Archive for the ‘Windows 10’ category

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How to Prevent Changing Color and Appearance in Windows 10

May 26th, 2021 by Admin

How can I prevent users from changing accent color in Windows 10? Is there a way to disable the accent color of Start Menu and taskbar? This tutorial will show you 2 methods to prevent changing color and appearance in Windows 10.

Method 1: Prevent Changing Color and Appearance via Group Policy

  1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to: User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Personalization. Double-click on the “Prevent changing color and appearance” policy on the right side.

  2. Select the Enabled option. Click Apply and then OK.

    If you need to allow changing color and appearance later, then choose Not Configured or Disabled.

  3. Close Local Group Policy Editor and relaunch the Settings app. Navigate to Personalization -> Colors and you’ll find all options on that page are greyed out.

Method 2: Prevent Changing Color and Appearance via Registry Editor

  1. Open Registry Editor and browse to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies. In the left side, right-click on Policies and select New -> Key.

  2. Name this newly-created subkey as System, and then select it. In the right side, right-click any blank area and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  3. Name the newly-created DWORD as NoDispAppearancePage, then double-click it and change its value data to 1. Click OK.

    Whenever you need to allow changing color and appearance again, just delete the NoDispAppearancePage entry.

  4. Close Registry Editor. The changes will take effect immediately.

That’s it!

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How to Share your Printer over the Network in Windows 10

May 17th, 2021 by Admin

If you have a printer which is set up or plugged into your primary PC, it’s easy to share it with other computers on the same network. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to share your printer over the network in Windows 10.

Part 1: Share the Printer on your Primary PC

  1. Press the Win + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app. Navigate to Devices -> Printers & scanners. On the right side, select a printer you want to share and click the Manage button.

  2. In the next window, click on the “Printer properties” link.

  3. When the printer Properties window opens, select the Sharing tab. If all options are greyed out there, click on the “Change Sharing Options” button.

  4. Check “Share this printer” and type a meaningful share name.

    If you need to share the printer with computers running a mixture of Windows client architectures – 32 or 64 bit, click on the Additional Drivers button to install additional drivers.

  5. Go to the Security tab. You can deny all permissions for the “Everyone” group and grant printing permissions to desired users.

Part 2: Connect to Shared Printer over the Network

  1. On the network computer you want to access the shared printer, press the Win + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run box. Enter the IP address of your primary PC and press Enter.

  2. When prompted, enter the network credentials so that you can access shared resources (including shared printer) on your primary PC.

  3. Right-click on the shared printer and select Connect.

  4. It will download printer driver from your primary PC and then install it locally.

    After the installation is complete, the printer will show up under the Settings -> Devices -> Printers & scanners.

Conclusion

By setting up a shared printer, you’ll be able to print from any computer on the same network. The main disadvantage of this method is that the primary PC must always be turned on for other computers to use the printer.

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How to Add / Install a Wireless Printer in Windows 10

May 10th, 2021 by Admin

Most wireless printers support Wi-Fi Direct, which lets you connect it to your PC directly even when a local network is unavailable. The printer serves as a Wi-Fi access point. After establishing peer-to-peer connection via Wi-Fi Direct, you can access the printer’s Web-based setup page and complete the network configuration. If your printer has a LCD screen, the on-screen Wi-Fi setup wizard lets you connect to your router much easier. Once your wireless printer is connected, you can add or install it on any Windows 10 computers you want to print from.

How to Add / Install a Wireless Printer in Windows 10

Open the Settings app with Win + I keyboard shortcut, and then navigate to Devices -> Printers & scanners. On the right side, click Add a Printers or scanner.

If your printer is detected, select it and click on Add device. Windows 10 will automatically download and install the printer driver. Just wait for it to complete and you’re done.

When Windows doesn’t detect your printer, click on “The printer that I want isn’t listed” link.

The pop-up wizard gives you a list of different options to help you find the printer. I recommend you choose the “Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname” option.

Enter the IP address of your printer and leave other settings as they were. Click Next.

The next window allows you to rename the printer. Click Next if you don’t want to change it.

