Archive for the ‘Windows 10’ category

Prevent Users from Changing Lock Screen Image in Windows 10 / 8

June 5th, 2016 by Admin

The lock screen appears when you boot your PC or press Windows + L key combination. It gives you only the basic information such as date, time and weather. You have to click it or swipe away before you can login into Windows 10/8. In this article we’ll show you 2 methods to prevent users from changing lock screen image in Windows 10 / 8.

unable-change-lock-screen

Method 1: Disable Changing Lock Screen Using Group Policy

This first method is the easiest, but it may not work for some users, as the Group Policy Editor program is not included in the Home edition of Windows.

  1. Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. From here, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
  2. You should see the Group Policy Editor window pop up. Navigate to:
    Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Personalization
  3. Double-click the “Prevent changing lock screen image” entry on the right side of the window. Change the setting from Not Configured to Enabled.

    prevent-changing-lock-screen

  4. Close the Local Group Policy Editor window. When you want to change the lock screen image, you will notice that the options are grayed out.

Method 2: Disable Changing Lock Screen Using Registry Editor

  1. Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. From here, type regedit and press Enter.
  2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization

    If the Personalization key is not present, create a new key under Windows and rename it to Personalization.

  3. On the right side of the window, right-click on an empty space, and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it NoChangingLockScreen.
  4. Double-click on the newly created DWORD value, and change its value from 0 to 1. Click OK.

    no-changing-lock-screen

  5. Now you should be unable to change / modify the lock screen background image.

Fix “Windows Taskbar and Start Button Disappeared”

May 28th, 2016 by Admin

“I don’t know what happened but the taskbar (usually on the bottom of the screen) is missing. Without the taskbar, I couldn’t get to the Start Menu and ultimately launch any program. How do I get it back? Please help!”

There are 3 reasons why your taskbar or Start button disappeared on the computer screen:

  • The taskbar is set to auto-hide.
  • The explorer.exe process has crashed and the taskbar is completely gone.
  • The display resolution or main display changed and caused the taskbar to go off the screen.

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to troubleshoot this problem and get your Windows taskbar and Start button back to your screen.

Method 1: Unhide Taskbar

Some users reported the Auto-hide feature is buggy. Disable the Auto-hide option and your Windows taskbar might be back again. Follow these steps:

  1. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del on your keyboard. This will take you to the lock screen. From there, you can click Task Manager.

  2. When the Task Manager opens, click More details button at the bottom of the window.

    task-manager

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

    run-new-task

  4. Type control panel and click OK.

    launch-control-panel

  5. In Control Panel, set the View by option to Large icons, and then click on “Taskbar and Navigation“.

    control-panel

  6. Click the Taskbar tab, clear the Auto-hide the taskbar check box, and then click OK.

    auto-hide-taskbar

Method 2: Restart Explorer

There is a chance that your Windows Explorer is crashed or an infected program might have terminated it. If that is the case, then your desktop icons and taskbar must also be missing. If that is the case, restart the Explorer process should fix your problem.

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys on your keyboard and Task Manager will open up.
  2. The Task Manager in Windows 10/8 shows fewer details by default. Simply click More details at the bottom to access the full Task Manager.

    task-manager

  3. Click the Details tab and select the explorer.exe process, click End task.

    kill-explorer

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

    run-new-task

  5. Type in explorer and press OK. This will restart the explorer process and hopefully get your taskbar back.

    launch-explorer

Method 3: Change Display

If the presentation display was changed, the taskbar may have moved off of the visible screen. To bring the taskbar back, you have to exit the presentation mode:

  1. Press the Windows logo key + P on your keyboard to launch External Display selection screen.
  2. You’ll get a pop-up dialog with a couple of choices like PC screen only ( or Computer Only), Duplicate, Extend, etc. Make sure it is set to PC screen only.

    display-switcher

Reset Lost Windows 10 Password with Sticky Keys Method

May 26th, 2016 by Admin

Forgot Windows 10 user password? The first thing a normal user tries to do a fresh re-installation of Windows or take the PC to a repair shop. There’s lots of softwares to reset a forgotten password, but here we’ll show you a simple hack to reset forgotten Windows 10 password using the sticky keys method.

