How to Connect Your XBOX One to your PC for Streaming on Microsoft Windows 10 OS

When Microsoft said that everything under their brand would be One Family, we should have taken it all quite literally as the word ‘one’ had a major significance.

Though its happening in mid-2015, but it was planned long ago.

Remember the day you woke up to the news stating ‘Sky Drive is now One Drive’, or the evening your XBOX One finally arrived?

Microsoft has been focusing heavily on the power of ‘one’ and is now working on the lines of one brand – one product – one family, where smooth engagement is guaranteed across all platforms.

No matter which windows device you are using, if you are on the windows 10 OS on all devices, your experience is guaranteed to be more or less the same across all three of them.

Microsoft has given it a bigger, 360 degree approach this time, and the company has been working really hard on coming out with an operating system which takes everything into consideration.

The company has been coming out with a large number of innovations in the past, and everything that has been ‘traditional’ has been discarded this time.

No matter if you’re on the windows PC or the windows mobile OS, or you’re using a console to play games, your experience will not change, all your files will still be accessible from all your devices, and all the data that Cortana has learnt about you will be spread across all devices.

You should ideally be able to connect your XBOX easily with your computer, however, in case you cant do it, check that your Xbox One console allows SmartGlass connections.

You’ll find this on the console by going to Settings, selecting Preferences, and then selecting Allow SmartGlass Connections.If you still can’t connect, try rebooting your Windows 10 PC and your Xbox One console.

You can now play games on your PC from your XBOX console using the ‘game streaming’ feature. Game Streaming is the ability to play Xbox One games remotely from your Xbox One console on any Windows 10 PC on your home network.

• This feature allows you to leave your living room and play your favorite Xbox One games anywhere with access to your home network.
• Game Streaming uses the power of the Xbox One console to manage the game. Your Windows 10 PC becomes a remote second screen so you can roam freely around your home while continuing to enjoy your Xbox One console and games.

Gaming on Windows 10 has been emphasized for a very long time and Phil Spencer had made it very clear that the days to come are going to be exciting times for Microsoft.

-  therem

Read WhatsApp Messages on Your Desktop

Thanks to updates to the app, it is now possible for you to read your WhatsApp messages directly on your desktop and this in itself is quite an advance in technology. This is something that a lot of people are going to find very useful and the good news is that it does not involve a third party app,but instead it is something that WhatsApp themselves have brought to the table, so there is no need to worry about the installation or any other security issue.

How Does It Work?

So, how does this actually work? How is it possible to read messages from an actual app on your desktop? In all honesty it is easier than you think and it is due to the creation of WhatsApp Web and this is something that really works in tandem with Google Chrome. The important part here is that your WhatsApp is still managed and controlled by your phone, but it then uses data connections to allow you to view messages on your computer.

For it to work, you do need the latest version of their app and do be aware that people using iOS could run into problems with it working thanks to Apple. When you install the app, you will see an option for WhatsApp Web and you need to tap on this before moving onto the next step.

This next step is to go to the website https://web.whatsapp.com and you will see a QR code that you are going to be asked to scan with your smartphone. This will then sync the app, your phone, and your desktop allowing you to view your messages on your computer rather than having to physically move and pick up your phone all of the time.

Does It Work Well?

The short answer here is that yes it does work very well indeed and it is a rather cool idea by WhatsApp and you can see how it would be useful in a number of situations. The fact that they have launched it themselves is an added bonus, as we previous stated, as it means you can trust it at all times and everything will indeed work smoothly. How popular it is remains to be seen, but there has to be a number of people out of their 700 million users that would think that this is a wonderful idea.

So, you can check your messages on your desktop by:

• Downloading and installing the latest version of the app.
• Be aware that iOS will not support it directly.
• You have to use Google Chrome to get it to work.
• You need to go to a web page and scan a QR code to sync your phone with your computer.
• WhatsApp themselves have created the web browsing option.

