Edge and Store apps are not connecting

Hive ransomware has been targeting Microsoft exchange servers lately vulnerable to ProxyShell security issues in order to deploy various backdoors. Once the backdoor has been placed various attacks can be performed including but not limited to network reconnaissance, stealing admin accounts, taking valuable data, and even installing and deploying file-encrypting algorithms.

ProxyShell wide abuse

ProxyShell is a set of three vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server that allows remote code execution without authentication on vulnerable deployments. The flaw has been used in past by various ransomware like Conti, BlackByte, Babuk, Cuba, and LockFile.

Security vulnerabilities have been reported to be fully patched on May 2021 but how Hive was able to still be successful in exploiting PowerShell and infiltrating into the system there seems to be still some unpatched and open issues.

Hive

Hive has gone a long way since it was first observed in the wild back in June 2021, having a successful start that prompted the FBI to release a dedicated report on its tactics and indicators of compromise.

In October 2021, the Hive gang added Linux and FreeBSD variants, and in December it became one of the most active ransomware operations in attack frequency.

Last month, researchers at Sentinel Labs reported on a new payload-hiding obfuscation method employed by Hive, which indicates active development.

Hello everyone, last time we were talking about disk cleanup and its benefits, but as you need to keep your System clean you should also clean and keep your hardware clean as well. Many system issues could be traced and could happen due to dirty PC. In this article, we will give you tips on how to perform safely cleaning on your computer and hopefully point good sides to it so you can develop a healthy habit of regularly cleaning it and keeping it tidy. Keeping your PC clean is not rocket science and you can do it with things you already and probably have in your house. One thing that I would recommend tho to purchase is antistatic gloves since they could prevent any kind of electrostatic discharges thus protecting your electric components. If you have the option to disconnect your PC and get it outdoors, I would highly recommend this approach since all the dust will be dusted outside and not in the room where your computer is. If you can not it is still ok, but since some portion of dust will be set in the room, you might need to dust your room after cleaning your computer.

Cleaning outside case & redusting inside

The first thing after disconnecting your computer is to dust it from outside, here you will need a vacuum cleaner and a brush, gently brush outside dust from your casing and vacuum it with your vacuum cleaner. You can use dustcloth for larger parts but use the brush for fans and connectors. After you have done cleaning the outside part, open the side of your computer casing, put on your antistatic gloves, and get a fine and soft brush, repeat dusting and vacuuming of the inner parts of your computer. If your computer is not regularly been cleaned this part will take a little longer since there would be excess dust inside and it will take a longer time to vacuum it all but keep going until you are left with no dirt.

Cleaning it inside

Fans are troublesome to clean since they will rotate when brushed and that could make you miss certain sports, in order to battle this get a tape and stick the fan into one position, brush areas that you can reach, then unstick it, rotate the head, stick it again in another position and dust off remaining areas which you could not reach before. If your computer is very dirty and some hard dirt is at bottom of the connectors, disconnect desired component and clean the connection properly. plug it back in immediately after cleaning to avoid connecting it somewhere else. Harder stains that could not be dusted could be cleaned with little alcohol. Get your dustcloth just a little wet with alcohol, just a corner, and gently wipe out sticky dust or spills if they are present. Leave it 10 minutes for alcohol to evaporate before plugging it back into an electric socket.

Thermal paste and cable management

If you have money and expertise, every 2 years would be a good idea to change the thermal paste on your processor, all you need to do is buy it from your local computer store online, remove the CPU fan clean the CPU and bottom of the fan and apply new thermal paste, place fan back and lock it. If you do not have expertise in this area, call someone who has to show you how it is done. When cleaning it would be a good idea if you do not have any cable management to do it now, nice and tidy cables not only look good, they also improve your air circulation inside your casing making your computer cooling better. once you are done with it, close back the casing side and plug it back in the wall.

Peripherals

When you are cleaning your computer, do yourself a favor and clean your keyboard, mouse, and screen as well. the keyboard can be quickly cleaned with compressed air in the can and screen and mouse with dustcloth. That's it, remember, keep your PC clean and tidy and enjoy the benefits of non-hardware malfunctions caused by dirt and dust.

