Windows 10 Settings Search not working

The Settings app in Windows 10 offers you a search bar that let you quickly search for any setting. But some users have reported that the Windows 10 Settings Search Bar is not working, with the settings themselves not getting indexed. Even if your search using the taskbar search bar, you will not see any Settings listed. It may be not finding Control Panel or Settings app items or simply show no results. If you are facing any issues, try this solution.

First of all open your Computer folder, right-click on your system Drive which is C, and select Properties. Ensure that theAllow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties box is checked. If not, select it and then select Apply changes to subfolders and files.

C:\Users\username>\AppData\Local\Packages\windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

Here, right-click on the Indexed folder, and select Properties.

Next, click on the Advanced button and check the Allow files in this folder to have indexed in addition to file properties setting.

If it is already checked, uncheck it and click OK. Then again check it and click OK > Apply and exit.

Restart your computer and see if it has helped.

If this does not help, you may want to run System File Checker, repair System Image or rebuild Search Index and see if that helps you.

Windows could not complete the installation

In this post I’ll describe two simple method using which will resolve a reboot loop issue in Windows 7.

This problem usually occurs when a fresh Windows installation is interrupted before a user account is created.

The following error message is displayed

Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation.

On clicking okay the system reboots and again the same error message “Windows could not complete the installation” is reported. This loop continues in the same fashion.

Method 1

1. Press SHIFT + F10 to bring up command prompt.
2. Then type CD C:\windows\system32\oobe
3. Hit Enter
4. Then type msoobe
5. Hit Enter
6. This will open up the windows account creation wizard
7. Using the wizard create a generic user account and then reboot the system

After following these steps you will not see the error message Windows could not complete the installation. However if you still continue to see that error message head on to methods 2.

Method 2

1. Again press Shift + F10 to display the command prompt
2. Then type MMC
3. Now Click on File -> Add/Remove Snap-in…
4. Select Computer Management
5. Click Add
6. Select Local Computer and Click Finish and then Ok.
7. Click on Computer Management -> System Tools -> Local Users and Groups -> Users
8. Double Click on Administrator
9. Then UnCheck Account is disabled and Click OK
10. Now right click Administrator and click on Set Password…
11. Set a decent password to get started.

How to Take Screenshots in Windows 10

A screenshot is an image taken by a user to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, mobile device, or other visual output device in use. Today we’re going to show you how to take a screenshot in Windows.

All the major platforms have some level of support for taking screenshots. There are many tools out there for taking screenshots in Windows. If your needs are pretty basic then you don’t have to install a third party application. In this article I’ll show you different ways on how to take a screenshot in Windows 10.

Method 1 — Print Screen (PrtScn)

You can use the print screen method to take a screenshot and automatically save it as a file, take a screenshot without saving it as a file, or take a screenshot of only one window (instead of the whole screen). The print screen button may be labeled as “PrtScn,” “PrntScrn,” “Print Scr,” or something similar. On most keyboards, the button is usually found between F12 and Scroll lock. On laptop keyboards, you may have to press the “Function” key to access “Print Screen.” You will not receive any confirmation that the screenshot has been taken.

To Take a Screenshot and Save It as a File

Press the “Windows logo key + PrtScn.” If you’re using a tablet, press the “Windows logo button + volume down button.” The screen will dim for a moment when the screen is copied and saved as a file in the Screenshots folder (in /Users/User Name/Pictures). If the Screenshot folder does not exist, Windows will automatically create it. The screenshot is automatically labeled with the file name as “Screenshot (Number).png” with number indicating the screenshot index counter. Each screenshot you take increases the counter by one.

You will only see your screen dim if you have the “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” turned on in your visual effects settings (System > Advanced system settings > Click the Advanced tab > Click Settings under Performance section). Note — On some laptops and other devices, you may need to press the “Windows logo key + Ctrl + PrtScn” or “Windows logo key + Fn + PrtScn” keys instead. Check the manual that came with your laptop or device for more information.

To Take a Screenshot of Display Without Saving

Press the “PrtScn” key. A screenshot of your display is now copied to the clipboard, paste it wherever you like. The dimensions of the image will be the same as your desktop resolution. Note — On some laptops and other devices, you may need to press the “Ctrl + PrtScn” or “Fn + PrtScn” keys instead. Check the manual that came with your laptop or device for more information.

To Take a Screenshot of Only One Window

Click on the title bar off the window that you want to take a screenshot of to make it the active window on your screen. Press the “Alt + PrtScn” key. A screenshot of your currently active window is copied to the clipboard, paste it wherever you like. Note — On some laptops and other devices, you may need to press the “Alt + Fn + PrtScn” keys instead. Check the manual that came with your laptop or device for more information.

Method 2 – Using Snipping Tool

The Snipping tool has been a part of the Windows for long time. This tool was included in Windows Vista and from there onward it never gained any new features, apart from few bug fixes. Snipping tool can take screenshots of an open window, rectangular area, a free-form area, or the entire screen. Snips can then be annotated using a mouse with different colored pens or a highlighter, saved as an image file or MHTML file, or even emailed.

