Windows 8 has in built feature of Restore just like any previous version but that involves too many clicks and tedious for many users. I would like to introduce an application which can handle everything related to Windows 8 Restore in single window interface.

• Simple to understand.
• Involve less clicks.
• Gives more customized features like scheduling and deleting.

Windows automatically create System Restore Points when:

• When a new application/driver is installed.
• After Windows update installation
• Application is programmed to create one during installation
• or when you create manually

Here is the list of possible Windows 8 Restore operations done using the above mentioned tool.

1. Create Restore Point

Just enter the name of your choice and press ‘Create Custom named Restore Point’.

You can also enable “My Computer Right Click” option so that there is a “Create Restore point” option on right click context menu of My Computer icon.

2. Restore to Previous State

Just when you open the application, it shows you all the restore points created by system. Details include date, time and restore point type along with description.

Select any of the points which you think is suitable or the time when everything was working fine and click on ‘[sws_highlight hlcolor=”fbfac7″] Restore to System Restore Point[/sws_highlight] ‘.

3. Windows Restore did not complete Successfully

You may get error message (0x80070005) on restart which occurs when system doesn’t have elevated permissions or blocked by any Antivirus. Solution to this problem is- Login as Administrator and then redo it. Also, uninstall Antivirus before restoring because, I noticed that disabling isn’t effective. Last option is to select some other restore point.

4. Delete Individual Restore Point

Backup image of Windows system is saved on Computer itself which takes up space on Hard Disk. [sws_highlight hlcolor=”fbfac7″] Windows, by default doesn’t allow doing that [/sws_highlight] , but using this app, it is possible. Just select the restore point and click on Delete button.

5. Undo Restore

For any reasons, if you think you want to undo the changes made by restore, select ‘Undo System Restore’ and click Next. This window appears after restart.

6. Manage System Restore Space

You can decide how much space to be allocated for the Windows system restore image and on which partition of HDD. To do that, click on System Restore Utilities and select ‘View Disk Space usage’.

7. Schedule System Restore

This is again not possible using Windows but using this app, you can create a task when restore point will be created automatically at specific time. This is useful for users who want more control.

8. Windows Restore Taking too Long?

If it is taking more than 30-45 minutes, then something is seriously wrong. Refer Windows Forum thread for possible solution.

Conclusion

Windows 8 Restore is a really useful feature which can prove to be savior in case any software application messes with the working of computer. It is like a Time Machine for your system to go back in time. Almost all aspects considering Windows 8 Restore were covered in this guide.

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So, it is good choice to have a dedicated application to play YouTube videos. From the bunch of apps, I selected the best YouTube App for Windows 8 Metro interface called as Hyper.

Using it since a long time now and here’s why:

1. Live Tile automatically gets updated to trending videos. It helps to know what’s popular without even opening YouTube. Whenever you open Start screen, just give a look to the app tile and you know about all the popular videos from your region.

2. Supports Downloading in all the resolutions/quality available. There after, you can play them from Download tab in app itself or go to the download location and play them in another media player of your choice. It should be noted that simultaneous download of multiple videos is also possible.

3. Browse comments while playing the video. Something which isn’t possible on web interface and really annoying. Though, there are chrome extensions like VideoPinner which makes it possible but Hyper for YouTube has this feature inbuilt.

4. Control player using media buttons of your computer and Customize Homepage the way you want to.

5. Create Playlist of your own. Also supports signing in your Google account so that you can have access to saved playlists (if any).

6. Keeps Watched Video and Search keyword History. So, you don’t have to look again for it from Search bar.

Using any other awesome app? Let me know your reason for using it by commenting below.

Take the video tour of this app yourself:

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While most of the solutions suggested closing and re-opening windows 8 app store and clearing cache, I had no luck. So, I will share the solution which worked for me along with few more which didn’t. You never know which one may automagically work for someone.

Let’s begin with the sequence in which I attempted:

Fix #1 (Didn’t work)

For clearing cache, Press WIN+R and type wsreset.

Fix #2 (It works in One Click)

1. Download Windows 8 App Troubleshooter from Microsoft.

2. Click next and it detect problems and tries to fix them automatically.

3. Restart Computer

Fix #3 (Claimed to be Working)

1. Run Command Prompt as an Administrator: Type: net stop wuauserv and Press Enter to stop Update.

2. Go to C:\Windows\ and delete SoftwareDistribution Folder

3. Run Command Prompt as an Administrator: Type: net start wuauserv and Press Enter to stop Update.

4. Press WIN+C and Search for troubleshooting then click Fix problems with Windows Update.

Comment below the solution which worked for you.

The post Windows 8 Store Apps Pending? Fix in One Click appeared first on Blogsolute.

