Police in the U.K. uncovered an illegal bitcoin mining operation when they conducted a raid on what they believed to be a cannabis farm. The West Midlands Police made the unexpected discovery on May 18 after entering an industrial unit in Sandwell, located near the city of Birmingham. Intelligence suggested that the Great Bridge Industrial Estate was being used to procure cannabis, but instead police discovered a large-scale cryptocurrency mine that was “stealing thousands of pounds worth of electricity from the mains supply.” “We heard how lots of people were visiting the unit at different times of day, lots of wiring and ventilation ducts were visible, and a police drone picked up a considerable heat source from above,” police said in a press release on Thursday. “They are all classic cannabis factory signs – but when officers gained entry they found a huge bank of around 100 computer units as part of what’s understood to be a Bitcoin mining operation.” Police seized the computer equipment, which had bypassed the local power supply company. Police said no one was in the unit at the time that they executed the warrant and officials are still looking for those responsible for the massive crypto operation. “It had all the hallmarks of a cannabis cultivation set-up,” Sandwell Police Sergeant Jennifer Griffin said. “My understanding is that mining for cryptocurrency is not itself illegal but clearly abstracting electricity from the mains supply to power it is.” Blockchain assets — like cryptocurrencies or NFTs — store long chains of information, and creating these digital ledgers requires a large amount of computation. New blocks of information are added — or “mined” — to the decentralized blockchain network based on a process called proof-of-work, which requires expensive computer hardware that consumes a lot of power. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, bitcoin mining consumes about 114.31 terrawatt-hours per year of energy — more than the amount of energy consumed per year by countries like the Philippines and the Netherlands. Several companies are working on ways to lessen the environmental cost of mining blockchain assets, including sustainability platform Aerial, which helps you calculate the carbon footprint of your NFT collection.

The cryptocurrency market is on the back foot ahead of a long weekend in a raft of countries, including the UK and the US, and with volatility levels still high, whippy price action over the coming days cannot be discounted. The current market capitalization is around $1.6 trillion and is nearly 40% off its all-time peak, highlighting that the recent heavy losses have not been pulled back to any great extent. Traders need to be aware that low volume and high volatility markets are ripe for large swings, and with sentiment in the cryptocurrency market still dented, further losses cannot be ruled out. JOMO is the New FOMO: Trade with the Joy of Missing Out Bitcoin continues to struggle and any rally will have to overcome the 200-day simple moving average which is currently capping BTC/USD. Bitcoin has not been below the 200-dsma for over a year, so the recent breakdown remains worrying. The 200-day sma currently sits around $40,700. Volatility levels are off their recent extremes but remain high at $4,650 compared to a spot price of $37,000 Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Alt-Coins – Recovery Remains Fragile, Volatility Stuck at Near-Extremes BITCOIN (BTC/USD) DAILY PRICE CHART The Ethereum chart looks a little more positive than Bitcoins and highlights the positive performance of the ETH/BTC spread this year. ETH remains above its 200-day sma by a large margin, although the recent slip below the 50-dsma is a short-term negative. If this can be regained, then $3,000 should be achieved relatively quickly. Again, volatility is high at $443 against a spot price of $2,600. ETHEREUM(ETH/USD) DAILY PRICE CHART The alt-coin market remains depressed with any move higher being sold into. It looks like the hot-money crowd has veered away from the alt-coin space and moved back into meme stocks. AMC Entertainment has more than doubled in the last week, alongside massive option volume, while another meme favorite GameStop is up by nearly 50%. It will need Bitcoin, and increasingly Ethereum, to steady and then push ahead to draw the fast money crown back to the alt-coin space. Traders of all levels and abilities will find something to help them make more informed decisions in the new and improved DailyFX Trading Education Centre

How to Check PC Health With Windows Security If you want a quick, user-friendly overview of your system health, Windows Security can provide it. To launch the program, do a system search for Windows Security. Once opened, click Device performance & health. The Health report section is split into different areas, flagging any issues and what the resolution is. Windows Security scans periodically in the background, as shown by the Last scan date, so there's no need to run this manually. The health report covers: Storage capacity: If your system has enough disk space to complete tasks like Windows update. Battery life: If anything is shortening your battery life, like your brightness settings. Apps and software: If anything installed needs updating or is failing. Windows Time service: If your clock is out of sync or disabled, which can impact internet connection and cause other issues. If these are all fine, they will be marked with a green check. Otherwise, an amber check will indicate that you can click to find out what the specific problem is and how to fix it (with the ability to run an automatic troubleshooter in some instances). How to Check PC Health With Performance Monitor The Performance Monitor utility comes with Windows 10 and is an advanced tool to track elements like disk, memory, and network usage. You can launch it by doing a system search for Performance Monitor. You can generate two reports with Performance Monitor: System Diagnostics and System Performance. To create these: From the left-hand pane, expand Data Collector Sets > System. Right-click both System Diagnostics and System Performance and click Start. Each report can take around a minute to complete. Once ready, you can access them through Reports > System. The report names contain the date they were generated. For guidance on reading these reports and other advanced tips on using this utility, check out our article on how to use Performance Monitor like a power user. How to Check Battery Health With a Sleep Study If your system supports the sleep state, you can run a report to assess your battery's health and understand how it is being used. This is helpful to identify apps or devices that are using lots of power, perhaps unnecessarily. You can run it on a desktop to check your computer's power cycle, but obviously, it's better served for laptop users. For those people, the report can be useful to illustrate how many cycles your battery has been through, which means how many times the battery has gone from dead to a full charge. To begin, you need to open an elevated Command Prompt. Press Windows key + X and click Command Prompt (Admin). The Sleep Study doesn't exist as an accessible utility on your computer, so we can use a command to generate an HTML file of the report. To do so, input this into Command Prompt: powercfg /SleepStudy /output %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\mysleepstudy.html This will output a file to your Desktop called mysleepstudy.html. Feel free to adjust the command to a different file path or file name. By default, the Sleep Study will cover the last three days. To specify the number of days, input the following command, switching DAYS for a figure up to 28: powercfg /SleepStudy /output %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\mysleepstudy.html /Duration DAYS Navigate to your Desktop and open the file to view your Sleep Report in your web browser. The report gives you information about your machine and battery, a battery drain chart, and details on each standby session. You can see how long each session lasted, the energy consumed, and how much time was spent in a low power state. The report lists the top five offenders for battery drain, but interpret this carefully. High usage is not necessarily a problem because it depends on what you were doing in that session. For example, if you install Windows updates, play music, or have Bluetooth devices connected, all require ample battery. How to Check Wireless Network Health With a Network Report You can generate a Wireless Network Report on Windows 10 to see the wireless connection history for your system from the last three days. This is a good way to find out how your connection is being used and what might be causing problems. Press Windows key + X and click Command Prompt (Admin). Input the following into Command Prompt: netsh wlan show wlanreport This will output an HTML file. To view it, press Windows key + R to open Run, input the following and click OK: %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\WlanReport\wlan-report-latest.html This will open the report in your web browser. The chart at the top gives a summary of the connection sessions available in the report. You can click a letter to jump to that specific section. The most pertinent ones are those in red, which indicate an error. Also, look at the Disconnect Reasons table to understand why your network dropped out. It might be because you disconnected it, which is fine, but other problems can be listed here, like if the driver failed or the network was unavailable. RELATED:Got A Windows 10 Wi-Fi Problem? Here's How To Fix It How to Diagnose Other Windows 10 Issues You don't need to run these health reports all the time. If you encounter consistent errors or notice your computer slowing down, it might be because your hardware is failing, so it can be useful to run these reports to determine the problem. Remember, Windows Security will actively notify you if there are general health problems.

Today, surveillance techniques exist that can activate your webcam or microphone without your knowledge. That makes any interface device like a microphone or a webcam a big privacy concern. Therefore, you need to disable the microphone on Windows 10 altogether. The tried-and-true hack of using tape works for webcams, but not for microphones. However, this technique will not work if someone has deployed a RAT to subvert your machine. Disabling or muting the microphone has other everyday uses beyond privacy. For instance, to block it from picking up any noise at all while trying to record something. Also, it could be a security block against websites that ask permission to use your microphone or camera. So, let's see how to disable or mute the microphone in Windows 10. Disable the Microphone in Windows 10 There are a few several ways to mute the microphone in Windows 10 from different settings locations. Let's take a look at them. 1. Use the Device Manager Right-click on the Start Button and open Device Manager. In the Device Manager window, expand the Audio inputs and outputs section and you will see your Microphone listed there as one of the interfaces. Right click on Microphone and select Disable. A dialog box will prompt with a warning. Click on Yes, and now your mic will not function. You can follow the same steps to Enable it again. This straightforward method also works in Windows 8 and 7. 2. Use Device Properties Accessing the device properties of the microphone and selecting the right setting will take you no more than five seconds. Most of the properties now can be found under the Settings app. You can access the Device Properties in two ways. Click on Start > Settings > System > Sound. Right-click on the Speaker icon in the System tray. Choose Open Sound settings. The Sound dialog has a section for your input devices. Scroll down to the section and choose your microphone input from the dropdown. Click on Device properties. In the next screen for device properties, click on the checkbox to Disable the mic. Now, Windows 10 and other apps will no longer be able to the microphone. 3. Use Control Panel and Additional Device Properties Most of the sound properties have been ported to the Settings app in Windows 10. But you can also click the Additional device properties link in the above screen to open a few advanced microphone settings provided under the Control Panel. You will find everything on four tabs. General: Enable or disable the microphone and access the driver details. Listen: Allow or deny the use of the microphone jack to connect to a portable speaker or other audio devices. You can set the power options here. Levels: Adjust the volume and boost settings for the microphone. You can mute the microphone too. Advanced: Customize the sampling rate and set control permissions for devices that use the microphone. 4. Go to Manage Sound Devices The Manage Sound Devices screen in Windows 10 is a list of all your input and output audio setups. These can be headphones, Bluetooth devices, or anything like the in-built microphone. The Manage sound devices link is located just below Device properties. Clicking on it takes you to the next screen with the list of input and output devices. Locate Microphone on the list and click on it to reveal the Disable button. Use this button to disable or enable the microphone. 5. Mute the Microphone in Specific Apps So far we have looked at steps that turn off the microphone across the whole system. The Privacy settings for Windows 10 also enable you to control microphone access for individual apps. Open the Settings app. Choose Privacy. Select Microphone under App permission from the list on the left. Turn off or on Allow app to access your microphone. You can keep this setting enabled, but toggle the button to off for the apps in the list which use the microphone. Microsoft warns that an app with a driver could bypass the ability of Windows to control the access by interacting directly with your camera or microphone hardware. If you are worried about your privacy, it's better to disable these apps or control its permissions if possible. Keep Tabs on Your Microphone Stay aware of your microphone use with the notification icon in the taskbar. Go through the above steps if the icon appears when you aren't using the mic in any app. Your microphone is a necessary remote work tool. But a hot mic can be an embarrassment as well as it can transmit your goof ups. The microphone in Windows machines does not come with a handy mute button as it does for the PC speakers. You have to rely on the mute microphone button on individual apps for that. That said, the mic is an essential remote work tool. Stay aware of the way you use it and also keep it running with a few troubleshooting fixes for a faulty microphone in Windows 10.

It's a frustrating problem when your PC randomly turns on from sleep. Not only does this waste power, but it might wake you up if you sleep near your computer. If you have problems keeping your Windows 10 system in sleep mode, we're here to help. Let's look at why your computer randomly turns itself on, and how to stop your computer from waking up without your say-so. Check for Wake Devices in the Command Prompt To figure out why your computer randomly turns on, you can first use a few Command Prompt commands to get an idea of what's going on. To open a Command Prompt, right-click on the Start button (or press Win + X) to open the power user menu. There, select Command Prompt (or Windows PowerShell; either will work). Enter the following command: powercfg –lastwake This will show you the last device that woke your PC up from sleep. if you see something like Wake History Count - 0 as in the screenshot below, Windows doesn't have a record of what it was. This can happen if you just rebooted your PC. Next, you should try the following command: powercfg –devicequery wake_armed This one displays all the devices that are allowed to wake your PC from sleep. It's common to see your mouse and keyboard listed here. If you don't want a device to have the authority to wake up your PC, use the following command to disable it, replacing the text in brackets with the name of the device. We look at a more user-friendly way to do this below. powercfg -devicedisablewake [DEVICE NAME] Review More Sleep Info in Event Viewer For a bit more information on the latest sleep event, you can open the Event Viewer in Windows. Search for it in the Start menu for easy access; once it's open, select Windows Logs > System in the left sidebar. From there, click Filter Current Log in the right sidebar. In the filter window, click inside the Event sources box and select Power-Troubleshooter. You can use the Logged dropdown at the top to set a time frame if you want, then hit OK. After this, you'll see a list of events showing when Windows woke up from sleep. Select one to get more info about it, including exactly when it happened. Check the Wake Source inside the box to see what caused it. This may say Unknown, which obviously isn't much help. But if there's a specific cause here, you'll know what to look for going forward. Use the Device Manager to Disable Wake-Ups Using the information you gained from the Command Prompt and Event Viewer, you can now hopefully prevent your computer from turning on during sleep mode through the Device Manager. To open it, right-click the Start button (or press Win + X) and choose Device Manager from the list. This utility shows all devices connected to your PC, but not all of these have the ability to wake up your computer. You'll want to check the ones revealed by the commands above. Devices under Keyboards, Mice and other pointing devices, and Human Interface Devices are the most common culprits. Expand those lists and double-click on an entry to open its Properties window. If there's more than one entry, you may have to check each one individually. Unfortunately, devices don't always include their model name, and you'll likely see multiple devices if you've connected more than one in the past. In the Properties window for your device, you should see a Power Management tab at the top. Select this, then uncheck the Allow this device to wake the computer box and hit OK. This prevents your mouse, keyboard, or other device from waking up Windows from sleep. Repeat this process for any devices that you also want to disable. While you most likely won't bump your keyboard by accident (unless your pet activates it), the mouse is a much more common problem. A particularly sensitive mouse can wake up your computer from a small shake of your desk or the floor. Thus, it's a good idea to prevent your mouse from waking up the PC. Even if you disable every device's ability to wake up your computer from sleep, you can still wake it up using the power button. It's up to you whether you want to keep another device enabled for this purpose. For troubleshooting purposes, it's best to disable everything to start. Stop Network Wake-Ups While poking around in the Device Manager, you should be aware of another common culprit: your computer could be waking up from its network connection. Most modern systems include a feature called Wake-On-LAN. This allows you to turn on your computer from anywhere in the world. Which using Wake-On-LAN can be beneficial, it might also malfunction and cause your computer to wake up randomly. If you don't care about this feature, try disabling it to see if your sleep issue goes away. In the Device Manager, expand the Network adapters section and look for your connection adapter. This feature is almost always used with wired connections, so look for an entry containing Ethernet Connection or similar. In its Properties window, switch to the Power Management tab again. Depending on your adapter, you may have a simple Allow this device to wake the computer box---uncheck it if so. However, other network adapters will have a list of options. In the below example, unchecking each of the boxes under Wake on LAN will disable the feature. Turn Off Scheduled Task Wake Timers The Windows Task Scheduler lets you set routines to run automatically on your system. While this is convenient, some tasks are set up to wake the computer so they can run. Even if you never set a task up manually, there's a chance that some app is waking up Windows so it can check for updates or similar. You can dig through the Task Scheduler by hand, but that's not necessary. Instead, toggling a simple option in your power plan will disable tasks from waking up Windows. To access this, head to Settings > System > Power & sleep. On the right side, click Additional power settings to open the Control Panel page for Power Options. There, click the Change plan settings link next to your current power plan. On the resulting page, select Change advanced power settings to open a new window. Finally, expand the Sleep item, followed by Allow wake timers. Change this to Disable and hit OK. Now, Windows will no longer wake up for scheduled events. For best results, you should repeat this for each power plan. That way, you won't start having problems again if you switch plans. Disable the Scheduled Maintenance Feature Windows 10 has moved so many preferences to the Settings panel that you probably haven't visited the Control Panel much. As it turns out, a lesser-known feature from Windows 8, called Automatic Maintenance, is still there in Windows 10. This can wake up your PC on its own, so you should disable it if your problem hasn't gone away. To check it, type control panel into the Start menu to search for and open it. If you see Category in the top-right, click it and change to Small icons. From there, choose Security and Maintenance. Expand the Maintenance section and find Automatic Maintenance, then click Change maintenance settings underneath it. Make sure the Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time box is unchecked. Scan for Malware At this point, it's worth running an anti-malware scan to make sure you don't have something malicious waking up your system. While all malware acts differently, there's a chance that it's set to wake up your system in order to phone home or take some other action. You can scan with the built-in Windows Defender. For a second opinion, download the free version of Malwarebytes and run a scan with that. Hopefully you don't have anything hiding on your system, but it's worth checking if you still can't explain the wakeup behavior. Stop Your Computer From Turning Itself On Hopefully, one of these tips helped you solve the problem of your PC turning on randomly. This issue can have many causes, so it's often difficult to troubleshoot. After making the above changes, if the problem still occurs, you may need to run through the first steps again to diagnose what device is still waking up your PC.

