What to do if Windows 10 PC turns on by itself

Skinning of applications is not new to PC users, but did you knew you could skin Steam? With skin, you can customize the UI and style of the client to what you want making it more personal and to your liking. First thing is to find the skin that you would like to install. There are a lot of sites where you could find custom made Steam skins but we would recommend steamskins.org The site itself is organized in tabs with different sections, once you click on the tab you will get a list of skins available for chosen section. If you click on the skin you will be taken to skin page detail where you can find what skin is aiming for, its legibility, a record of how the skin has been altered over time, or some mix of these aspects. Note that some skins might have issues like some buttons might be missing from big picture mode but so far none of the skins has any kind of client breaking feature, only functionality one.

Downloading skin

Once you have chosen desired skin and while on the skin details page, scroll to the middle of the page just above the Related Skins sections with two options: Direct Download and External Download. Now usually I would recommend Direct download but in this case, I would advise going with External Download for the simple reason that the External link will send you to the developer's website where there is a higher chance to get the latest updated skin.

Installing it in Steam

Once the skin is downloaded you will first need to create a skin folder inside your Steam installation location. Navigate to your Steam installation folder (default: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam) and create a new folder inside it. Give new folder name Skins and confirm. Extract the skin zip file in the newly made folder. Once the file is extracted you can delete the ZIP file if you wish. Go to your Steam client and go to Steam>Settings. In settings select Interface on the left bar and on the right part then click the Select the skin you wish Steam to use the drop-down menu and select the skin that you wish to use. Confirm and restart your Steam client

Reverting to old skin

If you found skin unappealing or, unfortunately, has some functions missing you can always choose another skin or revert back to default Steam skin. Default Steam skin is named in the drop-down menu as < default skin >.

Microsoft is trying to make Windows into a personalized OS, more and more features and parts can be customized to user liking. From larger things to smaller ones nowadays you can almost personalize every detail of Windows itself. In this article, we will tackle how to bring back the names of running applications on the taskbar. Placing names beside icons on the taskbar is a pretty simple and straightforward task easily done. First, right-click the Taskbar and select Taskbar settings. In Taskbar settings, click the menu labeled Combine taskbar buttons. Select Never. That's it, now all of your running applications have a name beside them. If you change your mind, you can always undo it by selecting Always hide labels in the Combine taskbar buttons menu.

We have all been there, unfortunately, the application freezes, and sometimes it can even freeze whole windows. Well if the whole Windows freezes because of the application there is not much we can do except hard reset but if only the application freezes we can still kill it and return the PC in working condition. The first thing you can try is to press ALT + F4, this shortcut is for closing the program, if the application is frozen Windows will try to close it when using this shortcut, and if it succeeds you will find yourself on the desktop environment in Windows with non-responsive application taken care of. If however, this fails and the application is not closed, try ending it in the task manager. To open task manager press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC, locate unresponsive application select it, and click on the end task button on the bottom right.

Recently, several Windows 10 users have reported an issue with the Windows folder sizes in their PCs. If you are one of these affected users, read on as this post will walk you through fixing this issue. For instance, if you have a folder with 100 GB worth of data and when checking its size using its properties, you see the wrong size instead of 100GB. The size displayed will most likely be a random number which can either be bigger or smaller than the real size of the folder. This incorrect folder size issue does not happen to any specific drive or certain kinds of folders as any folder can be affected by this incorrect folder size issue. When you try to rename the affected folder, the size will change but its size still remains to be incorrect. The root cause of this particular issue is in Windows 10 itself. It is a known bug that came along with one of the latest Windows Updates which prevents the File Explorer to accurately read the metadata of a certain folder or file and leads to displaying incorrect and unexpected file sizes and the reason why you might also notice that your drive is also not correct. Since this is brought upon by one of the recent or latest Windows Updates the good thing is that Microsoft will most likely release a fix on its next upcoming updates but until then, you will be left with no choice but to deal with an incorrect folder or file size. To remedy that, here are some suggestions you can try that might fix the problem.

Option 1 – Try using the System File Checker

The 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 causing the incorrect folder or file size in Windows 10. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• 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.

