The “Console lock display off timeout” setting is the time the computer remains turned on after you have logged out and the computer is locked before it turns off the display. The Windows 10 operating system gives you a lot of choices for how you want to manage your computer’s hardware. It’s a good thing they do because the more hours you clock up with […]
Windows 10 Performance and Maintenance
How to Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
In Windows 7 and 8, the WinSXS folder would continue to grow the longer you had the computer, taking up what many believed to be unnecessary hard drive space. In Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, things have changed, and Windows will now automatically delete any unnecessary files that were being stored on the WinSxS folder, so you don’t have to worry about it using […]
How to Restore Missing Default Power Plans in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how the computer chooses to conserve power. You can tweak a power plan to give you optimal performance, balanced performance, or subpar performance. Every choice you make for the hardware will have the opposite effect on the computer’s power consumption. For instance, if you choose to have maximum hardware performance, you will […]
How to Disable Automatic Recommended Troubleshooting in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
If you’ve ever got a problem with the Windows 10 operating system, one of the first things you should check is running an appropriate troubleshooter to see if Windows can automatically detect and solve the problem. Because troubleshooters didn’t always work for people and because some people never knew the troubleshooters existed, not as many people were using them as Microsoft had hoped. Windows 10 […]
How to Turn On/Off Automatic Recommended Troubleshooting in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
If you’ve ever got a problem with the Windows 10 operating system, one of the first things you should check is running an appropriate troubleshooter to see if Windows can automatically detect and solve the problem. Because troubleshooters didn’t always work for people and because some people never knew the troubleshooters existed, not as many people were using them as Microsoft had hoped. Windows 10 […]
How to Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Windows 10 handles a lot more maintenance tasks automatically than previous versions of Windows ever did, but there still may be times when you want to venture into Disk Cleanup and manually remove any files that no longer need to be taking up your hard drive space. You’ll even find a new feature available from Disk Cleanup called System compression which can compress the program […]
How to Use DISM to Repair Windows 10 Image [Tutorial]
Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a command line tool used to service and prepare Windows images and virtual hard disks. DISM comes preinstalled in all versions of Windows 10 and can be accessed from the Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell. You can use DISM for most images that are older than the most recent version of DISM. You can mount and service images […]
How to Open Task Manager in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Windows 10 has Task Manager—a feature you can get access to directly from your taskbar—to help manage your processes and process details, performance statistics, users, app history, and services. There have been some changes made to Task Manager since Windows 10 first came out—starting from Windows 10 build 16215 the UWP use per-application instanced Runtime Broker processes instead of all sharing a session-wide Runtime Broker. The idea […]
How to View Storage Usage of Drives in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
When you notice that a considerable amount of your drive space is used up you may wish to investigate what is taking up that space. That way you can choose to delete certain files that you no longer need and that you know are taking up considerable space. Windows 10 offers a plethora of statistics for you to see exactly what is taking up your […]
How to Change ‘Turn Off Display After’ Time in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Windows 10 lets you choose how long your display—and any other displays you might have connected to the computer—stay on before they turn off after the PC goes into idle. Once the computer’s display has turned off, you need to move the trackpad/mouse or press a key on the keyboard for it turn back on again. When the display is back on, you will find […]
How to Manage Power Plan Options in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
With the use of hardware system settings, the Windows 10 operating system can create a power plan to manage how your computer uses its power. These plans can be more geared toward offering your computer a longer battery life when not connected to a power source, or for better performance at the cost of that battery life. When choosing a power plan for your computer, […]
How to Clear Personal Data and Information from Cortana
Cortana is a virtual assistant created by Microsoft for the Windows operating system and its associated services such as the Invoke smart speaker, Microsoft Band, Surface Headphones, Xbox gaming console, iOS, Android, Windows Mixed Reality, and Amazon Alexa. The data from other devices stays until you sign out of Cortana from those individual devices. Once you’ve signed out, Cortana not only deletes all previous data […]
How to Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Windows 10 has many unique settings all related to the power that you can tweak. Windows also comes by default with groups of these settings called Power Plans so you can quickly select one of the Power Plans that best suits your needs. The default setting for everyone’s Power Plan is for it to be set to Balanced, which is a mix of performance and […]
How to Enable/Disable SuperFetch in Windows [Tutorial]
Not to be confused with Superfish (malware), SuperFetch is a service that Microsoft introduced to Windows Vista and is still available in Windows 10 today. It’s a follow on from its predecessor, Prefetcher, which was available in Windows XP. SuperFetch is memory management technology that helps in the responsiveness of your computer programs, prioritizes programs that you’re currently using over the background tasks, and allows […]
How to Turn On/Off Fast Startup in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Windows 8 came with a feature called fast boot. In Windows 10 it got renamed to fast startup. Microsoft never publicly stated why they decided to change the name, but it might have something to do with fastboot already being a common word within the Android community. Android users have known it as a feature that has nothing do with getting Android to boot quickly. […]