How Does This Hacking Method Work?

Sticky Keys is part of Windows Ease of Access features that allows a user to tap the Shift, Ctrl, Alt or Windows key once to achieve the same effect as holding the key down. If you press the SHIFT key 5 times in a row at Windows login screen, the Sticky Keys application (sethc.exe) will launch and ask if you want to enable sticky keys feature.

This hacking method works by replacing the sethc.exe file with cmd.exe. When you boots to Windows login screen, pressing the SHIFT keys 5 times will launch an elevated Command Prompt. From the Command Prompt, you have sufficient privileges to reset a lost password without knowing your current password. This method works flawlessly with all versions of Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.

Part 1: Replace Sticky Keys application with Command Prompt

When you’re locked out of Windows 10 or lose admin access to your computer, it’s impossible to replace the sethc.exe file from within Windows. To achieve this, you have to boot from a WinPE or Linux-based disc. Here we’ll use a Windows 10 installation DVD to demonstrate how to replace sethc.exe with cmd.exe. Follow these steps:

  1. Boot your locked computer using your Windows 10 installation DVD. If your computer doesn’t boot from it, you might need to change the boot order and disable UEFI secure boot.

    press-key-boot-from-cd

  2. After loading the installation files from the DVD, you’ll be shown the language setup screen. Just press SHIFT + F10 key combinations to launch the Command Prompt.

  3. Use the dir command to find the drive where your Windows was installed. Note that the drive letter for your Windows partition could be D:\ or other as C:\ might be assigned to the System Reserved partition after booting into a Live CD.

  4. Enter the following two commands one by one, press Enter after each. Replace c:\ with the correct drive letter if Windows is not mounted on c:.
    copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\
    copy /y c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe

    The first command backs up the sethc.exe file, and the second replaces it with the cmd.exe.

  5. Next, run the following commands to disable Windows Defender as it may detect the sticky keys trick as a security alert called “Win32/AccessibilityEscalation“.
    reg load HKLM\temp-hive c:\windows\system32\config\SOFTWARE
    reg add "HKLM\temp-hive\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" /v DisableAntiSpyware /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
    reg unload HKLM\temp-hive

  6. Now close everything and cancel Windows Setup. Remove the installation disc and reboot.

Part 2: Reset Windows 10 Password from Login Screen

  1. Once you get back to Windows 10 login screen, press the SHIFT key 5 times in a row, it will open the Command Prompt in administrator mode.

  2. Enter the following command to reset your lost Windows 10 password. Substitute the name of the account to reset and a new password as appropriate. If you don’t know your account name, just type net user to list the available user names.
    net user user_name new_password

  3. Close the Command Prompt and you can now login with your new password. After logging in, remember to restore the sethc.exe file we overwrote in step 4, and turn on Windows Defender real-time protection. Enjoy!

Conclusion

This sticky keys method is quite well known and could be used to break into any Windows-based computer as long as you have physical access. So you might ask how can I prevent someone from hacking my Windows password? Just set a BIOS password to lock the boot sequence so others can’t boot from CD/USB.

To make password recovery easier than even before, we’ve developed a software for both beginners and advanced users –  PCUnlocker, which allows you to reset a forgotten Windows password or create a new admin account to access your locked PC.

7 Ways to Open Command Prompt in Windows 10

May 24th, 2016 by Admin

Command Prompt is a nice feature of Windows that geeks and IT professionals used most. In this tutorial we’ll show you 7 ways to open Command Prompt as administrator or non-administrator in Windows 10.

Method 1: Open Command Prompt from the Run box

This should be the most common way to open a non-elevated Command Prompt. Just press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type cmd and press Enter. This opens the Command Prompt without administrator rights.

run-cmd

Method 2: Open Command Prompt from WinX Menu

This should be the simplest & quickest way to launch Command Prompt in Windows 10. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft has implemented the WinX menu, which contains many useful items like Command Prompt, Control Panel, Network Connections and so on.