Choose “Do not share this printer” and you’ll then get to the last page of the installation wizard. You can click “Print a test page” to see whether your printer and computer can communicate with each other.

That’s it!

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4 Steps to Reinstall Wireless Drivers in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

April 27th, 2021 by Admin

Wireless connection stops working suddenly? Windows 10 does not show available Wi-Fi networks? To fix any of such wireless connection issues, an easy first step is to reinstall wireless drivers. This article shows you how to reinstall wireless drivers in 4 steps on Windows 10 / 8 /7.

How to Reinstall Wireless Drivers in Windows

  1. Hold the Windows key and the R key down at the same time, type devmgmt.msc in the pop-up box and hit Enter to open Device Manager.

  2. Expand the Network adapters category, right-click on your wireless adapter and then select Uninstall device.

  3. A new window will pop up. Click Uninstall to confirm. If you see the “Delete the driver software for this device” checkbox, make sure you leave it unchecked.

  4. Click the “Scan for hardware changes” icon on the toolbar to automatically search and reinstall wireless drivers.

    Restart your computer to see if your connectivity issue has been resolved.

That’s it!

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3 Steps to Add Control Panel to ‘This PC’ in Windows 10 File Explorer

April 20th, 2021 by Admin

If you need to frequently use Control Panel, you can add it to the “This PC” section of File Explorer for quick access. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps of adding Control Panel to File Explorer in Windows 10.

How to Add Control Panel to File Explorer in Windows 10

  1. Open Registry Editor, copy and paste the following path in the address bar and then press the Enter key on your keyboard to get there.
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace

    Next, right-click on the NameSpace key and choose New -> Key.

  2. Rename the newly-created key as {5399E694-6CE5-4D6C-8FCE-1D8870FDCBA0}.

  3. Close Registry Editor and relaunch File Explorer. The “Control Panel” item will appear under the Devices and drives section.

    You can click the “Control Panel” item and open it to either Category view or Large/Small icon view.

If you later want to remove Control Panel from the “This PC” section of File Explorer, just open the same registry location and delete the new key you created. That’s it!

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How to Disable Steps Recorder in Windows 10 Home

April 19th, 2021 by Admin

Is there any way to turn off Steps Recorder in Windows 10 Home? Steps Recorder is an screen capture utility pre-installed on Windows 10, which can automatically record your steps with text and screenshots. If you want to get rid of it, you can follow this tutorial to disable Steps Recorder in Windows 10 Home.

How to Disable Steps Recorder in Windows 10 Home

  1. Open Registry Editor and go to the following registry path:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

    In the left side, right-click on the Windows key and select New -> Key.

  2. Rename the newly-created key as AppCompat, and select it. On the right side, right-click on blank area and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  3. Rename the newly-created DWORD as DisableUAR, then double-click it and change the value data to 1.

  4. Close Registry Editor and now you can’t open Steps Recorder any longer. If you want to enable Steps Recorder again, just change the value data of DisableUAR to 0.

So this is how you can disable Steps Recorder with Registry Editor in Windows 10 Home. If you’re running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise edition, there is a much simper way to achieve it. Just open the Local Group Policy Editor and browse to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Application Compatibility, and double-click “Turn off Steps Recorder” to enable it.

That’s it!

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How to View or Change Preferred Band for WiFi Adapter in Windows 10

April 10th, 2021 by Admin

How can I enable 5GHz WiFi network band on Windows 10 computer? WiFi is not appearing as available or network speed is very slow on 2.4GHz WiFi? 2.4 GHz connection travels farther at lower speed, while 5GHz provides faster speed at shorter range. If you’re experiencing problems with WiFi connection, you could try to change the preferred band. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to view or change preferred band for WiFi adapter in Windows 10.

Part 1: Check Which WiFi Band Your Computer is Connected to

Press the Windows key + I to open the Settings app. Navigate to Network & Internet -> Wi-Fi. On the right side, click the “Hardware properties” link under your current WiFi connection.

In the Properties page, you’ll see the band of your WiFi network connection, as well as SSID, protocol, security type, IP and MAC address.

