Archive for the ‘Others’ category

Fix: Can’t Sign Into Microsoft Account in Windows 10

December 19th, 2016 by Admin

Just upgraded to Windows 10 and skipped the sign up process at the beginning. But now when I click on the “Sign in with a Microsoft account instead” link, nothing happens at all. I can’t even make the sign up dialog box appear. Please help!

Unable to sign into Microsoft account in Windows 10? Or it won’t accept your credentials? In this article we’ll show you 4 possible ways to fix the issue “cannot log in to your Microsoft account in Windows 10”.

Method 1: Disable All Non-Microsoft Services

Press the Windows + R key combination, type msconfig and press Enter.
When the System Configuration dialog opens, click the Services tab. Put a tick in the “Hide all Microsoft services” box at the bottom left, and then click Disable all.
Click Apply and then OK. Restart your computer and try to sign in to Microsoft account.

Method 2: Enable Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant Service

Press the Windows + R key combination, type services.msc and press Enter.
In the Services window, scroll down and look for the “Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant” service. Double-click on it to modify.
When the Properties window opens, set the Startup type to Automatic. If the service status is Stopped, click Start button there. Click Apply followed by OK.
Restart your computer and then try to sign in Windows 10 with Microsoft account.

Method 3: Turn Off Group Policy Which Blocks Microsoft Account

Press the Windows + R key combination, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
In the Local Group Policy Editor window, navigate to:
Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Polices > Security Options

Find the policy “Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts” in the right pane, and then double-click on it to modify.
From the drop-down menu select “This policy is disabled“, and then click Apply and OK.
Reboot Windows 10 and check if you can sign into Microsoft account later.

Method 4: Clear Cached Microsoft Account Credentials

When you try to sign into Microsoft account, Windows 10 might not accept your credentials. That is because the cached logon credentials are out of update. If you’re that case, you need to clear the cached Microsoft account credentials in Windows 10:

Press the Windows + R key combination, type regedit and press Enter.
When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\StoredIdentities
You’ll find your Microsoft account there. Right-click on it and select Delete.
Now close Registry Editor, and head to Settings -> Accounts -> Sign-in options. Try to add your Microsoft account again.

If you forgot the password of an existing Microsoft account and locked out of Windows 10, please refer to this tutorial: 2 Options to Reset Windows 10 Microsoft Account Password.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: cannot sign into microsoft account windows 10 sign in with microsoft account instead not working windows 10 cannot sign into microsoft account

Windows 10 Fix: This app has been blocked for your protection

December 14th, 2016 by Admin

When you try to install a driver or application in Windows 10, you might get the following UAC error message:

This app has been blocked for your protection. An administrator has blocked you from running this app. For more information, contact the administrator.

app-blocked-for-protection

Even if you run the application with administrative rights, you’ll get the exact same error. This problem happens when your application was digitally signed with a revoked or untrusted certificate. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to fix the issue “This app has been blocked for your protection” in Windows 10.

Method 1: Install the Application from Elevated Command Prompt

To get around the error “This app has been blocked for your protection”, you can run the application from an elevated Command Prompt. Follow these steps:

Open File Explorer and locate the application (.exe) in question. Right-click on it and select Properties.
When the Properties dialog box opens, note down the full path that you need later. In my example, the path is C:\Users\pcunlocker\Downloads\uTorrent_3.2_build_27568.
Now open an elevated Command Prompt. This can be done by pressing the Windows key + X and then selecting “Command Prompt (Admin)“.
At the Command Prompt, type the full path of the application that you want to install and press Enter.

Method 2: Tweak Local Security Policy

To fix the error “This app has been blocked for your protection” permanently in Windows 10, you have to tweak the local security policy:

Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
In the left pane, navigate to:
Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options

Look at the right pane and double-click the policy “User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode“.
Change the security setting to Disabled and click OK.
Close Local Group Policy Editor and restart your computer. After logging in, you can install the application without encountering the error “This app has been blocked for your protection”.