Press the Windows key + X to bring up the WinX menu. From the pop-up menu, you can select “Command Prompt” to open Command Prompt as non-administrator mode, or select “Command Prompt (Admin)” to open it in administrator mode.

winx-menu

Note: Since Windows 10 Creators Update, you may notice that Command Prompt is replaced with PowerShell on the WinX menu. PowerShell can run any command prompt commands as well. But you can also easily add the Command Prompt back to WinX menu.

Method 3: Open Command Prompt Using Cortana Search

Click the Cortana Search box in the taskbar, and then type cmd. Click Command Prompt from the search result to launch a non-elevated Command Prompt.

run-cmd-from-cortana-search

If you want to open an elevated Command Prompt, right-click on Command Prompt from the search result, and then select “Run as administrator“.

Method 4: Open Command Window Here in File Explorer

This method allows you to open a non-elevated Command Prompt from any folder in Windows Explorer.

To start off, open the folder in the File Explorer from where you want to open the Command Prompt. While press and hold down the Shift key, right-click on a folder or empty space in File Explorer. From the context menu, select “Open command window here“. The prompt takes the path of the folder from where it is opened.

open-command-window

Method 5: Open Command Prompt from File Explorer’s Menu

Open File Explorer, browse to the folder where you want to open the Command Prompt from. Click on the File menu, and select “Open command prompt“. You’ll have two options to launch Command Prompt:

  • Open command prompt — Open a Command Prompt within the currently selected folder with standard permissions.
  • Open command prompt as administrator — Open a Command Prompt within the currently selected folder with administrator permissions.

open-command-prompt

Method 6: Open Command Prompt from Start Menu

Click on the Start button, and then click All apps at the bottom of the Start Menu.

start-men-all-apps

Scroll down and expand the Windows System folder, you’ll see the Command Prompt shortcut. You can click on it to launch Command Prompt in normal mode, or right-click on it and select “Run as administrator” to launch Command Prompt in administrator mode.

start-menu-cmd

Method 7: Open Command Prompt from Task Manager

Open Task Manager with more details. Click on the File and then select Run new task.

task-manager

Type cmd in the Open box, and click OK to open up a regular Command Prompt. You can also check the “Create this task with administrative privileges” box to open the Command Prompt as administrator.

create-cmd-task

How to Change Taskbar & Desktop Icon Size in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

May 23rd, 2016 by Admin

Desktop icons are too big or too small? How can I resize the desktop icon size? In this tutorial we’ll show you how you can simply change the taskbar & desktop icon size in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

resize-desktop-icons

Part 1: Change Desktop Icon Size

To change the size of desktop icons, right-click on an empty space on the desktop, and then click on View, and then select the size of the icons, either Large, Medium or Small icons. The default is Medium icons.

view-medium-icon

But what if you want to make the desktop icons smaller than the default small icon, or larger than the default large icon? Using the mouse wheel button you can set the icon size to any size you want:

To get started, make sure the desktop has the focus, this can be done by just clicking any empty space of the desktop. Press and hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, and then using your mouse wheel, roll it upward to make the icons size larger, or downward to set the icon size smaller.

ctrl-mouse-wheel

Part 2: Change Taskbar Icon Size

The taskbar icons are really small? How can I make them appear larger? To do this, right-click on an empty space in the taskbar and then select Properties.

right-click-taskbar

On the Taskbar tab, uncheck the “Use small taskbar buttons” box in Windows 10/8. If you’re running Windows 7, uncheck the “Use small icons” box. Click OK.

small-taskbar-buttons

7 Ways to Access Event Viewer in Windows 10

May 23rd, 2016 by Admin

Event Viewer can be extremely helpful for system administrator to troubleshoot problems or errors. From there, you can find important information about logon events, policy changes, system and application events. In this article we’ll show you 7 ways to access Event Viewer in Windows 10.

