With bitcoin’s popularity rising, a growing number of businesses in Scotland have been introducing cryptocurrency payments. A roofing company from Glasgow now says more and more of its customers, including pensioners, are willing to pay with crypto. ASAP Roofing Accepts Cryptocurrency for Its Services Kaeleb Mckay, who runs a roofing company with his father, Cameron, has recently told the British press his business is seeing soaring numbers of customers paying in cryptocurrency. The 20-year-old Scot also said he’s been surprised by the people who use cryptocurrency, with his firm’s crypto customer base including even pensioners. ASAP Roofing and Building Ltd started accepting cryptocurrency last year, the Daily record reported, and is now taking several major coins including bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum (ETH), dogecoin (DOGE), litecoin (LTC), and XRP, according to its website. The young entrepreneur from Wishaw in Lanarkshire commented: We have been accepting crypto for a while. For a business it is ideal because it gets paid instantly. Kaeleb’s company is a family-owned roofing and building contractor based in Glasgow, Scotland’s most populous city. It operates throughout Central Scotland and the North of England, specializing in commercial and traditional build maintenance and repair works. Crypto Companies Increasingly Targeting ‘Grey Pound’ ASAP Roofing’s owner admitted he has been involved in the crypto space for years. “I’ve had a personal interest in trading in cryptocurrency since 2014,” Kaeleb Mckay said, also adding he was “surprised by some of the people who want to pay that way.” He told the publication: I did a roof repair for about £500 in November for a pensioner in her late 60s in Glasgow and she said she wanted to pay in Bitcoin. This is not an isolated case as Mckay’s company, which advertises itself as Scotland’s premier roofing contractor, has had other elderly Brits wanting to use cryptocurrency too. “I got another guy who paid £180 in Ethereum for an emergency roof repair in the last few weeks,” he shared. Often called the “grey pound,” pensioner cash has been increasingly targeted by crypto businesses, notes the Daily Record. In March, the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority banned an “irresponsible” ad from crypto exchange Coinfloor addressed to pensioners investing in bitcoin. Most Scottish firms that accept cryptocurrency payments are large tech companies. However, many small businesses such as ASAP Roofing have also turned to decentralized digital money as a substitute for fiat cash.

Investment bank JPMorgan Chase has warned of a further bitcoin price decline, expecting an incoming bear market. The bank’s analysts look at the trend in bitcoin futures and see “an unusual development and a reflection of how weak bitcoin demand is at the moment from institutional investors.” However, a number of people disagree with this analysis. JPMorgan Warns of Incoming Bear Market JPMorgan Chase analysts, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, warned of an incoming bitcoin bear market in a note to investors last week. The analysts looked at bitcoin futures which have been trading at a discount to the spot price, known as backwardation. “We believe that the return to backwardation in recent weeks has been a negative signal pointing to a bear market,” they wrote, adding: This is an unusual development and a reflection of how weak bitcoin demand is at the moment from institutional investors that tend to use regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure to bitcoin. JPMorgan’s analysts affirmed that their outlook for bitcoin was negative. They pointed out another sign that worries them — the sharp decrease in bitcoin’s market share of the total crypto market, which fell from 60% to about 40% between April and May. The analysts call this decline in the BTC market share “a bearish signal carrying some echoes of the retail-investor-driven froth of December 2017.” They see similarities between the current situation and the bitcoin crash in 2018 when investors rushed into cryptocurrencies as they boomed in 2017 and mass exited as the prices plunged during 2018. The bitcoin futures curve was also in backwardation for most of 2018 when the price of BTC dropped from about $15K to $4K, JPMorgan detailed. Some people took to Twitter to disagree with JPMorgan’s analysis. Twitter account DTC Crypto Trading, for example, wrote: “So the ‘analyst’ at JPMorgan says that backwardation on BTC while price is moving up is a sign of the bear market. No clue who ‘analyzes’ this but they might want to hire better people. Pretty much every time BTC has had a sustained period of backwardation, price moved up.” Several people agreed with this analysis. Meanwhile, rival investment banks are seeing huge demand from institutional investors. Even the CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, recently admitted that institutional clients want exposure to bitcoin. Goldman Sachs has repeatedly said that it is seeing huge institutional demand for BTC, noting that the cryptocurrency has become a new asset class. Morgan Stanley is already offering some bitcoin investments to wealthy clients due to the high demand for the crypto asset. Bitcoin’s price moved higher Sunday afternoon following clarification by Tesla CEO Elon Musk stating that his company will resume accepting the cryptocurrency “When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.” At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin sits at $38,874 based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets.

UK police are lobbying the government to change the laws to allow them to freeze cryptocurrencies. Scotland Yard detectives say currently account-freezing orders do not apply to cryptocurrency wallets, making it difficult for the police to stop criminals from transferring funds. UK Police Want New Laws to Let Them Freeze Cryptocurrencies Scotland Yard detectives are lobbying the government for new laws to let them freeze crypto assets of criminals, The Times reported last week. Mick Gallagher, a retired detective chief superintendent at the Metropolitan Police, explained that the laws on freezing assets are outdated, therefore cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, could not always be frozen or seized by the police. Gallagher, who spent 37 years in the Metropolitan Police, retired at the end of last month. “The conversations that we’re having is about how we align cryptocurrency to the same kind of approach that we have about cash-based criminality,” he told the publication, noting that “Cryptocurrency is invisible, it’s instant, it goes around the world, it’s not tangible.” The retired detective noted that “One of the responses we have is legislation,” emphasizing: Because cryptocurrency, and criminality involving crypto, has developed so quickly, and because legislation is so slow, we’re having conversations now about realigning some legislation that currently applies to laundered cash to cryptocurrency. Gallagher explained that the current account-freezing orders and other money-laundering laws apply to cash and other assets, but not cryptocurrency, making it difficult for the police to stop criminals from transferring funds from bank accounts. He and other senior detectives are lobbying the government to make changes to the laws pertaining to the freezing of assets. Gallagher noted that based on their discussions so far the government has been supportive and keen to help them tackle organized crime. Gallagher said that “It’s about definitions,” elaborating: In some legislation we have about account-freezing orders, the word account is a critical word. But there is no such thing as an account in the world of cryptocurrency as they use wallets. So you just have to make slight legislative tweaking so that the wording includes wallet.

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey has urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to “make significant revisions” to the proposed crypto regulation by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the planned adoption of the guidance issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Senator Asks Janet Yellen to Revise Proposed US Crypto Regulation U.S. Senator Pat Toomey wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Thursday regarding the U.S. approach to cryptocurrency regulation. “I write to raise concerns with two proposals involving the Department of the Treasury related to the regulation and oversight of cryptocurrencies,” he began. The first concern relates to FinCEN’s proposed rule for cryptocurrency transactions and the second relates to the FATF guidance on cryptocurrencies and virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The senator described: While I recognize that FinCEN and FATF’s proposals are seeking to address the misuse of cryptocurrencies for illicit activity, if adopted, they would have a detrimental impact on financial technology (fintech), the fundamental privacy of Americans, and efforts to combat illicit activity. I urge you to make significant revisions to them. The senator spent the first part of his letter explaining that “Fostering financial innovation is important” for the U.S. He believes that “cryptocurrencies stand to dramatically improve consumers’ privacy, access to financial services, and power to make decisions for themselves.” Toomey then asserted that FinCEN’s proposed crypto rule “will negatively impact” the U.S., citing two key reasons. Firstly, it would impose “onerous recordkeeping” and reporting requirements on crypto transactions “that extend beyond existing requirements for U.S. dollar transactions.” Secondly, he argued: FinCEN’s proposed rule may also prove to be counterproductive in combating illicit activity … By limiting individual privacy and the ability to transact with financial institutions, the rule would likely push bad actors to utilize methods that do not interface with financial institutions. “As a result, such cryptocurrency transactions would be less susceptible to appropriate government oversight and detection,” he continued. The senator then pointed out that some reporting requirements for USD transactions have not been updated for more than 40 years. “Existing requirements on the U.S. dollar are no longer appropriately tailored to identify illicit activity,” he opined, urging Treasury Secretary Yellen to examine whether they are “appropriate for U.S. dollar transactions.” He emphasized that cryptocurrency “can be more easily traceable than transactions utilizing U.S. dollars” in some cases. Turning attention to the FATF guidance, Senator Toomey asserted: FATF’s guidance will drive cryptocurrency transactions away from financial institutions, undermining the ability of law enforcement and analytics firms to identify and track illicit activity. FATF should revise its guidance to focus on transactions and entities that warrant regulation. Concluding his letter to Yellen, the senator said that the U.S. “should support, not inhibit, financial innovation,” adding: “I urge you to take a more thoughtful approach to identifying illicit activity so financial innovation can flourish and the privacy of Americans remains respected.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that when there is “confirmation of reasonable (about 50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend,” his electric car company will start accepting bitcoin for payments again. Elon Musk Reveals When Tesla Will Resume Accepting Bitcoin Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about when Tesla will resume accepting bitcoin for payments Sunday. He wrote: When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions. Tesla began accepting bitcoin for car payments in March. Musk confirmed at the time that any BTC received will not be converted into fiat currencies. This followed the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declaring that it had purchased bitcoin worth $1.5 billion. In April, its bitcoin stash was worth $2.5 billion. However, Tesla suspended accepting bitcoin as a payment option in May, citing environmental issues. Musk then met with North American bitcoin miners to discuss using renewable energy in mining. The miners subsequently set up Bitcoin Mining Council. Nonetheless, Musk confirmed that Tesla did not sell any bitcoins due to environmental concerns. The company did sell some coins during the first quarter of this year, however, before the mining issues surfaced. During Tesla’s Q1 2021 earnings announcement, Master of Coin Zachary Kirkhorn revealed that the company trimmed its BTC position by 10%. Musk explained at the time that the BTC sale was “essentially to prove liquidity of bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.” Musk’s Sunday tweet was in response to allegations cited in a Cointelegraph article. Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka alleged that the Tesla technoking had manipulated the bitcoin market and the SEC should investigate him. The South African billionaire believes that Musk knowingly pumped bitcoin with the announcement that Tesla was going to accept BTC and then “sold a big part of his exposure at the peak.” However, Musk denied the allegations. “This is inaccurate,” he tweeted, reiterating his earlier explanation of why Tesla sold some bitcoins: Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market.

