As a system administrator, you may find it’s difficult to keep track of BitLocker recovery keys for all computers in company network, especially when number of machines is more than 100. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to set the group policy to automatically backup BitLocker recovery information to Active Directory, so you can centrally manage the recovery keys/passwords in one place.

How to Configure GPO to Automatically Save BitLocker Recovery Key to AD

1. Click the Search icon in the taskbar and type “group policy“. You can then click Group Policy Management to launch it.

2. Now in the left pane of Group Policy Management, right-click your AD domain and select “Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here…” from the menu.

3. In the New GPO dialog, give the GPO a name and click OK.

4. Right-click the newly-created GPO in the left pane, and select Edit.

5. Browse to Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> BitLocker Drive Encryption, and then double-click the policy “Store BitLocker recovery information in Active Directory Domain Services“.

6. Set the policy to Enabled. Make sure the “Require BitLocker backup to AD DS” option is checked, and select to store both recovery passwords and key packages.

7. Next, expand BitLocker Drive Encryption in the left pane. You’ll see three nodes: Fixed Data Drives, Operating System Drives, Removable Data Drives. Just select Fixed Data Drives and double-click the policy “Choose how BitLocker-protected fixed drives can be recovered“.

8. Set it to Enabled. Check the options “Save BitLocker recovery information to AD DS for fixed drives” and then click OK.

9. Go to the “Operating System Drives” node and turn on the similar policy “Choose how BitLocker-protected operating system drives can be recovered“. Afterwards, go to the “Removable Data Drives” node and enable the policy “Choose how BitLocker-protected removable drives can be recovered“.
10. When any client PC retrieves the policy changes, BitLocker recovery information will be automatically and silently backed up to AD DS when BitLocker is turned on for fixed drives, OS drives or removable drives.

Manually Backup BitLocker Password to AD with PowerShell

If you have enabled BitLocker prior to configuring the above GPO policy, you can use PowerShell cmdlets to manually upload the BitLocker recovery key to Active Directory. Follow these steps:

1. When your BitLocker-protected drive is unlocked, open PowerShell as administrator and type this command:
   manage-bde -protectors -get D:

   What you need to take note of is the Numerical Password ID.

2. Next, type the following command to backup your BitLocker recovery password to Active Directory. Remember you have to use the Numerical Password ID obtained on the previous step.
   manage-bde -protectors -adbackup D: -id {CAF6FEF0-7C98-4D6A-B80F-7BE63C033047}

3. When that completes, you will receive the message “Recovery information was successfully backed up to Active Directory.“

BitLocker is prompting for a recovery key and you lost it? Applying the GPO to store BitLocker recovery password in Active Directory is a good practice for companies when data security is a concern. In this tutorial we’ll show you different ways to find BitLocker recovery key/password from Active Directory or Azure AD.

Method 1: Find BitLocker Recovery Key in AD Using PowerShell

1. Press the Windows key + X and then select “Windows PowerShell (Admin)” from the Power User Menu.

2. Copy and paste the following script into the PowerShell console and hit Enter. Substitute “PCUnlocker” with the name of the computer you want to locate BitLocker recovery key for.

   $objComputer = Get-ADComputer PCUnlocker
$Bitlocker_Object = Get-ADObject -Filter {objectclass -eq 'msFVE-RecoveryInformation'} -SearchBase $objComputer.DistinguishedName -Properties 'msFVE-RecoveryPassword'
$Bitlocker_Object

3. It will retrieve all details from the ‘msFVE-RecoveryInformation‘ objects attached to your target computer. The msFVE-RecoveryPassword item is the BitLocker recovery key you’re looking for.

Method 2: Using BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer Utility

If you’ve enabled the BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer feature in Active Directory, it’s pretty simple to retrieve BitLocker recovery key for any computer in AD. Follow these steps:

1. After opening the Active Directory Users and Computers snap in, expand your domain and click the Computers container. Right-click on your target computer object and select Properties.