This is a cool feature brought to you by WhatsApp and it will certainly prove to be useful for a number of people who simply cannot be bothered to go and pick up their phone every single time they receive a message. It is a simple idea, but it is effective and the only downside is the issue it has with the iOS system, but then that is out of the hands of WhatsApp and the blame is firmly at the door of Apple.

-   ordoh

Two Ways to Hide Disk Partitions in Windows

Protecting data has always been of importance and before encryption has been available to masses, one way of protecting the important data has always been hiding it from plain sight. Though this is not a fool-proof way to protect one’s data, it is still a legible way to quickly protect not-so-important data without dealing with complex passwords, encryption, and stuff. Considering that, hiding drives or partitions in Windows is not at all hard and can be helpful in different scenarios like when you are lending your laptop to a guest, when you want to quickly hide several folders in a partition, etc.

No matter what the reason is, here are two different ways to hide your Windows drives or partitions. Technically we are not hiding a drive but unmounting it. As soon as you unmount a drive or partition it becomes invisible in the file explorer.

Hide Drive Partitions Using Command Prompt

Hiding drive partition using Command Prompt is easy. First, press Win + R, type cmd and press the Enter button. Once the command prompt has been opened, type diskpart and press the Enter button.

The above action will open the Diskpart console. Enter the command list volume to list all the drives in your Windows system.

Once all the volumes are listed, select the volume you want to hide using the command below. Don’t forget to replace “#number” with the actual drive number. For instance, I want to hide my D drive, so my drive number will be 3.

select drive #number

After selecting the drive, you need to remove the drive letter in order to hide the target drive. To do that, use the command below. Don’t forget to replace “driveLetter” with the actual drive letter. In my case, the drive letter will be “D.”

remove letter driveLetter

Once you’ve executed the above command, the drive letter will be removed, and as a result you can no longer see the drive in File Explorer.

If you ever want to unhide or mount the drive, then use the below command while replacing “driveLetter” with the actual drive letter.

assign letter driveLetter

Hide Drive Partitions Using Disk Management App

If you are uncomfortable using the command prompt approach, then you can use the built-in Disk Management utility to achieve the same task. To start, press “Win + X” and select the option “Disk Management” from the list of options. If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, you can search for the same in the Start Menu.

Once the Disk Management utility has been opened, right click on the drive you want to hide and select the option “Change drive letter and paths.”

The above action will open the “Change drive letter and paths” window. Here click on the button “Remove” in order to remove the assigned drive letter.

As soon as you click on the “Remove” button, Windows may display a warning window. Simply click on the “Yes” button to continue.

That’s all there is to do. With the above action, you have successfully unmounted or hidden the drive or partition on your Windows system. In fact, in the Disk Management utility you will see that drive is still present but has no drive letter assigned. Thus, it will not be visible in the File Explorer.

If you want to unhide the drive in the future, right click on the target drive and select the option “Change drive letter and paths.” Now click on the “Add” button to add the drive letter.

The above action will open the “Add drive letter or path” window. By default, Windows will automatically select the drive letter. If you want to change it, simply select the drive letter from the drop-down menu and click on the “Ok” button.

With this action, the drive letter will be reassigned, and you can find your partition in the File Explorer.

That’s all there is to do, and it is that simple to hide drives or partitions in Windows. Hopefully that helps, and do comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about using the above method to hide drives in Windows.

-   maketecheasier

WhatsApp Free For Computer via Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera

We can clearly say that WhatsApp is the mobile application of the moment. It has 800 million active users all over the world, but every day, around million people are registering to this app. In 2014, WhatsApp was purchased by Facebook for 19 billion dollars and since then, we’ve seen a lot of chances in this great mobile application.

There were some changes that not many users enjoyed, such as the blue ticks for read receipts, making lot of users to install WhatsApp Plus application on their mobile devices.

However, today we’re not going to talk about WhatsApp on mobile devices and instead we’re going to talk on how to use WhatsApp on your computer. It’s been a while since a lot of users have asked the WhatsApp developers to release a full WhatsApp version for PC, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, the developers have released a “WhatsApp Web” feature which can be used to log into your WhatsApp account on your PC via Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera.