Are you swiping at your Windows 10 laptop and wondering why the two-finger scroll isn't working? There are a few ways to fix this problem, from enabling the setting to ensuring your drivers are working as they should. Let's explore some easy ways to enable a double-finger scroll in Windows 10. Enabling the Two-Finger Scroll Option First of all, before we do anything technical, it's a good idea to double-check that the setting for a two-finger scroll is enabled. We don't want to mess around with drivers if the solution is as easy as ticking a checkbox! To check if the setting is enabled, click on the Start button, followed by the "Settings" option. Click on "Devices." Finally, click on "Touchpad" on the left. You're now in the Windows 10 touchpad settings. You may see a lot of options here, and you should give them all a look-over when you have the time. If your laptop has a precision touchpad, for example, it unlocks a lot of gestures you can perform. To check if you have one, look at the top of the touchpad window to see if it says "Your PC has a precision touchpad." If you have one, you gain access to a lot of settings that let you get the most out of your touchpad. For now, however, let's focus on double-finger scrolling. To activate it, scroll through the window until you see the category "Scroll and Zoom." Underneath that is a checkbox labeled "Drag two fingers to scroll." If it's unchecked, go ahead and check it. Now you should be able to use two fingers to scroll through webpages and documents. Customizing the Two-Finger Scroll You can also set which direction the page will scroll when you swipe. Underneath the checkbox you just ticked is a drop-down menu called "Scrolling direction." You can set this to one of two options. "Downward motion scrolls down" feels like you're controlling the page's scroll bar with your fingers. When you move your fingers down, the page moves down, like when you click and hold the scroll bar. "Downward motion scrolls up," on the other hand, feels like you're physically touching and dragging the page up and down with your fingers. Play around with both settings to find the one that feels natural to you. Update or Roll Back the Touchpad's Driver If the above steps do not work, or the checkbox is already ticked when you check it, there's still hope. The problem may not be with Windows 10's settings, but instead with the touchpad's driver. Try to remember if this problem began after you installed new drivers. If they did, rolling back the new drivers will fix it. If you haven't downloaded them in a long time, or you're on a brand-new Windows 10 laptop, you should try installing new drivers. How to Install New Touchpad Drivers To install a new driver, look up the manufacturer for your laptop. Then, head on over to their website and hunt down the driver download page. You'll need your laptop model name or model number on-hand so you can find the right drivers. Once you find your laptop's driver download page, install the latest touchpad driver, then restart your laptop. If you still can't scroll with two fingers, ensure the option hasn't turned itself off in the Windows 10 settings during the reinstallation. How to Roll Back the Touchpad's Drivers If you recently updated your drivers and your two-finger scroll broke immediately afterward, rolling back to the drivers you used before should fix the problem. To do this, click the Start button, then type "device manager." Then, press Enter. Expand the category called "Human Interface Devices," right-click your touchpad drivers, then click "Properties." Go to the "Driver" tab, then click "Roll Back Driver." If the button is greyed out, it may be because your computer has already cleaned up the old driver. As such, it's best to try to find a download link to the old driver and re-install it. Some manufacturers let you select from a history of drivers, which is useful in cases such as these. Double-Check for Manufacturer Software If none of the above work, you may have manufacturer software installed that took over the touchpad's settings. This software is likely to have its own setting for two-finger scrolling. There's no single way to check for third-party software; you'll have to do some digging through your laptop's programs. If you do find a touchpad settings program, see if you can enable two-finger scrolling through it. If not, try updating the program or even uninstalling it to see if that fixes the issue. How to Enable or Disable Two-Finger Scrolling in Inactive Windows Did you know that you can scroll in an inactive window using two fingers? For example, if you're typing away in a document, you can move your cursor over the website you're researching and use two-finger scrolling to continue down the text without clicking in the window. This is a handy feature if you dislike having to click between windows all the time; on the other hand, some people prefer the scroll to only affect the window that you're currently working in. Regardless of your stance, you can easily enable or disable this feature. First, go to the Devices settings page as we covered above. Now, instead of clicking Touchpad on the left, click "Mouse." Find the toggle that says "Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them" and set it on or off, depending on preference. Making Your Touchpad Do More Laptop touchpads can do a lot, especially if you own a precision touchpad. Two-finger scrolling is helpful and easy to enable, so give it a try.

A lot of Windows sound issues involve the sound output from your speakers. But what if you're having problems with sound input; how do you fix the microphone? Whether you're using a headset microphone to chat in games or recording with a USB mic, we'll share some tips to fix a lack of input or unreliable mic issues. These will help whether your mic is cutting out or isn't recognized in the first place. Check Windows' Sound Settings Before you start troubleshooting, restart your computer. You might have a temporary issue that a simple reboot will fix. After that, your first stop for microphone troubleshooting should be the sound settings in Windows. Access these by navigating to Settings > System > Sound. Here, under Input, open the dropdown box under Choose your input device. Select the mic you want to use; other available inputs, like your laptop or webcam's built-in mic, will also show here. Once you've picked the right mic, speak into it and you should see the Test your microphone bar move up and down. If it doesn't, click the Troubleshoot button below and Windows will attempt to find and fix problems with your mic. Click the Device properties link to rename the input to make it easier to find in the future. You can also check the Disable box to keep that mic from showing up, or change the Volume to adjust how loud the mic is. At the bottom of the Sound page, you'll find the App volume and device preferences menu. This allows you to choose a different output and input device for your open apps. Have a look here and make sure you don't have the wrong mic selected for the app you're using. Troubleshoot Microphone Hardware Moving on, you should look at your audio hardware setup, especially if you can't get any input from your microphone at all or didn't see it listed in the menu above. If you use a USB mic, try plugging it into another USB port on your PC. Don't use a USB hub---plug your mic directly into a slot on your PC. If the mic works in another USB port, the first one is likely dead or has an issue. For analog mics, make sure you have the cable plugged into the pink line-in port on your PC. For all mics, confirm that all cables are fully inserted and that nothing is loose, including the cable for your headset mic if it's removable, and any extensions. You should also check for fraying cables, as damaged cords can cause problems. Image Credit: Eric Kilby/Flickr If your microphone has a physical mute toggle, make sure you haven't enabled it by mistake. Look for a slider or button on your headset, cord, or front of the mic. Should you still have no mic input after double-checking the above, try plugging your mic into another computer. If it doesn't work on the other PC, your microphone hardware may be faulty. Finally, don't forget to check for updated drivers for your microphone. Most headsets and microphones work out of the box in Windows, but some may require specific drivers for best performance. Search Google for your device's name and look for a Downloads section on the manufacturer's website to find the driver. Updating your existing sound card drivers is important too. Confirm That Apps Can Access Your Microphone Windows 10 has a Privacy menu where you can block apps from accessing sensitive data like your camera and microphone. It's possible that you've blocked an app from accessing your microphone here. Head to Settings > Privacy to take a look. On the left sidebar, choose Microphone under App permissions. Make sure the slider under Allow apps to access your microphone is enabled, or no apps can use it. Take a look through the list of apps to confirm the one you want to use has access. This first slider and list is only for Store apps, however. Scroll down further and you'll reach a section titled Allow desktop apps to access your microphone. Double-check that the slider under this header is turned on. While you can't toggle mic access for individual desktop apps, you can see when they last accessed your mic. This can help you figure out if the app is detecting your mic properly. Review Your List of Recording Devices If your mic is still not working properly, you should next review your list of available input devices. You can do this by clicking Manage sound devices on the same Settings page as above, but it's a little easier to do using the Control Panel. Enter control panel in the Start menu to open it, and change Category in the upper-right to Small icons if necessary. When you see the full list of choices, choose Sound. Here, switch to the Recording tab, which shows all the microphones connected to your PC. Right-click anywhere and confirm both Show Disabled Devices and Show Disconnected Devices are checked. Look through the list and make sure that your primary mic isn't disabled (right-click and choose Enable if so). When you speak into a mic, you'll also see its bar light up to confirm it's working. Mic Levels and Exclusive Mode Double-click on your mic in the Recording panel and you can edit a few options. If you didn't change the mic's name earlier in Settings, you can change it now on the General tab. On the Levels tab, you can adjust the input volume (and boost, on supported mics). Try raising this if it seems too low, or lowering it if your mic clips. Depending on your mic and computer, you may see additional tabs on this page. These contain enhancements like background noise suppression and similar, which you can try if you want. Finally, on the Advanced tab, uncheck both boxes under Exclusive Mode. The Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device box means that one app can "lock" your microphone so nothing else can use it. Disabling this can solve a lot of mic problems. You can also adjust the Default Format in the dropdown box to select the input quality. Once you're done making changes, head back to the Recording tab. Right-click any inputs you don't use and choose Disable to reduce clutter in input menus. Finally, right-click your main mic and choose Set as Default Device so apps use it by default. Record Yourself to Troubleshoot At this point, if your mic is still cutting out in a specific game or app, you should determine whether it's an issue with your device or the app. To do this, you'll need to record a short clip of audio. Windows 10's built-in Voice Recorder app is suitable for a quick test. Alternatively, Audacity gives you a lot more options and monitors for a deeper analysis. Simply open either app and record yourself for a minute---speak the alphabet a few times, count to 50, or similar. Then play it back and see if it cuts out or otherwise sounds unclear at any point. If it sounds clear in Audacity, continue with troubleshooting. But if the recording cuts out here, double-check your hardware if you haven't already. Your problem likely lies with one of the above steps. Disable Xbox Game Bar and DVR Windows 10's Game Bar can record clips and screenshots of your game. While this is neat, it's also known to cause mic issues in some games. Head to Settings > Gaming > Game bar and disable Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game bar. Then move to the Captures tab and disable Record in the background while I'm playing a game and Record audio when I record a game. These features are handy if you use them, but it's better to disable them otherwise to avoid mic problems. Check out other ways to stream and record gameplay in Windows to replace this. Adjust Microphone Settings in Your Game or App By now, you've essentially ruled out a hardware issue with your microphone, and are pretty sure the problems are tied to one app. Thus, you should dig around in the settings of your game (or other software) to see if you can tweak the mic options there. Make sure the game is using your primary microphone. Most video games have an option to reduce your mic input volume. Try dropping this a bit, as your input may be clipping and causing it to cut out. Increase it if others say your input is too quiet. Finally, if the game has a microphone test option, see how your voice sounds. If it's clear in the test but cuts out in-game, the cause could be a network issue. Perhaps the game's voice chat uses a port that your router has blocked. If your mic issue only occurs in-game, consider using a third-party program like Discord for voice chat instead of relying on the game. Troubleshoot Mic in Zoom, Skype, or Similar Apps It's particularly frustrating when an app like Zoom has an issue with your mic. If you've walked through all the above steps, the issue probably lies somewhere in the app's audio settings. With Zoom, click the Gear icon on the right side to open its settings, then switch to the Audio tab. Under Microphone, you should see the Input Level move when you speak. Click Test Mic to record yourself briefly and see how it sounds. Use the dropdown box to swap your mic input to another device if needed. Finally, make sure you aren't muted in a call. Most chat apps give you an option to mute your microphone at the bottom of the screen, which can lead to you thinking your mic isn't working if you forget you're muted. See our tips for fixing Skype issues for more advice if your problem lies with a video calling app. How to Fix Echo on Your Mic It's annoying to hear everything you say again with a delay. And while mic echo is often a problem on someone else's end, there are a few ways to reduce echo problems. First, if at all possible, use a headset on calls. Most echo is caused by your microphone picking up audio from your computer's speakers, which happens much more easily when using your laptop's built-in microphone and speakers. Using headphones greatly reduces the chance of your microphone picking up that sound. Make sure that your microphone sensitivity isn't set too high, as discussed above. Even with headphones, a sensitive mic may pick up some sound that comes through the headset. If you hear everything you say in your headphones, even when you're not in a video call, you probably have a specific Windows setting turned on. Go back to the Recording tab in the Sound panel, double-click your input device, and switch to the Listen tab. If you have Listen to this device checked, you'll hear everything from that microphone in the select output device. This can be useful in certain circumstances, but in most cases will just drive you crazy. Uncheck the box and hit OK to stop that. Your Mic Problems, Solved Hopefully, one of these tips solved your Windows microphone issues. These problems can sometimes be difficult to nail down, since microphones, games, apps, and settings vary so much in each use case

