Fix High CPU usage by IAStorDataSvc in Windows

It is no longer a secret that websites, social media, and other various places on WEB are tracking you and your messages and emails for keywords that they will later use to promote and serve your specific ads linked to those keywords. Altho the process is fully automated it does feel a little forced and uneasy. That is why we are bringing you this article in which we will show you how to stop website tracking in the most popular and used browsers.

SAFARI

Apple’s Safari browser gives you the option to block cross-site tracking. It also has a Privacy Report that displays all the sites and agencies that are gathering information about you. Before blocking these trackers, you may want to review exactly which sites are tracking you online and gathering information about you. Armed with this information, you may decide that cross-site tracking isn’t a huge issue for your particular browsing habits, or you may decide to avoid certain websites entirely. To access Safari’s Privacy Report:

1. Launch the Safari web browser.
2. In the toolbar, select Safari > Privacy Report.
3. Select the Websites tab. This will display information about all the websites that are profiling you.
4. Select the Trackers tab. This displays a list of all the trackers that are gathering information about you. This includes the companies that created these trackers and the number of times Safari detected these trackers during your browsing sessions.

You can also check how intrusive a particular website is by navigating to the website in question and then selecting the shield icon that appears alongside Safari’s address bar. You can then select Trackers on This Web Page, and Safari will display a list of all the trackers that are active on this particular webpage. Once you’ve seen all the websites and agencies who are tracking you, if you want to block these trackers:

1. In the Safari toolbar, select Safari > Preferences …
2. Select the Privacy tab.
3. Select the following checkbox: Prevent Cross-Site Tracking.

Safari will now prevent these trackers from following you across the World Wide Web.

CHROME

As you’re browsing the web, Chrome can send a request for websites not to collect or track your browsing data. It’s important to note that this is a request, so there’s no guarantee that every website will honor the request. Frustratingly, Chrome doesn’t provide information about the websites that are tracking you online. However, we still recommend enabling this feature, as it can help minimize the number of websites that are tracking your online movements:

1. In Chrome’s upper-right corner, select the three-dot menu icon, then Settings.
2. In the menu on the left, select Privacy and security.
3. Click Cookies and other site data.
4. Find the Do not track slider and push it into the On position.

Now Chrome will send a Do Not Track request to every website you visit. Since this is only a request, you may want to take additional steps to protect your online privacy. Ghostery is a Chrome extension that enables you to view and block online trackers. After installing Ghostery, you can view all the trackers that are active on a particular website:

1. Head to the site in question.
2. Click the Extensions icon in the Chrome toolbar.
3. Select Ghostery to see a list of all the trackers this extension has detected.
4. You can block all of these trackers by selecting the Detailed tab and then clicking Restrict site.

Repeat this process for every site you visit.

MOZILLA FIREFOX

Firefox has an Enhanced Tracking Protection feature that can block all the cross-site trackers identified by Disconnect. This feature can also preserve your online privacy by blocking social media trackers, fingerprints, and crypto miners, making this a great all-arounder for the security-conscious Internet user. Enhanced Tracking Protection should be enabled by default. However, you can verify whether it’s active for your particular Firefox installation by navigating to any website. Next, click the little shield icon that appears alongside Firefox’s address bar and you should see a message confirming that Enhanced Tracking Protection is enabled. If Enhanced Tracking Protection isn’t enabled, we recommend activating it:

1. In Firefox’s upper-right corner, select the three-line icon, then Preferences.
2. In the menu on the left, select Privacy & Security.
3. You can now select either Standard or Strict. Note that Strict may affect the functionality of certain websites, so it’s recommended you opt for Standard unless you specifically require a greater level of protection.

Similar to Chrome, Firefox can send a Do Not Track request. While you’re in the Privacy & Security menu, you may want to consider activating Mozilla’s Do Not Track feature.

