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 enable Lock screen rotation in Android 4.3 and 4.4
If you own a phone or tablet with Android 4.3 or 4.4, you might be facing the issue that your lock screen does not support rotation. I noticed this when I upgraded my Nook HD+ to the latest CyanogenMod based on Android 4.4. The lock screen was always in portrait mode. While phone users might not consider this behavior problematic because phones are mostly used by holding them vertically, tablet owners might prefer landscape mode most of the time. If you have rooted your device, you can perform a simple trick described below to enable lock screen rotation.
Upd: according to our reader Tapatio, this trick also works on CyanogenMod 12.1 android version 5.1.1.
How to enable DirectWrite font rendering in Google Chrome
The latest versions of the Google Chrome browser (e.g. 34 stable, 35 beta) come with a new font rendering feature which uses the DirectWrite engine instead of the old GDI engine. This means that fonts in your Google Chrome will look smoother than before. DirectWrite takes advantage of advances in OpenType font technology and ClearType font subpixel rendering technology to enable high quality typography in Windows applications. At this moment, you can enable DirectWrite font rendering in Google Chrome using the experimental 'flags' because this feature is still in testing.
Fix: Android ringtones are listed twice
Recently I played with my Android phone and added back some OEM ringtones which were removed from the custom firmware I use. After doing that, all my ringtones were listed twice in the sound profile. This was strange, because I had not added duplicates of existing files. Every file had a single copy on my Android phone. Thankfully, I found out the solution and would like to share it with you.
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.
Windows XP support has ended today: A farewell to the venerable OS
Today, Microsoft terminated support for Windowsxp, their most popular and most successful OS of the past decade. This means that Windows XP will not receive updates automatically through the Windows Update service and Microsoft will not release security patches any more for it. Windows XP had Microsoft's support for 12 years. Regardless of its age, XP is still very popular and takes the second place (after Windows 7) in terms of popularity.
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.