Watching choppy video playback is like sailing choppy waters: rough, frightening, and may lead to nausea. While modern hardware can handle most tasks you can throw at it, every so often, you'll encounter an issue. Choppy video playback, whether through a DVD or online, happens. Here's how to fix it! What Factors Affect Video Playback Quality? Smooth video playback boils down to a few hardware and software choices. These choices affect offline and online video playback differently. Here's what can negatively affect video playback: An outdated media player A low-performance PC which would stifle high-quality Blu-ray playback A souped-up PC, but a bad internet connection Whatever the case, smooth video playback is within your sights. Two other factors impact playback quality: offline or online video. Offline Video Playback Quality Choppy offline video playback concerns playing video from video files or DVDs. This is different from online video playback, due to network connection or other service issues (more on these in a moment). There are certain steps you can take to ensure smooth video playback with an offline source. Update your media player Install and update video and audio codecs Check your hardware capabilities Update your GPU drivers Let's take a look at those steps in a little more detail. 1. Update Your Media Player The first thing to do is to update your media player. There are many excellent free video players for Windows. If you use a third-party media player, head to the company's website and download the latest software version. 2. Install and Update Video and Audio Codecs Second, ensure that all video and audio codecs are installed properly. Codecs, to put it simply, process audio and video data. Sometimes certain video formats are not playable on your PC. This is because you do not have the appropriate video codec installed. Codecs sometimes become damaged or corrupted, which may lead to jarring playback. To fix them, download, and install codec packs. Microsoft has an official codec pack [Broken URL Removed] for these exact purposes. Download the file, then double-click to install, following the on-screen instructions. Video codecs are a little confusing. If you want to learn more, here's all you need to know about video codecs, containers, and compression. 3. Check Your Hardware Is Capable Ensure that your PC is within the hardware range necessary to playback these videos. Video formats come with different qualities that determine their ease of playback. For example, a 1080p video playing at 30 FPS (frames per second) will require slightly less performance than the same video at 60 FPS. The difference grows when comparing 1080p video with 4K or UHD video. The same goes for video rendering. While video playback consumes less performance than video rendering, both involve PC performance. Generally, the more powerful hardware you have, the better the video playback will be. If you have very old hardware, video playback can struggle for a few reasons. For instance, an old 5400RPM hard drive (or even a 4800RPM) might struggle to process a massive 4K video file quickly enough for stable video playback. You might run into similar issues using a drastically underpowered CPU, or if the system has a seriously small amount of RAM. There are solutions for these issues. For example, the VLC media player is well known to assist with smooth video playback on older hardware. Or, you might have an older system with a discreet graphics processing unit (GPU). Some media players can use the GPU hardware acceleration to shift some of the video processing load from the CPU, helping video playback. There is no exact rule of thumb for minimum hardware required for smooth video playback. If you have a PC built in the last few years, you should not struggle with offline video playback of 4K and other high-resolution video formats. Hardware and Video Encoding There are other issues with hardware, such as GPU and video encoding compatibility issues. Even some modern GPUs that can play the latest games on high settings won't work with certain video encoding types. If you have a modern GPU and powerful system yet still encounter video playback issues, double-check if your GPU supports the video encoding type you're trying to use. 4. Update Your GPU Drivers Fourth, and finally, ensure you install up-to-date GPU drivers. The GPU drivers will allow for the maximum output of your hardware. As the CPU and GPU are often the main indicators of PC performance, updating their drivers will ensure video playback. At the very least, it can eliminate some video playback stuttering issues. Find out how to replace outdated Windows drivers with our handy guide. Online Video Playback Quality Smooth online video playback often comes with the same requirements as offline video playback. Yet, there are a few additional parameters to look out for. Is your internet fast enough? Are other programs using your internet? Disable hardware acceleration in the browser Update your web browser 1. Is Your Internet Fast Enough? The first question you must ask for online video playback relates to your internet speed. Streaming Full HD, UHD, and 4K video online is a data-intensive task. The data requirements vary slightly, but in general, you need: 2-4Mbps for standard-definition video playback 5-10Mbps for high definition video playback 25Mbps minimum for 4K video playback There are variations between online video streaming services, too. Netflix requires at least 3Mbps for standard-definition video playback, whereas Amazon Prime Video requires just 0.9Mbps. With online video playback, a faster internet connection will always yield better results. 2. Are Other Programs Using Your internet? Second, ensure you are not clogging your network with data-hungry programs. You can do this by right-clicking on your Taskbar and selecting Task Manager. You will see the Processes tab of your Task Manager. Click on Network tab (and percentage number indicating network usage) to see which programs other than your browser are hogging up data. That also goes for RAM usage. Remember, smooth online playback requires optimal hardware. Click on the Memory tab to order your selection from most usage to least. Right-click any program not necessary for video playback (that is also not essential to your PC use) and select End task. This will free up some performance power. The Windows Task Manager is a versatile tool. Here are some Windows Task Manager tricks you can use to manage your system better. 3. Disable Hardware Acceleration in Browser Third, disable hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration allows browsers to hand off certain tasks to certain hardware parts. While your CPU can render, say, 3D models, it's better to use a specialized hardware component, such as the GPU, to render that model. That's because it can do so more quickly and usually has more processing power available to complete the activity. Sometimes this process can lead to playback issues. Check the Video Player Type Google Chrome is permanently disabling Flash Player at the end of 2020. The majority of browsers are switching to HTML5, a more secure and stable video playback option. If the video player is attempting to use a Flash Player, your browser may no longer support that option. As Adobe will stop officially supporting Flash at the end of 2020, the Flash Player will become (even more!) insecure. 4. Update Your Web Browser Update your web browser. Current browser versions can handle high-quality video playback, as more video repository sites like YouTube allow for higher quality footage uploads. Old browser versions, or bugged browser versions, may limit video playback. How to Smooth Out Choppy Video To summarize, here's how you stop your video playback problems: Are you using the most recent version of your media player? Do you have the codecs required to watch that video format? Is your hardware powerful enough? Do you have the latest drivers installed? Is something clogging up your network or consume your RAM or CPU capacity? Have you disabled your browser's hardware acceleration? Is your web browser up-to-date? Fortunately, ensuring smooth video playback is a simple and non-invasive procedure.

When you buy a new game, you expect it to simply work. In most cases that's what happens. But sometimes, games crash. Sometimes it's a fault with the game itself, while other times it's due to inadequate hardware or a slow internet connection. Working out why your favorite game (such as Minecraft) is crashing can be tricky. So, read on to find out why your games keep crashing and how to fix them. Why Does Your Favorite Game Keep Crashing? If you're not sure what is causing your game to crash, you can take advantage of the Windows Event Viewer tool to keep a log on what is happening to your PC when the game crashes. This can be used for diagnostic purposes. It is also worth running demo versions of games before installing the full version, just to ensure that the title will play correctly on your PC. If games like Minecraft, Apex Legends, or Call of Duty: Warzone keep crashing, here are 10 reasons why that may be happening... Your computer's spec is too low You overclocked too high The game's settings are wrong Your graphic card requires too much power You need to upgrade your operating system You need to upgrade device drivers Your network isn't fast enough Digital Rights Management is causing problems Games are running in the wrong mode You're running too many browser tabs Let's explore each of these solutions in more detail. 1. Your Hardware Specs Are Too Low It might seem obvious, but people still omit to compare their system spec with a game's minimum requirements. You wouldn't buy diesel for a petrol-powered car, would you? So why buy a video game without checking that it will work? When buying games online from Steam and similar services, you can check the system requirements by reading the game's description. Buying from a video game store? On the back of a video game box you'll find the minimum and recommended system requirements. If your PC meets these before installing and running the game everything should be fine. Otherwise you'll probably experience problems with the title. Wikipedia is also a great source of video game system specs, while the publisher's website will provide the same information. Settle doubts or questions by checking the game's support or fan forums for help. Without suitable hardware, you'll need to upgrade your PC before you can play the game. This can mean anything from buying a new gaming PC to adding extra storage space to your computer. 2. You Overclocked Too Far Many gamers overclock their systems, pushing the CPU to a faster speed to gain performance benefits. When coupled with good ventilation and cooling, CPU overclocking can reap great results. However, it isn't a perfect method of increasing performance. Games can still crash. Troubleshooting an overclocked system means resetting your processor (and GPU, if appropriate) to default settings. If this doesn't fix the issue then there is every chance it's related to something else. 3. Get the Game's Settings Right Most games, especially those with high system requirements, have a dedicated video settings screen. Designed to help you get the most out of your game, it's common these days for games to boot with a configuration designed for your system hardware. However, that doesn't always work out, resulting in games crashing. It could be anything, from top end graphical experiences like MotoGP 20 to Minecraft crashing mid-game. In some cases, your entire PC might crash, rebooting all by itself. Avoid these problems by opening the video configuration screen for your troublesome game and lowering the settings. Switch every option down a single step, then try playing again. Repeat until you hit the right mix of performance and graphics. Admittedly, this solution isn't perfect. If the graphics aren't up to scratch, it's time to consider buying a new graphics card for your PC. 4. Your Graphics Card Is Too Powerful One common reason for games crashing is a problem with the power supply unit (PSU). This is commonly linked to the graphics adapter demanding more power than is available. There is one simple way to resolve this. Upgrade to the best PSU capable of providing enough power to play the game. Before swapping out the PSU, however, check that the graphics card and PC interior is clean and free from dust. A build-up can increase the temperature inside a PC and put additional load on the CPU and video card. Greater load means a higher temperature. If the build-up of dust is considerable and the fans are not sufficient for cooling, disaster will strike. 5. Your Operating System Isn't Good Enough Also listed in your game's system specification is the correct operating system and version required to run the title. Most games will run on Windows 8.1, Mac OS X 10.4 (Mojave), and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and later. While this isn't necessarily true across the board (some titles are still limited to Windows), it's a good guide. Similarly, most AAA games are designed for 64-bit systems. Naturally, the issues of operating systems and hardware are closely linked. Older hardware running Windows XP is unlikely to be suitable for running the most up-to-date video games. 6. It's Time to Update EVERYTHING Upgrading hardware is expensive. Before you try this, update software and drivers instead. Games can crash for reasons beyond (but not unrelated to) unsuitable hardware and operating systems. Video drivers, for instance, should be up to date, as should the game itself. To update your video drivers, you should visit the manufacturer's website and download the latest version of the driver. The installation may require you to restart your computer. You should also look for any patches and updates for the game in question. These will be available from the publisher's website and should be installed and applied before running. Some games will automatically check for updates and install them before they load. Update your operating system to download any driver updates for devices such as network cards. Download the latest graphic drivers and updates for your graphics card. 7. Network Issues Are to Blame With online gaming, crashes can occur when network problems cause delay the game client being updated by the remote server. Avoid this being an issue by making sure that your network speed is suitable for playing the game. You should also check your router and disable other internet applications to ensure that only the game receives data. Avoid Wi-Fi where possible with online games. Instead, connect your PC to the router over Ethernet. If this isn't possible due to architectural limitations, buy one of the best powerline adaptors. 8. Snagged By Digital Rights Management Incredibly, digital rights management can cause performance issues. In some cases, network issues can contribute to DRM hitting a game's performance. Usually, though, the DRM client or the status of the remote server will be causing your game to crash. If an offline play option is available here you should take it. This will prevent the DRM from checking with the remote server for suspicious activity in the game or account. Otherwise, you'll be left with no choice but to uninstall the game. 9. You're Running Games in the Wrong Mode It makes sense to ensure that no other software is running while gaming. You might need voice chat software like Discord; beyond that your PC resources should be focused on running the game. This is a rule that applies across operating systems, from Windows, macOS, and Linux, to iOS and Android. Close all other software before launching the game you want to play. With Windows you have an additional advantage: Games Mode. This is a state that you can switch into that reduces and limits other activity. Notifications are silenced; everything is focused on the game. Open Settings (hold Win + I) then Gaming > Game Mode. Click the toggle to enable the feature. Does this sound too good to be true? Well, it's certainly worth trying. We tested the Windows 10 Game Mode to see if it works. 10. You've Left Your Browser Running With 20 Tabs Open Shutting down other apps when gaming applies to your browser, too. You might get away with a single browser tab---anything more, however, isn't worth risking. So, close the endless Reddit pages, Facebook fan pages, and Twitter feed for your favorite games. If you need to access them, do so on your mobile. Let your PC do the work you expect from it, giving you an awesome gaming experience. Get Your Games Working Again! By now you should know what the problem is. You have everything you need to ensure your games will stop crashing. So have fun gaming!

After being the subject of jokes and hated for years, Internet Explorer has largely moved into obscurity now. Microsoft still includes Internet Explorer 11 (the final version) with Windows 10, but it's more for compatibility reasons than anything else. However, you might sometimes find yourself in situations where you have to use Internet Explorer. Let's look at quick fixes for common Internet Explorer issues so your time with the aging browser isn't a hassle. 1. Internet Explorer Is Not in Active Development Before we address specific Internet Explorer problems and fixes, we have to cover the obvious. While Microsoft maintains it on supported versions of Windows, Internet Explorer is an old browser that the company no longer actively develops. Due to a lack of modern features and an aging configuration, Internet Explorer 11 is increasingly insufficient for today's web. Because of this, we don't recommend that you use Internet Explorer unless you absolutely have to. It's mainly included with Windows 10 as a backward compatibility tool, as many internal business websites require Internet Explorer to work properly. Unless you come across such a site, you'll be much better off using Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Microsoft's revamped Edge, or even an open source browser. Below, we'll cover a few common problems with Internet Explorer. If you can't solve any of them easily, don't waste your time---just use something else. 2. Basic Internet Explorer Troubleshooting: Updates Not Installed As mentioned, Internet Explorer doesn't receive updates often. However, on the off chance that Microsoft fixed a known problem with Internet Explorer recently, you should check for updates before you start more focused troubleshooting. On Windows 10, the browser receives updates through Windows Update, since it's a component of the OS. Head to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update to check for the latest updates, and apply any that appear here. 3. Can't Find Internet Explorer Internet Explorer comes with Windows 10 by default. To open it, just search for Internet Explorer on the Start menu. If it doesn't appear there, press Win + R to open the Run box and type iexplore.exe. Should you see an error message or have Internet Explorer fail to load, it's likely that you (or another administrator on your computer) disabled it. Perhaps they didn't want anyone using the old browser unnecessarily. To activate Internet Explorer again, type Windows features into the Start menu and select Turn Windows features on or off. In the list that appears, scroll down and check Internet Explorer 11 if it's not already. Click OK, wait for the process to complete, then restart your PC. It should then be available. 4. Error 404 in Internet Explorer Error 404 means that the page you're trying to visit doesn't exist. Usually, this happens because you mistyped a URL or clicked on a link that leads to a dead page; it's rarely a problem with IE. When this happens, press F5 to refresh the page and make sure it's not a temporary issue. If you manually typed the URL, double-check to confirm you didn't make any mistakes. After checking those, try searching for the page using Google. If it doesn't appear from searching, chances are that the page no longer exists. Try accessing it from another browser, or a different device like your phone. If that works, try clearing your browser cache in IE. 5. Internet Explorer Crashes, Freezes, or Hangs A lot of Internet Explorer troubleshooting revolves around poor performance. To address these problems, you should first run the Internet Explorer Performance troubleshooter. To access this, search for control panel in the Start menu to open it. If you see Category in the top-right, click this to change it to Small icons. Next, select Troubleshooting, followed by View all at the top-left. In the resulting menu, double-click on Internet Explorer Performance. Before you start, click the Advanced link and choose Run as administrator for best results. Once the troubleshooter completes, it shows you any completed actions that it took. Hopefully, these will resolve your Internet Explorer problem. Toggling hardware acceleration can also help with these issues. This option uses your PC's graphics card (instead of the CPU) to handle graphics-extensive tasks, such as streaming video. Most of the time it's better to keep it enabled, but you can try toggling it to see if it makes a difference. To change this, click the gear icon at the top-right of Internet Explorer (which represents the Tools menu), followed by Internet options. Select the Advanced tab at the top, then check the box for Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering. Click OK, then you'll need to restart your PC for the change to take effect. Further Performance Troubleshooting Browser add-ons can often interfere with performance. Click the gear icon and choose Manage add-ons to review the ones you have enabled and try turning off any that you don't need. As another troubleshooting step, you can also run Internet Explorer without any add-ons and see if that improves anything. To do this, close all Internet Explorer windows first. Then press Win + R to open the Run dialog, enter iexplore.exe -extoff, and hit Enter. See if IE performs better with no extensions running. If all else fails, you should try a complete reset of Internet Explorer. This sets everything back to its default state so you can start from a clean slate. Before proceeding, we recommend saving anything you want to keep from Internet Explorer, such as backing up your bookmarks. To reset IE, go to Tools > Internet options > Advanced and click the Reset button at the bottom. You'll see a warning letting you know what this process will do. It resets all your settings, but won't remove personal content like your homepage, history, and saved form data. Check the Delete personal settings box if you want to erase this content as well. After you click Reset, you'll need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. 6. Internet Explorer Display Issues If a website doesn't look like you expect, such as appearing blank, images not displaying, broken or jumbled text, or misplaced menus, there could be some compatibility issues between IE and the website. This can often occur due to Compatibility View, a feature designed to help display websites built for ancient versions of IE. To check, click Compatibility View settings from the Tools menu. The current website will show in the Add this website box; click Add to display it using Compatibility View. On the flip side, if the site looks wrong and it's on the Compatibility View list, click it and choose Remove. You should never need to use Compatibility View Unless a website was specifically built for IE 8 or older, which is rare these days. Internet Explorer's Tracking Protection feature, which reduces website tracking for your privacy, can also interfere with content. To turn off Tracking Protection, select Manage add-ons from the Tools menu. Choose Tracking Protection from the left sidebar, then right-click on each item in the list and choose Disable. You can also try clearing your browser cache, as mentioned in section #4 above. Head to Tools > Internet options > General and click Delete under Browsing history. Display issues can also be caused by hardware acceleration, as mentioned above. Try toggling that setting if you haven't already. 7. Videos Won't Play in Internet Explorer If you can't get a video to play in IE, try using another browser. Most video uses HTML5 these days, which works in every modern browser. When a specific video won't play, it probably relies on a feature that IE lacks. If you really need to watch it in IE, check your add-ons to check for conflicts, as described above. 8. Can't See Any Pictures in Internet Explorer You can try all the previously mentioned solutions for this problem, such as Compatibility View, turning off Tracking Protection, and clearing temporary internet files. However, there's actually a setting that disables all pictures in Internet Explorer. It's a simple fix if you've run into this issue. Browse to Tools > Internet options > Advanced. Scroll down to the Multimedia header and make sure that Show pictures is checked. If this is checked, you may want to reset Internet Explorer's security settings. While in Internet options, click the Security tab and you'll see several "zones" at the top (most sites fall into the Internet zone). Simply click Reset all zones to default level and restart your PC to put everything back to normal. Should this all fail, reset IE to its default settings as explained above. IE Is Old, So Issues Aren't Surprising Now you know how to respond when Internet Explorer isn't working properly. Hopefully, you almost never have to use it and thus don't run into many problems. Again, since the browser is far from modern, these problems can definitely occur. We urge you to use another browser when at all possible.