Note: tweaking the policy above will also cause UAC to be turned off automatically. But just turning off UAC won’t fix the error “This app has been blocked for your protection”.

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Tags: run all administrators in admin approval mode the app has been blocked for your protection windows 10 This app has been blocked for your protection

2 Ways to Hide or Unhide Worksheet in Excel 2016 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007

December 14th, 2016 by Admin

Is there a way to prevent others from viewing a sheet in an Excel workbook? If you don’t want people to change data or formula in a cell, you can hide the sheet. But this shouldn’t be used as a security measure. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to hide / unhide worksheet in Excel 2016 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007.

Note: Excel doesn’t let you hide all sheets in a workbook. At least one has to be displayed.

Method 1: Hide/Unhide Excel Worksheet with GUI

Right-click on the worksheet you want to hide, select Hide from the pop-up menu. Your worksheet will no longer be visible, however, the data contained in a hidden worksheet can still be referenced on other worksheets.
To unhide a worksheet, just right-click on any visible worksheet and select Unhide.
In the Unhide dialog box, you can see all of the currently hidden sheets in the list box. Select a sheet you want to unhide and click OK.

Method 2: Hide/Unhide Excel Worksheet with VBA

Excel has a more secure setting known as “Very Hidden”. A very hidden worksheet can’t be unhidden using the Excel user interface because it doesn’t appear in the Unhide dialog box. Here’s how to hide / unhide a worksheet with VBA editor:

To open the VBA editor, press the Alt+F11 keyboard shortcut, or right-click on any worksheet and select View Code.
From the Project window in the upper left pane, you can see all hidden and visible sheets in your workbook. Select a sheet you want to hide.
In the lower left pane, you can see all properties of your selected worksheet. In the Visible drop-down list, select xlSheetVeryHidden.
Close the VBA editor. Your worksheet will no longer be visible. When the Very Hidden attribute is set on a worksheet, the Hide option is greyed out.
Very hidden sheets can only be made visible through the VBA editor. If you want to unhide a very hidden sheet, open the VBA editor and change the Visible attribute back to xlSheetVisible.

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Tags: hide sheets in excel vba hide worksheet in excel unhide excel worksheet unhide sheets in excel

2 Ways to Prevent Excel Sheet from Being Deleted

December 13th, 2016 by Admin

How can I protect an Excel worksheet from being deleted? Looking for a way to prevent sheets from being deleted while still allowing them to be hidden or rearranged? In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to protect a particular or all sheets from being deleted in Excel 2016/2013/2010/2007.

Tips: If you want to protect an Excel file (.XLS, .XLSX) from being deleted accidentally, please try the Protect My Folders program which can lock any folders or files with password.

Method 1: Protect Entire Workbook Structure with Password

Open your Excel workbook. Select “Review” Ribbon menu and click “Protect Workbook” from the changes group.
A Protect Structure and Window dialog box opens. Make sure the Structure option is checked. Type your password and click OK.
Reenter the password and click OK.
Now all your sheets in the workbook are protected. You cannot insert, delete, rename, move, copy, hide or unhide worksheets anymore.

Method 2: Protect A Particular Sheet from Being Deleted Using VBA

If you just want to prevent users from deleting a particular sheet you designate, try this solution. This works flawlessly for me on a test workbook in Excel 2016.

Right-click on any sheet tab and select View Code from the popup menu. This will open the Visual Basic Editor (ALT+F11).
You’ll see a list of worksheets on the left. Double-click on every sheet you want to protect from being deleted, copy and paste the following code into the large white area on the right.
Private Sub Worksheet_Deactivate() ThisWorkbook.Protect , True Application.OnTime Now, "UnprotectBook" End Sub
Right-click on Microsoft Excel Objects on the left, select Insert -> Module.
Double-click on the newly-created module on the left. Copy and paste the following code into the right pane.
Sub UnprotectBook() ThisWorkbook.Unprotect End Sub
Click Save and you’re done. If you’re using a macro-free workbook, you’ll get the warning message “The following features cannot be saved in macro-free workbook“. Click No.
In the Save As dialog box, select “Excel-Macro Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm)” and click Save.
When you see the popup message “Be careful! Parts of your document may include personal information that can’t be removed by the Document Inspector“, click OK.
Close all of your opened windows. Open the .xlsm file in Excel, right-click your protected sheet tab and select Delete, next click Delete to confirm, you’ll see the failure message: Workbook is protected and cannot be changed.
That’s all there is to it.

