In Windows 10 and Windows 11, when you log into an app (e.g. Teams) with your Microsoft Online account, you might get a pop-up: Stay signed in to all your apps You will have a big OK button to accept this or a small link saying "No, sign in to this app only". If you click on the OK button, all Apps that use a Microsoft Online account will now be logged in with the account. In addition, Windows tries to do a Workplace Join to Azure. So in most cases, clicking OK does more bad than good. To prevent Read more [...]

If you need to change the background color of your Windows 11 desktop via Registry, it can be done like this:

Start Regedit.exe and go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors

Change the "Background" entry to the color you want. E.g. "255 255 255" for white.

I had recently created a bootable USB disk for a Linux distro. After I did not use that anymore, I wanted to format it in my Windows 10 machine. But it was not recognized anymore. No drive letter, not visible in File Explorer. In "Disk Management" it was visible, but I could not format it there either. Using command line tool "Diskpart" did not help either as the "clean" command ended with an "Access Denied" error. In the end, the folloing sequence of commands helped me in "Diskpart": list Read more [...]

When logged in as Administrator in a Windows 10 or 11 machine, when you try to add a shared printer, you get the error: That didn't work. We can't install this printer right now. Try again later or contact your network administrator for help. Error: #740. The underlying problem is this: Error 740 means: "The requested operation requires elevation". This is a problem as you are already logged in as Administrator. So the solution is to start the "Add Printer Wizard" as Administrator. To do this: Read more [...]

I have rarely the issue that all of a sudden, on some programs (for example Edge and Firefox) I can't see the top part of the Window anymore. Preconditions for this to happen: Multi screen (does never happen on single screen setups) Happens only on the primary screen Only when application is maximised Only some applications are affected, not all (Microsoft Office apps are never affected): File Explorer, Edge, Firefox, Notepad and many others What does not help: Minimizing Read more [...]

The Windows 10 Start Menu is not as customizable as it used to be in Windows 7. While the part on the right (the tiles) can be easily removed and added by right-clicking them, the traditional part on the left (folders and shortcuts) is not customizable any more. In Windows 7, you could right-click on a shortcut and then delete or rename it. Not any more in Windows 10. There are tricks to modify the Windows 10 Start Menu shortcuts anyway. Find the instructions to do so below: Traditional Applications The Read more [...]

Some Windows 10 apps cannot be uninstalled, even not with Power Shell commands. One example is the Edge browser. But you can disable those apps by renaming the folder that they are stored in. The system apps can be found in C:\Windows\SystemApps Find below the list of folders that I have renamed without any problem: ContactSupport_cw5n1h2txyewy = Get Help CortanaListenUIApp_cw5n1h2txyewy DesktopLearning_cw5n1h2txyewy DesktopView_cw5n1h2txyewy EnvironmentsApp_cw5n1h2txyewy holocamera_cw5n1h2txyewy holoitemplayerapp_cw5n1h2txyewy InsiderHub_cw5n1h2txyewy Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy Microsoft.AccountsControl_cw5n1h2txyewy Read more [...]

On the Windows 10 Lock Screen, you can have either a picture or a slide show. If you would like to have a solid background, there is no option for this. Here is what you need to do: Click on the Start Menu and then type lock screen Choose "Lock screen settings" Make sure that under "Background" you have chosen "Picture" Under the pictures, choose "Browse" Browse to C: > Windows > Web > Screen Choose the blue solid picture (this is called "img105.jpg" on my machine). Click Read more [...]