Microsoft has also gotten smarter and included a lot of tools and help guides in the OS itself to diagnose and fix problems. I’ve found that teaching my clients how to use these built-in tools saves me a lot of time because they are able to fix problems in Windows 8.1 themselves. In this article, I’m going to talk about the built-in Windows 8.1 troubleshooters that can help you fix common problems.

Windows 8.1 Troubleshooters

Before I show you some of the troubleshooters, let’s see how to get to them in Windows 8.1. First, open the Charms bar by pressing Windows key + C or moving your mouse to the upper or lower right of your screen. Click on Search and then type in troubleshooting in the search box.

Click on the first result, Troubleshooting, and the main window will pop up where you can start troubleshooting computer programs. The main interface is broken down into categories like Programs, Hardware and Sound, Network and Internet and System and Security.

You can either choose from the list that is shown or you can click the View all link at the top left. I tend to click on that just so I can see all the options.

As you can see, there are quite a few troubleshooters. You can fix problems with a homegroup, troubleshoot Internet connection issues, check the configuration of your network adapters, get help with printing problems, fix sound issues, fix Windows Updates problems and lots more. If you click on one of the troubleshooters, you’ll get a pop up dialog like below:

All of them will have a little Advanced button at the bottom, which you want to click on to see more options. It’s a good idea to keep the Apply repairs automatically checked and to click the Run as administrator link. Running the troubleshooter as an Administrator will allow windows to find more possible issues. When you click Next, the troubleshooter will start trying to detect any issues. For example, when I ran the Printer troubleshooter, it checked the spool service for errors and gave me a list of printers to see which one I was having trouble with.

Before Windows 7, these troubleshooters were pretty useless and didn’t do much of anything. However, starting with Windows 7 and definitely more so in Windows 8, they can actually fix a wide range of issues without any user input. If there is an issue detected, the troubleshooter will attempt to repair the problem by itself. Most of the time this works, unless it’s a serious problem. On one Windows 8.1 computer, I had some Windows Update issues that were fixed by the troubleshooter:

You can click on View detailed information to see exactly what issue was detected and fixed. In my case, it looked like one of the components for Windows Update was configured incorrectly.

That’s about it! Using the troubleshooters built into Windows 8.1 is always a good first step. If the troubleshooter doesn’t work, it’s time to start Googling around for a solution, but hopefully you won’t have too. Enjoy!

The post How to Troubleshoot Problems in Windows 8.1 first appeared on Online Tech Tips.

In the next update coming soon called Windows 8.1 Update 1, any non-touch device will automatically boot to the desktop. They are also going to be adding a power button to the start screen so you don’t have to go to the Charms menu anymore. Anyway, it’s just a big mess of two worlds and it keeps changing with every release, which is sure to confuse and annoy more people.

Anyway, if you are using Windows 8, here are some useful registry tweaks that I’ve been using for a while that have made the OS more bearable. I had previously written about 10 registry hacks for Windows 8, but I find the ones below to be more useful on a day to day basis. If you have some of your own registry tweaks you’d like to share, feel free to post them in the comments! Also, note that you should restart your computer after each registry edit in order for them to work.

Taskbar – Single Clicks on Stacked Programs

By default, if you have a program that is stacked on the taskbar, clicking on it will bring up a preview window where you can see all the open windows.

In the example above, I have three Explorer windows open and when I click on the icon in the taskbar, it shows the previews for those three windows. Then I have to click on one of them to open that particular window. I have always found this completely useless. Yes, it’s cool looking and all, but it really is not all that efficient.

Instead, you can make a small registry tweak that will simply cycle you through all the open windows when you single click! You can still hover your mouse over the icon and get a preview of all the open windows and click on any one you like, but with the tweak, you can just click on the icon and quickly move to the window you want without loading the previews. Here’s the tweak:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
;Change behavior of single clicks on the taskbar in Windows 8
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
“LastActiveClick”=dword:00000001

You can either go to the registry manually and add this there or you can  open Notepad and copy and paste the code above into a new file. Read my previous post on adding some options to the context menu in Windows 8 for instructions on how to create and run the registry file using Notepad.

Add Disk Cleanup to Context Menu

I run disk cleanup fairly often on my computer and have found it annoying to search for it every time I want to use it. You can add a context menu option so that whenever you right-click on a disk drive in Windows 8/8.1, you’ll get an option for disk cleanup too.