We have already shown you how to use the snipping tool to take screenshots. Snipping tool has one limitation though, it can only be used to capture items that don’t involve mouse movements. To capture anything which involves mouse movement e.g., pop-up menus and tooltips, the process is tedious:

Grab the entire screen with the “PrtScn” key on keyboard.

Load the captured screen in an image editor and clip out the portions you want.

Save that to a file.

With the new “Delay” option in Windows 10, you can now grab screenshots of pop-up menus and tooltips easily. Open the Snipping Tool app and click Delay option. From the drop-down list, click on the number corresponding to delay time you want to set in seconds (from 0–5 seconds).

Now choose the type of snip you want to make by clicking the arrow next to “New.” You can choose from one of four types of snip — free-form, rectangular, window, and full-screen

Unlike a regular snip, the screen will not immediately fade out. Instead, you will have between 1–5 seconds, depending on the delay you chose, to setup your screenshots. Now open that pop-up menu or tooltip you want to capture. Once the delay time is reached, the screen will freeze and fade out so you can create your snip. If you chose window or full-screen, your snip will be automatically created when the screen freezes.

Method 3 – Take Screenshots With Game Bar in Windows 10

Windows 10 ships with game DVR capabilities to record gameplay footage and take screenshots of Windows PC games. The game bar generates screenshots in PNG format, and saves them in “C:\Users[your username]\Videos\Captures.” Before you start using the Game bar, launch the “Xbox app” and configure settings for the Game DVR feature. Toggle “Take screenshots using Game DVR,” and replace the default keyboard shortcuts with hotkeys of your choice.

While you have an open game or app window active, press the “Windows key + G,” and click or tap on the “Yes, this is a game” box if prompted. Now press the “Camera icon” or “Win+Alt+PrtScn” to take a screenshot. Note — The keyboard shortcut will only work if you have previously checked the “Yes, this is a game” box for this specific game. You will see a notification letting you know “Screenshot saved.” If you click or tap on the notification, it will open to “Xbox app > Game DVR > On this PC” to see it.

There are indeed lots of ways to take screenshots in Windows 10, each method has their own pros and cons. But if you don’t want to bother with third party screen capture tools, then it does quite well for taking basic screenshots

How to Add and Monitor a Child’s Account in Windows 10

Your kids are the most important people in the world to you, and the Internet is a scary place that requires constant vigilance. Luckily, you can set up a child’s account in Windows 10 to make your job as a parent that much easier.

We’ve talked about child’s accounts in Windows previously. Microsoft introduced the concept in Windows 8, which takes a standard user account, protects it with Microsoft Family Safety, and integrates it into the operating system. It’s pretty easy to set one up and you can quickly create accounts for you kids, and then protect and monitor their activity in just a few minutes.

Today, we want to show you how to set up child’s accounts on Windows 10 and reintroduce you briefly to Microsoft Family Safety.

Setting Up a Child’s Account

Setting up user accounts on Windows 10 isn’t drastically different, but as we explained recently, it is different from how it’s done in Windows 8.1.

In Windows 10, you will want to open up the Settings, then Accounts, and click on “Family & other users”, then click “Add a family member”.

On the next screen, click “Add a child”. It’s a good idea that each member of your family, including children, have their own account.

Next, you will fill in all the pertinent information needed to set up your child’s account. If they do not have an email account, you can set up an outlook.com account for them.

In order to better protect your child’s account’s security, you will need to enter a telephone number. This way if you’re ever unable to access the account, such as if it is hacked or you forget the password, you can have a code sent to your phone that will let you reset it.

On the next screen, we uncheck these boxes. It’s entirely up to you, but considering this is a child’s account, we don’t feel either of these options are particularly relevant.

That’s it, your child can now log into their account for the first time, and you can set up and configure their account settings using the Microsoft Family Safety tools online.

Alternatively, if you have already established an account for your child and you’re simply adding it to your Windows 10 installation, you will need to make sure to confirm their account before any existing family settings can be applied to their account.

Until you do so, you will see that their account is still pending. They will be able to sign in and use the computer, but they won’t have the protections you have established, so make sure to confirm their account using the email address you signed them up with.

With your child’s account added, you’re ready to head to the Family Safety website. Click “Manage family settings online” to get started.

An Overview of Family Safety

Once you’ve added your child’s account, you can manage those family safety settings online. The recent activity settings will collect your child’s activity and email reports to you, both of which you can disable.

The first item you will want to consider is the “web browsing” category. You can “block inappropriate websites” and there is a check box to constrain your child’s web browsing to only websites on the allowed list.

Here, you can explicitly allow and block websites. If you elected to “only see websites on the allowed list,” then this will be where you will add websites to the “Always allow these” list.