OPERA

When you first installed Opera, it gave you the option to block trackers. If you didn’t take Opera up on the offer then, you can start blocking trackers now:

1. Along the left side of the Opera browser, click the cog icon. This opens Opera’s settings.
2. In the menu on the left, select Basic.
3. Find the Block Trackers slider and push it into the On position.
4. Blocking trackers can impact the functionality of certain websites. If you start noticing strange behavior on a particular website, you may want to add that site to your Exceptions list. By allowing this site to use trackers, you should be able to resolve any issues you’re experiencing.

To make an exception for one or more websites:

1. Launch Opera’s settings by clicking the little cog icon.
2. Navigate to Basic > Manage Exceptions.
3. Click Add and then type the address of the site where you want to permit trackers.

Repeat for all the sites that you want to add to your exceptions list.

Windows 11 has been officially presented during Microsoft’s virtual event on June 24^th. Since presentation internet has been pretty live and busy with a discussion about it, some discussions are positive, some not so much but that is expected and it happens always when a new product is presented. One of information that we have about Windows 11 is tied to the home edition of this OS, Windows 11 home edition will require an internet connection at setup, and a Microsoft account in order to be installed and used. Previous versions of Windows could be installed and used with local accounts but it seems Microsoft has abandoned that idea for its new OS. OS will be delivered mostly as updates or via internet download so internet and online requirement make sense but why it cannot use the local account and must have a Microsoft one is beyond me.

PC Performer is a registry cleaner made by PerformerSoft. The purpose of this program is to remove redundant items from the Windows registry. Registry cleaners remove broken links, missing references within the Windows registry. PC performer is designed to automatically optimize your registry and clean it up.

PC Performer adds registry entries for the current user that allow it to run automatically each time the system is rebooted. It adds a scheduled task to Windows Task Scheduler in order to run at various times. The software connects to the internet, therefore it creates a Windows Firewall exception that allows it to connect without interference. Multiple anti-virus programs detected this software as Malware, it typically comes bundled with other software or is distributed through a pay-per-install bundle.

About Potentially Unwanted Applications

People have encountered it – you download and install a piece of free software application, you then see some unwanted applications on your computer or discover a strange toolbar has been added to your browser. You didn’t install them, so how did they turn up? These unwanted programs, technically known as Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs), often come bundled along with other software and install themselves on user’s PC without their knowledge. They perhaps might not look like viruses to some individuals, but they can produce major annoyances and bring about serious trouble for users. The idea of PUP was coined to define this downloadable crapware as something other than malicious software. Much like malware, PUPs create problems when downloaded and placed on your computer, but what makes a PUP different is that you provide consent to download it – the fact is vastly different – the software installation bundle actually tricks you into agreeing to the installation. Still, there isn’t any doubt that PUPs are still bad news for computer users as they can be incredibly damaging to your computer in lots of ways.

What do PUPs look like?

The unwanted software programs after installation display loads of annoying pop-up adverts, create fake alerts, and quite often it even pushes the user to buy the software. Likewise, the majority of free software applications these days come with quite a few unwanted add-ons; in most cases a web browser toolbar or browser modification such as a homepage hijacker. Not only they needlessly use up space on your screen, but toolbars can also manipulate search engine results, watch your browsing activities, decrease your web browser’s performance, and decelerate your net connection to a crawl. PUPs employ aggressive distribution techniques to get in your computer. Some might include information gathering program code that could collect and send your private information back to third parties. Due to this unwanted program, your application may freeze, your security protections may get disabled that might leave the computer susceptible, your system may get ruined, and the list goes on and on.

Tips on how to prevent ‘crapware’

• Read cautiously before agreeing to the license agreement as it may have a clause about PUPs. • Usually, when setting up a program you will get two options, ‘Standard Installation (recommended)’ and ‘Custom Installation’. Don’t select ‘Standard’ as PUPs could be installed that way! • Use good anti-malware software. Try Safebytes Anti-Malware which will find PUPs and handle them as malware by flagging them for removal. • Be alert when you install freeware, open-source software, or shareware. Avoid downloading browser extensions and programs you are not familiar with. • Only download applications from the original providers’ sites. Avoid download portals as they use their own download manager to pack additional programs with the initial download.

