Turn On or Off the Recommended Troubleshooting

Windows Vista had in it animated wallpapers on desktop but sadly how they were heavy on system resources Microsoft abandoned the idea. Moving forward a couple of years later we have Windows 10 but still, we do not have live animated wallpapers. Since I am the kind of person who does not want to wait on Microsoft and now it is time to bring animated wallpapers back I am going to make one all by myself and you are welcome to join the ride and do the same for you as well. Enough talk, let's dive into how we can make animated wallpaper for our Windows 10.

Choosing the application

First, we will need some form of application which can we look at our animated wallpapers and since they are animations it means video, so we will need a video player and what better choice than a VLC player, an open-source light weighs all-format player. Get a VLC player from here and install it.

Finding video source

The next thing is to of course have some looping video that we will use as background. There are many sites and ways to get seamless loop videos, I use this youtube channel for my backgrounds. Altho you can use any video footage you want it is recommended that it is not too long, that it is hi-resolution so we do not have pixels on-screen, and if you can, get it as seamless since we do not want to see stutter when the video is lopped from the beginning. So hopefully you have desired video and VLC player installed.

Putting it all together

Copy the following code and paste it into your search bar in Windows to open the Startup folder, or navigate to the Startup folder yourself via file explorer if you know where it is. %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup Now, next thing is to copy and past the VLC shortcut into this folder so it is started when Windows is first time booted. Right-click on the shortcut and in the edit field paste this: "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --video-wallpaper --qt-start-minimized --no-qt-fs-controller --repeat --no-video-title-show --qt-notification=0 "C:\videopath\filename.mp4" where "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" is the path where VLC is installed, point this to where you have installed it "C:\videopath\filename.mp4" is the path where you have your video that you wish to use as animated wallpaper. Please note also that in my case there is mp4 as an extension but it does not need to be mp4, just use any extension VLC can open and play.

Conclusion

And that's it, you have successfully made an animated background or live wallpaper on your Windows 10 computer. You can change your wallpaper anytime by editing shortcut and giving it a new path to a new video or simply overwrite the existing one with a new baring same name.

Long working hours on a laptop can have some issues with laptop heating and thus slowing down. Today we will take a look at how can you prevent it from heating and keep it in a normal temperature range so it lasts longer and works better.

Close unnecessary programs or browser tabs

Usually, the main reason for high laptop temperature is the heavy and constant workload. Of course, the solution is very simple, turn off unnecessary browser tabs or applications running in the background, and less power will be needed for operation thus directly reducing workload and temperature.

Place it on a hard flat surface

Laptops generally have vents on the side and even under them, these vents, of course, are made so hot air is disposed of through them but if they are covered that will create issues. Placing computers on textiles, pillows, and legs can obstruct their venting holes and increase heat also since they are materials that are not taking heat away.

Your best practice should be placing the laptop onto a hard flat surface so air can flow freely and if you need to keep it in your lap there are lap desks made for this purpose.

Clean the laptop

With some good cleaning, the laptop can stop overheating, and generally, it will be cooler. Vents that has for ventilation can get clogged over large periods of time due to dust which is always present. Compressed air can be a quick easy solution to open the vents and redust it. Other methods include a compressor, vacuum, or brush in order to quickly remove any dust clogs. Taking it into service for complete redusting and paste change is also a great option.

Place it on the dedicated pad

There is some disagreement about using dedicated cooling pads for laptops, some say they are not effective at all, and some swear by them but from my experience good paired laptop and pad can indeed help with cooling it down. Usually, cooling pads will come with fans that will take away heat from the laptop itself reducing its overall heat.

Change your Windows power plan

If your laptop is constantly hot but you are not doing much with him check Windows power settings. There is a good chance it is set to run on a high-performance plan and if this is the case switch it back to a balanced power setting. Power plan like high performance will drain more power and more power will mean more heating. Of course, this will affect performance as well but for regular work that excludes some power gaming, video, and picture manipulations and other demanding tasks this power plan will work just fine.

Take control of the fans inside your laptop

Internal cooling is important and sometimes fans are not running to their full capacity so increasing their speed or changing their plan of work can cool down the computer nicely. Some laptops have fans controlling application already on them, especially gaming laptops but most of them do not. If your laptop does not have it, go to your laptop brand website and see if such an application exists for your model, if it does, download and install it but if there is no such application try general free ones like SpeedFan or Argus Monitor.