Chances are you have some useless files sitting around on your computer, like junk in the Recycle Bin that you haven't emptied in weeks. But one of the biggest wastes of space on your PC are the Temp folders in the Windows and AppData directories. As the name suggests, Windows uses these folders to store files that are only needed for a short time: error logs, images, cached files, etc. Their presence helps your computer run smoothly during your current session, but you rarely need them after a reboot, or even after closing a program. You can easily delete these temporary folders to free up space on your computer. But using the Disk Cleanup tool only deletes temporary files that are older than seven days. Even the new Storage Sense feature in Windows 10 won't automatically clear temp files all the time. Why is this? Apps that you're using create temporary files for a purpose. Whether you're downloading something, editing a picture or video, or just want to quickly access data in the app thanks to cache, it needs these temporary files. Windows doesn't know whether every application is done with its temporary files when you run the Disk Cleanup, so it errs on the side of caution. Most people won't need an app's temporary files for more than a week. For instance, let's say you were working on a large video in Adobe Premiere and decided to delete every temporary file on your PC while you had Premiere open. This would very likely cause issues in Premiere because you removed files it needed while it was still working with them. But three days later when you're done with that Premiere session, you can safely delete those files. Unless you have a tiny hard drive, temporary files don't take up enough space to become a problem. If you want to clear them automatically, you can easily set up Windows to delete these temp files when you shut down.

When you installed Windows, did you consciously manage the storage space on your hard drive? Is Windows slow because it's running out of space? Or do you have too little room for backups, while the system partition has many GBs to spare? It may be time to reorganize the free space on your hard drive. Whether you're trying to install an additional OS, managing multiple storage devices, or expanding your storage space, read on to demystify storage management in Windows 10. Partitions and Volumes: An Overview The difference between partitions and volumes can be confusing. But the terminology is important, so let's get it straight. Any given storage device, such as the hard drive in your computer, contains a single block of free, unallocated space. Before we can make use of this space, e.g. to install Windows, we need to create one or more partitions. Partitions are segmented portions of storage space (full definition of a partition). Typically, Volumes are partitions formatted with a single file system (full definition of a volume). File systems are ways to organize data in distinct ways (full definition of a file system). With Windows, you'll typically see drives formatted with NTFS (New Technology File System). On removable drives, you'll commonly find FAT32 (File Allocation System) or exFAT. Mac computers work best with HFS+ (Hierarchic File System). The default Linux file system is called ext4 (Extended File System). If you have two separate partitions (on the same or two different drives) in your PC and both formatted with a file system, both will be labeled with different letters. Typically, you'll have a C: and the D: drive. These two drives are volumes. For our purposes, it suffices to say you can create a volume from a partition and integrate multiple, unused partitions into a single volume. Installing an OS, for example, will typically create a few partitions: a primary accessible partition, and a secondary recovery partition that boots things (like startup repairs). Managing Partitions Now let's look at how you can shrink, merge, and clear partitions in Windows 10. This will let you add or subtract space from your partitions. Defragmentation Before you manipulate your partitions, you should first defragment your hard drive. This will gather all your data in a single chunk of space, which can contribute to faster viewing speeds. Disclaimer: Although defragmenting your hard drive is advised for this process, it's not necessary. Defragmenting SSDs (solid state drives), as opposed to HDDs (hard disk drives), can harm your drive's lifetime, so keep this in mind before proceeding. To defragment your hard drive, press Windows + S, type defrag, and select Defragment and Optimize Drives from the results. Here you can optimize or defragment your drives. Note that Windows may be set up to do this automatically. Once you've analyzed and defragmented your hard drive, you'll note the data displayed in your software gathers to one section. The remaining, blank space is what partitioning management tools will use in order to create new partitions. If your data is scattered across the drive, you will not be able to manage the storage space as it's counted with the original partition. Disk Management To open Windows 10's Disk Management program, press Windows + S, type partition, and select the Create and format hard disk partition option. In the following window, you'll see both your partitions and volumes laid out in distinct blocks according to your different hard drives. You'll note that the categories above display a series of parameters, particularly Capacity and Free Space. You cannot shrink, or separate, a chunk of storage larger than the free space of your hard drive. Even then, you may not be able to separate the exact free space of your storage because some of the data may be scattered. So, act accordingly when proceeding with your disk management. Try not to mess with the separate Disk partitions, as they are meant to provide recovery for your installed OSes. Shrink a Volume If you have free space on your drive, you can shrink a volume in order to create a separate partition. Right-click on a volume and select Shrink Volume. This will analyze your remaining free space, and prompt you to input how much space you want to shrink (i.e. separate) your volume by. Once you've shrunk your volume, you should now be able to see a black space labeled Unallocated in your Disk Management window. That's it! You've successfully shrunk a partition. Create a Separate Volume Now that we have a bit of unallocated space, we can create a separate volume. Right-click on your Unallocated space and select New Simple Volume. Follow the Wizard, assign your drive letter, and format this volume into either NTFS or FAT32. Now, you can use this E: drive in the same way you would a separate hard disk or flash drive. To change the drive letter of this drive, simply right-click the space, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, and follow the wizard. To delete, right-click the Volume and select Delete Volume. Your volume will then revert back to unallocated space. Format a Volume At times, you may want to format a volume with a different file system, so you can use it across various operating systems. To do so, right-click on a volume and select Format. In the following window, choose which file type you'd like to incorporate to your volume. You'll have three different options for formatting a volume: NTFS: The de facto file system for Windows, you can write and view any files you'd like through Windows in this file format. You cannot, however, write onto this file format using a Mac OS distribution. FAT32: The de facto file system for USB drives, FAT32 will allow you to write data from any OS onto this file type. You cannot, however, load individual files larger than 4 GBs onto this file format. REFS: The newer file format of the three, REFS (Resilient File System) grants better protection against file corruptions, may work faster, and maintains a few more benefits like larger volume sizes and file names than its older NTFS counterpart. REFS, however, cannot boot Windows. Choose your option, continue on with the Wizard, and that's it! Extend a Volume When you have a bit of unallocated space, you shouldn't leave that space unused. After all, more space is always better. To expand the storage on your volume using unallocated space, right-click on your existing volume, in my case the D: drive, and select Extend Volume. Follow the Wizard: it should select your unallocated space by default. Keep in mind, you can only extend your volume size with unallocated space displayed to the right of your volume within the Windows 10 Disk Management software. The process is simple enough and will allow you to use all of your unallocated space. Demystify Your Storage Now you know how you can shift storage space from one partition or volume to another. The next time you run out of space on one volume, you don't have to manually move files, you can just add more space. Got no space to spare at all? It may be time to free up disk space by getting rid of temporary files and other space killers.

In Windows 10, you can set your Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection as metered. This means that it'll limit what it uses your internet data for. We'll suggest what scenarios this might be useful for, what differences it provides, and show you how to enable it. One of the key points about enabling a metered connection is that it'll stop Windows Update forcing downloads on you. It'll also mean other background updates, like those in apps or Start Menu tiles, won't necessarily be automatic. We think a metered connection is one of the default Windows 10 settings you should check immediately. What do you think? If you're using a metered connection and want to share your experiences, let us know in the comments below. Note: While the Creators Update comes with those features included, you'll need to tweak the Windows registry to set your Ethernet connection as limited in the Anniversary Update. We show you solutions for both Windows versions. Why You Might Want to Use a Metered Connection There are a number of reasons why you might want to use a metered connection. The main one is if your internet provider limits the amount of data that you're able to use, or if you're charged extra for exceeding the limit. Enabling a metered connection will help stop your data being wasted on things you don't need or want. A metered connection can also be handy if you have a slow internet connection because you'll be able to stop Windows using your bandwidth on some background tasks, allowing it to focus on what's necessary. If you're tethering your phone connection over Wi-Fi, use a metered connection to avoid hitting your provider's data limit. However, Windows devices with an integrated mobile connection will automatically be metered. Finally, you can enable a metered connection if you simply want to take control over some of your system's connected features, like forced Windows updates, which we'll detail below. Differences When Using a Metered Connection One of the things that annoy us about Windows 10 is that it made updates mandatory. With a metered connection, Windows 10 won't automatically download updates, instead giving you a Download button which you can click when you want to get them. However, note that the Creators Update now allows Microsoft to push through critical security updates regardless of your settings. You might notice that some of your apps don't function fully on a metered connection, probably because they've stopped automatically downloading updates. You'll usually be able to update them manually from their settings if you want to push something through. This only applies to apps you've downloaded from the Windows Store, not traditional desktop programs. Other things that'll be different are that live tiles on your Start menu may stop updating and offline files might not sync automatically to services like OneDrive. Microsoft is non-committal on these last two, so you might find that they function like normal despite being on a metered connection. How to Set Up a Metered Connection Press Windows key + I to open Settings and select Network & Internet. In the left-hand menu, select either Wi-Fi or Ethernet, depending on which network connection you wish to set to metered. You need the Creators Update so that you can set your Ethernet to metered. See our guide on how to get the Creators Update now if you don't already have it or check the section below for a registry workaround. If you selected Wi-Fi, click Manage known networks. Now, whether you selected Wi-Fi or Ethernet, select your connection from the list and then switch Set as metered connection to On. You'll need to repeat the above for every network connection that you wish to set as metered. However, Windows will remember your selection for each and you won't need to change it each time you connect. Ethernet for the Anniversary Update If you don't yet have the Creators Update -- we wouldn't blame you if you don't -- then you can make an edit in the registry to have a metered Ethernet connection. Be aware that missteps in the registry can cause problems, so follow these instructions closely. Press Windows key + R to open Run, input regedit, and click OK. With the registry open, copy and paste the following path into the address bar at the top and press Enter: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\DefaultMediaCost Right-click the DefaultMediaCost folder and click Permissions... and then Advanced. Next to TrustedInstaller, click Change. In the text box, type Administrators, click Check Names, then OK. Now tick Replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Click OK. Now click the Administrators group and for the permissions, tick Allow for Full Control. Click OK. In the right-hand pane, double-click Ethernet. Change the Value data to 2, which means a metered connection. Click OK. If you ever want to go back to a standard connection, change this to a 1. Master of the Meter At the moment, the metered connection options in Windows 10 are fairly basic. It's just a slider that you can turn on and off. Hopefully, Microsoft will give us more options and let us refine exactly what this feature does in the near future.

