other stuff being just still present same as they were once the system was instructed to be turned off.
Rebooting your PC will now clear kernel and file from the hard drive and you will get a clean system startup without any issues tied with the kernel itself.
Workaround
Now that we know why and what change has been made to Windows logical question is can we shut down our PC at all properly? Luckily for us, the answer is yes and we will not need any external application to do it, we can still do it inside Windows itself and it is quite quick and easy.
Bringing back the old shutdown
In order to bring the old shutdown functionality of your PC please follow the instructions but be aware that by doing this your PC will boot a little bit slower since it will have to load the kernel from scratch each time computer is turned ON.
First thing is to go to settings and go to System
Then once you are inside the system, navigate to the power and sleep and click on it to select it. Once you have it selected to all the way to the right and click on additional power settings.
When you click on advanced power settings you should be led to the control panel's power options. Inside this panel click on top left link where it says Choose what the power button does.
Inside options, you will need to untick the box next to Turn on fast startup (recommended), this option has been ticked ON by the Windows update and probably without notifying you. Option means exactly what was described, it will save kernel state on the hard drive for faster boot time but sadly it can cause some issues since it will never be reloaded from 0.
If you are unable to uncheck the box click on the text beside the shield icon that says: Change settings that are currently unavailable (you will have to be logged in as administrator).
Conclusion
Altho turning off fast startup and shutting down the PC completely will for sure extend your bootup time I still believe that it is the right choice since sometimes a lot of clutter and bad things accumulate over time inside the OS and can cause a vast variety of problems in a long run. So stay safe and shut down that PC as it used to be in the past.
There are times when system files get corrupted and if the Windows Update process finds the system’s integrity questionable, chances are, the update, upgrade or the installation may fail and you will only be getting an error code 0x80073712 instead of completing the process.
The error code 0x80073712 indicates that a file needed by the Windows setup or the Windows Update is most likely missing or damaged. To resolve the problem, here are some suggestions you can try.
Option 1 – Try running 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 as admin.
Then type in this command: 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.
After you run this tool, a log file is created at C:WindowsLogsCBSCBS.log. On the other hand, if the Windows Update client is already broken, you will be prompted to use a running Windows installation as the repair source or use a Windows side-by-side folder from a network share, as the source of the files. Although the chances of this happening are less, if it turns out to be the case, you need to run an advanced command in the DISM tool to repair a broken Windows Update. Just repeat the process above but use the following command instead:
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 0x80073712. 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:
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Option 3 – Try running the Chkdsk utility
You can also try running the Chkdsk utility to resolve the Windows Update error 0x80073712. If your hard drive has issues with integrity, the update will really fail as the system will think that it’s not healthy and that’s where the Chkdsk utility comes in. The Chkdsk utility repairs hard drive errors that might be causing the problem.
Open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
After opening Command Prompt, execute the commands listed below, and don’t forget to hit Enter right after you type in each one of them and if you have installed Windows to some different directory, you must replace “C” with the name of the drive you’ve installed Windows with.
chkdsk C: /r /x
chkdsk C: /f
Note: The Chkdsk function might take a while before it finishes its operations so you need to be patient and wait until the entire process is completed.
Option 4 – Try running the Windows Update Troubleshooter
Running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter could also help you resolve the Windows Update error 0x80073712. 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.
The feature that was originally planned for now scrapped Windows 10X is included in Windows 11. You will be able to customize your Virtual desktop with different wallpapers for each screen.
In order to fully customize your virtual desktops with different wallpapers follow this easy step-by-step guide.
Click on the Task View button in the taskbar
When the Task View opens, select the desktop on which you want to set wallpaper
The view will switch to the selected desktop. Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select personalize
In personalization settings, click on the background
Select wallpaper which you would like to have on the desktop by clicking on browse and navigating to the desired one
Close the settings
Repeat for each virtual desktop you would like to customize
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:
Right-click on the Windows logo to open the secret menu
Select Settings
Click open Accounts
From the left side, select Sign-in options
Scroll down till you see Restart apps setting
Toggle the Automatically save your restartable apps when you sign out and restart them after you sign in setting to On position
Following a two-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the state has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for fostering a "frat boy" culture in which female employees are allegedly subjected to unequal pay and sexual harassment.
As reported by Bloomberg, Activision Blizzard is being accused by the state of California of discriminating against female employees at nearly all levels of employment, including in regards to compensation, promotion, assignments, and termination. The state alleges Activision Blizzard’s leadership has failed to address any of these outstanding issues or prevent them from occurring within the workplace. You can read the full details of the lawsuit here.
The suit, filed Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court, says Activision Blizzard, which is made up of about 20 percent women, assigns women, and women of color, to "lower paid and lower opportunity levels" with lower starting pay for similar work as their male counterparts.
The documents also accuse Activision Blizzard of fostering a "pervasive 'frat boy' workplace culture in the office. Male employees are said to drink "copious amounts of alcohol" as they make their way through cubicles and "often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees."
Male employees are said to come to work hungover, play video games during work "while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and joke about rape."
The lawsuit also cites one particular incident where a female employee, who was already subjected to intense sexual harassment at the company, committed suicide during a work trip with a male supervisor who allegedly brought inappropriate, sexual items with him on the trip.
