Removing BEEP when adjusting volume in Windows

In Windows 11 if you do not own a mouse or it has suddenly malfunctioned you can still move your arrow on-screen using the numeric pad. In this guide, we will guide you on how to turn this option ON, follow this easy guide step by step.

1. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + I to open Windows settings
2. Click on Accessibility on left
3. Scroll down to reach the interaction section on the right and click on Mouse
4. Click on Switch beside Mouse keys under accessibility options
5. Set your preferences
6. Close settings

Settings will be as always automatically applied.

Resource hogging is a term when one single application or few of them are taking all system resources for themself causing extreme slow down in the computer and nonresponsiveness. It can be a very frustrating and time-consuming experience and it can cost you money if you can not finish work on time due to this effect. I believe that everyone has experienced at least one slowdown in their IT carrier because of resource-hogging applications and most users do not know how to deal with this. We are here to help you with this issue. Just to be aware that this method shown here is not a method to miraculously speed up your PC or anything similar, this is to be able to detect and recover from extreme slowdowns. Hardware components are still very important and if you can upgrade your computer if it is outdated, please do it because new applications will require a more modern system, and not any kind of tips and tricks will save you from outdated hardware.

Identifying resource hogging app

Now when we got that out of the way let's talk about slowdowns, it is no secret that sometimes an application has bugs and memory leaks that can cause this kind of behavior, and sometimes the application simply takes up too much memory for any other application to work normally. The most simple and straightforward way is to bring up a Windows task manager and inspect running applications and services. You can bring task manager by the key combination of CTRL + SHIFT + ESC If the system is in deep memory deficit you will have to wait for the task manager to open and show itself on-screen. Once opened, click on more details if that view is not opened by default. Once the view expands you will see all running applications with how much RAM memory have they taken and how much CPU they are using.

What to do with app?

Now you are presented with a choice on what to do with the problematic application. If you press the end task button on the bottom right, Windows will kill the application and its processes but any unsaved work inside the application will be lost and unrecoverable in most cases. Or you can try to remove smaller applications running to free up more memory and CPU in order for the computer to catch up. Any choice you make is up to you, but be very careful not to kill Windows essential service by mistake, that will cause immediate system instability with high chances of a system crash.

• In your Graphics Settings, select r5apex.exe and change the Graphics performance preference to Classic App, set it to High Performance, and then launch the game as an administrator when you want to play.
• Inside the Nvidia Control Panel, click “Manage 3D Settings”, and select Apex Legends and change it to “Prefer Maximum Power”
• You can also change “pre-rendered frames” to 1, but it will make you lag just a tiny, tiny bit.
• Turning the shader cache on can help improve FPS, but on some systems, it may cause additional negative performance changes.
• If you have the ability to use G-Sync, use that as well (Only available on some monitors and graphics cards)
• From the task manager, change the priority of r5apex.exe to “High” and close out of other applications.
• Update your graphics drivers.
• Ensure your PC complies with the games minimum system requirements:
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz / AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
  • RAM: 6GB
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 / Radeon HD 7700
  • GPU RAM: 1 GB
  • HARD DRIVE: Minimum 30 GB of free space
• Check to see if your system has the game’s recommended hardware requirements:
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • CPU: Intel i5 3570K or equivalent
  • RAM: 8GB
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290
  • GPU RAM: 8GB
  • HARD DRIVE: Minimum 30 GB of free space
• Within the game, try to set the settings to:
  • Full Screen
  • Disable V-Sync
  • Anti-Aliasing to Disabled/TSAA (slight performance difference)
  • Use Native Resolution
  • Keep Field of View at around 80-100
  • Texture Streaming Budget to High
  • Texture filtering as low as possible while still being playable
  • Ambient occlusion as low as possible
  • Shadow all to Low / Lowest
  • Model detail low
  • Effects detail low
  • Volumetric lighting / Dynamic spot shadows Disabled
  • Ragdolls low
  • Impact marks the lowest
• Make sure other applications are not placing overlays (Discord, GeForce, Xbox Gaming)
• Clean your temporary files and uninstall other games to give your PC room to have the game run.
• Don’t use products like CCleaner as they may remove necessary files from your computer.
• Closeout of Chrome when you’re playing the game or follow our guide on Optimizing Chrome Performance

