To disable an account on Windows 11, open Command Prompt (Admin) and run the “net user “ACCOUNT” /active:no” command. Alternatively, in PowerShell (admin), run the “Disable-LocalUser -Name ACCOUNT” command. You can also disable local accounts on Windows 11 from Computer Management and the Settings app. On Windows 11 , if you want to temporarily prevent a specific user from signing into the computer, you don’t have to delete the account ....

On Windows 10, Wi-Fi Sense is a feature to connect automatically to wireless hotspots, but you can disable it if you don’t want to connect to random networks. You probably noticed that when you reboot your Wi-Fi router, or you’re far away from your house, your laptop quickly connects to a random open wireless network. Your Windows 10 computer may even try to connect to those secure Wi-Fi networks provided by ISPs like Comcast, Optimus, Verizon, AT&T, and others....

To edit the “Hosts” files on Windows, open PowerToys > Host editor , and click “Launch Hosts File Editor,” “Accept,” and “New entry.” Then, create the entry with IP address, hostname, and comment, turn on the “Active” option, and click “Add.” To edit the “Hosts” file from Notepad (admin), open File > Open , and browse to the “C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc” location and open the “hosts” file. Add a new IP address and domain mapping – for example, 127....

You can now set the Copilot Search experience as the “New Tab” page in Microsoft Edge , and in this guide, I will walk you through the steps to complete the configuration. Starting with version 137 of the web browser in the Canary Channel , Microsoft appears to be testing the ability to set Copilot as the experience when opening a new tab. Currently, you need to enable the feature by manually changing several settings on the experimental (flag) page....

On Windows 10, Hyper-V is a virtualization technology that installs the necessary elements and interface to create virtual machines to run other instances of Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, or another operating system, including Linux distributions isolated from the main installation on your device. The only caveat is that to use virtual machines on your computer, you must enable Hyper-V manually, but it’s something that can be easily done through the Settings app or PowerShell....

On Windows 11 build 25211 and higher releases, you can now enable a preview of the new settings page for the “Widgets” feature on your computer. In future update releases, plans to separate the widgets pickers from the settings page, which now adds new options to control the Widgets experience. For instance, you will now be able to disable opening the Widgets board when hovering the weather icon in the Taskbar....

To enroll your Windows 10 device in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, open Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update , then select “Enroll now” under the support deadline notification. You can sign up by backing up to OneDrive, redeeming Microsoft Rewards points, or purchasing for $30. European users only need a Microsoft account to sign up. No backup or points are necessary. Enrollment ensures one additional year of critical security updates after October 14, 2025....

While trying to upgrade to a new version of Windows 10, including the Fall Creators Update , Creators Update , or another feature or quality update, you may see the error 0x80200056. 0x80200056 is a common upgrade error on Windows 10 , and most of the time, it simply means that the update process was interrupted because your device was accidentally rebooted, or you signed out while the upgrade was in process....

To fix Microsoft Store issues on Windows 11, open Settings > Apps > Installed apps , open app settings, and use the “Repair” or “Reset” options. You can also fix the Store app using the “WSReset.exe” command. Alternatively, you can open PowerShell to uninstall and reinstall the Microsoft Store app on Windows 11. UPDATED 7/11/2025: The Microsoft Store app on Windows 11 provides a user-friendly and secure environment to download and install apps, games, and movies....

Starting with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update , Microsoft Edge introduces a number of new features, improvements, and adds some design visual changes using Microsoft’s Fluent Design System. If you’ve been a Chrome user for a long time, and now, you want to switch, or at least you want to give Microsoft’s web browser a chance, Edge includes an option that makes it super easy to import Chrome bookmarks, browsing history, cookies, passwords, and other settings....