As soon as you sign into Windows 10, Microsoft pushes its recommended apps and settings on you. If you don't want to use a Microsoft account to log in, dislike Bing search baked into the OS, and hate Edge, you'll be happy to know you can change all of these. While you can't change everything, it's possible to adjust much of Windows 10's out-of-the-box behavior. Here's how to change default settings and apps in Windows 10. What Does "Set As Default" Mean? In case you've never thought about default programs before, the concept is pretty straightforward. Windows keeps a list of apps that it always uses to open certain types of media or links. These are called default programs. For example, when you double-click an MP4 file, Windows opens it in your default video player. Out of the box, this is the Movies & TV app, but you can change it to a different player with more features. When you want to use a non-default app to open a file, you need to right-click it and choose Open with to select another. How to Change Default Programs in Windows 10 Windows won't automatically set new apps as the default when you install them. To change your default programs in Windows 10, follow these steps to access the default apps settings page: Go to Settings > Apps. Click Default apps in the pane on the left. You'll see your default apps for common uses here, like Email, Music player, Web browser, and more. Click an app to see others installed on your system that can take its place, then select the one you'd like to set as default. If the app you want to use isn't already installed, this panel will offer to let you search the Microsoft Store for one. Chances are you'll want a traditional desktop app, not a Store app, as the default, though. Install the new app, then head back to this menu to set it as the default. To change other defaults, scroll to the bottom of the default app settings page and you'll see three more menus: Choose default apps by file type: This lets you choose what apps should open a particular file type, such as PDF, MP3, and others. It's a useful way to fix file type associations. Choose default apps by protocol: Here, you can select what app should open when you click URIs containing protocols like mailto or ftp. Most users shouldn't need to change these settings often. Set defaults by app: In this menu, you can choose any app and manage the file types that it can open. Default Programs in the Control Panel The old Control Panel interface is still around in Windows 10, despite Microsoft migrating more of its functionality to the Settings app with every major update. It has a Default Programs section with four available menus, but all of them aside from AutoPlay (see below) redirect to the Settings app anyway. However, if you still use Windows 7, you can use this Control Panel section to change your default programs. If You Can't Set the Default Windows 10 Browser Sometimes, you might run into an issue where Windows 10 won't remember the default browser after you change it. If this happens, first try uninstalling the browser in question and reinstalling it. Should this fail to fix the problem, open the Set defaults by app section on the Default apps page, as discussed above. Look for the browser you want to set as default and choose Manage. Make sure every type of file listed here has your preferred browser selected. How to Change AutoPlay Defaults in Windows 10 Does your PC automatically open a File Explorer window when you plug in a USB drive, or auto-play inserted DVDs? This is called AutoPlay, which makes it easier to launch removable media. If you don't like the current behavior, you can change it. Here's how: Go to Settings > Devices. Click AutoPlay in the pane on the left. You'll see fields for Removable drive, Memory card, and other devices you've connected recently (such as your phone). For each one, click the dropdown box and choose a default action, like importing photos with Dropbox, playing videos with your video player, or asking you every time. To completely disable AutoPlay, turn off the Use AutoPlay for all media and devices slider. If this isn't enough control for you, you can change AutoPlay settings for specific types of media through the Control Panel. Search for Control Panel in the Start menu to open it. Change the Category dropdown in the top-right to Small icons, then select Default Programs > Change AutoPlay settings. Here, you have many more choices for default actions. You can pick what various types of media do, and use AutoPlay for CDs, DVDs, software, and more. Take caution about what you let run automatically. Historically, some malware has taken advantage of AutoPlay, making it easy to infect your computer if you plug a random flash drive in. How to Replace Bing With Google on the Taskbar The search function on the Taskbar can search the web in addition to your computer. However, Microsoft has locked this to always use Bing inside Edge. If you'd rather search in your default browser, here's how to replace Edge: Install a free app called EdgeDeflector and launch it. The app hasn't been updated since late 2017, but still works fine as of this writing. You'll see a prompt asking what app you want to use. Choose EdgeDeflector, check Always use this app, and hit OK. If you dismiss this dialog or it doesn't appear, you'll need to configure EdgeDeflector manually. To do this, go to Settings > Apps > Default apps and click Choose default apps by protocol at the bottom. Find the Microsoft-Edge protocol and change it to EdgeDeflector. Now, the app will run in the background and change Taskbar web searches from Edge to your default browser. However, these searches will still appear inside Bing. If you'd prefer to use Google or another search engine, do the following: If you use Chrome, install the Chrometana Pro extension. Firefox users should install Foxtana Pro, a port from the same developer. Upon installing, you'll see instructions for setting your default browser and installing EdgeDeflector, which we've already taken care of. Click the Chrometana Pro icon at the top-right of your browser and choose Options. Here you can choose whether to redirect all Bing searches or just Cortana ones. You can also change from Google to DuckDuckGo or another search engine. How to Change Keyboard Settings in Windows 10 You can find options to change the keyboard layout, language, and other related options at Settings > Time & Language on both the Region and Language tabs. Make sure your Country or region is set correctly on the Region page to show the proper options, including Windows display language on Language. At the bottom of the Language page, you'll see the languages currently on your system. Click Add a preferred language to add a new one. However, what's more useful for most people is clicking the current language followed by Options. Here, you can click Add a keyboard to add another language or layout. Even with English selected as your language, you'll find everything from international keyboards like Japanese and German to alternate layouts like United States DVORAK. Of particular interest is the United States International layout, which lets you type accented characters with easy shortcuts. Swap between keyboards anytime using the Win + Space shortcut. How to Change the Default Folder View in Windows 10 Windows 10's File Explorer contains several views, such as Details, Large icons, and Tiles. It applies a view based on the folder's contents, and you can check what type of contents Windows considers a folder to have. To do this, right-click any folder and choose Properties. On the Customize tab, you'll see an option labeled Optimize this folder for. These choices are General items, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos. These are all self-explanatory aside from General items, which Windows uses for folders with mixed content. If you'd like to set a consistent default view across all folders of a type, use this method: Locate a folder of the type you want to customize and open it. Use the View tab at the top of the window to apply the settings you'd like. You might choose to toggle the Navigation pane, change the Layout, adjust Sort by, and more. Once you're happy with your changes, click Options on the right side of the View tab. Switch to the View tab in the Options window, and click Apply to Folders to change all folders of the type to your current view. Sign Into Windows 10 Without a Microsoft Account Using a Microsoft account to sign into Windows 10 has benefits and drawbacks. Windows gives you the option to create a local account during setup, but you can delete your Microsoft login and use a local account if you change your mind later. Windows may nag you to create a Microsoft account for syncing your data in apps, but Windows 10 works fine without it. Some features require a Microsoft account, and you'll need to sign into one to purchase paid apps from the Store, but most functionality doesn't require a Microsoft login. Other than that, make sure you don't forget your password because resetting the password on a local account is a hassle. Reset to Windows 10's Default Settings Looking to reset all Windows 10 settings to default? Unfortunately, there's no easy way to do this without performing a full reset. You can change your default programs back to the "Microsoft recommended defaults" at Settings > Apps > Default apps, but that doesn't change anything else. If you don't mind a refresh to get back to default settings, using the option to reset Windows while keeping your files shouldn't take long. Follow our guide to resetting Windows 10 to get started. Your Windows 10 Defaults, Your Way We've looked at how to change most of Windows 10's default apps and behaviors. When your computer works the way you want it to, you'll be much more productive. Remember to review these settings again after major Windows 10 updates, as they can sometimes change. Windows 10 has a lot in its Settings menu that we didn't explore here. To learn more, have a look at our guide to the Windows 10 Settings app and what you must do after installing Windows 10.

Need to uninstall Google Drive from your computer? Perhaps you don't want to use Google Drive anymore or need to reinstall it to fix a problem. Don't worry! We'll show you how to remove Google Drive from your Windows PC or Mac. In case you don't need this nuclear option, we'll also cover disconnecting and pausing Google Drive. How to Disconnect Google Drive From Your Computer Before you delete Google Drive from your computer, you should disconnect your system from your account. This is also a useful step if you don't want to fully remove Google Drive yet. To disconnect Google Drive, you'll need to click the Backup and Sync from Google icon. It looks like a cloud with an upward-facing arrow. On Windows, you'll find this in the System Tray at the bottom-right of your screen; you may need to click the arrow to show all icons. On a Mac, you'll see the same icon in your menu bar at the top of the screen. Once the Google Drive panel opens, hit the three-dot Menu button and choose Preferences. In Google Drive's preferences panel, switch to the Google Drive tab on the left. Uncheck Sync My Drive to this computer to stop syncing everything. You can also check Sync only these folders to pick and choose certain directories to sync. If you do this, you can always come back into this settings panel to start syncing again or make changes to what syncs. Anything that's not set up to sync will stay on your computer and you can access it, but changes you make won't replicate to the cloud. Your local folders also won't update when you make changes elsewhere. To completely disconnect your Google Drive account from your current computer, go to the Settings tab. Click Disconnect Account to sign out of Google Drive on this machine---just one of the important Google Drive settings you should know about. After you do this, the Google Drive app won't do anything until you sign in again. You'll still have access to the files in your Drive folder, but they won't sync with the cloud. How to Uninstall Google Drive Decided you don't want Google Drive or need to reinstall the software? Here's how to delete Google Drive on your machine. Note that removing the Google Drive app prevents your files from syncing, but it doesn't delete your existing files. You can delete or move them as needed after uninstalling, which won't affect the copies in the cloud. Uninstall Google Drive on Windows 10 To remove Google Drive from Windows, you'll just need to uninstall it like any other program. Open Settings (using the Win + I shortcut if you like) and browse to Apps > Apps & features. Use the search box or scroll down to find Backup and Sync from Google, which is the new name for the Google Drive app. Click Uninstall and walk through the steps to remove it from your computer. Once this is done, you'll need to reinstall the app if you want to start syncing files to this computer again. Your Google Drive folder will stick around, but it's cut off from your account. Uninstall Google Drive on macOS The process to remove Google Drive from your Mac is just like uninstalling any other macOS app. Open Finder and navigate to the Applications folder. If you don't see it on the left sidebar, it's also available under the Go menu or by using the shortcut Shift + Cmd + A. Inside Applications, find the Backup and Sync from Google app and drag it to the Trash on your Dock. This deletes the app from your system. How to Pause Google Drive If you just want to stop Google Drive from syncing for a short time, you don't need to disconnect or uninstall it. Both the Windows and Mac apps let you pause Google Drive if needed. To do this, click the Backup and Sync icon again, as described above. In the three-dot Menu at the top-right of this panel, select the Pause option. This will stop Google Drive from uploading and downloading until you repeat the steps and choose Resume. Once you resume, it will sync all the changes made while it was paused. You can also stop Google Drive from syncing by choosing Quit Backup and Sync from this menu. This closes the software, so it won't sync until you start it again. Controlling Google Drive Now you know how to remove Google Drive from your computer, as well as disconnecting it. In general, you should only uninstall the app for troubleshooting or if you're sure you don't want to use it anymore. Disconnecting is sufficient if you want to make changes to the local files without changing what's in your Drive.

Applications won't install on Windows 10? It's frustrating when app installers won't run, throw an error code, or seem to work properly but then fail. We'll show you why some software won't install in Windows, and look at how to fix it. 1. Reboot Your Computer This is a common troubleshooting step, but important for a reason. The reason that software is not installing on your computer could be a temporary glitch. Before you jump into more focused fixes, you should reboot to get back to a clean state. If you still can't install software after a reboot, continue troubleshooting further. 2. Check App Installer Settings Windows 10 allows you to install both traditional desktop apps and apps from the Microsoft Store. Certain settings will restrict you to only installing Store apps, so you should check those before proceeding. To do this, head to Settings > Apps > Apps & features. At the top, you'll see a Choose where to get apps section. If the dropdown is set to The Microsoft Store only (recommended) then you won't be able to install apps from anywhere else. Change this to Anywhere or Anywhere, but let me know . . . and you're free to install what you like. You should also check a similar setting in Settings > Update & Security > For developers. Here, make sure that you have Sideload apps selected under Use developer features. Choosing Microsoft Store apps will prevent you from installing regular software. Finally, if you're in Windows 10 S Mode, you can only install apps from the Microsoft Store. Thankfully, it's easy to switch out of S Mode in Windows 10 at no charge. 3. Free Up Disk Space If you're extremely low on disk space, you may not be able to install new software. While this is rarely an issue for small apps, heavy-duty tools, such as Microsoft Office or Adobe products, take several gigabytes to install. Follow our guide to freeing up space in Windows 10, then try installing again. 4. Run the Installer as an Administrator Thanks to User Account Control (UAC) in Windows, your account only runs with Administrator privileges when necessary. Since most software requires admin rights to install, you'll usually see a UAC prompt when you try to install a new app. However, this can occasionally fail. You might see an error that the installer can't write to a certain folder, or it might refuse to run at all. In these cases, you should run the installer as an admin manually. To do this, close the installer dialog if it's open, then right-click on the installer file and choose Run as administrator. After granting admin rights, try the installer again and see if it succeeds. In case you don't have admin rights, ask someone who manages the computer or check our guide to running programs as an administrator for more help. 5. Check 64-Bit Compatibility A lot of software offers both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. 64-bit software is only compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows. However, 32-bit apps will run on both 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows, since 64-bit Windows is backwards compatible. Most of the time, software will automatically pick the right version to install on your system, or will just install as 32-bit. If you have a modern computer, it's likely 64-bit, meaning this isn't a problem. But if you're not sure, you should find out if you have 64-bit Windows. From there, keep an eye out on software download pages and make sure to download the version that's compatible with your system. x86 refers to 32-bit, while x64 is synonymous with 64-bit. 6. Run Program Troubleshooters Windows 10 includes several built-in troubleshooting tools that try to detect and fix common problems. They don't always work well, but they're worth a try when Windows won't install programs for some reason. To access the troubleshooter, head to Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot. Here, run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter and see if it fixes any problems. You can also run the Windows Store Apps tool if you're having trouble with a Store app. If this doesn't work, you should try the Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter, available to download from Microsoft. 7. Uninstall Previous Software Versions Most of the time, installing an app update (even if it's a new major version) goes smoothly. But sometimes, having an old version of the program installed can cause issues when you try to install the latest release. If you still can't install software properly, go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features and uninstall the current version of the software. This shouldn't erase any of the data you had saved in the app, but you may want to back up any settings or other important info first, just in case. In some cases, you'll need to uninstall other components to fully remove a program. For instance, Apple's instructions on how to completely uninstall iTunes guide you through removing Bonjour and other bits of software. 8. Review Antivirus Settings Sometimes, your antivirus or anti-malware software can prevent software from installing. This can be helpful or a pain, depending on the circumstance. In one case, you may be trying to install a program that's actually malware. When your antivirus detects this, it will hopefully block you from installing that app. But if you've disabled notifications from your antivirus, you might not see this. Try opening your security tool and checking for recent alerts to find out. If you suspect that a program you want to install contains malware, you should scan it with an online virus scanner. Avoid anything that's infected, of course. However, your antivirus can also become overzealous. It may prevent legitimate programs from accessing necessary folders when they try to install (Malwarebytes Premium has been known to do this). If this is the case, you'll need to temporarily disable your antivirus to let the installation complete. How to do this depends on your installed antivirus. Most have an option to temporarily suspend protections for a few minutes so you can install as necessary. Just make sure you trust the software before doing this! 9. Make Sure the Program Is Compatible With Your Windows Version Some programs simply aren't compatible with modern versions of Windows. Apps abandoned years ago, for example, were probably never updated to support Windows 10. When this is the case, Windows has some compatibility tools to help you get it running, but it still might not work properly afterward. First, you should check the provider's website to see the software supports your version of Windows. Even if it's not compatible, you can download the installer file and try to get it installed anyway, but knowing the developer's official stance is useful. If the app installs properly, perform the below steps on the executable file. If the installer won't run, try the same procedure on the installer executable. Right-click on the app's executable file and choose Properties. In the resulting window, swap to the Compatibility tab. Here, you can choose to Run this program in compatibility mode for an earlier version of Windows. This can help if you know the app ran on an older version. Otherwise, there are more display options under Settings, but these shouldn't be necessary in most cases. If the software still doesn't run with compatibility mode enabled, see more tips for getting old software to work in Windows 10. Failing that, you'll need to pursue other methods to use that software, such as creating a virtual machine. Fix Software Install Errors Today Hopefully, one of these troubleshooting steps helps when you're unable to install software on Windows. Most of the time, this comes down to a Windows compatibility issue or a security tool interfering.