BigTech platforms Google and Facebook were hit with a series of antitrust lawsuits by the US federal government and states on charges they are operating monopolies and abusing their power. Below is the status of the cases, as well as government probes of Apple and Amazon in their current states

Two lawsuits against Facebook

In a defeat, Judge James Boasberg said the Federal Trade Commission, which had sued Facebook in December asking that Facebook be forced to sell WhatsApp and Instagram, failed to show that Facebook had monopoly power in the social-networking market, among other problems. However, the FTC could file a new complaint by July 29. He threw out a related state lawsuit entirely, saying that the attorney's general had waited too long. They are looking at their options.

Four lawsuits against Google

The US Justice Department sued Google in October, accusing the $1 trillion company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals. A trial date was set for September 12, 2023. A lawsuit by 38 US states and territories accuses Google of abusing its market power to try to make its search engine as dominant inside cars, TVs, and speakers as it is in phones. This was consolidated with the federal lawsuit for purposes of discovery. Texas, backed by other states, filed a separate lawsuit against Google, accusing it of breaking antitrust law in how it runs its online advertising business. Dozens of state attorneys general sued Google on July 7, alleging that it bought off competitors and used restrictive contracts to unlawfully maintain a monopoly for its app store on Android phones.

Justice Department investigates Apple

This probe, revealed in June 2019, appears to focus on Apple's app store. Some app developers have accused Apple of introducing new products very similar to existing apps created by other developers and sold in the Apple Store, and then trying to banish the older apps from the store because they compete with Apple's new product. Apple says it seeks to have only the highest-quality apps in the app store.

Justice Department probing Facebook and Amazon

In July 2019, the Justice Department said it was expanding its Big Tech probes to include "search, social media, and some retail services online", an apparent reference to Facebook and Amazon.

Federal Trade Commission on Amazon

In its investigation of Amazon, the FTC is likely looking at the inherent conflict of interest of Amazon competing with small sellers on its marketplace platform, including allegations that it used information from sellers on its platform to decide what products it would introduce.

Error Code 0xC1900101, 0x30018? - What is it?

Users, when upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1, or when upgrading to a new version, build, service pack, or major update of Windows 10, can encounter error code 0xC1900101, 0x30018. Windows 10 installation fails and stops or hangs. During the installation process, it will reach a certain maximum limit (normally at 6% or 32%) then reverts back to the previous version of the operating system and displays the following message:

We couldn’t install Windows 10. We’ve set your PC back to the way it was right before you started installing Windows 10.

0xC1900101 – 0x30018 The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with the error during the SYSPREP operation.

Solution

Error Causes

In attempting to fix Error Code 0xC1900101-0x30018, it is vital to know what causes this issue. The most probable causes of this error are:

• Incompatible hardware or driver
• Incompatible security programs or antivirus or incompatible utility software
• A device driver possibly stopped responding to setup.exe while on the installation process.

In some cases, you might be opened to other error messages when attempting to update to Windows 10, including error code 8007002c.

Further Information and Manual Repair

In fixing issues related to error codes, it is best to employ manual repair methods. Using these methods helps users pinpoint the root causes of the issue and apply solutions permanently to fix the issues. While most manual repair methods can be done by every Windows user, even those without technical abilities, there are certain cases where help from a Windows professional is needed. If you’re not up to facing risks in implementing manual methods yourself, consider getting help from a professional Windows technician or you can use a powerful automated tool. In fixing Error Code 0xC1900101-0x30018, you can repeat the same steps used for 0xc000021a (Method One) or you can try doing the following:

• Disable or uninstall your Antivirus program before proceeding to upgrade the system
• Ensure that the machine name is simple (having at least 8 characters) with no special characters like hyphens or dashes.
• Restart the device a few times then try again.
• Disable General USB Devices such as the Smart Card Reader.
• If you use an SCSI hard disk, ensure that you have available drivers you can use for your storage such as a thumb drive and make sure that it is connected. During the Windows 10 setup, select the Custom Advanced Option and use the Load Driver command to be able to load the suitable driver for the SCSI drive. If this fails, try switching to an IDE-based hard disk.
• You can now perform a clean boot. Restart your device then try again.
• If you are using the .ISO file for upgrading the system, you need to disconnect from the Internet first before proceeding to the setup. If you are connected to Wi-Fi or by Ethernet (LAN), make sure to disable both connections then you can proceed to set up again.
• If you’re performing the update through Windows Update, once the download reaches 100%, disconnect from the Internet, and then proceed with the installation.

NOTE: If this fails, if possible, you can try using the .ISO file in upgrading.

• Switch to a local account if the device is connected to a domain.
• Disconnect all external devices attached to the computer such as gaming controllers, printers, or USB keys.

If you’re using Windows Update in installing Windows 10, you can implement the following:

1. Open the Command Prompt window by pressing Windows Key + X. Select Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.
2. Stop the BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer, and the Windows Update Services. In order to do this, Type or Copy and Paste the following commands one at a time:

NOTE: Don’t forget to hit Enter after every command.

net stop wuauserv

net stop cryptSvc

net stop bits

net stop msiserver

3. Rename the Catroot2 and SoftwareDistribution In order to do this, Type or Copy and Paste the following commands one at a time:

NOTE: Don’t forget to hit Enter after every command.

                        ren

C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

                          ren

C:WindowsSystem32catroot2 Catroot2.old

4. Restart the BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer, and the Windows Update Services. In order to do this, Type or Copy and Paste the following commands one at a time:

NOTE: Don’t forget to hit Enter after every command.

net start wuauserv

net start cryptSvc

net start bits

net start msiserver

5. Type Exit in the Command Prompt then close the Command Prompt window then restart the computer.

Can’t seem to put up with the long and technical manual repair process? You can still fix this error by downloading and installing a powerful automated tool that will surely get the job done in a jiffy!

The number of Hertz is the number of how many images your screen draws in one second. So monitor with a refresh rate of 60Hz will draw 60 images each second on your screen. To most users, this will look fine and enough but actually, if you would place them in front of a 120Hz screen difference will be visible right away.

Benefits of higher refresh rates

In most simple words just looking at a screen that has a higher refresh rate will produce a more natural feel of things, although some people would argue that flickering can not be seen on 60Hz monitors and that should be enough, I would argue that they never watched the movie, played the game or used high refresh rate screen when they can state something like that.

Yes, 60Hz might be enough to look at the web page or read some documents but long exposure to 60Hz can have a tiring effect on the eyes in the long run. 120Hz and above just feel more relaxed and it is far less demanding on the eyes. Watching movies also is much better on a higher refresh screen, with way much less motion blur in fast scenes giving the overall experience a greater natural feel.

Gaming is perhaps an area where a refresh rate of 120Hz and above will show its best. Having a higher refresh rate will be easier on your eyes and can even give you a competitive edge. When for example you have twice more images per second on your screen than your opponent his movement will be more fluid and predictable because of that and overall precision will be much higher when moving the cursor in the game since more frames per second means more precision and smoother movement.

The dark side of high refresh rates

After all the positive things that were said about the advantages of high refresh rates, it is just fair to look at some negatives or in this case only negative one and that is Computer power. As said in the previous section having a 120Hz refresh rate means having 120 frames displayed on the screen per single second. Having even higher monitors like 360Hz means even more frames per second and in order to actually see all of that frames you will need to have enough computer power to back it up. Having for example screen with a refresh rate of 240Hz means nothing if your GPU and rest of the computer are able only to push 150 frames per second, in this case, you will still have 150 frames in one second despite the monitor being able to go to 240.