2. Go to the Bitlocker Recovery tab, you can view all BitLocker recovery keys that were automatically backed up to AD.

If you know the first 8 digits of the Password ID, here’s how to search your BitLocker recovery keys:

1. Right-click on your domain in the left pane of Active Directory Users and Computers snap in, and then select Find BitLocker recovery password.

2. Enter the first 8 characters of Password ID and click on Search.

3. It will locate the matching BitLocker recovery keys that are stored in your Active Directory.

Method 3: Locate BitLocker Recovery Key in Azure AD

Once the BitLocker recovery key is backed up to Azure AD, users can find their own keys in the Profile section after signing into https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/profile/. Administrators can log in to https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/n/#/devices, select the appropriate device, and click View Details to get the BitLocker recovery key.

Print jobs are stuck in queue and you need to clear the print spooler? How can I prevent further documents from being printed? In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 simple ways to cancel a stuck or accidental print job from the queue, saving you lots of time and paper.

Method 1: Cancel Print Jobs Using Control Panel

Open the “Devices and Printers” applet in the Control Panel. Right-click on the printer that is being used and select “See what’s printing” from the context menu.

This shows a list of print jobs that are in the queue. In order to cancel printing a document, just right-click it and select Cancel.

Method 2: Cancel Print Jobs Using the Settings App

Open the Settings app and click on Devices.

Go to the Printers & scanners tab. On the right side pane, select your printer and then click on the “Open queue” button appeared beneath the printer name.

Now, you can right-click on any print job and then click Cancel to clear it from the print queue.

Method 3: Cancel Print Jobs Using Command Prompt

Open the Command Prompt as Administrator. Run the following commands to delete all .shd and .spl files from C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and restart the Print Spooler service.

net stop spooler
del /F /S /Q %systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*
net start spooler

The print queue on your Windows 10 PC should now be cleared. Of course, you can create a batch file to execute the above commands, so you can cancel all your print jobs with just a single mouse click!

Pagefile is a hidden system file used by Windows to swap data back and forth between RAM and physical drive. When your RAM is insufficient to hold every running program, some of the program’s memory (including sensitive data and passwords) will be moved to the pagefile.

Pagefile is well protected while Windows is running, but the data within it persists after a shutdown. A malicious user who has physical access to your PC can extract sensitive data from the pagefile by booting a Live CD. To prevent such potential security risk, you can configure Windows to automatically clear the paging file on every shutdown.

Method 1: Make Windows Clear Pagefile at Shutdown Using GPO

1. Press the Windows logo key and the R key simultaneously. Once the Run dialog box is opened, type secpol.msc into it and click OK.

2. Navigate to Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options. On the right pane, double-click on the “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile” policy.

3. Select the Enabled radio option, and then click on Apply and then OK.

4. Restart your computer to make sure the changes take effect.

Method 2: Make Windows Clear Pagefile at Shutdown Using Registry Editor

1. Open the Registry Editor and browse to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

   Next, double-click on a 32-bit DWORD value named ClearPageFileAtShutdown in the right pane.

2. Change the current default value from 0 to 1. Click OK to save the changes.

3. Restart Windows to apply your changes. Whenever you shut down your PC, Windows will automatically clear the pagefile for added security.

Need to write a PowerShell script for changing a local account’s password? We’ve covered various ways of resetting Windows password in the past, but this tutorial will teach you how to change the password of either local account or domain account using Windows PowerShell.

How to Change Local / Domain Admin Password Using PowerShell

1. Open Windows PowerShell as Administrator.

2. First, you have to convert your new password to encrypted string by running the following command. Be sure to replace P@ssw0rd with the new password you want to set for your account.

   $NewPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString "P@ssw0rd" -AsPlainText -Force

3. Next, type the following command to change your local account password. Substitute Tom in the command below with the actual user name of the local account that you want to change the password of.
   Set-LocalUser -Name Tom -Password $NewPassword

   If you need to change domain user password, run the following command instead:
   Set-ADAccountPassword Tom -NewPassword $NewPassword –Reset

4. After completing the above steps, reboot your computer and you can log in to your local / domain account with the new password.

