Sunday 25 October 2015
How To Manually Update Windows Defender Offline In Windows 8/8.1
The Windows Defender program in Windows 8 and above versions of Windows helps you protect your data from viruses, malware and various other threats. As you likely know, the Defender in Windows 8 is nothing but a cut-down version of Microsoft Security Essentials.
With default settings, Windows Defender in Windows 8 downloads and installs required updates once a day and doesn’t require manual intervention. That is, Defender automatically checks for update and downloads updates, if available. But if your PC isn’t connected to the internet or for some other reason you want to manually install updates, you can do so by following the given below instructions.
This guide is based on our previously published how to manually download Microsoft Security Essentials update guide.
Manually download and install Windows Defender updates
Step 1: Check the version (32 or 64-bit) of Windows 8/8.1 installed on your PC. To do so, you can open Computer Properties by right-clicking on the computer icon on the desktop and then clicking Properties.
And if you can’t find Computer icon on the desktop, follow the instructions in our how to add Computer icon to desktop guide.
Step 2: Next, visit the following links to download latest updates for Windows Defender.
Be sure to download the right version of the update as updates released for 32-bit can’t be installed on 64-bit PC and vice versa.
Step 3: Once the update file downloaded, navigate to the download folder containing the update and double-click on the same to install the same. That’s it!
How to scan a folder or drive using Windows Defender, and how to add Scan with Windows Defender option to right-click menu guides might also interest you.
Windows 10 Start Menu For Windows 8.1/7
It’s been a couple of months since Windows 10 Preview build is available to public. As expected, Microsoft has brought back the much wanted Start menu to Windows 10.
As you know, Windows 10 includes a Start menu but it’s not the same Start menu that we have seen in Windows 7.
The Start menu in Windows 10 is a combination of good old Start menu and beautiful Start screen of Windows 8/8.1. Those of you have seen the leaked images would know that the left-side of the Start menu in Windows 10 sports the traditional look of the old Start menu and the right-side includes app tiles that can be customized by adding or removing tiles.
If you’re on Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 7 but can’t wait for the release of Windows 10 to experience the new Start menu, then you will be happy to know that you can get the Windows 10 Start menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 right now. All you need is the free ViStart program and Windows 10 Start menu skin for ViStart program.
PeterRollar at DeviantArt gallery has released a free Windows 10 Start screen skin for ViStart program, making it easier for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users get the look and functionality of Windows 10 Start menu in its predecessors. Check the following video to see the skin in action.
Here is how you can get Windows 10 Start menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1.
Windows 10 Start menu for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1
Step 1: If you haven’t installed already, please visit this page and download ViStart program. It’s a free Start menu program for Windows.
Step 2: Run the downloaded setup and carefully follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation of ViStart without installing adware. Yes, the setup offers you install a couple of junk programs but clicking the decline button when you see the license agreement for the junk program will install ViStart without the junkware.
Step 3: Once ViStart is installed, head over to this page of DeviantArt and download Windows 10 Start menu skin for ViStart.
Step 4: Extract the contents of downloaded RAR file to the Skins folder of ViStart. You can extract the RAR file online as well.
Step 5: Right-click on the Start orb (ViStart orb) and then click Options to open ViStart Control Panel.
Step 6: Here, on the left-pane, click Style. On the right-side, under “Which start menu would you like”, please click on the install button to select the Windows 10 Start menu skin that you have placed in Step 4. That’s it!
Credit for the video and images goes to PeterRoller.
How To Disable The Snap View Feature In Windows 8.1
Aero Snap, Aero Peek and Aero Shake are the three nice features introduced first with Windows 7 operating system. The Snap feature, which is present in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 as well, allows you work on two programs side-by-side by showing two windows side-by-side on the same screen.
The beauty of Snap feature is that you can quickly snap windows with the help of keyboard shortcuts. All you need to do is use the Windows logo key and the left/right arrow key to snap the active window to the left or right side of the screen. Those who prefer using a mouse over keyboard can move a window to the left or right edge of the screen to automatically resize and snap it.
Snap feature comes in handy for those who would like to simultaneously work with multiple applications on the same screen. However, if for some reason, you find the Snap feature not so useful and want to disable the same, you can do so by following the instructions in one of the two methods given below.