Conclusion

Generally and with all of my heart I would recommend moving away from 60Hz monitors, yes they are cheaper and more affordable but at the end of the day if you are someone like me who spends most of his daily time in front of the computer you would be grateful to have higher refresh rate screen and save your eyes, and after all, why not enjoy some smoother and better movie and game experience as well as saving your eyesight.

Error Code 0xC004C020 (Code 0xC004C020) – What is it?

Error code 0xC004C020 (Code 0xC004C020) is an error that occurs when you attempt to activate a copy of Windows 7 with a key, but the key has already been activated multiple times. When receiving this error code, it means that you are trying to exceed the number of times that the Windows 7 key is allowed to be activated. Common symptoms include:

• Attempting to install Windows 7 with a key and a dialog box with the code 0xC004C020 is displayed.
• The computer is unable to install Windows 7 with the key.
• Certain features will refrain from working until the correct key has been entered.

Solution

Error Causes

Error Code 0xC004C020 occurs when you are not able to install Windows 7 using a previously purchased key code that has been installed numerous times previously on the same computer.

• You are not able to use your previously used key to install Windows 7.
• You have used the Windows 7 key the maximum number of times allowed.

Error code 0xC004C020 simply means that the Windows 7 code that you are trying to use to install Windows 7 has already been used the maximum number of times allowed, even when installing it on the same computer that it was previously used on. This would indicate that the key is what is known as a volume key- meaning that there is a cap on the number of uses.

Further Information and Manual Repair

Many people encounter this problem when they are doing software development or testing and need to reinstall Windows 7. Some people might also encounter this error code when installing Windows 7 with a key that was used too many times previously. It should be noted that there are several ways to fix this problem, but if nothing is working, you should contact a computer repair technician.

Method One

Activate by phone- the long method.

1. Click the start button, right-click Computer, click Properties, and then click Activate Windows.  This will open Windows Activation.
2. Click on “Show me other ways to activate”.
3. Find and enter the Windows 7 key, then click Next.
4. Click on “Use the automated phone system”. If you are prompted for an administrator password or a confirmation, confirm or type the password now.
5. Select the location nearest to you and then click the Next button.
6. There will be a list of available phone numbers, choose one and call it. There will be an automated system that will guide the activation process.
7. Enter the installation ID when prompted, it will be listed on your computer screen.
8. The phone system will give you a confirmation ID, write this down.
9. Type this confirmation ID into the space that is provided by step 3. This will be in the activation dialogue. Then, click NEXT and follow the instruction.
10. If this is not successful, stay on the line and be transferred to a customer service representative that will assist you.

Method Two

Activate by phone- this is a much simpler method.

1. Click on Start, type: slui.exe 4 into the Search box
2. Press Enter on the keyboard.
3. Pick your country.
4. Choose the Phone Activation option; stay on hold to speak with a customer service representative.

Method Three

Error code 0xC004C020 occurs if you have used your Windows 7 activation key on multiple computers, or multiple times on the same computer. You are not allowed to exceed the uses of the key—you should consider purchasing a new key if this is the case. A Windows 7 key is available for purchase online through the Microsoft website, in the shop section. The new product key must then be activated within 30 days, or it becomes no longer valid. It can be activated online or through the telephone. If it is not activated on time, features will stop working until the new key has been activated. This should be the last resort method, as you should not have to purchase a new Windows 7 key code if it is not necessary. If you wish to always have at your disposal a utility tool to fix these Windows 10 and other related issues when they do arise, download and install a powerful automated tool.

Apple introduced the Live Photo feature way with iPhone 6S in their iOS9. Live Photo idea was that each time you take a photo, your phone will capture a few seconds of video along with sound and all of that is sent when you share your photo. This of course can sometimes be really bad when some not wanted audio gets recorded in the background.

