Fix Unsupported video type/invalid file path

Most Common Microsoft Outlook errors

When you have a program, you know before you even start to use it or even know how that you are going to have problems with it. There are always going to be error messages and things that don’t work on any program you buy or download; guaranteed. Even some of the most famous program developers in the world make mistakes from time to time and it is a small price to pay for the programs you get and that is a fact. Microsoft Outlook is like any other program; it has its errors. Here are some of the most common errors for Microsoft Outlook on your computer.

1. Problem receiving emails

Sometimes you can be waiting on really important emails. It is really infuriating when you know that they have been sent, however every time you check your email box, there is nothing there! Your inbox is empty and your patience is wearing thin, so could it possibly be an error with Microsoft Outlook? There is a high probability that this is the problem. The program can be a bit slow on receiving emails sometimes, often even by days. This can be caused by any number of things, from having too many emails coming through or having too many emails in your inbox. If you click ‘send and receive’ at the top, it should speed up your emails coming through, however, so give that a try if you’re waiting on anything to come through. If this doesn’t work, however, your inbox may be full. Try permanently deleting some useless messages and then click ‘send and receive’ again. All your emails should come through then!

2. General slow performance

Outlook, while it has its advantages, can often be very slow. It is probably slower than some other email programs that require a browser but it is quicker to access, which may make up for this fact. However, sometimes sluggish performance can be really irritating, so it may be wise to try and fix it if you can. One of the reasons it may be acting slow is if you have too many other Windows applications open. Applications that may interfere with your Outlook’s speed could be anything from Microsoft Word to Windows Live Messenger. If any of these are open, try closing them and see if that helps with the speed problem.

3. Corrupt files

.dbx files are not accessible by Microsoft Outlook. Therefore, they can cause problems with your emails if you have them within them. To solve this problem, you may have to delete all of your attached email accounts and then reattach them before you can open your emails again. These corrupt files can also cause you to be unable to delete emails. You will need to transfer these deleted corrupt files into a separate deletion folder as this is usually caused by the folder being corrupt. Of all the other most frequent problems with Microsoft Outlook, however, this is probably the least likely to happen, which shows how few problems there actually are with this application after all that!

Conclusion

So there are the most common problems with Microsoft Outlook! Not much wrong at all, is there?

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

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

If you are testing your headphone or your speaker but all of a sudden encountered an error that says, “Failed to play test tone” in your Windows 10 computer, worry not for this post will walk you through how you can fix this problem. The test tone is used to check the right-left balance of the headphones and speakers in your computer, however, if you are not able to use it, there are several options you can check out. You can try to run the Playing Audio troubleshooter or restart the services that are related to Windows Audio. Aside from these, you could also disable Audio Enhancements or you could also change the default test tone rate and bit depth.

Option 1 – Try to run the Playing Audio Troubleshooter

Since the Windows 10 operating system has the Playing Audio Troubleshooter, you can use this troubleshooter to try and fix the problem with the “No Audio Output Device is installed” error. You can access this tool in the Control Panel or in the Taskbar Search and even on the Troubleshooters page of Windows 10. Run this troubleshooter and see if it can fix the issue or not.

Option 2 – Try to restart the Windows Audio-related services

The next thing you can do to fix the problem is to restart the services related to Windows Audio. Although the audio services start automatically on every system boot, there are times when they might fail to start. Thus, you can start these services manually by following these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run utility and type “services.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Services Manager.
• Then look for the services named “Windows Audio” and “Windows Audio Endpoint Builder”.
• Double click on each one of these services and check if their Service Status is set to Running or not and also check if the Startup Type is set to Automatic.
• If none of the services are running, just click on the Start button and select the Automatic option from the drop-down menu.
• Now click on the Apply and OK buttons to save the changes made and then check if the error is fixed.

Option 3 – Try to update the Audio driver

You might also want to consider updating or the Audio driver as it could help in fixing the error.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and then type in devmgmt.msc and tap Enter or click OK to open the Device Manager.
• Expand the section for the outdated device drivers.
• And then select the outdated driver(s) and right-click on it/them.
• From the drop-down menu, select the Update Driver option and follow the on-screen instructions to install the latest version of the driver.
• Then also click on the option, “Search automatically for updated driver software.
• Restart your PC after the installation.

