A user account is essential for managing multiple users on a computer. It is where your configurations and favorites are stored and where account limits are enforced. The main user must have a Microsoft account but all other users can use either Microsoft or local user accounts. Today we will show you how to create and remove user accounts in Windows 10.

Create a user account in Windows 10

If you have multiple users who all spend time on a single computer, user accounts are essential for controlling each user’s impact on the others. Any changes to color, themes, desktop icons, favorites and more can be saved to each individual account and not affect any others. For that alone they are worth using!

Also, if you have users who like to mess around with computer settings, a limited user accounts protects your computer from the worst of that fiddling.

Local user accounts don’t require a Microsoft login so I’ll show you how to create one of those.

Here’s how to create a local user account.

1. Right click the Windows Start button and select Settings.
2. Select Accounts and Family & Other Users.
3. Select Add someone else to this PC.
4. Select I don't have this person's sign-in information to create a local account.
5. Select Add a user without a Microsoft account.
6. Enter a username and a password twice. Add a password hint.
7. Select Next to complete setup.

Whenever you want to switch users, select the Windows Start button, select the current user and select your new account from the list.

Remove a user account from Windows 10

If you have multiple user accounts and no longer need them, it takes less than a minute to remove them.

1. Right click the Windows Start button and select Settings and then Accounts.
2. Navigate to Family & Other Users. You should see all users in the right pane.
3. Select the user you want to remove and select Remove.
4. Confirm when prompted.

The user and their configuration details will be removed from the computer. You can repeat this as many times as you need as long as the main owner account remains in place.

If you have a Windows that needs more involved help, contact Dave’s Computers in New Jersey. We would be happy to help!

RAID, or a Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a way of sharing data across multiple hard drives to enhance redundancy. It is usually used in business as a resilience measure but can also be used on home computers too. If you have three or more of the same hard drive, running RAID is a viable way of making sure you don’t suffer data loss.

RAID is a system of striping or mirroring to share data between multiple hard drives. Files are split between them and will appear on two drives. We will use RAID 5 which uses striping with a parity bit. This means that data is shared across two drives and then enough mathematical data is created on the third, the parity bit, for the operating system to rebuild the data should it be lost on one of the other drives.

If you don’t want to back up your data to external storage and the cloud, using RAID is a good way to avoid data loss. It is not foolproof though. RAID obviously depends on the health and reliability of your hard drives. Should two fail, you will still lose your data.

You will need to be running Windows 10 Professional and have three or more identical hard drives for this to work.

RAID in Windows 10

Setting up RAID in Windows 10 uses the Storage Spaces application built into the operating system. It takes much of the hard work out of configuring RAID and does most of the work for you.

1. Install all of the hard drives into your computer and let it boot into Windows 10.
2. Back up everything you cannot afford to lose just in case.
3. Type ‘Storage Spaces’ into the Windows Search box.
4. Select Create a new pool and storage space. Windows will check all drives for compatibility and list them in the next window.
5. Select all the drives you want to include in your RAID setup.
6. Select the RAID type under Resiliency by selecting the drop down menu. Select Parity for RAID 5.
7. Set the drive size under Size. It should default to the correct setting so you may not need to do this.
8. Select Create Storage Space.
9. Wait for the process to complete and you should then see a single drive in Windows Explorer.
10. Type ‘Manage Storage Spaces’ into the Windows Search box for details on your array.

Now any data you store on your disk will be striped across three disks. Two data parts and a parity part. If you lose one disk, data can be recreated once you replace it. Lose two disks and things become trickier but not impossible to recreate your data.

If you do lose two RAID disks, you may want to bring them to Dave’s Computers in New Jersey before trying to recover them yourself. We are data recovery experts and will ensure you don’t lose any more data than absolutely necessary!

My post last week on ‘Can you run Windows Server 2016 at home?’ prompted another question from a Dave’s Computer customer. He wanted to know if there is any advantage to running a portable version of Windows 10 instead of installing it the usual way. As he travels a lot and installing everything onto a USB drive instead of trying to take a laptop through airport security was appealing. But is it practical?

Airport security is enough to put anyone off travelling with a computer. Even if you’re a US citizen, you can be interrogated and required to unlock your phone or laptop and allow TSA agents to inspect it. So is there a way around that while staying within the rules?

Windows 10 portable

There is an official portable version of Windows 10 you could use in this instance. You or your employer must have a Windows Enterprise license and use specific USB drives certified for Windows To Go, but if you have those, you can use this method. For most other users, it is a real hassle to get Windows 10 working on a USB drive.

