Archive for the ‘Windows 7’ category

How to Create a Power Plan in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7

August 22nd, 2018 by Admin

A power plan lets you customize how long it takes your computer to turn off monitor / hard drive, or go into sleep after your computer is idle. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps to create a power plan in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7 to customize how your computer uses power.

How to Create a Power Plan in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7?

  1. Press the Windows key + R to bring up the Run dialog, type powercfg.cpl and press Enter to open the Power Options window.

  2. Click the “Create a power plan” link in the left navigational menu.

  3. Select an existing power plan as the base for your new plan, type in a plan name you want and click Next.

  4. Choose how long before your monitor turns off and how long before your computer goes to sleep. You can either set a certain amount of time, or set it to never. Finally click on Create.

  5. When you come back to the Power Options window, you can see that new power plan is automatically set as active.

That’s it!

How to Prevent Users from Removing Printers in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

August 21st, 2018 by Admin

Is there a way to block users from deleting the printers in a public computer? This tutorial will show you how to use group policy or registry trick to prevent users from removing local and network printers in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Use GPO to Prevent Users from Removing Printers

  1. Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run dialog box, type in gpedit.msc and press Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor.

  2. Navigate to User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Control Panel –> Printers, and then double-click “Prevent deletion of printers” from the right pane.

  3. Select Enabled and click OK.

  4. If a user tries to delete any printers from your computer, a message will appear saying “This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator“.

Method 2: Use Registry Editor to Prevent Users from Removing Printers

If you have the standard or home edition of Windows, you can modify the registry instead to prevent the deletion of existing printers on your computer.

  1. Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run dialog box, type in regedit and press Enter. This will open the Registry Editor.

  2. Go to the following registry location:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

    Double-click the DWORD entry “NoDeletePrinter” from the right panel, change the Value Data field to 1, then click OK.

  3. Now close the Registry Editor and reboot your computer. If you don’t want to prevent users from deleting printers any longer, just change the NoDeletePrinter value to 0 and you’re done!

Rotate Your Screen in Windows – Fix Screen Sideways or Upside Down

August 11th, 2018 by Admin

How can I change the screen orientation back to normal when it appears sideways or upside down? Is there a keyboard shortcut to turn Windows 10 screen 90 degrees or 180 degrees? In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 simple ways to rotate your computer’s screen in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Rotate Your Screen in Windows with Keyboard Shortcut

While hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys, pressing the Left, Right, or Down arrow key could rotate the screen a different direction. To restore the screen back to its normal upright rotation, just press Ctrl + Alt + the Up arrow.

Method 2: Rotate Your Screen via Windows Display Settings

Right-click on the desktop and choose “Display settings“. If you’re running Windows 7, select the “Screen Resolution” option instead.

Click the Orientation drop-down menu, and then choose your preferred screen orientation — Landscape, Portrait, Landscape (flipped), or Portrait (flipped).

A confirmation message will let you decide whether to use the changed orientation or revert back to the current one.

Method 3: Rotate Your Screen in Windows with Intel / AMD Graphics

If your computer comes with have Intel graphics cards, right-click on your desktop and select Graphic Option, then navigate to Rotation and you can change the rotation of the display by 90, 180, and 270 degrees. Note: the “Rotate to 0 degrees” option will get your screen orientation back to normal.

If you have an AMD graphics card, right-click on the desktop and select “Catalyst Control Center“. You can also find the similar option to rotate the display on your PC or laptop. That’s it!

Change Priority of Wired / Wireless Network Adapter in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

August 9th, 2018 by Admin

When your computer comes with more than one network adapter (such as Ethernet and Wi-Fi), Windows will use priorities to decide which adapter to use. If both Ethernet and Wi-Fi are connected at the same time, we should give priority to LAN over WI-FI as the wired connection is faster. In this tutorial we’ll show you the simple way to change priority of wired / wireless network adapter in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Change Network Adapter Priority in the Adapter and Binding tab

If you’re running Windows 8 / 7, you can adjust the priority of wired / wireless network adapter from the “Adapter and Binding” tab. Follow these steps:

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run command, type ncpa.cpl and hit Enter to open the Network Connections window.
  2. You should see a list of network adapters. Press the Alt button (if the menu bar is not already visible) and click on the Advanced menu, and then choose Advanced Settings.

  3. Click the Adapters and Bindings tab. Under Connections, you’ll notice that “Local Area Connection 2” has the highest priority. You can use the up or down arrow button on the right side to change the priority.

  4. Click OK. Traffic will go over the network adapter with the highest priority first (when connected) when all adapters are connected.

However, the “Adapter and Binding” tab was already removed in Windows 10, and you have to use PowerShell cmdlet to change the network adapter priority.