Method 1: Access Event Viewer in Computer Management

  1. Right-click on This PC icon on your desktop. Select Manage from the drop-down menu.

    manage-this-pc

  2. In the Computer Management window, expand the System Tools and then select Event Viewer to display the event logs.

    event-viewer

Method 2: Access Event Viewer via Run

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box.
  2. Type eventvwr and hit Enter. This will open the Event Viewer immediately.

    open-event-via-run

Method 3: Access Event Viewer via Cortana Search Box

  1. Click the Cortana search box (right beside the Start button) located in the taskbar.
  2. Type event in the search box and click Event Viewer from the search results.

    cortana-search-event

Method 4: Access Event Viewer via Control Panel

  1. Open the Control Panel. There is a search box in the top right-hand corner of the Control Panel window. Type event and press Enter.
  2. Click the View event logs link from the search result.

    search-event-in-control-panel

Method 5: Access Event Viewer via Settings Charm

  1. Press the Windows key + I to open the Settings charm, or click on Start button and select Settings.
  2. Type event in the search box at the top right corner of the Settings screen.
  3. Click View event logs from the search result.

    search-event-in-settings

Method 6: Access Event Viewer via Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt in Windows 10.
  2. Type eventvwr and press Enter.

    open-event-via-cmd

Method 7: Access Event Viewer via PowerShell

  1. Open the PowerShell in Windows 10.
  2. Type eventvwr and press Enter.

    open-event-in-powershell

7 Ways to Restart or Shut down Windows 10

May 22nd, 2016 by Admin

How to quickly shut down or restart Windows 10 computer? It’s not as straightforward as you might think. In this article we’ll show you 7 simple ways to restart or shut down Windows 10 computers.

Method 1: Restart or Shut Down Using the Start Menu

This should be the simplest way of restarting or shutting down Windows 10 computer. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the Start Menu by clicking the Start button in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  2. Click on the Power button from the Start Menu, and then select Shut down or Restart.

    start-menu

Method 2: Restart or Shut Down Using the WinX Menu

  1. Press the Windows key + X to open the Quick Access menu (also known as Power User menu, WinX menu).
  2. Select Shut down or sign out, and then select Shut down or Restart on the pop-up menu.

    win-x

Method 3: Restart or Shut Down Using Alt + F4

  1. Click on your desktop to make it the current focused (active) window, and press the Alt+F4 keys. This will open the Shut Down Windows dialog.
  2. Select Shut down or Restart from the drop-down menu, and then click OK.

    alt-f4

Method 4: Restart or Shut Down from Command Prompt

  1. Press the Windows key + X to open the WinX menu, and then select “Command Prompt“.
  2. If you want to shut down your PC, type shutdown -s at the Command Prompt and press Enter.

    command-prompt

    If you want to restart your PC, type shutdown -r instead.

  3. You’ll get a popup stating that “You’re about to be signed out. Windows will shut down in less than a minute“.

    pc-will-shutdown

  4. Click Close or leave the popup open. The computer will automatically perform a shutdown soon.

Method 5: Restart or Shut Down Using the Run box

If you don’t like the Command Prompt interface, you can issue the shutdown command from the Run box. Follow these steps:

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box.
  2. At the Run box, type the shutdown -s command and press Enter to shut down your computer. Or type shutdown -r and press Enter to restart your PC.

    run-box

Method 6: Restart or Shut Down from Windows Login Screen

  1. Just sign out your current account and Windows will take you to the login screen. You can also access Windows login screen by pressing the Windows key + L, or press Ctrl + Alt + Del key combinations.
  2. At the login screen, click the Power icon at the bottom right corner. You can then select Shut down or Restart from the pop-up menu.

    login-screen

Method 7: Physical Shut down or Restart

Every Windows 10 computer comes with a Power button on your computer case or the edge of your laptop. Press the Power button once and wait for the computer to shut down. Press the Power button again to turn the computer back on. If your computer is frozen, press and hold the power button for five seconds to shut the computer off.

