Tutorials

How to Add or Remove Expanding "Personalize" Desktop Context Menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8 This tutorial will show you how to add or remove a custom Personalize expanding desktop context menu for all users in Windows 8 and Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise. While all users can use this context menu, you must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial. This tutorial will not work in the Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home...

How to Turn On or Off Windows Defender in Windows 8 and 8.1 Windows 8 comes with a new version of Windows Defender which is the re-branded "Microsoft Security Essentials" (MSE). When Windows Defender is on, you're notified when viruses, spyware, malware (malicious software), or potentially unwanted software try to install or run on your PC. This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Windows Defender in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1. You must be signed in...

How to Change Behavior of User Account Control (UAC) Prompt for Administrators in Windows User Account Control (UAC) helps prevent potentially harmful programs from making changes to your computer by notifying you before changes are made to your PC that require administrator-level (elevated) permission. This tutorial will show you how to change the behavior of the User Account Control (UAC) elevation prompt (admin approval mode) for administrators in Windows 7 and Windows 8. This does...

How to Turn On or Off BitLocker for Windows 8 OS Drive with or without TPM BitLocker Drive Encryption provides protection for operating system drives, fixed data drives, and removable data drives that are lost or stolen. BitLocker does this by encrypting the contents of drives and requiring users to authenticate their credentials to be able to access the information. Encrypting the entire Windows 8 operating system drive on the hard disk encrypts all user files and system files on the OS...

How to Enable or Disable Changing Security Zone Level Settings in Internet Explorer Zone security in Internet Explorer is a system that enables you to divide online content into categories, or zones. You can add or remove websites from the zones, depending on your level of trust in a website. Users can set default or custom level settings per security zone. This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable all users to be able to change the Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites, and...

How to Unlock a Drive using BitLocker Recovery in Windows 8 and 8.1 There are several reasons that might make a PC go into recovery mode. For example, your organization might have a password security policy that locks you out after a certain number of failed attempts to sign in. Or perhaps your PC encountered a hardware malfunction, an unexpected configuration change, or another security event. Requiring a recovery key helps ensure that only an authorized person can unlock your PC and...

How to View and Override Power Availability Requests in Windows By default, Windows based platforms enable device and system power management technologies to help improve energy efficiency and reduce power consumption. Two of the most effective power management features are display power management and automatic sleep. However, in some scenarios, applications or drivers must temporarily disable these power management technologies to perform tasks as the user expects. A good example is video...

How to Enable or Disable Store in Windows 8 and 8.1 This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable access to the Store for all or specified users in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1. You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial. You will need to be signed in Windows 8 with a Microsoft Account using your Windows Live ID email address to be able to download and install modern apps to your user account in Windows 8 from...

How to Restore the Start Menu in Windows 8 and 8.1 This tutorial will show you how to restore the Start Menu for all users in Windows 8 and 8.1 using your choice of free programs. Here's a list of some free Start Menu replacements for Windows 8 that are not already in the tutorial below. Classic Start 8: Classic Start 8 | Free Classic Style Start Menu for Use with Windows® 8 | ClassicStart8.com Handy Start Menu: Handy Start Menu: Makes Working with Your Start Menu Easier Pokki...

You can use Disk Cleanup on a regular basis to reduce the number of unnecessary files on your drives, which can free up drive space and help your PC run better. It can delete temporary files and system files, empty the Recycle Bin, and remove a variety of other items that you might no longer need. Disk Cleanup will already have items to delete checked and unchecked by default. You may want to have all items checked or unchecked by default instead. This tutorial will show you how to have...

How to Capture a Screenshot Directly in Windows 8 and 8.1 This will show you how to capture a screenshot of everything on your display(s) and have it instantly saved as a PNG file directly into your C:\Users\(user-name)\Pictures\Screenshots folder without having to do anything else in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1. You could also view the saved screenshot in your Pictures library. If you like, you are still also able to use the Ctrl+PrtScn, Alt+PrtScn, Fn+PrtScn...

How to Use File History Cleanup to Delete Older Versions of Files in Windows 8 and 8.1 File History is a new feature introduced in Windows 8 that automatically backs up files that are in your libraries, contacts (C:\Users\(user-name)\Contacts), Internet Explorer favorites (C:\Users\(user-name)\Favorites), and your desktop (C:\Users\(user-name)\Desktop). This tutorial will show you how to use File History cleanup to delete all backed up file versions older than the number of days you...

How to Set a Default Start Background Image for All Users in Windows 8.1 The Start screen is a new feature in Windows 8 and Windows RT that replaces the Start Menu from previous Windows. You can pin Store apps, programs, folders, drives, files, contacts, and websites to Start to quickly access what you use most. All of your apps—both apps you install from the Windows Store and desktop apps—are available from the Start screen. You can organize, group, and name categories of apps to how you...

How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 This tutorial will show you how to do a clean install of Windows 8 (ex: System Builder copy) or Windows 8.1 on your PC. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 System Requirements Windows 8 works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7. Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit) Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) Graphics card: MicrosoftDirectX 9 graphics device or higher...

How to Add "Shut Down" Computer to Desktop Context Menu in Windows 8 and 8.1 This will show you how to add or remove Shut Down Computer to the context menu of the desktop, inside folders, and inside drives for all users in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do this tutorial. The action that this Shut down option performs will depend on if you have the fast startup setting turned on or off. EXAMPLE: Shut Down...

How to Turn On or Off the Lock Screen Slide Show in Windows 8.1 Windows 8.1 introduces a new feature to be able to set your lock screen to play a dynamic slide show of shuffled images from your selected SkyDrive, local (This PC), library, homegroup, or network folders. This tutorial will show you how to turn on and setup or turn off playing a slide show on your lock screen in Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1. In Windows 8 and 8.1 there are two "Lock" screens. One is set by the user that is...

How to Create a Linux Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 8 Although best when running Windows guests, Windows 8 built-in Microsoft Hyper-V can also be used to run Linux guests. Officially Hyper-V only supports SUSE and Red Hat enterprise server distributions but with a few simple tricks any Linux distro can be installed. In this tutorial we will install both OpenSUSE 12.1 and Ubuntu 11.10 distros. Please notice that I have still not found how to get sound working on Hyper-V Linux guests...

How to Check and Enable or Disable SSD TRIM Support in Windows 7 and Windows 8 The TRIM command helps to maintain the performance of solid state drives (SSDs) at an optimal level over the lifetime of the drive. TRIM functions by actively deleting invalid data from the SSD’s memory cells to ensure that write operations perform at full speed. Since a memory block must be erased before it can be re-programmed, TRIM improves performance by pro-actively erasing pages containing invalid data...

How to Use "Optimize Drives" to Defrag HDD and TRIM SSD in Windows 8 and 8.1 Optimize Drives, previously called Disk Defragmenter, helps to optimize the different types of drives that PCs use today. No matter which type of drive your PC uses, Windows automatically chooses the optimization that's right for your drive. By default, Optimize Drives runs automatically on a weekly schedule during the time you have set for automatic maintenance. You can also optimize drives on your PC manually...

How to Add or Remove "Turn Off Display" Desktop Context Menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8 This tutorial will show you how to add "Turn Off Display" to the desktop context menu item of all users to be able to quickly turn off all connected displays at will in Windows 7 and Windows 8. You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to add this to the desktop context menu, but all users on the PC will be able to use the context menu. You can move the mouse, touch the touchpad, click on...