Windows Dynamic Lock is missing or not working

Mail and Calendar not working with Cortana? As you know, Cortana was first launched way back in 2014 with an emphasis on its tight integration with both the Windows Mail and Calendar apps. This integration has been one of the highlighting features of this Personal Digital Assistant. However, there are some users who reported that the Calendar and Mail integration with Cortana is not working on their Windows 10 computers. This kind of problem could be due to several factors like the loose integration between the services, incompatible versions of the components, and many more. According to the users who experienced the issue, the features affected are the syncing of calendar appointments, sending emails via Cortana, and so on. To fix this problem, there are several options you can try. You can try to restart Cortana’s processor run the Windows Store Apps troubleshooter. You could also try to relink your Microsoft account or reinstall the Mail and Calendar apps, as well as reinstall Cortana.  For more details, follow the suggestions given below.

Option 1 – Restart Cortana’s process in the Task Manager

Restarting Cortana’s process in the Task Manager could also help you resolve the problem. Refer to the steps given below to do so.

• Tap the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys to open the Security options window.
• From there, look for the Task Manager in the given list and open it.
• Next, look for the process of Cortana and right-click on it, and then select the End Task option to end its process.
• After that, the Cortana process will restart by itself and re-initialize.

Option 2 – Run the Windows Store App troubleshooter

The Windows 10 Store Apps Troubleshooter will help you in fixing the Web Preview problem in Cortana. This is a great built-in tool from Microsoft that helps users fix any app issues. To use the Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter, follow the steps below.

• Tap Win + I keys again to open the Windows Settings panel.
• Go to Update & Security and then go to Troubleshoot.
• Under the Troubleshoot section, on your left-hand side, scroll down to find Window Store Apps.
• Then click on the Run the troubleshooter option and follow the on-screen instructions and then see if it fixes the problem.

Option 3 – Try to relink your Microsoft Account

You might also want to relink your account in Microsoft using the Windows 10 Settings app.

• Open the Windows 10 Settings app.
• Next, navigate to Accounts > Email & Accounts and from there, go to the section of Accounts used by Email, Calendar, and Contacts.
• After that, select your email account and select Manage.
• Once done, a new panel will come up where you have to click on the “Delete account from this device” link.
• Once you get a confirmation, select Delete and then relink the same account. This should resolve the problem.

Option 4 – Try to reinstall or update the Mail and Calendar apps

• Open Windows PowerShell as admin.
• Next, execute this command: Get-AppxPackage *windowscommunicationsapps* | Remove-AppxPackage
• Once done, restart your computer and go to the Microsoft Store page to get the latest updates for both Windows Mail and Calendar apps.

Option 5 – Try to reset Cortana via Settings

• Launch the Windows 10 Settings app and go to Apps > Apps & Features.
• Next, look for the entry of Cortana on the right-side panel and select it.
• After that, select the Advanced options and then select the Terminate button under the Terminate section.
• Once done, click on the Reset button under the Reset section.
• Restart your PC.
• After your computer boots, launch Cortana again and check.

Option 6 – Try to reinstall Cortana

If none of the options given above works, you must consider reinstalling Cortana.

• First, right-click on the Taskbar and select the Task Manager.
• Next, select File menu > Run new task and type “Powershell” in the field and then select the “Create this task with administrative privileges” option.
• Click on OK to open the PowerShell console.
• After that, type the following command and hit Enter to execute it:

Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"}

• Restart your computer and check if the problem is now fixed.

Cache files are temporary files that have been created by various applications and services when used.  As temporary files, they are safe to be removed and deleted from the system since the application or service will create new ones when needed but sadly will not remove old ones, this task is left to OS itself. Automatic Windows cleanups can mostly take care of these things but for top-notch performance clearing cache manually is a far better option. We will here explore various cache temporary files, where they are, and how to clean them. Sit back and let’s do some cleaning!

