geek rewind

This post describes steps one can take to enable or disable the lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen in Windows 11.

The lock screen is the screen or curtain you see when you turn on your computer before the sign in screen. It is also displayed once your computer is locked after you stepped away or press the Windows key + L.

The lock screen comes with a background picture that one can change and customize.

The sign-in screen is hidden just behind the lock screen. In order to view the sign-n screen, you must dismiss the lock screen by either pressing a key on your keyboard, clicking the mouse or swiping up on the lock screen (curtain).

The lock screen background picture will show on the sign-in screen by default. This post shows you how to not always to the lock screen background image on the sign-in screen.

Continue reading “How to Show or Hide the Lock Screen Background on Sign-in Screen in Windows 11”

This post describes steps one can take to change a drive or volume letter in Windows 11.

Windows will automatically assigns available letters to connected internal or external hard drives. Letters from A through Z are used to identify and name storage devices that are attached to Windows.

By default, A and B have always been assigned to floppy disk drives. However, you probably will never see a computer with a slot for floppy disk today. In this case, you can assign either A or B to another storage device that is connected to your computer.

Letter (C) is assigned to the System main drive (Local Disk (C:)) where Windows operating system is installed. In computers with multiple drives, the letter D is assigned to the second hard drive or a CD/DVD drive, if a second drive isn’t available.

Letter, E, F G and so forth are assigned based on devices connected with first device been assigned the next unassigned letter in the alphabet.

Below is how to change a drive or volume letter in Windows 11.

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This post describes steps one can take to rename a drive or volume label in Windows 11.

Windows and drive manufactures assign user friendly names to internal and external drives or volumes. The default internal local drive (C:) will always be called Local Disk as its volume label.

A USB thumb or flash drive will have a USB Drive label typically or the brand name and model of the USB drive.

A volume formatted using NTFS can have a label with up to 32 characters in length, including spaces. A drive formatted using FAT32 can have a label with up to 11 characters in length.

We showed you how to mount a folder as a drive in Widows. You can use this method to rename the drive label.

Below is how to change or rename a volume label in Windows 11.

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This post describes steps one can take to mount or map a local folder as drive in Windows 11.

Windows allows users to map network folders as drive. With some tricks, user can also mount or map a local folder as a drive in Windows 11.

Previously, we showed you how to mount an external or internal drive as in a folder rather than a drive letter. This makes the drive appear as just another folder.

The contents of the drive will still physically be located on the drive. You will be able to access the drive’s content via the mounted folder path. Whatever you save in the folder, will actually be saved on the drive.

If you also want to learn how to mount a local folder as a physical drive with a letter, the steps below will show you how to do that.

Continue reading “How to Mount a Folder as Drive in Windows 11”

This post describes steps one can take to mount a drive in a folder rather than a drive letter in Windows 11.

Windows lets you mount internal or external drive in an empty folder. This makes the drive appear as just another folder.

The contents of the drive will still physically be located on the drive. You will be able to access the drive’s content via the mounted folder path. Whatever you save in the folder, will actually be saved on the drive.

You can mount drives only in empty folders on basic or dynamic NTFS volumes. If a folder contains content, you won’t be able to mount it as a drive in Windows.

Below is how to mount a drive as folder rather than a letter.

Continue reading “How to Mount a Drive in a folder in Windows 11”

This post describes steps one can take to start and end focus session in Windows 11.

Focus is a new feature in Windows 11 that helps you minimize distractions. To help you stay on track, it integrates with the Clock app with features like a focus timer and music integration.

When you start a focus session, taskbar badging will turn off, flashing of applications in the taskbar will turn off, a focus timer will appear on screen, and do not disturb will turn on.

When you’re in a focus session, the following will happen:

• A focus timer will appear on your screen
• Do not disturb will turn on
• Apps in the taskbar won’t flash to alert you
• Badge notifications on apps in the taskbar will turn off

You’ll receive a notification when your focus session has ended. If you need to, you can also end a focus session early and start receiving notifications again.

Below is how to start and end focus session in Windows 11.

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This post describes steps one can take to check disk for error using the chkdsk command in Windows 11.

chkdsk is a Windows command that checks the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors. If you run the chkdsk command without parameters, it displays only the status of the volume and does not fix any errors.