Here’s the code that will add the keys to the registry for this to work.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
;Adds “Disk Cleanup” Option to Drive Context Menu..
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Disk cleanup]
“icon”=”cleanmgr.exe”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Disk cleanup\command]
@=”cleanmgr.exe /d %1″

Safe Mode Context Menu

Need to boot Windows 8 into safe mode? I had written a whole post on this topic because it’s a royal pain to get into safe mode in Windows 8. You either have to use msconfig, press SHIFT while clicking on Restart in the charms bar or use a system recovery disk.

Well, what if you could add the safe mode options to the right-click context menu like shown below:

Luckily, the geniuses over at Eight Forums have written up a registry hack with some script files that let you add this awesome option to Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. They have full instructions on how to install the scripts and you can download the reg file directly from their site. Definitely has made starting up in safe mode a lot more convenient for me.

Add Top-Level Domains to IE Auto Search

Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 8 has a nice feature where it’ll give you suggestions for sites as you start typing. For example, if I type in “mi”, I get this list:

You’ll notice .com and .net domains in the results. By default, there are four domains that are set to match: .com, .net, .org and .edu. However, you can add more to this list if you like. Let’s say you work for the government or live in the UK or in another country and want to add that to the list of suggestions, then all you have to do is run the registry code below.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
;== Add extra URLs to Internet Explorer auto url searches ==
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\UrlTemplate]
“5”=”www.%s.gov”
“6”=”www.%s.mil”
“7”=”www.%s.co.uk”
“8”=”www.%s.be”
“9”=”www.%s.de”
“10”=”www.%s.nl”

You can change those values to whatever you like, such as .in for India, etc. You also can add as many or as few as you like. Just make sure it starts at 5 and go up from there.

Remove Default Windows Libraries

Another tweak I always perform on my Windows 8 systems is removing all those default library folders in Explorer. I personally have my own folders for organizing content and therefore don’t use them.

Again, the guys at Eight Forums have come up with a reg file to remove all of these folders from your system so that you have a clean Explorer windows like this:

If you like the desktop one, that normally is there under Favorites anyway, so I usually remove that one too even though I use it. Now instead of having a bunch of folders I never click on, I just have my list of hard drives and external devices. Much cleaner!

So those are a couple of quick registry tweaks for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 that hopefully will make you a little more productive with the operating system. If you have some of your own tweaks, lets us know in the comments. Enjoy!

The post 5 Handy Windows 8/8.1 Registry Tweaks first appeared on Online Tech Tips.

I remember having this problem on a Windows 7 machine a few years back, but that was because I had a lot of crap entries (third-party extensions) added to my right-click context menu by various programs. I’ll also talk about how to fix that problem too in this article. One quick way to check whether it’s a 3rd party extension causing the issue or if it’s something with Windows 8.1 is to restart in safe mode. If you don’t have the problem in safe mode, then skip down to the section called “Disable 3rd Party Extensions”.

Method 1 – Graphics Driver/Adapter

In my case, it happened to be an issue with the graphics driver for that particular laptop. I upgraded to Windows 8.1 a bit too quickly before a graphics driver had been released for my hardware. Thankfully when I checked on the manufacturer’s website, there was a new graphics driver for Windows 8.1. I was pretty lucky as there are still a couple of computers that I have that do not yet have updated graphics drivers for Windows 8.1.

Even if there is not a specific driver for Windows 8.1, try to download the latest Windows 8 driver as that may do the trick for you also. If there isn’t even a Windows 8 driver, then you’ll just have to wait or downgrade back to Windows 7 if you can’t stand the slow right-click. Lastly, some users have had luck by just uninstalling the current graphics driver and then reinstalling it. That seems to fix the issue if there was some sort of corruption.

The other trick that has worked for some people is to go to Device Manager, right-click on the display adapter and choose Disable. You can either try to re-enable it again right there or you can restart the computer once and then enable the adapter. For whatever reason, this has fixed the slow right click on Windows 8.1 for several users.

Method 2 – Disable 3rd Party Extensions

If the graphics driver didn’t fix your problem or if you’re having this issue on Windows 7, Vista, etc, then it’s probably related to the entries that show up in the right-click context menu. If you have a context menu that looks anything like the one below, that would definitely be your problem.

