Lake Jiaming, Taiwan, offer breathtaking views in this free collection from photographer Yang Ming-Huang. Blue skies meeting blue waters, and white, puffy clouds caressing majestic mountains make these wallpapers incredibly calming and peaceful for your mind. Take a short break and enjoy the view of this free theme for Windows. You can find more great themes in my Desktop Fun section and from the Windows Themes at Microsoft. Theme direct download link

Microsoft releases Surface RT Windows 8 recovery image to help users to fix bricked Surface after trying to update to Windows RT 8.1. If you recall the software giant had to pulled the Windows RT 8.1 update, due to some issues affecting a number of users. During the weekend I wrote a guide with a set of instructions to help you get your bricked Surface RT tablet up and running again....

Facebook is simplifying how you manage your privacy in web apps with a new plugin called Shared Activity and it’s being rolled out today. To avoid confusion the Shared Activity plugin isn’t something that users have to install. This is a tool that web apps have to implement; similar to the like button. Once implemented, it’s one-click process for the user, and it allows you to manage your privacy settings, even if you aren’t logged in on Facebook....

Windows is known for its productivity features and offers various keyboard shortcuts to help you do the work faster. Now that Windows 10 is running on millions of PCs around the world with tons of new features and changes, it also means that we have to get ready to memorize several new keyboard shortcuts to get the most out of the new desktop operating system. The chart shows several shortcuts you can use by hitting the Windows key + letters you are probably already familiar with, as well as others unique to Windows 10, such as the shortcuts to access Action Center, desktop peek, and much more....

To avoid problems installing Windows 11 23H2, use “Windows Update” to upgrade, backup your system, free up space to prevent unwanted storage issues, repair the current setup before upgrading, remove update blocks, uninstall non-essential apps temporarily, create an inventory of the settings, disconnect non-essential peripherals, fix upgrade errors, or upgrade manually. UPDATED 10/16/2023: Windows 11 23H2 is the second feature update of the operating system that is expected to start rolling out to compatible devices during the fourth quarter of 2023 ....

If you’re a parent and your kid uses an Android phone, you probably want them to start using Microsoft Edge instead of Google Chrome. The reason is that now the Microsoft’s mobile web browser includes a feature that allows you to control which sites your child can access. The ability to allow and block sites has always been a feature of Microsoft Edge , but it’s been only available for Windows 10 devices....

On the leak version of Windows 10 (build 9901) , you no longer have to force the search box to appear in the taskbar, which is also part of the Cortana integration. The default text reads “Search the Web and Windows” and even though there is nothing wrong with the wording, there is a registry tweak you can make to change the default text in the search box. By any means this tweak makes you more productive, but it’s just about the knowing that you can do it and you can have a more unique desktop....

To create a Windows 10 bootable USB, download and open the “Media Creation Tool,” connect an 8GB flash drive to the computer, select the “Create installation media” option, and continue choosing the “USB flash drive” option. Alternatively, open “Rufus,” use the “Download” option to grab the Windows 10 ISO, choose the USB media settings, and click the “Start” button to create the Windows 10 bootable USB flash drive. You can also use the Ventoy tool to create an installation media quickly....

To delete folders and subfolders on Windows 10, open Command Prompt (admin) and run the “rmdir” command, for example, “rmdir /s C:\files” . You can also open PowerShell (admin) and run the “Remove-Item” command, for example, “Remove-Item -Recurse -Force C:\files” . On Windows 10 , you can delete a folder with subfolders and files using commands to get rid of unnecessary contents and maintain storage organized, but you need to know the correct tool for the job, and in this guide, I will show you how....

UPDATED 5/27/2025: Google has officially integrated AI-generated answers (known as AI Overviews ) into its search results. While there’s no official way to turn this feature off completely, you can apply a simple workaround to minimize or bypass these results in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers on Windows 11 , Windows 10, and other platforms (where supported). As part of its broader rollout of generative AI across products, Google has introduced a new “Web” filter that displays only traditional search results....