Do you really need to safely eject a USB drive before pulling it out of your computer? Windows has two different policies you can select for each individual USB drive:

• Quick removal – This will disable write caching on the USB device, and your data will be written to physical drive in real-time. So you will be able to disconnect your USB drive even without using the “Safely Remove Hardware” option.
• Better performance – This will cache the write operations to optimize performance and your data will be written to physical drive at a later time. Before unplugging your USB drive, you have to click the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon appears in the system tray to tell Windows to write all the cached data to disk.

If you don’t bother with safely removing USB devices before unplugging them, follow this tutorial to enable Quick Removal policy for USB drives in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

How to Change Removal Policy for USB Drives in Windows

1. To get started, you need to open the Disk Management tool. If you’re running Windows 10, just hit the Windows key + X together and you can then select “Disk Management” from the menu.

2. Find your USB drive in the lower section of the Disk Management window, right-click its name and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

3. Switch to the Policies tab and you can change the removal policy to Quick removal. Click OK to save your change. Note that This change only applies to this specific USB device.

4. That’s it! Whenever the activity light on your USB drive is no longer blinking, you can directly remove the device without bothering to click the Safely Remove Hardware notification icon.

Updates: In earlier versions of Windows the default removal policy applied to USB drives was Better Performance. With the release of Windows 10 version 1809, Microsoft has changed its default policy to Quick Removal.

How can I find out when a user account was created in Active Directory? Is there a way to list all AD users created in the last 30 days? It’s vitally important to monitor user account creations in order to reduce the risk of security breaches. In this tutorial we’ll show you different ways to find when a specific AD user was created, and list all recently created accounts in Active Directory.

Part 1: Find the Creation Date of Specific AD User

1. In Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, click on the View menu and select Advanced Features.

2. Expand the domain and choose Users in the left-hand pane, you’ll see a list of AD users. Right-click on the account for which you want to find out the creation date, and select Properties.

3. Go to the Object tab and you can view the date and time when the account has been created.

Additionally, you can also find out the user account creation date using PowerShell. Just type the following command and hit Enter.
Get-ADUser your_username -Properties whenCreated

Part 2: List All Recently Created Accounts in Active Directory

When you need to find a list of users created in Active Directory in the last 30 days, just open PowerShell with elevated privileges and execute the below commands:

$DateCutOff = (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)
Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties whenCreated | where {$_.whenCreated -gt $DateCufOff} | FT Name, whenCreated

The first command uses the AddDays method to minus 30 days from the current date, while the second command pulls only accounts created after a certain date stored in $DateCutOff.

How can I increase the screen buffer size of Command Prompt? The screen buffer size of Command Prompt is expressed in terms of a coordinate grid based on character cells:

• The width is the number of characters that are displayed on a line in the Command Prompt window. The larger the width size, the more characters will show in the same row before wrapping.
• The height is the number of lines that are stored in the memory.

In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 simple ways to permanently or temporarily change screen buffer size of Command Prompt in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Note: Screen buffer size set using Method 2 and Method 3 will only be temporary and as soon as you close the Command Prompt the changes will be lost.

Method 1: Permanently Change Screen Buffer Size of CMD in Properties

1. Right-click on the title bar of the Command Prompt window, and then select Properties from the context menu.

2. Go to the Layout tab. Under the “Screen Buffer Size” section you can set the desired width and height. If the screen buffer size is greater than the Window Size, then scroll bars will be displayed as required.

3. Click OK to apply.

Method 2: Temporarily Change Screen Buffer Size of CMD Using Mode Command

1. When the Command Prompt window is open, you can temporarily change the screen buffer size by typing this command:
   mode con:cols=Width_Size lines=Height_Size

   Substitute “Width_Size” with the value you want for the screen buffer width size and “Height_Size” with the value you want for the screen buffer height size.

2. As soon as you hit Enter, the current Command Prompt window will resize to apply your new screen buffer size.

Method 3: Temporarily Change Screen Buffer Size of CMD Using Batch / Script

If you need to change screen buffer size from a Windows batch script, just add the following lines:

@echo off
cmd.exe /k "mode con:cols=100 lines=3000"

This will change screen buffer width to 100, and set the height size to 3000. You can make any adjustment you like for the width and height value.