In all honesty, however, it’s not only the number of items in the context menu that can slow it down. Sometimes you might have only a few additional items, but one wrong entry will cause the entire menu to load slowly. Either way, it’s time to take a look at all those entries and if any are causing the problem. The best way to do this is to use a program called ShellExView from NirSoft.

Go ahead and download it and run it. It’s a very small program and you don’t even need to install it. It says it only works up to Windows 7, but it runs just fine on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. When you run it, you’ll get a gigantic list of items and it won’t make much sense. The first thing we have to do is turn on the filter.

Go ahead and click on Options and then Filter By Extension Type. In the list, you’re going to want to select ContextMenu and deselect everything else.

Now the list should be a lot shorter. Still, even on a clean Windows 8.1 install, there were over 30 entries. You can pretty much ignore all the system ones, which are easily identified as Microsoft Windows Operating System for Product Name and Microsoft Corporation for Company.

The great thing about this program is that you can use it to quickly disable all the extensions without actually deleting them. Down below I’ll show you how to actually find the entries in the registry, but that method entails actually deleting them. Here, you can just disable them and see if it fixes your problem.

Go ahead and select all the non-Microsoft entries by using the CTRL or SHIFT key on your keyboard. Once you have them selected, go to File and click on Disable Selected Items.

Go ahead and restart your computer and hopefully the issue will be gone! If it is, you know it’s one of the extensions. Now you can enable them one by one, log off and log back on and see which entry is causing the right-click menu to load slow.

Method 3 – Installed Software

If the above two methods didn’t fix your problem, the third most likely issue is a software program installed that is interfering with the right-click process. A couple of programs that come to mind are StarDock applications like Fences, Start8, and WindowBlinds. These programs really hook into Windows and change the behavior along with the look.

If you have any themer or skinning program installed to change the way Windows looks, it would definitely be worth a shot to uninstall that program and see what happens.

Method 4 – Registry Keys

There aren’t many options left at this point and that usually means it’s time to hit up the registry. Definitely use this as a last resort and make sure to backup your computer before you delete anything from the registry. Now that I said that, these entries are not critical to Windows, so even if you deleted something you didn’t need to delete, it won’t mess up your Windows installation.

Go ahead and open the registry editor by opening the Charms bar and typing in regedit. Then navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

On a clean install of Windows, it’s completely empty like this:

If you see any entries here, you can try to delete some of them. You should be able to tell what they do by the name. For example, you might see Intel Graphics or NVidia if you have those installed. You can also backup that entire key by right-clicking on ContextMenuHandlers and choosing Export.

If something isn’t working later on, just go to File and Import to add the key back the way it was before you started editing it. This way, you can delete entries even if you’re not sure what they do.

That’s pretty much it. I’ve never encountered a slow right-click context menu that wasn’t fix by one of the methods above. If you’re still having trouble or have a question about your situation, post a comment here and we’ll try to help. Enjoy!

The post Troubleshoot Slow Right-Click Context Menu in Windows 7/8 first appeared on Online Tech Tips.

Eventually, I ran into a post by Gerrand on his blog talking about how all the usual methods for fixing this problem have not worked: checking the date/time on your computer, using the netsh and wsreset commands, using a local account instead of an online account and trying to refresh your PC. I had actually tried most of those options because it happened to be once before and I wrote a post about fixing the Cannot Connect to Store problem on my other blog. He also mentions running wsreset, which seemed to have worked for a minute, but the second I tried to click on anything in the Store, it reverted back to giving me the same error message.

However, none of the options on my older post seemed to work on this machine. Gerrand finally figure out that it had to do with the Windows Live account. In his post, he writes about how his account had to be verified and then everything started working. In my case, the account was verified, but I had two-step verification enabled and therefore I had to type in my authenticator code.

Let’s start off by going to Settings on Windows 8 by moving your mouse to the right side of the screen. Then click on Change PC Settings at the very bottom.

Now click on Accounts in the left hand menu.

Here is where you’ll see the essential info that is causing trouble with the Windows Store. If it’s an email verification problem, you’ll see “You need to verify your account.” under your email address. Otherwise it’ll say Disconnect. If you have two-step verification on, you’ll see it says “You need to update some info for your Microsoft account” with a link called Update info.

Click on that Update info link and it’ll bring you to a screen where you have to enter the code generated from your authenticator app.

