Windows 8

How to change system locale in Windows 8 and Windows 7

June 27, 2014 By Ravi Shankar 2 Comments

Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 system locale can be changed using the Change System Locale options available under Control Panel.

Change system locale in Windows 8.1

Launch Control Panel on Windows 8.1 and Select Clock, Language and Region option.

Click Change location under link under Region section

In the Region dialog, click the Change system locale button under Language for non-Unicode programs.

Now you can change the system locale using Current system locale dropdown list.

Change system locale in Windows 7

Navigate to Control Panel -> Region and Language

Clicking on the Region and Language link, would display the Region and Language dialog as shown below.

Change System locale option will be available under the Administrative tab and on clicking the button, the following locale selection dialog box would be displayed

using which the required locale can be selected.

How to hide windows updates on Windows 8.1

June 21, 2014 By Ravi Shankar 3 Comments

In this short tutorial, we are going cover the steps required to hide and restore windows updates on Windows 8.1.

Why do you want to hide windows updates?

It is recommended to install all the major updates or patches released for Operating Systems. But if there are any Important or Optional updates for some built-in application which your are using then you hide those updates. For example, you are using Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer then you can skip all the updates delivered for Internet Explorer. When you hide those updates, Windows will keep you prompting about the available updates.

Listed below are the steps to hide Windows Updates on Windows 8.1

Step 1: Right click on Windows icon and select Control Panel from the list.

Step 2: In the Control Panel window, select System and Security option.

Step 3: In the System and Security window, click Windows Update link

Step 4: Select the updates listed under Windows Update screen.

Let us say you want to hide all the optional updates, Click Optional updates under the listed updates.

Step 5: In the “Select the updates you want to install” screen, select the updates that you want hide (not the check box selection) then right click and choose Hide updates.

This should disable all the checkboxes and prevent users from selecting those updates.

How to unhide or restore hidden updates on Windows 8.1

If you later decide to change your mind and want to install the hidden updates then you can restore using the “Restore hidden updates” option under Windows Update screen.

In the Restore Updates screen, select the updates and click the Restore button available at the bottom of the screen. This should make the updates available for installing on your Windows 8.1.

Also See: Checking whether your Windows 8 PC is up to date?

How to make Internet Explorer 11 as default browser on Windows 8.1

June 12, 2014 By Ravi Shankar Leave a Comment

Windows 8.1 users can make Internet Explorer as the default browsers using Internet Options. Windows 8.1 comes with IE 11 as the default browser but if you have changed this setting then you can follow the below mentioned steps to revert the changes.

How to set Internet Explorer 11 as default browser

Step 1: Launch Internet Explorer and click the Settings icon available on the Top right hand side.

Step 2: Navigate to Programs tab in Internet Options window.

Step 3: Click “Make Internet Explorer the default browser” link under Opening Internet Explorer section. This should launch the Default Programs window as shown below.

Step 4: Select Internet Explorer under Programs section then choose “Set this program as default” option.

If you want to make Internet Explorer as default programs for only selected file types then click Choose defaults for this program option. Now select the extensions for which you want to have Internet Explorer as the default program.

Also See: How to disable the default browser check for Internet Explorer

How to set photos as screensaver on Windows 8

February 11, 2013 By Ravi Shankar 1 Comment

Windows 8 allows user to display photos in the system as screensaver using the option available as part of Windows Personalization.

Step 1: Click the Personalisation option under the Windows 8 settings.

You can also launch Personalisation window by right clicking on the desktop.

Step 2: In the Personalisation window, click the Screen Saver option available at the bottom of the window.

Step 3: In the Screen Saver Settings, set Photo Gallery for the Screen saver drop down.

If you want to customize the display of Photo Gallery then click the Settings button.

Using Photos Gallery Screen Saver Settings window, you can specify whether all photos and videos Photo Gallery or photos and videos from specified folder needs to be used. Also options are available to set the theme and and slide show speed for the display of screen saver.

Step 4: After making necessary changes, click the Save button to confirm and save the changes.

Photos as Screen Saver

Windows 8 users can specify Photos from specific folder for Screen Saver instead of Photos Gallery.

Using the Photos Screen Saver Settings, you can specify the folder containing the pictures and Speed of the Slide Show.