The next category is to limit apps and games from three to twenty-year-olds, or not at all. Note, as you change the age, the ratings will change as well.

You can also explicitly allow or block apps and games, just as you would with websites.

Finally, you can choose when your child uses the computer. You can decide how early and late they can use it, as well as how many hours per day. This means that even though your child may be able to use the computer throughout the entire day, you can still limit how many hours they’re allowed to use it.

Microsoft has greatly simplified how parents can apply controls to their children’s accounts so if you’re new to all this, you should find it pretty easy to figure out. Having such controls in place should give you peace of mind to let your kids use the computer without too much adult supervision.

How to Switch From 32-bit Windows 10 to 64-bit Windows 10

Microsoft gives you the 32-bit version of Windows 10 if you upgrade from the 32-bit version of Windows 7 or 8.1. But you can switch to the 64-bit version, assuming your hardware supports it.

If you had a 32-bit versions of Windows 7 or 8.1 installed on your PC and upgraded to Windows 10, Microsoft gave you the 32-bit version of Windows 10.

Is Your PC 64-bit Capable?

First thing’s first, you’ll need to confirm whether the CPU in your computer is 64-bit capable. To do so, open the Settings app from your Start menu, select System, and select About. Look to the right of “System type.”

If you see “32-bit operating system, x64-based processor,” this means you’re using a 32-bit version of Windows 10 but your CPU can run a 64-bit version. If it doesn’t say you have an x64-based processor, you have a 32-bit CPU and can’t upgrade to the 64-bit version.

Does Your CPU Have the Required Features?

Some of the first 64-bit CPUs don’t have the required features to run 64-bit versions of Windows 10, even if they are 64-bit compatible. Specifically, Windows 10 requires PAE, SSE2, and NX. Microsoft has more information about this here. PCs will also need support for CMPXCHG16b, which some of the first consumer 64-bit processors didn’t include.

The 64-bit version of Windows 10 will refuse to install if your CPU doesn’t support these things. If you’d like to check before you begin the install process, download and run CPU Z.

“SSE2” will appear under Instructions if it’s supported. “EM64T” or “AMD64” should indicate that PAE is supported. “VT-x” or “VT-d” always indicates that NX is supported.

On some older computers, you may have to enable NX (sometimes called XD) in the computer’s BIOS. If you receive an error about your CPU not being supported during the install process, visit your computer’s BIOS and look for an option titled something like “No eXecute bit (NX)”, “eXecute Disabled (XD)”, “No Execute Memory Protect”, “Execute Disabled Memory Protection”, “EDB (Execute Disabled Bit)”, “EVP (Enhanced Virus Protection)”, or something similar. Look under the “Security” or “Advanced” tabs somewhere in your BIOS for this setting.

Does Your PC’s Hardware Offer 64-bit Drivers?

Even if your CPU and motherboard support the correct features, you might want to consider whether your computer’s hardware will work properly with a 64-bit version of Windows. 64-bit versions of Windows require 64-bit hardware drivers, and the 32-bit versions you’re using on your current Windows 10 system won’t work.

Modern hardware should certainly offer 64-bit drivers, but very old hardware may no longer be supported and the manufacturer may have never offered 64-bit drivers. To check for this, you can visit the manufacturer’s driver download web pages for your hardware and see if 64-bit drivers are available. You shouldn’t necessarily need to download these from the manufacturer’s website — they should be included with Windows 10 or automatically downloaded from Windows Update. But old hardware — for example, a particularly ancient printer — may not offer 64-bit drivers.

Either way, you can find out for sure by installing the 64-bit versions of Windows. if it doesn’t support your CPU, it will let you know. If hardware drivers aren’t available, you’ll see after installing it and you can downgrade to the 32-bit version of Windows 10 if your hardware doesn’t work.

Do the Clean Install

You’ll need to perform a clean install to get to the 64-bit version of Windows 10 from the 32-bit one. There’s no upgrade path.

Warning: Back up your important files before continuing. This process will wipe your installed programs and files.

First, if you haven’t upgraded to Windows 10 yet, you’ll need to use the upgrade tool to upgrade. You’ll get the 32-bit version of Windows 10 if you were previously using a 32-bit version of Windows 7 or 8.1. But the upgrade process will give your PC a Windows 10 license. Be sure to check that your current 32-bit version of Windows 10 is activated under Settings > Update & security > Activation.

Once you’re already using an activated version of Windows 10, download the Windows 10 media creation tool from Microsoft. If you’re using the 32-bit version of Windows 10 at the moment, you’ll have to download and run the 32-bit tool.

Select “Create installation media for another PC” and use the tool to create a USB drive or burn a disc with Windows 10. As you click through the wizard, you’ll be asked whether you want to create 32-bit or 64-bit installation media. Select the 64-bit architecture.