Shutting down is one of your computer's basic functions, but you can use third-party tools to have even greater control over it. Simply clicking the shutdown button will be a thing of the past. We're going to show you tools to help you block, automate, log, and speed up the shutdown process. All of the programs offered below are free and lightweight, meaning they won't overload your system's resources. If you have another shutdown program to share, let us know in the comments. 1. Block Shutdowns It's always frustrating when your computer shuts down when you don't want it to, especially when it causes annoyances like lost work or halted downloads. Even Windows 10 has got in on the act, forcing your computer to restart to install updates when you haven't asked it to. You can resolve all of this with a lightweight utility called shutdownBlocker. Download it and unzip the folder -- there's no installation wizard, so this folder will store the program permanently. Right-click the program and select Run as administrator. This will allow you to use all the features. The program has an intuitive interface. Simply click Block to begin blocking shutdowns triggered by a user. If you want to stop those caused by programs calling shutdown.exe or by Windows itself, tick When blocking, also intercept shutdown.exe/MusNotification.exe. You need to keep the program running for it to work, so click Hide to minimize to the Taskbar. For greater control, click Settings/About. Here you can choose to run on startup, without the tray icon, allow critical error messages to pop up, and add a shortcut to the Start Menu. Just tick whichever setting you want and click OK. 2. Automatic Shutdown You can use the Windows Task Scheduler to automate shutdown, but it doesn't have all the features that a dedicated third-party tool can offer. You can use it to schedule an automatic shut down when a particular program ends, if the system is idle, or even if CPU usage gets too high or low. There's different tools out there to do the job, but DShutdown is a good choice. Excuse the archaic website, since it's been around a while -- the program is still decent. Download it and unzip the folder, then launch DShutdown inside. All of the program's options appear in a single window, so don't be put off by the busy interface. On the Shutdown Target section, you can choose which systems you want to control. Shutdown Type designates the action that's performed. This can be shutdown, but also other things like reboot or hibernate. You can combine this with other options, like forcing the shutdown if the system is hung or taking a screenshot just before shutdown. The Timer section offers what you'd expect, the ability to shut down at a specific time or after a particular interval has passed. Finally, there are more specific options available in the main pane. Here you can allow remote shutdown, enable a shutdown if your internet drops out, and even shut down if a pixel on your screen changes to a particular color. 3. Shutdown Logger If you want to see a record of when your system has been shut down then you can use the Windows Event Viewer. However, it's not immediately obvious how to use this. For a simple tool that will list startup and shutdown times, and the shutdown reason and type, check out TurnedOnTimesView. Download it, unzip the folder and launch the EXE. The program will show you records from the past, not just from the point that you first loaded it. Each action is on its own row, which you can double click to view in a single window, and you can click the column headers to sort. For ease of use, I find it best to go to View > Mark Odd/Even Rows so you can clearly distinguish the rows at a glance. Also, press Shift + Plus to automatically size the columns so you can see all of the information contained within. For further tweaking, press F9 to launch the Advanced Options. Here you can choose your Data Source, for example, if you want to track a networked computer. Also, you may wish to untick Consider the sleep/resume events as turn off/on if you don't need to know when your computer is sleeping. 4. System Tray Shutdown There's a myriad of ways to shut down your computer, but a utility called NPowerTray offers a new one. This handy tool adds an icon to your Taskbar tray that can be double-clicked to shut down the system. It's that simple and it's one of the quickest methods available. To get going, head to the official site to download it. Unzip the folder, launch, and the icon will go into your tray. To keep it there permanently, right-click your Taskbar and go to Taskbar settings > Select which icons appear on the taskbar. Once here, slide NPowerTray to On. You can right-click the tray icon to select other options, like Reboot or Sleep. It also includes the ability to automatically shutdown after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Just hover Shutdown after and select your required duration. Finally, you probably want NPowerTray to automatically launch when you turn on your computer. If so, right-click the icon again and click About. Here you can tick Start with Windows Desktop. Also, you'll see that you can also change the Default action, which is what happens when you double click the icon. Shutdown Managed With these tools, you'll become an expert at shutting down your computer. Who knew that could be a thing! No longer will you have to worry about other people shutting down your computer, being near the system to turn it off, and more.

Your system can get bogged down over time, often with unnecessary data. Although you can clear this out manually, we're going to show you how to automate these tasks to run every time you shut down the computer. From your browser's cache to your temporary files, you're sure to discover a new tip within this article -- perhaps even for something that you didn't know could be cleared out! If you have your own advice to share for something to automatically clear on shutdown, let us know in the comments below. 1. Recently Opened Documents For some programs, Windows will keep track of what files you recently viewed. For example, open something like Microsoft Word and right-click it on the Taskbar. The jump list will display all your recent documents. We can clear this list automatically on shutdown using the Registry Editor. Press Windows key + R to open Run, input regedit, and press OK. On the left-hand pane, navigate to the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion Check if you have a Policies folder here, with an Explorer folder within. If you have neither or only one, we'll need to create them. First, right-click CurrentVersion and click New > Key. Name the folder Policies and press Enter. Second, right-click Policies and click New > Key. Name the folder Explorer and press Enter. Once done, click into that folder. In the top menu, go to Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the value ClearRecentDocsOnExit and press Enter. Next, double-click the value and change the Value data to 1. Finally, click OK. If you ever want to disable this, navigate back to this point and set it to 0 instead. 2. Page File Windows uses RAM to store files temporarily, but it moves these across to the page file when it runs low on space. While your RAM is automatically cleared on shutdown, the page file is not. We can clear this automatically on shutdown using the Registry Editor. Once enabled, your computer will take longer to shut down. The additional time will depend on the speed and size of your page file. The risk is minimal as you can revert the change if needed, but be prepared to notice a difference. Press Windows key + R to open Run, input regedit, and press OK. On the left-hand pane, navigate to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management On the right-hand pane, you should see a row for ClearPageFileAtShutdown. If you don't see this, right-click Memory Management on the left and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Input ClearPageFileAtShutdown and press Enter. Double-click the ClearPageFileAtShutdown value and change Value data to 1. To finish, click OK. If you want to turn this off again, come back to this screen and set the Value data to 0. If you're looking for ways to increase your RAM and avoid things being pushed into the page file, check out our guide on how to clear memory on Windows. 3. Browser Data Depending on your settings, your browser will be saving a variety of data as you browse, like history, downloads, and form inputs. You can clear these manually at any time, but you can also set them to clear when you close the browser. Each browser is slightly different in method. Firefox Open Firefox, click the menu icon (three lines), then Options. Click Privacy on the left navigation. Beneath History, use the Firefox will dropdown and set it to Use custom settings for history. Tick Clear history when Firefox closes. Click Settings... to choose what things Firefox should automatically clear when it closes and click OK when done. Chrome Open Chrome, click the Customize and control button (three dots), then Settings. Scroll to the bottom and click Advanced > Content Settings ... > Cookies. Slide Keep local data only until you quit your browser to be on. This will only clear your cookies, however. You can manually clear your Chrome cache, but you can't automate it. To automatically anything other than your cookies, you'll need to use an extension. We recommend Click&Clean. Install it, click the Click&Clean icon next to the address bar and click Options. Within the Extra category, tick Delete private data when Chrome closes. Edge Open Edge, click the Settings and more button (three dots), then Settings. Beneath the Clear browsing data header, click Choose what to clear. Tick everything you want to remove and then slide Always clear this when I close the browser to be On. 4. Live Tile Notifications If you display live tiles on your Start Menu, you'll notice that some of them display notifications or live information. It's good for a quick overview, but if you don't open these apps then the notifications piling up can be cumbersome. To overcome this, we can clear the live tile cache on shutdown. Press Windows key + R to open Run, input regedit, and press OK. On the left-hand pane, navigate to the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows With the Windows folder selected, go to Edit > New > Key. Input Explorer and press Enter. With the Explorer folder selected, go to Edit > New > DWORD (32bit) Value. Input ClearTilesOnExit and press Enter. Next, double-click the DWORD you just created and set the Value data to 1. Then click OK. You can change this to 0 if you want to turn it off in the future. 5. Temporary Files As you use your computer, it automatically creates temporary files that it might need to call upon for that particular session, like error logs or images. These are stored in a folder called Temp. To see your Temp folder, press Windows key + R to open Run, input %temp%, and click OK. We can create a batch file that will automatically clear out your Temp folder whenever you sign into Windows. To begin, open Notepad and input the following: rd %temp% /s /q md %temp% Click File > Save As... and input the following File name: %appdata%\microsoft\windows tart menu\programs tartup\temp.bat Finally, click Save. This will save the batch file in your Startup folder. If you want to stop the process, navigate to the above folder path and delete temp.bak. If you're looking to take this to the next level, check our guide on how to keep Windows clean of obsolete files. It was written for Windows 7, but the process remains the same for Windows 10. Bonus: Deep Freeze If you don't want to clear a specific thing from your computer, but rather everything, then you're looking for a deep freeze. This will reset your system to a specific state every time you turn it on. This means that anything, whether it's an edited file or installed program, will be reverted and wiped from the record. Windows doesn't let you do this by default, so you'll need to install a program to achieve it. There are a number of free and commercial tools available which we've previously covered in our article on how to deep freeze your Windows installation. Check it out for some suggestions, along with further details on deep freezing. Automatic Tidy Up Hopefully, you've learned something new about what you can automatically clean up on your computer. Remember, you can reverse all of the steps outlined above, should you decide you don't want them to keep running. If you're looking for even more advice, be sure to read our guides on boring tasks to automate with Task Scheduler.