Note: If updating or reinstalling the Audio driver didn’t work, you can go to the manufacturer’s website and look for the support section where you can download the drivers for your computer. You just need to take note of your PC’s correct model and model number so you can find the appropriate driver.

Option 4 – Try changing the default test tone rate and bit depth

Windows selects a default test tone rate and bit depth depending on your headphone or speaker. This allows you to look for the best sound quality from your audio output device. So if your headphone or speaker has some problems with the default settings, then it’s no wonder why you’re getting the “Failed to play test tone” error. To fix this, you can try to change the default test tone rate and bit depth by following the steps below.

• First, you need to open the Windows Settings panel and then go to System > Sound.
• Next, look for the Device properties option located on your right-hand side and click on it.
• After that, select the Additional device properties option and go to the Advanced tab.
• From there, select a different test tone rate and bit depth and then click on the Test button.
• Once done, check if it was able to fix the problem or not.

Option 5 – Try disabling the Sound or Audio enhancements

To make your operating system’s specific hardware sound nothing but perfect, both Microsoft and third-party vendors have shipped audio enhancement packages which are usually referred to as “Audio Enhancements” in Windows 10. However, there are instances when instead of improving the sound or audio quality of your computer, it can cause problems so to fix the problem you need to turn off these audio enhancements. How? Simply follow the steps below.

• Type in “Sound” in the taskbar search and then from the list of results, select “Sound Control Panel”.
• After clicking Sound, the Sound properties box will pop up. From there, go to the Playback tab and right-click on the default device i.e. Speakers or Headphones then select Properties.
• After that, the Speakers properties box will appear. From there, go to the Enhancements tab and select the checkbox for the “Disable all enhancements” option.

In the latest Windows 11 fiasco, it is reported that the operating system is slowing down some SSD drives. Good thing is that it does not affect all of SSD on the market but the ones which it is affecting can see even a 45% of speed drop. Microsoft has not published a solution to this issue, but users point out two potential problems. The first is a security mechanism based on disk virtualization, which is supposed to slow down the performance of SSDs. The second, in turn, is related to the place of installation of Windows 11 – users indicate that if the performance test is performed on a medium with no files associated with the system, its performance results are similar to the parameters given by the manufacturer. Transfer speeds were to be slightly improved with the latest Windows 11 update 22000.348. However, users are still waiting for a solution to the problem that significantly reduces the efficiency of SSD media.

More information

The details described leading to speculation that the problem could be related to drivers that Microsoft is providing. On further tests, all Nvme drives that use the Microsoft driver have this problem, but Intel 905P, which has its own driver provided by Intel, is working at full power,”.

If you are trying to install a Windows 10 upgrade but was interrupted with an error saying, “0x80070003 – 0x2000D, The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during MIGRATE_DATA operation”, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will help you sort this problem out. When you get this kind of error while trying to upgrade your computer, although there could be various reasons for this, the primary one is that when you upgrade from one update to another, something stopped the upgrade process to migrate the user data. To fix this error, you can try to run both the DISM tool and the System File Checker to automatically repair any corrupted system files. You could also try checking the free storage space of your primary drive and if you have any file lock apps like BitLocker, consider disabling them for they could also be the reason why you’re getting the error.

Option 1 – Run the DISM tool

Running the DISM Tool helps in repairing the Windows System Image as well as the Windows Component Store in Windows 10 which might be the reason behind the Windows Upgrade error 0x80070003 – 0x2000D. 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.
• Once it’s done, restart your computer and then check if the issue is resolved or not on the next startup.

Option 2 – Run the SFC scan

The SFC or System File Checker scan could detect and automatically repair damaged system files that could be causing the Windows Upgrade error to appear. SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files to good system files. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter.

The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:

1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

• Reboot your PC.

Option 3 – Try checking the free storage space on your primary drive

The next option you can try to resolve the error is to see if you have enough free storage space on the primary drive because if you don’t then it’s probably the reason why you’re getting this error. To fix it, you need to free up some storage space by following these steps:

• Open Setting > System > Storage from the WinX Menu.
• From there, you will see a list of all the local and connected storage devices along with the details on the free space.
• Now make sure that the Storage Sense feature is turned On then go find a link that says “Free Up Space” and click it to open.
• After that, a screen which is the built-in program in Windows 10 will appear and will scan your computer for the following junk files so you can free up disk space:
• Windows Upgrade Log Files
• System created Windows Error Reporting Files
• Thumbnails
• Temporary Internet Files
• Previous Windows Installation Files
• Delivery Optimisation Files
• DirectX Shader Cache

Note: Once you’re done freeing up space on your drive, try to run the setup file again.