To install the Microsoft 365 (Office) apps on Windows 11 (or 10), open the “Microsoft 365 Family” or “Personal” page in the Microsoft Store and click the “Install” button. You can also download the installer from the “Services & subscriptions” page in your Microsoft account. Alternatively, you can open Command Prompt (admin) and run the winget install –id Microsoft.Office command to install the Microsoft 365 apps. UPDATED 8/15/2024: On Windows 11 (and 10), if you have a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription , you can install the suite of apps that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and Teams in multiple ways, and in this guide, I will outline the steps to complete the installation....

Windows 8 Release Preview has been already made available for download , this new build comes seven months after the Developer Preview and five months after the Consumer preview, since then there has been many changes and tweaks that it seems that all the hard work from the Windows team paid-off. Windows 8 RP feels solid, loads faster, and it started to feel more like a finished product. Finally — yes there is one more option — you can create a Windows To Go drive, which essentially allows you to install a full version of Windows 8 into a USB drive, which you can just simply boot from, without affecting or modifying anything in your computer....

On Windows 11 (and 10), you can use PowerToys Run to launch virtually anything, from apps to settings to folders and files. However, you must use a specific keyboard shortcut whenever you want to bring up the tool. But, it’s possible to remap the shortcut to one of the left or right Windows keys on your keyboard to open Run instead of the Start menu, and in this guide, I will show you how I did this....

On Windows 11 , you can now set ChatGPT Search as your new default search engine on the most popular browsers, including Microsoft Edge , Google Chrome, and other Chromium-based apps like ARC and Brave. In this guide, I will outline steps to complete this configuration. If you have had enough of the low-quality search results from Google, and if Bing isn’t an option for you, it’s now possible to change the default search engine on your browser to ChatGPT Search....

To run a Windows 10 or 11 VirtualBox VM in full-screen mode, open the “View” menu and choose “Full-screen Mode” or select “Auto-resize Guest Display.” You can also use the “Right Ctrl (Host) key + F” keyboard shortcut. A virtual machine always starts with a default window size on VirtualBox, which is small and not ideal for navigating an operating system. Usually, in the case of Windows 10 (or Windows 11), you would go to the “Display” settings to change the resolution to make the screen bigger or full screen, but you will quickly find out that the “Display resolution” option does not include many settings....

Windows 10 is known to collect various types of data about your behavior using the operating system, such as the websites you visit, location, speech, apps, and device usage and health. Although you’ve been able to control some of the data Microsoft collects about your device, there has been also concerns among users about a built-in “keylogger” as Windows 10 also collects typing data to improve next word prediction, spelling collection, and autocorrection....

Although updates are very important to patch security holes, add improvements and features to Windows 10 (and in any operating system), installing a significant update as soon as it releases could bring more issues than fixes. On Windows 10 , the way the operating system receives updates has changed drastically. Long gone are those days where you have to manually install or control how updates are applied to your device....

To recover Windows 11 (or 10) from Registry problems, start the computer in Command Prompt using the Windows Recovery Environment, create a copy of the “config” folder, and restore the SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, SAM, SECURITY, and DEFAULT Registry files, and restart the device. On Windows 11 (or 10), it is never a good idea to modify the Registry because the database contains low-level settings necessary for the system and certain apps to operate correctly, and the slightest mistake can prevent the device from starting....

To change the DPI scaling on Windows 11, open Settings > System > Display and choose your preferred scale size, or click the “Scale” setting and confirm a custom scaling size. Alternatively, you can open the Registry and modify the “LogPixels” and “Win8DpiScaling” keys to specify the desired scaling size for Windows 11. The scale feature on Windows 11 allows you to change the size of text, apps, and other visual elements on the screen, and in this guide, I will outline the steps to configure this feature so that elements don’t look too small or too big....

As you might have already heard Microsoft has finally added IMAP support to Outlook.com for those software and outdated devices that yet don’t support Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol to sync email clients to Outlook servers. So now, if you are a Thunderbird user and you want to set up an Outlook.com account using IMAP settings, here are the steps you need to follow in Windows 8 (but it should also work with previous versions of the operating system):...