There are programs like Rufus that will let you write the OS to USB but it takes time and configuring. Rufus is also not compatible with the newer versions of Windows 10 and may leave you running an outdated version.

Portable computing

If you want to travel while keeping your private data private, you can. You can either use a Linux installation on a USB or factory reset your laptop.

Portable Linux – Linux distributions come in portable formats ready to go. It takes minutes to install and will run a fully working installation onto any USB drive you have with enough space. The upside is that most Linux distros will work and you don’t need to buy a specific, and expensive, compatible USB drive. The downside is that if you don’t know Linux, the learning curve can be steep.

Factory reset your laptop – Many companies who fly in and out of the US use this method and it works. Whether you’re a home or business user, this can save a lot of time. Save all your personal or company data to cloud storage. Wipe your laptop and install your productivity apps. Don’t add any personal or business data to the laptop. When you get to your destination, use your cloud copies to work and save it all to the cloud and not your laptop.

The upside is that you still get to use your laptop and programs you’re familiar with. The downside is that TSA may still want a look at your laptop and delay your onward travel. They just won’t find anything.

I wouldn’t suggest running a portable version of Windows 10. It doesn’t work so well and can be sluggish to use. If the previous two options are not good for your needs, you can always try!

We had a customer in the store the other day asking if he could run Windows Server 2016 at home. He got a free copy from someone he worked with and wanted to use it on his home computer. It was a legit copy and cheaper than buying a Windows 10 license. So can he use it?

The short answer is yes if the license is legit. The longer answer is that you will go without certain quality of life features in Windows 10 if you do. We tried it here at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey when Windows 10 first came out and got most things working but it did take a lot of configuring to do it.

Windows Home Server

If you want to run Windows Server 2016 and are fortunate enough to have a license, it installs the same as Windows 10, looks very similar and will have a similar feel too. There the similarities end. Windows Server 2016 is designed for use as a server and not a desktop. You will need to load the Server Desktop version and learn now to use server roles.

You will also need to enable things like WiFi if you have it and some audio and graphics features. Server Manager within Windows Server 2016 can help with this.

As drivers have matured, most will now work with Windows Server 2016. That means your graphics driver, audio driver, network card driver, motherboard driver and so on should work. If they have Windows 10 versions, those same versions should work with Server.

However, some programs and many games will not work, or will not work flawlessly on Windows Server 2016. Some programs will not work with the server OS while others won’t work properly. Not all games will correctly recognize Windows Server 2016 and not work either.

If you’re not a gamer and use basic programs, you should be fine. As long as you familiarize yourself with Server Manager and server roles, you could be up and running in a short space of time. Windows Server 2016 uses less disk space and fewer resources than Windows 10 but doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the latter. If you can live without those, you should be fine!

One final thing about running Windows Server 2016 at home. You may be used to automatic updates, apps that update themselves, Cortana and easy downloads and updates. All these things will be slightly more difficult with Windows Server 2016. It is regularly updated but not as often as Windows 10. It needs to be configured for automatic updates too. There is no Cortana, although that might be a good thing and you have to authorize and manually enable the ability to download from the internet.

If you can live with those too, you can use Windows Server 2016 at home.

There are a bunch of PC cleaner apps and tuning programs that offer to help keep your Windows computer running smoothly. Some are free such as CCleaner while others are premium, like PC Health Advisor. There are also ads everywhere online offering PC cleaning software for a modest cost. Do you need things applications running on Windows 10? Do you need to pay to keep your computer running well?

The short answer is no, you certainly do not need to pay to keep Windows 10 running smoothly. I would definitely avoid buying any ‘PC cleaning’ software from an internet ad. Whether you install a free program or not is up to you. The guys here at Dave’s Computers have tried all kinds of cleaning and tuning software in our time. Some of the programs are useful, others not so much.

During the Windows 95 to Windows 8 era, these programs did offer modest value. Windows wasn’t so good at housekeeping and would use up all your disk space, not completely clean the registry when you uninstalled an app and was something of a sulky teenage when it came to keeping things tidy. This is where tuning and cleaning applications were useful.

Now we have Windows 10, you don’t need anything else to keep things running smoothly.

Windows 10 housekeeping

While still far from perfect, Windows 10 has made huge strides in usability, utility and appeal. It now manages its own disk space, offers to clean the recycle bin every month, does a far better job at cleaning the registry when uninstalling and tries to keep everything running smoothly.