Since the feature was introduced it has been set as the default option when taking pictures so each time you snap one you just capture a small amount of video and audio along. Good thing is that this feature can be turned off and the even better news is that you can edit your old photos to remove back video and audio.

How to share only photo

You can keep your Live Photos but share only a single still typical photo if you wish. Go to the photos app on your phone and select the photo you wish to share. Press the Share button on the bottom left part of the screen and once the Share menu appears tap on the Live button in the upper left corner of the selected photo. The button should turn grey and become slashed and now you can share only still photo. This is only temporary for this one specific share so next time you want to do this you will have to go through the process again.

How to disable Live Photo

If you are not happy with the previous solution and really do not want to turn off the Live feature each time you want to share a photo or you just simply do not want the feature at all there is way to turn if off for good. Take note that you can temporarily not use this feature just by opening the camera, switching to photo mode, and then tapping on the Live photo button on the toolbar that looks like three circles one inside another. This will temporarily turn the Live Photo feature for this session but next time when you open the camera by default it will be turned on again. This is a good approach if you want the feature but sometimes you just want not to use it.

In order to turn it off completely go to the settings of your phone and go to Camera and then preserve settings. inside the preserve setting turn the switch Live Photo to ON position, now go-to camera and again click on the live photo button to turn it off but this time setting will be saved and next time you open the camera it will not be ON.

Editing old Live Photos

As stated before you can edit your old pictures in order to make them stills. You can edit them to remove audio only but keep the video part, or you can completely remove everything and convert them into typical still images.

In order to only remove audio from your Live Photos go to pictures and select one that you wish to change, click on edit, and inside edit tap on the Live Photo icon (three circles). Next tap on the audio icon located in the top left corner of your screen and it will change into the mute icon. Click on done and you are finished.

To completely remove the Live photo go to Photos, select picture, click on edit and select the live photo button again. This time tap and hold the Live button next to the sound until it turns gray with a strike through it. Click on done and you are finished.

Many Windows 10 users use a Bluetooth headset as these kinds of Audio devices, as you know, lack wires since wires tend to get entangled and break which could get quite inconvenient. This is why using a wireless headphone is more preferable since it’s much simpler, however, using a wireless headphone also means it comes with a charging requirement and if it fails to charge, there is no music or audio or anything that you need a Bluetooth headphone for. However, wireless headphones are also susceptible to problems as you might encounter some problems when connecting your wireless headphone to your Windows 10 computer. One of these problems include when you try to get sound from the wireless device but nothing happened. This indicates that the Bluetooth headphone is disconnected in some way for some unknown reason even if you’ve already plugged it in. Thus, if you encounter this scenario, then there are several options you need to check out to fix the problem. To start troubleshooting the problem, here are the options you need to use as a reference.

Option 1 – Try turning off the device and turning it back on

The first thing you can do to resolve the problem is to turn off your wireless audio device and wait for a couple of seconds before you turn it back on. In most cases, this should fix the problem. In fact, you can also try to unpair and pair the Bluetooth audio device and see if it fixes the problem or not.

Option 2 – Try to set the headphone as the default device manually

There are times when you plug a headphone, it does not toggle the default audio device. Thus, to fix this issue, you have to set the default audio device to the headphones manually. To do that, follow these steps:

• First, right-click on the volume icon located on the system tray.
• Next, select the Open sound settings option to open the Sound section in the Windows 10 Settings app.
• After that, go to the Output section and select Headphones for the “Choose your output device” option. This should fix the problem for you.

Option 3 – Try running the Bluetooth Troubleshooter

As you know, Windows 10 has various troubleshooters with user-friendly interfaces where you can utilize them to fix issues in your PC. And since you’re dealing with some Bluetooth problem, you have to run the built-in Bluetooth Troubleshooter. To do this, follow these steps:

• Open the Windows 10 Settings.
• Then go to Update & Security > Troubleshoot.
• You should find the option for Bluetooth on your right-hand side – click on it then click on the “Run the troubleshooter” option.
• Now follow the next screen options.