What you can do if Virus Stops You From Downloading Or Installing Anything?

Malware could potentially cause several kinds of damage to computer systems, networks, and data. Certain malware goes to great lengths to stop you from installing anything on your PC, especially antivirus applications. If you’re reading this right now, you have perhaps recognized that a malware infection is a reason for your blocked web traffic. So what to do if you need to install an antivirus program like Safebytes? There are a few actions you can take to get around this problem.

Eliminate malware in Safe Mode

If the virus is set to load automatically when Microsoft Windows starts, getting into Safe Mode could very well block the attempt. Since just the bare minimum programs and services start-up in safe mode, there are hardly any reasons for issues to happen. The following are the steps you should follow to remove malware in Safemode. 1) At power on/start-up, hit the F8 key in 1-second intervals. This will bring up the Advanced Boot Options menu. 2) Select Safe Mode with Networking using arrow keys and hit ENTER. 3) Once you get into this mode, you should have an internet connection again. Now, obtain the malware removal application you need by using the browser. To install the software, follow the directions in the installation wizard. 4) After installation, do a complete scan and let the software delete the threats it detects.

Switch to an alternate browser

Web-based viruses can be environment-specific, targeting a particular web browser or attacking particular versions of the browser. The best solution to overcome this issue is to opt for a browser that is well known for its security features. Firefox contains built-in Phishing and Malware Protection to keep you safe online.

Install and run anti-virus from a USB drive

To successfully eliminate the malware, you will need to approach the issue of installing an anti-virus program on the infected PC from a different angle. Adopt these measures to employ a USB flash drive to fix your corrupted computer. 1) Use another virus-free computer to download Safebytes Anti-Malware. 2) Insert the pen drive into the clean computer. 3) Double-click the Setup icon of the antivirus program to run the Installation Wizard. 4) When asked, choose the location of the pen drive as the place where you would like to put the software files. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process. 5) Now, insert the pen drive into the infected computer. 6) Double-click the EXE file to open the Safebytes program right from the flash drive. 7) Click “Scan Now” to run a scan on the infected computer for malware.

Highlights of SafeBytes Anti-Malware

Do you want to install the best anti-malware software program for your computer system? There are various applications in the market that comes in paid and free versions for Microsoft Windows systems. A few of them are great and some are scamware applications that pretend as legit anti-malware software waiting around to wreak havoc on your computer. While looking for anti-malware software, select one which gives dependable, efficient, and full protection against all known computer viruses and malware. On the list of recommended software is SafeBytes Anti-Malware. SafeBytes carries a really good track record of top-quality service, and clients are happy with it. SafeBytes anti-malware is a highly effective and easy-to-use protection tool that is suitable for users of all levels of computer literacy. With its cutting-edge technology, this application will let you remove multiples types of malware which include viruses, worms, PUPs, trojans, ransomware, adware, and browser hijackers. SafeBytes anti-malware provides an array of advanced features which sets it apart from all others. Listed here are a few of the great ones: Anti-Malware Protection: Built on a highly acclaimed anti-virus engine, this malware removal tool is able to detect and remove many obstinate malware threats such as browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs, and ransomware that other typical anti-virus programs will miss. Real-time Active Protection: SafeBytes offers an entirely hands-free real-time protection that is set to check, prevent and remove all threats at its first encounter. It’ll check your PC for suspicious activity continuously and shields your PC from unauthorized access. Faster Scan: SafeBytes’s virus scan engine is one of the quickest and most efficient in the industry. Its targeted scanning seriously increases the catch rate for malware that is embedded in various computer files. Safe Browsing: Safebytes assigns all sites a unique safety ranking that helps you to have an idea of whether the webpage you’re going to visit is safe to view or known to be a phishing site. Low CPU Usage: SafeBytes is renowned for its minimal influence on processing power and great detection rate of countless threats. It runs silently and efficiently in the background so you’re free to use your computer at full power all the time. 24/7 Customer Support: SafeBytes provides 24/7 technical support, automatic maintenance, and software upgrades for the best user experience.