Option 2 – Try resetting Windows 10

To fix the folder and file size issue, you can try resetting Windows 10. Doing so won’t get rid of any file in your system – instead of erasing all your media files and documents, this reset option resets all the system settings and files. That way, you won’t have to deal with inaccurate folders or file sizes as you browse and use your files.

Option 3 – Wait for the Windows Update

As mentioned, this is already a known issue and a lot of Windows 10 users have already complained about it to Microsoft so a bug fix will be soon released in the latest Windows Updates.

If you’re suddenly unable to launch or open Google Chrome or unable to load web pages, then it’s most likely that the files in Chrome have been corrupted or some plugin is taking up a lot of resources which is why you encounter an error message saying, “Google Chrome has stopped working”. And when you try to check the Task Manager, you’ll see that Chrome is really taking up lots of resources, however, when you check the Taskbar, strangely, you will see nothing. If you are currently facing this issue in Chrome on your Windows 10 PC, follow the given options below.

Option 1 – Kill Google Chrome’s process in the Task Manager

If you aren’t able to open Chrome, then maybe its process is running in the background and you don’t see the browser windows. If that’s the case, you may have to force quit the browser and then try to open it again.

• First, 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.
• Now try to open Google Chrome again.

Option 2 – Try checking if your antivirus program is blocking Google Chrome

There are instances when due to false-positive, a security or antivirus program might block Chrome which is why it failed to open properly. Thus, you can just disable the security program temporarily and then check if you can now open Chrome or not.

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:

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog 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 – Disable the Extensions in Chrome

There are instances when issues on a browser are triggered or caused by some problematic extension. To find out which one of your extensions is causing the problem, disable them all first and then enable them back one by one.

• Click on the three-dotted icon for the menu located at the top-right corner of your screen.
• Then click on the More tools option and go to Extensions.
• From there, you will see a list of all the installed extensions in Chrome.
• Disable all these extensions and restart the browser.
• Now enable them back one by one to figure out which one of them is the culprit. You could also remove extensions that you no longer use.

Option 5 – Run the Chrome Cleanup tool

You might also want to try running the Malware Scanner & Cleanup tool in Chrome. This is a built-in tool that can help you get rid of any unwanted pop-ups, banners, ads, unusual startup pages, toolbars, and malware. Thus, it can help you to resolve the issue in Chrome.

Option 6 – Try to reinstall Chrome

If running the Malware Scanner & Cleanup tool in Chrome didn’t work out for you, you can try reinstalling it. To do so, follow these steps:

• Open the Settings app and go to System > Apps & features.
• From there, look for Chrome and uninstall it from your PC.
• Then go to the official website of Google Chrome and download its latest version and install it.

In some cases, a couple of Windows 10 laptops, especially the newer ones that run the NVIDIA RTX series GPUs have been experiencing some problems, particularly with their headphone jacks which seem to be malfunctioning even though the internal speakers works just fine. And despite having all the drivers updated to their latest versions, the problem still occurs. According to security experts, this kind of problem occurs on laptop computers that are manufactured by MSI and since there is still no workaround or reliable fix released by the company, in this post you will be guided on how you can resolve the problem with the headphone jack. So if you are using a laptop made by MSI and are experiencing the same issue, then you’ve come to the right place. There are several potential fixes you can check out to resolve the problem, you can try to force reboot your computer or clean your headphone jack and then plug it back in properly. In addition, you could also try to update your Audio drivers or set your headphone as default. For more information, follow each one of the given options below.

Option 1 – Try to force reboot your computer

The first thing you can do is to force reboot your computer as this simple fix could help in fixing the problem. This option is quite simple, just make sure that before you do it, you have to save all your work.

• First, turn on your computer and press and hold the power button for at least 30 seconds. You might notice the screen flashing or making any changes, just ignore it.
• After that, plug out and plug in your computer and automatically turn it on.
• Once done, check if the headphone jack is now working fine.

Option 2 – Try to clean the headphone jack and plug it properly

The next thing you can do to fix the problem is to clean your headphone jack and plug it back in properly. Make sure that you use a cotton swab in cleaning the headphone jack as there are instances where some dust might have settled in the port which results in issues like your headphone jack no working.