Reduce voltage of CPU and GPU

How more power means more heat, reducing the power that CPU and/or GPU take can be reduced inside BIOS by lowering voltage of these 2 components. First, go to BIOS and write down the voltage that is currently assigned to your CPU and/or GPU so you can bring it back if ever needed, also take note that reducing voltage and thus power will not affect negatively your components but increasing it thus overclocking can and will so be careful when bringing voltage back not to overdo it. You can always also reset your BIOS settings to bring them back to factory settings.

Do not use the laptop when charging it

When the laptop is placed on the charger in order to be charged and used at the same time, more power is drawn to it, and since the battery is taking electric charge instead of providing it more heat will be generated now since two different sources will be generating it, the battery itself and computer. When you really can not wait for the laptop to be charged, use it, but turn it off and wait to be fully charged if you can.

The use of Biometrics is supported by Windows 10. Aside from that, it also supports PIN, password, picture password on all computers and if your computer has the proper hardware, Windows 10 also supports facial scanning, iris scanning, and even fingerprint scanning. You can see all these exciting features inside Settings > Accounts > Sign In Options. On the other hand, you can’t really expect to make use of all the above-mentioned features since it depends if the hardware is available to support them. One of the most interesting features is the use of Biometrics which is really useful in workplaces and so this post will show you how you can enable or disable the Domain Users Sign In on Windows 10 using Biometrics via Registry Editor or Group Policy Editor. But before you go on, you need to create a System Restore Point first since the modifications you’re about to do might affect the functioning of your computer. So in case something went wrong, you can always undo the changes you’ve made.

Option 1 – via Registry Editor

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next, type “Regedit” in the field and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• After that, navigate to the following registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftBiometricsCredential Provider

• From there, right-click on the right-side panel and click on New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
• And then set the name of the newly created DWORD as “Domain Accounts”.
• Afterward, click on “Domain Accounts” and set its value to “1”. This will allow the domain users to sign in to Windows 10 using Biometrics. While the value of 0 will disable the domain users sign in to Windows 10 using Biometrics.
• Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Option 2 – via Group Policy Editor

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next, type “gpedit.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Group Policy Editor.
• After that, navigate to the following setting:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Biometrics

• Then double click on the following entries located on the right-side panel and set the radio button to Enabled on all of them.
  • Allow the use of Biometrics.
  • Allow users to log on using Biometrics.
  • Allow domain users to log on using biometrics.
• Now exit the Group Policy Editor and restart your computer to apply the changes made properly.

The Windows 10 Orange Screen of Death, unlike Blue Screen of Errors, is quite an uncommon error where the hardware is the culprit which is mostly caused by some issues with the GPU. If you are currently facing this problem, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you on what you can do to fix it. There have been reports from users that the Orange Screen of Death is caused by various reasons. Some users reported that they encountered Orange Screen of Death when they were watching a YouTube video, while some were not able to boot into their Windows 10 PCs and encountered an error instead of that either says, FAULTY_HARDWARE_CORRUPTED_PAGE or WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR error. In addition, this error can also occur when your computer wakes up from Sleep or while using BitLocker, or while you use a second monitor. Whatever the case is, you can try updating your drivers or lower the clock speed of the GPU. You could also try to fix the DRIVER_IRQL issue in case it’s the one that triggers the error or performs Automatic Repair or uninstalls any recently installed software.

Option 1 – Update your Graphics card drivers

One of the possible reasons why you’re getting the Orange Screen of Death error is most likely related to the Graphics card drivers in your computer. Thus, the first thing you can do to resolve it is to update these drivers by following these steps:

• First, boot your computer into Safe Mode.
• After that, tap the Win + R keys to launch Run.
• Type in msc into the box and tap Enter or click OK to open the Device Manager.
• After that, a list of device drivers will be displayed. From there, look for the Display Adapters and click on them.
• After that, right-click on each entry under the Display Adapters and select the “Uninstall Device” option from the menu.
• Now restart your computer.
• After restarting your computer, go to the Settings app and Check for Updates in the Windows Update section.

Note: You also have the option to go directly to the website of your graphics card manufacturers like NVIDIA, Intel, or AMD and go to the section called Drivers then check if there’s a new available update – if there is, download and install it.

Option 2 – Try to uninstall software you’ve installed recently

If you have installed a software or two recently and then suddenly encounter this Orange Screen of Death, then they are most likely the culprits. The best thing you can do is to first check the System Log in the Event Viewer for any additional information in case it’s not the GPU but some other driver or device that’s causing the error. Once you have identified the culprits, uninstall them and see if the error is fixed.

Option 3 – Try disabling Overclocking

If overclocking is enabled, you might have to disable it as some users reported that the WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR 0x00000124 error started to appear right after overclocking. To disable it, follow the steps below.

