Windows 10 Archives - Page 405 of 452

Remove Windows 10 product key from Registry and protect it from being stolen

When Windows 10 is installed, it continues to store your product key in the registry. This may be useful, if you don't remember which key you used on your current installation. Also if you lost your product key, this can be useful for recovering your product key with some third party tool or with a simple PowerShell script.

But at the same time, your Windows 10 product key is at risk of being stolen. If you are concerned about your product key being stolen (i.e. with some malicious software), you might want to remove it from the registry permanently. This operation is safe and will not affect your OS activation status. Follow this simple tutorial to learn how you can erase the stored product key in Windows 10. The same trick should work in Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Windows Vista too.

Download Windows Defender offline updates for Windows 10

If you have to run Windows 10 offline/disconnected from the Internet, or you have several PCs and want to save bandwidth, you might want to download the malware definition/signature updates for Windows Defender offline so you can update multiple PCs at once or update it without internet connectivity. In this article, we will see where to get these updates to install them in Windows 10 without downloading them on every PC or connecting to the internet.

No, Microsoft will not stop pushing Windows 10

Microsoft's aggressive tactics to push Windows 10 on consumer PCs are infamous by now. If you are running Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 and want to stay with your current OS, you will have a hard time fending off the upgrade prompts and continuous nags to move to Windows 10, an OS that doesn't offer much in the way of any new groundbreaking or significant improvements, new technology or extra value to existing Windows customers. In fact it reduces your control over many settings, eliminates features and a great deal of customization and choice, and slows down performance due to the use of managed code in the OS. If you are still on Windows 7 or Windows 8, you probably have already learned of all the ways to avoid Windows 10. However, you should not relax.

How to rename the OS in Windows 10 boot menu

With Windows 8, Microsoft made changes to the boot experience. The simple text-based boot loader is now disabled by default and in its place, there is a touch friendly graphical user interface with icons and text. Windows 10 has this as well.

In a dual boot configuration, it shows the operating system names. If you need to rename this OS entry in a dual boot configuration, it is not made easier by Microsoft. Let's see how it should be done.

How to add encrypt and decrypt commands in Windows 10 right click menu

For many versions, Windows has included an advanced security feature called Encrypting File System (EFS). It allows the user to store files and folders encrypted, so they will be protected from unwanted access. Other user accounts cannot access it, neither can anyone from the network or by booting into another OS and accessing that folder. This is the strongest protection which is available in Windows to protect individual files and folders without encrypting the whole drive. But Microsoft has kept this useful feature pretty well hidden and only in business editions of Windows. It is possible to add Encrypt and Decrypt commands to the right click menu (context menu) in File Explorer to using EFS becomes easier.

How to re-add Favorites to navigation pane of Windows 10 Explorer

In Windows 10, the good old Favorites folder was removed from the navigation pane in File Explorer. It was replaced by the new feature called Quick Access, which combines Favorites with Recent files and also shows frequently used folders. Here is how you can re-add Favorites to navigation pane of Windows 10 File Explorer.

How to remove Lock icon on files and folders in Windows 10

In Windows 10, when a folder or file is encrypted using Encrypting File System (EFS), the File Explorer app shows a pad lock overlay icon for such a file or folder. If you are interested in removing that icon, in this article, we will see how it can be done.

How to delete Run history in Windows 10

In Windows 10, Microsoft implemented a new Start menu and a new Settings UI instead of just continuing and improving over what they had. It is based on the new Universal App Platform and has nothing common with the old Start menu or Explorer Shell of Windows 7. Due to this change, they reimplemented the setting to control document history/jumplists but the problem is this new option does not clear Run dialog history! There is no longer any option now in operating system settings to clear the Run dialog history. Let's see how to delete the Run history in Windows 10.

Tip: Use Search for basic calculations in Windows 10

Today, we will see a not-so-typical usage of the search box in Windows 10. It is possible to use it as a simple calculator. Let's see how simple calculations can be performed using the search box of Windows 10's Taskbar / Start menu.

How to add Windows Update to Control Panel in Windows 10

If you use the classic Control Panel in Windows 10, you might have noticed already that it does not contain a link to Windows Update. If you are interested in adding the link back, follow the instructions in this article.