Technical Details and Manual Removal (Advanced Users)

If you wish to manually remove PCPerformer without the use of an automated tool, it may be possible to do so by removing the program from the Windows Add/Remove Programs menu, or in cases of browser extensions, going to the browsers AddOn/Extension manager and removing it. You will likely also want to reset your browser. To ensure the complete removal, manually check your hard drive and registry for all of the following and remove or reset the values accordingly. Please note that this is for advanced users only and may be difficult, with incorrect file removal causing additional PC errors. In addition, some malware is capable of replicating or preventing deletion. Doing this in Safe Mode is advised.

The following files, folders, and registry entries are created or modified by PCPerformer

The Internet has come a long way from its infant stages and has become so large and huge that it has gained the status of basic human rights. There are very useful information and a lot of great content on it and among them, there are social media websites and other types of websites where you have, most likely placed some personal pictures or other information. One day you might want to cancel some of the services or you would like to take a break from it all. In this guide we will show you how to do exactly that, to delete and remove your data from the internet.

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How to Delete Your Google Account

Google is arguably one of the most visited places on the Web. It stores a huge amount of data for delivering personalized content. It saves personal information, web searches, watched videos, location data, etc. You can view a summary of the data saved by different Google services by visiting your Google Dashboard. To delete personal data from Google, go to myactivity.google.com. Select the Delete activity by from the left menu to start deleting activities. Select All time to delete all of your activities from different Google services. You can also delete files saved to Google services, such as Google Photos, Google Drive, and Keep. Just visit the site, select the files, and delete them. Note that Google retains some information even after you delete all data. They do this to meet business needs and legal requirements. These will be deleted when you delete your Google account altogether.

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How to Delete Your Facebook Account

Facebook stores a huge amount of data for each user. Some of the personal information stored in Facebook’s databases includes name and email, check-ins, location, images, videos, events, etc. You can view and download all of your personal data using Facebook’s information download tool. However, you will need to delete your account altogether for removing your personal data from Facebook. Follow the below steps to delete your Facebook account.

1. Log in to your Facebook account and go to Settings & privacy > Setttings.
2. Select Your Facebook Information.
3. Select Deactivation and Deletion.
4. Select Delete Account.
5. Select Continue to Account Deletion.
6. Select Delete Account.
7. Enter your password and click Continue.

It can take up to 90 days for Facebook to delete your personal data from the Internet. You will not be able to access any of the data once the deletion starts. However, you can cancel this within the first 30 days.

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How to Delete Your Twitter Account

Twitter has also followed in the footsteps of Facebook when it comes to harvesting your personal data. It utilizes this information for delivering personalized ads and tweets. You can download an archive of all of your personal data from Twitter. It makes it easy to monitor what information is available to the platform. Click the More button from the left menu and head over to Settings and privacy. Follow the below steps to download your personal information.

1. Select Download an archive of your data from the Your Account section.
2. Select Request archive from under the Twitter data section. Enter your password when prompted.
3. It will take some time for Twitter to make the data available to you. You’ll receive an email once the data is ready to be downloaded.

It would be best if you also restrict data sharing and off-site activities. Head over to Privacy and safety and inspect the options under the Data sharing and off-Twitter activity section. Look in the Interests and Your advertiser list sections from the Ads preferences tab. You can disable Twitter from tracking you in the Off-Twitter activity tab. Uncheck the options from the Data sharing with business partners and Location information tabs. Finally, you need to deactivate your account for deleting all personal information from Twitter. You’ll have 30 days to reactivate the account. After that, Twitter will begin erasing your information from its systems. Note that they can still retain some information subjected to platform regulations.

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How to Delete Your Instagram Account

Instagram has risen to prominence in the last couple of years. The company collects a huge amount of personal information from its users, including media, name, email, and much more. You’ll need to deactivate your account altogether if you want to delete everything Instagram knows about you. Head over to the Delete your account page and select the reason you want to delete it. Enter your Instagram password to verify your identity, then click on the Delete button. Instagram will hide your account details for the next 30 days and delete all personal data after the given period.

