Windows 10 - Softonic English

How to turn off Windows 10 notifications

One of the best updates to Windows 10 is that it now has a powerful notification center. Like a cell phone, this operating system for PCs makes comprehensive analyses of everything on your computer. Thanks to this, you can configure basic processes every day using notifications. Now, if these messages annoy you – as in our case – we’re going to show you how to turn off Windows 10 notifications.

Simple as can be

The first thing to keep straight is that notifications are located on the lower right. If you click on the specific icon, you’ll see a menu open with a large number of available options. Using our experience as an example, we chose “Quiet hours” within the notifications. This way, we made sure there were no notifications at night. It’s like the “Night mode” that smartphones have, but for PCs.

This may be the easiest way to prevent notifications; though it doesn’t turn them off, of course. If you want to do this, you have to click on the Windows key or “Start,” then “Settings,” go to “System” and click on “Notifications and actions” (Start -> Settings -> System -> Notifications and actions).

Once you’re inside Notifications, turn off those settings that annoy you (though our advice is that if you really want to get rid of them, uncheck all of them). So, uncheck the buttons “Get notifications from apps and other senders,” “Show notifications on the lock screen” and “Show reminders and incoming VoIP calls on the lock screen.” Once you’ve done this, your PC will be free from any notifications for the rest of its existence.

Remember that you decide what you want to see on your computer. Take advantage of this if you’re unsure about turning off all notifications for your PC.

What is Windows Hello?

When Windows launched Windows 10, the company set out to make the greatest possible leap forward. After a few years of having the operating system with us, there’s no doubt that the Redmond boys have kept their word: it offers good updates, performance, progressive web apps, and another detail: Windows Hello. Today at Softonic we’ll tell you what Windows Hello is, why you should use it, and how to activate it.

What it is and what it’s for

Windows is very concerned about user security and good proof of this is that Windows 10 comes with an antivirus called Windows Defender, the first introduced in its history. However, Windows Hello looks to enhance this security from the moment the system starts up.

“Windows Hello is a more personal way to sign in to your Windows 10 devices with just a look or a touch. You’ll get enterprise-grade security without having to type in a password,” says Microsoft’s page. In other words, Windows Hello is a way to unlock your device instead of entering a classic password or pin. To do this, the system uses your face, eyes and fingerprint to establish a pattern.

At the moment, gadgets such as Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, cell phones with Windows 10, Microsoft Band and most PCs with fingerprint readers can now use Windows Hello (as long as they have Windows 10, that is). Also, gradually more devices are incorporating this feature.

How to activate it

To activate Windows Hello, just click on the “Start” button (on the lower left) and go to the “Settings” icon -> “Configuration.” When you see the corresponding screen, click on “Accounts.”

Of all the fields to choose from, go for the one that says “Sign-in options.” Click here and you’ll see that Windows Hello appears as a method to activate. Obviously, here you’ve got two possibilities: your device is compatible or it’s not. In our case, our device doesn’t have a fingerprint reader, but it does have a camera, so we can’t complete the process unless we get an external gadget for it (a little ridiculous, we think).

Check if your PC has the possibility of logging in with Windows Hello. If so, our advice is that you use it: you’ll have an extra layer of security.

All the Best Free Software for your PC

You spend hundreds of dollars on your brand new PC, and then what happens? You have to go and spend even more money on all the software you need, to do the jobs you bought the PC for in the first place. Never mind what you bought the PC for you have to buy programs just to protect your new PC from viruses and malware.

Well, do not worry because there is a lot of free software you can get your hands on to help you out. You can get free software for Windows 10 you can get free software like Microsoft Word, you can get free software for editing photos, you can get antivirus free software and even free software for video editing. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on expensive programs for your new PC. There are plenty of free programs for PC so let us have a look at some of the best now:

Best free programs for PC

1. Best antivirus free software: Avira Antivirus

Avira Free Antivirus offers a broad range of security features that add up to offer the best free antivirus software you’re likely to find. As well as strong antivirus scan and protection facilities Avira offers some great features like safe shopping searches, system speed up and a VPN. This is the best free software download for PC you’ll find and one of the most important. To learn more about Avira Click Here, otherwise…

Avira Free Antivirus Download Avira

2. Best backup free software: Google Drive

These days you need to do more than just install a free antivirus program to keep yourself safe. Ransomware is a modern threat that sees your data being stolen and then held for ransom. This means if you’re going to download free software you need some to get some backup free software for your computer. Free software downloads like Google Drive are essential. Drive will give you 15GB of free space to keep all of your personal data safely backed up. You need it now!