Where does the space go? How has your two-terabyte hard disk drive filled up so quickly? There's only one way to find out: with a disk usage viewing tool. These are mostly designed to work with hard disk drives and solid state drives, but they can also work with flash drives, USB sticks and SD cards. Several such utilities are available for Linux, so let's take a look at them. 1. Native Command Line Tools The first place to check is the command line. Several tools are available here, and are already bundled with Linux. The first command you should try is df. This will report the amount of disk space in use. It can be used alone, to display a full total for all mounted file systems, or with a filename. When used with a filename, df will output the remaining space on the specific partition where the file is stored. df etc The above command would show how much free space is available in the /etc/ directory. Meanwhile, df -h employs the -h switch, which means "human readable." This basically displays the file and folder sizes in a format you can read. Use this to interpret how much disk space is being used by a particular file or directory. Meanwhile, du is also available. Differing slightly to df, du displays an estimate of disk space used by files. For example, du -shc *.txt displays the size of each TXT file in the current directory in human-readable format. You can also use the ls (list) command to output a list of a directory's contents, and the file size. This is done in any directory with ls -l -h Simple! 2. Ncurses Disk Usage (ncdu) If you prefer to get the disk usage information you're looking for from a dedicated utility, then try ncdu. Potentially the simplest method in this list, ncdu scans your system as soon as the tool is launched. By default, the contents and usage of the Home directory are displayed, but this can be changed by specifying a different directory as a parameter. You can install ncdu on Debian-based systems via the command line: sudo apt install ncdu Using ncdu is simple. In the command line, enter: ncdu You'll need to wait for the results on larger HDDs. You can also scan the root filesystem using the -x command: ncdu -x / And there's the option to scan via SSH -- very useful for remote devices. ssh -C user@system ncdu -o- / | ./ncdu -f- Head to the ncdu website to find a full set of instructions. Other features of ncdu include sorting by filename or size, deleting single files and directories, showing information about a file or folder, and toggling the visibility of hidden items. With such good command line tools, you might think you've got everything you need. However, various visual tools will give you an enhanced view of your disk usage. 3. QDirStat The first visual disk usage tool to look at is QDirStat, available across Linux desktop environments, as well as BSD. Visual tools give a great insight into just what is going on with your PC's hard disk drive that a list of numbers simply cannot relate. One of the most popular options for this on Windows is WinDirStat, which is a clone of the KDirStat utility, upon which QDirStat is based. With QDirStat, your HDD usage is represented by rectangles and squares, each of a different size. The bigger the square, the more HDD space is being used by that particular directory. Right-clicking on the rectangle in question will give you the option to visit the folder location. This is a great way to find "secret" data that has been downloaded to your computer. Things like missing download locations and your internet cache can all be traced with these tools. And if you don't like the "blocky" view, usage data can also be viewed as a histogram. You can get QDirStat via GitHub, but packages are available for openSUSE, SLE, and Ubuntu. For the latter, first add the PPA (remember to remove it later): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nathan-renniewaldock/qdirstat sudo apt-get update Once this is done, install with sudo apt install qdirstat You can then launch the software from the desktop, or from the terminal with the qdirstat command. Follow the prompt to select the directory to scan, then wait until the data is collated and presented. A KDE version, K4DirStat, is also available. 4. Disk Usage Analyzer (aka Baobab) Formerly known as Baobab, Disk Usage Analyzer is, as you might have guessed, another visual tool. Rather than the block-based approach of QDirStat, this utility offers a radial treemap pie chart as a live illustration of disk usage. You'll find this in the right-hand pane; on the left, a list of the contents of the currently selected directory. Everything is color-coded for easy analysis, but Disk Usage Analyzer doesn't really offer much more than that. For instance, there's no easy shortcut to the directories you're viewing, other than to open them manually in your default file manager. Having said that, Disk Usage Analyzer is easy to use and ideal for quick checks of usage without too much involvement. 5. xdiskusage Another block-based graphical usage analyzer, xdiskusage has a quite basic UI and gathers information from the du command. This is run on your behalf, however, so the usage data is quickly compiled and presented. Install in Debian-based systems with sudo apt install xdiskusage Run the xdiskusage command in the terminal to launch, then select the directory, or disk, to analyze. The result is a tree-based presentation, with the parent directory block displayed left-most and the child directories and folders branching off to the right. Each block displays the directory name and disk usage. You can navigate through this graphic representation of your directory structure using the mouse or arrow keys. Need to find out more about the directory block? Simply right-click for options, which include copying the path to the clipboard, and printing the display. While it doesn't offer great graphics, xdiskusage is designed to be extremely lightweight. If you're in a situation where your disk has filled up without explanation and you're short of space, xdiskusage could be the solution you're looking for. The downloadable executable for xdiskusage is 64-bit only, however the source can also be downloaded, and compiled on your system for installation. 6. Duc Another disk usage tool employing the radial treemap approach is Duc. Featuring a collection of tools, you can install Duc on Debian-based distros with sudo apt install duc For other Linux families, you can download the source from the website and compile it. Get started with Duc by indexing the /usr directory. This builds a database (more on that below), and can take a while on the first run: duc index /usr From here, you can use ls to list the contents of the directory and their impact on the HDD: duc ls -Fg /usr/local If you prefer to see this in Duc's visual analyzer meanwhile, use duc gui /usr There's also a console interface you can open with duc ui /usr Duc offers a far faster approach to disk usage analysis by maintaining a database of the disk's contents. This makes it ideal for larger systems; the Duc website boasts that it has been tested with "500 million files and several petabytes of storage." 7. JDiskReport Another option for a lightweight installation is JDiskReport, which is a Java-based disk analysis tool. Because it's Java, JDiskReport is cross-platform, which means you shouldn't run into any issues running it on older or unusual Linux distributions. After analyzing your HDDs, JDiskReport presents the statistical data as charts and tables. This is where it comes into its own -- not only do you get the expected pie chart display, the utility also displays a top 50 list of the largest files. You'll also find a screen displaying the largest files by type. Java isn't the most popular platform, and is a pain to update, but if you're looking for something with better reporting options than xdiskusage, JDiskReport is the answer. 7 Disk Usage Tools for Linux: Which Is Your Favorite? It doesn't matter if you want to use native command line tools, awesome GUI visualizers or console-based analysis of your HDD usage: there's a tool for everyone!

Every Windows user knows that you need to perform regular maintenance to keep your computer running smoothly. But what needs to be done has changed with recent versions, especially with Windows 10. What should you do, and what are the big pitfalls to avoid? We'll show you the biggest maintenance mistakes to avoid so you can streamline the process and get back to work. 1. Cleaning the Registry One of the biggest Windows cleaning myths has pervaded through the decades and still deludes people today. Many PC cleaning pieces of software, late-night TV commercials, and other shady sources claim that you need to clean the Windows Registry. Hundreds of errors, they claim, are slowing down your PC's performance. If you'd only pay $19.99 for their cleaning software, it would obliterate these errors and give you a brand-new machine. You do not need to clean the Registry. It is true that, over time, unnecessary Registry entries will stick around due to uninstalling software and other actions. But these aren't a detriment to your PC's performance. You'll never notice a difference even if you remove thousands of "problems." Even worse is that Registry cleaners can often cause more damage than good. Overzealous cleaners could delete important system files, which results in tedious fixes. If your PC speed isn't what it should be, check out our guide to speeding up Windows for real. Don't fall for Registry cleaning, and certainly don't pay for the snake oil software. 2. Not Taking Advantage of Automatic Cleaning In the old days of Windows, you had to remember to run a lot of maintenance on your own, or resort to using the Task Scheduler. In Windows 10, many tools run on their own schedules so you don't have to always check them. Specifically, you should make sure that Windows is automatically cleaning old files and defragmenting your drive (if you don't use an SSD). To run the Cleanup Tool on a schedule, open Settings and visit the System section. Select the Storage tab on the left and look for the Storage Sense header. Turn this slider On so that Windows automatically cleans up old files. You can click Change how we free up space to specify whether you'd like to clean temporary files and old Recycle Bin content. There's also a Clean Now button you can use to get some instant extra space. Disk defragmentation helps a hard disk drive (HDD) run at its best, but you shouldn't perform it on solid-state drives (SSD). Windows knows which kind of drive is in your system and schedules automatic defragmentation accordingly, but it's still worth checking. Type defrag into the Start Menu to open the Defragment and Optimize Drives entry. Here you can see each drive in your PC and its status. Windows will "optimize" SSDs and automatically defragment HDDs. Make sure the Scheduled optimization header is On and you're all set. 3. Neglecting Windows Updates While it's not cleaning, Windows Update falls under the maintenance category as well. In Windows 10, you can turn off updates temporarily but they still run on their own otherwise. If you're still using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you have more control over Windows Updates and can even completely disable them. But we don't recommend that you do this. Without updates, your computer is more vulnerable. Feel free to manage Windows Update to make it work better for you, but please don't disable or ignore updates. They keep your PC safe with the latest patches. Indeed, if PC owners had been more diligent with updates, the devastating ransomware attack in May wouldn't have been as bad. 4. Failing to Back Up If you use a computer, there's simply no excuse for failing to make backups of your data. Some people spout the old "I don't have anything important" argument for why they don't back up, but is that really true? Even if you don't have important documents, sentimental pictures, or other irreplaceable files on your machine, what about the time spent to recover from data loss? Just setting up Windows the way you had it could take hours, and your time is valuable. Thankfully, backing up your data isn't much of a chore. And once you set up a solution, it becomes pretty set-and-forget. You can use the built-in backup tools in Windows or try a third-party solution. Both let you back up locally (to an external hard drive, for example) or over the internet so your data is safe from physical damage. Any amount you spend on a backup service will instantly pay for itself the moment you try to turn on your PC and find that it won't boot. The alternative is going through a lengthy process to recover data from your PC that won't boot. And that only works if your hard drive is still functioning. 5. Running RAM Optimizers Similar to Registry cleaners, many pieces of software claim to "optimize" your computer's memory (RAM) so that programs don't use up more than they should. Unsurprisingly, you should avoid these as well. We looked at CleanMem, a popular choice for this task, and found several issues with the developer's methods. He even stated that the software doesn't speed up your computer and is a placebo. Modern versions of Windows do a fine job of managing RAM on their own. You still might want to avoid RAM-hungry programs like Chrome if your computer doesn't have a lot installed, but running an optimizer isn't the solution. For actually fixing problems, check out the best free tools to fix Windows 10 issues. 6. Letting Everything Run at Startup One of the biggest causes of a slow computer, especially at startup, is having too many programs running. Most apps and programs "conveniently" set themselves to run every time you turn on your PC. This is great for essentials like your antivirus and clipboard manager, but you really don't need Adobe Reader, Spotify, and Skype jumping up as soon as you boot. If you're not using them, having them open is just wasting resources. Thankfully, it's easy to remove programs from running at startup. We've shown you everything you need to take charge of startup programs, and even recommended ten items you should remove to get started. Allowing everything to run at startup without pruning the list is a simple mistake that can lead to hampered performance. 7. Forgoing Physical Maintenance Much of Windows-specific maintenance is software-based. But your computer can also run into physical problems that could impact your performance down the road. Be sure you're not making big hardware maintenance mistakes, like restricting ventilation or allowing dust to build up. Regular hardware maintenance will ensure your software continues to perform well. Maintenance for the Wise Committing these seven mistakes could cost your PC some of its lifespan or ruin your daily performance. Thankfully, they're all easy to avoid. Avoiding slimy software, letting Windows run its automatic cleaning, and taking care of your PC's hardware will go a long way. And when you do run into a problem, the best free maintenance tools will help you take care of it. Did you just realize that you have more Windows cleaning to do than you thought? Check out a step-by-step guide to cleaning Windows 10.

