Category: Utilities » Page 3

Can’t Print Adobe PDF Documents from Browser in Windows 10 2004

Last Updated on: August 8, 2023 by Ramesh

pdf print problem windows 10 2004 browser

Adobe Acrobat reader adds the web browser plugin using which you can view PDFs in a web browser. After installing the Windows 10 2004 update, you may be unable to print PDF files from the web browser/frame, especially when using Internet Explorer. The print dialog box doesn’t open and nothing happens if you issue the Print command from the browser.

However, you can save the PDF file locally and open/print using Adobe Acrobat Reader without any issues.

This seems to be a bug in Windows 10 2004. Until Microsoft or Adobe issues a fix for this issue, you may disable Protected Mode in Adobe Reader as a workaround.Read more

How to Download YouTube, Facebook, Twitter Videos Easily

Last Updated on: August 8, 2023 by Ramesh

There are plenty of free online portals that help you download YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter embedded videos. These portals process the inputted video URL and make multiple resolutions of the video available for download.

However, if you want to avoid the online video download portals and wish to download YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter videos from your computer directly (without an intermediary), this post is for you.

How to Clear or Flush Google Chrome DNS Cache

Last Updated on: August 2, 2023 by Ramesh

Domain Name System (DNS) is the address book of the Internet. Web browsers interact through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources.

Windows caches the DNS records for a considerable time. This cache can be cleared by running the command ipconfig /flushdns. Other than this, your web browser like Google Chrome maintains a separate DNS cache mechanism.

Why do you need to clear the browser DNS cache?

System administrators often find times where they need to redirect the domains by editing the host file, in order to override any DNS records for a domain name. However, every time you want to change a hostname to a different IP, you needed to close the browser before the change will take effect. This can get tedious if you have too many browser tabs or windows open.
When doing web development or other work that requires changing the web hosting IP in the HOSTS file for testing purposes, you needed to restart the web browser every time for the new host to IP mappings to take effect.

However, with Google Chrome, you can clear the internal DNS cache without closing and reopening the browser. This post tells you how to clear the internal DNS cache of the Google Chrome browser without restarting Google Chrome.

[Fix] Youtube-dl Error MSVCR100.dll not found in Windows

Last Updated on: August 2, 2023 by Ramesh

youtube-dl error msvcr100.dll 32-bit syswow64

Youtube-dl is a command-line program to download videos from YouTube or other sites. When you run the software on some computers, you may receive the following error:

youtube-dl.exe – System Error

The code execution cannot proceed because MSVCR100.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

Let’s see how to fix the msvcr100.dll missing error.Read more

How to Convert WMA to MP3 Format in Windows

Last Updated on: August 2, 2023 by Ramesh

convert mp4 to mp3 offline - extract audio from video - file converter

Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary technology developed by Microsoft that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA produces better sound at low bitrates compared to MP3. It leads to smaller file sizes. Since the WMA format is proprietary, we have more devices that use the MP3 format compared to WMA.

If your device (e.g., DVD player) doesn’t support WMA file format, then you’ll have to convert the WMA files into MP3, as most, if not all devices support MP3. Converting WMA files to MP3 is also a good idea if you want to play them across different platforms (e.g., macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, or Linux). For instance, Chromebooks don’t have native support for WMA files. You’ll need to install VLC Player for Chrome OS or convert the WMA files to one of the formats (.mp3, .m4a, .ogg, .wav) to be able to play the music on your Chromebook.

Windows Media Player is the native media player (in Windows Operating Systems) which supports WMA file format. But Windows Media Player has no audio format conversion capability. However, WMP can rip CD/DVD audio into WMA, WAV, or MP3 file format, though.

How to Free Up Gigabytes of Disk Space in Windows

Last Updated on: August 2, 2023 by Ramesh

Windows 10 updates, especially the feature updates, consume enormous disk space as Windows stores the older copies in case you want to roll back to the previous version. Hard disk drives have become cheaper and affordable nowadays. A 1 TB SATA HDD costs less than $50. But, if you’re using an old, low-capacity hard drive from an old computer and want to free up disk space, this article tells you how to do that.