Method 1
Turn off the Snap feature using Control Panel
Step 1: Right-click on the desktop and then click Personalise option to open the Personalization window.
Step 2: In the left-pane, click on the link labelled Ease of Access Center to open the same.
Step 3: Once Ease of Access Center window is opened, under Explore all settings, click on the link labelledMake the keyboard easier to use.
Step 4: Here, under Make it easier to manage windows section, check the option labelled Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen. Click Apply button. That’s it!
Method 2
Disable Snap view using Windows Registry
Step 1: Open Registry Editor. To do so, simultaneously press Windows + R keys to see Run command box, type Regedit.exe, and then press Enter key. Click Yes button when you see the UAC prompt.
Step 2: Next, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Control Panel\Desktop
Step 3: On the right-side, look for the option labelled WindowArrangementActive and double-click on the same. Change its value from the default 1 to ”0” (zero) to disable the snap view feature. That’s it!
To turn Snap feature on again, change the value from “0” to “1”.
And if you love the Snap feature, you can add more features to it by reading our Freesnap adds additional features to Snap feature guide.
Free Tools To Open DMG Files On Windows PC
None of the versions of Windows operating system supports DMG format out of the box. As you likely know, DMG file is an OS X disk image file and are supported in Mac OS X operating system. One needs to take the help of third-party tools in order to open a DMG file on a PC running Windows operating system.
Those of you have spent considerable amount of time on Mac OS X would know that it’s mostly used to install apps on Mac. In other words, apps that we download to install on a Mac OS X use .DMG extension and can be mounted easily by double-clicking on the file.
While there are a couple of handy options out there to open or extract a DMG file in Windows, we will share the best three tools to deal with DMG files in Windows environment.
DMG Extractor
DMG Extractor is probably the first and only tool designed exclusively to deal with DMG files in Windows. Since DMG Extractor is developed specially for DMG files, it can open encrypted .DMG files without having to first convert them to other formats.
Raw, Bzip2, Zlib, and Zero block type DMG files are supported by DMG Extractor.
The only catch with the free version of DMG Extractor is that it can’t open DMG file of size more than 4GB but that shouldn’t be problem for most users.
Using DMG Extractor is fairly simple. After installing the software, right-click on the DMG file that you want to open and then click Open option to open the file with DMG Extractor. Alternatively, after launching DMG Extractor, click Open button and then select the DMG file to contents of the selected DMG file.
To extract a DMG file, click the Extract button and then select a location to save the contents.
HFSExplorer
Another free utility that you can install on your Windows machine to extract DMG files is HFS+ Explorer. With HFSExplorer you can open Mac-formatted disks and disk images in Windows.
While HFSExplorer is relatively easy-to-use, we must mention that it’s not as straight-forward as DMG Extractor. You need to install Java SE Runtime Environment 5.0 or above in order to run HFSExplorer and it doesn’t support all type of DMG format, including DMG UDF format.
However, on the plus side, there is no size restriction per file.
Here is how to use HFSExplorer to open DMG files
Step 1: Download and install Java SE Runtime Environment 5.0 or greater version.
Step 2: Visit this page to download HFSExplorer and run the installer to get it installed.
Step 3: Run HFSExplorer, click File menu, and click Load file system from path option to browse to the DMF file.
If you have come across a better solution to open DMG files in Windows, dos share with us in comments.
7-Zip
Most PC users are familiar with 7-Zip utility. If you haven’t used 7-Zip before this, it’s a free tool used to compress and uncompressed files. In addition to 7z, Zip, and RAR formats, 7-Zip also supports DMG format. However, it’s important to note that 7-Zip supports only unpacking of DMG files.
How To Add Safe Mode To Boot Menu In Windows 8.1
Safe Mode is one of the important features of Windows operating system. The feature, which is present in all recent versions of Windows operating system, is often used to troubleshoot booting issues.
In Windows 7 and prior versions of Windows, accessing Safe Mode option was very straight-forward. We just had to press the F8 key after powering the computer. However, the procedure to boot Windows into Safe Mode is bit too complicated in Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Although there are a couple of ways to boot into the Safe Mode in Windows 8 and Windows 10, none of them are straight-forward and require you use additional third-party utilities.
For all those users who often need to access the Safe Mode in Windows 8 and Windows 10, here is a better way to boot Windows into Safe Mode.
