Archive for the ‘Windows 10’ category

Easy Ways to Find Duplicate Files in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7

March 16th, 2023 by Admin

How can I find duplicate files or images on my computer? After using the computer for a while, duplicate files may accumulate or clutter up your photo albums. If you are tired of duplicate files, you can use the following methods to quickly find duplicate files in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7 so you delete them to free up disk space.

Method 1: Find Duplicate Files Using File Explorer

A duplicate file usually has the same name as the original file, but with the word “- Copy” in the file name. Using File Explorer you can easily find such types of duplicate files on your computer.

  1. Open File Explorer and browse to the location (for example, “This PC”) where may contain duplicate files. Enter the keyword “copy” in the Search box in the upper right-hand corner.

  2. Click the “Search options” button in the toolbar, make sure the “File contents” menu is unchecked.

  3. The system will quickly locate all folders and files which contains the keyboard “copy” in the file names. Then you may need to manually verify which files are duplicate.

Method 2: Find Duplicate Files Using Batch

  1. Open Notepad or other text editor, copy and paste the following code, then save the file with .bat extension and close it.

    @echo off
    setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
    
    rem Group all file names by size
    for /R %%a in (*.*) do (
       set "size[%%~Za]=!size[%%~Za]!,%%~Fa"
    )
    
    rem Show groups that have more than one element
    for /F "tokens=2,3* delims=[]=," %%a in ('set size[') do (
       if "%%c" neq "" echo [%%a]: %%b,%%c
    )
    
    echo Press any key to exit
    set /p input=


  2. Move the newly-created .bat file to the location where you would like to scan for duplicate files, and double-click it to run the batch.
  3. It will check each file in the current folder and subfolders by file size. If two or more files have the same size, the batch will treat them as potential duplicate files, and display their file names in the same line but separated by a comma.

Method 3: Find Duplicate Files Using Freeware

If you want to find identical files in one or more directories with 100% accuracy, the freeware SearchMyFiles could be of help. This software is distributed as zip archive.

  1. Download SearchMyFiles from Nirsoft website. After unzipping, double-click the executable file in the extracted directory to launch the program.
  2. When the Search Options dialog box pops up, click the Browse button to add a target folder for finding duplicate files. If you want to scan duplicates across multiple folders or drives, just click the Browse button to add the locations one by one.

  3. Click the Start Search button. It will compare all files with equal size. When it find two or more files with identical content, they are added to the duplicates list in the main window.

  4. If you want to delete duplicate files, just select them and right-click to choose “Delete Selected Files” from the pop-up menu.

That’s it!

How to Hide or Show Drive Space Indicator Bars in Windows 11 / 10

February 22nd, 2023 by Admin

How can I hide the free space indicator bars that are shown for all drives? Disk space usage bar is missing? By default, File Explorer will show each drive with a color bar: blue for normal, and red for low free space warning. In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple method to hide or show drive space indicator bars in Windows 11 / 10.

How to Hide or Show Drive Space Indicator Bars in Windows 11 / 10

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive. In the right pane, double-click the REG_SZ TileInfo to edit its value data.

  2. In order to hide the drive space indicator, set its value data to the following:
    prop:*System.Computer.DecoratedFreeSpace;System.Volume.FileSystem

    or change the value data to the following for getting back the missing disk space usage bar:
    prop:*System.PercentFull;System.Computer.DecoratedFreeSpace;System.Volume.FileSystem

  3. After making the above change, close Registry Editor. Press the F5 key to refresh your File Explorer, and you can check if the disk space usage bar is missing or showing as you expected.

That’s it!

Add a Context Menu to Permanently Delete Files in Windows 11 / 10

November 14th, 2022 by Admin

When you right-click a file and select Delete, or press the Delete key on the keyboard, Windows will move the file to the Recycle Bin by default. To permanently delete that file, you have to empty the Recycle Bin. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to add “Permanently delete” to context menu in Windows 11 / 10, which can help you permanently delete files without sending them to Recycle Bin.

How to Add a Context Menu to Permanently Delete Files in Windows 11 / 10

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the location: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shell. In the left sidebar, right-click the shell key and select New -> Key.

  2. Name the new key Windows.PermanentDelete and select it. In the right pane, right-click the blank area and choose New -> String Value.

  3. Name the new DWORD ExplorerCommandHandler, and then double-click it and set its value data to {E9571AB2-AD92-4ec6-8924-4E5AD33790F5}.

