Archive for August, 2016

How Do I Know If My Computer Has Been Infected by Malicious Software

By admin | August 29, 2016 | How-to Guides | No comments

The upswing of cybercrime during the past recent years is reported to have taken control of tens of millions of vulnerable computer systems. The cyber hackers take advantage of malicious software to penetrate into victims’ systems on purpose of getting hold of the personal or commercial information stored on the system, which is believed to be able to convert into money. The intrusion process of malicious software also has the ability to pose threat on system performance. To safeguard the system functions as well as financial information from unpredictable violation, you may consider taking some time to read the article below in order to know more about malicious software.

The malicious software usually comes with hidden toolkits inserted by cyber hackers in order to breach system security functions and get entered the system without interception. It takes actions to make inaccurate modification over the system as soon as it manages to get into the deep side of the system. It turns off system security functions silently, corrupts system files seriously, overwrites the settings and configuration information of third-party programs and get hold of browser functions to track down user’s online transaction. A computer that is under the control of malicious software may have the problems listed below:

Unexpected Changes of Passwords

Local Computer Passwords

The log-in passwords of Windows Operating System are overwritten without your permission. And that hint for the passwords are incorrect. The only thing you can do is to call a professional computer technician.

Online Passwords

The passwords that are related with your online transaction information and social media website accounts have been totally changed to other option silently. You are not allowed to get into your sign-up email accounts because of the same problem.

Undesirable Programs Install Problems

Unneeded third-party programs, ad-supported online games as well as phony antivirus programs are found to flood into your computer and covertly exhaust CPU resources for working stably.

Security Function Problems

The built-in Windows security services are discovered to be deactivated without user’s consent. The settings and options of system security function cannot be overwritten. Essential parts of previously installed third-party antivirus application runs into irreparable corruption.

Network Function Issues

Network local settings are inaccurately modified by unknown programs. Network speed remains unstable because of the huge loss of network resources applied by malicious program to transit the information collected on the PC to its remote targeted webserver. WiFi passwords are changed to other options without obtaining user’s consent.

Browser Problems

The browser performance drastically degrades once user opens up multiple web pages. Potentially unneeded browser extensions are found to automatically install at the background of browser function. The security related information specifically used to protect online transaction cannot be displayed correctly for cyber hackers need to gather user’s commercial files accessing browsers and then send them over to its online webserver. The traces related with user’s privacy seem to be under the control of third-party browser toolbars.

How to Manually Make Changes Over the Windows Registry

By admin | August 26, 2016 | How-to Guides | No comments

The Windows registry is an essential part of Windows Operating System. It is specifically designed to help the system store the entire data of low-level system utilities as well as third-party programs, which play important roles in the system operation. It contains a variety of important system information which shouldn’t be inaccurately modified, including the settings of system services, hardware devices, user preferences as well as the configuration information of the operating system.

Any unexpected changes over the Windows registry are likely to prevent the system from working properly. The system with an invalid registry easily runs into a variety of unexplained problems, such as unpredictable Blue Screen pops-up, third-party program install issues, incomplete system start-up as well as unstable system performance. The upswing of third-party registry maintenance utility just proves it. It is not suggested to make any modification on the Registry if you don’t have much computer experience. But it is still necessary to figure out how to safely modify the Windows registry.

How to Back Up the Windows Registry?

Before making changes over the registry, it is recommended to firstly backup the registry files. Once any irreversible mistakes are made during the modification process, you can choose to restore the registry files with the help of the copy. You can follow the instructions listed below to make a backup for the current version of registry files:

Step One: Press “Windows+R” button to run the command prompt. Type regedit onto it, and then press Enter button to open up Registry Editor.

Step Two: From File menu, click Export.

Step Three: Choose a location for the backup files with the latest pop-up. Click Save to save the files on the hard disk.

How to Restore the Windows Registry?

Step One: Press “Windows+R” button to run the command prompt. Type regedit onto it, and then press Enter button to open up Registry Editor.
Step Two: From File menu, click Export.
Step Three: Choose a location for the backup files with the latest pop-up. Click Save to save the files on the hard disk.
Step Four: From File menu, click Import option. Locate the backup file on the hard disk. Click Open to load the file.

Step Five: Next you’ll be prompted with a message in a Registry Editor window:

Adding information can unintentionally change or delete values and cause components to stop working correctly. If you do not trust the source of this information in [REG file], do not add it to the registry. Are you sure you want to continue?

Under the circumstance of Windows XP, this message will appear instead:

Are you sure you want to add the information in [REG file] to the registry?