• Go to the Start Menu and open Settings.
• Next, select Update and Security and go to the Recover tab.
• From there, click on Restart now in Advanced startup. This will restart your computer.
• Once you’re in the Advanced startup, go to Troubleshoot and then select Advanced Options.
• From there, select the UEFU Firmware Settings.
• Now click on Restart. Once your computer has restarted, it will automatically open BIOS.
• From the BIOS, go to the Advanced tab and navigate to Performance and then look for Overclocking.
• Once you’ve found Overclocking, make sure that it is disabled. If it’s not, then disable it and then save the changes made by tapping the F10 key.
• Start your computer normally and check if the WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR 0x00000124 error is now fixed.

Option 4 – Use the Driver Verifier Manager

The Driver Verifier Manager is another tool in Windows that could help you fix driver-related issues. And so if you want to fix the Wdf01000.sys Blue Screen error, you need to use the Driver Verifier Manager:

• Type in the keyword “Verifier” in the Cortana search box to search for Verifier in Windows 10.
• After that, select the option “Create custom settings”.
• Make sure that you have checked everything except the options “DDI compliance checking” and “Randomized low resources simulation”.
• Next, select the option “Select driver names from a list” option.
• Afterward, you have to select all the drivers from any unofficial or third-party provider. To simply put it, you have to select all the drivers that are not supplied by Microsoft.
• Then click on the Finish button.
• Open Command Prompt as administrator and execute this command – verifier /querysettings
• The command you just executed will display the Driver Verifier settings so if you see any of the flags enabled boot your Windows 10 PC into Safe Mode.
• Open the Command Prompt as admin again and run this command – verifier /reset
• The command will reset the Driver Verifier. Once the process is done, restart your PC and check.

Option 5 – Try to run the Automatic Repair Utility

You might also want to use Automatic Repair in fixing the error. To do so, follow the steps below.

• You can start by creating and booting from a bootable Windows 10 USB Stick.
• After that, click on Repair your computer located on the bottom left corner when you are on the initial Windows Startup screen.
• Next, click on Troubleshoot, and then on the other screen, click the Startup Repair option.
• Now select the operating system you want to repair. Once you do that, it will start to repair your operating system. Wait until the process is completed and then check if the problem’s now fixed.

Operating systems now give users a feature that allows them to create separate partitions out of HDD or SSD-based storage in order to store data in an organized manner. This small yet powerful feature has always been supported by Microsoft. However, there are times when users might fill up on some particular very soon. This may result in the lack of space for that partition which makes the entire process of using PCs slower since there is a large chunk of files that has to be indexed in a smaller partition. If you are one of the users experiencing this dilemma, you need to either delete the other partitions to allocate their storage to the partition that is short on storage or simply recreate the partition so that all the useless data will be deleted and you can start afresh with the overflowing partition. In this post, you will be guided on how you can delete any storage partition from your Windows 10 PC via Disk Management, Command Prompt as well as Windows PowerShell.

Option 1 – Delete storage partition via Disk Management

This is one of the simplest ways you can use to delete a storage partition. Go to the WinX Menu and from there, open Disk Management and then select the Drive you want to get rid of, right-click on it and then select Delete Volume.

Option 2 – Delete storage partition via Command Prompt

• Tap the Win + X keys or right-click on the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin) or you could also type in “cmd” in the Cortana search box and right-click on the Command Prompt icon and then select the “Run as Administrator” option from the context menu.
• Once you have Command Prompt pulled up as admin, type in and enter this command – diskpart
• After entering this command, the Diskpart Utility will start. Diskpart Utility is a command line-based utility just like Command Prompt but it will get a UAC Prompt after you invoke it so you have to click Yes for the UAC Prompt.
• After that, type in list volume and tap Enter to see the list of all the partitions created on your PC. This includes both types of partitions that are visible to a normal user in the File Explorer as well as the ones that are created by Windows 10 by default which helps it in storing the boot files and other essential system files.
• You should see a list of all the partitions made on your computer. Select the partition you want to delete by its Unique Identification number as Volume X where X denotes the Unique Identification Number.
• Next, type in the select volume number command and hit Enter to select the desired volume.
• Then delete the volume you’ve selected and type in the delete volume command and hit Enter to delete the volume you just selected and convert it into unallocated space.

Option 3 – Delete storage partition via Windows PowerShell

• Start by tapping the Win + X keys or simply right click on the Start button and select Windows PowerShell (Admin) or you could also type in “windows powershell” in the Cortana search box and right-click on the Windows PowerShell icon and select the “Run as administrator” option.
• Once you’ve opened the Windows PowerShell, type in the Get-Volume command and hit Enter to get a list of all the partitions on your PC.
• Next, select the drive letter you want to delete and then type in the Remove-Partition –DriveLetter command and hit Enter to delete the selected partition. Note that you need to replace the drive letter with the letter of the partition you want to get rid of.
• After that, it will ask you for confirmation. Just hit the Y key for Yes or hit the A key to say Yes to All. This will delete all the partition you’ve selected and will move them in as unallocated space.