If used with the /f, /r, /x, or /b parameters, it fixes errors on the drive or volume.

To run chkdsk, you must be a member of the local Administrators group, or equivalent. You must also open Windows Terminal as administrator in order to run chkdsk command successfully.

Below is how to use chkdsk to check for and fix bad sectors on your system’s hard drive or volume in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Check Drive for Errors with CHKDSK in Windows 11”

This post describes steps one can take to purchase a Windows 11 digital product key from Microsoft to activate Windows.

When you purchase a new PC with Windows, it will come with a Windows 11 product key embedded in the UEFI firmware chip which will be used to activate Windows 11.

Microsoft allows free upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10. So, you can technically use your Windows 10 key to activate a clean install of Windows 11.

If you purchase a PC with Windows installed but not activated, you’ll have to buy a digital product key of Windows 11 to activate your device. If you don’t activate Windows, it will lock up after a certain time has elapsed.

If you want to buy Windows product key to activate your device, the steps below will help you.

Continue reading “How to Buy Digital Product Key for Windows 11 from Microsoft”

This post describes steps one can take to change Live captions on-screen bar position in Windows 11.

Live captions is a new feature in Windows that will help everyone, including people who are deaf or hard of hearing, better understand audio by viewing captions of spoken content.

When you enable or turn on Live captions, you will also be able to choose where to display captions, including at the top, bottom or in a floating window of your screen.

The captions window can also be resized, apperence customized using different captions style available in Windows.

While live captions is running, it captions bar will also be displayed. The default location is at the top of the screen. You can change the location whenever you want, and the steps below show you how to do that.

Continue reading “How to Change Live Captions On Screen Bar Position in Windows 11”

This post describes steps one can take to turn On or Off Sign-in on Wakeup in Windows 11.

To secure your account, Windows will prompt you to sign-in again when your computer wakes up from sleep, hibernation, or resumes from modern standby.

These security measures are added to Windows to make sure no one can access your account and sensitive data simply by waking up your computer from sleep, hibernation or other power states and logging in without password.

If you don’t have any security concerns, you can disable it entirely so that your computer can’t prompt you to enter your password again to sign-in when it wakes up from standby.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable to require sign-in on wakeup from sleep, hibernate, or Modern Standby for all users in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Enable or Disable Require Sign-in on Wakeup in Windows 11”

This post describes steps to enable or disable a feature that tells Windows to automatically dismiss the Lock screen if your face is recognized when using Windows Hello face recognition sign-in option.

With Windows Hello, one can use a PIN, facial recognition, picture or fingerprint to sign into their Windows devices. Windows Hello feature offers several ways one can ditch their passwords in favor of a more secure and personal method of authentication.

When you setup Windows Hello facial recognition sign-in option, you can also choose to enable or disable “Automatically dismiss lock screen if Windows recognizes your face” option.

Below is how to turn it on or off.

Continue reading “How to Turn On or Off Auto Dismiss Lock Screen if Windows Recognizes Face in Windows 11”

This post describes steps one can take to enable or disable Windows attachment manager that blocks files downloaded from the internet to your computer.

The Attachment Manager in Windows helps protect your computer from unsafe attachments that you might receive with an e-mail message and from unsafe files that you might save from the Internet.

If the Attachment Manager identifies an attachment that might be unsafe, it prevents you from opening the file, or it warns you before you open the file.

In Windows, you might get a warning that Windows protected your PC.

Attachment Manager classifies file types as high risk, medium risk, and low risk.:

• High Risk
  If the attachment is in the list of high risk file types and is from the restricted zone, Windows blocks the user from accessing the file before accessing the file.
• Moderate Risk
  If the attachment is in the list of Moderate Risk file types, Windows will not prompt the user before accessing the file, regardless of the file’s zone information.
• Low Risk
  If the attachment is in the list of low risk file types, Windows will not prompt the user before accessing the file, regardless of the file’s zone information.

If your computer is unnecessarily blocking useful file and slowing down your work, you can disable blocking of files entirely.

Continue reading “How to Block or Unblock Files Downloaded from Internet in Windows 11”