Before we start, let me make something clear: performing maintenance on your computer is vital. It'll prolong the life of your hardware and save you hours of frustration. In Windows 10, Microsoft has provided a tool that does much of the hard work for you. It's called Automatic Maintenance. However, it's not without its flaws. You might want to take maintenance into your own hands instead. Unfortunately, unlike previous iterations of the operating system, there is no easy way to turn off the feature. Or is there? In this article, I'll show you how to disable Automatic Maintenance and introduce you to some ways to manage the processes yourself. What Is Automatic Maintenance? Microsoft is a bit vague when describing exactly what the Automatic Maintenance does. On the company's website, it says the following: "Maintenance includes keeping Windows and applications up-to-date, checking security, and running scans for malware." It's important to distinguish Automatic Maintenance from other maintenance tools found within the operating system. They include a host of mini-tools within the Control Panel (Control Panel > Administrative Tools), as well as other tools that are bundled into the Security and Maintenance app (Control Panel > Security and Maintenance). How to Configure Automatic Maintenance To configure the Automatic Maintenance settings, head to Control Panel > Security and Maintenance > Maintenance > Automatic Maintenance > Change maintenance settings. On the following screen, you can choose the time you want Automatic Maintenance to run at each day, as well as choosing whether to allow Windows to wake your computer up to perform the tasks. That's it. There are no further options, and as mentioned, no way to turn off the Automatic Maintenance feature. The Problems With Automatic Maintenance Maintenance is important, but Automatic Maintenance is not necessarily the best tool for the job. It's due to the way it works. Once you've scheduled a time for your maintenance, your PC will try to begin the task for up to one hour. The maintenance will only start if you're not using your machine. If the maintenance is not successfully started during the hour, Windows will defer the task to a later date. But what exactly is a later date? Well, according to Microsoft, Automatic Maintenance will restart the task during the next "idle" period. Image Credit: garagestock via Shutterstock So, let's paint a picture. Your maintenance is scheduled for 2 am each day, but your computer is switched off at that time. At the start of the day, you fire up your machine and start working. Because the PC is in use, maintenance won't start. But what happens at lunch time? As you head off to the cafeteria for a snack, your machine becomes idle. The Automatic Maintenance will fire up. Your CPU usage will rocket, components will heat up and -- unless you own a top-end PC -- Windows will become more sluggish. When you return to your desk for the afternoon, the maintenance will suspend itself. But your computer needs time to settle down -- a lot of tasks have just been unexpectedly interrupted at the same time. It's like when you try to do too many things at once immediately after startup. In the worst case, your computer could even crash, potentially resulting in a lot of lost work. The solution is to prevent Automatic Maintenance from running in the first place. You need to turn it off. How to Turn Off Automatic Maintenance Disabling Automatic Maintenance requires you to edit the Windows registry. As you probably know, making errors when editing the registry can have grave consequences for your system. In the worst case, you might not be able to boot your machine at all. Before proceeding, make a complete backup of all your valuable data. Ideally, you should also create a system restore point. To begin the process, open the registry. The easiest way is to open the search bar, type regedit, and hit Enter. In the left-hand panel of the registry, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Schedule > Maintenance. Now focus on the right-hand panel and locate an entry called MaintenanceDisabled. Right-click on the entry and choose Modify. A new window will appear. You need to change the Value data field to 1. Click OK when you've made the changes, and restart your machine to ensure the changes take effect. If MaintenanceDisabled Doesn't Exist If you can't see MaintenanceDisabled, don't worry. Making your own registry entry is easy. Right-click anywhere in the right-hand panel and select New from the context menu. On the next menu, click DWORD (32-bit) Value. Call your new entry MaintenanceDisabled, then right-click on it and choose Modify. As per the instructions above, you need to make sure the Value data field is set to 1. How to Turn Automatic Maintenance Back On The changes you just made to the registry entry are easily reversible. If you change your mind and decide you'd like to re-enable Automatic Maintenance, reopen the registry editor, head back to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Schedule > Maintenance, and set the DWORD value back to 0 (zero). How to Maintain Your System Manually If you choose to disable Automatic Maintenance, you will have to manually perform maintenance tasks on your operating system. Thankfully, many of the tasks performed by Automatic Maintenance are also available as standalone tools. Defragmentation Windows has included a defrag tool for almost as long as it's existed. Head to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Defragment and Optimize Drives, and highlight the drive you want to defrag. Click Optimize to start the process. It could take a long time, depending on the amount of data on your hard drive. Malware Scans You can run a Windows Defender scan at any time. In the Windows 10 Creators Update, the tool is easier to use than ever. It now forms part of the new Windows Defender Security Center App. To get started, locate the app in your Start Menu, open it, and click Virus and threat protection from the menu on the left. Expand the Windows Defender Antivirus Options and flick the toggle next to Periodic scanning. Windows Updates To manually check all the most recent Windows updates are installed, navigate to Start > Settings > Update and security > Windows Update > Check for updates. You can continue working while Windows Update downloads and installs upgrades in the background, though you will probably need to restart your machine to complete the update process. Best Third-Party Tools for System Maintenance Remember, you can always supplement the native Windows tools with third-party apps. We covered some of the best free tools in a previous article: WinDirStat CCleaner Geek Uninstaller Malwarebytes Speccy Check out that article to learn more about the tools and how they can enhance your operating system. Do You Use Windows Automatic Maintenance? I've shown you how to disable Automatic Maintenance and offered some ways you can stay on top of system maintenance if you want to do it manually. Do you use Automatic Maintenance or take responsibility for your own upkeep? Have you ever experienced any of the problems with Automatic Maintenance that I described?

It's time to give your Windows system a clean of all the old and unnecessary drivers on it. This will free up your storage space and you might see some performance improvements. We'll show you two great methods to tidy up those drivers. Not only does your system retain previous driver versions for current devices, it also stores drivers for devices you stopped using long ago. You might want to keep the former, but the latter can go! If you have your own methods to share on removing old drivers from your Windows machine, please let us know in the comments below. Remove Previous Driver Versions When you update an existing driver, Windows will keep the old version stored on your system. This is so that you can easily roll back to the working version if the new one causes trouble. Old drivers do take up space, though, so if you'd rather forgo that protection then you can remove them all. Remember, if you regret your choice, you can usually find previous drivers from the device manufacturer's website. To get started, press Windows key + R to open Run. Input cleanmgr and click OK. Select your main system drive from the drop-down and click OK. Disk Cleanup will then open. Click Clean up system files. You might need to select your system drive again. This will then bring up a window containing a list of things you can delete to save system space. Feel free to tick the boxes of other items, but the pertinent one for us is Device driver packages. Once selected, click OK and it will delete your older driver versions. Remove Old Device Drivers If you've had your system for a long time then you've probably gone through lots of different hardware. Speakers, mice, keyboards, and all sorts of devices can install their own drivers to your computer. The drivers for these devices will remain installed, even if you don't use that device anymore, but just hidden from view. We're going to show you how to reveal and delete them. Step 1: Reveal Hidden Drivers There are two different methods you can use to reveal your hidden drivers. Both achieve the same thing but feel free to use whichever you feel most comfortable with. Option 1: Using Command Prompt Perform a system search for cmd. Next, right click on the relevant result and click Run as administrator. This will open the Command Prompt with elevated permissions (though it's not the only method for opening a administrator Command Prompt). Copy and paste the following: SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 Press Enter. You won't receive a confirmation message, but the change will have taken place. Option 2: Using Environment Variables Perform a system search for Edit the environment variables for your account and select the relevant result. In the User variables section at the top, click New.... In the new window, input the Variable name as devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices and the Variable value as 1. Then click OK. Step 2: Delete From Device Manager Now that we've revealed the hidden drivers, it's time to remove them. Do a system search for device manager and select the relevant result. Once opened, go to View > Show hidden devices. This will give you a list of all your active and inactive devices. Those which are inactive will be grayed out. Right click the inactive device and click Uninstall device to remove it completely. You'll need to do this in turn for each device you want to uninstall. Drivers Be Gone! With these two methods, you can ensure that your system only has up-to-date drivers for devices that you're actively using. Depending on how many drivers you've had stored, you'll now have a good chunk of free storage space. If you're after more tips on how to get the most from your Windows drivers, see our guides on finding and replacing outdated drivers.