Next, reboot your computer and boot from the installation media. Install Windows 10, selecting “Custom install” and overwriting your current version of Windows. When you’re asked to insert a product key, skip the process and continue. You’ll have to skip two of these prompts in total. After you reach the desktop, Windows 10 will automatically check in with Microsoft and activate itself. You’ll now be running the 64-bit edition of Windows on your PC.

How to Make Windows 10 Look More Like Windows 7

Windows 10 introduced many updated and the visual design wasn’t spared. If you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 to take advantage of the new functionality, but preferred the aesthetics of Windows 7, there are steps you can take to best mimic the older operating system.

From changing the Start menu to removing the lock screen, you can get Windows 10 looking more how you want it and what you’re used to. The great thing is that the majority of these tweaks can be done without using third-party software.

If you’ve got your own advice to share on getting Windows 10 looking like Windows 7, please be sure to share it with us all in the comments section below.

Start Menu

Windows 8 saw a big transformation to the Start Menu. In fact, Menu was dropped for Screen, offering users a tiled-based approach to program access, though Microsoft back-peddled on the decision and reintroduced the Start button come 8.1. With Windows 10, the more traditional styles of 7 have been combined with the tiles of 8. But for those of us who don’t care for the new look, there’s no in-built way to return to the classic design of the Start Menu.

That’s where a program called Classic Shell comes in. Head to their website, clickDownload Now and then run the installation wizard. Once installed, perform a system search for classic start menu and select the relevant result.

The first screen will allow you to select the style for the Start Menu, so clickWindows 7 style. You can then delve into the other tabs, which will let you customize the look and functionality of the Start Menu even further.

For example, click Start Button if you want to use a custom image in the Taskbar. Head to the Customize Start Menu tab to have full control over what quick links will appear on your Start Menu. You can personalize nearly everything and get it functioning and looking exactly how you had it on Windows 7.

Login with a Local Account

Microsoft is very keen to get everyone joining their ecosystem and making full use of their services like OneDrive and Office 365. Part of that means using a Microsoft account and it’s being pushed in Windows 10, too. It allows your settings and files to be synced across all Windows 10 devices, but those who don’t want to have their user account always connected can opt for a local account instead, like how it was on Windows 7.

First, press Windows Key + I to launch Settings and click Accounts. If your account is a Microsoft one, you’ll see Sign in with a local account instead near the top of this window. Click this and you’ll be asked to verify your password. Do so, continuing to follow the wizard through and setting your local username and password. Everything on your account will be the same as before, expect now it’s entirely local.

If you want to add a new local user account, navigate back to the Accounts screen. From here, select Family & other users from the left menu. Then select Add someone else to this PC. A new window will open asking how the new user will sign in, so click The person who I want to add doesn’t have an email address and then on the next screen click Add a user without a Microsoft account. It’s slightly cumbersome to get here, but now you’ll be able to create the new username and password as you follow the wizard through.

Remove the Lock Screen

The Windows 10 lock screen shows things like the date, time and notifications, but it’s really just an extra step before you can get to to the login screen. While it might make sense on mobile devices, there’s no harm getting rid of it on desktop. Doing so will require minor fiddling in the registry, so only proceed if you’re confident in following the instructions.

Press Windows Key + R, type regedit, and hit OK. If User Account Control pops up, click OK again. Once the Registry Editor has opened, navigate to the following section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Now right click an empty space in the right pane and select New > Key. The key will be highlighted automatically; rename it to Personalization. Select the key you just created, right click in the right pane again and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the value NoLockScreen. Double click it, set the Value data to1 and then click OK.

Your changes will take effect immediately. The lock screen will be disabled and the relevant settings within Windows will be deactivated. If you ever want to re-enable the lock screen, navigate to the NoLockScreen value again and set the value to 0.

Notification Area

Notification icons like the speaker and calendar have seen some visual changes inWindows 10. Using the registry we can change these back to their Windows 7 designs. Again, the registry should be used with caution. Press Windows Key + R, type regedit, and press OK to launch it.

To bring back the old vertical volume control design, navigate to the following registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\

Select Edit > New > Key and name it MTCUVC. Then select Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it EnableMtcUvc. Double-click the newly created DWORD, set the Value Data to 0 and click OK.

To bring back the analogue clock and smaller calendar design, navigate to the following registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell

Go to Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it UseWin32TrayClockExperience. Next, double-click the DWORD, set theValue Data to 1, and then click OK.

Disable Cortana

Cortana has been promoted heavily with Windows 10. It’s Microsoft’s alternative to Siri and Google Now, a personal assistant that will help you search, along with tracking packages, creating calendar events, setting alarms, and more. You might not be using it, but that doesn’t mean Cortana isn’t disabled completely.

Press Windows Key + I to launch Settings, then search for cortana. Select Cortana & Search settings and the relevant options will open from your Taskbar. To disable Cortana, all you need to is set that top slider to Off.

If you want to get rid of the search bar from the Taskbar, which will still be there even if Cortana is disabled, just right click the Taskbar and go to Search > Hidden. Alternatively, you can set it to show only an icon that opens the search when clicked.

