Your computer has lost the lease to IP Address

When performing a Windows Backup to the NAS device (backup to a network share) that is running Samba, fails with an error message The backup failed, The version does not support this version of the file format (0xC03A0005). The problem occurs because of a conflict with the VHD file that is created by Windows Backup and is mounted during the process. There are three types of VHD files:

1. Fixed,
2. Expandable
3. Differencing

If the VHD file is a sparse file that is not supported by the native VHD driver, the mounting will fail, and you will get this error. An example VHD file is one that keeps expanding depending on the backup size. The problem occurs only in the case of  File Level backup (file/folders in a volume) but not on the block level backup as the vhd file is never mounted. However, in the case of File Level Backup, the vhd is mounted, created by Windows Backup, which does not support the mounting of sparse files.

The solution is to use Strict Allocate: option in the smb.conf file

Login to SMB using SSH. Open the configuration file using the VI editor located at /etc/samba/smb.conf. If the option is not there, you can manually add strict allocate = yes which will make sure there are no sparse file that is created.

CPU Not Compatible – What Is It

Some users wanting to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 experienced errors with installation. One of these errors is CPU Not Compatible. When you click and run the “Get Windows 10” from your system tray bar, you’ll receive the “CPU is not compatible with Windows 10” error. When this happens, it might be good to check if there’s a bug or if your NX feature (a requirement for the Windows 10 installation) is enabled.

Solution

Error Causes

The “CPU is not compatible with Windows 10” error normally occurs when:

• NX feature is not enabled
• You experienced the Windows 10 bug

Further Information and Manual Repair

To successfully upgrade to Windows 10, your CPU must support Physical Address Extension (PAE), SSE2, and NX features. If any of these features are not activated on your system, it’ll cause the CPU not compatible error. However, some users still reported experiencing this error even though their CPU has these features activated. Normally, this is due to the bug that Windows acknowledged.

If any of these two scenarios apply to your computer, the following methods will help you fix the problem:

Method 1 – Check for bugs

The bug applies to some Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 systems. The bug occurs when the “Get Windows 10” app fails to recognize CPUs as being compatible. This produces a false negative result with a message, “Here’s why Windows 10 cannot be installed on this PC: The CPU isn’t supported”. To fix this bug, Microsoft released an update.

Unfortunately, the patch update (KB2976978 for Windows 8/8.1 and KB2952664 for Windows 7 SP1) to fix the bug may not be automatically downloaded to your computer. If this is the case, you need to verify first if the patch was installed correctly. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Click ‘Start’ and type in View Installed Updates. The “View installed updates” icon should appear. Click the icon.

2. Go to the Search bar (Top right portion) then type the patch name for your system. Make sure that you type the correct patch name for your system since Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 have different names. If you find the patch, it means it’s already installed. You can now upgrade to Windows 10 without the CPU not-compatible error.

3. But, if you can’t find it you need to install the patch manually.

4. Go to Windows Update then click the “Check for Updates” button.

5. Browse through the available updates and look for KB2976978 for Windows 8/8.1 or KB2952664 for Windows 7 SP1

6. Download the right patch. You may need to reboot your system once it’s done.

7. The downloaded patch should be applied after a day or two with the Windows Task Scheduler. Once the patch is applied, you can now upgrade to Windows 10.

Method 2 – Check CPU features and activate them if needed

A major requirement for Windows 10 upgrade is for the CPU to have Physical Address Extension (PAE), SSE2, and NX features enabled on your system. If you receive the CPU not compatible error, one possible cause is that any of the mentioned features are not available OR not enabled on your system. Here’s how you can fix this:

1. Verify if your CPU supports the three instruction sets. You can use software that provides information like this. If all three are available, proceed to the next step.

2. Go to your computer’s BIOS. To do this, reboot your computer. You will need to press a key specific to your computer’s manufacturer (usually it’s F12, F8, F2, or DEL).

3. Look for the NX (No Execute Bit) settings. This is normally found in the “Advanced Configuration” menu, or something similar to this. Just take note that the NX setting can be named differently in BIOS. Some other names include EDB (Execute Disabled Bit), EVP (Enhanced Virus Protection), Execute Disabled Memory Protection or No Excuse Memory Protect.

