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How to Fix MBR ( Master Boot Record ) Damages Using Fdisk Commands

MBR (Master Boot Record ) is stored in the first sector (512-byte) of hard disk and contains a primary partition table, disk signature, and instructions for BIOS to boot the computer are stored. It is stored outside the partition. It is created while hard disk partition. Any damage to this area is fatal because it can even stop your PC from booting. Damages to Master Boot Record can happen due to improper installation of multiple Operating Systems, certain virus attack, and hard disk error. This tutorial explains the reasons for MBR damages and quick fix to it.

Possible Reasons for MBR Damage

  1. Possible Virus attack

    There is a special type of malware called MBR virus, with the capability to damage the Master Boot Record by replacing the original MBR with another one created by it. Original Master Boot Record sector will be moved to some other locations in the hard disk. These viruses can start with system boot-ups even before loading OS and escape from normal Anti Virus scanning.

  2. Hard Disk Drive error

  3. Improper installation of multiple OS

Ill Effects Of a Damaged MBR

In most cases, users will find difficulties with starting their computers in safe mode. They will either don't see safe mode option in the boot menu or safe booting fails. If the damage is big, your PC may not start at all. So it is very important to fix any corruption as soon as possible.

How to Recover Corrupted Master Boot Record

To recover this sector, we have some tools which operate in recovery mode. We cannot actually change the MBR while Windows is running. Those recovery commands are provided below.

  1. Fdisk /mbr

    The MS-DOS command Fdisk /mbr rewrites the MBR on the disk and it will resolve all corruptions. This command is useless if your computer is infected with MBR viruses because they will again reinfect the new Master Boot Record sector. Hardware specialists do not recommend this command to fix issues and they recommend another command. That is the next one.

  2. Fixmbr

    This command works in Recovery Console only. The command, fixmrb, provides us with an option to specify the location of master boot record. It helps to fix the mbr of devices other than the master boot device. The only downside I see is the requirement of Windows Disc while running this tool. If you use this tool to recover MBR of another device (not the master boot device), you must use the following format.

    fixmbr (device_name)

Steps to run Fixmbr on your computer

  • Restart PC

    Restart your computer with Windows CD, where DVD/CD drive is the primary boot device.

  • Recovery Console

    Press the R key to start the Recovery Console when it prompts.

  • In Recovery Console command prompt, type fixmbr and follow the instructions

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Better 3D Tab Management For Firefox Browser- FoxTab

Do you find any difficulties with managing tabs on Firefox when multiple browser tabs opened on your computer? If yes, you can easily manage opened tabs with the help of a new Add-on named FoxTab. After installing it, you will find no difficulties in accessing your favorite websites or efficiently managing Firefox tabs on your computer. It also easily guide you to reopen recently closed tabs on your computer. Let us check the major benefits of using this add-on. This 3D tab management add-on helps you to:

  • Easily access your favorite websites

  • Easily manage opened  tabs

  • Reopen recently closed  tabs

Let us check how to install this add-on on your computer. The same tool can be installed on Chrome browser also. So while downloading this tool on your PC, you must select the correct version which supports the browser you are using. If you are using Chrome, you must select the Chrome version, otherwise, this tool will not work.  To install the 3D tab management Firefox plugin, follow the instructions below.

How to Install FoxTab

  1. Visit the link below on Firefox browser.
    http://www.foxtab.com/

  2. Click on Download Now button.


  3. Follow the installation directions by click Allow
    FoxTab for Firefox

  4. Click on Install Now
    three dimensional tab management

  5. Restart Firefox
    Better 3D Tab Management

  6. To launch the FoxTab, click on the icon in the toolbar

    Browser Tab management

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Turn Off / On Windows Security and Maintenance Popups

By default Windows shows warnings and alerts related to the not recommended security settings on your PC. For example, if the Antivirus installed on your PC is outdated or require an update, you will get a pop up from Microsoft Action Center. Similarly, you will be warned about the not recommended settings for Windows backup, troubleshooting, updates, network firewall etc. These alerts are very useful to understand the wrong system configurations but some users find it disturbing. If a user changed the default configuration as part of troubleshooting or customization, he doesn't like to receive security and maintenance alters about the changes he made.
change


Turn Off Security and Maintenance Popups

Microsoft provides a method to disable unwanted security and maintenance alters on Windows 8 and 7 from Action Center. By disabling the Security messages and maintenance messages, you can turn Off almost every alerts in Windows 8 and 7. Now let us check how to do it.