Clear cache using Disk Cleanup

1. Open Start menu and search Disk Cleanup
2. Click on it in search results
3. Click on the drives drop-down menu and select the drive where is Windows 11 installed
4. In the Files to Delete section enable all boxes and click on OK
5. Click on delete Files to confirm

Clear Microsoft store cache

1. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog
2. Type in WSReset.exe and press ENTER
3. Black blank windows will appear, wait for the window to close itself and you are done

Clearing location cache

1. Press ⊞ WINDOWS + I to open location history
2. Select Privacy & Security
3. In the App Permissions section click on Location
4. On-Location page click on Clear

Clear and flush DNS

1. Press Start and search for Windows Terminal
2. Click on Terminal in search results
3. Type in: ipconfig /flushdns and press ENTER

And that is that!

On September 18th, 2017, Cisco’s Talos announced that CCleaner, a popular utility with billions of worldwide users, had been compromised by hackers, and was used to unwittingly distribute hidden malware in its installer. Later in the day, Piriform, the publisher of CCleaner, confirmed the problem.

Undetected by all but 1 major antivirus including CCleaner’s own parent company, this occurred for over a month and impacted over 2.7 million users. Users of CCleaner v5.33.6162 and CCleaner Cloud v1.07.3191 for 32-bit Windows are affected. These downloads were live on CCleaner’s official site from August 15th to September 12th, 2017. Anyone who downloaded the program during this time could be affected. The company claims that while the hackers set up the backdoor and many users were impacted, that the perpetrators have been arrested and that the malware never successfully performed its full task and compromised user’s PCs or sent out their data; in the wake of recent security breaches such as Equifax, users are understandably worried. Given the severity of the threat of hacking and data theft, users should take action immediately if they have CCleaner.

Technical Details of CCleaner Malware Injection

First reported by Talos, the malware, which was hidden in the CCleaner installer without the publisher noticing (despite them being owned by Avast, a massive Anti-virus company), modified a core program DLL file to evade detection, and creates several registry keys. Not only were these files not flagged by any major Anti-Virus, but they were also even digitally signed by Piriform via their Symantec certificate, meaning your PC and security program would likely whitelist and trust the malicious installer. The malware gathers personal information on a user’s PC, including IP address and running programs, and sends it to a remote server. In our testing, the program sent data to IP 216.126.225.148.

Restore Your PC (If Possible)

As of the publication of this article, there have been no assurances given that updating or even uninstalling CCleaner will remove the malware is installed. The only action thus far has been shutting down the remote server where user data was being sent has been shut down by authorities. For this reason, it is best to remove the underlying malware separately, as its presence represents a serious security threat. Unfortunately, as this could have been installed as far back as August 15th, 2017, your System Restore points may not go back that far, or even if they do, restoring to such an outdated point may cause unintended problems with other programs you use and potentially lost files and data. Manually backing up files and doing a full format or clean Windows installation would likely be successful in fully removing the malware, but is extremely time-consuming and can be difficult for many PC users. Unfortunately, this makes a PC Restore or format an unattainable option for many.

Update CCleaner to the Latest Version

While CCleaner has told users to update to the latest version of the program. Prior to doing so, we recommend fully uninstall CCleaner, ensuring you check its program files folders and registry keys, manually deleting any remnants, and then re-downloading the latest version from the official site and reinstalling clean.

The microphone has become from exclusive niche hardware to everyday requirements. In today's world when we live in a pandemic most of the work has shifted from office to home where people need working computers with microphones, working microphones. So what do we do when the microphone stops working? Keep reading on to find out and hopefully, we will fix this as fast as possible.

Check Microphone Privacy Settings

In 2019, Microsoft introduced new privacy features to Windows that give you more granular control over which apps are accessing your microphone. The side effect of this is that certain apps may be blocked from using your microphone without you even knowing. To find out if this is the issue, go to Settings > Privacy > Microphone. Click Change and make sure the slider is set to On. This will broadly mean that the mic is now enabled on your PC. Next, make sure the slider under Allow apps to access your microphone is set to On, then look through the list of Microsoft Store apps to make sure the apps you want to use are selected. You’re likely to be using many apps, not from the Microsoft Store, so to make sure these are enabled, scroll down even further and set the Allow desktop apps … slider to On.