Are you having network problems with your Nintendo Switch? Whether you can't get your system online at all, keep seeing an error code, or have disconnection issues when trying to play a certain game online, these problems can be frustrating. In this article, we walk you through several steps to hopefully fix your Nintendo Switch internet problems and get you back online and playing games again. 1. Restart Your Nintendo Switch Like any electronic device, restarting your Switch is an important first step to clear up temporary issues. Pressing the power button on your Switch only puts it into sleep mode, however, so there's a good chance you haven't power-cycled your system in some time. To fully shut down your Switch, press and hold the physical Power button on the top-left of the system for several seconds. On the resulting menu, select Power Options and then Restart. After a few seconds, the system will reboot. Give it a moment, then see if it reconnects to the internet. 2. Reboot Your Networking Equipment After rebooting your Switch, you should next power cycle your modem and router. Simply pull the plug on both devices (if you don't have a combo unit), wait a minute, then plug them back in. 3. Make Sure You're Not in Airplane Mode When you put your Switch in Airplane Mode, it disables all wireless communication. While this helps you save battery when using the system on-the-go, it obviously keeps you from getting online, too. You'll know the system is in airplane mode if you see an airplane icon in the top-right corner of the homescreen. To toggle it, go to Settings > Airplane Mode. You can also hold the Home button to open the Quick Settings and change it from there. Note that the Switch doesn't let you enter airplane mode while docked. 4. Review Your Switch Network Settings If you still can't get online at all, it's worth checking your Switch's internet connection options so you can determine where the problem lies. Open the Settings menu from the homescreen and head to the Internet tab. Select Test Connection to run through a quick check and see if everything is correct. If you don't see the Connection test was successful message, take note of any error codes, as you may need to research them online later. You should walk through the Internet Settings on the previous page to make sure you've set up everything correctly. Select your network and choose Change settings to make sure the info is up-to-date. You can also erase the connection and set it up anew if you prefer. A common reason for network issues is mistyping the Wi-Fi password, for example. At this point, you should also test other devices on your network to make sure they can get online. If they can't, follow our general guide to troubleshooting network issues. 5. Check Nintendo's Network Maintenance Page There's a chance that Nintendo's online services could be experiencing an issue. Have a look at Nintendo's Network Maintenance Information page for notices about any ongoing problems. This page shows a message stating All servers are operating normally if the online services are working properly. Further down the page, you'll see any scheduled maintenance windows where network services may be affected. 6. Install System and Game Updates If you can't get your Switch online, you, of course, won't be able to download new system updates. However, there's a chance that your system already downloaded an update but hasn't installed it yet. Applying that could fix your issue, so it's worth checking now. Head to Settings > System and choose System Update to check. Online games won't let you use network services unless the game is updated to the latest version. If you're only having an issue with one game, you should check for updates to it. Games will usually check automatically when you launch them, but you can also do so manually. Press the Plus or Minus button when highlighting a game, then go to Software Update > Via the Internet. If you're around someone else who has a Switch and an updated copy of the game, select Match Version with Local Users instead. There you can create a group and install the update locally through someone else's Switch. 7. Reduce Wi-Fi Interference The Switch doesn't have a super powerful Wi-Fi chip, so you may experience connection issues if you're far away from your router. Keep an eye on the Wi-Fi indicator in the top-right of your Switch's home screen to see how strong your connection is. If possible, move closer to your router for a more stable connection. You should also try to reduce interference by moving other electronics and metal objects outside of the path between your Switch and router. 8. Purchase the Switch Ethernet Adapter If you have serious connection problems when on Wi-Fi, you should consider purchasing the officially licensed HORI Ethernet adapter for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Wired Internet LAN Adapter by HORI Officially Licensed by NintendoBUY NOW ON AMAZON This plugs into one of the USB ports on the console's dock and lets you connect the system to your network with an Ethernet cable. A wired connection is much more stable than a wireless connection, so you should have fewer issues with this solution. If connecting your Switch to your router directly isn't an option, check out powerline adapters, which let you run Ethernet connections over the power lines in your house. 9. Perform Advanced Router Tweaks If you continue to have issues even after all of these steps, Nintendo's NAT troubleshooting page recommends looking into advanced settings on your router. These include connecting your Switch to the 5GHz band instead of 2.4GHz, putting your system in the DMZ, and more. Since these settings vary greatly on different routers, discussing them is beyond the scope of this guide. Most people shouldn't need to worry about them, but you can have a look at our router tips for gamers for more advice. Get Your Switch Back Online We've looked at the most important troubleshooting tips for Nintendo Switch connection issues. Whether you can't get online at all or experience poor online performance, working your way through this list should fix your issue in almost all cases. For more help, we've looked at how to test your home network speed and decipher the results.

Have a frozen app that's locking up your Chromebook? If you were on Windows, you'd probably press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and use the Task Manager to close it down. But how do you close apps on your Chromebook? Thankfully, it's not difficult to force-close apps on your Chromebook. We'll show you a few ways to close apps on Chrome OS that every user should know. Force-Quit Chromebook Apps Using the Task Manager If a browser tab or app on your Chromebook hangs for several seconds, chances are that it's frozen. Don't worry, a Chromebook is unlikely to have a virus. To kill that process, you'll need to open Chrome's built-in Task Manager. To open the Task Manager on your Chromebook, perform the following steps: Open the Chrome browser (if it's not already) and select the three-dot Menu in the upper-right corner. On the resulting list, choose More tools > Task manager. Alternatively, you can press the Search + Escape keyboard shortcut to open it from anywhere. Chrome's Task Manager will open. This shows every process running on your Chromebook. Browse the list of processes to find the tab or app that's stuck. If you can't find it, click the headers at the top to sort by alphabetical order, memory usage, or other factors. Frozen tabs often use more memory or CPU than normal, which can help you locate them. Once you find the problematic app, click to select it, then hit the End process button to force-quit it. Doing this will instantly kill any Chrome tab or app that's hanging. You'll lose any unsaved work, so if you were in the middle of something, you may want to wait a few minutes to see if the page responds normally before doing this. How to Close an App on a Chromebook Normally Of course, you don't need to force-close apps on your Chromebook all the time. Usually, you can close them without force-killing the process so they shut down cleanly. The standard way to exit a Chromebook app is simple: just click the X icon at the top-right of the app window. If you don't want to do that, you can also right-click the app's icon on the shelf at the bottom of the screen and choose Close. To close apps on your Chromebook even faster, try keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl + W will close the current browser tab. To close the entire window that's in focus, use Shift + Ctrl + W. Learn more of these in our Chromebook keyboard shortcuts guide. How to Quit All Apps on Your Chromebook Since Chrome OS is quite stable, you shouldn't have many problems with unresponsive apps. However, you might occasionally have an issue where the entire system locks up and you can't get anything to respond. In those cases, you should restart your Chromebook. To do this, simply press and hold the Power button at the top-right of your keyboard for a few seconds. Once it powers off, you can hold the same button again to turn it back on. Close Chromebook Apps When Needed Hopefully, you only have Chromebook app issues once in a while. If the problems become more frequent, you may have a poorly-coded app or extension installed. Try removing apps from your system and see if the problem subsides. Otherwise, it may be time for a new machine. Check out our guide to the best Chromebooks if you're in the market for a replacement.

Despite the fact that Apple builds some of the most reliable computers around, you might still suffer from a frozen Mac at times. When this happens, apps become unresponsive, the cursor turns into a spinning beach ball, and your computer fans whir at a high speed. We'll show you how to fix your frozen Mac with a force shutdown. Unlike a standard shutdown or restart, a force shutdown powers off your Mac without letting it save files or close down apps first. You also might hear this referred to as a hard reset, a force restart, or a force reboot. Before You Force Shut Down Your Mac You should only use a force shutdown on your Mac as an absolute last resort. It can cause you to lose unsaved progress in open documents and might even result in corrupted files in your operating system. It's a particularly bad idea to force shut down your Mac during a software update, which might leave your Mac with only half an operating system installed. If possible, try to shut down your Mac normally by going to Apple menu > Shut Down from the menu bar instead. This is much safer, but you might find your Mac takes a long time to shut down if it needs to finish updates or close down apps first. If your Mac won't shut down normally, use the following steps to reduce the risk of data loss before forcing your Mac to shut down. Save Open Files Your Mac is most likely to freeze when you're working on a big important project. If this is the case, you don't want to lose any unsaved progress by forcing your Mac to shut down too soon. Try to save each of your open files by pressing Cmd + S or selecting File > Save from the menu bar. If your Mac is frozen and you can't save anything, take a photo of your work-in-progress on your phone so you can recreate it later. Obviously, this isn't ideal, but it's better than losing your work forever. Eject External Storage Forcing your Mac to shut down doesn't give it a chance to safely eject external drives. Whether you use these drives for Time Machine backups or external storage, ejecting them unsafely might cause irreparable damage to their contents. To eject your external storage safely, go to your Desktop and drag the external drive to the Trash icon in the Dock. Alternatively, open Finder and click the Eject button next to your drive in the sidebar. Quit Every App If your Mac won't shut down normally, it's probably because one of your apps has frozen and refuses to quit. You can help matters by manually closing each app yourself. There's a chance that doing this will unfreeze your Mac so you don't need to force it to shut down or restart after all. Press Cmd + Q to quit your current app or click the app name in the menu bar and select Quit [App]. Cycle between your open apps using Cmd + Tab to find out which other apps are still running. If any apps refuse to quit, press Option + Cmd + Escape to open the Force Quit window. Select the unresponsive app in this window, then click Force Quit to close it down. After closing every app, try to shut down your Mac normally using the Apple menu. If you still can't do that---or if you can't close every app---then find out how to force shut down or restart your Mac below. How to Force Shut Down or Restart Your Mac If your Mac is frozen and completely unresponsive, the only way to fix it is using a force shutdown or force restart. The methods for how to force shut down or restart your Mac are exactly the same for a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or any other kind of Mac. Here are the three different ways to do it. 1. Hold the Power Button Every Mac has a power button. On a laptop---like a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air---you usually find it at the top-right of your keyboard or Touch Bar. It may have a power symbol or an eject symbol on it, or it may be a blank Touch ID sensor. On an iMac, you'll find the power button behind the bottom-left corner of the screen. If you're looking at the back of your iMac, it's on the bottom-right. To force shut down your Mac, press and hold the power button until the screen goes black. This might take 10 seconds or more; just keep holding the button. After your Mac shuts down, wait a few moments to let it cool off, then briefly press the power button again to restart it. 2. Use a Keyboard Shortcut There are two keyboard shortcuts you can use to shut down your Mac: the first shortcut attempts to safely close apps first, while the second forces your Mac to shut down without closing anything. Because of this, it's best to try the first shortcut first. To safely shut down your Mac, press Control + Option + Cmd + Power. Don't hold down the power button or you'll force shut down your Mac; give it a brief press with the other buttons instead. That shortcut might not work if your Mac can't safely close every app, in which case you need to force your Mac to shut down instead. Press Control + Cmd + Power to do so. This time you need to hold the keys for a few seconds before your Mac shuts down. 3. Drain the Battery Even when your Mac is frozen, you can usually force it to shut down using one of the two methods above. Still, there are some rare situations when they don't work either. If that's the case, the next best method is to remove the power supply or drain the battery. Again, it's important to know that powering off your Mac this way is potentially damaging. You might lose unsaved data---or worse, you might create corrupt files on your hard drive. You should only remove the power supply from your Mac as a last resort. If you have a MacBook, a MacBook Air, or a MacBook Pro, unplug the power cable and wait for the battery to die. You might need to wait overnight for this to happen, depending on the health of your battery. But eventually your Mac will power off. When it does, charge it back up and turn it on. With older MacBooks, you can remove the battery from the bottom of the computer instead. This is a quicker way to force your MacBook to shut down. If you have an iMac, a Mac Mini, or a Mac Pro, simply unplug the power cable from the back of the computer. Wait a few moments to let your Mac cool down, then reconnect the power cable and power it back on. Find Out What to Do if Your Mac Won't Turn On Again Most of the time, your frozen Mac should boot up again normally after forcing it to shut down or restart. Any apps that weren't working should run smoothly and you can carry on with whatever important projects you were working on. That said, your Mac might refuse to restart if an underlying problem caused it to freeze in the first place. Potential problems range from outdated software to faulty hard drives.

