In Windows 8, Windows 7 and earlier, you can choose from predefined power plans which are a group of several power-related settings. If you are running a laptop on battery, you can choose the "Power Saver" plan. If you are running a desktop PC which is on AC power, you can set the "High Performance" plan. To switch the power plan, Windows gives you only two options if you use the notification area power icon. One of them is always the "Balanced" plan. This is not ideal because you have to open the Control Panel and go to Control Panel\System and Security\Power Options to access all the available power plans. Today, we will show you how to save your time and switch the power plan directly from the command line or with a shortcut so you don't need to open Power Options Control Panel every time.
How to check in a batch file if you are running it elevated
Sometimes it is useful to check in a batch file if it was started from an elevated command prompt or as an administrator. I would like to share with you a trick which I am using to do this. The main idea of my trick is based on the value of the special environment variable %errorlevel% which stores the exit code for most console apps and commands. Let's see this in action.
Tip: Now you can run Chrome 64-bit stable on Windows
In June, Google began testing the 64-bit version of Chrome for Windows. It was available only in the beta channel (Dev and Canary branch) users. Today it became available to the rest of Chrome users. With version 37 of Chrome, there is now a native 64-bit stable build available for Windows. Google claims several benefits of running a 64-bit browser over the regular 32-bit version.
Fix: The screen does not dim when you take a screenshot using Win+PrintScreen in Windows 8.1 or Windows 8
In Windows 8, a new screenshot feature was introduced for end users. If you press Win + Print Screen keys simultaneously on the keyboard, your screen will be dimmed for half a second, and a new screenshot will be captured to the This PC\Pictures\Screenshots folder. This is a nice visual indication that the screenshot was taken. However, if the screen dimming stops leaving you with no indication that the screenshot was captured, here is how you can fix it.
How to edit environment variables quickly in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
Environment variables in an operating system are values that contain information about the system environment, and the currently logged in user. Recently we covered how to view those variables for system, for a specific user or for a process. In this article, I would like to share with you a trick to view or edit environment variables directly, from the command line or a shortcut.
How to enable or disable CTRL + ALT + DEL logon requirement in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
Early Windows versions like Windows XP or Windows 2000 came with the classic logon dialog, for which the user could turn on the requirement to press CTRL + ALT + DEL shortcut keys together before logging on. In modern versions of Windows, the classic logon dialog was removed, however, it is still possible to enable the CTRL + ALT + DEL requirement. If you turn this on, you must press these keys before you sign in or unlock your PC. Follow these simple instructions to turn on this feature.
Daily Bing #45 theme for Windows 8
How to change Windows sounds
In this article, we will be covering how to change various sounds that play when certain events occur in Windows or in installed programs. Those events can be an action that you perform, such as logging on to your computer, or an action that your computer performs automatically, such as alerting you when you receive new e‑mail. We will learn how to change individual sounds for events or the whole sound scheme for your user account in Windows.
All ways to open the command prompt in Windows 8
In my articles, I often refer to command line tools and console utilities. Previously, I showed you how to open an elevated command prompt, but today I would like to share with you all the ways to open a regular command prompt in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.
All ways to open Task Manager in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
The Task Manager app which comes with Windows 8 is a special tool to maintain running processes including user apps, system apps and Windows services. It is able to control which apps start during the startup and even analyze performance of the whole OS. In this article, we will look how to start Task Manager in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.