UAC requires password even for admin? How can I make UAC not ask for password every time I try to run program as administrator? In order to bypass the UAC password, you have to log in to Windows with an administrator account so you have sufficient privileges to change UAC prompt behavior.

Method 1: Make UAC not ask for admin password using group policy

1. Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and then press the R key. In the Run box, type in secpol.msc and hit Enter.

2. When the Local Security Policy window opens, navigate to Security Settings –> Local Policies –> Security Options. On the right panel, double-click on the option “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode“.

3. Click the drop-down box and select “Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries” and click OK.

   Of course, you can select “Elevate without prompting” to totally bypass UAC prompt for admin accounts, but you won’t get notifications whenever a program is silently installed or run with elevated permissions.

Method 2: Make UAC not ask for admin password using Registry Editor

1. Open the Registry Editor and browse to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

   On the right side, double-click on ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin and change the value to 5.

   • 0 = Elevate without prompting
   • 1 = Prompt for credentials on the secure desktop
   • 2 = Prompt for consent on the secure desktop
   • 3 = Prompt for credentials
   • 4 = Prompt for consent
   • 5 = Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries (default)
2. Close Registry Editor. Restart your computer and log back into your admin account. Whenever you tries to run program as administrator, the UAC prompt will appear but it doesn’t ask you to enter password any longer. You can simply click Yes to allow the app/program to run with admin rights.

Note that it’s impossible to bypass UAC prompt if you’re logged into Windows with a standard account. When UAC admin password is lost, you can either promote your standard account into an administrator, or reset your forgotten password with PCUnlocker Live CD/USB.

Having Windows remember your WiFi password is a great convenience, but this will also make your wireless password exposed to anyone who has physical access to your computer. Just open the Properties of a WiFi adapter and we can check the “Show characters” option to view the saved wireless network security key/password.

This might inadvertently leak your WiFi password. In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple way to hide wireless password from the WiFi adapter’s properties window in Windows 10.

How to Hide Wireless Network Password in Windows 10

1. Open the Registry Editor. Copy and paste the below line into the address bar and then hit Enter.
   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{86F80216-5DD6-4F43-953B-35EF40A35AEE}

2. Right-click on the subkey named {86F80216-5DD6-4F43-953B-35EF40A35AEE} in the left-side pane and then select Permissions from the context menu.

3. Click on Advanced button.

4. By default TrustedInstaller is showing up as the owner, and we need to click the Change link.

5. Type the name of your Administrators group and then click the “Check Names” button to validate the account name. When that’s done, click OK.

6. Now, back to the Advanced Security Settings window. Just keep the permission entry for the “System” account and remove all other entries from the list. When done, click OK.

7. From now on, you should no longer be able to view your wireless password from the WiFi network adapter’s Properties window.

However, this won’t prevent users from recovering your wireless password using third-party password cracking software or other methods described in this article: 3 Ways to Find Saved Wi-Fi Passwords on Windows 10

Whenever you need to get the the “Show characters” option back to work again, just grant your account access to the registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{86F80216-5DD6-4F43-953B-35EF40A35AEE}. Follow these steps:

1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{86F80216-5DD6-4F43-953B-35EF40A35AEE}. Right-click on the {86F80216-5DD6-4F43-953B-35EF40A35AEE} subkey and select Permissions.
2. Click on Add button.

3. Type Administrators in the “Enter the object names to select” text box, and click on Check Names button. If there is no error found, click OK.

4. Back at the Permissions window, select the Administrators group and then click the Allow check box next to the “Full Control” permission.

5. Click OK and close Registry Editor.

How can I backup local security policy or transfer all policy settings from one system to another? In this tutorial we’ll show 2 simple ways to export and import local security policy in Windows 10 / 8 / 7.