4. Once you’re in the NX settings, make sure that it’s enabled.

5. Exit the BIOS and SAVE your changes.

6. Boot your computer normally, then try upgrading to Windows 10 again through the “Get Windows 10” app found in the system tray.

Method 3 – Force enabling NX Bit

If changing the settings in your BIOS doesn’t do the trick, your final option is to force enable the NX bit in your Windows system. However, this is only applicable IF and ONLY IF your CPU does support it. To force enable NX bit, do the following:

1. Click Start and go to command prompt (Type “cmd” – no quotes) and press enter.

2. Copy and paste the text below to the command prompt.bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn

3. Execute the command. You will need to reboot your computer once this is done.

4. Download and install Windows 10

Method 4 – Use a trusted automated tool

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

If you have a BlueTooth device on your computer, you know that each time you need to receive or transfer the file you need to find the icon in the system tray, right-click on it and choose the desired option. But there is a simpler solution, create a Bluetooth icon on the desktop so it is always easy to access. Open File Explorer by pressing ⊞ WINDOWS + E Go to C:\Windows\System32 Find fsquirt.exe Right-click on it and choose copy Go to the desktop and right-click, choose paste Rename the file to Bluetooth And, you are done!

If VirtualBox suddenly displays a black screen without any text or mouse cursor when you are trying to boot a guest operating system, then read on as this post will guide you in fixing such an issue. This black screen occurs when Windows 10 failed to provide a specific setting that VirtualBox requires. Consequently, you will not be able to install or use any guest operating system in VirtualBox even if your PC has virtualization support, the best thing you can do now is to fix this black screen issue. There are two ways you can fix this black screen in VirtualBox, you can either try to disable Hyber-V or disable 3D Acceleration. For more details, refer to each one of the given options below.

Option 1 – Try to disable Hyper-V

Hyper-V is a built-in virtualization tool available in Windows that helps users in creating a virtual machine as well as install a guest operating system without using any third-party tool like VMware, VirtualBox, and many more. However, the problem with this virtualization tool is that some systems cannot run it and VirtualBox simultaneously which is most likely why the screen abruptly turns into black. Thus, you have to disable Hyper-V to resolve the problem. How? Refer to these steps:

• In the Start Search, type “Turn Windows features on or off” and then click on it from the results.
• Once you’ve opened the Windows Features window, remove the checkmark from the Hyper-V box.
• Click the OK button and then restart your computer.
• Now try to use VirtualBox again and see if the problem is fixed.

Option 2 – Try to disable 3D Acceleration

The guest operating system will use the host computer’s GPU to render 3D graphics if you enable the 3D Acceleration for the virtual machine. To simply put it, it will enhance the graphics of the virtual machine and will let you use 3D graphics. Although it may seem nice, it can actually cause the black screen to appear as well so you might have to disable it to isolate the problem. In fact, a lot of operating systems have failed to use the 3D Acceleration for the guest operating system because of this black screen issue. To disable it, follow these steps:

• Open VirtualBox on your computer and select the virtual machine.
• Next, click on the Settings button and go to the Display section.
• After that, look for a checkbox named “Enable 3D Acceleration” located on your right-hand side and then uncheck it.
• Save the changes you’ve made and reboot your PC and see if you can now run the virtual machine without any problem.

The new widget's menu inside Windows 11 is generally met with a positive attitude but there are still users which prefer not to have it. Luckily for them, Microsoft included a very easy way to turn the widgets menu on or off. Follow this easy guide to see how. Right-click on the widget button in the taskbar and click on Hide from Taskbar and that’s it Alternatively, you can also turn it off via the setting app. Go to the settings app and navigate to Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Items and flipping the switch beside Widgets to Off. Please note that both methods will only hide the button to toggle widgets menu, at the current state there is no really a way to actually turn it off, only hide it and make it not available to bring it up.