  4. Use the same method to create another three different string values: Icon, Position and CommandStateSync. Set the value data of Icon to shell32.dll,-240. The value data of Position could be Top or Bottom, while leaving the value data of CommandStateSync to be empty.

  5. Close Registry Editor. When you right-click any folder or file, you’ll see the “Permanently delete” option appear in the top or bottom of the context menu.

  6. When you click the “Permanently delete” option, a pop-up dialog will ask you to confirm before permanently deleting your chosen folder or file.

That’s it!

Prevent Windows Update from Asking for BitLocker Recovery Key upon Reboot

October 13th, 2022 by Admin

BitLocker keeps asking for recovery key at startup? After installing a Windows update which updates UEFI or TPM firmware, it may cause your computer to prompt for BitLocker recovery key on the first or second restart. In such situation, there is almost no other choice than to find your BitLocker recovery key.

To save yourself a potential headache, you can prevent Windows update from asking for BitLocker recovery key upon reboot.

How to Prevent Windows Update from Asking for BitLocker Recovery Key

Before installing certain updates (such as KB5012170) which may cause BitLocker issue, you need to temporarily suspend BitLocker by following the below steps. It’s still not late if you’ve installed such update but have not yet restarted your computer.

  1. Open an elevated Command Prompt. Enter this command and press Enter to suspend BitLocker immediately. BitLocker will automatically resume after two reboots.
    manage-bde -protectors -disable %systemdrive% -rebootcount 2

    If you’re using Windows PowerShell (admin), enter this command instead:
    Suspend-BitLocker -MountPoint "C:" -RebootCount 2

  2. Now, you can install Windows updates to update or flash the BIOS or TPM firmware on your computer, and it should never prompt you to enter BitLocker recovery key during boot. After a reboot, you can open an elevated Command Prompt and run this command to get the number of reboots remaining before automatically resuming BitLocker.
    manage-bde -status %systemdrive%

  3. After the second reboot, BitLocker should automatically be enabled and the protection status is On.

    If you want to manually resume BitLocker to verify that it is enabled, use the following command:
    manage-bde -protectors -enable %systemdrive%

    For Windows PowerShell, run this command:
    Resume-BitLocker -MountPoint "C:"

That’s it!

How to Disable Show Window Contents while Dragging in Windows 11 / 10

August 22nd, 2022 by Admin

How can I make Windows 11 not show the contents of a window while I move it around on the screen? Is there a weird window dragging lag on your PC? By default, Windows will show the full contents of the window when you drag it. In order to reduce CPU/GPU usage, you can configure Windows to show only the frame (a rectangle) while dragging a window.

In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 methods to disable show window contents while dragging in Windows 11 / 10.

Method 1: Disable Show Window Contents while Dragging in Visual Effects

  1. Press the Windows key and R to bring up the Run box, type sysdm.cpl and hit Enter to open the System Properties dialog.

  2. Choose the Advanced tab, and then click the Settings button under the Performance section.

  3. Uncheck the “Show window contents while dragging” option and click OK. Note that this change applies to your current Windows account only.

Method 2: Use Registry Editor to Disable Show Window Contents while Dragging

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. In the right pane, double-click the string DragFullWindows.

  2. Set its value to 1 to enable “Show window contents while dragging”. A value data of 0 will disable it.

  3. Close Registry Editor. Reboot your computer to make the change take effect.

That’s it!

How to Mount a Folder as Virtual Drive in Windows 11 / 10

August 16th, 2022 by Admin

Is it possible to mount a directory as a drive in Windows 11? You can use the built-in command subst in Windows to mount any folder as a drive, so you can access the contents of that folder from either the original location or your virtual drive. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to mount a folder as virtual drive in Windows 11 / 10, without using third-party software.

How to Mount a Folder as Virtual Drive in Windows 11 / 10

  1. Right-click the blank area of desktop and choose New -> Shortcut.

  2. In the location box, enter the following command. Replace folder_location with the full path of the folder which you would like to mount and Z: with the letter of the virtual drive.
    subst Z: "folder_location"

  3. Type the shortcut name of your choice, and click Finish.

  4. Double-click the newly-created desktop shortcut, and a virtual drive will appear in File Explorer.

Dismount the Virtual Drive

When you log off your user account or restart the computer, the virtual drive will dismount automatically. The next time you sign into Windows, the virtual drive will not show up and you need to double-click the desktop shortcut you created earlier to mount the folder as a virtual drive.