And that’s how you delete a Drive Partition or Volume in Windows 10. Note that you should only follow the last two options given in case the Disk Management is not able to fulfill the user requirements.

Lately, Microsoft has trying to fix Print Nightmare with various methods and patches. The last patch has seemingly fixed Print Nightmare but it has broken the Alt-tab key combination. It has been reported that the latest patch has broken famous key combinations for quickly switching from window to window. It seems that combination is not working or it is switching to desktop, even going to blank screen if switching from the full-screen game.

Fixing the issue

Luckily this issue is easily fixable. The first and easier fix for this issue is surprising to turn off the news and info widget, right-click on it and choose News and interests and then click on turn off. The second solution would be to uninstall the update. Go to Settings, then to Update & Security, and from there view Update History and remove the update.

What Is Installation Error 1628?

Installation Error 1628 is, as the name suggests, an installation error. When it occurs, a generic 1628 message is displayed to the user. When this message appears, it is either a problem with the install files or an issue with the InstallShield.

Solution

Error Causes

Installation Error 1628 is caused because every Windows-based program or application has been designed that such that it has to be installed on the computer for use. This installation process is important because it not only moves files to the appropriate location on one’s hard drive but also because the process creates registry entries in Windows System files. A vast majority of these programs and applications have a built-in tool that’s responsible for aptly performing this installation. This built-in tool is the InstallShield. This establishes that when this error occurs, it is either because of some unforeseen issue that occurred during the installation process or because of some problem with the InstallShield.

Further Information and Manual Repair

In order to keep this error from occurring in the future, some recommendations are outlined below.

• Check the installation disc and determine if there are any smudges, scratches, or fingerprints on it. If the system is unable to read data from the disc, Installation Error 1628 will be generated. In order to ensure that the Installation Disc is clean, use a microfiber cloth. Dampen it lightly with water and clean the disc. Wipe the inside of the disc lightly in an outward direction, making sure that it is not wiped in a circular pattern. Try to reinstall the application or program after cleaning the disc. The issue should be resolved. However, if it persists, some problems may be with the InstallShield.
• The alternative solution is to repair the InstallShield and the procedure goes as follows.

1. Stop InstallShield’s running process. It may have been crashed and simply needs to be restarted. Now access task manager. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and the task manager will open. Now go to the processes tab and disable ‘idriver.exe’ and ‘msiexec.exe’ from here.
2. Now go to ‘C: Program Files/Common Files’. Here you will find the ‘InstallShield’ folder. Select ‘rename’ and modify the folder name to ‘InstallShield1’. Confirm rename and start the installation process again. Now Windows will try to re-install any InstallShield files one needs.
3. If the error persists after renaming the InstallShield folder, download the Windows Installer from Microsoft’s website. This file will determine whether or not your version is valid. Old versions often have bugs that cause problems. Your system is now ready to be used.

DirectX encountered unrecoverable error usually face gamers when they try to star certain game. In this guide, we will help you to get over it and solve the issue. Follow steps in this guide one after another since they go from most simple ones to complex ones so following is advised in order not to waste a ton of time and resources doing wrong tasks.

1. Check your game page and your DirectX

   The first and most common thing that can cause this type of error is when your installed DirectX is not the same version that the game requires. Check the game store page to see system requirements and write down which DirectX version it requires in order to run. Then press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to bring run dialog and type in it DXDIAG and press ENTER DX diagnostic window will pop up and at the bottom, you can find which DirectX version is installed on your system. If versions are different, install the required DirectX version and run the game.

2. Update or reinstall GPU drivers

   DirectX can get corrupted via bad driver update, in order to fix this, reinstall or update your Graphic drivers to the latest version from the official manufacturers' website.

3. Set custom scaling to 100

   Go into Windows settings and set custom Display scaling to a value of 100, sign out, and then sign back in.

4. Delete registry key

   Note that you should do this as the last option and be very careful since you can crash whole Windows in this way. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog and type RegEdit in it to open the registry editor. Find this key: ComputerHKEY_CLASSES_ROOTPROTOCOLSFiltertext/XML and delete it from the registry, you might want to do a backup of the registry first, just in case.