  1. Click on Start

  2. Go to Control Panel
    safety popup

  3. Click on Review your Computer's status
    block popup

  4. Click on Change Action Center settings
    turn

    Now you will get the option to turn off or turn on windows messages related to following items in your computer.

    •   Update

    • Internet Security settings

    • Network Firewall

    • Spyware and related problems

    • User Account Control

    • Virus protection

    • Backup

    • Troubleshooting

    • Check for update

    You just need to uncheck items shown in the list to disable alerts for that item.

If you do not want to get popups which say the Windows Update is turned on and you must turn on it back, all you have to do is to uncheck the checkbox near this feature. If you have unchecked the Network Firewall box, you will never see any popups which alert you the issues with that feature.

Turn On Microsoft Security and Maintenance Popups

Now let us check how to revert the changes we have made. If you want to see popups which alert you the faulty configurations you have made on your laptop, you must follow the steps from 1 to 4 and enable the boxes near the feature for which you want to enable security popup.

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Delete Spam & Junk Emails Before Reaching Inbox

Spam is a big problem for Internet users and emails spamming is one of the worst. Think about a situation wherein the morning while opening your email account, seeing countless junk messages in the inbox. You may even miss important messages from your real contacts among these useless promotional emails. Since the number of these junk messages are high, you cannot unsubscribe or mark the full emails as spam. Email service providers have an option to delete those emails before they come to your inbox. This guide tells how to delete all the junk emails based on any of the following conditions before reaching the inbox.
  1. Address of the sender

  2. The subject of the mail

  3. Specific words in the mail

In Gmail, we need to create a filter to sweep out all the junk emails satisfying the conditions which are set. After creating the filter we can set the result as delete all the emails satisfy the condition before coming to the inbox. To perform this follow the steps below.
  1. Log on to your Gmail account

  2. Click on Settings
    bulk

  3. Click on Filters tab

  4. Now click on Create a New Filter

  5. Set filter criteria

    Here you can set the criteria for your filter. You can set it on the basis of sender email address, the subject of the mail or specify the keywords. After setting this, click next.

  6. Now check to Delete it and Also apply a filter to X conversations below
    Delete spam

  7. Click on Create Filter

Now onwards the emails which come under filter criteria will be deleted before coming to your inbox. If you apply a filter to the emails already in the inbox, they too will be removed.

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Delete Saved Preferred Wireless Network Profiles On Windows 8, 7 & XP

Windows OS has the ability to remember WiFi profiles on your computer once you join the network. We call preferred networks to denote these saved WiFi profiles which consist of details like SSID, wireless key, encryption etc. When you are back in range of a saved profile, your PC will automatically connect to it. Though this feature is helpful, rarely it makes some issues too. In case if admin changed the wireless key, your PC will try to use the old information to join it and cause connectivity issues. In that case, we need to delete the old saved profile. On Windows 7 and XP we can do it from Graphical User Interface but there is no such option available on Windows 8. If your PC runs on Windows 8, you must use Command Prompt to see the preferred network and you must delete any of them from there only. This tutorial explains how to view and remove any preferred networks on your system.

Delete Saved Wireless Networks On Windows 8

This Operating System does not offer any straight ways to remove preferred WiFi details from GUI and we should go to Command Prompt to perform it.

  1. Type cmd on Search and Open Command Prompt

  2. Type netsh wlan show profile and press enter to view all saved preferred profiles

  3. Type netsh wlan delete profile name=name of the one you want to delete and press enter

This procedure will delete all information stored on your PC related to that profile.


View or Edit Saved wireless networks On Windows 7

Here we can use GUI to find the list of preferred networks stored on a laptop.