Brave browser has gained popularity very rapidly and many websites have gone into the territory of recommending it. Sadly although the browser kind of offered better performance, it seems that so much advertised privacy and security was a lie. Several months ago, Brave was involved in a “scandal”. Unfortunately, this incident did not get much media attention, and it’s hard to search for and discover as of today. There is an article on the Android police website explaining this issue in detail, you can check it here: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/06/07/brave-browser-caught-adding-its-own-referral-codes-to-some-cryptcurrency-trading-sites/ But to sum things up and keep them short if you do not want to go through the full article, Brave had been injecting their affiliate codes into popular crypto-currency websites. This means that they had been intercepting your traffic, which they promised was secure by the way, and modifying it. This means Brave Software has access to all of your information on those crypto-currency sites as well. They can see your payments/purchases, and your activity on the websites (through affiliate statistics). Now some people might point out that they are not interested in crypto or have been visiting some of the sites but the issue still remains and that is they did all of this, without telling the user. They intentionally didn’t tell the user because they knew it would cause backlash and disruption. They knew one hundred percent what they were doing, and they knew it was unethical. And the point remains if something like this was already done, who knows what will come up in the future. Personal recommendation is to avoid Brave and go back to other browsers.

One of the most useful built-in tools in Windows 10 is the Check Disk or CHKDSK utility. It is the one that maintains the integrity of the disk that’s connected to a computer which can be launched using the GUI or graphical user interface and using the command line. There are a lot of things that warrant the running of this built-in utility and one of these things is the readability of the disk. Recently, a number of users reported that they encountered an error when they tried to run the CHKDSK utility – the error states, “Cannot open volume for direct access”. This kind of error in CHKDSK appears each time the command line is launched according to the affected users. As per the users who encountered this issue, they receive the following error messages when they tried running a ChkDsk command:

“C:WINDOWSsystem32>chkdsk /f g: Cannot open volume for direct access. C:WINDOWSsystem32>chkdsk /f f: The type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is 0529357401.”

To fix the “Cannot open volume for direct user access” error, here are some suggestions that might help. Follow them carefully.

Option 1 – Try running the CHKDSK utility on Boot

On the other hand, you can also try to run the CHKDSK utility on Boot so you can fix the error and recover any damaged segments of the drive.

• Open an elevated Command Prompt and enter this command: chkdsk /x /f /r
• After that, you will a message that says, “Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)”
• Type Y and tap Enter to schedule a CHKDSK scan once your computer reboots next time.

Option 2 – Try to run the Primary Hard Disk Self Test

The next thing you can do to fix the problem is to run the Primary Hard Disk Self Test by following the steps below.

• You need to boot your computer into the BIOS first.
• After that, go to the Diagnostics tab and select the “Primary Hard Disk Self Test” option. Note that it may be different depending on the motherboard with different manufacturers but they should imply the same thing.
• Now, wait until the test is completed, and then boot your computer normally.

Option 3 – Try to check the hard drive’s health

The next thing you can do to resolve the issue is to check the health of your hard drive using the WMIC utility in the Windows Command Prompt. This utility will check if your hard drive has any problems which resulted in the “Cannot open volume for direct user access” error.

Option 4 – Try to disable various restrictions on your hard drive

You might also want to disable the various restrictions on your hard drive since it is possible that it is encrypted or restricted which explains why you are unable to perform any operations in it and throws the “Cannot open volume for direct user access” error instead. For instance, if you have BitLocker, you can try to disable it and see if it fixes the error or not.

Option 5 – Try to uninstall or disable the Drive Locking feature on your hard drive

You could also look for any Drive Locking feature on your hard drive that tricks disk changes as it might be the root cause of the problem. Thus, if you find one, you need to either uninstall or disable it and then execute a check disk command to resolve the problem.

Option 6 – Try to disable the application service

Disabling the application service can also help you fix the problem. How? Refer to these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run utility and type “services.msc” in the field and then hit Enter to open the Services Manager.
• Next, scroll down among the list of services and look for the service related to the security software or disk checker software.
• Once you find it, right-click on that service and select Properties.
• After that, change its Startup type to Disabled and click on the OK and Apply buttons to save the changes made.
• Now restart your computer and don’t forget to enable the service back once the disk check is completed.

Option 7 – Try to use Repair Volume via Windows PowerShell

You could also try to use the Repair Volume using Windows PowerShell. All you have to do is open PowerShell as admin and type the “repair-volume -drive letter <DRIVE LETTER>” command and then tap Enter to run Repair Volume. This should resolve the error.

Error code 0x803f7000 -What is it?