Method 1: Export and Import Local Security Policy with GUI

The Local Security Policy Editor comes with the import / export feature, making it much easier to migrate or replicate the same local security policy settings across multiple computers.

Export:

1. Press the Windows key + R together. When the Run dialog box shows up, type secpol.msc into it and hit Enter to open the Local Security Policy Editor.

2. Right-click on Security Settings in the left-side pane, and you can then select “Export policy” from the context menu.

3. Browse to the location where you want to save the security settings file (.INF), give it a name and click on Save.

4. Open the .inf file with your text editor. As you can see, it contains all your local security policy, including your account lockout and password policy.

Import:

1. Open the Local Security Policy Editor as before, right-click on Security Settings in the left pane and this time choose “Import policy“.

2. Browse to the location where you saved the security settings file, select the INF file and click on Open.

3. Reboot your computer to apply the new local security policy.

Method 2: Export and Import Local Security Policy with Command Prompt

To export the local security policy settings to a file (for example, security-policy.inf), open the Command Prompt as administrator and type the following:
secedit.exe /export /cfg D:\security-policy.inf

When you need to import the local security policy settings from the .INF file, simply run this command:
secedit.exe /configure /db %windir%\security\local.sdb /cfg D:\security-policy.inf

This method is very useful especially when you’re using the Home edition of Windows which has no Local Security Policy Editor.

Lost your Office 2016 product key? How can I backup or transfer Office activation to another computer? If you need to reinstall Windows or Office but you’ve lost 25-character product key, here are all possible ways to find Office 2016 / 2019 product key, or backup your Office activation so you can restore it later.

Method 1: Find Office 2016 / 2019 Product Key from Microsoft Account

If you bought Office online (e.g. Microsoft Store) without physical disc, your product key is stored in your Microsoft online account or arrived in your email receipt. Just sign in to Services & subscriptions with your Microsoft account, locate the Office one-time purchase and then click on the “View product key” link.

The Office product key associated with your Microsoft account will appear there. You can write down the product key and keep it somewhere safe.

Method 2: Find Office 2016 / 2019 Product Key from Windows Registry

If Microsoft Office 2016 or 2019 came preinstalled on your computer or your product key sticker is totally unreadable, then try to decrypt and extract the product key from Windows registry using the third-party software like KeyFinder Plus.

After launching the KeyFinder Plus program, click on Start Recovery and then choose “From current system” from the drop-down menu. It will scan the registry for available activation keys for Windows, Office and other softwares installed on your computer.

Method 3: Backup and Restore Office 2016 / 2019 Activation

If you still couldn’t recover your Office product key, the last resort is to backup Office activation before reinstalling Windows or Office, so you can reactivate it later. To do this, open File Explorer and browse to the location: C:\Windows\System32\spp. Make a backup copy of all its folders / files and save them to an external USB drive for safe keeping.

After installing a fresh copy of the same edition of Office, you can activate it by restoring the backup files to its original location: C:\Windows\System32\spp. When pasting the files, you may get an error messages informing me that “The action can’t be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program“. To get around this problem, just close the Office application and run the following command to stop the sppsvc service:
net stop sppsvc

When the files are restored, re-launch your Office application and you’ll find the product is already activated. You can also use this method to transfer Office activation over to another computer. But remember to deactivate Office on your old PC before restoring the activation to your new PC.

As files are created or deleted over time, your disk will become fragmented, causing your system not to run as efficiently as it used to. To improve the performance of your PC, you have to defrag hard drive on a regular basis. Here are some free ways to optimize and defrag drives in Windows 10.

Method 1: Using the Built-in Optimization Drive tool

In File Explorer, right-click on the drive you want to defrag and select Properties from the context menu. When the Properties window appears, select the Tools tab and then click on Optimize.

A new window will appear with details about your hard disk drives. You can click on the Analyze button to tell you how fragmented the drives are, and then click on the Optimize button to begin the defragmentation.

Method 2: Optimize and Defrag Drives with Command Prompt

Open the Command Prompt as administrator, and then run the following command to optimize and defrag a specific drive in Windows 10:
defrag D: /O

Remember to replace D: with the actual drive you want to defrag. If you need to perform a boot-time defragmentation, try boot into Advanced Boot Options and access Command Prompt. From there you can run the above command to defrag your drives.