Google Drive Download Google Drive

3. Free software like Microsoft Office: Libre Office

Almost everybody needs to use programs like those found in the Microsoft Office suite so a top priority must go to getting the free software download for PC of Libre Office. Libre Office is an open source productivity suite that rivals Microsoft Office and even has programs, like Math and Draw, that can’t be found in the expensive Microsoft offering. If you work in an office this is an essential free program to download.

LibreOffice Download LibreOffice

4. Media Player: VLC Media Player

One of the best free programs for PC is VLC Media Player. It is one of the most popular programs in the world and carries the codecs required to play almost every kind of video file. Once you’ve downloaded VLC you will be able to play almost any type of video you can find. As well as offering a complete video playback solution VLC has plenty of other features and you can check out 5 of the best here.

VLC Media Player Download VLC

5. Free software for photo editing: GIMP

If you want free software like Photoshop you should look no further than GIMP. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and it is almost as powerful as Adobe Photoshop. With this free software editing becomes possible for all. Whether you’re merely touching up an old image or creating a brand new one, GIMP offers you a complete set of tools to take care of whatever editing job you have in front of you. GIMP may be the best photo editing free software but we’ve also put a list together of 5 free photo editing programs. Check it out here.

GIMP Download GIMP

6. Free software for video editing: Lightworks

Lightworks is available on many free software download websites but you can get it right here. It is one of the best editing free software programs you can get and is used by professionals as well as amateurs. If you’re a budding video editor or director this is great free video editing program for you to download. For info on other free video editing programs click here.

Lightworks Download Lightworks

Follow me on Twitter: @PatrickDevaney_

How to unsubscribe from push notifications (Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari)

Have you accidentally given permission to receive notifications from a website or are you tired of getting notification requests? Below, we’ll tell you how to disable them according to the browser you’re using.

Google Chrome (laptop)

To disable Chrome notifications, copy this address chrome://settings/content/notifications and paste it in your browser. This way, you’ll go straight to the “Notifications” section of Chrome Settings.

If you want to stop receiving permission requests for notifications, disable the “Ask before sending (recommended)” option to “Block all.”

Want to block notifications for a specific website? You’ll see that you’ve got two options: “Block” and “Allow.” Under “Allow,” look for the web page you want to stop receiving notifications for, click on the three vertical dots beside it and then select “Block.” It’s that easy!

Google Chrome (cell phone)

Go to “Settings” (by tapping on the three vertical dots in the top right). Press “Web page settings” and then “Notifications.”

If you want to stop receiving permission requests for notifications, disable the “Ask before allowing websites to send notifications (recommended)” option to “Blocked.”

Want to disable specific notifications? Below, you’ll have two options: allowed and blocked notifications. Select one that is allowed and then the “Notifications” option to block it. Easy peasy.

Mozilla Firefox (laptop)

To disable notifications on Firefox, copy this address about:preferences#content and paste it in your browser to access the “Content” section of Firefox Options. Here you’ll see the “Notifications” subsection.

If you want to stop receiving so many permission requests for notifications and notifications themselves, enable the “Do not disturb me” option.

Want to block notifications for a specific web page? Click on “Select.” A list with all the notifications you’ve allowed or blocked to date will show up. Look for the website you no longer want to receive notifications from and select “Remove site.”

When you go to that page again, it will once again ask for permission to send you notifications (unless you’ve enabled the “Do not disturb me” option). Select that you don’t want to receive notifications. Case closed.

Unfortunately, there’s no easier way to block specific notifications on Firefox.

Mozilla Firefox (cell phone)

For now, there’s only one very basic way to disable notifications for this version of Firefox. You must go to the page that you want to disable notifications for and click on the Control Center (the green lock to the left of the URL).

Then select “Edit site settings.” Tap the white square to “check” it and then press “Clear.” This way, the website will stop sending you notifications unless you go back and give it permission.

Microsoft Edge (Windows 10)

To get started, click on the Over Edge section at the top right of the window. It’s a three-dot horizontal icon. Click Settings, and then click Advanced Settings.

Under Notifications, click Setup. Find the webpage you don’t want to be notified about and click the slider point to go to Disabled.

Apple Safari

To stop receiving notifications for a web page, go to “Preferences” and then click on “Notifications.” Look for the website on the list and select “Block.”

If you want to stop receiving permission requests for notifications, don’t leave the “Notifications” section; simply uncheck the box “Allow websites to ask for permission to send push notifications.”