Got 100% disk usage in Windows 10? So your computer is hanging and freezing. Same old Windows, right? Except you're using a brand-new Windows 10 device; you've only had it a few days. So just what is going on? Investigating, you discover that your system drive is running at 100%. Surely this can't be, right? Sadly, it is. The latest versions of Windows have a problem with the drives being overworked, which slows down the operating system. This issue affects both hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). Several fixes are available for this. But first, you need to trace the problem. 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10: Fixed! When the error was first discovered, only a few culprits were found. But as time passes, despite the 100% disk usage error being reported to Microsoft, more causes of this bug are discovered, not fewer. Click the link above for each possible cause of the bug to see how to fix it. Once you've established that there is a problem, you have several options available. Check the following steps one at a time, checking the disk usage in the Task Manager after each. Note that even if you find a solution, a Windows Update could reset the changes you've made. Bookmarking this page will help you find it in the future and run through the fixes again. 1. Slow Performance? Run Disk Check This performance issue is most obvious when attempting to use Windows Search to find a file or program, and anything else that requires the drive to do some work (perhaps copying and pasting a group of files). To establish whether it is a problem that is affecting you, when your computer next slows down press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager. (Alternatively, right-click the Taskbar and select Task Manager.) Note that this may take some time to open with the drive being under strain. On the first tab, Processes, look for the Disk column. If you're having problems with drive performance, this should be at 100%, and shaded red to indicate whether you have a problem or not. Problematic sectors on your HDD can cause the 100% disk usage issue in Windows 10. However, using Windows' built-in disk check can fix this. Open Windows Explorer and select This PC, then identify your hard drive. Right-click on and select Properties. Here, find the Tools tab, and under Error checking click on Check. In the resulting window, click Scan drive. Wait while the system scans the drive; a reboot may be required for a full disk repair. This should deal with the error. 2. Update Your Anti-Virus if Windows 10 Disk Is Running at 100% As with any such performance issue, the first thing to do is confirm that your computer hasn't been infected with malware. Your security software should be able to deal with this, whether it's a free app or a paid suite. At the very least, tools such as Malwarebytes Anti-Malware should be able to scan your system drive and detect any problems, although with a heavy load on your drive already this may take a while. If threats are found, use the software's recommendations to discard them and reboot. Next, check your drive's performance further. Hopefully, you've resolved the issue; if not, then malware wasn't to blame, so read on. 3. Disable Windows Search for Improved Disk Performance The next thing to check is whether the 100% disk usage error has anything to do with Windows Search. A bug in Windows 10 results in a "search loop" that causes an increased load on the system drive. To stop this and prevent it from happening during your current session (until Windows is rebooted) open Windows PowerShell (Admin). You'll find this by right clicking the Windows 10 Start menu. Enter: net.exe stop "Windows search" To permanently disable Windows Search or Indexing, press WIN+R, enter services.msc, and hit Enter. In the Services window that opens find the Windows Search entry and double-click it to open the Windows Search Properties window. Under Startup type, select Disabled. Here you can click Stop to abort the service. Click OK to save your changes. A few moments after disabling Windows Search, your Windows 10 performance should improve considerably. If not, move on… 4. Disable SysMain to Fix 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10 Another Windows 10 feature identified as a potential cause of the 100% disk usage issue is the superfetch service. Since Windows 10 1809 (the 2018 Windows 10 October Update) this has been renamed to "SysMain." To prevent this service from causing the disk usage issue, open another Windows PowerShell (Admin) and enter: net.exe stop sysmain Again, wait a few moments to check whether this has had any effect on your computer's performance. You should also run Check Disk: chkdsk.exe /f /r You'll be informed that your PC must be rebooted for Check Disk to complete, so make sure you have closed all your applications first. If this doesn't work, it is likely that you're experiencing a frustrating iteration of this issue that is simple to resolve. 5. Is Flash Causing the 100% Disk Usage Bug? Flash remains one of the most vulnerable aspects of modern computing and should be disabled. Adobe plans to kill off its multimedia plugin in 2020, so there's little reason to keep using it. Flash also seems to be one of the most common culprits for the 100% hard disk usage in Windows 10 if you're using the Google Chrome browser. Open Menu > Settings > Privacy and security and click the section marked Site Settings. Here, find Flash and set the toggle to Block sites from running Flash, then click Back. Restart the browser and check your HDD performance. 6. Disk Usage at 100%? Switch Web Browsers It may not be Flash that is impacting on your browser performance. Another cause could be the browser itself, particularly if you're using Google Chrome. The obvious option is to choose a different browser. Windows 10 already has two browsers built in. You probably don't want to use Internet Explorer, but Microsoft Edge is an adequate replacement for Chrome. Several browsers are available, some better than others. See our guide to the best web browsers for Windows to find an alternative. 7. Is Skype Eating Disk Resources? Another widely-used application could also be causing your 100% HDD usage: Skype. To find out---and disable its OTT resource requirement, begin by checking that the software is not running. You can do this by looking in the Task Manager, or checking the System Tray, the area on your desktop around the clock. If Skype is running here, right-click the icon and select Quit. Next, press WIN+R and paste this address into the box: C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\ Click OK to find the Skype.exe file and right-click this and select Properties. In the Security tab click Edit, then select ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES. Put a check next to Write in the Allow column and finish off by clicking Apply, then OK. Head back to the Task Manager to see the change. You may also consider finding a Skype alternative. No difference? Keep reading… 8. Resolve PCI-Express Firmware Bug Some drivers don't run quite as they should in Windows 10. One that has been discovered to be causing 100% HDD use is the StorAHCI.sys driver, which has a firmware bug. StorAHCI.sys intended for storage devices connected to the PC or laptop motherboard via Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express. If you've made it this far with no success, this could be the problem. Open the Device Manager (use Windows 10 search, or right-click This PC in Windows Explorer, then Properties > Device Manager) and expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. If an AHCI Controller entry is listed, double-click, then open the Driver tab and select Driver Details. Is the driver listed as C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\storahci.sys? If so, you could be affected by this bug. Close the driver details box and switch to the Details tab, selecting Device instance path from the drop-down menu. Where the Value is listed, right-click, and select Copy. Launch your text editor (like Notepad) and Paste the contents in. Next, press WIN+R and type regedit, followed by the OK button. Navigate to this address: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\ and use the pasted string above to open the correct AHCI Controller, followed by the random number. Here, expand Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\ MessageSignaledInterruptProperties and you should see MSISupported listed in the right-hand pane. Double-click this, then change the Value data: to 0. Click OK to confirm and follow the instructions to restart Windows. 9. Is Steam Maxing Out Your HDD? Enjoy gaming and have Steam installed? There's a good chance this digital delivery system is causing 100% disk usage. Usually this is due to update delivery, causing the background downloader to get caught in a loop. Clear the Steam cache to fix this. First, make sure you have exited Steam. Where Steam is a likely cause of the 100% disk usage error, it may hang when you try to exit. In this case, use the Windows 10 Task Manager to close the software. Next, open the WIN+R run box and enter steam://flushconfig You'll see a dialogue box, informing you that content will be deleted. Click OK to proceed. Note that games and saves will be retained, so there is no risk of them being deleted. 10. Disable Diagnostic Tracking in Windows 10 Finally, it's worth considering the impact of diagnostic tracking in Windows 10. A feature that you might have otherwise disabled for privacy reasons, it has been blamed for 100% HDD use on many PCs. When it comes to reducing your hard disk drive usage, it's quicker to simply disable the DiagTrack service. If this is the source of the 100% disk usage error in Windows 10, you can stop the service launching. However, to do this you'll need to access Command Prompt in administrator mode. Do this by clicking Start and typing cmd in the search box. Wait for the results and right-click Command Prompt, selecting Run as administrator. Input these commands to disable and stop DiagTrack: sc config "DiagTrack" start= disabled sc stop "DiagTrack" In addition, you might also head to Settings > System > Notification & actions and disable Get tips, tricks and suggestions as you use Windows. Doing so has been shown to improve things. 11. Windows Update Can Cause 100% Disk Usage As well as affecting changes you make to your PC when fixing the 100% disk use problem, Windows Update can also be a cause. This usually only happens when Windows Update has a problem (which is typically due to a file refusing to download). You have two options here: Leave your computer alone---shut all your open applications and wait. Eventually, the files will download, but depending on how Windows Update is scheduled on your computer, it may require a reboot. Shutdown your computer---once you've done that, restart and wait for Windows Update to resolve the problem. Once the update has finished downloading, it's wise to run it as soon as possible. Remember to check any previous fixes for 100% disk usage before proceeding; as noted above, Windows Update can reverse these fixes. 12. Reset Your Virtual Memory Virtual memory is a combination of RAM and hard disk space and can be responsible for overuse of your HDD. If there isn't enough RAM to perform a task, the HDD is used to supplement the RAM. Data moved to the HDD is then returned to RAM when required. If you've made it this far and you've yet to solve the 100% disk usage issue, it could be worth resetting your virtual memory. Open the System screen with Windows+Break/Pause, then Advanced System Settings on the left. In the resulting box, select the Advanced tab, then under Performance click Settings. Here you'll find another Advanced tab, which has a section labeled Virtual memory. Click Change and clear the checkbox for Automatically manage paging file size for all drives. Staying on this screen, select your Windows drive (usually C:) and then Custom size. Here, add an Initial size and a Maximum size; note both are measured in MB rather than GB. These numbers can be confusing, so with the first value, rely on the recommended option. For the maximum value, aim for a figure no more than 1.5 times your system RAM. For instance, a computer with 4GB of RAM should have no more than 6.5GB (6144MB). With the values input, click Set, then OK to continue. You now need to clear the temporary files that have been used in the previous virtual memory allocation. Do this by opening the Run box (WIN+R) then entering "temp". When the temp directory opens, select all files (Ctrl+A) and tap Delete on your keyboard. 13. Activate High Performance Mode One final thing to try is altering your Windows power settings. Standard power modes are more prone to the 100% disk usage bug but switching to high performance often overcomes the problem. The downside, of course, is that your computer will use more power. Thanks to modern processor design this shouldn't be a massive issue. However, notebooks and desktop replacement laptops may take a hit on battery life. To change to high performance, open the Power & sleep screen with WIN+X > Power Options. Here, click Additional power settings, select High performance, then OK. If this isn't a displayed option, you'll need to create your own custom power plan. Click Create a power plan, then choose High performance. Give the plan a name, tweak any personal settings you need then select it as a power plan to use. In a moment or two, the 100% disk usage issue should drop down to less than 10%. 14. Install the Latest SATA Drivers Could a storage device driver be resulting in the 100% disk usage error? Your Windows 10 computer almost certainly uses SATA connections for hard drives, SSDs, and optical drives. If the drivers aren't up to date, the disk usage error can occur. Avoid this by upgrading to the latest SATA drivers. Open the Power User menu with WIN+X and select Device Manager. From here, expand Storage controllers, then identify the correct controller for your SATA devices. If you can't do this, don't worry---simply update both. To update, right-click on each controller and select Update driver. Select the Browse my computer for driver software option, then Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer. Here, choose Standard AHCI Controller and see how this impacts performance. You may need to reboot Windows for this to take effect. Note that if it doesn't work, you can still try this by checking the manufacturer's website for a new driver. This can be installed using the instructions that accompany it. 15. Replace Your PC's Power Supply (PSU) There is a chance that your computer's hardware is causing the 100% disk usage issue in Windows: specifically, the PSU. If disk usage issues can be attributed to excessive disk activity, then it follows there might be a power-related cause. 100% disk usage has been spotted on Windows 10 laptops running on the battery. Once plugged into the power adaptor, the issue resolves. Similarly, the problem has been shown to alleviate once a new PSU is installed in a desktop PC. Check our guide to new PC power supply units to help you choose a replacement. Disk Usage Should Rarely Be 100% Put simply, there is little reason for your disk load to be anything close to 100%, certainly not under normal usage. A slow computer is one with a problem, and if you cannot fix it by disabling a browser plugin, stopping services, or running your antivirus software, then the problem may well be hardware related. Perhaps your drive is getting old; it may be defective, or the cables may need replacing. Alternatively, there is a chance that the problem is connected to the Windows defrag tool. If your computer is attempting to defrag your drive, but your HDD is actually an SSD, then serious problems can occur. Deal with this by opening the Task Scheduler (WIN+Q, enter "task scheduler") and disable any scheduled disk defrag tasks.

Thanks to its official app, YouTube lets you log into multiple accounts on one Roku device. This hasn't always been the case; Google finally added the feature in 2017 to much applause from users. Logging in to and using multiple YouTube accounts on a single Roku is a simple process that only requires a one-time setup. And once it's done, you can easily switch between profiles on demand. How to Add Multiple YouTube Accounts on Roku The process for adding the first YouTube account to your Roku is different from the process for adding subsequent accounts. To add the first account, perform the following steps: Open the YouTube app. Press Left on your Roku remote. Scroll down to the User icon and press OK. Select Sign In and press OK. Either let Roku find your mobile device automatically or select Try another way and follow the on-screen instructions. On your mobile/PC, select the account and channel you want to connect to the Roku app. Then, to add multiple YouTube accounts following the initial setup, do the following: Launch YouTube on Roku and press Left on the remote. Scroll down to the avatar of the person who is logged in and press OK. Select Add Account in the accounts list. Either let YouTube find your local mobile device or click Try another way, head to youtube.com/activate and enter the on-screen code. Once you've finished adding users, you can switch between accounts by going to the YouTube menu and clicking on the user's profile picture. You can also use the same menu to create a guest browsing session.

Unstable Wi-Fi is often caused by wireless congestion. Congestion problems are common in apartment complexes or densely packed neighborhoods. The more people using the internet, the greater the instability. When many people in the same area are working from home, connectivity suffers. For those of you wondering how to fix Wi-Fi that sucks or is unstable, this article is for you. Unstable Wi-Fi Is Caused by Congestion Imagine an old car radio. Rotating the station dial sometimes plays a static combination of two different radio stations. That's because two radio towers can be on the same frequency channel. The same is true for Wi-Fi routers: when two or more routers transmit on the same channel, they slow each other down and cause unstable connections. The problem is magnified in dense living spaces. In apartment complexes, dozens of routers can transmit on the same channel. Even modern wireless technology can't cope with that level of interference. Just like radio, Wi-Fi is broken up into frequencies on the gigahertz (GHz) spectrum of 2.4GHz and 5GHz. These are much higher frequencies than those radio has access to. Each frequency is broken up into smaller increments called channels. The 2.4GHz frequency suffers from congestion the most because of its limited number of channels and long range. It has eleven channels but only three of these are non-overlapping. That means speed and connection quality suffer when there are more routers in the same area. 5GHz, on the other hand, offers 23 non-overlapping channels---and its shorter range means fewer overlapping radio signals. It's a lot like AM and FM radio where the longer range AM has poorer audio fidelity and FM sounds great but it comes at the expense of range. Image Credit: Wireless Networking in the Developing World/Wikipedia Fortunately you can change your router's channel the same way you can change a radio dial. It works like this: identify which channels aren't congested and switch your device over to it. If that doesn't work, think about changing your router to a 5GHz model (why dual-band routers work.) How to Fix Your Unstable Wi-Fi Connection Download and Install a Wi-Fi Analysis App Image Gallery (2 Images) On Windows, lots of free apps can analyze the quality of wireless channels. One of the best options is available on the Microsoft Store: Wi-Fi Analyzer. If you've got Windows, but don't have access to the Microsoft Store, we recommend NirSoft's WifiInfoView. For those without Windows, search your respective operating system's app store for "Wi-Fi Analyzer" and you should see dozens of options. Download: Wi-Fi Analyzer (Free) Detect Unstable Wi-Fi Using Wi-Fi Analyzer is dead simple. Just install and run the app. After installation, you can launch it by going to Windows Search (Windows key + Q) > Wi-Fi Analyzer. The tool should detect your Wi-Fi signal strength, which ranges from zero to -100 decibel milliwatt (dBm), the lower the better. If you have a 5GHz network, there is a toggle in the app that allows you to switch between detecting 2.4GHz and 5GHz. It's at the bottom of the interface. To analyze your wireless router's signal quality, take the following actions: Click on Analyze in the top menu bar. Wi-Fi Analyzer then displays a visualization of the Wi-Fi networks in your vicinity. If two networks broadcast on the same channel, you'll notice overlap. Each channel is a number between one and 161 on the 5GHz frequency and one through 11 on the 2.4GHz frequency. Here's what it looks like when two networks overlap: The X-plane axis represents the channels available on the 2.4GHz spectrum. As you can see, channels four to seven are unoccupied. Channels five and six have no competition whatsoever. Given the app's analysis, I should change my router's 2.4GHz channel to either five or six. But how do you change your router's channel? How to Change Your Router's Channel Accessing your router's settings requires a browser, like Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Accessing its settings, unfortunately, varies between different models of router, but some general rules apply. Netgear routers: In your browser, navigate to https://routerlogin.net TP-Link routers: In your browser, navigate to https://tplinklogin.net Linksys routers: In your browser, navigate to 192.168.1.1. Note: Most routers use "admin" as the login and "password" as the password. The login details may also be printed on the back of the router or in the instruction manual that came with it. If you cannot access your router, try searching the internet for your individual router's access method. For my own Telus router, changing the Wi-Fi channel is easy. I navigated to the router login address and entered my login and password. Changing the channel is usually located under Wireless Settings > Advanced Settings. I then changed the network channel to the option which offered good connection, saved the settings, and then restarted the router by power cycling it (turning it off and on again). Afterward, it stopped randomly disconnecting. One thing to mention: most modern routers include a feature that combines 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies onto a single network name, or SSID. This feature is notoriously unreliable and if you're having network problems, I suggest disabling it as a precautionary step. On my Telus router, it's referred to as SmartSteering. Other brands have completely different names.