Option 4 – Try disabling BitLocker and other file lock apps

If you are using BitLocker or other file lock apps, then it could be the reason why you’re getting the error. Usually, file lock apps don’t cause any kind of issue, however, if you have something that works on file level like BitLocker, you can try to disable it. Once you’ve disabled it, try to install the Windows 10 Upgrade again and after you do, enable BitLocker again. This should fix the problem.

Each time you open an application inside your Windows 11 operating system, it is opened with standard privileges. Now, please note that your account privileges and application privileges are two different things, you might be the administrator of the system but when you open the app, it still opens with standard privilege. Most of the time running applications with typical settings is fine but from time to time we might have some applications that will require running with administrator privilege in order to work properly. In this case, it is very easy to do it, you just right-click and choose run as administrator. Although a very easy solution, it can be quite annoying if running the app is on a daily basis or even more times per day. If this is the case then right-clicking and choosing to run as administrator can be a daunting task, sometimes you can even forget to run it like this in heat of work and some unforeseen consequences might occur. Luckily there is an easy hack so you can open the chosen application each time as an administrator with a simple double click each time.

Setting application to run as administrator always

1. Locate application executable file
2. Right-click on in and choose properties
3. Click on the Compatibility tab
4. Check the box next to Run this Program as an Administrator
5. Click on Apply
6. Click on OK

From now on each time you open an application normally with a double click, it will be opened as administrator privileges.

What is 0x3D55? As you know, Windows 10 is loaded with various Universal Windows Platform or UWP apps such as the Microsoft News, Weather, Calculator, Windows Mail, and many other applications that are based on the modern UWP platform of Microsoft that was introduced in Windows 10. Each one of these apps has a shared piece of code in the kernel for them to be able to get executed across any device that runs the Windows 10 OS which includes laptops, PCs, 2-in-1 devices, mobile phones, mixed reality headsets, and many more. However, there are times when the runtime information for these apps ends up getting corrupted which causes them not to function as expected and throws errors like the error 0x3D55. This kind of error can be pinned down when the UWP app malfunctions and you can also find an error message in the Event Log that reads, “0x3D55: Package family <App name with ID> runtime information is corrupted”. So if you encounter this error, read on for this post will walk you through fixing it. There are three suggestions you need to check out to fix this error – first, you can try to reset the Microsoft Store cache, second, you can try to re-register or reinstall the problematic app and lastly, run the Windows Store App troubleshooter.

Option 1 – Try to reset the Microsoft Store cache

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

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

Option 2 – Run the Microsoft Store Apps troubleshooter

The Microsoft Store Apps Troubleshooter will help you in fixing the error 0x3D55. This is a great built-in tool from Microsoft that helps users fix any app installation issues. So this is worth a try to solve the problem. This built-in tool also helps you fix the Windows 10 Store if it isn’t working. To use the Windows Store Troubleshooter, follow the steps below.

1. Tap Win + I keys again to open the Windows Settings panel.
2. Go to Update & Security and then go to Troubleshoot.
3. On your right-hand side, scroll down to find the Windows Store Apps and then click on the Run the troubleshooter option and see if it fixes the problem.

Option 3 – Try to re-register the UWP app via PowerShell

• First, type “command prompt” in the Start Search and right-click on Command Prompt and then select the “Run as administrator” option.
• Next, navigate to this location in the command line utility: C:/Users/<Insert Username>/AppData/Local/Packages
• After that, execute the “DIR” command to view the list of all the directories in the given location.
• Once the list appears, look for the ID of the problematic app and take note of it.
• Now tap the Win + X key combination or right-click on the Start button and click on the Windows PowerShell (Admin) option.
• If a User Account Control or UAC prompt appears, just click on Yes to proceed and open the Windows PowerShell window.
• Next, type in or copy-paste the following command to re-register the Microsoft Store app and tap Enter:

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.<YOUR APP ID HERE>).InstallLocation + 'AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}"

• Wait for the process to be completed and then restart your computer.