The lawsuit is asking for an injunction that will force Activision Blizzard to comply with workplace protections, as well as deliver unpaid wages, pay adjustments, back pay, and lost wages and benefits for female employees.
An Activision Blizzard spokesperson sent the following statement in response to the allegations:
We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, the action was taken to address the issue.The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived. They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so.Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as we will demonstrate in court. We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family. While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is, unfortunately, an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California.The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we’ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We’ve updated our Code of Conduct to emphasize a strict non-retaliation focus, amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the “ASK List” with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns.We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years.We put tremendous effort into creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and we strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take a variety of proactive steps to ensure that pay is driven by non-discriminatory factors. For example, we reward and compensate employees based on their performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination training including for those who are part of the compensation process.We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse, and inclusive workplace for our people, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they were seeing in their investigation.
Conclusion
We will see how things work out, but I am not too optimistic for Activision Blizzard, truth to be told these reports are really bringing up some disturbing news on the sunlight. I just hope that all responsible will be brought to justice.
System restore is usually the go-to tool when something goes bad in Windows, we fire it up and roll back Windows in the state when everything was working fine. But what if Windows does not want to boot? Can we use system restore in that case?
The answer to that question would be yes, yes we can.
Boot interrupt Windows 10 by starting your PC and as soon as you see the Windows logo; press and hold the power button to force a shutdown.
Repeat this 2-4 times and Windows will open up the Advanced Startup Options menu for you.
At the Advanced Startup Options screen, select Advanced Options.
Select Troubleshoot.
Under the Advanced options screen, select System Restore.
or if you prefer, use Windows USB installation.
Boot the faulty PC using the Windows 10 installation media.
The Windows Setup dialog box will appear.
Set the Time and currency format, Keyboard or input method, and the language to install.
Click Next.
Click on Repair your computer from the lower-left corner.
From the Choose an option screen, click on Troubleshoot.
Click Advanced Options in the Troubleshoot screen.
In the Advanced Options screen, click System Restore.
Windows will take some time to prepare System Restore. It may even restart your computer or device.
When System Restore is ready, you will be prompted to choose a user account to continue.
Select an account that is set as administrator on your Windows 10 computer or device.
At the next screen, change the keyboard layout if you want and then input the password for that account.
PrintNightmare vulnerability has been a struggling issue for Microsoft in the past weeks, each time it seems to be addressed and fixed something new popped up and it still had issues.
Microsoft finally addressed the issue but with a price. The default behavior of Point and Print is changed. From this fix onward, the Point and Print driver installation and update behavior will require administrator privileges, which should prevent the exploit to the Windows Print Spooler that could be used by malicious individuals to gain administrative privileges in Windows.
The drawback of this fix from Microsoft is that non-elevated users may have difficulty adding or updating printers. Microsoft feels that the security risks caused by PrintNightmare are worth the tradeoff, though.
If you really want to let non-elevated users add printers, you can follow the instructions in this Microsoft Support article to disable this mitigation with a registry key. However, doing so will expose you to this known vulnerability and isn’t recommend.
One of the most common hardware issues with any PC usually has something to do with the hard drive so if your hard drive experiences some errors, you could end up losing a lot of important information that’s stored in your computer. This is why Windows provided users with the CHKDSK utility which helps in looking for bad sectors on the drive. However, there are times when the CHKDSK utility could also face issues like the following error:
“Failed to transfer logged messages to the log event with status 50.”
According to security experts, this error is most likely due to the hard drive or RAM being in a “Read-only” state. It could also be due to some physical issues with the hard drive. On the other hand, it could be that the system is prevented from creating logs by some drive, service, or malware. To fix this error, you have to check if the hard disk is writable. You could also try to run the CHKDSK utility in Safe Mode or you could also check the physical status of your hard disk or external drive.
Option 1 – Check if the hard disk is writable
Although the CHKDSK utility checks for bad sectors in the hard drive, it also has to create logs of the result. And as states in the error message, the CHKDSK utility is not able to log the logged messages. This kind of error occurs when the log can’t be written to an installation disk. You can find the log in this location, “C:WindowsSystem32LogfilesSrtSrtTrail.txt”. Now you have to check if the drive writable by following these steps:
Log in as administrator and right-click on the system drive.
Select Properties and then go to the Security tab. Here, check if you are allowed to modify the drive. If not, click on Edit (as an administrator).
Now edit the permissions for the SYSTEM and Administrators group. Note that these are the only default settings for these two groups or usernames.
Then click on the Apply button save the changes made and exit.
Option 2 – Run the CHKDSK utility in Safe Mode
You could also try to run the CHKDSK utility in Safe Mode as this might solve the error.
Boot your computer in Safe Mode.
Next, open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
Then type and enter this command to execute it: chkdsk c: /f /r
Wait until the process is completed and boot your computer normally and then run the CHKDSK utility again and check if the “Failed to transfer logged messages to the log event with status 50” error is now fixed.
Option 3 – Try to check the hard disk or external drive physically
If the first two options didn’t work, you might want to check the physical status of your hard disk or external drive as the problem could root from there. You can try to tighten the wires that connect the hard disk to the motherboard. However, if it doesn’t help, you should seek out assistance from a hardware technician.