The idea is to add Safe Mode option to the boot menu, which means you will see the boot menu with Safe Mode option for a couple of seconds. In fact, once configured correctly, the boot menu will appear every time you restart or perform cold boot.
You can configure Windows to display the boot menu with Safe Mode option for two or three seconds. When you need to boot into the Safe Mode, all you need to do is select the Safe Mode option in the boot selection menu and press Enter key.
If you love the idea of adding Safe Mode option to the boot selection menu of Windows 10 or 8.1, please go ahead and complete the below mentioned instructions.
Safe mode in Windows 10 or 8.1 boot menu
Step 1: Open Command Prompt as administrator. To do so, type CMD in Start menu or Start screen and then simultaneously press Ctrl+Shift+Enter keys.
Note that there are a couple of ways to run Command Prompt as administrator. You can go through our how to open Command Prompt as admin guide for detailed instructions.
Step 2: Type or paste the following command in the Command Prompt window and then hit Enter key to execute the same.
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Safe Mode"
Once the command is executed, close the Command Prompt either by typing Exit or clicking the Close button.
Step 3: Next, open Run command box by simultaneously pressing Windows logo and R keys (Windows+R). In the box, type Msconfig and then press Enter key to open System Configuration utility dialog.
Step 4: Click on the Boot tab. Select Safe Mode from the list, check the box labelled Safe boot (under Boot options), and set the Timeout to 3 seconds. Note that you can enter a value between 0 and 30 as Timeout value. Setting 3 seconds means that boot selection menu with Safe Mode option will appear for 3 seconds before automatically booting into Windows in normal Mode.
So, if you feel that you might not be able to select the Safe Mode option in 3 seconds, you can increase the value to 5 seconds.
Finally, click Apply button. That’s it!
Reboot your PC. Safe Mode option should now appear in the boot selection menu. The boot screen menu will automatically disappear after three seconds to boot into Windows. Note that, when you select Safe Mode option from the boot menu, your PC will reboot once to boot into the Safe Mode and you won’t see additional Safe mode options.
To remove the added Safe Mode from boot menu
Step 1: Open System Configuration utility by typing Msconfig in the Run command box and then pressing Enter key.
Step 2: Switch to the Boot tab, select Safe Mode from the list (be sure to select the Safe Mode option), and then click Delete button (make sure that you selected Safe Mode and not any other option) to remove it.
Note that it’s very important to select Safe Mode option in the list before clicking the Delete button as deleting Windows 8 or Windows 10 entry will make your PC unbootable. So be very sure to select Safe Mode option before clicking the Delete button.
Troubleshooter To Get “Get Windows 10” App In System Tray
Ever since Microsoft started sending desktop notifications to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs to allow usersregister for the free Windows 10 upgrade, a number of users have been complaining about that the desktop notification or the Get Windows 10 icon is not appearing in the system tray of the taskbar despite having a genuine copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
There could be a couple of reasons why the Get Windows 10 app is not appearing on your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. It could be because you are running a non-genuine copy of Windows. It could also be because you have completely disabled Windows Update. Or it could be because you have a Volume License copy (used in businesses).
But if you are sure you are running a legitimate, non-volume copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and haven’t turned off Windows 10 Update as well, you can now a newly released troubleshooter to fix the issue.
Yes, now that Windows 10 has been launched, Microsoft has decided to help users who can’t see the Get Windows 10 icon on despite having legitimate Windows.
The Get Windows 10 App troubleshooter will scan your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 installation and help you get the Get Windows 10 app in the system tray.
Get Windows 10 App troubleshooter from Microsoft
Here is how use the Get Windows 10 App troubleshooter to get the Get Windows 10 App in your system tray.
Step 1: Click here to download the Get Windows 10 App troubleshooter.
Step 2: After downloading the troubleshooter, double-click on the same to launch it.
Step 3: Click Next button to let the troubleshooter scan your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 installation and detect the issue.
Step 4: Once the troubleshooting is completed, it will show the possible reasons why you can’t see Get Windows 10 app in the system tray.
Alternatively, if you’re sure that you’re running a genuine copy of Windows 10 and don’t want to go through this troubleshooting, you can use the official Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to upgrade your Windows 7/8.1 installation to Windows 10 right away.
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