Style like Seven

There’s nothing inherently wrong with change, but some elements of Windows 7 looked better than they do in Windows 10. The great thing is that you can mix and match them, picking and choosing from the best of each version.

With Windows 10 applying forced updates, we could see the visual design change down the line without getting a say in it, but hopefully these tweaks will always be available to retain the classic Windows 7 look.

4 Tips to Fix 100% Disk Usage & Improve Windows Performance

Your computer is hanging. Same old Windows, right? Except you’re using a brand new Windows 8.x or Windows 10 device, you’ve only had it a few days. So just what is going on?

Investigating, you discover that your system drive is running at 100%. Surely this can’t be right? Sadly, it is. The latest versions of Windows have a problem with the drives being over worked, which slows down the operating system. This issue affects both hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs).

Several fixes are available for this, depending upon what exactly is causing the problem.

Slow Performance? Check Your Disk Usage

This performance issue is most obvious when attempting to use Search (Windows key + Q) to find a file or program, and anything else that requires the drive to do some work (perhaps copying and pasting a group of files).

To establish whether it is a problem that is affecting you, when your computer next slows down press CTRL+ALT+DEL and select Task Manager. (Alternatively, right-click the Taskbar and select Task Manager.) Note that this may take some time to open with the drive being slow.

On the first tab, Processes, look for the Disk column. If you’re having problems with drive performance, this should be at 100%, and colored red to indicate whether you have a problem or not.

Once you’ve found there is a problem, you have several options available.

Check Your Anti-Virus Software

As with any such performance issue, the first thing to do is confirm that your computer hasn’t been infected with malware. Your security software should be able to deal with this, whether it’s a free app or a paid suite. At the very least, tools such as Malwarebytes Anti-Malware should be able to scan your system drive and detect any problems, although with a heavy load on your drive already this may take a while.

If threats are found, use the software’s recommendations to discard them, and reboot, before checking your drive performance further. Hopefully you’ve resolved the issue; if not, then malware wasn’t to blame, so read on.

Disable Windows Search for Improved Disk Performance

The next thing to check is whether the problem is to do with Windows Search. A bug in Windows 8 and 10 results in a sort of “search loop” that results in an increased load on the system drive.

To stop this, and prevent it from happening during your current session (until Windows is rebooted) open the Command Prompt (the quickest way is by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Command Prompt (Admin)) and enter the following:

net.exe stop “Windows search”

To permanently disable Windows Search or Indexing, press Windows + R, enter services.exe, and hit Enter. In the Services window that opens find the Windows Search entry and double-click it to open the Windows Search Properties window. Under Startup type, select Disabled. Here you can click Stop to abort the service. Click OK to save your changes.

You can also control which folders Windows Search indexes, which we’ve demonstrated previously.

A few moments after disabling Windows Search, your Windows 8.x or Windows 10performance should improve considerably. If not, move on…

Disable XX Service

For some reason, the XX service has been identified as a potential cause of these disk performance issues in Windows 8.x and Windows 10. To deal with this, open another Command Prompt (or if you’ve still got the earlier box open, use that) and enter:

net.exe stop superfetch

Again, wait a few moments to check whether this has had any effect on your computer’s performance. You should also run Check Disk in a Command Prompt:

chkdsk.exe /f /r

You’ll be informed that your PC must be rebooted for Check Disk to complete, so make sure you have closed all of your applications first.

If this doesn’t work, it is likely that you’re experiencing an iteration of this issue that is frustrating to realize, but simple to resolve.

Could It Be Flash?

We’ve already discussed at length why Flash should be consigned to history. It is, quite frankly, one of the most vulnerable aspects of modern computing, an attack vector that just keeps on giving. It also seems to be one of the most common culprits for the maxed out, 100% hard disk usage in Windows 10 and the earlier Windows 8.x, if you’re using the Google Chrome browser.

In Chrome, go to the address bar and enter:

chrome://plugins

A new settings-style screen will display a list of installed plugins. If you have Adobe Flash installed for viewing videos (BBC iPlayer requires Flash on desktop browsers, for instance, as do many other video streaming services, as well as browser games) then you will see it listed as Adobe Flash Player here.

Click the Disable button; the Adobe Flash Player entry will be grayed out. Wait a few moments and then check your Task Manager. Performance issues related to your system drive should be resolved. Try restarting the Chrome Browser if this is still an issue.

Disk Usage Should Rarely Be 100%

Put simply, there is little reason for your disk load to be anything close to 100%, certainly not under normal usage. A slow computer is one with a problem, and if you cannot fix it by disabling a browser plugin, stopping services, or running your anti-virus software, then the problem may well be hardware related.

Perhaps your drive is getting old; it may be defective, or the cables may need replacing. Alternatively, there is a chance that the problem is connected to the Windows defrag tool. If your computer is attempting to defrag your drive, but your HDD is actually an SSD, then serious problems can occur. Deal with this by opening the Task Scheduler (WINDOWS + Q, enter task scheduler) and disable any scheduled disk defrag tasks.