9 tricks to use CCleaner properly – it does more than you think

If all you do with CCleaner is set it to automatically clean your system and then assume the job is done, then you are seriously wrong. You can endanger valuable information and slow your system performance if the program is not properly configured. And we all make this mistake, because very few people know how to use CCleaner properly – myself included. That is, until recently, because I have been reading a lot of tutorials to get myself up to speed (links at the end).

I have distilled my learning into 9 easy tricks to learn how to use CCleaner super effectively.

Download CCleaner

CCleaner does not do what you think

Many people believe that CCleaner is a maintenance tool that automatically improves the performance of their computer. Actually, CCleaner cleans your discs by deleting temporary files, or files that take up a lot of space. This frees up room on your hard disk, which can result in improved performance.

Why is it important to understand this? Because if you use CCleaner every day believing that your computer will run faster, you are mistaken; indeed, in many cases, it may run slower.

This is what you should do BEFORE cleaning with CCleaner

Before running CCleaner’s… cleaner… think of exactly what you want to clean. If you are not interested in deleting your cache and cookies, then set the program to ignore them. Alternatively, if you do not want others to spy your browsing history, then clean them frequently.

However, what happens if you clean your machine and it runs slower? This is because your computer needs some files to perform efficiently. If you delete these files with CCleaner, performance will suffer. If you visit some favorite pages every day, but clean the cache every few hours, you’ll find these pages take longer to load.

This brings me to my next point.

Protect the important cookies

CCleaner deletes all cookies by default – but you may well want to keep some of them around to keep your browsing quick.

You have two options for this. On the one hand, you can use CCleaner’s Smart Scan to detect the cookies you use most and protect them from most common cleans (such as Google). Alternatively, you manually flag the cookies that do not want to be touched.

Do the same with programs

You can apply protection to programs and files. This feature is particularly useful if you find that CCleaner is obsessed with trying to eliminate a file that you actually want. You can exclude whole disks, folders, files, or records. You can also protect specific file extensions.

If you use Registry Cleaner often, you’re going to get in trouble

I do not recommend that you regularly use CCleaner’s Registry Cleaner. After all, who cleans their house every day? A clean registry can help if your system is damaged, but it doesn’t improve your performance under normal circumstances and – in some cases – it can be harmful. Leave this feature alone unless you have problems running a particular program.

This feature offers much more than its name suggests

Startup is an optional tool that, in theory, lets you disable programs that run automatically when you start your computer. In this way, you can access and edit your PC boot process.

What few people know is that Startup allows you to disable or remove scheduled tasks and browser extensions. These options are already included by default in Windows, but you can have a look during one of your regular cleanings.

Breaking the myth of Cleaner Hard Drives

One of the great myths behind hard disk cleaners is that you need to perform multiple scans to get the drive really clean. But there is no need for this with CCleaner’s Drive Wipe, because it can clean your drive with a single click, completely removing unwanted files while leaving programs untouched.

Note that when you delete a file in Windows it doesn’t actually delete it; it simply removes the path to it so it can’t be seen by the system, freeing the space it occupied and allowing it to be overwritten. This allows files to be restored by those who know how. That does not happen with CCleaner, which overwrites old files as it deletes them. Great for security, but please be sure that you want to delete the selected files.

Forget this tool

CCleaner has many secondary tools, the most redundant of which is Uninstall Programs. This is totally dispensable and does not work as well as the Windows Uninstaller. There are better uninstallers out there, like Revo, which you can download from Softonic.

You see? You do not need to know everything about CCleaner.

… and finally, the Golden Rule

It doesn’t matter if you use CCleaner or another cleaning tool – never do any cleaning without making a backup of important files first. If the program deletes something important, the consequences can be catastrophic. Fortunately, with a backup or a restore point, you can recover the state of your computer in a couple of clicks.

Sources: TechRepublic, How To Geek (text 1, text 2, and text 3), Guiding Tech, Life Hacker

20 Windows processes you can kill to make your PC run quicker

In Windows, all processes are listed in the Task Manager. Among the processes that use the most resources, some are useful, while others run unnecessarily in the background. So, which processes can you easily eliminate to increase the speed of your PC? We’ll show you 20 processes that your PC doesn’t need.

We’ve divided the processes into 5 categories: quick starters, software updates, processes from hardware manufacturers, software processes and Windows processes. For each of these, you’ll find a short explanation.

First, you’ll need to access Task Manager. Do this by going to Control Panel> All Control Panel Items> Performance Information and Tools> Advanced Tools> Open Task Manager. Alternatively, press CTRL + ALT + DEL and click on Task Manager.

Task Manager

Then, click on the tab that says Processes.