If you need to dismount the virtual drive immediately, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click the Start button in the taskbar and select Windows Terminal.

  2. Execute the following command. Replace Z: with the letter of your virtual drive.
    subst Z: /d

    Note: If you open Windows Terminal as administrator, you’ll get the error message “Invalid parameter” when you run the above command.

That’s it!

4 Steps to Embed Fonts in a Microsoft Word Document

August 10th, 2022 by Admin

Microsoft Word allows you to embed fonts in a Word document, so the recipient can view and print your document on another PC that doesn’t have the font installed. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to embed your fonts in a Microsoft Word document on Windows 11 / 10.

4 Steps to Embed Fonts in a Microsoft Word Document

  1. When working with your document in Microsoft Word, click the File menu in the upper left corner.

  2. Click Options at the bottom of the left column.

  3. When the Word Options dialog box opens, choose the Save tab in the left pane. Under Preserve fidelity when sharing this document, check the “Embed fonts in the file” option. Click OK.

  4. Save your document as normal, the fonts used in the document will be automatically embedded in the file and the file size will increase subsequently.

That’s it!

2 Methods to Reverse Print a Word Document on Windows 11 / 10

August 5th, 2022 by Admin

Your printer always prints a document from the first page instead of from the last page? How can I print Word document pages in reverse order? If you’re using Microsoft Word to print a word document, here’s 2 simple methods to print pages in reverse order on Windows 11 / 10.

Method 1: Temporarily Print Word Document in Reverse Order

  1. When you’re using Microsoft Word, click the File menu in the Ribbon. Next, click the Print tab on the left.
  2. The printing settings will appear on the right side. Simply click the Pages text box and enter your desired page range in reverse order. For example, if want to print pages 1 to 5 of a Word document, enter “5-1” as below

  3. To begin printing, click the Print button at the top.

Method 2: Always Print Word Document in Reverse Order

  1. Open Microsoft Word, click the File menu in the Ribbon. Next, click the Options tab on the left side.

  2. The Word Options dialog box will appear. Choose the Advanced tab on the left side. Scroll down the right side until you see the Print section. Check the Print pages in reverse order option and click OK.

  3. From now on, Microsoft Word will always print all your documents in reverse order by default.

That’s it!

Easy Way to Disable Incognito Mode in Chrome on Windows 11 / 10

July 26th, 2022 by Admin

How can I stop my son from using Chrome’s Incognito mode? Incognito mode allows users to browse web privately without leaving a trace on the local disk of a computer. If you want to keep an eye on your child’s online activities and browsing history, you can turn off Incognito mode. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to disable Incognito mode in Chrome on Windows 11 / 10.

How to Disable Incognito Mode in Chrome on Windows 11 / 10

  1. Open Registry Editor and browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies. Right-click the Policies key on the left pane, and choose New -> Key.

  2. Rename the newly-created key to Google.

  3. Right-click Google and select New -> Key, then rename it to Chrome.

  4. While the Chrome key is selected, right-click the blank area on the right pane and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  5. Rename this DWORD as IncognitoModeAvailability, and then double-click it and change its value data to 1.

  6. Close Registry Editor. When you relaunch Chrome, you will notice that the option “New Incognito window” is greyed out and unclickable. You’re also unable to start Chrome in Incognito mode by default.

Whenever you need to enable Incognito mode again, just open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome, right-click the IncognitoModeAvailability value on the right pane and choose Delete.

That’s it!

2 Ways to Start Google Chrome in Incognito Mode on Windows 11 / 10

July 24th, 2022 by Admin

If you want to browse web without leaving history, cookies, site data, or any information you type in forms, you can start Chrome in Incognito mode. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 methods to open Google Chrome in Incognito mode on Windows 11 / 10.

Method 1: Start Google Chrome in Incognito Mode via Three-dot Menu

  1. When using Google Chrome, click the three-dot menu icon in the browser’s upper-right corner and then select “New Incognito window“.

  2. It will immediately open a new Incognito window. You’ll see the Incognito icon at the right of the address bar, which indicates you’re browsing privately.

Another way of opening a Incognito window is to press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N.

Method 2: Make Google Chrome Always Start in Incognito Mode

  1. Right-click the “Google Chrome” shortcut on your desktop and then select Properties.

  2. It will open the Properties window. In the Shortcut tab, append -incognito to the end of the Target text box.

  3. Click Apply and then OK.
  4. Every time you double-click the Google Chrome shortcut and it will open in Incognito mode by default.

That’s it!