In Windows 8.1 Update 1, Microsoft made some changes to make the OS friendlier for keyboard/mouse users. Modern apps now have a title bar. You can make that titlebar visible by moving your mouse pointer to the top edge of the screen. We also showed you how to make the title bar show using a keyboard shortcut that opens the window menu. Today, we will see how to hide the minimize button if you prefer having a cleaner UI.
Category: Windows 8.1
Fix: Windows 8.1 Update fails to install, errors 0x800f081f and 0x80071a91
Microsoft recently made available the Windows 8.1 Update for all Windows 8.1 users via the Windows Update service. However, many users are facing an issue that prevents the update from being installed. It fails with some error code, usually 0x800f081f or 0x80071a91. If you have a similar issue, then you need to do the following steps.
How to change the “Shutting Down” background color in Windows 8
In Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, you can customize the color of the Start screen using the personalization options from the Settings charm. The color you choose for the Start screen will be applied to your sign-in screen, e.g. the screen you see right after you enter your credentials but before the Start screen appears. However, the screen which lists the user accounts before you sign in and after you sign out has a different color. That color comes from the registry value for the default sign-in screen, which cannot be changed by the user because no option exists inside PC Settings to change it. Let's see how we can change that color.
Tweak the touch scrolling friction to speed up scrolling in Windows 8
If you have a touch screen device with Windows 8 (or above) installed, you can tweak its touch scrolling friction. The friction is the amount by which the content scrolls up, down, left or right when you slide your finger to scroll. If you reduce the friction value, the touch scrolling speed will be faster and if you increase the friction, it will scroll slower. To change this value, you need to apply a simple registry tweak.
How to perform an emergency restart of Windows 8
Windows 8 and Windows 7 and Vista too have a secret reboot mode called "Emergency restart". When you perform an emergency restart, Windows closes all running apps forcefully and you will not see any warning about saving your work. This way of restart can be useful if you have some issues with apps or the OS hanging or crashing and you would like to quickly restart the PC to fix it. Follow this tutorial to learn how to perform an emergency restart in Windows 8.
How to uninstall Windows 8.1 Update
The recently released Windows 8.1 Update features some changes which make it easier to work with the keyboard and the mouse. The Shutdown button on the Start screen, the title bar for Modern apps and ability to pin those apps to the taskbar are key features of this update. However, if you need to uninstall Windows 8.1 Update for some reason you can do so.
How to adjust the delay before Chkdsk runs while booting Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
In Windows versions before Windows 8, if your hard drive partition was marked dirty due to an improper shutdown, or due to corruption or bad sectors, Chkdsk ran while Windows was booting to fix any drive errors. You had a choice to cancel the disk check and continue to boot Windows, before it started scanning and fixing errors. However, starting with Windows 8, the Chkdsk timeout is set to 0 by default so it no longer allows you to cancel the disk check. Also, the automatic repair mechanism kicks in by default which we showed can be disabled. In this article, we will look at how to set the timeout before Chkdsk starts so you get time to cancel the disk check.
How to create a shortcut to open Disk Space in Windows 8.1 Update
The Disk Space feature of Windows 8.1 is a part of the PC Settings application which allows you to view the disk usage of your PC and Tablet. Also, it allows you to go directly to the app sizes page and clean the Recycle Bin folder. It is designed specially for touch screen devices. It is accessible through PC Settings -> PC and devices -> Disk space, but Windows 8.1 Update allows you create a shortcut to open it directly with one click.
Windows 8.1 Update feature: View the disk space usage in PC Settings
The recently released Windows 8.1 Update comes with an option in the PC Settings app, to view your disk space usage. This feature will be definitely useful for all Tablet PC owners, as the PC Settings app is more touch friendly than File Explorer. Let's take a look at the disk space feature.
Fix: Error 14098 the Component Store has been corrupted
One of our readers posted a question related to corruption in the Component Store of Windows 8. The Component store is a core feature of Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista which stores all of the system files related to the OS grouped by components and as hardlinks (since files are shared between two components). When the OS is serviced, the component store is updated. It is part of Windows Imaging and Servicing stack. If you got the error 14098 'The component store has been corrupted', it means that something went wrong with Windows updates and its packages. Thankfully, Windows 8 has all the necessary tools to fix this issue.