Method 3: Optimize and Defrag Drives with PowerShell

Open Windows PowerShell as administrator, and type the following command to analyze your drive. Look at the bottom of the output, it will advise whether or not you need to defrag the drive.
Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter D -Analyze -Verbose

If you decide to defrag a drive, execute this command:
Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter D -Defrag -Verbose

For Solid State Drive, defragging can cause performance issues and even reduce the life of the drive. You should use the trim command to erase unused blocks which are no longer in use:
Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter D -ReTrim -Verbose

Conclusion

There are also many free defragging tools (such as Auslogics Disk Defrag Free, Defraggler) that can make disk defragmentation easier and faster, but I think the built-in defrag tool in Windows 10 should be enough.

Your Office license has expired and need to replace it with a new product key? Need to change Office product key because it’s already activated by the maximum number of times? In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 easy ways to change Office 2019 / 2016 product key without re-installing.

Method 1: Change Office 2019 / 2016 Product Key from Office Application

1. Open your Word or Excel application included in your Office 2019 / 2016 suite. Click on the File tab at the top-left.

2. Select the Account tab. On the right side, click on the Change License button under the Office logo. If you’re using Office 2016, click on the Change Product Key link instead.

3. You’ll be prompted to sign in to your Microsoft account which is linked with your new Office product key, or enter the product key instead.

Method 2: Change Office 2019 / 2016 Product Key with Command Prompt

1. Open the Command Prompt as administrator. Navigate to Office installation folder by running this command:
   cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16

   If Office 2019 / 2016 32-bit is installed on 64-bit Windows, type this command instead:
   cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16

2. Now, you can change your Office product key by running the command below:
   cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:new_product_key

3. Finally, type the following command to immediately activate your copy of Office 2019 / 2016 installation:
   cscript ospp.vbs /act

The methods given above are the options to directly change the product key in your Office 2016 / 2019 application. Of course, you can also choose to remove & deactivate your current Office license first and then enter your new product key the next time you launch Office application.

In Windows 10 / 8, Microsoft has implemented Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) protection which can check the integrity of system files and prevent malicious drivers or programs from starting very early in the boot process. The well documented sticky keys exploit lets you escalate privilege from Windows login screen, but it is no longer working because of ELAM.

However, if a driver is classified as malware by ELAM because it is malicious or a false positive, it may prevent your system from booting. To solve this issue, you may need to temporarily turn off ELAM so that you can either update your antivirus software or remove the problematic malware driver. In this tutorial we’ll show you a simple way to temporarily disable Early Launch Anti-Malware protection in Windows 10 / 8.

How to Disable Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection in Windows 10 / 8

1. When you are on Windows login screen, click the Power button, hold down Shift key and choose the Restart option to access the Advanced Boot Options screen.

   If you don’t even get to the Windows login screen, just boot your PC with Windows installation media and click on “Repair your computer“.

2. Next, click on the Troubleshoot option.

3. Click on Advanced options.

4. If you couldn’t see the Startup Settings option, click on See more recovery options.

5. Click on Startup Settings.

6. Click on the Restart button.

7. Your computer should automatically reboot into the Startup Settings menu as shown below. Now, you can press the 8 or F8 key on your keyboard to disable early-launch anti-malware protection.

8. This will launch Windows, but with the early launch anti-malware protection disabled temporarily. Note that the next time you restart the computer, early-launch anti-malware protection will automatically be enabled again.

How do I remove Window Hello from the Lock Screen? Windows Hello is a new feature based on biometric technology that lets you log in to Windows 10 with fingerprint or facial recognition. If you want to disable Windows Hello for saving battery life, here are several ways to disable Windows 10 Face Recognition or Fingerprint login.

Method 1: Remove Windows 10 Face Recognition or Fingerprint Login

1. Press the Windows logo + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app, and head to Accounts -> Sign-in options. In the right-side pane, look for the Windows Hello section and click the Remove button under Face Recognition or Fingerprint.