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Tags: disable delete sheet in excel protect excel sheet with password protect excel workbook from deletion protect sheet from being deleted protect workbook structure

2 Ways to Repair Corrupted or Damaged RAR / ZIP Files

December 2nd, 2016 by Admin

When trying to extract files from RAR/ZIP archive, you might come across the error message like “CRC32 failed”, “Checksum error”, “Unexpected end of archive”, etc. How to fix and extract corrupted archive?

zip-archive-corrupted

It’s quite common to get a corrupted RAR/ZIP file when you download it from the Internet with low or unstable Internet connection. Try downloading the file again and it may resolve the issue. When a redownload is not possible, you have to look for ways to repair the RAR/ZIP file. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to repair a RAR or ZIP archive whether it’s damaged, corrupted or partially downloaded.

Method 1: Repair Corrupted or Damaged RAR/ZIP File Using WinRAR

Before get started, you need to download and install WinRAR on your computer. If you don’t have a licensed copy of WinRAR, you can download a free evaluation copy which gives you about 40 days to try it out.

Right-click on your corrupted RAR or ZIP file and select “Open with WinRAR” from the context menu.
When WinRAR opens, click the Tools menu and select Repair archive.
Click the Browse button to select the destination location where the repaired RAR/ZIP file has to be saved. Leave the archive type as what it was and click OK.
After WinRAR has completed repairing the archive, click the Close button.

You’ll see a repaired archive created in the same folder as the corrupted archive.

Method 2: Extract Broken RAR/ZIP Archive

Unfortunately, after repairing RAR/ZIP archive, WinRAR may still say the file is corrupt. Then you can attempt to extract the content in the RAR/ZIP archive. WinRAR has an option to extract broken files using which you can actually extract the broken or corrupt files – ignoring all the errors no matter what.

Double-click your corrupted RAR or ZIP archive to open it in WinRAR. Click Extract to in the toolbar at the top.
Choose the destination folder where you want to extract the files. But most importantly, you have to check the Keep broken files option under the Miscellaneous section.
Click OK and wait while the files are extracted. Eventually you’ll have all the files present in your RAR/ZIP archive.

Conclusion

So that is how you can repair corrupted or damaged RAR/ZIP files. Of course, there are also many third-party RAR/ZIP repairing utilities available on the net, but I won’t recommend them as most tools might have even lower recovery rate than WinRAR.

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Tags: extract corrupted rar files repair corrupted rar files repair zip archive unexpected end of archive

How to Fix “Cannot Start / Open Microsoft Outlook”

December 2nd, 2016 by Admin

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook, unable to open the Outlook window? Outlook stuck on the “Load Profile” window? This can happen when your Outlook profile or Outlook data files have become corrupted or damaged. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to fix these issues by making a copy of Outlook profile.

Tips: If Outlook cannot start because your Outlook PST file is corrupt, you can check this how to repair PST article . If Outlook prompts you to enter PST password but you’ve forgotten it, you can recover PST password with this method: Recover Forgotten Password for Outlook Data File (.PST).

How to Fix “Cannot Start / Open Microsoft Outlook”?