Check Microphone Driver

The outdated or corrupted driver could be the issue for the microphone not working in Windows 10. To check the driver status, follow these steps:

1. In your Start menu search for Device Manager
2. In the device manager window search for sound and expand it.
3. Once expanded, you should see your audio drivers. Note that the names of these will vary depending on the manufacturer.
4. On Audio, right-click, and select properties. On the General tab, check to see if the device is working properly.
5. If it is not working properly, click on the driver tab and select the update option.
6. Repeat for the other audio drivers.
7. Restart the computer.

Check the Sounds setting

1. In the taskbar, right-click on the speaker icon at the far-right corner and select the sound option.
2. On the Recording tab, click on the microphone and select the Properties option.
3. Select the levels tabs and increase the volume for both microphone and microphone boost.
4. Go to the Enhancement tab of the same pop-up and make sure that the immediate mode checkbox is checked.
5. Click Ok and restart the computer.

The sound troubleshooter

1. Right-click on the sound icon at the far-right corner of the taskbar and select troubleshoot sound problems.
2. The computer will detect any fault that exists with your audio and recommend fixes for you. You just need to read through the prompts and click the options that you think will work for you.

Try microphone on another computer

If previous steps have not produced results, try the microphone on another computer, if it is not working there then it is a hardware malfunction

The latest Windows 11 update has brought with it not so popular widget from Windows 10, the weather widget that will reside into the taskbar and constantly show stuff like temperature, weather conditions, etc. The weather widget is not a bad thing but most users found it a little annoying and turned it off in Windows 10. If you wonder how can you do the same but this time inside Windows 11 please keep reading. The first step is to right-click  anywhere on the taskbar (in empty space) and choose Taskbar settings Once the taskbar settings are opened, find Widgets and click on the switch on the far right to turn it off, immediately no more information will be shown on the taskbar and it will be free again. And that is all there is to it.

Microsoft has implemented a number of small features in Windows 10 to enhance user productivity. These features make a difference in the overall experience and productivity of users. However, there are times that instead of helping users, these small feature causes some issues instead which causes the computer to function in an unusual way. One of the issues caused by these features is where the Mouse automatically scrolls up or down even without any user intervention. This can get really annoying especially when you’re doing an important task on your computer. So if this bug takes place repeatedly, it can make your computer unusable. If you are currently facing this problem, worry not for this post will guide you on what to do to fix the mouse auto-scrolling issue in your Windows 10 computer. Use the options provided below to fix the mouse auto-scrolling issue.

Option 1 – Try to toggle the appropriate Mouse 10 setting

• Tap the Win + I keys to open the Settings app.
• After that, navigate to Devices > Mouse.
• From there, toggle the “Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them” setting to off.
• Now restart your computer and see if the issue is resolved.

Option 2 – Try to uninstall the installed Windows Updates recently

The mouse issue might have something to do with a recent update you have installed on your computer. It is possible that there are some recently installed updates that have messed up some settings in your computer. Thus, you can try to uninstall this recent Windows Update to try and fix the problem. Not that the best way to do this is in Safe Mode.

• Boot your computer into Safe Mode first.
• Once your computer has restarted, tap the Win + I keys to open the Settings app.
• Next, click on Update and Security, and from the left side menu column, select Windows Update.
• After that, select the “View installed update history” option on the right-side column.
• Then click on Uninstall Updates. This will open a window where you’ll see the list of all the installed updates on your computer.
• Select the update you want to uninstall and click on the Uninstall button located in the lower-right corner of the window.

Option 3 – Try to run System Restore

You might have made some adjustments in your computer’s settings that caused the issue with the mouse. You can undo those changes using System Restore.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
• Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and then check if your mouse is now back to its normal state.

Facebook has an algorithm inside it that can recognize your face in pictures and videos which is meant to help people tag friends when they upload media into Facebook. It is a neat feature meant to help all Facebook users but what if we do not want to be detected in pictures and videos? What if we do not want to be tagged? If you are one of the Facebook users that do not wish to be detected and recognized by Facebook in media keep on reading to find out how you can disable this option.