2. After completing the steps, you can once again sign in to Windows 10 using a password.

Method 2: Disable Windows Hello Biometrics Using Group Policy

1. Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Biometrics. Double-click the “Allow the use of biometrics” policy on the right pane.

2. Select the Disabled option. Click Apply and then OK.

3. Now, the Windows Hello feature is removed from the lock screen. If you open up the Settings app and head to the Sign-in options page, you should see a “Face and fingerprint recognition are not available on this device” message appear under Windows Hello.

Method 3: Disable Windows Hello Biometrics Using Registry Editor

1. Open Registry Editor and browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Biometrics. If the Biometrics key doesn’t exist, you have to create it.
2. Right-click on the Biometrics key and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it Enabled and leave its value data to 0. (0: disallow the use of biometrics; 1: Allow the use of biometrics)

3. Close Registry Editor and reboot your PC to apply the changes.

How can I reduce the size of my PowerPoint presentation and make it easier to upload or share? Embedded pictures are the common cause for large PowerPoint files. In this tutorial we’ll show you an easy way to compress the embedded images and reduce the PowerPoint file size in Office 2019 / 2016.

How to Reduce PowerPoint File Size in Office 2019 / 2016

1. Open the PowerPoint file you want to compress with Office 2019 / 2016 application. Click the File tab in the upper-left corner.

2. In the new window, select the Save As tab on the left side and then click on the Browse icon.

3. You’ll then need to choose where to save the compressed PowerPoint file and give it a new file name.

4. Click the Tools drop-down list in the lower right of the Save As dialog, and select Compress Pictures.

5. Uncheck the “Apply only to this picture” option so you can reduce the size of all the images in your PowerPoint presentation. Leave the “Delete cropped areas of pictures” option checked, and select E-mail (96 ppi): minimize document size for sharing. Click OK.

6. When you come back to the Save As dialog, click on Save. You’ll get a smaller PowerPoint file with all the embedded images compressed. It’s as simple as that to reduce PowerPoint file size in Office 2019 / 2016.

Keyboard is locked and you can’t type anything? If you’ve locked the keyboard unintentionally and couldn’t recall how you did it, just follow this troubleshooting tutorial and you should be able to unlock the keyboard on your Windows 10 / 8 / 7 computer.

Before getting started, you have to find if certain keys or the entire keyboard has broken physically. For external USB / PS2 keyboard, you can connect it to a different computer. If the issue still exists, it is possible that your keyboard is physically damaged. Otherwise, it should be a software issue and you can fix it with the steps below.

Step 1: Turn Off Filter Keys

If your entire keyboard is locked, it’s possible that you’ve turned on the Filter Keys feature accidentally. When you hold down the right SHIFT key for 8 seconds, you should hear a tone and the “Filter Keys” icon appears in the system tray. Just then, you’ll find that the keyboard is locked and you can’t type anything.

To unlock the keyboard, you have to hold down the right SHIFT key for 8 seconds again to turn off Filter Keys, or disable Filter Keys from the Control Panel.

Step 2: Turn Off NumLock

If your keyboard doesn’t type the correct characters, it’s possible that you’ve turned on NumLock or you’re using a incorrect keyboard layout. To fix such issue, you have to disable NumLock or change your keyboard layout by following these tutorials:

• 3 Methods to Disable NumLock on a Laptop Keyboard
• How to Change Input Language Using Keyboard Shortcut in Windows 10

Step 3: Reinstall or Update Keyboard Driver

The keyboard may become locked due to a faulty or outdated driver. To get your keyboard back to work, you may need to reinstall or update the keyboard driver. Follow these steps:

Open Device Manager and expand the Keyboards category. Right-click on your computer’s keyboard and select either Update driver or Uninstall device.

If you’ve chosen the “Uninstall device” option, restart your PC. Windows will automatically install the default keyboard driver.