  1. Click on Start

  2. Click on Control Panel

  3. Click on Network and Internet
    How to edit preferred wireless networks on Windows 7

  4. Click on Network Status and Tasks
    See saved wireless networks profile

  5. Click on Manage Wireless Networks panel
    Manage Wireless Panel on Windows 8

    Now the all stored WiFi details will be shown. You can select the anyone from the list (preferred profiles ) and click on remove.  After this, your computer no longer remembers that network.

You can use the same command prompt procedure to perform this task on Windows 7 too. Since it is already explained, I am not repeating the same steps. You can use the same steps to view and remove any expired wireless profile from your computer from Command Prompt using the command netsh wlan delete profile name=name of the profile.

Manage Preferred Networks On XP

If your computer runs on XP Operating System, you can manage all WiFi profiles stored on your PC by following the instructions provided in the link below.
How to Manage Preferred Profiles On XP

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  2. I am Getting  Automatic Private IP Address

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  5. The Connection Has Limited Or No Connectivity

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Default User Logon Picture to all users in Windows 10 and Vista

How about restricting users with a predefined user image in the login window without having a chance to change it? It is possible in Windows 7 and  Vista by setting group policy editor options. The name of the policy which should be edited is User Accounts in Group policy editor and it applies default user logon picture to all users. This policy setting allows an administrator to standardize the logon pictures for everyone on a system to the default image. Microsoft tells one application of this policy as it helps a company to standardize the login picture.


If you enable this policy setting, the default login picture will display for everybody on the system with no customization allowed. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, users will be able to customize their logon pictures. Before going to make these changes, it is important to know the location where Microsoft profile photos are stored. It is important to make sure the photo, which you are going to enforce to all users, is stored at that location.

Default User logon images stored at

Profile Login Picture is stored in the following folder with the name user.bmp.
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures

The default guest picture is stored at :
"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures " in the name guest.bmp

If there is no such pictures exist, an empty frame is displayed in the login window.



Enable Default User Logon picture to all users

Follow the simple steps below to enable default logon picture to all Windows users in your computer.
  1. Click on the Windows start logo

  2. On Search type gpedit.msc and press enter

    Now the group policy edit window will open. Navigate to the User Accounts which is under the control panel.
    control profile photos

  3. The path is:

    Local computer policy > Computer configuration > Administrative Templates > Control panel > User Accounts

  4. We should double click on the user account and open the default user login Picture configuration window.
    check

    We should check to enable button.

This feature is supported by Windows 7 and Windows Vista only. Once the settings are saved, you will see the effect from next reboot onwards. Most important beneficiaries of this feature are big companies. It can assure uniqueness among their staff while sign in to PCs. Now let us check some other cool Microsoft OS tweaks explained on CoreNetworkZ.

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Firefox Right Click Menu Doesn't Have Properties Option

After upgrading from Firefox 3.5.5 to Firefox 3.6, I couldn't see properties option in right click menu. When I right click on a link to find the link properties, I failed to find properties option in the right-click menu. At first, I thought my computer may have infected or some add-on conflicts causing this issue. I checked Mozilla support for the issue (missing element properties in Firefox 3.6 menu) and found that Mozilla team has removed this feature from their latest update. I cannot understand why they have removed this option and I couldn't find any equivalent feature. I am not alone, many users are not happy with this unexpected move of Mozilla team and we really want this element back as soon as possible.


Update: Mozilla team introduced a new plugin to bring back missing properties option in Firefox 3.6 at last.


Mozilla team introduces a new add-on to bring back the missing option in Firefox 3.6. To install this add-on to bring the missing option back to latest versions, visit the link below. Instructions to install this plugin is explained below.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14228

How to Show Element Properties in Firefox Menu

If you are desperately looking for the missing element properties in the Mozilla browser menu, you can add it by installing a new add-on. All you have to do it to visit the link provided above and click Add to Firefox button. This window looks like this.
missing Element properties

After completing the installation, you will be asked to restart the browser.
missing menu element

Reports of Possible Bug

There is a report saying that the missing of properties option was due to a bug(#513147) and was not an intentionally made change. Since there is no official declaration about it yet, I won't be able to conclude whether it is a big issue. I am still waiting for an official announcement to clarify this issue.

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