Method 2: Change Network Adapter Priority Using Windows PowerShell

By default, Windows uses the interface metric to determine which network adapter has the highest priority. Adapters with a lower metric number are prioritized over adapters that have a higher number. Here’s how to change network adapter priority using Windows PowerShell:

  1. Open Windows PowerShell as administrator. Type the following command and press Enter.
    Get-NetIPInterface

    The ifIndex column lists a unique number of each adapter, while the InterfaceMetric column lists the priority of the adapter. As you can see from the screenshot above, Wi-Fi has a higher connection priority over Ethernet.

  2. Now, you can use the following command to modify the priority for Ethernet.
    Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex "ifIndex" -InterfaceMetric "InterfaceMetric"

    In my example, I want to assign higher priority to Ethernet over Wi-Fi, so set its metric to a number smaller than 10 (Wi-Fi’s metric number).

  3. Close the elevated PowerShell window and you’re done!

Enable ClickLock to Simplify Drag & Drop with Touchpad

August 3rd, 2018 by Admin

ClickLock is a built-in feature in Windows that lets you drag and drop files without the need of holding down the mouse button. This feature comes to handy if you have trouble holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse at the same time. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to enable ClickLock on Windows 10 / 8 / 7 to simplify drag & drop with touchpad.

If you use a touchpad (or trackpad) on your laptop, the drag-and-drop operation requires you to use both your hands on touchpad to click and drag. After turning on ClickLock, put the cursor on your selected files and hold down the left click for a while, then start moving your cursor to drag and click again to drop.

How to Enable ClickLock on Windows 10 / 8 / 7?

  1. Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run window. Type main.cpl and press Enter to open the Mouse Properties dialog.

  2. In the Buttons tab, check the “Turn on ClickLock” option and then click the Settings button.

  3. The popup window allows you to adjust how long you need to hold down the left touchpad button before your click is locked.

  4. Once you have done this, click OK and then Apply.

4 Ways to Make Your Program Always Run as Administrator

July 18th, 2018 by Admin

Could I force a program to always run as an administrator? Is it possible to automatically open a batch file as admin when you double-click on it? Many old programs need to be run as administrator in order to function properly on Windows 10 / 8 / 7. In this tutorial we’ll show you 4 methods to make your program always run as administrator by default.

Method 1: Always Run as Administrator from Program Shortcut

  1. Right-click on the shortcut of your program, and then select Properties from the context menu.
  2. In the Properties window, select the Shortcut tab, and click on the Advanced button.

  3. Check the box next to Run as administrator and click OK.

  4. Every time you double-click the shortcut it will always run your program as administrator by default.

Method 2: Always Run as Administrator in Compatibility Mode

  1. Right-click on your application or its shortcut, and then select Properties in the context menu.
  2. Under the Compatibility tab, check the “Run this program as an administrator” box and click OK.

  3. From now on, double-click on your application or shortcut and it should automatically run as administrator.

Method 3: Always Run as Administrator Using Registry Hack

  1. Open the Registry Editor and browse to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

    Right-click blank area in the right pane, and then select New -> String Value.

  2. Rename the String value to the full path of the program you want to always run as administrator, and then double-click it to modify.

  3. Type ~ RUNASADMIN in the “Value data” field and click OK.

  4. Close Registry Editor. The program will now open in administrator mode when you double-click it.

Method 4: Create a Batch to Always Run Program as Administrator

  1. Open Notepad (or your favorite text editor), copy and paste the following batch script:
    @echo off :: BatchGotAdmin :------------------------------------- REM --> Check for permissions >nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system" REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin. if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' ( echo Requesting administrative privileges... goto UACPrompt ) else ( goto gotAdmin ) :UACPrompt echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" set params = %*:"="" echo UAC.ShellExecute "C:\Program Files (x86)\Top Password\ISO2Disc.exe", "", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" exit /B :gotAdmin pushd "%CD%" CD /D "%~dp0" :--------------------------------------

    The above script will make the ISO2Disc utility to always run as administrator. You need to replace the full path of ISO2Disc with your desired application.

  2. Next, save the file by clicking File -> Save. Give it any name you like, but replace the default .txt file extension with the .bat extension.

  3. Now, double-click the batch file and it will then launch your program as administrator.

2 Ways to Enable Remote Assistance in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

July 5th, 2018 by Admin

How do I enable Remote Assistance from the command line? Windows Remote Assistance allows someone else to temporarily take control of your PC over the Internet in order to fix a problem for you. This tutorial will show you how to enable Remote Assistance and allow it through firewall in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Enable Remote Assistance in System Properties

  1. Right-click on the “This PC” ( or “My Computer”) icon on your desktop and then click Properties.

  2. On the left side of the System window, click Remote settings.

  3. In the “System Properties” window, go to the Remote tab and make sure the “Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer” check box is checked. Next, click Advanced.

  4. If you clear the “Allow this computer to be controlled remotely” checkbox, the helpers can see your screen, but not take control of your PC.