Older laptops feature a DVD drive. Increasingly this isn't required; DVD drives have quickly disappeared from notebook computers in the past few years. More and more people are opting to abandon the internal optical drive and install a second hard disk drive (HDD). If you've noticed that you've barely used the DVD drive, you might be considering a replacement storage device. Here's how to replace your laptop's DVD drive with a 2.5-inch SSD (solid-state drive) or HDD. This tutorial is available in video form, or you can read on for the full written tutorial below. Want to Replace the DVD Drive With an SSD or HDD? Here's What to Do Swapping a barely used laptop DVD drive with extra storage is surprisingly easy. All you need is: A drive caddy A screwdriver Plastic lever tool Hot glue gun (optional) The process is straightforward too: Order the drive caddy Select a new drive: HDD or SSD? Remove the DVD drive Insert the drive in the caddy Fit the caddy in the PC Furthermore, you can even reuse the old DVD drive as an external disc drive by fitting it into a suitable enclosure. Ready to swap your notebook's optical drive with a new HDD or SSD for additional storage? Let's start. Step 1: Order the Caddy The drive caddy replaces the DVD drive. In this, you place the chosen extended storage, a HDD or SSD. At this stage, you might be thinking: "Hang on, there's no standardized design for laptops. How can this work?" And you would be right... to a point. While there remains a lack of standardization for laptop computers, the same isn't true of the upgradeable parts. Additional RAM, hard disk drives, and DVD drives almost always have the same connectors from device to device. This means that they can be swapped. DVD drives are mostly a certain shape and size. This means that a caddy can be easily slipped into the space that the DVD drive occupied. Where can you find a HDD caddy? The best place is on Amazon or eBay. A caddy will set you back less than $15. Vantec SSD/HDD Aluminum Caddy for 9.5mm ODD Laptop Drive Bay (MRK-HC95A-BK)BUY NOW ON AMAZON Note that two variations of drive caddy are available, to fit 9.5mm and 12.7mm high drives. The difference is noticeable---you might be able make up the difference with some padding, but this isn't recommended. Caddies are equipped with a SATA connector for the new drive, and one to connect the caddy to the laptop. Once slotted in and secured, the replacement drive can then be used for additional storage or dual booting. Step 2: Choose an SSD or HDD to Replace the Optical Drive As the idea is to expand the amount of storage available to you, you'll need a new drive to sit in the caddy. This might be a HDD or a faster SSD. Check our guide to buying a new disk drive for help here. Obviously, the capacity of the drive will depend upon your requirements. However, we would recommend installing as large a drive as possible. A high capacity drive has superior backup possibilities. It's also a good choice for saving personal data to, thereby avoiding data loss should the main HDD fail. Step 3: Remove the DVD Drive From Your Laptop With your new secondary disk drive ready to install, it's time to remove the DVD drive. Removing a DVD drive is usually straightforward, although this will depend on the manufacturer. The standard method is: Place a towel on your table Sit the laptop on it with the lid face down Find the DVD locking screw (usually near the middle of the laptop, typically indicated by a small DVD icon) Remove the screw Pull out the optical drive Some laptops have a push-button removal system; alternatively, there might be a catch to depress while the drive is removed. This is similar to how you might remove a laptop battery. In other cases, you might need to use a plectrum, credit card, or plastic knife to dislodge the drive. There should be no resistance, however. Once fully removed, use a screwdriver or plastic knife to gently remove the DVD drive fascia. Unless your laptop shipped with a spare, blank fascia for the DVD drive bay, you'll need this later. You may also need to remove the locking screw hole from the DVD drive. This is attached with two small screws and can be easily attached to the caddy for locking in place. Step 4: Insert the HDD or SSD Into the Caddy This should be the easy bit! With your HDD or SSD unpackaged, it should be simple to slip the drive into the caddy. Depending on the retailer, you may have received a screwdriver with the caddy. Either way, check to see if any screws are included. These will need to be tightened to secure the HDD or SSD in the caddy. Make sure these screws are flush with the caddy when tightened, otherwise it won't slide into your laptop. Step 5: Insert the Caddy Into Your Laptop Next, find the fascia you removed earlier. Another standardized aspect of laptops is the fascia attachment on DVD drives. Because the eject button has to be in a certain position for universal accessibility, so the fascia attachments have the clips in the same place. Simply attach the fascia, pushing the catches into the slots. Hot glue may be required here, especially if a catch breaks. With the laptop again upturned on the towel, slide the drive in and use the securing screw to fix the caddy in place. Your laptop has a new storage device, ready to use with any operating system that you have installed. Don't forget to format it first! Reuse Your Old DVD Drive So, you've replaced your laptop's DVD drive with an SSD or HDD. But what about the discarded DVD drive? Well, you can still use it. It's possible to install a laptop drive into an external housing that you can easily connect and disconnect from your laptop. All you need is a laptop DVD enclosure and a pair of USB connectors for data and power. HDE USB 2.0 to IDE / PATA External CD / DVD Drive Case Enclosure [Case Only, No Drive Included] CD-ROM DVD-ROM Portable Case for PC Laptops and NotebooksBUY NOW ON AMAZON Our guide to making an external DVD drive from an old laptop drive should help here. A DIY portable DVD drive can be used with a tablet, ultrabook, or any other device without an optical drive. Replace Your Laptop DVD Drive With an SSD or HDD: It's That Easy! If your laptop has a largely redundant DVD or CD drive, using that space for extra storage is a good idea. With the vast file sizes that HD photography and videos require---not to mention games---having that extra capacity could prove extremely valuable.

South Africa’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) has a released new position paper that calls for the regulation of the country’s cryptocurrency ecosystem. In the document, the IFWG, which is a creation of the South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB), recommends “a staged approach to bring crypto-assets within the regulatory remit through the regulation of crypto asset service providers (CASPs).” Crypto Service Providers to Adhere to AML/CFT Requirements The 49-page document also “sets out 25 recommendations for a revised South African policy, legal and regulatory position on crypto assets and related activities.” According to the IFWG, some of these recommendations “are already underway and in the process of being implemented while some will take much longer to implement.” Meanwhile, in the position paper, the IFWG’s recommendations are grouped into three overarching categories. Concerning the first one, the working group recommends CASP adherence to the legislative requirements that are aimed at anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). Some of these requirements include the reporting of “cash transactions of $1818.00 (R25 000.00) and above or the applicable threshold at any given time.” Central Bank Arm to Monitor Cross-Border Crypto Transactions In the second category, the IFWG says it wants the Financial Surveillance Department (Finsurv) of the SARB “to assume the supervisory and regulatory responsibility for the monitoring of cross-border financial flows in respect of crypto assets and CASPs.” In addition, the working group is recommending the amendment of certain parts of the exchange control regulations to enable the placement of crypto asset trading platforms (CATPs) under the purview of relevant bodies. The position paper states: It is further recommended that a new dispensation should be created under the exchange control framework to allow CATPs (licensed as above) to source or buy crypto assets offshore for the purpose of selling to the local market, subject to specified limits to be determined by Finsurv. In the third category, the IFWG recommends that crypto-assets be declared financial products. Such a declaration would require CASPs “to become licenced intermediaries and provide for the rendering of advice by such entities.” This, in turn, allows for “regulatory oversight and will assist in addressing the immediate exploitation of consumers by unscrupulous entities.” IFWG Not Endorsing Crypto Assets In the meantime, the IFWG has insisted that its release of the new position paper “should not be interpreted as any type of endorsement of crypto assets.” Instead, the working group argues that this decision “to formally bring CASPs within the domestic regulatory remit was driven by a combination of factors.” One of these factors pertains to the need “to promote responsible innovation and regulate the conduct of these providers.” The high inherent risks associated with crypto assets as well as scam activity are the other factors that prompted IFWG’s recommendations. Finally, the IFWG is urging crypto-asset consumers to ensure they fully understand the products and services they are gaining exposure to, as well as the associated risks.

The Bitcoin Mining Council has gone live, launching its own website detailing its members and the mission statement of the organization. The council originated as a closed organization, but they are now allowing any miner to join. While Michael Saylor gets a founding member status, the site states Elon Musk has “no role” in the council. Bitcoin Mining Council Officially Launches The Bitcoin Mining Council, an organization born out of worries regarding Bitcoin’s energy consumption, launched officially yesterday. On the website, the council presents its mission statement. It also explains the plan to tackle the task of addressing bitcoin energy worries. The site states: The mandate of the Bitcoin Mining Council is to promote transparency, share best practices, and educate the public on the benefits of Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining. To achieve this, individual members need to provide accurate energy numbers. Miners and mining companies are traditionally reluctant to share these statistics in the open. The council made its debut last month when Michael Saylor hosted a meeting of a group of several miners in America. The objective of the meeting was to point bitcoin mining in a cleaner, greener direction. However, the Bitcoin Mining Council states that: Bitcoin’s energy usage is a feature, not a bug, and provides tremendous network security. By providing a voluntary disclosure forum, miners can decide to share their energy sources, in hopes of promoting transparency. This focus clearly leaves behind the green push that originated it. While the Bitcoin Mining council has 9 members including Microstrategy, the site states any miner can join. Elon Musk Pushed Aside The Bitcoin Mining Council states Michael Saylor is one of the “key members of the BMC, both as a facilitator and Bitcoin supporter.” However, Elon Musk, whose activity was key to its establishment, was sidelined. The site declares: Elon Musk has no role at the BMC. The extent of his involvement was joining an educational call with a group of North American companies to discuss Bitcoin mining. While Elon Musk was not involved in the creation of the organization, he drove public attention to Bitcoin’s energy consumption. Musk called Bitcoin’s energy footprint “insane” in one of his tweets. Tesla, the vehicle company where Musk is CEO, also stopped accepting Bitcoin as a payment method due to environmental concerns. This was a key circumstance that started a downtrend in the market. All of this enticed miners to take the subject seriously. In any case, the backpedaling seems to go hand in hand with Musk’s latest Twitter divorce with Bitcoin.

The popular Twitter account and creator of the bitcoin stock-to-flow (S2F) price model explained that “$288K [is] still in play.” Meanwhile, data from the exchange Deribit shows there’s 425 bitcoin call options with a strike price of $200K set for December 31, 2021. Plan B Says: ‘$288K Still in Play’ On June 12, 2021, while bitcoin (BTC) prices have been hovering just above the $35K zone, the popular Twitter account Plan B (@100trillionusd) told his 553,000 followers that six-figure bitcoin prices are still intact. Plan B is a pseudonym and he published the stock-to-flow (S2F) price model in March 2019. He also updated the S2F model to another version called the stock-to-flow cross-asset (S2FX) model. Twelve days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on how Plan B said his S2FX model was “intact.” Plan B has always shown confidence in his model but when he last tweeted about the S2FX being intact, he invoked a poll on Twitter. The pseudonym asked his followers if they thought the S2F model would break or will it turn out to be an excellent buy signal. When the poll completed more than 53% of the 31,824 votes said it was a “buy signal.” Plan B’s statements on Saturday still show confidence in the model and even six-figure price targets. “$288K still in play,” Plan B said on Twitter. “It would really surprise me if bitcoin would not touch the black S2FX model line this phase. Regardless of current volatility, yellow green and blue dots will be (much) higher than red orange dots,” the analyst added. Chart shared on Saturday, June 12, 2021, by stock-to-flow (S2F) creator Plan B on Twitter. A Twitter account responded to Plan B’s tweet on Saturday and asked: “What gives this confidence given the large downwards deviation from the model at the moment? Is it onchain analytics?” Plan B responded and noted that things look awfully similar to 2013 and 2017. Plan B noted: Deviation is not much different from 2013 (S2F ~10) or 2017 (S2F ~25), just the usual inertia after a halving. Deribit Call Options With a Strike Price of $200K for December 31, Bloomberg Strategist McGlone Sees an Ace up Bitcoin’s Sleeve Plan B is not the only person expecting six-figure prices as data from Deribit’s call options records show more than 400 contracts with an expiry set for the last day of 2021 for a price above $200K per BTC. Chart shared on Saturday, June 12, 2021, by Senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence Mike McGlone on Twitter. Senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, Mike McGlone, also spoke about bitcoin’s scarcity and touched upon the next halving on Saturday. “Bitcoin $100,000 Has Bullish Ace Up Its Sleeve: Declining Supply — This year follows a cut in Bitcoin supply, making the price more likely to appreciate if past patterns hold,” McGlone tweeted, while also sharing a chart of the diminishing BTC supply. The diminishing bitcoin supply is a stark contrast to the $8 trillion recorded on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet for the first time in history on June 10, 2021. Meanwhile, some skeptics as usual disagree with people like Plan B or Mike McGlone as one person responded to McGlone’s optimistic outlook. “Don’t marry the trade, it’s in a bear market,” the individual replied to McGlone on Twitter.

