How to enable Ransomware Protection in Windows Defender and add custom folders to it
Windows Defender has been gaining a foothold steadily for the past few years. But there is one flaw in the antivirus that ships with Windows 10. The option for Ransomware Protection is […]
How to enable Clipboard History in Windows 10 and customize it
Windows 10 has a ton of features baked into the OS; one such feature is the Clipboard History which some find mighty useful, others not so much. It has been around for […]
How to reset the Screenshots counter on Windows 10
Microsoft improved the screenshot taking functionality of Windows in Windows 10 significantly. The operating system comes with plenty of options to take screenshots, and one of the easiest options is to use […]
Fix "Optimization Not Available" in Optimize Drives in Windows
Microsoft's Windows operating system runs maintenance tasks including disk analysis and defragmention regularly on its own. Most Windows users and administrators don't need to run these manually anymore, but there are cases […]
How to disable file groups in Open dialogs in Windows
The next Windows 10 version may group files automatically in open dialogs. When you use the open option to load files in Windows 10 version 1809 or earlier currently, e.g. to open […]
How to disable Auto Suggest in Explorer and Run Box on Windows
The following guide demonstrates how to disable auto suggest functionality in Windows Explorer (File Explorer) and the Run box on Windows devices. When you type something in Explorer's location field, suggestions are […]
How to improve the readability of Windows console windows
Windows console windows like the command prompt window use a default size and layout by default on all Windows PCs. The command prompt window for example always opens up with a set […]
Use DISM to fix issues SFC can't
A common suggestion on Windows support forums is to scan the system for file integrity issues using the command sfc /scannow which you may run on the active system but also on […]
Block "You need to format the disk" message in Windows
When you click on a drive letter of a drive with a RAW partition that has an assigned drive letter, you get the prompt "you need to format the disk in drive […]
The Windows Winsat command
Winsat, or Windows System Assessment Tool, is a Windows program that benchmarks various components of machines when run. The main file that is run to benchmark the device is winsat.exe, and you […]
How to edit timestamps with Windows PowerShell
The following tutorial demonstrates how you can edit file timestamps -- create, last access and last write -- using Windows PowerShell. PowerShell is part of any modern version of Microsoft's Windows operating […]
Manage Windows 10 Search Indexing
Windows Search can cause high load situations on Windows 10 machines -- and on previous versions of Windows as well -- especially when search indexing runs. Basically, what search indexing does is […]
How to delete large folders in Windows super fast
When you delete huge folders in Windows, you will notice that the process takes quite a bit of time to complete. I keep backup folders of Ghacks locally on a platter-based drive, […]
Remove the Windows.old folder manually
Windows creates the folder Windows.old on a PC running Windows when you upgrade the PC to a new version of the operating system. The Windows.old folder contains files and folders of the […]
How to disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 permanently
Windows Defender is the default antivirus solution of Windows 10 just like it has been on Windows 8. The program is enabled by default and will turn itself off if another antivirus […]
Should you run Windows Defender and the Malicious Software Removal Tool?
Microsoft has created several security solutions in the past that are either available as standalone downloads or integrated in Windows directly. The most common ones are Windows Defender, which Microsoft included in […]
Fixing "the application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000018)" in Windows
I have received the error message "the application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000018)" twice already ever since I upgraded one of my machines to Microsoft's new operating system Windows 10. A […]
Pin Windows Settings to the Windows 10 Start Menu
Microsoft reintroduces a proper start menu in its upcoming operating system Windows 10 after throwing the start menu to the trash in Windows 8 and reviving it in an unloving way in […]