After installing a feature update, Windows 10 automatically cleans up the previous Windows installation files (Windows.old) after ten days. However, there are some other ways with which you can free up disk space in Windows. Let’s see some of the options.Read more

How to Find the Motherboard Make and Model Number in Windows

Last Updated on: August 9, 2023 by Ramesh

Knowing the technical specifications of your motherboard is very important, especially if you’re planning to upgrade the processor or RAM. Once you find the make and model of your motherboard, you can get the user manual from the respective manufacturer’s site.

If you’ve got a computer from a friend and want to know the system specifications — including the motherboard make and model, information about the memory module, etc., you can do so without using any third-party tool.Read more

Fix: Device Harddisk DR0 has a “bad block” Error in Event Viewer

Last Updated on: August 5, 2023 by Ramesh

Of late, one of my Windows 10 computers has been running sluggishly, hangs frequently or shuts down abruptly. The malware scans turned out to be normal and there are no processes consuming huge CPU time or memory. The disk usage remained at 100% though, regardless of the app I open.

The System event log showed multiple disk error entries. Here is one such event:

Log Name: System
Source: disk
Date: 15-08-2019 17:37:49
Event ID: 7
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DESKTOP-3V7LVDA
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.

After restarting Windows, the following event log entry gets added.

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 15-08-2019 19:28:09
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (70368744177664),(2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: DESKTOP-3V7LVDA
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

The same error occurred for my secondary hard drive (Disk 1), and the error message read The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block.

If you have multiple hard drives and want to know which hard drive has a bad block, note down the Disk # indicated in the event log. Open Disk Management to see the list of drives and the corresponding drive #.

A bad block is an area of the hard drive that is no longer reliable for storing and retrieving data. Bad block may indicate corruption or physical damage.

There are two types of bad blocks: A physical bad block comes from damage to the storage medium. A soft, or logical, bad block occurs when the operating system (OS) is unable to read data from a sector. Examples of a soft bad block include when the cyclic redundancy check (CRC), or error correction code (ECC), for a particular storage block does not match the data read by the disk. (TechTarget.com)

And, I couldn’t clone the drive using Macrium Reflect or EaseUS ToDo Backup. Macrium Reflect threw the error “clone failed” code 9, and EaseUS software stalled at 51% while cloning the disk.

In this article, I’ll tell you how I resolved the hard drive “bad block” error.Read more

How to Split a Video or Audio (MP3) into Multiple Parts

Last Updated on: August 5, 2023 by Ramesh

cut audio or video multiple parts - loselesscut

The built-in Photos app can be used to cut a portion of a video file. Sometimes, you may need to split a video or audio into multiple parts with a specific duration. It helps you share them on Twitter or any other social networking site which has a length limitation. For instance, Twitter allows you to upload videos of length not exceeding 140 seconds (2m 20s.)

To split a video into multiple equal parts, you may have to repeat the procedure multiple times if you’re using the Photos app. Instead, you may use a third-party tool to split a video (MP4, MKV, AVI, or MPG) or audio (MP3, WAV, etc.) into multiple equal parts automatically.

In this article, let’s see how to cut a selection of a video or audio and save the selection to a separate file. This article also describes how to split a video or audio into multiple equal parts.

How to Use “Reset this PC” to Clean Install Windows 10

Last Updated on: August 2, 2023 by Ramesh

reset this pc in windows 10 recovery options

Windows 10 has multiple recovery options to revert or roll back to an old configuration. The built-in recovery options include System Restore, driver rollback, in-place upgrade (a.k.a repair install), Reset This PC, Recovery disk, Go back to the previous version of Windows, etc.

The Reset this PC option reinstalls Windows 10 cleanly, but it also lets you choose whether to keep your files or remove them. Reset this PC is a “Push-button reset” procedure that utilizes the files from the Component Store C:\Windows\WinSxS as the source (if you choose the Local reinstall option) to rebuild the OS without requiring a recovery image or the ISO.

In this article, we’ll see how to use the Reset This PC feature to reinstall Windows cleanly with or without preserving your personal files.

Before using any of the reset or recovery methods, it’s advisable to back up your files. Backing up (a system image backup is preferred) is recommended even though the Reset this PC (Keep my files) feature keeps your data intact.