Code365

How to enable administrator account in Windows 8

How to enable administrator account in Windows 8

The built-in ‘administrator’ account in Windows 8 is hidden by default.

To enable the ‘administrator’ account in Windows 8, you need to:

• Open the command prompt using Administrator privileges.  To do so, Click on the command prompt and select ‘Run as administrator’ option as shown in figure below:

Type the following command at prompt as also shown in the figure given below:

• net user administrator /active:yes

Restart Windows.

To disable the administrator account again in Windows 8, you need to:

• Open the command prompt using Administrator privileges.  To do so, right click on the command prompt and select ‘Run as administrator’ option.
• Type the following command at prompt as also shown in the figure given below:
  • net user administrator /active:no
• Restart Windows.

You can also enable/disable the administrator account by following the steps given below:

• Goto Settings->Control panel->Administrative tools->Computer Management->Local Users and Groups->Users->Administrator
• Right click on ‘Administrator’ user and click Properties from the system menu.
• Under General tab, there is a checkbox – “Account is disabled”.
• Check this box to disable the administrator user or uncheck this box to enable the administrator user.
• Click on OK

Restart Windows.

Windows7, Windows8

Unable to edit the ‘hosts’ file in Windows7

Unable to edit the hosts file in Windows7

In Windows 7, the location of the ‘hosts’ file is ‘C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts‘.  By default, Windows 7 does not allow edit on this file.  To edit ‘hosts’ file, follow the steps given below:

Procedure 1:

• Start->Run
• Type notepad and click OK button
• Notepad application will open with administrator privileges
• Open ‘hosts’ file in Notepad, Click on File->Open->C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts
• Make changes, whatever you want to make and save it.

Procedure 2:

• Start->All Programs->Accessories->Notepad
• Right click on Notepad and chose ‘Run as administrator’
• Notepad application will open with administrator privileges
• Open ‘hosts’ file in Notepad, Click on File->Open->C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts
• Make changes, whatever you want to make and save it.

[Note: Please take a backup of this file before editing.]

Windows7

In Windows 7, Run program in compatibility mode is greyed out

In Windows 7, run program in compatibility mode is greyed out

In Windows 7, compatibility mode is used to run a program that is written for a previous version of Windows to run on Windows 7.  I tried to install device drivers from Windows Vista on a Windows 7 machine.  To install the drivers in compatibility mode, I had to right click on installation file, then choose Properties.  In Properties window, there is a tab – ‘Compatibility’.   It contains Compatibility mode, where we can chose that the program may run in compatibility mode for previous version of Windows.  The following figure illustrates this:

This option is greyed with me, I can’t select from the drop-down list.  I used the following procedure to fix it.

• Type ‘regedit’ in command window, so that we get registry editor.
• Goto this registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SOFTWARE->Microsoft->Windows NT->CurrentVersion->AppCompatFlags->Layers
• Delete this entry from registry, but take a registry backup before you do so.
• Restart windows.

Note: Make any change in registry at your own risk.

Windows7

I can’t delete file in Windows7

Problem with deleting files in Windows7

In Windows7, I couldn’t delete the file(s) from the Desktop, when I select some files for deletion, it shows a confirmation box ‘Are you sure you want to send the files to Recycle Bin?’, and when I click on Yes, It shows ‘Calculating size’ and hangs.  Then I had to kill the process.  I tried to google about it and found some interesting results, that I am sharing here for others:

The thumbnail cache may be corrupt that needs to be rebuilt.  To rebuild Windows7 Thumbnail cache, we need to follow the given steps:

• The location of the thumbnail db is C:UsersLogin-nameAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsExplorer.  It contains thumbcache database files.
• Delete these files using shift key, so that these are permanently deleted and not transferred to Recycle Bin.
• Reboot.
• We can also do that by selecting Start->Disk Cleanup -> C: ->Files to delete-> Check Thumbnails option and click OK to remove the files.  Reboot.

Also we need to set Thumbnails settings from Folder options as follows:

Start->Control Panel -> Folder options -> View ->Files and Folders -> and 1. Check : ‘Always show icons, never thumbnails’, and 2. Uncheck ‘Display file icon on thumbnails’.

Restart windows and then try to delete the files.  It should work!

Windows7

Icons not showing up on Desktop in Windows7

Icons not showing up on Desktop in Windows 7

In Windows 7, sometimes there is an issue that the icons are not shown on Desktop, taskbar etc.  The option ‘Show Desktop icons’ should be checked, that is available when we right click on Desktop and click on View.  From view, we have to check ‘Show Desktop icons’ option.  Even if it is checked and some of the icons are not shown, then another possibility is that the icon cache is corrupt.  Icon cache is used to retrieve the icons faster from the cache.  We then need to rebuild icon cache.  We can do that by using the following steps:

• If hidden files and folders are not shown, then we need to check that option from Start->Control Panel->Folder options->View->Hidden files and folders, and check on ‘Show hidden files, folders, and drives’.
• Open Windows Explorer
• We have to delete “IconCache.db” file that is present in this location: “C:UsersLogin-NameAppDataLocal”, where ‘Login-Name’ is the name of the user we are logged in.
• Delete the file using shift key, so that it is permanently deleted and not shifted to Recycle Bin.
• Reboot

The icon cache will be rebuilt.

Windows7