Refresh Your Windows 8 PC for Faster PC Performance

At many occasions, your Windows 8 PC might start performing abruptly and hangs at the same screen. However, unlike other Windows previous OS versions, Windows 8 will allow you to automatically repair system and make it as fresh as you used it the very first time. Refresh Your PC is another addition to great features of Windows 8 that lets you improve system performance and speed up PC without affecting the stored files on the hard drive.

Refresh PC will reinstall all the applications from scratch that you've already installed on your PC while ensuring that no data or applications will be lost after completing the action. Refresh PC will place a copy of stored files and applications at special place to prevent unwanted things from deleting your important files and damaging the installed applications. Refresh PC will keep ensure the following things to your PC during ongoing Refresh PC operation:

• Any customization or personal settings will not be deleted or modified
• PC settings or modified system parameters will be restored to defaults
• The only applications will remain intact which were installed from the Windows store. Though, you'll lose any or all the applications that weren't installed from the Microsoft store.

Though, It’s always recommend to have your latest backup copy created before refreshing PC to make sure that you will not going to lose your important stuff when disaster strikes. However, you still have option to recover data, just in case you lost it anyhow.

How to refresh your Windows 8 PC?

• Press 'Windows + Q' to open all apps with search bar at the top left corner and type Change PC settings. Choose the Settings tab just below the App.
• Click on the general tab and choose to Get Started  from the “Refresh your PC without affecting your files” option.
• On the next screen, you may able to see that what will open when you start refreshing your PC like files & personalization settings, PC settings etc. See the image below for your reference:
  
  
  
• Click on Next button. Your PC will restart and might take few minutes to complete the requested action.
  
                     

Once the PC is successfully refreshed, you will able to feel the difference in system performance and any freezing issues completely removed.

Revert Back to Windows 7 from Windows 8 without Loosing Your Data

If you are in the list of 'Annoyed with Windows 8' users and interested in getting back your old Windows i.e., Windows 7 or even Vista, then here is a good chance that you might succeed in doing so without loosing a single piece of data or without affecting the installed programs.

Windows 8 launched recently in the market with bunch of functionalities and benefits like speedy booting, metro screen, great Apps gallery etc. that gives smile on millions of faces. Though, some disadvantages are there which might annoys you while using Windows 8 such as no more start button, removed restore option, sluggish start screen, direct deleting feature etc. Already, there is long list of complaints about Windows 8 and Microsoft needs to invest more effort and time to solve those errors or bugs. Obviously, some of you couldn't wait till it becomes bug free or refined version of Windows 8 is released and want to switch back to your old Windows 7 right away. Remember, if you had installed Windows 8 on your Windows XP machine then sadly, you aren't eligible for this degrading feature.

The Automatic Way

 
Microsoft currently offers downgrade rights for Windows 8 pro to let user replace their Windows 8 copy with older of Windows without paying any extra amount. Currently, you can only migrate to Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business from Windows 8 pro, as these are the only two versions allocated with downgrade rights for Windows 8 pro. A noteworthy comment from one of Microsoft's employee

“"Neither the manufacturer or installer, nor Microsoft, is obligated to supply earlier versions to you," read the licensing agreement. “You must obtain the earlier version separately.”

Using Recovery Media

 
Windows 7 users have given with opportunity to create one or more recovery media's DVD other than recovery partition to restore Windows to factory settings. So, if you have those DVD's, your PC would be easily migrated from the current version of Windows to previous version. In case, you don't have or created yet, you can create now by downloading the ISO image located here.

There are rough chances that you may successfully able to get to the Windows 7 desktop as your BIOS 'Legacy Mode' settings has been changed after installing Windows 8 and you need to disable it first. Including this, Windows 8 will automatically enable NX feature from the BIOS security settings and you need to revert it to default too.

However, if all above mentioned steps didn't help you to reach Windows 7 then you might have a single choice left, which is to reinstall Windows 7 using Windows installation media. Doing this might risk you to loose your data currently stored in if you haven’t created any recent backup. Though, you can recover it using various available data recovery programs which comes in free and paid versions, but choosing paid option is recommend and will greatly help you to find your lost data efficiently.