Using WhatsApp Web on your PC

As we told you above, WhatsApp Web is not a full version of WhatsApp. This means that in order to use it, your device will still need to be connected to the internet. At the same time, WhatsApp application from your mobile device will need to run on your device or else WhatsApp Web will not synchronize and it will not work.

With other words, in case your mobile phone runs out of battery, WhatsApp Web will not function anymore.

So, in order to use WhatsApp, you will need to use one of these three browsers on your PC: Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera. WhatsApp’s developers said that they are going to support more browsers in the future but for now, only these three are working. After opening one of these three browsers, head to web.whatsapp.com and you will notice a QR code somewhere on left-middle of the page.

In order to log into your WhatsApp account, you will have to scan that QR code with your mobile device. To scan it, open WhatsApp on your mobile device, select menu and tap on “WhatsApp Web”. Once you tap on WhatsApp Web, the camera will open, which will allow you to scan the QR code. When the QR code is scanned, you will be automatically logged into your WhatsApp account.

However, as we told you above, you are quite limited and you will need to keep the WhatsApp application running on your device and at the same time, the device needs to stay connected to the internet.

You will be able to send files, take photos with your webcam, record short voice clips and send emojis.

Have you used WhatsApp Web on your computer yet? Tell us your thoughts about it!

-   PAU

How To Speed Up a Slow Computer – Top Tips and Tricks

It’s very frustrating to have a low-end computer that crashes when performing multiple commands, but high-end computers tend to run slow as well, due to many reasons. The users want to know how to make their computers run faster and to utilize their resources in the best possible way. One of the reasons why computers become sluggish over time is because they’re infected with viruses or other malware, so it’s recommendable to install an antivirus program and to scan your PC from time to time. Other methods to increase the performance of your computer will be enumerated in this article.

Uninstall unnecessary programs

When we need to use software programs urgently, we install them and use them once, then we forget about them, instead of removing them from our computers. Installing too many program file in the C partition will make the computer run slower, so it’s better to get rid of the programs that are no longer needed. To do that, go to Programs>Control Panel, select the program you want to uninstall and simply click on the Uninstall button. Also, the other partitions must be checked from time to time, to see if you’re running out of space. In case that happens, delete unnecessary files, or copy your current files on an external drive.

Replace applications with their alternatives

There are applications that consume a lot of RAM, but fortunately, there are alternatives that do the same job, but eat less memory. For example, you can install Microsoft Security Essentials and alternative to most of the free antivirus programs, instead of Microsoft Office, you can use OpenOffice, which is a free program, use the free Foxit Reader instead of Adobe Reader and update Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome to speed up the browser. If you’re using these alternatives, but your computer is still sluggish, add more RAM, then change the power scheme to high performance for increasing the consumption of power.

Disable unnecessary startup programs

When turning on a computer, there are programs that start automatically, causing a slow startup because they’re consuming system resources – both CPU and RAM. You can choose to disable them manually or to disable the unnecessary items by typing msconfig in the search bar in Start menu if your computer is running on Windows 7 or Windows Vista and on the Start screen, if you’re using Windows 8 or 8.1. Windows XP has a Run dialog box where you will type the command. When System Configuration utility will start, you will click on the Startup tab and you’ll select all the applications that you don’t want to start when the computer is turned on. After that, restart the computer and you will notice the changes in matter of performance.

Computers overheat

Sometimes, when running too many applications, computers overheat and run slower. To check the temperature of the processor, you can install Everest, a program that scan’s your computer for technical issues. Also, make sure you have a powerful vet fan which brings cool air into the computer and from time to time, clean it because dust deposits around the vent holes, preventing air flow.

Disable unnecessary visual effects

To improve the performance of your computer, disable the beautiful visual effects by pressing the combination Windows Key+R to launch the Run dialog box, then type sysdm.cpl, press Enter and go to the Advanced tab, click on Settings from the Performance section, encircle Adjust for best performance and click on Apply.

