Sergey Tkachenko, Author at Winaero

Windows 8 reboots (restarts) instead of shutting down

A number of Winaero readers write to me regularly saying they have various shutdown-related issues with Windows 8 (and now Windows 8.1). The most popular issue is that their PC reboots instead of shutting down. When they click shut down, Windows 8 doesn't shutdown, but instead restarts.

It is hard to tell what is the exact cause of such behavior, because the reason can be different from PC to PC, but in this article we will explore some solutions which can be helpful if you are facing this problem of the computer rebooting instead of doing a shut down.

How to disable or enable Fast Startup in Windows 8.1

Fast Startup is a new feature which is introduced in Windows 8 RTM. It allows your computer to start faster than normal by logging off the user session and then saving a part of system related files and drivers to a hibernation file. When you turn on your PC again, it resumes from hibernate and logs you in again. In other words, the fast startup feature combines the classic shutdown mechanisms with hibernation, so it can be called 'hybrid shutdown'. Hybrid shutdown is enabled by default in Windows 8 and its successor, Windows 8.1. Follow this article to learn how to disable the fast boot feature or enable it back, and why you may want to do so.

How to perform a clean boot of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 to diagnose issues

If you suddenly got some unexpected behavior on your Windows 8 PC, then the first thing you should do is take a diagnostic approach by way of elimination. There are plenty of factors which can be the cause of issues like slowdowns, BSODs, freezes and even sudden reboots. The best way to detect what exactly is the cause of the trouble is to perform a clean boot. Using a clean boot, you can find if the OS is damaged by some third party app or a bad driver. By preventing them from loading, you can exclude the influence of these two factors.

Nature HD#33 theme for Windows 8

How to reset the Start Screen layout in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8

In Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, the Start Screen is designed as a touchscreen-friendly Start menu replacement. It focuses on the concept of pinning. Everything must be pinned to the Start screen and it appears as a tile. Earlier in Windows 8 RTM, it pinned every single installed app automatically, creating a real mess of random icons splattered all across the Start Screen. Thankfully, in Windows 8.1, Microsoft has changed this behavior. Windows 8.1 does not pin anything automatically, so you are able to keep your Start Screen well organized. With help of apps like Pin to 8, you can even pin any file, folder or system location.

If you want to change the way your Start Screen is organized, you may want to reset its layout to the defaults. It's pretty easy to do this.

Daily Bing #34 theme for Windows 8

Daily Bing #34

How to disable geolocation sharing feature of Mozilla Firefox

By default, Mozilla Firefox comes with a geolocation feature (location-aware browsing). It is enabled by default. This means that websites and web apps will be able to get all the necessary information to track the user's physical location. In some cases it can be useful, i.e. for online maps services, because they can display the appropriate starting point on the map wherever you are located at that moment. But it is also a cause for privacy concerns. There is a certain category of users who always prefer disabling such options completely. Unfortunately, there is no setting in the Firefox GUI options to turn off geolocation. Luckily, there is a way to disable it.

Where to download Google Chrome full offline standalone installer

Recently we covered how to get the full offline installer for popular browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. If you want to download the full installer for Google Chrome, then here's where you can download it.

Author: Sergey Tkachenko