  5. Click OK to save your changes.

Method 2: Enable Remote Assistance Using Registry Editor or Command Line

  1. Open the Registry Editor and browse to the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Remote Assistance
  2. In order to enable Remote Assistance, double-click the DWORD entry fAllowToGetHelp in the right pane, and set its value data to 1. If you want to disable Remote Assistance, just change it to 0.
  3. Next, double-click the DWORD entry fAllowFullControl and set its value to 1 if you want to allow the person offering the assistance to take full control of this PC.

  4. When you’re done, close Registry Editor.

If you want to make the same registry changes with Command Prompt, just run the following commands to enable Windows Remote Assistance:

reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Remote Assistance" /v fAllowToGetHelp /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Remote Assistance" /v fAllowFullControl /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Allow Remote Assistance Through Firewall

What port should I open to allow Windows Remote Assistance? Enabling Remote Assistance using the above methods will not configure Windows Firewall with the appropriate ports to allow remote connections. In order to allow Remote Assistance through Windows Firewall, type the following into an elevated Command Prompt:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="remote assistance" new enable=Yes

That’s it!

How to Open Remote Assistance in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

July 4th, 2018 by Admin

Windows Remote Assistance allows someone (or helper) you trust to take over your PC and provide remote technical support. It’s something similar to TeamViewer or UltraVNC. This tutorial will show you different ways to open Remote Assistance in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Open Windows Remote Assistance from Run Command

Press the Windows key and the R key at the same time to open the Run command box, type in msra and hit Enter.

This should open up Windows Remote Assistance in no time.

Method 2: Open Windows Remote Assistance via Search

Just click the Start button and directly type “remote assistance“. The search box will show up and deliver the results. Click the option “Invite someone to connect to your PC and help you, or offer to help someone” to launch Windows Remote Assistance.

Method 3: Open Windows Remote Assistance from Control Panel
Open the Control Panel. Type “remote” into the Search box in the upper right corner of the window, and then click the link labelled “Invite someone to connect to your PC and help you, or offer to help someone else“.

Method 4: Create a Desktop Shortcut to Start Windows Remote Assistance

If you need to provide remote technical support to your customers frequently, it’s a good idea to create a desktop shortcut to start Windows Remote Assistance. Follow these steps:

  1. Right-click an empty area on your desktop, and select New -> Shortcut from the context menu.

  2. Type “%windir%\system32\msra.exe” into the location box, and click Next.

  3. Give the shortcut a name, and click Finish.

A new shortcut appears on your desktop. Double-click or tap it, and it will open the Windows Remote Assistance app immediately.

How to Open Color Management in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

June 28th, 2018 by Admin

Colors on your monitor look weird or is it darker than normal? If your monitor’s color and brightness are messed up, you can use the Color Management to calibrate your monitor by installing the proper color profile to help get more accurate colors. In this tutorial we’ll show you quick ways to open Color Management in Windows 10, 8 and 7.

Method 1: Open Color Management via Search

Click the Start button and then type “color management“, click on the Color Management shortcut that appears as the first result.

Method 2: Open Color Management via Run

Press the Windows key + R together to get to the Run dialog box. Type colorcpl and press Enter to launch Color Management.

Method 3: Open Color Management from Control Panel

Open the Control Panel. Select Large icons from the “View by” drop-down menu on the upper-right corner, and you can then access the Color Management utility directly.

Method 4: Open Color Management from Command Prompt or PowerShell

When you’re at the Command Prompt, type colorcpl and hit Enter. This will open the Color Management window immediately.

Another similar way is to run the same command in Windows PowerShell console.

Conclusion

Calibrating your monitor is a simple task to help you make sure colors look as accurate as possible on your computer’s screen. If you need to switch the color profile as often as you want, it’s necessary to create a desktop shortcut to access the Color Management utility (c:\windows\system32\colorcpl.exe).

3 Quick Ways to Minimize Open Windows / Applications in Windows

June 21st, 2018 by Admin

Is there a shortcut to minimize all currently open windows at once? Of course, you can minimize each windows individually until all are minimized but this method is quite inefficient. This tutorial will show you 3 quick way to minimize all open windows / applications running in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Using Win + D Keyboard Shortcut

Simply press the Windows key and the D key simultaneously on your keyboard. This will minimize all the currently open windows at once. To restore minimized windows, press the Windows + D keyboard shortcut again.

If you want to minimize all open windows except the one that’s currently active on your desktop, click on title bar of the window that you want to keep in the foreground, hold down your left mouse button and shake it (move left and to right very fast).

Method 2: Using the “Show Desktop” Button

The Show Desktop button is a small rectangular sectioned area on the far right side of Windows taskbar. Clicking the Show Desktop button will show you the desktop immediately, with all currently open windows minimized. When you click that button again, it will restore all the windows back onto the screen.

Method 3: Using Windows Taskbar

Just right-click an empty area in the taskbar and select the “Show the desktop” option from the context menu, it will minimize all open windows and and show the desktop.

If you want to restore all minimized Windows to their original location, right-click on the taskbar again and this time you have to click the “Show open windows” option.

That’s it!