Error code 0x803f7000 refers to an issue in Windows 10 with downloading apps through Windows Store. When you choose the app or game to download, it heads to Downloads in the Store app. Then it says it is acquiring a license but then fails. When you click the “See details” link, you see the error code 0x803F7000. It could mean that the date and time or region settings in your Windows 10 are incorrect or there are some problems with the Windows Store Cache.

Symptoms

• This error appears when you are running Windows 10 and trying to download an app through the Microsoft store. The error code may appear with this message: “Something went wrong. The error code is 0x803f7000, in case you need it”
• You might also see this message along with the error code: "It looks like you've reached your device limit for installing apps and games from the Store on your Windows 10 device. If you want to install apps and games from the Store on another Windows 10 device, remove a device from the device list."

Solution

Error Causes

There may be several reasons for this error:

1. This problem may arise if the date and time in Windows 10 are incorrect.
2. If the region has been set incorrectly.
3. Problems with Windows store cache.
4. Windows store server overloaded.
5. The Windows version you are using is pirated.

Further Information and Manual Repair

Method 1:

Correcting date and time:

• Open up Control Panel > Clock, Language, and Region.
• Then click on Date & Time.
• Now click on Change date & time to correct your time.

Method 2:

Correcting region:

• Navigate to Control Panel > Clock, Language, and Region.
• Then click on Region.
• Then click on the Location tab.
• Now set your actual region from Home location section.
• Click Apply & OK.

Method 3:

Resetting Windows Store:

• Press Windows Flag Key + X from your keyboard. Then select Command Prompt (Admin). It will launch Command prompt as administrator.
• Then type wsreset and hit Enter.
• Wait for a few seconds. It will automatically open Windows Store.
• Then try to download any apps.

Method 4:

1. Open Command prompt in local machine and type in the Windows Store reset tool exe
2. Activate Windows by going to Settings>Updates and Security
3. Run the Modern UI/metro app troubleshooter from Microsoft
4. Keep trying it several times.
5. Try changing locale and time zone to the United States as shown below
6. Go to control panel, Language settings
7. Select location to the United States
8. This will reset the language to US English. After this try downloading the apps again.
9. Try restarting the Windows Updater service or restart the machine once.

You must make sure that you have a good internet connection. You need that for the updates and downloads complete without disruption.

Method 5:

Make sure the app isn’t blocked by the Windows firewall: To make your PC more secure, some apps are blocked by Windows Firewall by default. For proper functioning, you might need to enable an app to receive info through the firewall. For more info, see the "Allow an app to receive info through the firewall," and follow the procedure from start to finish.

Method 6:

Check with your system admin: If your PC is part of a network in an organization, like a business, school, or government agency, your system administrator might have turned off the use of certain apps using the Group Policy. Contact your system admin if you believe that Group Policy is preventing you from using an app.

Method 7:

Make sure your apps are up-to-date: To make the apps working properly, you must keep your apps up-to-date. This could be done by turning on automatic updates in the Windows Store.

Method 8:

Contact the app publisher To view the publisher’s app support info, follow these steps:

1. On the Start screen, tap or click Store to open the Windows Store.
2. Search or browse for the app, and then tap or click it.
3. Scroll to the Details section of the app's description page, and then tap or click the support link for the app under Learn more. The link will open an email message for you to contact support or will take you to a support website.

If you do not possess the technical expertise required to accomplish this yourself or do not feel comfortable doing so, download and install a powerful automated tool to get the job done.

Code 34 - What is it?

Code 34 is one of the several Device Manager error codes. This error code indicates that a hardware device on your PC is not properly configured.

This usually occurs when the device installed on your system is a non-plug and play. Non-plug and play devices don’t configure automatically and require manual configuration from the users end.

Error code 34 is usually displayed in the following format:

“Windows cannot determine the settings for this device. Code 34”

Solution

Error Causes

Error code 34 may be triggered due to several reasons like:

• Improper device configuration
• Missing or outdated drivers

Device Manager error codes like code 34 are easy to fix. These error codes don’t indicate any serious PC problem, nor are they fatal like blue screen of death error codes.

Nonetheless fixing it immediately is advisable to ensure the proper functioning of the plugged-in hardware device. If you don’t resolve it, you may not be able to use the device.