Option 4 – Try to update or reinstall the Bluetooth driver

The issue might have something to do with the Bluetooth drivers. It could be that it is outdated and needs to be updated or that you recently updated it and since then you have trouble in removing the Bluetooth devices and so to fix the issue, you can update, roll back or uninstall the Bluetooth drivers. How? Follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + X keys to open the Device Manager.
• Next, look for the Bluetooth device and right-click on it.
• Select the option “Update driver”.
• After that, a new popup window will appear. In there, select the option, “Search automatically for updated driver software”.

Note: Checking the update may take a few minutes so you’ll have to wait until it finishes. If it is able to find an update, you must install it. And if you want to reinstall the Bluetooth driver, just select the “Uninstall driver” option and follow the next on-screen instructions that follow.

There are times when you may encounter some glitches on your Google Chrome browser in your Windows 10 computer. One of these glitches is when the connection status of Chrome keeps on saying “Waiting for cache” which is displayed at the bottom-left side of the browser in the Status bar. At the time of writing, it isn’t clear yet what could be causing this problem. Although it is possible that it’s caused by browser cache, some extensions in the browser. On the other hand, it could also be caused by the browser profile or due to some fragmented files or that the SSD is occupied. Whatever the cause is, you can check out each one of the given options below to fix the problem.

Option 1 – Try clearing browser cache

There are times when some data in the browser is conflicting with the loading of the website and triggers some problems like “Waiting for cache”. And so you can try to clear your browser’s data. This might be a very basic solution but oftentimes it works in fixing this kind of error in Google Chrome. Follow the steps below to clear the data in your browser.

• Open your Google Chrome browser.
• After that, tap the Ctrl + H keys. Doing so will open a new panel that allows you to delete the browsing history and other data in your browser.
• Now select every checkbox that you see and click on the Clear browsing data button.
• Then restart your Chrome browser and check if you can now open any website or not.

Option 2 – Try to disable writing of Cache files to the SSD

You can also disable the writing of Cache files to the SSD to stop Google Chrome’s dependency on the SSD to gather all the cache files.

Option 3 – Delete the User Profile in Chrome

You can also try deleting the User Profile folder in Chrome. To do so, follow these steps:

• You need to first end every single process of Google Chrome. To do so, right-click on the Taskbar then select the Task Manager. And if the Task Manager is not responding, you can just use the Alt + Ctrl + Del keys and then select the Task Manager.
• After opening the Task Manager, under Processes, look for Google Chrome’s process which would most likely be named “chrome.exe”.
• Right-click on Google Chrome’s process and then select the End task option.
• Next, tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialogue box.
• Then copy and paste “%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser Data” and hit Enter.
• From there, look for a folder named “Default folder” and then copy the folder to another drive as a backup.
• After creating a copy of the folder, delete the Default folder.
• Next, open Google Chrome again and go to Settings > Advanced > Reset.

Option 4 – Reset Chrome

Resetting Chrome can also help you fix the error. This means that you will be restoring its default settings, disabling all the extensions, add-ons, and themes. Aside from that, the content settings will be reset as well and the cookies, cache, and site data will also be deleted. To reset Chrome, here’s what you have to do:

• Open Google Chrome, then tap the Alt + F keys.
• After that, click on Settings.
• Next, scroll down until you see the Advanced option, once you see it, click on it.
• After clicking the Advanced option, go to the “Restore and clean up option and click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” option to reset Google Chrome.
• Now restart Google Chrome.

Option 5 – Try to clean reinstall Chrome

There are instances when programs leave files behind after you’ve uninstalled them and the same thing can happen to Chrome so before you reinstall Chrome, you have to make sure that you have deleted the User Data folder. To do so, refer to the following steps:

• Hit the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next, type “%LOCALAPPDATA%GoogleChromeUser Data” in the field and hit Enter to open the User Data folder.
• From there, rename the default folder and name it something else, e.g. “Default.old”.
• After that, install Google Chrome again and check if the issue is now fixed.