-  culturemob

How to Download Android Apps on PC from Google Play Store

Android is no doubt an awesome mobile operating system with many cool features which has millions and millions of apps and games available in the Google Play Store but the main problem is that you can’t download android apps to pc directly from Google Play Store as if you would download an app or game then it directly downloads the app or game on your android phone you can’t download it on your Pc so if your android phone will not have internet in it your won’t be able to download the app from Playstore. In order to download from Playstore you will need to have internet on your phone or you will need to have a Wifi Router at your place.Now no need to worry as I will show you guys How to Download Android Apps to Pc from Google Playstore to your Pc with just 1 click, and you will be able to download android apps or games on your Pc.

How to Download Android Apps on PC from Google Play Store :-

1)In order to Download Android Apps i.e Google Play Store Apps to your PC, first of all go to the Apk Downloader Website by clicking here :-Download Android Apps. Then  click on Click Here to Install now and the Google Chrome extension file will be downloaded as you can see in the Image below.

2)After Downloading the file just go to Google Chrome Extensions,you can go to Google Chrome Extensions by pressing Ctrl + H it will open up browser History then on the left side Navigation bar you will see Extensions just click on it and it will open the extensions page.Then just Drag and Drop the Google Chrome Extension file which you downloaded and then it will ask you to Confirm New Extension just click on Add as you can see in the Image below.

3)As soon as you add it you will be taken to a new window where the options of Apk Downloader will be there it will ask for email id, password and GSF id key (Google Service Framework)

How to Get that GSF id key (Google Service Framework) (Important to Download Android Apps) :-

4)Now just on your android device open dialer pad and dial *#*#8255#*#* as you can see in the Image below then a New Screen will open up i.e GTalk Service Monitor Screen will open up just scroll a bit down and just note down your device GSF id key i.e it will be your Device id as you can see in the Image below.

Note :- If you are not able to get the GSF id key by dailing *#*#8255#*#* then you can find it manually by using this app :- Android Device ID.

5)After noting down that key just enter that key on your Apk Downloader Option and Note use the same Gmail id and Password which you use on your android phone and then after filling the information just click on Login and you will be Logged in now you can close the window (Don’t Logout From Apk Downloader).

6)Now just Go to Google Playstore (Make sure you are logged in to your Google Playstore with the same account which you used earlier to log in to Apk downloader above) and then just open any app or game which you would like to download for instance I wanna download Angry Birds just open it up on Playstore (Make sure the app is free as you can’t download paid apps or games) then on the top you will see a new Icon in the URL bar as you can see in the Image below just click on it and it will ask you where you wanna save the Game Apk file just save and done ! Enjoy…

Tip :- If you cannot see the icon then just see to it you have the latest version of Google Chrome on your Pc.The whole method works 100%.

Note :- Make sure when you try to Download an App or Game from Playstore it shows Install as you can see in the Image above instead of Installed as if you have already Installed the App or Game and then click on that Icon from the Top then it takes you to a new screen and nothing happens.Many people complained below about this problem in the comments below :- So if you see Installed button instead of Install then In order to download just Login to your Playstore with any other Gmail account and then you will be able to download ! Enjoy… 

-  CTS

Mac Tip: How to create a new library in the Photos app

Creating separate libraries. It’s one of the best ways to go about organizing photos with the new Photos app in OS X Yosemite.  I find that using multiple libraries to separate things like work and personal life is a good strategy. Fortunately, it’s extremely simple to create new libraries and to switch between those libraries on the fly.

Step 1: Close the Photos app.

Step 2: Hold the Option (⌥) key on your Mac’s keyboard and click the Photos app in your dock.

Step 3: Click Create New…

Step 4: In the Save As field, give your new library a name. You can also change the location of the library by adjusting the Where field.

Step 5: Once you are satisfied with your new library name and location, click OK.

Step 6: To switch between libraries, open the Pictures folder and double-click on the library you wish to use. You can also hold the Option (⌥) key on your Mac’s keyboard and click the Photos app in your dock and then click Choose Library after selecting a listed library. You can use the Other Library option to locate a library located elsewhere that isn't listed.

You can only have one library open at any given time. If you try to open a library while another is opened, the first one will close before the second will be allowed to open.