The Windows 10 FAQ: Everything You Need to Know

Now that Windows 10 is available for public download and installation people have more questions than ever about the new version of Windows. We’ve rounded up the questions we get most frequently here at How-To Geek and compiled them to help you get up to speed about Windows 10.

Every week we get hundreds of questions to our ask@howtogeek.com email inbox and we field dozens more from friends and family that know we work for a tech publication. People across the board are very curious about Windows 10. Further, because it’s a free upgrade for millions upon millions of users across the globe there is a huge amount of interest in everything from the upgrade process to changes in the operating system.

For all our curious readers, neighbors, and people searching for more information about Windows 10 we’ve rounded up to most frequently asked questions we’ve come across here for your convenience.

Is Windows 10 Really Free?

There has been significant confusion regarding the pricing (or lack there of) of Windows 10 over the last year. Don’t be ashamed if you’re confused, Microsoft themselves changed their story regarding the upgrade and pricing schedule more than a few times during the development and beta testing of Windows 10.

For a huge number of people Windows 10 is really, truly, free-as-in-beer free. If you are currently running any legitimate (non-pirated) version of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 you will be upgraded for free to an equivalent version of Windows 10. Windows 7 Home/Basic/Premium users and Windows 8.1 users will be upgraded for free to Windows 10 Home. Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate users and Windows 8.1 Pro users will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.

You’ll note we didn’t say Windows 8; if you have a Windows 8 machine you first need to perform the free upgrade to Windows 8.1 before upgrading to Windows 10. The vast majority of current Windows users fall under the umbrella above. Your Windows 7 desktop, your Windows 8.1 laptop, as long as it has a legitimate Windows license it is eligible for upgrade. It’s also worth noting that the Windows 10 free upgrade key is tied to the hardware. You can’t upgrade a machine and roll back and keep the key to do a clean install on another computer.

There is a minor catch: the upgrade is only free for the first year Windows 10 is available. Windows 10 was officially released in 07/29/2015 and the upgrade will remain free for qualifying users until 07/28/2016.

If you’re building a new PC and need a brand new Windows license you can purchase Windows 10 for $119 (or Windows 10 Pro for $199). Practically speaking though, buying a full price Windows 10 key, of either flavor, is a bad deal considering that you can purchase a cheaper key for Windows 7 and upgrade (or just scrounge it off the bottom of an old laptop or computer). You could, for example, buy a horribly dated (and possibly broken) Windows laptop at a garage sale for next to nothing and use the key to upgrade.

Even if you don’t want to gamble on using a key off an old laptop that somebody else might have recorded for their own use, it’s still cheaper to buy an old version of Windows and upgrade it. You can buy a brand new copy of Windows 8.1 Pro for $131, for example, and upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro (saving yourself ~$70 in the process).

In short, even when Windows 10 isn’t free (as it is for nearly everyone) it’s still pretty economical because you can use old (and cheaper) Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys to perform the free upgrade to Windows 10.

How Do I Get Windows 10?

So Windows 10 is, for nearly everyone, free-as-in-beer. But how exactly do you get your hands on a copy? Things have changed more than a bit over the years (and quite a bit from the days of heading down to the old computer store to buy a shrink wrapped box with your new OS in it).

Fortunately, getting Windows 10 on your computer (whether you’re performing an upgrade or a clean installation) is a simple affair. You download the Windows 10 installer tool from Microsoft, you run the installer, and you work your way through the installation wizard with a reboot here or there, and boom, you’re running Windows 10. It’s really a surprisingly simple process and we’re impressed with how smooth upgrading is. You can go from running Windows 7 or 8.1 to running Windows 10 pretty much as fast as your connection will download the update.

If you’re the kind of person who wants a clear picture of exactly what you need to do and what steps are involved in the process, definitely check out our article How to Upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 (Right Now) to see the upgrade steps outlined in detail.

Will My Computer Run Windows 10?

We’ve been asked this question quite a bit and we won’t lie, we’re not huge fans of the question because it’s so hard to give a good answer. Unlike other questions that have concrete answers like “Can I upgrade Windows 7 Home to Windows 10?” this particular question only has a concrete answer if we have detailed information about the computer in question and detailed information about the hardware therein.

If your computer is currently running Windows 7 or Windows 8 to your satisfaction, especially on newer hardware, there’s a very strong chance it will run Windows 10 just fine. On the other hand if the hardware you’re using was from your old Windows XP machine and it is barelyrunning Windows 7 at a satisfactory level then the reality is jumping all the way to Windows 10 is probably going to yield a sluggish user experience you won’t be particularly happy with.

While we can’t give you a concrete answer about your particular hardware we can suggest that you read the Windows 10 system required here, and check the compatibility of your computer and hardware with the Get Windows 10 system tray app (which will report not just on whether or not you have enough memory and such but if your printers and other devices are compatible).

