If your Windows PC is throwing an error message at you before it even begins to load Windows, it’s possible that the boot sector on your system partition is damaged, corrupted, or has missing files. Here’s how to troubleshoot those problems.
If you’ve got a pet or small child, you know that an unguarded keyboard can spell disaster—or more likely, spell “dhjkhskauhkwuahjsdkja,mnsd”. We’ve got a tool for locking and unlocking your keyboard with a quick keyboard shortcut.
Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista all support symbolic links—also known as symlinks—that point to a file or folder on your system. You can create them using the Command Prompt or a third-party tool called Link Shell Extension.
Say you have a folder full of files, and you want to save or print a list of those files. With a couple of quick Registry edits, you can add a right-click command for copying a folder’s contents to the clipboard.
ClearType is font-smoothing technology built into Windows to help make text more readable on LCD monitors. If your text is looking a little blurry, tweaking your ClearType settings can definitely help.
If you use a company-owned PC, you may have seen a legal notice displayed before you sign in to Windows. Here’s how you can do the same thing on your own PC and display a message with any text you want.
Messing around in the Windows Registry can cause all kinds of problems if you’re not careful. If you share your PC with others, you can prevent less experienced users from accessing and editing the Registry.
Let’s face it: some apps have really ugly icons. Sure, you could always create a shortcut to your EXE file and then change the icon for the shortcut, but what fun would that be? Here’s how to change the icon for the EXE file itself.
Many older (or cheaper) Windows laptops come with traditional mechanical hard drives—which these days, are pretty outdated and slow. Upgrading to a new, super fast solid state drive (or SSD) is the surest way to speed up an old computer. There’s one problem: moving your Windows installation can be tricky, especially since SSDs are often smaller than their traditional hard drive counterparts.
If you bought your PC from a vendor, you’ve likely seen the manufacturer information in the “System” window. But did you know you can change it—or even add it if you build your own PCs?
Modern versions of Windows defragment drives during regular maintenance schedules. But if you defragment manually—maybe you keep your PC turned off when not in use—you might appreciate a faster way to access the command.
If you use the Control Panel a lot, you may find it helpful to add it right to the “This PC” section of Windows’ File Explorer window. Here’s how to do it.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you can remove the “Send To” submenu from the Windows context menu, it turns out you can. You just have to make a quick Registry edit.
The search feature in Windows’ File Explorer saves recent searches by default to make it easier to search for the same terms again. However, if you don’t like this feature, you can turn it off.
When you make a new shortcut in Windows, it automatically adds “- Shortcut” to the end of the shortcut’s file name. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but they can be bothersome. Sure, you can remove the text yourself when you create the shortcut, but why not stop it from happening in the first place?
Since Windows 7, apps with multiple open windows are combined into a single taskbar button. Hovering over the button gives you a live thumbnail of every window and you can then click the window you want to work with.
If you want to open a file type not registered with Notepad, you have to click through several options to make it happen. This can be a hassle, so why not add an “Open with Notepad” option right on your context menu?
Product keys are becoming less and less common these days, but if you have a piece of software on your computer—and can’t find its product key—this simple program can help you extract it.
If you have a bunch of user accounts on your Windows PC that you don’t need anymore, it may be time to clean them out. Today we’ll take a look at how to delete a user account in Windows.
By default, using the Windows+L key combination locks Windows, so you have to re-type your password to use the computer. If you find yourself occasionally hitting that combination by accident—and you don’t really have a need to lock Windows—here’s how to disable it.
There are all kinds of ways to open a Command Prompt window from File Explorer—and you can even run commands right in the File Explorer address bar—but did you know it’s just as easy to open a File Explorer window from the Command Prompt?
Putting your PC to sleep is a great way to save energy while still making sure you can resume work quickly. But what can you do if your PC keeps waking up on its own? Here’s how to figure out what’s waking it up, and how to prevent it.
Aero Shake—a fun little feature that lets you grab a window by the title bar and shake it to minimize all other open windows—can sometimes get in the way. If you don’t like it, you can turn it off with a quick Registry or Group Policy edit.
You’ve seen it. Maybe it was on an airplane, maybe it was at a friend’s house, but you saw people playing old Nintendo, Sega, or even PlayStation games on their computers. And yet, when you searched for those particular games in Steam, nothing comes up. What is this witchcraft?
USB drives should automatically appear in Windows Explorer when you connect them to your computer. Follow these troubleshooting steps if Windows doesn’t show a connected drive.