How to Add Group Policy Editor to Windows 10 Home

May 12th, 2016 by Admin

Group Policy Editor is not available in Windows 10 Home edition. When you run the gpedit.msc command, you might get the error message “Windows cannot find ‘gpedit.msc’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

cannot-find-gpedit

Luckily there is a free third-party patch originally created by the enthusiast “davehc“, which can enable Group Policy Editor in Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home and Windows 8. But it also works well on Windows 10, here we’ll walk you through the steps of adding Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) to Windows 10 Home.

Note: This utility has been shared for the sake of knowledge sharing. Patching system files using 3rd party software might be dangerous for your system. Use it at your own risk.

How to Add Group Policy Editor to Windows 10 Home?

  1. Before getting started, download the free patch from jwills876’s DeviantArt page. After you downloaded the patch, right-click on it and select “Extract All“.

    extract-zip

  2. After extracting, you can see the installer file: setup.exe. Right-click on it and select “Run as administrator“.

    run-setup-as-admin

  3. A setup wizard will launch. Keep clicking Next to finish the patching process. When prompted to install .NET Framework, just click “Skip this installation“.

    skip-net-framework-install

  4. When it’s done, go to the temporary folder created by the patch: C:\Windows\Temp\gpedit, and you’ll see two batch files: x86.bat and x64.bat. Right-click on x86.bat (or x64.bat if you’re running a 64-bit version of Windows Home), and choose Open With > Notepad.
  5. You’ll find a total of 6 lines containing the string %username%:f in the file. Edit those lines and make sure %username% is in quotes.

    modify-bat

  6. Now, just save the file, and run it as Administrator.

    run-bat-as-admin

  7. Restart you computer and you should be able to access the Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Home.

Prevent Other Users from Accessing Windows Apps with AppLocker

May 9th, 2016 by Admin

AppLocker is a Window’s built-in application that gives the administrator a very granular control over which applications are allowed to execute and which are blocked for a Windows account. This feature is really useful if you share a computer and don’t want other users accessing certain applications.

Today we’ll walk you through how to create rules in AppLocker to prevent other users from accessing certain applications in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

How to Restrict Access to Programs with Windows AppLocker?

  1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.

    gpedit

  2. Under Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to:
    Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Application Control Policies -> AppLocker -> Executable Rules
  3. Right-click on Executable Rules in the left pane, and then select Create New Rule.

    applocker

  4. Click Next to bypass the Before You Begin screen. On the Permissions page, select Deny (Click Allow if you want to restrict what programs other users can access only).

    permissions-page

    Click on the Select button to choose the user or groups you want the rule to apply. When it’s done, click Next to reach the Conditions page.

  5. AppLocker rules can identify programs using the following conditions: Publisher, Path and File hash. Publisher condition relies on the digital signature of the executable file.

    conditions-page

    Here we’ll choose File hash because AppLocker can still identify the program even if it’s renamed or moved.

  6. On the File Hash page, click Browse Files and find the executable file for the application to which you want this rule to apply, or click Browse Folders if you want the system to calculate a hash for all of the executable files in a folder. Click Next.

    file-hash-page

  7. Type a name for the rule that will make it easy for you to remember what it is, and then click on Create.

    name-and-description

  8. When prompted to create the default rules, make sure you click Yes. This is to ensure that the rules you created don’t block operating system files from running.

    create-default-rules

  9. Now you will see three default rules and the new one you created.

    applocker-rules

    Restart your computer for the AppLocker rules to come into effect. When you try to run the blocked application, you’ll receive an error: “This app has been blocked by group policy. For more information, please contact your system administrator.

    app-blocked-by-group-policy

AppLocker Doesn’t Work?

AppLocker doesn’t work under either an admin account or a standard account? AppLocker not blocking application even if you set up the executable rule correctly? AppLocker relies on the built-in Application Identity service, which is normally set to manual startup type by default. Administrators should configure the service to start automatically.

To bring AppLocker back to work, follow these steps to start the Application Identity service:

  1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type services.msc and press Enter.

    services-msc

  2. Right-click on the Application Identity service, and select Properties.

    services

  3. Set the Startup type to Automatic and click on the Start button to run the service.

    application-identity-service

  4. Click on Apply and then OK.