What we can say before leaving this particular subject is that we’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well Windows 10 has run on older hardware so don’t rule out an upgrade just because your computer is getting a little long in the tooth.

Do I Have To Upgrade?

Earlier this year when Microsoft pushed out the the “Get Windows 10” tray app to millions of users, many people who were, more or less, totally unaware of Windows 10 were suddenly very aware of it and very curious what the icon (and the resulting info-app that pops up when you click on the icon) meant.

The most frequently question we received regarding the Get Windows 10 app was, hands down, “How do I get rid of the Get Windows 10 app?” because people hate annoying in-your-face stuff they didn’t ask for. The second most frequent question is “Do I have to upgrade?”

The answer is, firmly, no. You do not have to upgrade to Windows 10. Although Microsoft is aggressively promoting Windows 10 (it’s free for most people after all) you are not required to upgrade unless you wish to do so.

Should I Upgrade?

Those who aren’t concerned about if they have to upgrade are usually wondering if they shouldupgrade. So should you upgrade to Windows 10? Barring some compelling reason for not doing so (like you can’t get drivers for a piece of hardware your job depends on) there’s very little reason to not upgrade to Windows 10. It’s a huge leap forward from Windows 7. It’s an excellent update to Windows 8 (and, in every way, an improvement from the total mess that was the forced Windows 8 no-desktop-tile-system).

Should you upgrade right this second though? If you’re reading this article at the time of publication, mere weeks after the official Windows 10 release date, you probably shouldn’t. We’ve updated several machines without any problems as part of our very write-about-Windows oriented tech writing jobs, but if you’re considering upgrading your primary machine it would be very wise to wait at least a few months for any hiccups to be ironed out. That window provides time for manufacturers to update drivers, unforeseen problems in Windows 10 to be patched, and for you to properly backup all your files and be really ready for the transition.

Ultimately it would be very foolish to stubbornly hold onto Windows 7 so long that you miss the Windows 10 upgrade period. Whether you wait a month or six months, Windows 10 is a solid and worthwhile upgrade.

Do I Have To Upgrade To Do A Clean Installation?

This is one of the more confusing and annoying things about upgrading: if you want to do a totally clean install (and many folks do) you can’t just run the installer and give it a legitimate Windows 7 or 8 key. You actually have to first upgrade your machine from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 and then run the installer again to perform a clean install.

While this seems convoluted (and frankly it is) there’s a reason behind it. When you perform the upgrade your hardware configuration is registered with Microsoft and serves as the “fingerprint” if you will of system confirming that it is a legitimate Windows machine. That fingerprint is what authenticates your Windows 10 machine when you go to do the clean installation afterwards.

It’s a hassle but you only have to do it once and that machine is forever registered for use with Windows 10.

Can I Downgrade Back To Windows 7 or 8 If I Hate Windows 10?

You can absolutely downgrade from Windows 10 back to the previous version of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. You can even totally wipe your machine and reinstall your old version of Windows with the old key. But, and this is a very big but, you can only do so within the first 30 days.

After 30 days two things happens. First, the rollback files stored on the PC are deleted (thus no downgrade is possible without totally reinstalling the previous version of Windows). Second, and less visible to the user, your previous Windows key is used as a golden ticket of sorts to approve your transition into Windows 10.

If you rollback your machine in that first month you get your entire old Windows installation back. If you rollback after the 30 days you aren’t as much rolling back anymore as you are just releasing your Windows 10 license and freeing up your old key to be used for your older version of Windows. You’ll still need to totally reinstall Windows and use your old key to get your old installation back up and running.

Now what’s interesting is that upgrading to Windows 10, even if you roll back to your previous version of Windows, secures you a permanent copy of Windows 10 linked to that license key. If you decide to upgrade two years from now, at least according to Microsoft at the time of this article, you’ll have a Windows 10 download waiting for you for free.

Will My Old Apps And Peripherals Still Work?

Like the question “Will my computer run Windows 10?” this one is subjective. The good news is that we haven’t run into a single app that hasn’t worked yet (included some very old but useful apps we’ve hung on to since as far back as Windows XP). The bad news is every case is different and maybe that photo print you like so much that worked perfect with Windows 7 doesn’t even have Windows 8 drivers, let alone Windows 10 support.

One subject we’ve heard more than a few inquiries about is the subject of automatic updating in Windows 10. The rumors you’ve heard are absolutely true: in the home edition, or just plain Windows 10, the updates are automatically downloaded and applied at the time of their release. You can trick Windows by modifying your internet connection type, but we don’t recommend purposely delaying updates.

If you’re running Windows 10 Pro you can delay updates for a period of time but they are still automatically applied once the delay in up (unless you take advantage of a group editor trick or registry hack to disable them).

Does Windows 10 Report Back To Microsoft?

