Month: October 2019

The dreaded blue screen of death. If you’re a Microsoft Windows user, you’ll have brushed up against its icy touch more than once. The BSoD is an error message you receive whenever your operating system has experienced a critical error. Blue screens normally show up when Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 is faulty or when an uncorrectable error or a registry error is unable to be fixed.

The really frustrating thing about blue screen error codes is that they don’t tell you much about what has actually caused the stop error. Sure, you might see something like “windows 10 blue screen error irql_not_less_or_equal”, “critical_process_died” or “windows 10 blue screen video_dxgkrnl_fatal_error” but nine times out of ten it’ll take further investigation for you to understand what the blue screen error is about and more importantly, how to fix it.

This is where we come in as your antivirus or malware program won’t help here. Let’s then look at how to fix Windows and get into some solutions on how to fix common blue screen errors for Windows 10.

Most common blue screen errors for Windows 10

You normally see blue screen errors on Windows 10 when you’re doing one of three things. They come when you’re pushing your system to its limits, upgrading to the latest version of Windows, or booting up your PC and launching Windows. Usually, these errors are caused by the same types of issue, which could be a buggy bit of code, a hardware problem, something not being right in the upgrade you’re trying to install, or an attempt to run a piece of software that isn’t compatible with Windows or your device.

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Fixing a Windows 10 BSoD error after or during an upgrade

When your system shows the blue screen error code, if it is working properly, it will undo the damage and then go back to the previous state before you started doing what you were doing. The bad news is, it won’t fix the problem, it’ll only remove it. This means that until you figure out what is causing it, you’ll keep seeing the error every time you try to upgrade Windows 10. Fear not though, we’re here to help you figure out what is going on.

Not enough space on your hard drive

You might be seeing the blue screen error code because your primary hard drive doesn’t have enough space to install the upgrade correctly. Once your system has rebooted go and see how much space you have on your primary drive and if you don’t have much, clear out some space and try again.

To clear space on your primary hard drive go to Settings, then hit Apps, and finally click Apps & features. You’ll then see a list of all your installed apps, and you can select the apps you don’t use too often and uninstall them.

Flawed upgrade files

The other main reason you could be seeing the blue screen error during an upgrade is because the upgrade files didn’t download correctly and could have a flaw or be damaged in some way. If you have plenty of space on your main hard drive, it is likely that this will be behind the BSoD.

To fix this problem, you’ll need to remove the downloaded upgrade files and then re-download them. To do so go to the Windows 10 settings menu, click System and then Storage. Once here you’ll have to find the Storage sense option and then click the Free space now option. The damaged upgrade files will be stored in your Windows Temporary files so you’re going to need to uncheck all the other options and only leave the Temporary Windows installation files button checked. Once you’ve removed these files you should try and install the upgrade again and see what happens.

Fixing a Windows 10 Blue Screen Error on Startup or during normal use

The key to fixing blue screen codes that happen during startup or during normal use is to think about what you were doing before the blue screen of death flashed up. This is because whereas sometimes your system will be able to undo the problem itself and reboot to its previous state, there is also a good chance it’ll lock itself into a repeating BSoD cycle and you’ll have to undo the problematic action yourself.

If you can boot Windows after the Blue Screen of Death

If Windows boots normally, you’re still going to want to backtrack from what you were doing and uninstall whatever it was that you think caused the problem; whether that be an update, a driver, or a program.

• To uninstall an update, go to Settings, click Update & Security, then Windows Update, View your update history, and then Uninstall updates. You’ll see a list of all your updates, and you can delete the one causing the problem either by right-clicking on it and selecting delete or simply double-clicking it.
• To uninstall a program, open the Control Panel, then hit Program, and then click Uninstall a program. Then pick the program you want to remove and right-click on it and select uninstall from the menu.
• To uninstall a hardware driver, click Start and then open the Device Manager. Choose the device that is affected and right-click on the device driver you want to remove and hit Uninstall.

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If you can’t boot Windows and you’re stuck in a Blue Screen loop

If your system keeps restarting but then crashing to a Blue Screen of Death, you’re going to have to enter Safe Mode so that you can uninstall the program, driver, or update that is causing the problem. You might need to start thinking about a system restore.

To boot in Safe Mode, you need to press F8 and shift when your PC is booting. The problem with this, however, is that Windows 10 has been designed to have a fast boot procedure, which means you might miss your chance. If this is the case, you’ll need to use a Windows 10 installation disc or recovery drive. To do so insert the disc and boot your machine. Hit Next, then Repair your computer, Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, and Restart. When your computer restarts you need to select either Enable Safe Mode or Enable Safe Mode with Networking.

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Once you’ve enabled Safe Mode, you’ll be able to uninstall whatever is causing the problem using the instructions given above.

Wrapping up: How to deal with Blue Screen errors

Blue Screen error codes don’t just happen for nothing. Usually, they occur because of the actions we’ve taken, or our system’s have taken automatically. The key is to discover what the flawed action is that has caused the dreaded Blue Screen of Death to appear and work backwards removing whatever it is along the way.

We’ve laid out some of the best ways to deal with the most common blue screen errors out there. If our solutions don’t work for you, however, there is always the nuclear option; reinstall Windows.