Step Six: Click Yes button to import the .REG file to the Windows Registry.
Step Seven: If the import is successful, you should receive the messages listed below:

The keys and values contained in [REG file] have been successfully added to the registry.
You’ll see this one if you’re using Windows XP:
Information in [REG file] has been successfully entered into the registry.

Step Eight: Click OK to confirm the changes. And restart the PC later.

How to Delete a Registry Key?

Step One: Press “Windows+R” button to run the command prompt. Type regedit onto it, and then press Enter button to open up Registry Editor.
Step Two: Press “Ctrl+F” button to activate the search utility of Registry Editor.
Step Three: From File menu, click Export.
Step Four: Choose a location for the backup files with the latest pop-up. Click Save to save the files on the hard disk.
Step Five: Type the name of the registry key onto the latest popped-up box, press Enter button.
Step Six: Highlight the registry key you have just found. Right click it, and select the Delete option to remove it.

Step Seven: Click Yes to confirm the removal.

How to Add a Registry Key Onto the Windows Registry?

Step One: Press “Windows+R” button to run the command prompt. Type regedit onto it, and then press Enter button to open up Registry Editor.
Step Two: From File menu, click Export.
Step Three: Choose a location for the backup files with the latest pop-up. Click Save to save the files on the hard disk.
Step Four: From File, click Import. Locate the .REG file on the hard disk.

Step Five: Click Yes to import it into the Windows registry.

It is not suggested to manually make modification over the Windows Registry for the process is too complicated for computer novice. Any problems occur during the process may lead to a partial system disruption. To protect the Windows registry from unexpected damage, you may consider trying a trusted and professional third-party registry maintenance utility to help you deal with the registry issues instead.

How to Customize Start Menu in Windows 10

By admin | August 4, 2016 | Uncategorized | No comments

Windows 10 Anniversary Update has been released on August 2, coming with lots of changes and improvements. Today we are gonna talk about the revamped Start Menu. Perhaps the most obvious change in the Start Menu is that the All apps list is on display permanently. You don’t have to click on Start > All apps to open the alphabetical, scrollable list of installed apps. Besides, a narrow list on the left side of the Start Menu provides links to Power, File Explorer, Settings and your Microsoft account. To the right of the apps list you’ll see the tiles the same as before.

Yet, if you are using the previous version of Windows 10 and you want to configure the Start Menu to meet your demand too, you can also read this post to learn how it is done with a few clicks.

By default, Windows 10’s Start Menu consist of two major sections, and you can customize the Start Menu by removing or adding elements, regrouping tiles, and resizing layout, etc. Let’s get started now.

How to configure what’s shown on the Start Menu? Click on the Start menu, and select Settings. As the Settings app opens, click on Personalization, and then tap the Start in the column on the left. You will see several options on the right side for configuring what is shown on the Start Menu and how the Start Menu is displayed. You can enable or disable these options to display or hide them in the Start Menu.

Back to the Personalization window, you can find a link called “Choose which folders appear on Start”. From here you can set the Start Menu to show many kinds of folders. Just tap the link there, and you can choose which folders are displayed from a predefined set of folders, which includes File Explorer, Settings, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, HomeGroup, Network and your Personal folder.

If you set the switch under a folder to On, you will see its icon appear in the left sidebar of Start Menu. To hide it again, set the switch to Off. It is quite straightforward to add the aforementioned folders on the Start Menu, but unfortunately you cannot add a custom folder -this option is not available yet.

Now we come to the section of moving, grouping and resizing Start Menu tiles.

On the right side of the Start Menu are all its tiles and shortcuts organized in groups. By default, you can see only two groups on the Start Menu in Windows 10, namely, Life at a glance and Play and explore. Actually, you can create more groups and move tiles between groups too.

To move tiles and shortcuts you just need to drag and drop the tile or shortcut to the place you desire in Start Menu. To create a new group, you need to first choose the tile or shortcut you want to add to the new group, and then drag it to the empty place under the existing groups. You will see a colored rectangle, which means a new group will be created. To name the new group, you can hover your cursor above it to make Start Menu display a heading called Name group. Click on it, type the name you want, and press the Enter key, then you are able to assign the name to this new group.

To resize app tiles from the Start Menu, simply right click the tile that you want to resize, move the cursor to Resize in the menu, and choose the size from Small, Medium, Wide to Large. Resizing the shortcuts offers you only two options: Small and Medium.

Now you know how easy it is to configure Start Menu in Windows 10.