In Windows 11 by default inside the Start menu, there is recommended section that contains recently opened folders, documents, and files. If you do not wish this section and do not want recent items in your Start menu there is an easy way to turn it off.

1. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + I to open settings
2. Click on Personalization
3. On the right side scroll down and click on Start
4. Click on the switch beside Show recently opened items in Start, Jump lists, and File Explorer
5. Close settings

Settings will be automatically applied and there will be no more recommended items inside your Start menu to create clutter, it will be nice and clean.

If you receive an error that says, “An unspecified error occurred during System Restore (0x800700b7)” when you tried to restore your Windows 10 PC, worry not, for this post will help you resolve the problem. This kind of error typically occurs when System Restore was not completed successfully and fails instead with this error. Before you start, you must not abruptly shut down your computer and wait for the error to occur. You may receive this error due to many possible reasons. It could be caused by your antivirus program that’s not letting the process complete or corrupted system files which causes the failure or it could also be caused by an unsuccessful installation of a Windows Update. Here are some fixes you can check out if you can still boot into your computer:

Option 1 – Try to disable your antivirus program

Disabling the antivirus program or any security software installed in your computer is always a good idea you can try when the System Restore process does not go smoothly. So before you try updating your computer again, make sure to disable the antivirus or security program and then run System Restore again, don’t forget to enable the antivirus program back again.

Option 2 – Run the DISM tool

The next thing you can do is run the DISM tool. This tool is known to repair potentially corrupted files in your system as having them could also system issues like the blank dialog boxes. To repair these corrupted system files, you can run the DISM commands:

• Tap the Win + X keys and click on the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option.
• After that, input each one of the commands listed below sequentially to execute them:
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

• Once you’ve executed the commands given above, restart your computer and check if the problem is now fixed.

Option 3 – Run the System File Checker

System File Checker or 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 that might be the cause why you’re getting the errors 0x8024a11a and 0x8024a112. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Type “cmd” in the Start search and then right-click on the appropriate search result.
• Next, select “Run as administrator” to open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow

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.

• Now restart your computer and see if the problem is fixed or not.

Option 4 – Try to run the System Restore in a Clean Boot State

If the first three given options didn’t work and the service still keeps on failing even though the service is running, you can try putting your computer in a Clean Boot State and then try to run System Restore again.

• Log onto your PC as an administrator.
• Type in MSConfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
• From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
• Clear the “Load Startup items” check box and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.
• Next, click the Services tab and select the “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box.
• Click Disable all.
• Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)
• Now try to run System Restore again and see if the process goes smoothly.

Option 5 – Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

You might also want to run the Windows Update Troubleshooter as it could also help in fixing the problem with System Restore. To run it, go to Settings and then select Troubleshoot from the options. From there, click on Windows Update and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button. After that, follow the next on-screen instructions and you should be good to go. On the other hand, if you can’t boot into your Windows 10 computer, here are some fixes you can try instead:

Option 6 – Try running System Restore in Advanced Startup Options

If you cannot boot into your Windows 10 computer, you can try to run System Restore again in the Advanced Startup Options.

• Boot your computer into the Advanced Startup Options screen.
• From there, you will see some options to troubleshoot when you can’t log in to Windows in the usual way.
• Now select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.
• After that, type “rstrui” and hit Enter to execute the command which will start the System Restore process.

Option 7 – Run the SFC scan and DISM via Advanced Startup Options

Like what you did in the first given option, you can use the Advanced Startup Options to run both System File Checker and DISM. All you have to do is boot into the Advanced Startup Options and from there select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt. After accessing Command Prompt, you can run the System File Checker scan first by entering the “sfc /scannow”. As for DISM, you can run the “Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth” command.

Option 8 – 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 in 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.

Error Code 40 – What is it?

Error Code 40 is a device driver error that users encounter on any Windows 2000 and later operating systems. It occurs when the peripheral device that you connect to your PC cannot be accessed due to a change in the system registry.