1. Open the Facebook website and log into your account.
2. Click on the arrow visible in the top menu bar.
3. Select the Settings & privacy option.
4. Click on the Settings option.
5. Switch to the Face recognition tab on the left-hand side.
6. Click the Edit button.
7. Select No from the drop-down list.

And you are done, you do not need to log out or restart facebook in order for changes to have an effect. Now you are free from face recognition and detection.

Valve has announced the first gaming PC handheld console: Steam Deck. At its core, Stead Deck is just a portable, small PC in little casing. It uses AMD Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU architecture, has 16GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. It is a portable device with both a touchpad and joystick packing a seven-inch screen with a resolution of 1280x800 (16:10 aspect ratio). The screen has an ambient light sensor for automatic light adjustments same as your modern mobile device. Stating to Valve battery will hold up from two to eight hours depending on the activity of the user and what exactly he is doing. The handheld comes also with a carrying case.

Steam Deck operating system and software

Out of the box, Steam Dock comes with the latest Valve’s version of SteamOS 3. Just for comparing, the steam box was coming SteamOS 2, so this new Linux-based OS is aimed to provide better performance and better compatibility. Naturally, all Linux games in your Steam library will work right out of the box but Valve has something called PROTON inside OS, it is emulation software based on Wine that will supposedly let you play all of your Library games on a given OS. One big thing to mention here is that this is PC after all meaning that if you do not like having SteamOS on it you can install Windows instead and so far as we know it will support Windows 11. Now with Windows 11, you will be able to play all of your Steam games and run any kind of Windows software on it including EPIC store, battle.net, and others.

Cost and release date

The initial release date is set for December 2021 and today on July 16^th Valve is opening you can reserve your copy if you want to pre-purchase. Follow this link if you want to reserve your copy. Reserve your Steam Deck device The price of the device will depend on the memory capacity which you would like to have. Please note that each of the 3 offered devices will have the same hardware, the only difference will be in memory available, and the most expensive version will also have anti-glare screen, everything else is identical. 64GB model will be $399, 256GB model will have the price of $529 and largest one with whooping 512GB will be $649

Conclusion

Valve ventures into the digital hardware domain again but it is unsure will they make it this time. Both Steam machine and their controller were in long run failed and later unsupported products so perhaps some customer caution is advised. Although having a handheld PC is tempting I would advise seeing how the overall market will accept this contraption before throwing money into it.

If you have recently installed a new internal or external hard drive or SSD and you’ve noticed that its status on the left side of the Disk Management tool states “Unknown Not Initialized”, this indicates that Windows can’t initialize the disk and that you won’t be able to use this new SSD or hard drive. You can encounter this kind of issue randomly and not just with a new hard drive or SSD but also with existing drives. There are times when you won’t be able to find your drive or partition in the File Explorer. In such a case, you have to check the Disk Management if your drive or partition is there physically. You also have to check if you can see it as Not Initialized. If it is, then this means that the disk or partition does not have a valid signature that is if it’s not registered with the system properly. Note that a disk is registered when you format it at least once so if the disk was available before, then it could be somehow corrupted. To resolve the problem, you can try to initialize the disk manually or bring it online and add a drive letter. You can also try checking the Device Manager for issues or check the cable physically.

Option 1 – Try to manually initialize the disk

Since initializing the disk is the most common way to resolve the “Unknown Not Initialized” error, this is what you have to try first.

• To initialize the disk manually, you have to open the Disk Management from the WinX menu by tapping Win + X keys and selecting Disk Management.
• From there, you can find the non-initialized disk. Right-click on it and select the “Initialize Disk” option.
• Next, select the partition style. It is recommended that you use the MBR option instead of the GPT or GUID Partition Table.
• Now click the OK button. Your hard drive or SSD should now initialize without any problem.