It really sucks when you can’t fully enjoy the newest version of your favorite OS.

Windows 11 is still relatively fresh and consequently has some annoying little bugs that really ruin our experience. The good news is that you’re not alone and most of them are easy to fix.

Here are 5 commonly reported Windows 11 issues and what you can do to get rid of them.

1. Windows 11 audio problems

One of the absolute most irritating things in the world is struggling with the sound on your computer. Windows 11 users have reported facing the issue of low or no sound. If you’re currently experiencing the same frustration, you can be relieved. Chances are fixing it will only take a few minutes.

The first thing to check would be whether you accidentally muted your device by pressing the mute button on your keyboard. Yes, we know it sounds a lot like the old “have you tried turning it off and on again?” But it’s important to leave no stone unturned, and the most obvious things are usually the ones we easily overlook.

Moreover, if you have several audio output sources, check whether the right one is selected. You can do this via the Action Center or through Settings. If you want to use the same source every time, we also recommend you set it as the default one.

It’s also important to have a good, up-to-date audio driver. More often than not, this will be the true cause of your audio struggles. Make sure to update your driver, and if that doesn’t work out, you can always un- and reinstall it or install a different one. 

Lastly, if all attempts remain unsuccessful, run the audio troubleshooter to figure out what’s actually going wrong.

2. Unable to find files

Such a powerful new operating system, yet it can’t seem to do the simplest thing imaginable? The File Explorer not responding on Windows 11 is one of the most frustrating and most common problems with Microsoft’s newest iteration of its awesome OS.

However, 9/10 times it can be fixed by simply restarting your PC. You could also try killing the Windows Explorer process in the Task Manager and then rerunning it.

If these don’t help, check whether there are any pending Windows 11 updates. A single missing update can compromise your PC’s functionality, so always make sure to install them all on time. 

Should none of that work, then there are other ways to solve the File Explorer problem. However, then the issue is probably a bit deeper and it’s no longer in the ‘easy fix’ territory.

3. Start menu not working

Just like the File Explorer, the Start menu is a fundamental element of your OS. So, it’s only natural that its malfunction grinds your gears. It may be more customizable than on previous Windows versions, but it doesn’t always work smoothly. 

If you’re facing the so-called Start menu critical error, there are a few things this could be caused by. Usually it means you turned off your system while an important update was still being installed, there is a corrupt file on your PC, or Windows forcefully stopped a program. 

Whatever the reason, the solution should be pretty simple. Try the basic steps: restarting your File Explorer (like we explained above) and signing out and back into your account. If that doesn’t do anything, you may want to try uninstalling third-party start menu apps (if you have any), since they can interfere with your default programs’ functionality.

Now, those are the easy fixes. If you get nowhere with them, you might need to identify the root cause and search for more complex solutions than that.

4. Snipping tool not working

Our beloved screenshot tool was introduced with Windows 10 and Microsoft decided to keep it. However, you were probably just as disappointed as us when you tried to run it and failed. 

Normally, this can be fixed by installing the latest Out-of-band (OOB) update, or even pending updates in general. Even if your system appears to be up-to-date, run the checker just in case.

Another cool thing Windows 11 lets you do is ‘Repair’ and ‘Reset’, which is the easiest way to troubleshoot your Snipping tool. If this fails, you can also try the good old un- and reinstall method. Simply uninstall the tool through the Control Panel and reinstall it from the Microsoft Store.

Furthermore, in the case of an upgrade from Windows 10 to 11, it may be that the old Snipping tool version is interfering with the launch of the new one. If you don’t care that much about the additional options available with the enhanced screenshot tool, you can use the old version instead.

Simply go to your C Drive, find the Windows.old folder, search for the tool and open it from there. Make sure to pin it to your taskbar as well, if you know you’re going to use it often.

5. Can’t install the latest update

The latest Windows 11 version, 22H2, has brought tons of enhancements to our dearest operating system. Unfortunately, a lot of users still haven’t had the opportunity to experience it. A mere update of your OS version should be the one thing that goes smoothly, but sometimes that’s not the case.

Failure to install 22H2 can be caused by a few things. Most commonly, the issue is caused by lack of storage space or corrupted files, but there could be other culprits.