To enable Facebook Timeline follow the steps from this article. Many new features has been introduced on Facebook these past weeks, and one that is getting people excited about is Timeline , this is another redesign coming soon to the social network, and this one is looking pretty good so far. The new feature is focus to bring you the things you care about the most (news, post updates, photo posts, the apps you’ve used, and even places you have visited in a world map) in a new organized and meaningful way, that you can scroll down all the way back to your day of birth....

To enable Compact View, open File Explorer , open the “View” menu, and select the “Compact view” option. Alternatively, open File Explorer , open the “See more” menu, and choose Options . In the View tab, check the “Decrease space between items (compact view)” option. On Windows 11 , File Explorer has a new default layout to view content that adds extra padding between the visual elements to make the experience easier to use, especially on touch-enabled devices....

On Windows 11, “optimizations for windowed games” is a feature available since version 22H2 that affects presentation modes for windowed and borderless DirectX 10 and 11 games. “Presentation” defines the process of rendering the game on frames in the most optimal way, allowing you to have a more consistent experience whether you play a game in full-screen or windowed mode. In a nutshell, this gaming feature for Windows 11 upgrades the legacy presentation model in games to a modern one to improve latency and unlock other features, such as “Auto HDR” and “Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)....

To enable dark mode on Outlook for Windows 11, open Outlook > Settings > General > Appearance , and under the “Dark mode” section, select the “Dark” option. The “Use system settings” option changes the color scheme depending on the system color. These instructions apply to Windows 11 and 10, the desktop app, and the online experience. UPDATE 10/30/2024: On Windows 11 (and 10), the new Outlook app includes an option to switch from light to dark color mode, and this guide outlines the steps to complete this task....

Google Chrome has a new “Quieter notification permission prompts” option in the advanced settings page, starting version 80, which has been designed to minimize the number of notification interruptions from websites. The option doesn’t eliminate notification requests completely. Instead, when enabled, you’ll now see a “quieter” prompt on the right side of the address bar letting you know that a notification has been blocked. Of course, you also have the choice to unblock the notification from the same prompt....

To enable Remote Desktop on Windows 11, open Settings > System > Remote Desktop , turn on the “Remote Desktop” toggle switch, and click “Confirm.” You can also configure the feature through the Control Panel or with PowerShell and Command Prompt commands. UPDATED 2/10/2025: On Windows 11 , enabling the Remote Desktop feature is essential for using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to connect to other computers on the local network....

To reset the “windows.db” indexing database, open Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows > Advanced indexing options , click on “Advanced,” click “Rebuild,” click “OK,” click “Modify,” clear “Microsoft Outlook,” click “OK,” and click “Close.” On Windows 11 , the “Windows.db” is the database containing the indexing information for Windows Search to provide faster results for files, emails, and other contents. The database is essential to the operating system, but sometimes, due to the number of files on the computer, it can unexpectedly start taking up a lot of space....

You can install DeepSeek as an app on Windows 11 (and Windows 10), and in this guide, I’ll show you how to complete this task. DeepSeek is a new large language model (LLM) that has been making waves in the AI community, as it’s reportedly outperforming Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT in various tasks while it’s still under development. What sets DeepSeek apart is its efficiency, specialization, unrestricted access, and open-source foundation....

You can now install the Windows 11 “moment 2” update in at least two ways, and in this guide, you will learn how. Although the operating system only receives one feature update every year, it also receives feature drop updates (also known as moments), which are minor updates that can introduce new features and improvements outside the yearly release. According to the company, Windows 11 can get up to four of these updates per year, and the second one is available starting February 28 as a preview, with a full release on March 14, 2023....

Windows 11 LTSC is designed for long-term stability with minimal changes and feature updates arriving every 2–3 years, and security updates throughout support. Available only through volume licensing, with evaluation ISOs offered by Microsoft. It’s best suited for enterprise, embedded, and specialized devices, not general consumers. Clean installation via USB is required, with limited upgrade paths from consumer editions. The process to install Windows 11 LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) is identical to any other version of the operating system....