The network driver error is a not serious Windows issue.  It happens from time to time and luckily it can be solved with a little effort and in a short time period. Today in this article we will explore the most common solutions for driver malfunction for Network adapter inside Windows 10. If you have this particular problem, go from step 1 to the last step since all steps are meant to go from simplest to the most complex. All of that being said let us fix your Network driver issue.

1. Check to see if the cable is plugged in and not malfunctioned

   The first common issue of the network now working can be cable malfunction or bad contact in your network adapter or in HUB/SWITCH. There are various tools to check the quality and working order of cable but you could also make sure that it is not a cable issue by trying connection with the correct working cable. If the network is restored with another cable then change the malfunctioning cable and your issue is resolved if the problem persists move to the next step.

2. Check if Windows troubleshooter will resolve the issue

   Righ-click on the network icon in the taskbar and choose to troubleshoot problems. Windows built-in tools could resolve issues and fix them for you. If by any chance Windows is not able to find or resolve issues move to the next step.

3. Check if the Device Manager is reporting an error and update the driver

   If the hardware is functioning properly then the issue might be in Windows not detecting device or driver malfunction. In any case, the Device Manager will be the one who will report this problem. In order to check to see if the driver is properly working press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open the hidden start menu. Once it opens, click on Device Manager to open it, If you have a driver device error inside Windows, you should see it immediately when entering the Device Manager, it will have a yellow exclamation mark beside it. Right-click on it and choose update driver.

4. Reinstall driver

   If driver update failed or you already have the latest drivers, reinstalling them could fix the issue since drivers might have corrupted during installation of some update or application. Follow steps from point 3 to get to the driver in Device Manager, then right-click on it but instead of update choose to uninstall. Reboot Windows once the driver is uninstalled and Windows will install a new one automatically. If you do not want to update drivers automatically, do not restart your system, instead install the latest driver for your device, then reboot. Since this is a network error, you will have to get drivers on another computer and transfer them via USB to malfunctioning one.

5. Check Windows update

   Check to see if the latest Windows update is installed, update your Windows if needed

6. Fix driver issue with DRIVERFIX

   If everything else fails, get DRIVERFIX, a premium solution for your PC issues, and fix driver errors.

There are various complex tasks that take place under the hood while you upgrade or clean install the Windows operating system on a computer. Because of its complexity, there are times when you might encounter some errors when you upgrade or clean install Windows 10. One of the errors you could encounter is the error that states, “Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation”. This error does not only occur in Windows 10 as it could also occur on the other versions of Windows. There are a lot of possible causes for this error. It could be due to incompatible BIOS, corrupted system files, improper installation media or it could also be due to excessive hardware plugged into your computer and so on. Whatever the cause is, here are some potential fixes you need to check out to fix the problem.

Option 1 – Try to disconnect or disable newly installed hardware

In this option, you will have to disable or remove the hardware you’ve just installed recently since external devices could be the one that’s causing the Blue Screen of Death error to appear. To do that, just disconnect any external device that’s connected to your computer physically and then check if it fixes the error.

Option 2 – Try to update the BIOS

As you know, the BIOS is a sensitive part of a computer. Even though it is a software component, the functioning of the hardware depends on it largely. Thus, you must be careful when modifying something in the BIOS. So if you don’t know much about it, it’s best if you skip on this option and try the other ones instead. However, if you are well-versed in navigating the BIOS, then follow the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next, type “msinfo32” in the field and press Enter to open System Information.
• From there, you should find a search field on the bottom where you have to search for the BIOS version and then press Enter.
• After that, you should see the developer and version of the BIOS installed on your PC.
• Go to your manufacturer’s website and then download the latest version of BIOS on your computer.
• If you are using a laptop, make sure that you keep it plugged in until you have updated the BIOS.
• Now double click on the downloaded file and install the new BIOS version in your computer.
• Now restart your computer to apply the changes made.

Option 3 – Try to reconfigure all the created partitions

You could also try to reconfigure the partitions by deleting and recreating all the available partitions on your computer and then see if it fixes the problem.

Option 4 – Make a proper bootable USB Drive/Stick

To make a proper bootable USB drive, you need to use the Windows Media Creation tool. The Media Creation tool in Windows allows you to use the ISO installation file to make a bootable device that you can use to install Windows on your PC. Note that this is kind of different from the usual installation process as it could erase your computer’s current settings and data on the primary drive. Thus, before you proceed, you need to backup all your data into some removable drive and then use the Media Creation Tool to make a bootable drive.

• After making the bootable drive, you need to plug it into your computer and then reboot.
• Next, tap the F10 or Esc key to open the boot options.
• Now set the boot priority of the removable drive the highest. Once the setup comes forth, follow the next onscreen instructions and install Windows without any problems.