After you finish this, open the Windows Store again and it should load just fine. Again, Microsoft is great at returning error messages that have nothing to do with the actual error, which is why you have to waste time searching for a solution online! If you are still having trouble after trying all the methods from this post and my previous post, then post a comment with all the details and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!

The post Troubleshooting Windows 8 (8.1) “We Weren’t Able to Connect to the Store” Error first appeared on Online Tech Tips.

To check if your PC is compatible with Windows 8, you can download and run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. The upgrade assistant will go ahead and scan your hardware, programs, and even any connected devices to make sure they will work with Windows 8.

Windows 8 requires certain CPU features like PAE, NX, SSE2, etc, so it’s a good idea to use this tool if your computer is a bit on the older side.

The tool will also give you a compatibility report for your programs and let you know whether you need to uninstall the program or update the program before upgrading. Once you download it, install it and run it, the program will automatically start scanning your computer for apps and devices.

It will then tell you which apps are compatible and which apps you need to review.

There are some new features in Windows 8 like secure boot, snap, and fast startup. Upgrade assistant will notify you if any of those items are not supported by your system:

If you didn’t already know, Windows 8 does not include built-in software to play DVDs. If you want that feature, you’ll have to buy the Pro pack and get Windows Media Center. Note that if you already have Windows 8 Pro, you can get Windows Media Center Pack for free until January 31st, 2013, so get it fast!

Also, Microsoft Security Essentials is being replaced by Windows Defender in Windows 8. It’s basically the same thing, but for whatever reason they are including Windows Defender built into Windows 8. So if you have Security Essentials installed on Windows 7, you’ll have to remove it before upgrading.

You also get a list of compatible software and hardware that will work with Windows 8:

When you click Next, you’ll be asked what you would like to keep. This will determine which version of Windows 8 will work best for you.

Note that depending on what version of Windows you have, you can only upgrade to certain editions of Windows 8. For example, if you have Windows 7 Ultimate, you can only upgrade to Windows 8 Pro.

If you have Windows 7 Pro, you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise. If you have Windows 7 Enterprise, you can only upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise. Check out the Wikipedia article for more details.

In my case, since I have Windows 7 Ultimate, any option I selected gave me the same result: Windows 8 Pro for $39.99.

That’s about all there is to the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. It’s mostly useful for figuring out which hardware and software will not work on Windows 8. It’s also useful if you have an older PC and you’re not sure if your CPU is going to be supported by Windows 8. Enjoy!

The post Is Your PC Ready for Windows 8? first appeared on Online Tech Tips.

This is because of the way it shuts down. Instead of performing a cold boot in which everything has to be loaded, i.e. the OS kernel, the apps, etc, Windows 8 performs a partial hibernation in which the Kernel session and device drivers are saved to disk.

When you startup Windows 8, it loads up from that hibernation file, which makes boot time much faster.

In previous versions of Windows, the hibernation file was much larger because in addition to the kernel and device drivers, all application data was also stored in the file. Now that the file is smaller, the load times are better.

This featured is called Fast Startup in Windows 8 and it is enabled by default. You can check this by going to Power Options in Control Panel and clicking on Choose what the power button does in the left pane.

Scroll down and you should see a box checked that says Turn on fast startup (recommended). Note that if you do not have the Turn on fast startup checkbox listed at all, it is because hibernation is not enabled.

To enable hibernation in Windows 8, open an elevated command prompt and type in the following line:

powercfg /hibernate on

Now when you go to Power Options, you should see the box is visible and checked. So how to perform a full complete shutdown in Windows 8? There are three ways.

1. You can either disable fast startup from Power Options or

2. You can simply perform a restart instead of a shutdown.

3. You can use the following command at the command prompt:

shutdown /s /full / t 0

As odd as it may seem, restarting Windows 8 will first perform a complete shutdown followed by a cold boot. So those are the different ways you can perform a full shutdown of Windows 8, which comes in handy if you recently installed a new piece of hardware, etc.

Also, just in case you don’t know how to actually shutdown a Windows 8 PC, you need to move your mouse up to the top right or bottom right corner. This will bring up the Charms Bar.

Then click on Settings and then Power. Finally, click on Shut down from the list.

It’s quite a process to shutdown a Windows 8 PC and one of the many reasons Window 8 failed. If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!

The post How to Perform a Complete Shutdown in Windows 8 first appeared on Online Tech Tips.