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How to Delete Your TikTok Account

TikTok is another emerging platform that has become quite popular among millennials. Users share a lot of personal information through personalized music videos. You need to delete your TikTok account permanently to remove all personal data from TikTok. To do this, head over to Me, then tap on the … icon in the top-right corner of the window. Select Delete account from under the Manage Account section. Follow the instructions provided there to continue deactivating your account. Like Instagram, TikTok also offers a 30-day time period to allow users to change their minds. It will delete your personal data from the Internet after this period.

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How to Delete Your Snapchat Account

1. Go to Snapchat’s Accounts Portal and log in with your name and password.
2. Select the Delete My Account option.
3. You’ll be taken to the Delete Account page directly.
4. Retype your password once more.
5. Click on the yellow Continue button.

Do keep in mind that Snapchat will hold on to your data for another 30 days, just in case you change your mind and decide to return. If you do decide to come back, all you need to do is visit the Accounts Portal again and log in to your account. This will reactivate your account. While your account is in this deactivated phase, your friends will not be able to contact you or interact with you in any manner on Snapchat. After the 30-day period has elapsed, your account will be permanently deleted.

For PC users that are blind or have low vision, the Narrator accessibility feature in Windows 10, lets you use your PC without a display or mouse to complete common tasks – it reads and interacts with things on the screen, like text and buttons. The narrator can be used to read and write an email, browse the internet, and work with documents. In Windows 10, there are a lot of options for Narrator that you can customize. You can change its keyboard shortcuts, personalize Narrator’s voice, enable Caps Lock warnings, and more. You can choose the voice for the Narrator, adjust the speaking rate, pitch, and volume. To change the default audio output device used to play the voice of the Narrator in Windows 10:

• Press the ⊞ WINDOWS + I
• From the Settings menu, click Ease of Access.
• Click Narrator on the left pane.
• In the Narrator window, on the right pane, toggle the button to On to enable Narrator if required.
• Scroll down to the Personalize Narrator’s voice section.
• For the Select where you hear Narrator’s voice option, click the drop-down and select the audio output device you want from the list. Please know that you will not be able to choose if you do not have multiple audio output devices connected to your Windows 10 computer.
• Exit Settings when done.

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

If you are trying to install or upgrade your Windows 10 computer but suddenly encountered an error message saying, “Windows could not configure one or more system components”, read on as this post will show you how you can fix the problem. You are not alone in experiencing this problem as other users also reported having the same scenario. Some of them reported getting the following error message:

“Windows could not configure one or more system components. To install Windows restart the computer with error code 0xc1900101-0x30018.”

When you check on the Windows 10 rollback log, you will see a part with the “iisetup.exe” that’s related to the abort. Usually, the upgrade process completes over 50% and gets stuck and then rolls back later on and generates the error logs. This kind of error, in most cases, appears during the upgrade of Windows 10 and is related with the Internet Information Services or IIS in Windows 10. For some unknown reason, it restricts the installation or the upgrade which causes the error to appear. To fix the “Windows could not configure one or more system components” error, you can try to remove the IIS from the Windows Features or rename the “inetsrv” folder. You could also move all the folders related to IIS to another drive. For more details, refer to the options provided below.

Option 1 – Try to remove the IIS from Windows Features

The IIS is installed from the Windows Features and you can find it at Control Panel > Programs. From there, uncheck the checkbox for the Internet Information Services. Once done, click on the OK button to save the changes. Note that this process will get rid of all the related programs, services, and folders from Windows 10. So if you want to, you can just install them later on or use an offline installer from the official site of Microsoft.