Conclusion

With these troubleshooting tips you should be able to unlock your keyboard most of the time. If you problem still persists, try to contact your computer’s manufacturer or seek help from their forums. For HP Pavilion laptop, you might unlock the keyboard by pressing the Ctrl + PrntScr keyboard shortcut.

“I have a copy of Microsoft Office 2016 on my laptop that is defaulted to the Thai Language. How do I change it to English? Thanks!”

No matter what the default language is, Office can easily be switched to the language of your choice. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the procedure of changing the editing and display language in Microsoft Office 2019 / 2016.

Part 1: Find Your Office Version

The first thing you’ll need to do is find your Office version. Open the Word program, click the File tab and choose Account. You’ll see which version of Office you’re running. For more information such as the architecture of Office, click on the About Word button.

A dialog box opens, showing you the full version number and if you are running 32-bit or 64-bit Office.

Part 2: Add Keyboard Layout Language

Open your Word application and go to File -> Options. When the Options dialogue box opens, select the Language tab. Under the “Choose Editing Languages” section, select your desired language from the drop-down list and click Add.

If the Keyboard layout column show “Not enabled“, then you have to add the input language to your Windows OS. Just click that link and it will directly open the Language page in the Settings app.

Click the Add a language button.

Find the desired language you want to add, and click Next.

Click the Install button to download the language pack and keyboard for that language.

Part 3: Add Proofing Tools

If the Proofing column show “Not installed“, then you have to download language accessory pack for spelling and grammar checking. Just click that link and it will open the Language Accessory Pack for Office page with your web browser.

Click the “Newer versions” drop-down list and select your desired language. The Language Accessory Pack comes with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. You need to download the appropriate one depending on the architecture of your Office.

After the download is complete, just double-click it and you can go through the installation process in a minute or two.

Part 4: Change Editing and Display Language for Office

Under the “Choose Editing Languages” section, you should see that the keyboard layout and proofing tools for your desired language are successfully installed. Just select your desired language and click on Set as Default.

Go to the “Choose Display Language” section to change the language for the display (user interface) and the Help files. Once you’re finished, restart Office for the new language to take effect.

Unable to re-activate windows 10 after hardware change? If your Windows 10 was activated with a digital license instead of product key, you can link the digital license to your Microsoft account so you can easily re-activate Windows 10 after upgrading or replacing hardware. No need to contact Microsoft Activation Centers and explain your situation.

Part 1: Link Windows 10 Digital License to Microsoft Account

1. Open the Settings app, and then click on Update & Security.

2. Select the Activation tab on the left side. If you have a digital license, you’ll see the activation status message “Windows is activated with a digital license” on the right pane. To link the digital license to your Microsoft account, click on Add an account.

3. When the Sign-in page appears, enter your Microsoft account email address and click Next. Afterwards, enter your Microsoft account password.

4. Next, you’ll be prompted to switch from local account to Microsoft account. Enter the local account password, and click Next.

5. If your account was successfully linked, the activation page will now display “Windows is activated with a digital licensed linked to your Microsoft account“.

When you use a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows 10, the digital license will be automatically linked to your Microsoft account, without having to go through the above procedure.

Part 2: Re-activate Windows 10 After Hardware Change

A significant hardware change can cause Windows 10 to lose its activation. If you’ve got the digital license linked to your Microsoft account before hardware change, you can now run the Activation Troubleshooter to re-activate your Windows 10 with ease.

1. Open the Settings app and navigate to Update & Security -> Activation. On the right side, click on Troubleshoot.

2. The Activation Troubleshooter will scan your computer hardware and attempt to activate Windows. If that fails, click the option “I changed hardware on this device recently“.

3. You’ll be prompted to sign in with your Microsoft account. Just select your Windows 10 PC from the device list, check the box labeled “This is the device I am using right now“, then click on Activate to assign the digital license to your current computer.

Conclusion

Linking Windows 10 digital license to Microsoft account could make activation easier after hardware change. If you forgot to link the digital license and unable to re-activate your Windows, you may need to contact Microsoft with a proof of purchase and explain that you’ve upgrade the hardware on your computer.