Open the Control Panel and set the View by option to Large icons. Click Mail (32-bit).
This will open the Mail Setup window. Click the Show Profiles button.
You should see the default profile called Outlook. Highlight it in the list and click Copy. (If you are told to make a new profile because your profile is corrupt, click the Add button to proceed).
Type a name for the new profile and click OK.
Under the option of “When starting Microsoft Office Outlook, use this profile“, choose the first option (or select the new profile from the drop-down list and make Outlook automatically open that profile). Click Apply and then OK.
Now restart Outlook application. When prompted for a profile to be used, choose your new profile and click OK.

Outlook will start with all your email, contacts and other data intact.

A Outlook profile is made up of email accounts, PST data files, contacts, calendars and preferences. If making a copy of your existing Outlook profile doesn’t fix your problem, you might need to create a new profile and set up your email accounts from scratch.

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Tags: cannot open outlook cannot start outlook outlook stuck on loading profile

Display Full Path in Title Bar of Windows 10 File Explorer

November 26th, 2016 by Admin

By default, Windows 10 will display the folder name alone in the title bar of File Explorer. Sometimes you might need to know the absolute path of the location you are currently in. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 ways to make Windows 10 display full path (file location) in the title bar of File Explorer.

Method 1: Make Windows 10 Display Full Path in Explorer Title Bar Using Folder Options

Open File Explorer. Click the View tab on the ribbon. You’ll see the the Options button on the right-hand side. Click it to open the Folder Options dialog.
Click the View tab. Locate and tick the checkbox named “Display the full path in the title bar“.
Click Apply followed by OK. Log off your user or restart the computer. As you see, the File Explorer should now show the full file path instead of the folder name in the title bar.

Method 2: Make Windows 10 Display Full Path in Explorer Title Bar Using Registry Editor

Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box, type regedit and hit Enter.
In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState
In the right pane, double-click the value entry FullPath and modify the value to 1.

If FullPath doesn’t exist, you need to create it first. To do so, right-click on the empty space and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Vaule, and name it FullPath.
Close Registry Editor and reboot your computer. If you want to make Windows 10 not show full path in the title bar of File Explorer, just open Registry Editor and delete the FullPath value entry.

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Tags: display file location windows 10 display the full path in the title bar windows 10

2 Options to Disable BitLocker on Surface Pro 4

November 22nd, 2016 by Admin

Surface Pro comes with BitLocker encryption enabled by default. Many Surface Pro users don’t realize that BitLocker was turned on until they get locked out of Windows 10, or be asked for a recovery key during advanced boot up. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 simple methods to turn off / disable BitLocker on Surface Pro 4 running Windows 10.

Option 1: Disable BitLocker from Settings

Press the Windows key + I to open the Settings screen, or click the Settings icon from Windows 10 Start Menu.
Click on System.
Click About on the left side. From the right side, scroll down to the Device encryption section and click Turn off button.
A pop-up window will open, saying “If you turn off device encryption, your files won’t be protected, and decryption can take a long time“. Just click Turn off button to proceed.

Option 2: Disable BitLocker from Control Panel

Open the Control Panel in Large icons view. Click BitLocker Drive Encryption.
Click the Turn off BitLocker link where it appears next to your drive.
Click Decrypt all drives to begin the decryption process.

How to Know if Your Drive is Decrypted?

BitLocker decryption is running in the background and you won’t be informed when it’s complete. Depending on the amount of data on your drive, it can take several hours to get the job done. To check out the decryption progress, open an elevated Command Prompt and run the following command:

manage-bde -status

bitlocker-status

This will display the Bitlocker stauts for all disks. In this example, the conversion status shows my OS drive is fully decrypted. If the decryption is still in progress, the conversion status will shown as “Decrytpion in Progress”, and you need to wait for “Percentage Encrypted” reaches 100%.

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Tags: disable bitlocker surface pro disable bitlocker windows 10 turn off bitlocker windows 10

How to Enable the Hidden Default Account in Windows 10

November 22nd, 2016 by Admin

DefaultAccount is a built-in local account that exists on every Windows 10 installation. By default, it is disabled and doesn’t show up on Windows 10 sign-in screen. What does DefaultAccount use for? DefaultAccount was created and used by the system, and it’s a member of the System Managed Accounts Group. We can rename this account but unable to delete it.

cannot-delete-defaultaccount

In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 methods to enable the hidden Default Account in Windows 10, so you can log into this account and discover its purpose.