How to Repair your Computer from Ukash Virus

Unlike Trojan or adware,Windows Ukash virus may have severe impact over your PC such as complete locking or freezing, system inaccessibility and more. More than millions of PC attacks have been recorded only in US after which user had either lost their valuable data or looted by scammers. Ukash falls under ransom ware category and infected PC with various versions such as 'Metropolitan Police Ukash Virus', 'FBI Money pack Virus' or similar.

Whenever any machine gets attacked by Ukash, user will see nasty warning messages and found their computer completely locked. Warnings messages states that you have violated legal laws or may be the victim of piracy Act or similar and asks to pay hundred or even thousands of dolor’s as a penalty for being involved in any malicious activities or so. Believing it and paying your money yield no results and your computer will remain locked until you find and fix it using a proper solution.

The virus named Ukash because it uses the private Ukash payment gateway option to pay the mentioned amount in warning messages. You don't worry about it as here are some simple steps to easily identify such attacks and a handy process to manually remove it.

How one can get infected by Ukash Virus

There are various holes and security vulnerabilities that scammers used to seek and attack. Ukash virus can easily infect PC if user surfs malware websites, download, & install hacked applications etc. This virus can trick many people as it’s customized to translate in various other languages and then asks people to pay for the money. It's obvious that user get scared by seeing those horrible error messages with local police department and trademark at top of the warning messages.

You can see example in pictures below taken from ‘METROPOLITAN UKASH Virus’ infected PC, to get an idea about how it actually looks:

For better analysis, below are some common points that you can notice in case of Ukash virus infection:

1. Freezing, Computer speed slows down automatically.
2. Series of popup warnings containing set of threatening message.
3. Permanently inaccessibility to files & folders stored in the drive as warning pop ups has fully locked your computer.
4. Startup failure, unexpected computer errors etc.

Steps for Manually Removing Ukash Virus

Follow the simple steps to manually remove it from infected PCs,

1. Normally, restart your PC
2. Press F8 during startup to go to 'Advanced Startup Options'
3. Select option 'Safe Mode with Networking'
4. Start 'Task Manger' and locate to ‘Processes’ tab to find out all unknown or unexpected processes running on your computer. Kill them immediately. Enter administrator password whenever required.
5. Restart the system and see if you have successfully removed the virus.

If Ukash virus still exists on your PC, simply download SpyHunter from here. After installation, this will automatically traces all print of Ukash and will easily remove it.

How to Deal With "WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" Error

Your computer contains set of registries and system files for smooth and uninterrupted PC running. When any of the system files get deleted or registries got corrupted, you may face bunch of error messages or sometime complete system failure. One such error is “windows\system32\config\system” which may occurs due to of deleted system files, windows corruption, or hard drive failure etc. and will make your system unbootable. As results, you won't be able to access your stuff inside the system till you fix the error. See the below image to know how it looks like:

“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM”

If you are suffering from the same and desperately hunting for it's solution then you are at the right place as I'll describe here the most prominent causes behind this error and the easy steps to solve it on your own.

Why This Error?

As I described in above paragraph, your registries are the most sensitive parts inside the system and can be easily malfunctioned or damaged. Once your registries got corrupted, it makes their corresponding file (which is at the location Windows\System32\Config\system/software), unreadable. This system file can also be corrupted or deleted by viruses, human or the file itself got unstable by any unauthorized system operation and needs to be updated. Therefore, once the file is corrupted and next time you started the system, it won't boot up and gives an error as described in the image above.

What you can do to get it fixed?

The simplest solution is to replace the same file with an updated and non corrupted file from your Windows media disc or from the registry backup (if you had taken a backup of your system registries?