There are a couple of things you could try. For example, it’s crucial that your drivers be up-to-date and some important services be enabled. These are: Windows Modules Installer, Background Intelligent Transfer Service, Cryptographic Service, Windows Update services.

To enable them, search ‘Services’, find the service you need and right-click on it. Open ‘Properties’ and select the startup type ‘Automatic’.

It may also be necessary to unplug all peripherals that aren’t crucial and disable third-party antivirus tools until after the update is finished. 

Ultimately, you can run the Windows Update troubleshooter to detect and fix other possible issues.

Summary

Tiny bugs like these are nothing out of the ordinary. That said, we still all hate when they happen.

Hopefully some of our solutions have helped you to a smoother Windows 11 experience. But if you’re still struggling, feel free to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help!

No one knows everything about a program off hand. You need to use the program for a long time before you can even possibly know all that it is able to do and all you are able to achieve with it. However, this doesn’t mean that you don’t need help from time to time. This is also the case when Outlook errors pop up. Sometimes there are things you must or probably should do with your program that you do not understand and definitely don’t know how to do. Set up POP3 with your email account in Outlook is one of these things you will probably need help to achieve.

Steps to Set up POP3

First, you may need to know what POP3 is. POP3 is the way emails are sent from one email address to another. It may be more or less instant nowadays, but the process is still long and hard-winded. Similar to how your letters get from your mailbox to the recipients' mailbox, your emails get from you to the next person. Letters are picked up in your mailbox and sent to your post office where they send it to the recipient’s post office who sends it to the recipient’s mailbox. Similarly, your email is sent to your outbox, which sends it to your email service provider, that sends it to the recipient’s email service provider who sends it to their inbox. This is one of the reasons that sending an email to someone who uses the same email service provider as you is about a millisecond faster. This process of sending emails is called POP3 and you need to set it up if you use Outlook on Microsoft. This, on Outlook, also determines which email account you send your emails from. You see, on Outlook and many other email service providers, you can have many different email addresses, no even necessarily with the email service provider’s prefix on the end. Now, if you want to see this for yourself, go on to your settings on Outlook and look for manage email accounts. If you have more than one email account, you will see them listed. Somewhere on the sidebar, you will see POP3 as well. If you want to add more email accounts to this, such as a business email or a personal email, then just click ‘Add new account’ instead of 'Manage email accounts'. When you click on an email account you have linked already, you will see on this side the details for your POP3 (incoming emails) and your SMTP (outgoing emails). This can be changed, but since everyone’s number of accounts and type of accounts is different, there is no set way to change this. However, you can give Microsoft a call and they will walk you through the necessary steps in order to change this.

Conclusion

So, POP3 can be incredibly easy to understand or incredibly hard; it depends on how good you are with electronics and the advice you are given. But don’t try to change things by yourself; get a professional from Microsoft to help you with POP3 on your Microsoft Outlook account.

Faraday bag is a new take on security and privacy for people using a lot of electronic devices and credit cards. So what is exactly a Faraday bag?

Faraday bag explained

Faraday bag is designed in the same manner as the Faraday cage which was invented by Michael Faraday, who was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis.

The idea of the Faraday cage is that anything inside a cage that is made of specific grid size is completely isolated from outside current and magnetic fields since the cage itself will pick up everything upon itself. This means that for example, a human could be inside a cage that is struck by lightning and be perfectly safe and fine.

This idea led to the Faraday bag design, which takes this concept and places a wiring pattern inside clothing in order to isolate all magnetic fields from the outside so your devices and cards are completely cut off from any kind of influence and electromagnetic waves. If the pattern and quality of material for the bag are good, you have a fully safe placeholder for your stuff.

Advantages of Faraday bag

The main advantages, of course, are the privacy and safety of mobile phones and credit cards from outside influences and this is why this bag has been designed in the first place. If the bag is designed properly your phone would not be able to be hacked nor accessed from any outside source, GPS tracking will also be disabled and your phone location will not be visible. Credit cards will also be completely safe from any malicious attack via wi-fi signals.

Disadvantages of bag

Well, the disadvantage of using this bag is a very simple one, since your phone is isolated from outside influence that will also mean that you will not be able to take messages or calls on it while it is in the bag. Notifications from the internet would also be disabled so it is security vs usability deal.