Part 2: Change Preferred Band for WiFi Adapter via Device Manager

Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter to launch Device Manager.

Expand Network adapters and right-click on your WiFi adapter, then select Properties.

Go to the Advanced tab. Select the “Preferred Band” or “Band” property, change its value to 2.4GHz or 5GHz, and click OK. In my case, I would like to use 5GHz for a faster WiFi experience.

Note: If the “Band” property is missing, it’s possible that your WiFi adapter doesn’t support 5GHz.

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Disable Drag and Drop to Prevent Accidental Move or Copy in Windows 10

March 24th, 2021 by Admin

Accidentally moved a folder to another location without being aware of it? A sensitive touchpad or mouse can cause accidentally dragging of folders / files. If you’re unaware that you did it, it could be a nightmare to recover. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to disable drag and drop functionality to prevent accidental move or copy of files in Windows 10.

How to Disable Drag and Drop in Windows 10

  1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following location:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

    On the right side, you’ll see two entries called DragHeight and DragWidth, with the default value 4.
  2. Double-click on DragWidth and change its value to a huge number of pixels. This value should be greater than the screen resolution of the display. Do the same for DragHeight.

    For example, my monitor uses a resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels, so I modify both DragHeight and DragWidth values and set them to 3000.

  3. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer. You’ll find the drag and drop functionality will not work any longer in Windows 10.

If you just want to prevent some important folders/files from being accidentally moved or copied, you can take use of the Protect My Folders application to lock them down.

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Easy Ways to Check Screen Resolution in Windows 10

March 23rd, 2021 by Admin

What is my screen resolution? How do I find out screen resolution on my monitor using Command Prompt? Screen resolution is the number of pixels a screen can show, both horizontally and vertically. In this tutorial we’ll show you easy ways to check screen resolution in Windows 10.

Method 1: Check Screen Resolution in Windows 10 Using Settings App

Right-click any empty space on the desktop and select Display settings from the context menu.

The Settings app will launch and open to the Display page. On the right side, you can see the display resolution in the drop-down list.

Method 2: Check Screen Resolution in Windows 10 Using Command Prompt

Open up the Command Prompt or PowerShell window, copy and paste the following command and hit Enter.
wmic path Win32_VideoController get CurrentHorizontalResolution,CurrentVerticalResolution

You’ll get screen resolutions for all the available monitors on your computer. In my example, my display uses a resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels.

Method 3: Check Screen Resolution in Windows 10 Using DirectX Diagnostic Tool

To launch DirectX Diagnostic Tool, press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog. Type dxdiag and hit Enter.

Click the Display tab. Under the Device section, you can find your current screen resolution next to the “Current Display Mode” field.

That’s it!

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Easy Way to Run File Explorer with Admin Rights in Windows 10

February 25th, 2021 by Admin

How can I run File Explorer elevated if I don’t want to bother with the UAC prompt? By default, Windows 10 will launch File Explorer with the least privileges. Even if you right-click on explorer.exe and select “Run as administrator“, it will not run in elevated mode any longer.

If you work in a role such as system administrator, you may need to frequently run File Explorer as admin. In this tutorial we’ll show you the easiest way to run File Explorer with admin rights in Windows 10.

How to Run File Explorer with Admin Rights in Windows 10

  1. Open up Task Manager and go to the Details tab. Select the explorer.exe process and click on the End task button at the bottom right corner.

  2. Click the File menu and select Run new task.

  3. When the Create new task dialog opens, enter the following command and check the “Create this task with administrative privileges” box and click OK.
    explorer.exe /nouaccheck

  4. It will open File Explorer with admin / elevated rights.

    If the Elevated column is not shown, right-click on any column header and choose “Select columns“, then check the “Elevated” option and click OK.

After File Explorer is running in the elevated mode, you can then launch other programs without UAC warning, and access system files without permission issues. For example, you can edit hosts file without getting the “You don’t have permission to save in this location” error.

Make sure you log off or restart your computer as soon as you no longer need to run File Explorer elevated. When you log back into your account, File Explorer will run in the standard mode again.

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