Option 3 – Try to update, rollback or reinstall the Audio driver

If the glitch in your audio has something to do with software, chances are it might be related to the audio driver – it could be that the newest version of your Windows 10 does not work well with the old version of the driver. This is why you have to update your audio driver to the newest available version.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and then type in MSC and tap Enter or click OK to open the Device Manager.
• Expand the section for the outdated device drivers.
• And then select the outdated driver(s) and right-click on it/them.
• From the drop-down menu, select the Update Driver option and follow the on-screen instructions to install the latest version of the driver.
• Then also click on the option, “Search automatically for updated driver software.
• Restart your PC after the installation.

Note: If updating or reinstalling the Audio driver didn’t work, you can go to the website of MSI and look for the support section where you can download the drivers for your computer. You just need to take note of your PC’s correct model and model number so you can find the appropriate driver.

Option 4 – 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.
• From there, select the Control Panel for Sound on the rightmost column. This will open a new mini window.
• After that, select your headphone under the Playback tab and click on the Set default button.
• Once done, click on Apply and then OK buttons to save the changes made.

Option 5 – Try to run the Playing Audio Troubleshooter

Since the Windows 10 operating system has the Playing Audio Troubleshooter, you can use this troubleshooter to try and fix the problem with the headphones. You can access this tool in the Control Panel or in the Taskbar Search and even on the Troubleshooters page of Windows 10.

Recently, a lot of users reported getting several error messages when they upgraded their Windows 10 computers. One of these error messages users encountered during a Windows 10 upgrade is the Error 0x8007002C-0x4001E. if you are one of the users who is facing this error, read on as this post will help you fix it. When you encounter this error, you will see the following error message on your screen:

“We couldn’t install Windows 10 We’ve set your PC back to the way it was before you started installing Windows 10 0x8007002C-0x4001E, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error during PRE_OOBE operation.”

To resolve the 0x8007002C-0x4001E, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase error, here are some suggestions that might help.

Option 1 – Try flushing the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folders

You have to stop a couple of services such as BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer, and Windows Update Services. And to do that, you need to flush the contents in the SoftwareDistribution folder. The Software Distribution folder in the Windows operating system is a folder that can be found in the Windows directory and is used to store files temporarily which might be required to install the Windows Update on your PC. Thus, it is required by the Windows Update and maintained by WUAgent. Aside from that, it also contains all the Windows Update History files and once you delete them, you will most likely lose the Update history. As a result, the next time you run the Windows Update, it may result in a longer detection time.

• Open the WinX Menu.
• From there, open Command Prompt as admin.
• Then type in the following command – don’t forget to hit Enter right after typing each one of them.

net stop wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver

• After entering these commands, it will stop the Windows Update Service, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Cryptographic, and the MSI Installer
• Next, go to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder and get rid of all the folders and files thereby tapping the Ctrl + A keys to select them all and then click on Delete. Note that if the files are in use, you won’t be able to delete them.

After flushing the SoftwareDistribution folder, you need to reset the Catroot2 folder to restart the services you just stopped. To do that, follow these steps:

• Type each one of the following commands.

net start wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver

• After that, exit Command Prompt and restart your computer, and then try to run Windows Update once more.

Option 2 – Select the Keep your files option

You can also select the option to perform an in-place upgrade and opt for the “Keep my files” option during an installation as it might make the process a lot smoother and if you need to perform a clean install, you can do so once the setup is completed.

Option 3 – Try to run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

Running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter could also help you resolve the 0x8007002C-0x4001E, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase error. 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.

Option 4 – Try to run Microsoft’s online troubleshooter

Aside from the Windows Update Troubleshooter, you can also run the online troubleshooter of Microsoft as it can help you with Windows 10 upgrade errors.

Option 5 – Perform a clean install

If none of the options worked, you can try to clean install Windows 10. Just make sure that you have the ISO from the official Microsoft Website and then a bootable USB drive to install Windows 10 again. Take note that this will delete all the data from your drive where Windows 10 was installed previously.

If the Task Manager is either blank or is not showing processes on your Windows 10 computer, then here are a few things you can do to resolve this issue. This kind of problem can occur due to some system file corruption or some malware infection in the system. Here are some suggestions you can try to resolve the problem with the Task Manager on your Windows 10 PC.

Option 1 – Try restarting your computer

The most common and most of the time effective way to resolve this kind of issue is to simply restart your computer. Thus, you have to restart your computer and see if it helps in fixing the Task Manager issue or not. If not, you can try the next given options below.