Option 2 – Try renaming the inetsrv folder

The next option you can check out to resolve the problem is to rename the “inetsrv” folder. If you have uninstalled IIS from the Windows Features, this should remove the folders as well, however, it didn’t remove the folder then you have to delete the folders that are related to the IIS by following these steps:

• First, you have to boot into the Advanced Recovery Mode and from there, open Command Prompt.
• Next, execute this command to rename the folder from this location, C:Windowssystem32inetsrv: rename C:/Windows/system32/inetsrv/inetsrv.old
• Once done, boot into your computer normally and try to upgrade Windows 10 again, and check if the problem is fixed or not.

Option 3 – Try to move the folders related to IIS to a different drive

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run utility and type “services.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Windows Services Manager.
• Next, look for the Application Host Helper Service from the list of services and stop it.
• Once done, take ownership of the “WinSxS” folder and then move the *windows-iis*.*” folders to another drive. You can just search using the “*windows-iis*.*” keyword in the Start Search.
• Next, tap the Ctrl + X keys and paste the folders to another drive.
• After that, start the update process for Windows 10 again.

Recently, some users reported that they were unable to access a website and only got the Error 1005 Access Denied instead. Specifically, users experience this issue when trying to open the Crunchyroll website – one of the largest anime and manga websites. This particular error is encountered not just on Crunchyroll but on a variety of websites like blogs, video streaming, forums, and so on. Here’s the full context of the error message:

“Error 1005 Access Denied – The owner of this website has banned the autonomous system number (ASN) your IP address from accessing this website.”

Usually, this error occurs when the website administrator decides to block an IP address or IP range. To fix this error, here are some suggestions you can try:

Option 1 – Uninstall the VPN service you are using or use a different provider

If you are using a VPN service, you might want to uninstall it. As mentioned, website administrator blocks IP ranges if they notice any malicious activities and because of this, your IP address might fall into the banned range even if you didn’t do anything at all. To uninstall the VPN service, follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box
• Then type “appwiz.cpl” in the field and hit Enter to open the Programs and Features in Control Panel.
• From there, look for the VPN service you are using, select it and then click on Uninstall to remove it.
• After that, restart your computer and try to install the latest version of the program again. It should work now. If not, proceed to the next available option below.

Option 2 – Try disabling the Proxy server

There are some users who reported that they’ve fixed the problem after they’ve disabled the use of a proxy server using the built-in way. Follow the steps below to disable proxy server.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Then type “inetcpl.cpl” in the field and hit Enter to pull up the Internet Properties.
• After that, go to the Connections tab and select the LAN settings.
• From there. Uncheck the “Use a Proxy Server” option for your LAN and then make sure that the “Automatically detect settings” option is checked.
• Now click the OK and the Apply buttons.
• Restart your PC.

Note: If you are using a third-party proxy service, you have to disable it.

Option 3 – Use the Google Public DNS

You might want to change your DNS to Google Public DNS as it could also help you in fixing the ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID error in Chrome. To do so, follow the steps below.

• The first thing you have to do is right-click on the network icon in the Taskbar and select Network and Sharing Center.
• Next, click on the “Change Adapter Settings” option.
• After that, search for the network connection that you are using to connect to the internet. Note that the option might be “Wireless Connection” or “Local Area Connection”.
• Right-click on your network connection and click on Properties.
• Then select the new window to choose the “Internet Protocol 4 (TCP/IPv4)” option.
• After that, click on the Properties button and click the checkbox in the new window for the option “Use the following DNS server addresses”.
• Type in “8.8.8.8” and “8.8.4.4” and click OK and exit.

Option 4 – Try contacting the website administrator

If the first three given options didn’t work, you might want to consider contacting the website administrator especially if you’ve already determined that the issue does not occur due to a VPN or proxy server that you’re using. This option can be quite tricky since you won’t be able to submit a contact form since you’re banned from accessing the website but you can contact the admin via the form section if available.