Windows has, for ages, reported back to Microsoft in various forms. The most obvious and enduring reporting is the basic Windows authentication process. There’s also the equally as old error reporting service that phones home when your programs crash and things fall apart so Microsoft can, ostensibly, prevent such problems in the future.

Windows 10 takes all that a step further, moving beyond the simplicity of verifying installation and reporting software problems, to more intimately integrating the online experience with the local computer experience in a way that ensures Windows 10 has a higher degree of communication with Microsoft and Microsoft properties (like Bing) than any previous version of Windows.

The short of it is that, yes, Windows 10 is really chatty with ol’ Man Microsoft. The long of it is that nearly all of the privacy settings can be bent to your will if you’re willing to dig for them. We’d strongly suggest checking out our article Digging Into and Understanding Windows 10 Privacy Settings for more information.

Do I Really Have To Pay For Solitaire And DVD Playback?

You don’t really realize how many people really love old Solitaire until Microsoft messes with it. Back in Windows 8 Microsoft ditched the old school Solitaire and Minesweeper apps that had been with Windows for over twenty years, only to replace them with Xbox-integrated versions from the Windows Store. Because of the low adoption rate of Windows 8 the change went, more or less, unnoticed as most of the world was still using Windows 7 and happily playing their free games.

With the release of Windows 10 the scandal of the missing Solitaire game really came to the forefront, especially in light of the fact that the new model is subscription based. To say that people have a hard time swallowing paying a subscription to play Solitaire (after years of the app being free and included with Windows) would be a bit of an understatement. Don’t worry though, we’ve got you covered. Check out article You Don’t Have to Pay $20 a Year for Solitaire and Minesweeper on Windows 10 for information on how you can get your old-school game fix without playing the silly freemium subscription game racket.

Another surprise waiting for people making the jump from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is the lack of DVD playback support. You can still use data DVDs, of course, but Microsoft has (since Windows 8) opted to not include a license for DVD video playback in Windows. This means, by default, you can’t pop a regular DVD movie into your computer and watch it on your Windows machine. While they’d prefer you shell out money for the official Microsoft DVD for Windows App ($15) you can, in fact, get the upgrade for free if you’re upgrading from a qualifying previous edition of Windows. Anyone doing a clean installation, regardless of the Windows status of their computer before the clean installation, is not eligible.

We’d encourage you to just grab a copy of the very popular media software VLC and be done with the whole thing. You’ll get a great media player without having to jump through any silly hoops.

Where’s Windows 9?

The vast majority of Windows 10 questions we get are fairly serious questions about upgrade paths, whether or not we like the new changes, and so on, but at least a few times a week somebody inevitably asks us something along the lines of “Wait. I have Windows 7. I didn’t want Windows 8. Now it’s Windows 10? What happened to Windows 9?”

Personally, we think it was an extremely long con job to make the joke “Why was Windows 10 scared of Windows 7? Because seven ate nine!” Or not. Most like not that at all. Honestly? We have no idea and outside of a few tight lipped people at Microsoft, nobody else does either.

If we were to fathom a guess more dignified than the total dad-quality joke we just made, however, we’d say this: we think Microsoft wanted to break the pattern of people waiting for the next big thing (e.g. “I have 7 and I like it. I don’t want to gamble with 8 so I’ll wait for 9”). Between rolling it out for free to millions of people and breaking the sequential numbering we think Microsoft is trying jolt people out of their old habits (namely of being stubborn late-to-never-adopters and complaining about Windows on an odd-even schedule).

Whether that’s the strategy or out whether or hypothesis about it is right is another thing altogether, but it’s as good as any other assumption as to why there is no Windows 9 that we’ve heard.

How to Disable the Lock Screen on Windows 8 or 10 Without Using Group Policy

Windows 8 or 10’s lock screen is at home on a tablet, but it just adds an additional key press to the login process on a desktop or laptop. You can disable the lock screen with a quick registry hack.

Quickly Disable the Lock Screen

If you do not want to edit the registry by hand, we have done the work for you. Just click here and download the .zip file to your computer:

Download DisableLockScreen.zip

Open the downloaded file and double-click the DisableLockScreen.reg file to disable the lock screen on your computer. (If you are curious what a .reg file will do, you can right-click it and select Edit to examine it before importing.)

Once you have imported the file, you are done – you do not even have to restart your computer. If you want the lock screen back later, just double-click the EnableLockScreen.reg file.

Manually Editing the Registry

If you would rather edit the registry manually, follow the instructions below:

Open the registry editor by pressing the Windows key, typing regedit, and pressing Enter. If you’re in Windows 10 you can just open the Start Menu and type it there instead.

Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization

If you do not see the Personalization key, right-click the Windows key above it, point to New, and create a key named Personalization.

Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value named NoLockScreen.

Double-click the NoLockScreen value and enter a value of 1.

Close the registry editor and you are done – you do not even have to restart your computer.

To re-enable the lock screen in the future, either delete the NoLockScreen value from your registry or set it to 0.