This is due to the presence of invalid sub-keys of the device driver in the system registry. It is a common error that users come across and appears on your PC with either of the following messages:

“Information in the registry entry for this driver is invalid”

OR

"Windows cannot access this hardware because its service key information in the registry is missing or recorded incorrectly. (Code 40)"

Solution

Error Causes

As mentioned above, the error code is triggered when the device driver’s invalid sub-keys appear in the registry, effectively changing it. This happens when the windows system files get damaged due to the following factors:

• An incomplete program uninstallation
• An incomplete program installation
• Hardware is not removed properly
• System recovery from viruses
• An improper system shut down

Factors such as incomplete installations or uninstallations or an improper system shut down can cause files to become damaged that threaten the health of your computer.

Removing viruses from the computer is also another factor as it removes the entries in the Windows system files which contain the viruses including spyware or malware

Further Information and Manual Repair

Fixing Error Code 40 is similar to fixing other device manager error codes. Here are a few methods you can try.

Method 1 – Use System Restore

You can use system restore to eliminate the problem. Here is how you can use it:

• Log in using an Administrator account
• Click ‘Start’ button and select All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
• Click ‘Restore my computer to an earlier time’ and click ‘Next’
• Select the last Windows restore point from the ‘On this list, click a restore point’ list, and click ‘Next’
• Click ‘Next’ on the confirmation window to proceed
• Restart your PC after restoration is complete

By restoring the system via a last saved system checkpoint, you can obtain undamaged Windows system registry files that can help avert the error code.

Method 2 – Manually uninstall then reinstall the device driver

If using system restore also does not work in removing the error code, you may have to resort to manually uninstalling and then reinstalling the device driver causing the problem.

This would be necessary since the remaining incomplete files due to a partial removal or installation of programs is what contributes to the error code. By uninstall and reinstalling the device driver program, it would lead to the completion of the files.

You can do this by firstly logging in as Administrator and open Device Manager. Select the device that is causing the problem and double click it and make sure that the peripheral is connected properly to the PC. Upon opening, click on the ‘Driver’ tab and then select ‘Update Driver’.

Make sure to refer to the system documentation that you received with your PC or computer to check for the motherboard details and driver specifics.

Method 3 – Use software to automatically download the driver

Manually uninstalling and reinstalling the driver will do the trick, however, it may be time-consuming especially when you would have to resort to your hardware user manual.

Therefore, using a program such as DriverFIX can save you a lot of time and frustration in having your device work properly on your computer.

DriverFIX, with its user-friendly approach to help you fix your PC issues, comes with an integrated database that detects which drivers you need to reconfigure within just a few seconds and downloads it automatically.

It further ensures that your drivers are installed in their entirety leaving no room for any incomplete files to remain that create Error Code 40.

It also has the added advantage of being able to backup and restores your files should there be the slightest possibility of system file damage.

Thus, registry damage can be averted by letting the software roll back the system files to an earlier healthy checkpoint. Driver Assist is the answer to fixing your PC error codes accurately and quickly.

Click here to download DriverFIX to fix Error Code 40 quickly and effectively!

The latest update from Panos Panay on Twitter is including New and redesigned Snipping tool inside Windows 11. From the shared video, we can see that it includes modern Windows 11 UI redesign and it looks and feels like a part of Windows 11. More things that can be seen from the shared video is that it looks like the new snipping tool is a merged version of the old with snip & sketch. It is good to see that it is still possible to capture screen with easier way natively inside Windows 11 but some more functionality would be more welcome I guess. Users were asking for added functions for a long time like adding simple text for example but from shared video, no new features were presented so for some users 3^rd party solutions will still be the way to go. The new and redesigned Snipping tool will roll out with the next update and we will see then about all new features inside it firsthand. Until then, take care.

There are times when you may find it hard to kill a particular process in the Windows Task Manager and every time you try to do so, you will only get an error message saying, “Unable to terminate the process, The operation could not be completed, Access is denied”. If you are one of the users who is constantly getting this error, read on as this post will provide you with a couple of options you can try to resolve the problem. Refer to the given instructions below if you are unable to terminate a process in the Task Manager but before you proceed you need to restart your PC and then try killing the process again, if you’re still not able to do it, you need to follow the options laid out below.