Windows 10 can repair it’s own registry. It enables you to empty the junk folder yourself. It has its own disk cleaner. It can defragment its own drives and you don’t need to defrag an SSD. You can clear your own browser cookies and history in a couple of clicks. You can cleanly uninstall your own applications.

These things are what most PC tuning or cleaning applications offer to do.

Never buy PC cleaning software from an ad

When I say ads, I don’t mean sponsored ads by recognized companies, I mean web ads for companies you have never heard of for programs that offer to revolutionize your computing experience by speeding it up, clearing out the junk and cleaning the registry.

At best all these programs do is what Windows can do itself. At worst, it will scare you with hundreds of ‘errors’ and ask you to pay to fix them. Some of these apps try to charge users up to $50 for a license to do what Windows can already do.

Don’t fall for the hype.

Use CCleaner if you want a tune up

If you like being able to perform all housekeeping tasks from a single place, Piriform’s CCleaner is the way to go. There is a free version which is plenty enough or a decent Pro version that automates all of the processes. For most home users, the free version is plenty enough.

It can clean out old files, free up disk space, tidy up the registry, change startup items and offers an easy way to uninstall old programs. All things Windows can do but in a tidy interface. Best of all, it’s free and it works!

The Windows 10 April 2019 Update is the next big download for Windows and is expected sometime in that month. Given how the October Update went, you would be forgiven for not waiting for this next one with baited breath. However, as computers are our thing, the guys here at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey are always up to date.

The Windows 10 April 2019 Update, version 1903 is the biannual big update that is part of the new vision of a single operating system that evolves over time. Hopefully it will avoid the pitfalls of the last update and all should be well.

Here’s what we expect with the Windows 10 April 2019 Update.

New light theme

A new light theme is counterpoint to the Windows dark theme introduced last time. It has been confirmed for this update and will deliver a light taskbar, start menu, folder border and new icons that work with this new look. You should be able to mix elements of light and dark too to create a personal look.

Window Sets

Window Sets were supposed to be with us in October but were deemed not ready. This is a new way to group apps so they work more like browser tabs. For someone like me who has lots of Word or Excel documents open at once, I will be able to group them together to manage my desktop easier.

New login screen

A new login screen is supposed to be cleaner, easier to understand and use and provide the ability to log in using Hello Face, Hello Fingerprint and Hello PIN.

Improved Start menu

The Windows Start Menu is also supposed to see the love. It has been decluttered and tidied up so it is clearer and offers a much more streamlined way to work with apps. It will still come with the bloatware inherent in Windows now but general use should be better.

Separation of search and Cortana

The separation of search and Cortana is long overdue. I don’t know anyone who uses Cortana on their desktop once the initial experimentation is done. From April, Cortana will be separate from search and will work individually. Searching on your computer will then more closely resemble web search and should work much better.

Pause Windows Update

You will also be able to pause Windows Update, which is great news. If you’re not ready or don’t want to run it at that time, you can pause the system until fixes have been released or a repaired update package is ready for download.

Reserved Space

A more controversial change is the introduction of Reserved Space. Windows 10 will reserve 7GB of disk space for its own use and you have no control over it. That’s a lot of disk space to take even if Windows won’t use it and is not going down well with reviewers.

Windows Sandbox

Windows Sandbox is a neat feature that we at Dave’s Computers are likely to use a lot. It allows you to run a virtualized instance of Windows where you can experiment with settings, new programs and other customizations. It offers a lot of scope for testing before committing to installs or configurations and should be quite useful.

There are other features apparently coming in the Windows 10 April 2019 Update but these are what I think are the notable ones. I am cautiously looking forward to this one!

Does Storage Sense keep deleting your downloaded files in Windows 10? Store files and programs in your Download folder and keep losing them to this housekeeping tool? Today I’m going to show you how to stop that happening.

I like Storage Sense. We use it on our Windows 10 machines here at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey and it works fine. I do have a habit of storing things in my download folder though and sometimes they go missing. It took a little while for me to figure out what was going on and then I figured it was Storage Sense.

Storage Sense is a feature introduced in Windows 10 to automatically manage your disk space. It’s a great theory. It monitors your disks, files, downloads and folders and will automatically tidy them up for you. It deletes items from your recycle bin, temporary folders and browser cache to help keep things running smoothly.

Stop Storage Sense deleting downloaded files

It’s actually quite straightforward to stop Storage Sense deleting items in your Downloads folder.