Option 2 – Run the DISM tool

If the first option didn’t work, then running the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management tool can help you resolve the issue with the Task Manager as it will repair the Windows System Image as well as the Windows Component Store in Windows 10.

• After you access the Advanced Startup options, select Command Prompt by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
• Next, type in this command: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
• Do not close the window if the process takes a while as it will probably take a few minutes to finish.

Option 3 – Make sure that the display columns are selected in the Task Manager

You have to make sure that you have checked or selected the display columns you want to be displayed. So if none of them are selected, you might not see any details at all. Thus, you need to right-click on the space near Name and select the columns.

Option 4 – Run the System File Checker Scan

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 with good system files that might be the reason why the Task Manager is blank or is not showing processes. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• 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.

• Restart your computer.

Option 5 – Troubleshot the problem in a Clean Boot State

There are some instances that some conflicting programs installed in your computer might be the one that’s causing the Task Manager issue. To identify which program is causing the problem, you need to put your computer in a Clean Boot State. To do so, follow the steps below.

• 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.)
• From there, start to isolate the problem by checking which one of the programs you installed recently is the root cause of the problem.

Option 6 – Try scanning your computer using Windows Defender

As mentioned, the Task Manager issue might be caused by some malware in the system and so to eliminate the malware, you have to scan your computer using security programs like Windows Defender.

• Tap the Win + I keys to open Update & Security.
• Then click on the Windows Security option and open Windows Defender Security Center.
• Next, click on Virus & threat protection > Run a new advanced scan.
• Now make sure that Full Scan is selected from the menu and then click the Scan Now button to get started.

If you have a USB that has stopped working and does not show any signs of life do not throw it away just jet. Hello and welcome to another great tutorial on errortools.com, today we will explore how to bring back to life dead USB memories.

Detect a Corrupted  Drive:

If your computer is still able to detect your USB drive, you might want to know if it’s been corrupted. Select the Properties of the drive folder and check the device status. If it says This device is working properly this USB drive is worth saving. There’s no need to worry if you can’t see the USB drive folder.

Erase the USB Drive with Diskpart Tool

Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X top open start menu and choose Command prompt (admin) Type diskpart and press ENTER Type in list disk and press ENTER Locate your USB drive by size and type in select disk#, where # is the number of removable disks.

Reallocate the USB Drive Volume

Press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog and type in diskmgmt.msc Select the USB drive and Right-click on it and select create simple volume. It will lead to a new simple volume wizard window. Once you click next, you can specify the volume size for the pen drive. Select the maximum volume, which is shown as a default unit in MB. As soon as you see the next step, select assign drive letter which will help you view your pen drive once again. Format the partition in the next step. This may be just an extra step because you have already wiped the data clean. But it is always better to be sure. Click Finish to complete the new simple volume wizard which will now be allocated to the USB drive. After you reallocate the unallocated USB drive space, you will be able to view the USB drive storage once again.

Windows users need to be on high alert. Microsoft has confirmed a critical vulnerability has been found in all versions of Windows which presents an immediate threat, and you need to act now. A critical new zero-day hack has been found which affects all Windows versions. Tracked as CVE-2021-34484, the “zero-day” flaw enables hackers to breach all versions of Windows (including Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2022) and take control of your computer. Microsoft mistakenly thought it had patched the vulnerability (which was first found in August) when it was publicly disclosed in October. But the fix itself was found to be flawed, something the company admitted, and this drew even more attention to the vulnerability. Microsoft subsequently promised to “take appropriate action to keep customers protected” but two weeks later, a new fix has still not arrived. Luckily the third-party security specialist 0patch has beaten Microsoft to the punch with a ‘micropatch that it has now made available for all Windows users “Micropatches for this vulnerability will be free until Microsoft has issued an official fix," 0patch confirmed. You will need to register for a 0patch account and install its download agent before the fix can be applied, but with 0patch fast becoming a go-to destination for hot fixes which beat software companies to the punch this is a no brainer. Hopes will be high that Microsoft can release an effective patch sooner rather than later but, until then, all Windows users must act now if they want to be safe. Download 0patch here: https://blog.0patch.com/2021/11/micropatching-incompletely-patched.html