Option 1 – Try using Taskkill

• Open the Command Prompt as admin from the WinX Menu.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in the following command and tap Enter to execute it:

taskkill /IM "processname" /T /F processname – it is the name of the process which you can see on the Details tab of the Windows Task Manager. /IM – it is the one that specifies the image name of the process, which follows, that is to be terminated. /T – it is the one that kills not just the main process but also the child process. /F – it is the one that terminates the process forcefully.

Option 2 – Try using the WMIC

• Open Command Prompt as admin from the WinX Menu.
• From the Command Prompt window that opens, type in the following command and hit Enter to execute it:

wmic process where name='processname.exe' delete

Note: In the given command, you need to replace “processname.exe” with the name of the particular process you want to terminate which is found in the Details tab of the Windows Task Manager.

Option 3 – Try using PowerShell

• The first thing you have to do is open an elevated PowerShell prompt.
• From there, type in the following command and hit Enter to execute it:

kill -id pid

Note: In the given command above, “pid” is the Process ID number of the process you want to terminate. And for you to identify this number, you need to open the Details tab of the Windows Task Manager once again and take note of the number against the process you want to get rid of. Alternatively, you can also run the following command in the PowerShell prompt that you’ve pulled up to get the process ID number:

Get-Process

For example, “5364” is the process ID number for the DimScreen.exe process which is the process you want to terminate. In order for you to kill this process, you need to type in this command:

kill -id 5364

nVIDIA is one of the behemoths of the GPU world, but that not means that they are perfect and that they do not make mistakes, throw WIndows in the mix, and sometimes you have issues with your nVIDIA display drivers for various reasons which could get very unpleasant. But do not worry, we have your back and in this article, we will focus and help you to resolve common nVIDIA driver issues. So sit back and let's start with the repairs.

1. Rollback to the previous driver and stop automatic updates.

   nVIDIA sometimes publishes really messy drivers which can really cause some serious issues, if by any chance you managed to be unlucky enough to get this kind of driver, do not despair, roll back to the previous working version and wait for the fix. To stop Windows from doing automatic driver updates, navigate to Control Panel > System & Security > System > Advanced System Settings > Hardware > Device Installation Settings. Then choose "No (your device might not work as expected)". Once you have turned off automatic driver updates, uninstall your current driver and install the previous version from the official nVIDIA website. Reboot your system

2. Reinstall nVIDIA driver

   Reinstalling the driver might fix the issue if by any chance driver files got corrupted during download for example. First, you will need to delete some files in order to perform a clean installation. Log in as administrator if you are not one and delete following files and folders: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdsp.inf fileC:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_lh fileC:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvoclock fileC:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\Reboot your system Start driver installation again, choose custom installation, then clean install.

3. Update driver in the Device Manager

   If driver updates for any reason can not work via the official install package from nVDIDA, try updating the driver in the Device Manager Navigate to Device Manager, expand graphic adapters, right-click on your nVIDIA device and click on update driver. Reboot your system

That's it, 3 solutions on how to remove, reinstall and update your nVIDIA driver, thank you for reading and I hope to see you again.

Error Code C1900107 – What is it?

Error code C1900107 is associated with an issue with upgrading to Windows 10. If you are trying to upgrade your Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, you might have trouble doing it and you might come across this error C1900107. The error prevents you from upgrading to Windows 10 no matter what you do. Common symptoms of this error:

• The update process continues for a long time and never ends.
• The update process ends suddenly and a message says “Failed: 1 update. Errors found: Code C1900107. Windows Update encountered an unknown error.”
• The update process fails after trying multiple times.

Solution

Error Causes

Following reasons may be responsible for this error:

• There is not enough space for Windows 10 files in the primary drive
• There is not enough space in System Reserved Partition
• Windows 10 files are faulty or corrupt

More Information and Manual Repair

Method 1:

Clean boot Windows 8 and Windows 8.1: Whenever you get some unexpected behavior on your Windows 8, the first thing you should do is try to resolve the issue by taking a diagnostic approach. Plenty of factors can be the cause for issues like slowdowns, BSODs, computer freezes, sudden reboots, etc. The best way to detect the problem is to perform a clean boot. Using a clean boot, you can find out if the Operating System is damaged by some third-party app or bad driver. You can exclude the influence of these factors and prevent them from loading. You should do 2 things before you proceed with the clean boot. First, check if any third-party application is causing the problem. If you disable all third-party apps from startup, it will help eliminate software conflicts.