The ‘Speedy Trial’ lock-in period for the Bitcoin network upgrade Taproot is now complete. Data from taproot.watch details the lock-in has been achieved and it was locked in at block height 687,285 and mined by the mining pool Slushpool. Bitcoin Taproot Lock-in Complete at Block Height 687,285 Taproot is coming this November as the web portal taproot.watch indicates that the lock-in period of signaling has finished. “This period has reached 1815 Taproot signaling blocks, which is required for lock-in.” The Taproot upgrade is considered one of the largest upgrades in four years since the activation of Segregated Witness (Segwit) back in 2017. Poolin executive Alejandro De La Torre tweeted about the milestone after the signaling finished. “Taproot has locked-in,” De La Torre said. “Excellent work miners. Congratulations bitcoiners. Bitcoin protocol upgrade now set to activate in November. When activated in November, Taproot addresses will be able to leverage Schnorr signatures in contrast to Bitcoin’s current elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA). Because Schnorr signatures are more compact than ECDSA it could improve scaling. Other features besides the bump in scaling expected from Taproot activation include more complex BTC smart contracts and decision-based transactions. Alongside this, it’s been said that Taproot and Schnorr signatures will also allow for more privacy when transacting. Taproot enhancements also include the ability for BTC participants to utilize Merkle trees. Bitcoin Core versions 0.21.1 and versions above this release will be able to upgrade to Taproot in November. There will be roughly five months for miners and other node operators who want to transition to Taproot. Taproot, however, is a soft fork which means similar to Segwit, network participants do not necessarily have to upgrade to the new ruleset. The founder of the 13exchange, Nikita Vassev, was pleased with the lock-in completion and tweeted about the landmark occasion on Twitter. “There was a tremendous amount of work done on activation,” Vassev wrote on Friday. “I was impressed with how the pools joined in, and it is our common achievement.”

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has proposed dividing crypto assets into two groups and regulating them based on their market, liquidity, credit, and operational risks to banks. Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, will be subject to “a new conservative prudential treatment.” Crypto Regulation Proposed by Basel Committee on Banking Supervision The Basel Committee has proposed regulating crypto assets based on their risks to banks. The Bank of International Settlement (BIS) published the committee’s public consultation on “preliminary proposals for the prudential treatment of banks’ cryptoasset exposures” Thursday. The BIS explained that banks’ exposures to cryptocurrencies are currently limited. However, it added: Continued growth and innovation in crypto assets and related services, coupled with the heightened interest of some banks, could increase global financial stability concerns and risks to the banking system in the absence of a specified prudential treatment. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is the primary global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks. Its 45 members comprise central banks and bank supervisors from 28 jurisdictions. The committee’s secretariat is located at the BIS in Basel, Switzerland. The committee’s “proposals differentiate between crypto assets based on the market, liquidity, credit and operational risks they present for banks,” the BIS described, elaborating: The proposals split crypto assets into two broad groups: those eligible for treatment under the existing Basel Framework with some modifications; and others, such as bitcoin, are subject to a new conservative prudential treatment. The first group includes “certain tokenized traditional assets and stablecoins,” the BIS clarified, adding that crypto assets in the second group “pose additional and higher risks.” Submissions on the proposals must be made by Sept. 10. However, the BIS stated that due to the rapidly evolving and complex nature of this asset class, more than one consultation is likely needed. The BIS further noted that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are not within the scope of the consultation.

If you're running Windows 10 and encountering a seemingly unsolvable problem, reinstalling the operating system might be your best option. We're going to show you how to reinstall Windows without losing your personal data. Windows 10 isn't without its problems and often it can be hard to determine where the cause of the issue lies. If your system worked well when you first got it, you might find that a particular driver, program, or update is now causing trouble. Reinstalling Windows can help solve this. If you have your own advice or experience to share on reinstalling Windows, please let us know in the comments below. Back Up Your Data The process we're about to engage in will theoretically keep your personal data, but nothing is ever certain. It's best to have a backup just in case disaster strikes. You might also want to back up things outside your personal data, like program files or registry edits. We've produced the ultimate Windows 10 data backup guide, so it's likely that all the information you seek can be found there. But let's go through some steps. The backup you create should never be on the same drive as the primary copy of the data. Since you'll reinstall the operating system, your system drive will be cleaned too. Your backup should ideally be on a separate drive. If that's not possible, you could use smaller physical media like a USB stick or opt for an online cloud storage service. If you don't want to have to think about what data to back up, you might want to consider creating an image of your system. This will basically create an exact duplicate, which you can roll back to should anything go wrong during the Windows reset process. Alternatively, you can pick and choose the data you want to keep and copy it over to the drive. You could use a third-party backup program to help you with this or you can do it manually. What Data Should I Back Up? To begin, press Windows key + E to open File Explorer. It's likely that the majority of what you need will be in folders like Documents, Pictures, Videos, and the like. You may want to consider your installed program's application data. This can be found by pressing Windows key + R to open Run, inputting %appdata% and pressing OK. It'll likely be sorted into folders named after the program's developer. On a similar vein, open Run again and browse to your Program Files folder, which will likely be C:\Program Files (x86). Here you'll find the actual installation files for your programs, so copy them if you don't want to redownload them, but also other things like settings or game saves. Finally, you can also back up any tweaks you made in the registry. Open Run, input regedit, and click OK to launch the Registry Editor. On the left-hand pane you can right click any folder and Export it to create a copy. However, remember the reason that you're reinstalling Windows. There's no point bringing over all of this data; the problems you're having now may reoccur. It's fine to back it up, but be wary about what you reinstate on the other side. Reinstall Windows It's very easy to reinstall Windows. You don't need to download any software and it can all be done with a few clicks. To begin, press Windows key + I to open Settings. Go to Update & security > Recovery. You'll find two options here. Option 1: Reset This PC The first is Reset this PC header. This will reset your computer back to the manufacturer state, which means it'll also keep any bloatware that might have been there when you first got the system. This could be things like program trials or manufacturer tools. This isn't recommended, but you can use it if you wish. To proceed, click Get started, choose Keep my files, and progress through the wizard. Option 2: Fresh Start An alternative method is available from the same Settings window under More recovery options. Click Learn how to start afresh with a clean installation of Windows. It'll ask if you wanted to switch applications, so click Yes to launch Windows Defender. Now click Get started. Keep pressing Next to proceed through the wizard, noting the information at each stage. You'll be given a list of all your programs that will be uninstalled. See our guide on how to bulk install programs for a quick way to bring them back once you've reset Windows. This method will keep your personal data and default Windows programs, along with ensuring your system is using the most recent version of Windows. A Completely Clean System The process complete, you'll now be running an entirely clean version of Windows 10 with your personal data intact. If everything worked out according to plan, you should also find a backup of your system in the Windows.old folder on your C drive. While this is convenient, this is not a backup option you should rely on! Windows 10 clears this folder after 10 days, so if there's anything you'd like to keep for longer, move the files out. If you like, you can reinstall your old programs and bring across the data that you backed up previously. However, remember to be choosy with this. There's no point putting everything back to how it was after you just reinstalled Windows. Not interested in keeping your personal data and looking for even more ways to reset Windows 10? Check out more ways to reset Windows 10 and reinstall from scratch in our guide.

If you want to split your drive into different sections then you can use partitions to achieve it. Using a default Windows tool called Disk Management, we're going to talk you through all the terminology and show you how to resize, delete, and create partitions. Essentially, this is a virtual process for adding additional drives. If you want to physically add new drives to your system in order to gain more storage space, see our guide on how to install a new internal drive. If you have your own advice to share about managing partitions, be sure to pop down to the comments section. What Are Partitions? A storage drive is a physical component. This could be inside your system or externally connected. It has a specific capacity limit; if you have no space left for your data then you'll either need to delete things or buy a new drive. We're going to be looking at how to partition your drive. Simply put, a partition is a block of space on your drive that Windows will manage separately. A single drive could consist of one or many partitions, and each carries its own drive letter; except for hidden partitions which we'll touch on later. Using partitions has a number of benefits. The most common is to separate the operating system from user files. This means that you can reinstall the operating system without losing your data, and also create image backups of each individually. It can also help protect your files. If one your partitions goes bad, it doesn't necessarily mean that the others will. Understanding Disk Management Windows has a built-in tool called Disk Management which you can use to create, delete, and manage the partitions on your drive. To get started, press Windows key + R to open Run, input diskmgmt.msc and click OK. This will open Disk Management. The top half of the window shows you existing partitions, which Windows calls volumes. The bottom part then represents this data visually. Each physical drive has its own row and the partitions are shown as separate blocks. For example, you can see in the screenshot above that Disk 0 has a capacity of 931.39 GB (it's a 1 TB drive, but because of the way storage works you don't get that full amount.) The three partitions on the drive shown above are: EFI System Partition: This is one of the partitions mentioned earlier that doesn't have a drive letter, but it's very important. It contains files needed to boot Windows and shouldn't be deleted. Page File, Primary Partition: This is the main partition on the drive, where nearly all of the files are stored. Recovery Partition: This partition will help you recover your system should the primary partition become corrupted. This also doesn't have a drive letter and is hidden. Using Disk Management It's quite simple to use Disk Management, but it's important you understand what each feature does so that you're not accidentally erasing your data. If you're concerned, consider creating an image of your drive before continuing. Resize a Partition Before you can make a new partition, you first need to create some free space for it by shrinking the size of an existing volume. To do this, right-click a partition and select Shrink Volume... You can only select this if you have free space on the drive. Input a value into the Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB field. For example, if I wanted to shrink a 100 GB partition by 50 GB, I'd input 50000 (there are roughly 1000 MBs in a GB.) Then click Shrink. If you have an existing partition that you want to be larger, right-click that partition and select Extend... Here you need to enter the amount you wish to increase by. For more information on this, see our article on how to shrink and extend partitions. Delete a Partition You can also free up space by deleting an existing partition. However, be extremely cautious: this will delete everything on your partition. Back up any data you want to keep before proceeding because otherwise it'll be gone forever. If you're sure you wish to do this, right-click a partition and select Delete Volume... You'll then get a warning message. To finalize the delete, click Yes. Create a Partition A black block represents free drive space. Right-click this and select New Simple Volume... A wizard will open to guide you through the process. Click Next. In the Simple volume size in MB, input how large you want this partition to be. Remember, 1000 MB equals 1 GB. Click Next. Here you can assign a drive letter or path. Leave it selected to Assign the following drive letter, but feel free to use the dropdown to select a different letter. Click Next. On this screen, you can choose to format the partition. Feel free to change the name of the volume with the Volume label field. Otherwise, leave everything default here unless you're comfortable with what you're changing. Check out our article on demystifying file systems for more information. Click Next. The final screen will summarize all the options you've selected. Cycle through the Back button if you want to change anything, otherwise click Finish to create your partition. Data Management Master Now you know how to use the Data Management tool you can control your drives like a master. Remember, always be cautious before shrinking or editing existing partitions. You'll be fine if you follow the advice above. If you want to completely wipe a drive, perhaps to remove bloatware, then you can also use Disk Management for that. See our guide on how to format a new internal drive for the details.