Option 2 – Set the disk Online and add the Drive letter

• If the disk appears to be offline under Disk Management, right-click on it and select the Online option.
• On the other hand, if the disk is already set Online but does not have a drive letter, right-click on it and select the Change drive letter and path option.
• Select a letter that is not allocated yet.
• Once you’re done, you have the option to format the disk in either NTFS or FAT32 but if you are using a 64-bit computer, make sure that you opt for NTFS.

Option 3 – Try to check any issues in the Device Manager

It is also possible that the hard drive is not working properly due to some driver issues. Thus, it’s better if you check the Device Manager and see if that drive is listed with a yellow exclamation mark next to it. And if that’s the case, you have to right-click on that drive and select the Uninstall drive option. After that, click on Action and then run the Scan for hardware changes. It should fix the problem.

Option 4 – Try to physically check the cable

You might also want to check the physical status of the wires and see if they are connected properly or not. Specifically, you have to check two cables, such as:

• The first one is the power cable that’s connected to your SMPS.
• Next is the one that’s connected to your motherboard.

If any of the two cables are not working or missing, then it’s no wonder why your drive has an “Unknown Not Initialized” status. Thus, you need to have them replaced to fix the problem.

As you know, Windows Updates are essential for your operating system as it keeps it protected from potential threats, fixes bugs and improves your experience in using Windows 10. However, there are instances when Windows Updates also cause errors and one of them is the Windows Update Error 0x8024000B. One of the causes of this particular Windows Update error is that Windows was not able to read the Update Manifest file which is needed to install the Windows Updates. This means that the operation was canceled by either the service or the user. On the other hand, this error could also occur if you are not able to filter the results. When you encounter this error, you will see an error message that says, “WU_E_CALL_CANCELLED: Operation was canceled”. This indicates that the operation was canceled by the operating system itself. To resolve the Windows Update Error 0x8024000B, here are some suggestions you need to check out.

Option 1 – Try to run the Cleanup (Decline) Superseded updates PowerShell script

The first thing you can do to fix the Windows Update Error 0x8024000B is to run the Cleanup (Decline) Superseded updates PowerShell script. This is actually an easy fix since all you have to do is download and run it from the Microsoft Technet site. Once you’re done downloading and running the file, restart your computer and see if the error is fixed or not.

Option 2 – Try to rename the Spupdsvc.exe file

If the first option didn’t work, you can try renaming the Spupdsvc.exe file which is one of the reasons why you’re getting the Windows Update Error 0x8024000B.

• First, tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run utility.
• Next, type the following command and hit Enter to execute it in cmd:

 /c ren %systemroot%System32Spupdsvc.exe Spupdsvc.old

• The command you entered will rename the troublesome “Spupdsvc(.)exe” file to “Spupdsvc(.)old”.
• Now restart your computer after the command has been executed.

Option 3 – Try to restart various Windows Update-related services and components

You could also try to restart some Windows Update-related services to resolve the Windows Update error. Refer to the following steps to do so:

• Tap the Win + X key combination and select Command Prompt (Admin) to open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After opening Command Prompt, copy and paste each one of the commands listed below one by one and tap Enter right after you enter each command.
  • net stop wuauserv
  • net stop bits
  • net stop appidsvc
  • ren %systemroot%SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
  • ren %systemroot%system32catroot2 catroot2.bak
• Once you’ve entered all the commands given above, they will stop all the Windows Update services that are running on your computer as well as clear the SoftwareDistribution folder, and reset the Catroot2 folder. Now you have to start all these Windows Update services you’ve just stopped by executing the following commands:
  • net start wuauserv
  • net start bits
  • net start appidsvc
  • net start cryptsvc
• After that, restart your computer and try to run the setup again, and see if the error is now fixed.

Option 4 – Try to run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

You should also try to run the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter as it could help you resolve the Windows Update Error 0x8024000B. To run it refer to these steps:

• Go to Settings and then click on Windows Update from the given menu.
• Next, click on the Troubleshoot option and select Windows Update from the given options to run the Windows Update troubleshooter.
• After that, follow the next on-screen instructions and wait until the process is completed, and check if the Windows Update Error 0x8024000B is fixed or not.