Add Energy Saver Settings to Power Options in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Windows 10 comes with an Energy Saver mode to help you conserve more battery power on your laptops and other computers that can run on battery power instead of just being plugged into the wall. The Energy Saver settings are available from the Settings application by default, but you’ll have to make a registry tweak to get them available from the Power Options dialog. Some […]
How to Add/Remove File Types for Search Index in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Indexing is the process of looking up the files, email content, and other content from your computer and cataloging their information, such as the words and metadata in them. Once the search index has been built, it looks up the terms you type into search to help bring up the results much quicker. If your computer has already been used for a while and contains […]
Run Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
If you’re having problems with apps that you’ve installed from the Windows Store, there isn’t a straightforward fix. It may take running through a variety of options before you get the problem solved. But rest assured, solving problems is much simpler on Windows 10 than with previous versions of Windows, and you mightn’t have to do anything at all apart from run the Windows Store […]
How to Use Storage Diagnostic Tool in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
As of the Windows Anniversary update, there is now a new tool available from the command line: the storage diagnostic tool. It collects storage and system diagnostic logs and sends them to a folder for your viewing. The idea behind the storage diagnostic tool is to help you identify and solve problems relating to your computer’s storage. This will most often be used to solve […]
How to Enable/Disable Wake Timers in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
You can use an Allow Wake Timer to bring your computer out of its “Sleep” state on a scheduled time, so you don’t have to be around the computer to wake it up personally. This may be an essential feature to some people—perhaps you know someone needs to remote connect to your computer, but you won’t be around to let them in, so forth. The […]
How to See Active Power Plan Scheme in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
A power plan consists of a group of power setting preferences. These preferences consist of both an AC and DC value for each of the power settings. Each power plan is identified through a unique GUID as well as a friendly name. Windows Vista has three default power plans: Power Saver, Balanced, and High Performance. These plans can be customized, and additional plans can be […]
How to Sleep Computer in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Sleep mode has been enhanced in Windows 10. Now there isn’t any reason to turn off your computer every time you spend an extended period away from the screen. Putting your computer in Sleep mode puts the computer’s state in memory, and other parts are turned off as if the computer had been shut down. There may be times when you can hear your computer’s […]
How to Generate SleepStudy Report in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Sleep Study tells you how well the system slept and how much activity it experienced during that time. While in the sleep state, the system is still doing some work, albeit at a lower frequency. Because the resulting battery drain is not easily perceptible (you can’t see it draining), we built the Sleep Study tool in Windows 8.1 to allow you to track what is […]
How to Add/Remove ‘Turn off hard disk after’ from Power Options in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Modern computers are made to last much longer than older PCs because of the newer operating system features and settings. Most laptops come with fast startup mode turned on, and those laptops don’t turn off completely when the user chooses to shut down the laptop, for example. Even without the computer shutting down, you can expect it to last for a good ten years because […]
How to Add/Remove ‘Allow Wake Timers’ to Power Options in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
You can use an Allow Wake Timer to bring your computer out of its “Sleep” state on a scheduled time, so you don’t have to be around the computer to wake it up personally. This may be an essential feature to some people—perhaps you know someone needs to remote connect to your computer, but you won’t be around to let them in, so forth. The […]
How to Enable/Disable Windows To Go Using Hibernate on Windows 10 PC [Tutorial]
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Pro (limited to “Education” or “Enterprise” image) that allows you to boot the operating system from a USB flash drive or external hard drive that has been signed by Microsoft. Windows To Go was created so administrators can quickly provide users with the […]
How to Enable/Disable Windows To Go Using Sleep on Windows 10 PC [Tutorial]
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Pro (limited to “Education” or “Enterprise” image) that allows you to boot the operating system from a USB flash drive or external hard drive that has been signed by Microsoft. Windows To Go was created so administrators can quickly provide users with the […]
How to Prevent Windows 10 from Deleting Thumbnail Cache [Tutorial]
In Microsoft Windows operating systems, at thumbnail cache is used to storethumbnail images for Windows Explorer’s thumbnail view. This speeds up the display of images as the smaller images do not need to be recalculated every time the user views the folder. Windows stores thumbnails of graphics files, and certain document and movie files, in the Thumbnail Cache file, including the following formats: JPEG, BMP, […]
How to Change System Restore Point Creation Frequency in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Restore points are created to allow users a choice of previous system states. Each restore point contains the necessary information needed to restore the system to the chosen state. Restore points are created before key changes are made to the system. System Restore has an automatic restore point space-management feature that purges the oldest restore points to make room for new ones, while still […]
How to Enable/Disable Hibernate in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Older versions of Windows PCs came with four different options from the Power menu: “Sleep,” “Hibernate,” “Restart” and “Turn off.” You would put the computer in Sleep mode when you intended to come back to the computer in a short while, and Hibernate mode when you planned on being away for a more extensive period. Thanks to modern-day technology, Hibernate mode isn’t needed as much […]