Further Information and Manual Repair

When PC users experience error codes like code 34, they instantly think of hiring a professional for repair especially if they lack technical understanding.

If you are not a technical whiz and you are also thinking of hiring a professional for the repair job, then don’t! Here’s why, to begin with, Device Manager error codes can be resolved easily, better yet you can fix it by yourself without spending a dime even if you are not technically sound.

To help you, below is a list of easy and effective repair solutions for error code 34. Try them to resolve the issue.

Method 1 - Configure the Device by Using Device Manager

This is one of the best ways to resolve error code 34 on your system. The procedure will take 5 to 7 minutes. Simply follow the steps illustrated below to configure the problematic device on your PC.

1. First off, go to the start menu
2. Now type Device Manager in the search bar and press enter to continue
3. Now in the Device Manager locate the problematic device and click on it
4. Click on the resources tab to change the resource settings
5. Now click on the Use Automatic Settings check box
6. After that click on the Settings based on the tab and then click on the hardware configuration of the device you want to change
7. Press resource type in the resource settings box to make further changes
8. Once that is done, click change settings and type a new value for the resource type

Method 2 - Consult the Hardware Manufacturer for Resource Settings

You may not be able to configure resource settings for some devices in such an event it is advisable to consult your hardware manufacturer. Your hardware manufacturer can provide you with specific resource settings. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to repair error code 34.

If the error continues to persist even after device configuration, then the problem may be linked to driver corruption. In that case, try method 3.

Method 3 - Download DriverFIX to Update Drivers Automatically

Whether code 34 is caused by outdated or corrupted drivers, simply download DriverFIX to resolve. DriverFIX is an advanced and user-friendly software program deployed with an intelligent programming system.

The software scans your PC to detect all problematic drivers. It finds and matches the latest and compatible versions and then updates the drivers accordingly that too automatically and on a regular basis.

Click here to download DriverFIX to repair Device Manager error code 34 on your PC automatically.

Hello everyone and welcome to our useful tips and tricks and problem-solving article blog. This time we are doing something different, instead of solving issues this time we are focusing on some quality of life tips like keyboard shortcuts in your Windows 10.

Shortcut Keys	Description
Windows Key	Opens/closes the Start menu.
Windows Key + Up Arrow	Maximizes the selected window.
Windows Key + Down Arrow	Reduces the window size. (Restore down.)
Windows Key + M	Minimizes all open windows.
Windows Key + Shift + M	Opens minimized windows.
Windows Key + Tab	Shows Task View.
Windows Key + L	Locks the screen.
Windows Key + A	Opens the Action Center.
Windows Key + V	Opens Clipboard History.
Windows Key + I	Opens the Settings menu.
Windows Key + F	Opens the Feedback hub.
Windows Key + H	Opens the dictation toolbar.
Windows Key + P	Opens the projection settings.
Windows Key + . (Windows Key + ;)	Opens the emoji panel.
Windows Key + C	Opens Cortana in listening mode.
Windows Key + C (Windows Key + Q)	Opens Windows Search.
Windows Key + G	Opens the Xbox game bar.
Windows Key + X	Opens the secondary start menu.
Windows Key + <number>	Opens the app in the taskbar relative to the number input. For example, if Chrome is the fourth app on the taskbar, using Windows Key + 4 will open Chrome.
Windows Key + Alt + <number>	Opens the right-click menu for the app in the taskbar relative to the number input. For example, if Chrome is the fourth app on the taskbar, using Windows Key + Alt + 4 will open Chrome’s right-click menu.
Windows Key + D	Shows/hides open apps on the desktop.
Windows Key + E	Opens File Explorer.
Windows Key + U	Opens Ease of Access in the Settings menu.
Windows Key + Print Screen	Takes a screenshot of the desktop.
Windows Key + Control + F	Opens the Find Computers window.
Windows Key + Control + D	Creates a virtual desktop.
Windows Key + Control + Left Arrow	Switches to the virtual desktop on the left.
Windows Key + Control + Right Arrow	Switches to the virtual desktop on the right.
Windows Key + Control + F4	Closes the active virtual desktop.
Windows Key + Space	Switches between installed languages (for writing text).