Removable disk drives---either USB flash drives or external hard drives---should be easy to use. But in some cases, you may connect your drive to a Windows PC or another device with a USB port and find the external hard drive isn't showing up. This problem has several possible causes: partition issues on the external drive, using the wrong file system, dead USB ports, or driver issues in Windows. In a worst-case scenario, the drive itself may be dead. Let's take a look at how to diagnose undetected external drives in Windows. Note that this guide is also available as a video: Make Sure Your Drive Powers On This is a preliminary step, but one worth checking. Nearly every flash drive and many external hard drives don't require a separate power source---they receive power over USB. However, some desktop external drives do have dedicated power cables, or at least a physical power switch. If this is the case for you and your external hard drive is not showing up, you could have an issue with the power cable. Try plugging it into another power outlet, or swap the cable if possible. Check for flashing lights on the unit that indicate activity before moving on. External Hard Drive Still Not Showing Up? When your hard drive is not showing up, try these points in order. First, we'll check whether Windows detects the hard disk when you plug it in. Plug your removable drive into your computer if it isn't already. 1. Check the Drive in Disk Management Open the Disk Management tool. To do so, press Windows Key + X (or right-click the Start button) to open the Power User menu and select Disk Management from the list. You can also open the Run dialog with Windows + R and enter diskmgmt.msc to open this utility. As the name suggests, Disk Management lets you see all the hard disks connected to your computer. You can review sizes, partitions, and other disk information. You should see your external drive listed in the Disk Management window, likely below your primary and any secondary disks. Even if it doesn't appear in the This PC window because it doesn't contain any partitions, it should show up here as Removable. If you do see the drive here, jump down to section four, "Create a New Volume and Assign a Drive Letter." There, you'll partition and/or format it properly so Windows and other devices can access it. If your external drive is still not showing up, continue on. You'll need to determine why your drive isn't recognized. It's possible you have a hardware issue, driver problem, or a dead drive. 2. Try Another USB Port and Computer The problem may not lie with your device, but the port you're using to connect it to your computer. Unplug the drive from its current USB port and try plugging it into another port on your computer. If it works in one USB port but not another, you may have a dead USB port. If you've plugged the drive into a USB hub, try connecting it directly to the computer instead. Some USB hubs don't provide enough power for your external drive to function. What if the drive doesn't show up in Disk Management even after trying both of these steps? It's tough to know for certain whether the drive is bad or your computer is having a problem. If you have another computer nearby, try plugging the hard disk into it to check whether it's detected. If the drive doesn't work on any computer you plug it into, the drive itself is likely dead and you'll need to replace it. When you try another machine, be sure to check whether it appears in the computer's Disk Management window, not just This PC, as discussed above. 3. Troubleshoot Driver Issues If the drive does show up on other computers---or you don't have another computer around to check---Windows may have a driver problem with your device. You can check for this using the Device Manager. You'll find a shortcut to the Device Manager under the same Windows + X menu mentioned earlier. You can also enter devmgmt.msc into the Run dialog to open it. Expand the Disk drives category and check for any devices with a yellow exclamation point next to them. If you see a this symbol, that device has a driver problem. Right-click the device with the issue, select Properties, and look at the error message. This error message can help you fix the problem; you may want to perform a Google search for the error message you find. Driver problems are often tricky to fix. If the problem started recently, try running System Restore to roll back the changes. If this doesn't work, you can try the Update Driver button to install an updated driver. However, this rarely finds a new driver for generic devices like flash drives. Instead, you may want to check the manufacturer's website for a specific driver for your external hard drive. The Driver menu for your drive in the Device Manager has a few other options. Roll Back Driver button will revert any recent driver updates, which probably won't have an effect if System Restore didn't work. As a final resort, use the Uninstall button to remove the device from your system. Hopefully, upon rebooting, Windows will reinstall the driver and configure it correctly when you reconnect the drive. 4. Create a New Drive Volume If your device showed up in Disk Management in Step 1 or one of the above troubleshooting steps made it show up, you're ready to initialize the drive so it's usable. Aside from showing you basic information, the Disk Management tool can fix partition and file system issues with your drive. If your removable drive shows only Unallocated space, you'll need to create a new partition on it. This allows Windows and other operating systems to use it. To do so, right-click anywhere on the Unallocated space, select New Simple Volume, and go through the wizard to create a new partition. If your drive is partitioned (meaning it doesn't have Unallocated space) and you still can't see it, ensure it has a drive letter set. This should happen automatically, but if you've manually removed the drive letter, the drive may not be accessible in Windows. To change the drive letter, right-click the removable drive's partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. If the device doesn't already have a letter, click Add and choose one. If it does, click Change and try another one. Something later in the alphabet, like G or J, is standard for removable drives and will work fine. 5. Format the Drive If the drive appears partitioned, but you still can't access it, it's probably partitioned with a different file system. For instance, you may have formatted the drive with the XFS file system from Linux or APFS on a Mac. Windows can't read these file systems. You'll thus need to reformat the drive with the newer NTFS or older FAT32 file system so Windows will be able to recognize it. To reformat a partition in the Disk Management utility, right-click it and select Format. Note that formatting will erase all files on your drive, so you should copy any important files on it to another device before continuing. If you formatted the drive on a Linux or Mac machine, take it to a computer running that OS and back up the files before you format it. When you format, you can give the drive a new name if you like. Leave Allocation unit size as Default; leaving Perform a quick format checked is fine too. More importantly, you'll need to select a file system. Which one you should choose depends on the type of drive and what you use it for. If you have a small flash drive, it likely came formatted as FAT32. In most cases, this is the best choice. While FAT32 can't save files over 4GB and only supports volumes up to 2TB, it's unlikely you'll run into either of these issues using a flash drive. More importantly, FAT32 is compatible with all sorts of devices, such as cameras, media players, game consoles, and more. NTFS is the modern standard for Windows, but there's really nothing to gain by using it on a flash drive. Many older devices aren't compatible with NTFS. Thus, we recommend formatting as FAT32 for flash drives and SD cards, and NTFS for large external hard drives. You do have two other file system options. exFAT is a Microsoft file system that supports larger files that FAT32, but isn't as widely compatible. We've compared FAT32 and exFAT if you're interested. FAT is ancient, so you can ignore that one. Your External Drive, Fixed and Recognized Again Following this process when external hard drives don't show up should solve most of the disk recognition issues you'll encounter. If you've tried the drive with multiple computers and it never shows up in the Disk Management window after these steps, the drive is probably dead.

Windows 10 should run smoothly for most people, but there are times when Windows 10 can freeze or lock up your system. Sitting there while your computer hangs is frustrating and you shouldn't have to deal with it. Whether your computer is freezing after installing Windows 10 or one of its updates, or if it's just suddenly starting locking up, we're going to provide various steps to stop Windows 10 freezes. 1. Free Up Storage Space Your computer can slow down if your drive is nearly at full capacity. This is because Windows 10 doesn't have enough space to effectively manage itself. To check your situation, navigate to This PC in File Explorer to take a look at the volume of your drives. If they're in the red, it's time to delete unnecessary data. See our guide on which Windows files and folders to delete. You might also want to invest in a new storage drive if you're constantly battling with the amount of space you have. External hard drives are cheap, if you're not confident in installing something within the computer case itself. 2. Clean the Inside of Your Computer Dust will build up inside your computer over time. This is likely to happen quicker if you have your computer close to the floor or have pets. Not only is it gross to have your computer full of dust, but it can also slow your system down too. Image Credit: Vinni Malek/Flickr Your computer generates heat, which is why your case has fans to try to regulate airflow and keep temperatures stable. However, if your computer is full of dust then it can be hard for those fans to be effective. If your computer gets too hot, it then throttles performance to prevent the components from burning out and failing. Turn your computer off, unplug everything, open up the case, and use compressed air to blast the dust out. More information can be found in our Windows PC spring cleaning checklist. 3. Check the Health of Your Components If you've had your computer a while, the components inside might be failing. Faulty RAM is often the source of Windows 10 freezing. A failing hard drive could also be the culprit, especially if you notice the freezing when trying to access files. Follow our guide on how to test your PC for failing hardware. If your hard drive is failing, back up your data immediately, then ideally replace it with a solid state drive. Replacement RAM is usually inexpensive. 4. Update or Rollback Your Drivers Generally, you should only update drivers when there's a problem with your computer. Now, it might be that a driver updated and that's what has caused Windows 10 to freeze. Alternatively, you might need to update a driver to solve the problem. For information on how to update, see our guide on how to find and replace outdated drivers. If that doesn't work, you should try going back to an older driver version. For help on how to do that, see our guide on how to take back driver control. 5. Uninstall Antivirus and Cleaner Tools You don't need to bog your computer down with multiple antivirus programs or pointless cleaner tools. If you have lots of these programs running, they're likely going to clash and hog your system resources. For most people, the inbuilt Windows 10 Security package is more than enough. Press Windows key + I to open Settings and click Apps. Then, select each unnecessary program on the list in turn, and click Uninstall. Next, it's time to do a virus scan to ensure your system isn't infected. A virus could be draining your system resources and causing it to freeze. Do a system search for Windows Security and open the app. Go to Virus & threat protection > Scan options > Full scan > Scan now. The tool will automatically clean up any viruses or malware. 6. Assess the Event Viewer A good way to check what problems are occurring on your system is with Event Viewer. Do a system search for Event Viewer and open it. On the left pane, double click Windows Logs. This is broken down into different sections. The relevant ones are Application and System. Look in these two logs and check for entries with a date and time that coincide with Windows 10 freezing. Alternatively, look for those with a level of Error or Critical, since these detail the worst problems. Once you have found something, copy and paste the event information into Google. There are far too many possibilities to cover here, so hopefully someone else has asked about the error online. 7. Create a New User Account Creating a new local account can stop Windows 10 freezing. To do this, press Windows key + I to open Settings. Then navigate to Accounts > Family & other users. Beneath Other users, click Add someone else to this PC. On the new window, click I don't have this person's sign-in information. Then click Add a user without a Microsoft account. Fill out the fields and click Next. Then log out of your account and into the new one. 8. Go Back to the Previous Version of Windows 10 If Windows 10 started freezing after an update, it makes sense to reverse that update. If it's been less than 10 days since you updated then you can go back to an earlier version easily. To do this, press Windows key + I to open Settings. Navigate to Update & Security > Recovery. Beneath Go back to the previous version of Windows 10, click Get started and follow the instructions. If this option isn't available then you could download an ISO for a previous Windows 10 version and install from that. However, Microsoft doesn't provide these, so you'll have to get one from an unofficial source or use one you've previously created. If you have one available, check out our guide on how to create Windows 10 installation media. Keyboard Shortcut to Fix a Frozen Computer While system freezes aren't as common as they used to be, they do still occur---and since there are many reasons why it could happen, it can be hard to pinpoint the problem. Hopefully, one of the troubleshooting steps here has resolved your frozen Windows 10 computer.

You want to play and not spend time waiting for your Steam games to update or download. If you have a poor internet connection you can find yourself downloading for days on end. Figure out how to increase Steam download speeds and you won't have to suffer. These tips will help you optimize the bandwidth from your ISP and also Steam's own connection to its servers. Declutter Your Connection Seriously, close your browser. As much as internet speeds are something of a mysterious force, there are a few obvious ways to cut down on your extraneous data use. The easiest method is hiding in plain sight: your Taskbar. Right-click on your Taskbar and select the Task Manager. Next, click on the Network category. If you see any pesky programs hogging up your network connection, particularly currently running games, right-click on the program and select End task. When it comes to learning how to speed up Steam downloads, ending any unnecessary programs is probably the most crucial tip we can offer. Optimize Steam's Software Another little trick to optimize Steam's download speeds also lies within your Task Manager. First, open Steam and locate the software in your Task Manager. Right-click on Steam Client entry and select Go to details. Next, from your Detail panel, right-click on SteamService.exe and select Set priority, then High. While this won't radically alter download speeds, it will inform your PC that Steam deserves a higher priority than the rest of your programs, background or otherwise. Optimize Your Data Connection While Steam does do its best to provide users with the most optimal speeds available, Steam's download speeds will largely depend on the speed of your own internet connection. Though it's understandable that not everyone has access to a powerhouse internet connection, there are a few things you can immediately do to better your overall online connection. My topmost recommendation would be to download games using a physical Ethernet connection. This also means tracking down your LAN drivers and installing the latest ones. To do so, you'll have to locate your motherboard's make and model. Click on your Start Menu, type cmd, and click on the Command Prompt option. Enter the following into your prompt and hit Enter on your keyboard. wmic baseboard get product,Manufacturer Google your motherboard's make and model to locate its Support page. From this page, you'll be able to locate and download the latest LAN drivers. Finally, connect your modem to your PC via an Ethernet cable. That's it! Server Proximity Steam downloads are regional, rather than centered in one global location. At times, Steam will incorrectly read your location. This means you could be located in Los Angeles, while your downloads are centered in Philadelphia, which could dramatically affect download speeds. To change your download region, open Steam, and click Steam > Settings in the upper left-hand corner. From the Settings window, click on the Downloads category. Next, click on the drop-down menu below Download Region. Set this option to the closest server available in your area. For added measure, set the Limit bandwidth to option in this window to No limit. Server Relocation While choosing your closest server is typically your best bet, it isn't always. For example, I live in an area with high download rates and high levels of traffic. This affects the overall speed of your download: the higher the traffic, the more clogged your connection. You can, however, relocate the server in order to find the right balance of traffic and download rates. First, head to Steam's Download Stats. From this interactive map, you will be able to check the average download rate and percentage of global traffic. Click on a country to see the download rates and traffic. While your download rate results may not radically change (as proximity is also a factor in download speeds) changing your current server to one with a greater download rate or less traffic will certainly help speed up Steam downloads. Disable Your Antivirus Software and Firewall Steam includes anti-virus programs and firewalls on its list of programs that may interfere with Steam. Even if you have one of the best antivirus software for your PC, it can still slow down Steam downloads. To prevent this, you can try disabling your firewall as well as your antivirus software. If you want to disable Windows Defender, click the Start button, and then head to Settings. From there, navigate to Update Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection. Once the Windows Security popup appears, click Manage settings. Toggle Real-time protection to Off, but make sure you turn that back on after you're done downloading. Disabling the Windows Firewall is just as easy. Head to your Control Panel and select System and Security. Click Windows Defender Firewall, and then navigate to Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off on the left side of the menu. Under the private network settings, choose the box next to Turn off Windows Defender Firewall (not recommended), and then click Ok. Don't forget to turn your firewall back on once you're done with your download! If you don't primarily use Windows Security, you'll need to shut off protection through your own antivirus and firewall. Once you turn off both of these functions, it should increase Steam download speeds. In case you don't want to constantly turn your Windows Defender on and off, you can also add Steam as an exclusion. This allows Windows Defender to provide protection for all of your files, except Steam. To do this, navigate to the Windows Security settings manager using the same path as before. Click Exclusions > Add or remove exclusions > Add an exclusion. In the dropdown menu, choose File, and then select the Steam folder from your files. Learning How to Increase Steam Download Speeds There's nothing sadder than slow download speeds. That's why we're here to help you learn how to make Steam download faster. If you're experiencing slow download speeds on Steam, take a few minutes to enact these tips. After all, those MBs add up!