Microsoft’s flagship operating system, Windows 10, has banished the demons that haunted the software giant ever since the mess that was Windows 8. Windows 10 looks slick and works well and is just as easy to manage using a touchscreen as it is your mouse and keyboard. That is no mean feat and should be applauded. Even so, there are plenty of Windows 10 settings you can play around with, if you want to ensure best performance.

It isn’t just settings either. In truth, over time, your Windows PC will inevitably begin to slow down and you will have to start thinking about performance options. As hard drives fill up and software starts to slow down a guide for improving Windows 10 performance becomes more and more useful. Let’s look then at some of the Windows 10 settings you can change that will make your PC work faster. We’ll look at your software options first before checking out a couple of hardware issues that could also affect your system speed.

Windows 10 settings to improve performance

Look at your Startup apps

When you install apps onto your PC many of them will try to sneak in a setting that enables them to launch automatically whenever you turn on your PC and start Windows. This can cause issues at startup as you’ll have to wait for all of these programs to launch before you can start using your PC normally, but it can also cause general performance issues as these programs will always be running in the background and using up your system’s resources. You can disable this setting in each app, or you can disable it en masse using Windows 10 settings.

To do so, all you have to do is go to Windows 10 Settings, then hit Apps, and click Startup. Once in the Startup menu hit Sort by and then Startup impact. This will show you how much of an effect each app will have on system performance and give you a simple toggle switch to stop whichever apps you don’t want starting up when you launch Windows 10. Once you’re done, you’ll need to restart your computer before the changes will come into effect.

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Disable background apps

Startup apps aren’t the only apps that will slow your Windows 10 PC down by running in the background. Other apps can run in the background and hog up your system memory. Like with Startup apps, Windows 10 gives you the chance to disable them all in one place.

To disable Windows 10 background apps go to Settings, then Privacy, and finally hit, Background app. This will show you all Windows apps that can run in the background with toggle switches next to them so you can turn them on or off. The only catch here is that this only gives you control over Windows Store apps. If you’ve installed traditional software, you’ll have to go into the app’s settings to stop it from running in the background.

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Free up some space on your hard drive

We’ll look at different types of hard drives in a bit, but for now, let’s just stress that no matter what type of hard drive you have you don’t want to fill more than 70% of its total capacity. This is a good rule of thumb to follow as once you get over 70%, you’ll likely start experiencing performance issues and your system will slow down. If this is you, you can free up some space now by:

• DELETING TEMPORARY FILES – Go to Windows 10 Settings, click System, and then hit Storage. What you’ll see is a menu showing you what is taking up space on your hard drive. One of these will be your system’s Temporary files. Clicking this option will allow you to pick the temporary files you want to get rid of.

• UNINSTALLING APPS YOU DON’T USE – As well as showing your system’s temporary files, the above instructions will also give you the option delete your regular apps and programs. If you hit Apps and features instead of Temporary files, you’ll get a list of all the apps and programs installed on your Windows PC as well as the option to uninstall them.

Defrag your hard drive

If you’re using a traditional HDD hard drive, you might see an improvement in performance once you’ve defragged your hard drive. If your hard drive is fragmented, it’ll take longer for your PC to access your files. Defragging fixes this issue.

To Defrag your Windows 10 hard drive, you’ll need to again go to Storage in the System settings menu. Once here click More Storage options and then click Optimize Drives. Select your hard drive and then hit Optimize.

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Install the most recent Windows 10 Update

Microsoft is constantly working on improving Windows 10 and usually pushes out an update every six months or so. As well as bringing with them cool new Windows 10 features, updates also address any performance issues that may have been affecting previous versions of the Microsoft operating system.

To update Windows to the latest version, go to Settings, hit Update & Security, click Windows Update, and finally hit the Check for Updates button. If you’re not running the latest version of Windows 10, you’ll be given the chance to download and install it.

Check for viruses and malware

If your Windows 10 PC is running slow, it could be because it is infected with malware. Fortunately, Windows Defender, which is already on your PC offers a robust defense against such occurrences and a strong scan and removal tool.

To perform a Windows Defender scan all you have to do is click Start, then scroll down your list of apps and open Windows Security. Once open select Virus & threat protection in the menu on the left and then hit Scan options. To be safe you’ll want to run a Full Scan.

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Hardware solutions to improve performance on your Windows 10 PC

Upgrade your hard drive to a Solid-State Drive (SSD)

SSDs are much faster than traditional hard drives (HDD). They’re becoming standard in all high-end machines but, fortunately, they’re also becoming much cheaper to purchase as upgrade items. You should be able to pick up a 256GB for around $100. If you upgrade your main system drive from an HDD to an SSD you’ll notice a significant increase in your system’s performance.

Give your system a RAM boost

If you notice that your PC usually slows down when using Google Chrome or other RAM heavy programs, you might need to upgrade your system’s memory. To find out for sure right click anywhere on the taskbar and hit Task Manager. Then hit the Performance tab and click Memory. In a similar fashion to your hard drive, you don’t want to be using more than 80% of your system’s RAM. If you’re regularly peaking out above 80%, you should look into putting more RAM into your system.

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So, there you have a number of ways you can try to boost the performance of your Windows 10 PC. If none of the software settings improve Windows 10 performance, you can look at the two hardware options, which offer noticeable improvements to your system’s performance. If you are upgrading your hardware, however, make sure you know what you’re doing or get somebody who does to help you.