Your right-click menu contains many shortcuts you never use. What's worse, the Send to menu, one of its sub-menus, is missing useful shortcuts. Let us show you how to customize your Send to menu to remove links you don't need and add shortcuts you'll want to use. Send to Folder Basics If you haven't seen the Send to folder in a while, or haven't ever used it, it's easy to access. Open up a File Explorer window and right-click on any file. Near the bottom of the context menu that pops up, you'll see a Send to entry with an arrow next to it. Highlight this, and the Send to menu will slide out, revealing all its options. Depending on how much software you have installed, this menu could contain a handful of items or a few dozen. In addition to the below, you might also have Bluetooth device or various external devices listed. The default Windows entries are: Compressed (Zipped) Folder -- Uses the basic compression utility built into Windows to add the selected items to a ZIP file. Desktop (Create Shortcut) -- Creates a shortcut to the selected item on the desktop. Useful for when you're working with some files deep in your system and don't want to forget their location. Fax Recipient -- You might not even have known Windows could send faxes, much less ever sent one. Because you can easily send faxes online, this is basically useless for most people. Mail Recipient -- Opens your default email program with the selected file attached to a new message. The inbuilt zipping folder option is okay, but you should probably have a better file compression software installed that can handle that functionality. If you often use Outlook, the mail recipient shortcut is handy. The desktop shortcut is probably the most useful on the default menu for most people, while the fax shortcut is pointless. Clearly, the Send to menu could use some help. Thankfully, it's not hard to edit these entries. Accessing the Send to Editor You don't need any special software to make changes to this menu. You can find the shortcuts that power the Send to menu at the following location: C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo However, there's a much faster way to jump to this menu. Into either a File Explorer window's address bar or the versatile Run menu, just type this command: shell:sendto This opens the same destination as the above. Once you're here, you'll see a shortcut file for each entry on the Send to menu. Delete a shortcut here, and it disappears from the Send to menu as well. If you're not sure where a shortcut comes from, right-click on it and click Open File Location. For example, we can see that the Fax Recipient shortcut comes from the WFS.exe (Windows Fax and Scan) program in the System32 folder. If you're worried about deleting one of these and needing them later, just cut and paste them to a different folder for safekeeping instead. You're not limited to just deletions at this menu, either. You can add your own shortcuts to programs or folders just like the existing ones. To add a folder, right-click on it and choose Create shortcut. Windows might alert you that it has to create the shortcut on the desktop, which is no problem. Cut and paste that new shortcut into the Send to folder, rename it if you like, and it will appear on your Send to menu. To add a program as a shortcut, search for it using the Start Menu. Right-click and choose Open file location to access its executable, then right-click again on the resulting file and Create shortcut. Move that shortcut into the Send to folder, and it'll be a new option for you. Add More Options The above method is perfectly fine for basic Send to editing, but you can go deeper with a program dedicated to helping with this task, Send To Toys. When you install it, you can choose which additional Send to commands you want to add. These include Send to clipboard, Send to Command Prompt, and Send to Run. If you're not sure, leave them all checked and you can remove them later. Once installed, open Send To Toys and you can easily remove any entries from the list just like the manual method. Click Add to browse out to any folder or program and easily add it to the list. You can also rename any shortcut by right-clicking on it and choosing Rename. Some of the options feature extra configuration on the app's other tabs. Click Folder to change the behavior for the Folder shortcut. You can select to send to the parent folder, the last used folder, or another folder of your choice. The Clipboard tab lets you change what happens when you send something to it via one of its shortcuts. Finally, you can specify a Default Mail Recipient if you often use that shortcut to send an email. Getting "Send To" Just Right The Send to menu is underappreciated, but with just a few minutes you can clean up the junk and make it into an even better tool. It's always just a click away, and doesn't require any extra software bogging down your computer. Sending files from the File Explorer instead of always opening them from other programs cuts down on wasted time. Be sure to give this menu a shot if you've neglected it thus far!

You've unlikely given much thought to your computer's date and time settings. It's something that you set when installing the operating system and then promptly forget about. But how do you ensure that your computer clock is accurate? In this article you can find out how your system clock works, how to customize its settings, and what to do if it starts displaying the incorrect time. If you have your own tips to share on managing your system clock, please share them in the comments below. Why Is an Accurate System Clock Important? The most obvious answer to this is so that you can keep a proper track of what the time is. In all seriousness, an out of sync system clock can have some major consequences. Some of the problems you might encounter are an inability to access HTTPS websites, email clients marking your mail with the incorrect date, software with time limits instantly expiring, and more. You can check your system clock in the tray of your Taskbar. The precise format of it will depend on your customization settings, but clicking the time will then open a modal that shows you the date and calendar too. How to Sync Your System Clock to Atomic Right click the time in the tray of your Taskbar and click Adjust date/time. This will open a Settings window with a number of available options. First, ensure that both Set time automatically and Set time zone automatically are slid to On. Next, click Additional date, time & regional settings > Set the time and date > internet Time > Change settings... Once here, ensure that you have Synchronize with an internet time server ticked. Enabling this means that your system will automatically synchronize with the internet time server selected, either weekly or on system boot, whichever happens first. If you're receiving an error that Windows couldn't synchronize with the time server, you can select a different one from the list by using the Server dropdown. All of the servers on the list are US-based, so if you're constantly having problems then it's worth using one closer to where you live. For this, visit the NTP Pool Project. Use the Active Servers list to select your region. You'll see the name of a country, the server URL, followed by the number of servers within. If your country has a low number of servers then choose somewhere else nearby that has more. Copy the server URL, switch back to your system's time settings, paste into the Server text box, and Update now to check it works. Then click OK. Consider Third-Party Time Correction Software If you're having trouble with the in-built Windows solution, or the time server isn't updating often enough, you can use third-party software to handle the time correction. For this we recommend Dimension 4 [No Longer Available], which is free for personal use. When you launch the program it'll ask you for elevated permissions to run in the background. Accept and continue. Then click Settings to begin customizing. From here you can select from a large list of servers across the globe, or click Add if you want to specify your own. Of particular importance are the settings beneath the How Often header. Here you can set the program to run at startup and synchronize every specific second, minute, or hour. Obviously, if your system clock is constantly wrong then you can set this to sync more often. Finally, untick Maximum correction because this means it'll only correct the time if it's out by the hours specified. Still Having Problems? If you're still having problems with your system clock, or if it's constantly out of sync, you may find that there's a fault with a battery on your motherboard. If you see an error message on startup that reads "System CMOS checksum bad" or similar, that's a sure-fire sign that you need to replace the CMOS battery. The battery failure means that your system clock will reset back to the BIOS default every time you boot. Changing the battery will solve the problem, though that does mean opening up your computer or laptop to do the replacement. Consult the manufacturer's instructions before doing so and pay attention to how it'll impact your warranty. An IT professional should be able to replace it for you if you're unsure. For more information on this, see our guide on why your motherboard has a battery. Alternatively, use a method outlined above as a workaround. One final check is to see if Daylight Saving Time changes are being accounted for. Do a system search for date and time and select the relevant result. Click Change time zone... and then ensure that Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time is ticked. Click OK when done. I'm Late for an Important Date! Now you understand how important it is to keep an accurate system clock and how to keep it in sync! Not only will you be on time for your important date, but you'll also overcome other oddities like HTTPS certification failures and wrongly dated emails. With this new grasp on what the actual time is, now you can look to improving time in another way. Check out our guides to fixing your slow boot times and speeding up your shut down.

When using the desktop version of Spotify, every time you play a song it gets added to the Spotify cache. This cache is essentially a bin that stores a local copy of the song so that you don't have to keep downloading it every time you listen to it. It speeds up playback and saves bandwidth. There's an obvious trade-off here. At some point, the cache fills up with more nonsense than it's worth -- too many songs that you don't listen to anymore yet continue to take up disk space. Spotify limits the cache to 10 percent of your free space, but it's still a good idea to empty it every so often. All you have to do is navigate to the cache location, which is different depending on your operating system, and delete all of the files within. It's as simple as that. Navigate to the Spotify app's settings. Scroll down and click Show Advanced Settings. Under Cache, copy the location. Navigate there in your OS's file explorer. Default Location on Windows C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Spotify\Storage Default Location on Mac /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Spotify/PersistentCache/Storage Default Location on Linux ~/.cache/spotify/Storage/ Note that if you have another disk drive or partition on your system, you can actually move the Spotify cache there so it doesn't waste space on your primary drive or partition. To do this, under Cache click on Change Location and set it to whatever other folder you want. And there you go. Now Spotify won't waste your precious hard disk space, which can be a huge issue if you made your primary partition tiny so that it only has to worry about operating system files.