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

Option 1 – Try to run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter

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

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

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

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

Option 3 – Try resetting Cortana

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

Option 4 – Try running the DISM tool

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

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

Option 5 – Try to reinstall Cortana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The GDI32.DLL is a DLL (Dynamic Link Library) file that was developed by Microsoft. It is an essential file of the Windows OS as it contains instructions and information for exe files to follow. These DLL files also use to store the various procedures and codes for the Windows programs. It is considered an essential component of Windows because it ensures that all the programs on Windows are operating properly. So, if the gdi32.dll not found on your computer, then it can negatively impact your computer and the associated programs. Though DLL files used to be so efficient and convenient, they are extremely vulnerable to errors and issues.

1. Perform SFC scan

   Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the Windows menu From the menu choose command prompt (admin) In command prompt type sfc /scannow and press ENTER Leave the computer for the operation to be completed and Reboot your computer

2. Run DISM

   Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the Windows menu From the menu choose command prompt (admin) in command prompt type: DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press ENTER wait for the process to be finished and Reboot your computer

3. Update device driver

   Go to your manufacturer's website and update drivers for your components with the latest versions.

4. Update Windows

   If you have an update ready for Windows, update it and see if this will remove the error

5. Scan computer for malware

   Perform a full PC scan for malware to see if this is causing issues with the GDI32.DLL error.

6. Download file

   One solution is to download a file from the official site and place it in the corresponding folder.

7. Perform System restore

   Rollback system restore before the issue happened and your Windows will be working as intended

Stop C00002lA Fatal System Error- What is it?

C00002lA Fatal System Error is a blue screen of death error that may occur when you start your Windows NT 4.0 based computer. This error causes the screen to turn blue and the system also shuts down. The stop C000021A error message is displayed in the following format:

Stop c000021a {Fatal System Error} The session manager initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000017 (0x00000000, 0x0000000) The system has been shut down.

Error Causes

The stop C000021A error occurs when either Crsrss.exe or Winlogon.exe fails. When the Windows NT kernel identifies that either of these processes has failed, it stops and the error code stop C000021A appears on the computer screen. Here are some of the underlying causes for the stop C0000021A error:

• The incompatible third-party program
• Hard disk issues
• Service pack installation has failed
• Mismatched system files have been installed
• Bad and invalid registry keys

Further Information and Manual Repair

To resolve the stop C000021A Fatal System Error on your PC try the following solutions:

• Remove Incompatible Third Party Programs

If the error occurred after you recently installed a new program, then it is advisable to remove that program. The error occurs due to the incompatibility of the program. To remove the program go to the start menu and click on the control panel. Now click on Add/Remove Program tab and double click on the program name that you recently installed and remove it from the list. Once removed, not reboot your PC. Reinstall a compatible program and run it. It is most likely to resolve the issue. However, if the stop C000021A error still occurs, then it means the problem is critical. It is related to the registry.

• Repair and Restore the Registry

This procedure is slightly long and tricky. To try it, you need to be technically sound. Here’s what you have to do: first create a parallel installation of Windows NT. Start your PC to the parallel installation and then open the Registry Editor. On the Registry Editor’s Windows menu click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on Local Machine and then click Load Hive. Now type the path %systemroot%system32configsystem into the System hive of the prior installation. Then click open. Here you will be prompted to enter the name of the key, type TEST. Note the setting for the current DWord value in the preceding registry key. This is 0x1 and is denoted by CURRENT:Reg_Dword: 0x1. This value indicated that the Current Control Set for your original Windows NT installation corresponds to ControlSet001 in this window. Now if the value is 2, it indicated that the Current Control Set corresponds to ControlSet002. Now locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINETESTControlSetXXXControlSession Manager. XXX is the Current Control Set Value. And delete any pending file rename operation entries. Then click TEST hive and then click Unload Hive. After that again repeat the process, open the registry menu and click load hive, here type the path %systemroot%system32configSoftware to the Software hive of the prior installation and then click open. Now you type TEST 2 when you are prompted for the name of the key. Remove any pending file rename operations entries in the following registry keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINETEST2MicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunOnce HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINETEST2MicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunOnceEx Now click TEST2 hive and then click unload hive. Quit the Registry Editor and then restart your original installation. This will resolve the stop C000021A error.