Here are the detailed steps on how you can do it manually:

1. Insert your Windows installation CD into CD ROM and restart your PC.
2. Follow the same steps as in the case of installing fresh Window except the screen appears after pressing 'F8' key, where you have to select 'R' key (to go the recovery console) instead of pressing 'Enter'.
3. Select the targeted windows if you have dual booting operating system.
4. Type the administrator password whenever asked. Leave it blank if you don't have any.
5. Once you reached at the command prompt, type the following commands and press enter each time after typing a line:
   md tmp
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\default
   copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
   copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
   copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
   copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
   copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default
   
6. Type ‘exist’ to navigate away from the black screen and restart your system. See if your system starts normally, but if not follow the next steps.
7. Remove and connect your hard drive to another computer to take backup of your important data. Once you done with this again plug it back to your old computer and install a fresh copy of Windows to get back to your system normally and recover your data.

3 Easy Steps to Deal with Windows 7 Black Screen Computer Error’s?

Windows users were getting hectic errors while using the system which causes a lot of headache for them & requires their tough time to fix it. One such kind of tragic condition is called 'Black Screen of Death', which can happen either after starting the system or updating system drivers. After which, you'll become completely unable to regain access to your precious computer data.

Sometime dealing with such black screen computer error's are very easy but the condition become worse when your system is suffering from some serious errors or damages and couldn’t be fixed easily. So, let's look on this matter more deeply to find out the exact causes behind this errors and possible solutions.

Reasons & Solutions for Black Screen Errors:

Microsoft has investing causes behind this error and has officially announced about ‘Black Screen Error’ on 25th November. This error can happen due to of various reasons such as malware attack, registry corruption or faulty/outdated video driver. Common symptoms of getting black screen errors is system freezing, hanging or loop restart or sometime, complete system failure.

Prevx the research company and Microsoft Gold certified partner confirms in its reseorgaorgrch that this error will not only remain to Windows 7 but can also affect its predecessor such as Vista, XP, 2000 etc. 

Read below mentioned steps to find out how to deal with black screen computer errors:

Update Video Driver

Most common reasons behind such black screen errors are due to faulty or damaged video adapter. In that case, simply updating the driver will fix the issue.
Note: To update your video or display driver, you need to be logged on to Windows either normally or in safe mode.

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL simultaneously or right click on task bar and click on Start Task Manager
2. Click on Processes tab and find explorer.exe
3. Select explorer.exe and click on End Process
4. Click on File and then New Task(Run)
5. Type explorer.exe in the open text box and hit enter.
6. Click on Start button, type Device Manager in the search box and select device manger after system completes scanning.
7. Find your system display adapter, right click on it and select Update Driver.
8. Restart the System.

Fix Damaged or Corrupted Registries

Interestingly, system registries also dominate in majority over your PC Black screen errors, especially when it gets corrupted or damaged. You need to tweak with your system registry settings and fix the desired problem but professional help is recommended.

1. Click on Start, then Run and type regedit in the opened text box
2. Navigate to the following folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon, to see that explorer.exe file were present or not.
3. To do so, select WinLogon and click on Shell. The Shell value should be explorer.exe and if it's not double click on Shell and type explorer.exe in the open Value-Data text field and hit OK.
4. Close the Window and Restart your system.
   
Restore System

This process is applicable and much helpful when the system becomes unable to boot in normal mode or shows black screen every time you start your system just before the login screen. Simply restoring the system might resolve the issue and set's everything to any previously successful running state.

1. Press and hold the F8 keys just after starting the system or before Windows booting screen appears
2. Advanced Boot options screen will appear, use up & down arrows keys to select Safe Mode
3. Now your system will boot in safe mode. You need to be logged on using Administrator account in safe mode to restore your system
4. Click on Start logo, type System Restore and hit enter. If you are prompted to enter administrator password, enter the same and click ‘Next’.
5. Choose any previously successful system created start up point and click on Finish.
6. Restart your computer normally and see if the error were goes away.

If none of the above described methods had helped you, you can take help with Prevx Black Screen Fixing Steps by downloading its applicorgorgation. You need to download, install and run this application after which, the software will automatically find the probable causes and fixes them instantly.