• Press the Windows + R on the keyboard. The Run dialog box will pop up.
• Type MSConfig in the dialog box and click "OK".
• The System Configuration utility will appear on the screen.
• On the services tab of the System Configuration dialog box, tap or click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box, and then tap or click Disable all.
• On the startup tab of the System Configuration dialog box, tap or click Open Task Manager.
• On the startup tab in Task Manager, for each startup item, select the item and then click Disable.
• On the startup tab of the System Configuration dialog box, tap or click OK, and then restart the computer.

Now, close MSConfig.

Method 2:

The second step is a Safe boot. Follow the steps below for a safe boot:

• Press Win + R shortcut keys on your keyboard. The Run dialog will appear on the screen. Type MSConfig and press Enter.
• The 'System Configuration' application will appear on the screen.
• Switch to the 'Boot' tab, select your Windows 8.1 entry and tick the 'Safe mode' checkbox.
• Reboot your PC to enter the Safe mode of Windows 8.1.
• After you finish troubleshooting in Safe Mode, run MSConfig again from Safe Mode and uncheck the checkbox from step 2.

Method 3:

For this method, you will need to find the $Windows.~BT Folder in your primary drive which is C:. This folder might contain corrupt files which are preventing you from installing Windows 10. The folder is hidden and we need to unhide it. Follow the steps below:

1. Open File Explorer or alternatively double click on This PC or My Computer.
2. Now from the top option click on View, The Check the Box that says Hidden items.
3. Now you will be able to see hidden files and folders. Navigate to C:$Windows.~BT and Rename the folder to something like $Windows.~BT1.
4. Now, try downloading Windows 10 again. The installation process should go through this time without any errors like code C1900107.

Method 4: If the above methods fail, try this method:

1. Go to C:\Windows\Software Distribution\Download. Now delete all the files from this download folder. Remember, do not delete the folder itself, and just delete the files.
2. Now, delete the $Windows.~BT Folder. This might ask you for administrator permission. Simply click yes.
3. Now try to install or upgrade to Windows 10. This method should work fine and there should be no error code C1900107.

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.

While browsing the internet, if you suddenly encounter a warning with an error message saying, “Server certificate has been revoked ERR CERT REVOKED” then it indicates that the SSL certificate used by the website has been revoked by its issuer. This kind of problem can only be fixed by the website owner but that does not mean that you can’t do anything about it. In fact, you have the option to bypass this error as well as contact the certificate issuer – all this and more. Just a reminder, if a website that accepts payment, its passwords don’t have SSL or has some certification issue, you should never trust it. For instance, if you are trying to purchase something online and you’re on the payment stage but you encounter the “Server certificate has been revoked ERR CERT REVOKED” error, you must not proceed. To resolve the “Server certificate has been revoked ERR CERT REVOKED” error, here are some things you can do.

Option 1 – Try contacting the Certificate Issuer

If you are the website owner, of course, the best thing you can is to get in touch with the Certificate Issuer in order to resolve the problem.

Option 2 – Try fixing the Date and Time

You have to check your computer’s Date and Time. There are cases when this simple setting causes a connection problem. So if your computer Date and Time is set to date or time that this after the certificate expiration date, then you have to make sure that you set it to automatically configure time. To do so, just open Settings > Time and Language. From there, turn on the toggle for “Set time automatically” and “Set time zone automatically” options. After that, check if it fixes the error, if not, you need to check if the manual selection is correctly set or not.

Option 3 – Bypass the Certificate Revocation Check

As pointed out earlier, you have the option to bypass the Certificate Revocation check. All you have to do is follow the steps below.

• In the search box of your browser, type “internet options” and open it once it appears.
• After that, go to the Advanced tab and navigate to the Security subheading.
• Next, uncheck the “Check for publisher’s certificate revocation” option as well as the “Check for server certificate revocation” option.
• Now restart your computer. Upon the next startup, try opening the website again. This time, your browser will stop checking it for certificate issues. However, it’s not safe to leave those options unchecked so make sure that once the website’s SSL certificate is fixed or once you no longer have to visit that website, you recheck those options.