In this article we will go through a sidebar app which presents things in a bit different style. Basically it is a metro styled sidebar and can be used on Windows 7 onwards. MetroSidebar is a freeware app which brings metro styled sidebar to windows.

Personally, I liked it a lot. The power features and launcher will benefit Windows 8 users. Once you setup the sidebar properly you do not have to pay much attention to it.

Working with MetroSidebar

After installing the sidebar it can be triggered by same way in which you access the Charms bar. Take the mouse pointer to right bottom or top corner. The Charms bar will slide out and you can see a black shiny border behind it. Click on that to bring up the Metro sidebar. Well, this is the case when you keep the sidebar in auto hide mode else its present all the time. I have faced no confusion or conflict with Charms bar during my usage span.

The feature that caught my attention is that it is totally customizable. The color of the gadget tile did not match your wallpaper or is it looking awkward? nothing to worry, just change it to whatever you like.

You can also push down gadgets to other sidebar faces. The number and active face will be denoted by dots present at bottom. You can remove the gadget tile you do not want on sidebar. Gadgets like clock and launchers and weather do have their own settings.

Adding Gadget Tiles to Sidebar

There are not many gadgets to use at this point. Apart from the basic ones already provided, you can also download them from the online tab. The online download service is not ready yet and I hope it will be up and running soon. With Live Tile support there can be many useful gadgets in future.

Overall it is a beautiful sidebar and totally blends with Windows 8 UI as if it is an official feature. I have tested it on Windows 8.1 x64, there were no troubles of any sort. It consumed about 20 MB RAM, which is fair enough. You must definitely give it a try.

The post Metro Sidebar for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 with Live Tiles appeared first on Blogsolute.

Consider the scenario, when you right click on an image and select Set as Desktop background and nothing happens. Add to this, if you
try to load your desired images in Personalization window to select as Desktop background, nothing comes up:

You can face this situation due to the following reasons:

• Blockage from third-party apps installed on your system concerning display

• The Group Policy is so configured by system that it doesn’t allows changing of wallpaper and force Windows for specific Desktop image

• You might have corrupted copy of TranscodedWallpaper in the Themes folder

In this article, we’ll help you to fix the problem of being not able to change Desktop background. Initially, we recommend you to remove third-party applications that appears in the Display Manager. Now follow these procedures:

Method 1 : Using Group Policy

1. Press Windows Key + R and put gpedit.msc in Run dialog box, click OK to open Local Group Policy Editor.

2. Navigate here:

User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Desktop -> Desktop

3. In the above window, from the right pane side, find the Desktop Wallpaper policy. Since you’re facing the issue in changing Desktop wallpaper, this policy should show Enabled status. Double click on the policy to modify the status:

4. Click on the Disabled or Not Configured, then Apply followed by OK. Restart the machine and your issue should be fixed now, if it is not then try following method:

Method 2 : Repair Corrupted TranscodedWallpaper

1. Press Windows Key + R and paste following in Run dialog box, click OK to open Themes.

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\

2. In the following window, make sure that slideshow.ini file is empty. If it is not empty, do it by opening it in Notepad and delete all the text inside it. Save it. Rename the TranscodedWallpaper.jpg to something other than TranscodedWallpaper, like TranscodedWallpaperOld. Don’t worry, the original file gets restored after reboot.

3. Restart the machine, and try to change the Desktop background now, it should work fine.

Hope something helps!

The post [FIX] Unable To Change Desktop Wallpaper In Windows 8 appeared first on Blogsolute.

In this article, we’re going to provide you the tips to customize This PC folder. Many of you might be looking for the removal of unnecessary folders from This PC. But lack of proper method have stopped you from doing so. So we decided to help you in the customization with working solution. Here are the two ways you can do this:

Add Or Remove Folders From “This PC” [Manual Method]

The post How to Add Custom Folders on This PC in Windows 8.1 appeared first on Blogsolute.

Let’s see the differences between past and present conditions:

From the above image, I guess you’ve figured out what I’m trying to do. The reason behind broking the combination and split them to separate tab is to enhance the efficiency. In the past condition, you can read what’s going on the tab since it is mentioned there but in the present scenario, you have to move the cursor to get the same thing.

Now, in this article, we’ll provide you with three ways to configure these settings and increase the productivity of your Windows 8.

Method 1: Manually Using Taskbar Properties

1. Right click on taskbar and select Properties.

2. In the Taskbar Properties window, for the Taskbar buttons section, click the drop down menu and select Never combine.

Click Apply then OK. Reboot the machine to get results. So this was the basic way, now lets see some advance ways:

Method 2: Using Registry Editor

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

3. In the right pane of this location, create a new DWORD using Right click -> New -> DWORD Value. Name it as TaskbarGlomLevel. Double click to modify it:

4. Put the Value data to 1 to have not combined tabs until taskbar is full, otherwise put 2 to have no grouping at all. Click OK. Restart the computer to see effects. If you want to group tabs again in the future, simply put 0 as Value data or delete the DWORD created in step 3.