Quickstarter

Quickstarters preload parts of a program in case the user wants to open the program later. If you don’t open and close these programs often, however, the process can be eliminated.

reader_sl.exe is a part of Adobe Reader and stands for Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher. It speeds up the launch of the reader, but isn’t actually necessary.
jqs.exe accelerates the launch of almost all software that works with Java. The Java Quick Starter isn’t really necessary.
Osa.exe enables some Microsoft Office programs in Windows XP to launch more quickly and anchors certain Office functions to the start menu. The Office Source Engine may be of interest to regular Office users, but probably not to others.
soffice.exe fulfills the same purpose as Osa.exe, but for the Office packages StarOffice and OpenOffice.

Software-Updates

Update managers periodically check whether a new version of the program is available. To save memory, you can change the update options in the program and regularly look for updates when you open it. In the meantime, you can simply end these processes.

AdobeARM.exe belongs to Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader. The process runs in the background and checks for updates to Adobe products.
AAM Update Notifier.exe comes with Adobe Creative Suite products. The process manages updates for multiple Adobe programs.
Jusched.exe actually stands for Java Update Scheduler. Once a month, the process checks whether there is a new update for Java, which is quite infrequent for a process that’s always running.
DivXUpdate.exe runs in the background and checks for updates to DivX Plus. You can simply terminate the updater; it launches automatically when you open any DivX program.

Processes from hardware manufacturers

Hardware manufacturers generally supply the appropriate software and drivers for their devices. Many nice additional features are automatically added on the computer, but in most cases they’re not used very often.

NeroCheck.exe searches for drivers that could trigger conflicts with Nero Express, Nero, and NeroVision Express. You can also start this service manually if necessary.
HKCMD.exe accompanies Intel hardware. The process allows the user to allocate any function to the keys, but also often leads to a sluggish system.
atiptaxx.exe/ati2evxx.exe comes with ATI video card drivers. The processes provide faster access to the graphics card settings on the taskbar or individual keys.
RAVCpl64.exe stands for Realtek HD Audio Manager. The process detects which audio devices are connected to your computer, including headphones or a microphone. Conveniently, the devices are also recognized without the process and will run anyway.
Nwiz.exe usually accompanies a NVIDIA graphics card. Anyone who uses NVIDIA nView functions needs the process. but it’s otherwise unnecessary.
CCC.exe stands for ATI Catalyst Control Center. For gamers and users with higher demands for the graphic settings on their PC, this is certainly interesting; for everyone else, it’s not necessary.
SynTPEnh.exe is used on many laptops and has drivers for touchpads, but Windows can provide these too. In addition, Synaptics TouchPad Enhancements is a known solution for stability problems.

Software Processes

In addition to updates, many programs offer useful and less useful services in the background. Anyone can decide for themselves whether they really need a button for each application in the start menu.

winampa.exe places Winamp to the right at the bottom of the taskbar and makes sure that no other programs with media content are linked.
iTunesHelper.exe/iPodService.exe works in the background for iTunes and QuickTime. If the process runs without these programs, it can be stopped safely – iTunes starts it automatically if needed.
OSPPSVC.exe comes with Microsoft Office 2010. The Office Software Protection Platform verifies that Office still has a valid licence.

Windows Processes

Windows also comes with a number of interesting, yet resource-intensive processes. Decide for yourself what to make of them.

Sidebar.exe makes the practical widgets on Windows 7 and Vista possible, but also eats up a lot of memory. Anyone who doesn’t use the widgets can stop Sidebar.exe.
wmpnetwk.exe searches the network for media files in order to populate them into Windows Media Player. If you don’t use the media player, or don’t want to search for new files, you can stop the service.

Here, you can find more processes and explanations

If you have more questions about processes and their functions, you can also consult various databases. Please note, most databases are compiled by users, so you should always consult multiple sources.

I am not a geek – about processes and their dangers
Neubert – with less content, and no search function
Searchtasks – with search function and recommendations on processes

[Original article by Klaus Müller on Softonic.de]

The Best 24 Apps for Windows 10

One of Windows 10’s biggest features as an operating system is its flexibility moving between devices. Whether you are on your home computer, tablet, or phone, Window 10 is designed to offer a cohesive experience. Here is our pick of apps that offer you a great experience where ever you are.

Adobe PhotoShop Express

Adobe’s fantastic photo editing suite has long been the gold standard, and with PhotoShop Express they have managed to perfectly adapt the experience to touchscreen. The app allows you to quickly and easily tweak you pictures with options like red-eye removal, noise reduction, and a range of filters. The free version even lets you upload 50 photos a month to the cloud.