1. Right click the Windows Start button and select Settings.
2. Select System and Storage.
3. Select the ‘Change how we free up space automatically’ text link.
4. Select Never where you see ‘Delete files in my Downloads folder’.

It’s such a simple fix for a very annoying feature. Sure it’s kind of my own fault for leaving things randomly in my Downloads folder but I, and is seems many other Windows 10 users, didn’t expect something to come along and delete them without alerting or asking us first!

While you’re in Storage Sense, you can also tweak it more to your liking or even turn it off completely if you prefer. If you have lots of disk space and will unlikely run out, you don’t need it to run. You can leave it to empty the trash or go through your system every few days, it is entirely up to you.

Change recycle bin deletion at the top of the Storage Sense page. Have it perform housekeeping on your OneDrive folder if you dare. I suggest not doing this as OneDrive is flaky enough as it is. You can also have it perform its cleanup right there and then if you prefer and include previous versions of Windows in the mix. This is the equivalent of going into the drive properties and cleaning it out manually.

Storage Sense is pretty good at what it does but it isn’t perfect. This is Microsoft after all so what do we expect. Aside from deleting the contents of your Downloads folder, it works well, does its work quietly and keeps your disks running more efficiently than before.

If you accidentally delete files or need the services of data recovery experts, contact Dave’s Computers in New Jersey today. We can help!

If you’re running the latest version of Windows 10 and keep seeing the little yellow warning triangle by your network status, you’re not alone. A few customers have been into Dave’s Computers over the past few weeks with exactly the same problem. It’s a minor irritation as you still have internet access for everything but Windows apps. But, try to use the Windows Store and things become inconvenient.

The issue happened to one of our computers here in New Jersey. We have a Windows 10 machine that we update with the latest patches and Windows versions so we always know what’s going on and what problems can occur for early adopters. One such issue was that described above.

No but yes to internet access

The exact symptoms are the yellow warning triangle by network connection and a report in Windows that you have no internet access. Yet open a browser or online app or game and you can connect fine. So what’s up with that?

The last round of Windows updates seem to have introduced a mismatch between how Windows views your network connection and how it actually is. If you open Chrome or Firefox, you can browse the web as normal. You can play games, use cloud applications and otherwise use your internet as usual.

However, when you open the Microsoft Store or try to use a Windows 10 app, it will say you have no internet access.

There is a workaround. It will have to do until Microsoft patches it out in a future update.

Fix no internet access reported in Windows 10

The downside of this fix is that you will have to repeat it regularly. Particularly when you first start your computer or resume from sleep. In some cases we have seen, leave the computer for an hour and it goes away. That’s not too helpful though.

Try this:

1. Right click the Windows Start button and select Settings.
2. Select Network & Internet and Change connection properties.
3. Select Public or Private from the Network Profile. Whichever profile is different than the one you’re running.
4. Return the setting to what it was originally.

No need to save as changes here are dynamic. Now the yellow warning triangle should disappear. If you open the Microsoft Store, your apps should now load and work as normal.

If that doesn’t work, there is another thing we tried to get things working again and that was re-enabling IPv6. It should be enabled by default even though it is rarely used as yet. If you disabled it or have changed your network settings, resetting it might help.

1. Right click the Windows Start button and select Settings.
2. Select Network & Internet and this time select Ethernet.
3. Select Change Adapter Options in the right of the window.
4. Right click your active Ethernet adapter and select Properties.
5. Select Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) from the center window and check the box.
6. Select OK to save your changes.

Now the yellow triangle should disappear and your Microsoft Store should work as normal.

This is a real pain but one of the more minor issues to be introduced by the latest round of Windows patches. Considering how interruptive some have been, this one is easy!

Disable the Game Bar in Windows 10

1. Right click the Windows Start button and select Settings.
2. Select Gaming.
3. Turn off ‘Record game clips, screenshots and broadcast using Game Bar.
4. Select Captures from the left menu.
5. Toggle Off Record in the background while playing a game and Record audio when I record a game.

1. Type ‘regedit’ into the Windows Search box and select Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameDVR.
3. Change the AppCaptureEnabled DWORD value to 0 to turn it off.
4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore.
5. Change the GameDVR_Enabled DWORD value to 0 to turn it off.

1. Type ‘power’ into the Windows Search Box, right click PowerShell and select Open a Windows PowerShell as an administrator.
2. Type or paste ‘Get-AppxPackage *xboxapp* | Remove-AppxPackage’ and hit Enter.

Over the Edge

Any color as long as it’s Chrome