Method 3: Using Command Prompt / Batch File

To simply the work, you can use the following .bat (command processing) file. Extract the RAR file and simply right click on the file after download and select Run as administrator:

Download: Batch File to Disable Grouping Taskbar on Windows 8

Hope you find the tip useful!

The post How to Stop Grouping of Taskbar Buttons in Windows 8 appeared first on Blogsolute.

Error : Unable To Display The Current Owner

Recently, we came across a weird error accounting for permissions on Windows 8. We tried to take the ownership of a folder, but was unfortunately unable to do so. According to the following window, Windows was unable to recognize or display the current owner in the scenario. Have a look:

After doing some research, we concluded that this happens due to malfunctioning of user accounts rights in Windows. The built-in administrator in this case requires proper orientation and this workaround will be able to fix the issue at its best. But there is no surety that it will not occur in the future.

FIX : Unable To Display The Current Owner

To fix out the problem, we initially tried to Selective Startup at System Configuration (msconfig) utility. Then we disabled all the Microsoft services and enabled them one by one to verify whether any service is causing the issue. Unfortunately, this didn’t make any differences and we remain with no solution. Then we tried the following solution and it fixed the issue, so here it is:

1. Press Windows Key + R, type secpol.msc, click OK in the Run dialog box to open Local Security Policy.

2. In the Local Security Policy window, in the left pane, navigate Security Settings -> Local Polices -> Security Options. Now came to right pane and look for the policy Accounts: Administrator account status which is disabled by default.

3. Double click on the policy to modify its status, you’ll got this:

Click on Enabled then Apply followed by OK.

4. Finally, boot the system into Safe Mode and check the status of problem. From our observation it got solved but we suggest you to reconfirm it. Also take the ownership in the Safe Mode. Restart the system to normal mode, now you will be able to see the current owner. That’s it!

Hope you enjoyed the article and find it useful…

The post [FIX] “Unable To Display The Current Owner” Error On Windows 8 appeared first on Blogsolute.

In Windows 8, there exists only two options to configure DPI Settings between 100 & 150 percents. Fortunately, Windows 8.1 has got the per display DPI Settings feature support, so you can select from 8 different ways to let DPI Scaling handle your device. This article will provide the advanced way to fix DPI Scaling using registry modification.

Why do You Need to Change Windows DPI ?

DPI Scaling becomes an important consideration while you’re running the operating system in order to project it on a television. While projecting it on the television screen, the relative size of the tiles from Start Screen may be non-uniform, which looks cumbersome. So if you have configured DPI Scaling to its best, you can easily project the tiles from a 10” monitor to 42” television without losing relative proportion of tiles.

So without wasting your time anymore, lets see the how to part:

Modify DPI Scaling Using Registry Editor

1. Press Windows Key + R and put regedit in Run dialog box, click OK to open Registry Editor.

2. Navigate here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

3. In the right pane of this location, look for the DWORD name LogPixels (refer to above screenshot). Double click on it to modify, so that you’ll got this:

4. Put the following Value data as per your requirement and click OK.

96   –   Smaller 100%

120   –  Medium 125%

144  –   Larger 150%

192   –   Extra Large 200%

240  –  Custom 250%

288  –  Custom 300%   – 

384  –  Custom 400%

480  –   Custom 500%

That’s it. Reboot to see changes. So you have configured the DPI Scaling using registry which overrides the manual way. Hope you enjoyed the tip!

The post Configure DPI Settings in Windows 8.1 Using Registry appeared first on Blogsolute.

Here, in this article, we’re going to provide you the helpful way so that you can easily sign out of one Microsoft account and then on sign in to the other once on the go. Now, lets see the how to part:

Signing Out From Mail App

1. While you’re in the Mail app, press Windows Key + I combination on the keyboard. Select Accounts from the Settings menu so appeared:

2. Now click the Microsoft account you’re signed in currently:

3. Then you’ll be taken here. As shown, pick the Remove all accounts option, double click on it. Don’t worry. it won’t delete you email account or the data associated with it, instead it will just make you to sign out.

4. Finally, you will be able to see the notification that you’ve signed out successfully. Now you can click on Try again immediately to sing in with the another Microsoft account at the moment.

In this way, you can sign in to different account if you like. Unfortunately, the ability to close and sign out instantaneously is missing in all apps for Windows 8 and same is followed in Windows 8.1 as well. Microsoft should provide, at least a simple close button that will be helpful for the normal users to perform such simple operations in a single click.

Hope you find the article useful…:) 

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