Method 1: Enable Windows 10 Default Account from Command Prompt

Open an elevated Command Prompt in Windows 10. This can be done by pressing WIN + X shortcut and selecting “Command Prompt (Admin)“.
Type the following commands one by one, press Enter after each. This will activate the DefaultAccount account and change it to standard user.
net user DefaultAccount /active:yes net localgroup Users DefaultAccount /add
When it’s done, reboot your computer and you can then log into DefaultAccount without typing a password!

Method 2: Enable Windows 10 Default Account from Computer Management

To get started, you need to open the Computer Management. Right-click the This PC icon on your desktop and select Manage.
Expand System Tools -> Local Users and Groups -> Users on the left side. On the right side, right-click on the DefaultAccount and select Properties.
Uncheck the option “Account is disabled“.
Now we need to add this user to the Users group. Click the Member Of tab at the top, and then click the Add button.
In the Select Groups window, type Users in the object name box and click OK.
Click Apply and then OK.

Now reboot your computer and you can see the DefaultAccount user show up at Windows 10 login screen.

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Tags: enable windows 10 default account windows 10 DefaultAccount

Fix: Windows 10 PIN Not Working after Anniversary Update

November 22nd, 2016 by Admin

Can’t login to Windows 10 with PIN after Anniversary Update? Enter the PIN you used before but it says “The PIN is incorrect. Try again“? How can I get past the login screen if both PIN and local password don’t work? In this tutorial we’ll show you different methods to fix the issue of PIN not working after Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

Method 1: Type PIN Using On-Screen Keyboard

This issue can happen if your keyboard layout changed after installing Windows 10 Anniversary Update. For example, if your computer should use US keyboard layout, but it was suddenly changed to UK keyboard, the PIN you typed might not be recognized any more.

on-screen-keyboard

To get around this issue, you can use the On-Screen Keyboard to type your PIN. When you’re at Windows 10 sign-in screen, click the Ease of Access icon at the bottom-left corner and select On-Screen Keyboard. Click in the PIN login box and click the keys on the On-Screen Keyboard to enter your PIN.

Method 2: Create A New PIN

Another workaround is remove the old PIN and create a new PIN. There are 2 ways to remove Windows 10 PIN login:

Press the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app. Select Accounts -> Sign-in options. Under the PIN section, click the Remove button, and enter your Windows password afterwards. This method requires you knowing the password of your Windows local administrator or Microsoft account.
If your PIN login is corrupted, use this method to remove your PIN. Open File Explorer and browse to this location: C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Ngc. Just take ownership of the Ngc Folder and then delete everything within that folder.

After removing the PIN, you can open the Settings -> Accounts -> Sign-in options, and set up a new PIN. Reboot your computer and hopefully the new PIN code will allow you sign into Windows 10 successfully.

Method 3: Remove PIN with Windows Administrator Account

PIN doesn’t work and you don’t remember your local user password? Then you’re unable to remove PIN using the methods above. In this case, you need to reset your forgotten Windows 10 password firstly. Here’s how to clear Windows 10 administrator password with PCUnlocker:

Boot your computer from PCUnlocker Live CD (or USB drive). If you doesn’t have one, you can create it from another PC you can log on as administrator.
After PCUnlocker loads, you can see a list of user accounts on your Windows 10 system. Choose the local administrator account and click on Reset Password.
This will clear your password and activate the account. Reboot your computer and take out the CD. You can then log into Windows 10 administrator without a password.

After logging into Windows 10 as administrator, you can easily remove the existing PIN and create a new PIN.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: windows 10 pin incorrect windows 10 pin login not working windows 10 pin not working after update windows 10 pin stopped working