Have you experienced a situation where you can't open your Task Manager in Windows 10? Whenever you try to open it manually or by using shortcut keys, an error message pops up that says, "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator." This can be annoying if you’re trying to close programs that are misbehaving or trying to check the details of the processes running on your PC. In this article, we’ll take you through the best solutions for fixing your Task Manager when it won’t work. What Causes the “Task Manager Has Been Disabled By Your Administrator” Error? The Windows Task Manager is a useful tool you can use to check all the processes running on your PC and to terminate misbehaving programs. You can access it in various ways, such as pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc and selecting Task Manager, or pressing the Windows Key + R and typing taskmgr followed by hitting Enter. Sometimes, when you try to use the Task Manager to terminate a task, a third-party program, virus, or spyware might prevent you from using it. They’ll disable the Task Manager so that when you try to open it, an error will pop up displaying, "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator." To fix this error, you first need to sign in to Windows 10 as an administrator. If you aren’t the PC administrator, it’s also possible that your administrator disabled your Task Manager. The administrator can do this to prevent you from closing security programs that are important, such as anti-malware and anti-viruses. If you’re not the PC administrator, you can request administrator privileges or ask your administrator to enable the Task Manager. If that isn't the case, and your Task Manager is malfunctioning because of viruses or malware, you can fix it using the methods that we provide in this article. 1. Fix the Task Manager Using the Registry Editor One of the best ways to fix the Task Manager is using the Registry Editor. This is an in-built Windows tool used to modify the registry keys that control how Windows works. To fix the Task Manager using the Registry Editor, follow these steps: Press the Windows Key + R. From here, type "Regedit" and click Enter. When you’re on the User Account Control prompt, click the Yes button to open the Registry Editor in Windows 10. On the left-hand navigation pane of the Registry Editor, navigate to the System key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > System. If the System key is present, you can skip to the next step. If the System key is missing within the Policies key, you can create it. To do this, right-click on the Policies key, click New, click Key and then name it "System". Click the System key and, on the right-hand pane, you’ll see a key named "DisableTaskMgr". Again, if this key is not available, you’ll need to create it. To do this, right-click on the System key, click New and then select DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this newly-created DWORD value "DisableTaskMgr" and click Enter. If this value is already available, you can skip to the next step. Double-click the DisableTaskMgr value; a window will pop up. On this window, set the value data to "0", and click OK to finish. The Task Manager should immediately be accessible when you complete these steps. Otherwise, restart your PC and see if the method was effective. Alternatively, you can try the other methods that we provide. 2. Fix the Task Manager Using a Registry File If you are unfamiliar with editing the Registry or don’t like the idea, you can manually create a Registry file. This will automatically modify the Registry Key and fix your Task Manager. To create a Registry file, open Notepad or any other text editor and type in the following: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] "DisableTaskMgr" =dword:00000000 Save the document as "DisableTaskMgr.reg". Double-click the DisableTaskMgr.reg file to open it. When you’re on the User Account Control prompt, click the Yes button to continue. The Task Manager should immediately be accessible. If you still can't access it, restart your PC. 3. Fix the Task Manager Using the Local Group Policy Editor The Group Policy Editor is a feature in Windows that’s used to edit local policy settings. Please note that you can only edit the Local Group Policy if you own the Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions. If you own the Windows 10 Home edition, you’ll need to try the other methods we provide in this article or attempt one of the Group Policy on Windows 10 Home edition fixes. Here's how to fix the Task Manager using the Local Group Policy. Press Windows Key + R, then type “gpedit.msc” and hit Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor. In the left-hand side navigation pane, go to: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Ctrl+Alt+Del Options. Then, on the right-hand side pane, double-click on the Remove Task Manager item. A window will pop up, and you should select the Disabled or Not Configured option. From here, click Apply and then click OK. Your Task Manager issues should resolve when you finish applying these steps. If the problem persists, restart your PC and check if the issue is solved. In case this method doesn’t resolve your issue, you can try the other fixes that we provide. 4. Fix the Task Manager Using the Command Prompt When you type the correct commands in the Command Prompt, you can handle and troubleshoot most of your Windows 10 PC’s issues with ease. You can use the Command Prompt to fix the Task Manager by following these steps: Press the Windows Key + R. From here, type "CMD" and click Ctrl + Shift + Enter. When you’re on the User Account Control prompt, click the Yes button to run the Command Prompt as administrator. In the Command Prompt, type in the following: REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f Press Enter to continue. When the Command Prompt displays "The operation completed successfully," your Task Manager should now be fixed. Reboot your computer to apply these changes. Your Task Manager Should Now Be Up and Running We’ve discussed the best methods that can help you fix your Task Manager in Windows 10, and you can apply the one that best suits you. When you encounter the “Task Manager Has Been Disabled by Your Administrator" error in the future, you should be able to resolve it in seconds. This error can also be caused by malware, so it’s advisable that you regularly scan your PC using antivirus software. This will ensure that your PC is always safe and doesn’t run into various future issues.

Windows contains a slew of in-built tools that help to diagnose and fix common errors. While most people are aware of these troubleshooting techniques, there are some that can be swept under the rug. Driver Verifier is one of these lesser-known utilities. Here's how you fix your Windows 10 errors with Driver Verifier. What is Driver Verifier? Driver Verifier, just like the name suggests, is a utility that helps in figuring out which driver is malfunctioning. Unlike SFC, CHDSK, and other troubleshooting utilities, it doesn't fix the problem but rather helps narrow down if and which driver is responsible for the error. This isn't a new utility either, it has been around since Windows 2000. The reason for its relative obscurity is that it's mostly used as a tool by developers to test out new drivers. Precautions to Take Before Running the Utility Driver Verifier puts the computer through various stress checks. You should note that there have been reports of it bricking systems as well. But there are some precautions users can take to prevent this from happening: Remember only to use it when you've exhausted ALL other options for diagnosing a blue screen error. It's advisable to not use it in safe mode because Windows doesn't load all drivers when in safe mode. We strongly suggest creating a Restore Point and backing-up important data in case things go south. Ensure you have administrator privileges before running the utility. Enable Minidumps Before running Driver Verifier, users should enable minidumps. Minidumps (.DMP) are files in which Windows stores information about a crash and the events leading to it. Since Driver Verifier doesn't always display the driver which is malfunctioning, it does store all this information in a DMP file. This step is critical and shouldn't be overlooked. Here's how users can enable minidumps: Press Windows Key + R to launch the Run command. Type sysdm.cpl in the text box and hit Enter. In the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click on Settings Uncheck Automatically restart. Under the Write debugging information section, select Small memory dump (256 KB) from the drop-down menu. Ensure that the Small dump directory is set to %SystemRoot%\Minidump Click on OK and then restart your computer. How to Run Driver Verifier After enabling minidumps, users can safely run Driver Verifier and diagnose the BSOD. Running Driver Verifier is fairly simple, here's how you can do it: In the Start menu search bar, type cmd and right-click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator. In the console type verifier and press Enter. The Driver Verifier application window will open. Select the Create custom settings (for code developers) and click on Next. In the next window, check all options from the list except Randomized low resources simulation and DDI compliance checking. Click on Next. Now click the Select driver names from a list option and click Next. From the driver list, select all drivers except the ones provided by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft advises against selecting all drivers and running the Driver Verifier utility. Click on Finish. After following the aforementioned steps, users need to reboot their computer and use it as they normally would. Driver Verifier will run in the background and diagnose the drivers. Wait for your system to crash, or if there are some actions that triggered the blue screen earlier, repeat those. Driver Verifier needs to experience a crash in order to determine which driver failed and led to the crash. Sometimes this may take as long as seven hours, so hang in there. You can also ensure whether Driver Verifier is running or not by entering the verifier /querysettings command in an elevated Command Prompt. If the utility is running, the Command Prompt will return a list of drivers and their status. How to Read DMP Files When your computer crashes, Driver Verifier will automatically store all information about the crash into a DMP file. You can either upload these files to the Microsoft forums and wait for their response, or you can read them yourselves using software called BlueScreenViewer. RELATED:Top Tips To Help You Fix The Windows 10 Blue Screen Error This is how you can read the DMP files: Download BlueScreenView from here. Run the application and it will automatically load all DMP files from the C:\Windows\Minidump directory. Click on the most recent dump file and scroll sideways until you get to the Caused by driver section. Copy the filename and a quick internet search will reveal the device with which the driver is associated. You can accordingly update the driver or roll -back the changes. How to Update a Driver The first step users should take after finding out the culprit for the crash, is to update the driver. It's fairly simple, just follow these steps: Press Windows Key + R and in the Run command, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. In the Device Manager, navigate to the required device and expand the menu. Right-click on the driver and click on Update driver. Click on Search automatically for updated driver software and Windows will automatically download and install the latest drivers. How to Roll Back a Driver Follow steps one and two mentioned in the section above to open Device Manager. Navigate to the required driver, right-click on it and click on Properties. Under the Driver tab, click on Roll Back Driver. Reboot your computer. Alternatively, you can avoid this whole ordeal by already replacing outdated drivers before they cause a problem. How to Stop Driver Verifier Contrary to how you start Driver Verifier, it's recommended that users stop it when their computer is booted into safe mode. This is because safe mode disables all third-party drivers and earlier all Microsoft Drivers were unselected before running Driver Verifier. Thus, Driver Verifier will have minimal to no impact on your system in safe mode. RELATED:Hidden Modes In Windows And How To Use Them How to Boot Into Safe Mode Press Windows Key + R and enter msconfig in the run command. In the System Configuration window, click on the Boot tab. Check the Safe boot option and select your preferences. Apply the settings and reboot your computer. There are various other ways of booting into safe mode as well. After booting into safe mode, there are two ways to disable Driver Verifier. These are via the Command Prompt or the Driver Verifier Manager. How to Disable Driver Verifier via Command Prompt In the Start menu search bar, type cmd and then right-click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator. In the console type verifier /reset and hit Enter. Reboot your computer normally. How to Disable Driver Verifier via Driver Verifier Manager Run Driver Verifier. You can refer to the Running Driver Verifier section in this article for this. In the Driver Verifier window, select Delete Existing Settings and click on Finish. Reboot your computer. You can use System Configuration to subsequently uncheck the Safe boot option and reboot your computer normally. Checked and Verified Driver Verifier is a nifty tool when a pesky blue screen error won't go away and it's difficult to narrow down the suspects. But users should always be wary of the risks that come with using a powerful developer tool. Remember to create a System Restore Point before running the Driver Verifier utility.

If you've been a Windows user for a long time, chances are that you've encountered a bluescreen of death (BSOD). The KERNEL_MODE_HEAP_CORRUPTION is an error that results in a BSOD due to its critical nature. There are multiple reasons behind the error, such as outdated or malfunctioning drivers, memory leaks, and hardware faults. Here are some methods that can help resolve the Kernel Mode Heap Corruption bluescreen error on Windows 10. 1. Update or Roll Back Drivers The most common reason for BSODs such as Kernel Mode Heap Corruption is a driver fault. Now, this may be outdated drivers or faulty new drivers. Fortunately, Windows allows users to manage all drivers with the help of Device Manager. How to Update Drivers on Windows 10 Windows automatically downloads and installs the latest drivers, but if you are using a metered connection or have disabled Windows Update, this may not be the case. Users can manually update the drivers using Device Manager. Press Windows Key + R to launch the Run command. Type devmgmt.msc in the text box and press Enter. In the Device Manager, navigate to the required device and expand the menu. Now, right-click on a device and click on Update driver. Select Search automatically for updated driver software, and Windows will automatically download the driver. Reboot your computer. While the Microsoft catalog usually has the latest drivers, it's best to double-check the driver from the manufacturer's website. If the driver versions don't match, then users can download the latest driver from the website. Follow steps one, two, and three from the section above. In the update prompt, click on Browse my computer for driver software. Locate the downloaded driver and click on Next. Let Windows install the driver, then reboot. How to Roll Back Drivers on Windows 10 Sometimes an updated driver may be unstable and result in a blue screen. Thankfully, Windows keeps a copy of the previous driver version in case of mishaps. Here's how you rollback drivers on Windows 10. Press Windows Key + R and type in devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog box. In the Device Manager, locate the desired device and expand the menu. Right-click on the required driver and click on Properties. Under the Driver tab, click on Roll Back Driver. Windows will automatically reinstall the old version of the driver. RELATED:How To Find & Replace Outdated Windows Drivers 2. Fix Corrupt System Files System files can get corrupted during updates or a sudden power cut when writing files to the disk. Windows has two primary features to tackle this situation: DISM and SFC. Repair System Image Using DISM DISM is Windows' in-built disk image repairing tool. It's recommended that users run DISM before SFC for a much thorough and effective repair process. In the Start menu search bar, type cmd and right-click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator. In the console, type Dism /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth and press Enter. After this, type Dism /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and hit Enter. Wait for Windows to complete the process. Repair System Files Using SFC SFC stands for System File Checker, and true to its name, it finds and fixes corrupt system files. In addition to being effective, it's also easy to use: In the Start menu search bar, type cmd and right-click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator. In the console, type sfc /scannow and press Enter. Wait for the process to complete, then reboot your computer. 3. Perform a Clean Boot A clean boot is an effective way to diagnose a plethora of Windows errors. In it, the computer is booted with all third-party software disabled. This can help you narrow down potential causes for the Kernel Mode Heap Corruption blue screen. Alternatively, you can look at how to perform a clean boot and diagnose common errors in Window 10. How to Clean Boot Your PC Press Windows Key + R to open the Run command. Type msconfig and hit Enter. In the System Configuration window, go to the Services tab. Under the Service tab, check the Hide all Microsoft services option. Now, check all services listed in the window and click on Disable all. Apply the settings and close System Configuration. Press CTRL + Shift + ESC to launch the Task Manager. Click on the Startup tab. Click on each application and then click Disable. After this, click OK and Reboot your computer. When your computer boots, all third-party applications will be disabled. Use your computer as you would normally. If a specific action triggered the blue screen earlier, repeat it and see if it triggers the error. Again, it may take longer than usual for your computer to crash, but if it doesn't crash at all, it's best to uninstall any recently installed applications as they may be interfering with your system. 4. Check for Hardware Issues If you've recently upgraded your computer hardware, ensure that it is compatible and installed properly. Faulty RAM could also cause the issue. Thus it's best to check for any memory problems. The Windows Memory Diagnostic tool can help detect and resolve common memory issues on your computer. RELATED:How To Troubleshoot Computer Hardware Problems How to Run the Windows Memory Diagnostic Press Windows Key + R to launch the Run command. Type mdsched.exe and press Enter. In the Windows Memory Diagnostic window, click on Restart now and check for problems. This option is recommended. Wait for Windows to finish identifying and fixing memory problems. Other Fixes to Try Ensure that all hardware is installed properly. It is best to double-check and see all newly installed components are fit snugly. Check for any overheating components. Try switching slots when using two RAM sticks. Switch from dual-channel memory to single-channel or vice versa. Done and Dusted The Kernel Mode Heap Corruption blue screen error may seem scary and cause users to panic, but these kinds of crashes are more common than you think. More often than not, running the diagnostic utilities mentioned above will fix the problem. But before making these changes, be sure to create a system restore point. It's advisable to have Windows create one for you daily.