-   idownloadblog

10 Tricks about Windows Registry

Greetings everyone!! We have a new batch of fascinating tips and tricks for you all. We hope you all are enjoying and learning new things from the articles in this category. Today we are going to discuss some tricks about Windows Registry. Many people are not concerned about the Windows Registry but there are various things one can do in it. We are going to discuss few important tricks that we believe will be useful for you.

TRICK 1:

Customizing the System Tray-

1. Go to Start menu and then go to Run (shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Now open RegEdit.
3. Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International
4. After that add two new String values i.e. “s1159″ and “s2359“
5. Finally right click the new value name and modify it.
6. Then enter anything you like up to 8 characters.

TRICK 2:

Locking out the unwanted users-

1. Go to Start menu and then go to Run ( shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Open the RegEdit
3. Then go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon
4. Now create a Dword value which “MustBeValidated“
5. Then set the value to 1
6. This will forcefully log on the machine in safe mood & it is applicable for Windows 9X.

TRICK 3:

Adding various New Shortcuts in My Computer in Windows 8-

1. First type regedit in RUN or Start Menu search box and then press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to the following position: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace”
3. Now you will need to create a new key under “NameSpace” key. Then Right-click on “NameSpace” key and select “New -> Key“. Now you’ll need to set its name to any of the following value mentioned in BOLD:

• Recycle Bin – {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
• Control Panel – {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
• Run – {2559A1F3-21D7-11D4-BDAF-00C04F60B9F0}
• Search – {2559A1F0-21D7-11D4-BDAF-00C04F60B9F0}
• Flip 3D – {3080F90E-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}
• Internet Explorer – {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
• Administrative Tools – {D20EA4E1-3957-11D2-A40B-0C5020524153}
• Network Connections – {7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
• Printers – {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D

4. After setting the value in registry, it’ll start showing the items in My Computer.

TRICK 4:

Refreshing Screen Automatically-

1. Go to Start menu à then go to Run (shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Open RegEdit
3. Then go toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update
4. Now set the value name “UpdateMode” to 1

 TRICK 5:

Disable Password-

1. Go to Start menu à then go to Run ( shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Open RegEdit
3. Go to the location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Network
4. Now add a Dword value “DisablePwdCaching” and set the value to 1

TRICK 6:

Adding Application to the Windows Desktop Right-click Menu for Windows 7 or 8-

1. At first open regedit.exe through the Start Menu search or through run box.
2. Then go to the location “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell”
3. After that Right-click on the “shell” key, and then choose New -Key from the menu.
4. Then give the new key the name that you want to show up on the desktop context menu example Notepad.

TRICK 7:

Adding multiple columns in the Start menu-

1. Go to Start menu à then go to Run (shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Open RegEdit
3. Then go to the location “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ Advanced”
4. Now create a string value named “StartMenuScrollPrograms“
5. Then Right click on the new string value and select the modify option & set the value to “FALSE“.

TRICK 8:

How to change the location of windows installation files-

1. Go to Start menu à then go to Run ( shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Open RegEdit
3. Then Go to the location “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Setup”
4. After that Edit the value next to SourcePath.

TRICK 9:

How to disable Drives in My Computer:

1. Go to Start menu à then go to Run (shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Open RegEdit
3. Then go to the location “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer”
4. Now add a new DWORD item and name it “NoDrives”.
5. Then give it a value of “3FFFFFF”
6. After that when you click on My Computer, any of your drives will not show in my computer.

TRICK 10:

Enabling the protection on system file-

1. Go to Start menu à then go to Run ( shortcut : Windows + R) for Windows XP and Windows 7 / Search in Windows 8 or 8 .1 and type RegEdit in the search area.
2. Open RegEdit.
3. Then go to the location “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\ Control\ SessionManager”
4. Now create a Dword value and name it “ProtectionMode ” & set the Value to”1”.

This is it for now. We hope that you will be applying some tricks that you have learned here. We will be back soon with some interesting insights. Stay tuned.

source: askdirt