Fix: VLC player closes automatically after video ends

Few months back I had set my VLC Player to automatically close after video playback is completed or after a movie or music video ends. You may not want VLC player to exit automatically if you want to replay all the videos on your playlist. If you've set this feature on long time ago, you may not know how to turn off this "quit at the end of the video" settings on VLC Player for Windows. VLC has made it very easy to toggle it on or off and you can do it in a single step. Most users will probably probably figure out how to this by themselves but those who have gone to Google fore help, will hopefully save time by reading this post.

• Open VLC Player on your PC
• Just click on "Media"on the tool bar at the top of VLC media player.
• Now simply click on "Quit at the end of playlist" to disable automatic shutdown of VLC player after video ending".

How to uninstall Avast Safezone browser from your Windows PC

If you use Avast Antivirus or Internet Security, you will notice that the Avast Safezone browser gets automatically installed on your PC. Previously only the paid version came with this browser but now even the free version has it. However, most users prefer to use like Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge as their default browsers instead of SafeZone browser which is Chromium based. While there is no issues with it, if you still want to remove Avast SafeZone browser without uninstalling Avast Antivirus or Avast Internet Security, here are the steps to do it:

Remove Avast SafeZone browser from Windows

1. Go to Control Panel (On Win 10, press windows (start) key and type control panel and select it)
2. Under Program >> Click �Uninstall a Program�
3. If you are in �small icons� view, Select �Programs and Features�
4. Now from the list of applications right click on Avast Antivirus or Avast Internet Security
5. You will see options to �Uninstall/change/repair�
6. Select �Change� and now you will see all the products installed by Avast on your PC
7. Uncheck �SafeZone browser� and other programs you don�t need
8. Click �Change�
9. Now SafeZone will be uninstall from Avast and your PC will restart

Many software companies want their users to have new features or to test the new programs they have just released. And to test it out, they add these miscellaneous programs to their main program installation. That is why, you should always be careful to uncheck or de-select any unwanted programs such as browser toolbar, search bars, system cleaners etc. during software installation.

How to remove all red squiggly underlines in MS Word 2013 & 2016

Yes you read that right, the title actually says �remove red squiggly line in Microsoft Word 2013�. That is the layman�s term for turning off or ignoring grammar and spelling errors checker in Microsoft Word documents. The program displays incorrectly spelled words with squiggly red underlines. This is actually a great feature if you are typing in English but for people who are typing in other languages it will result in a lot of red underlines that will make the whole document look hideous. Sometimes you may also some special terms that aren�t in Microsoft�s dictionary and that will also be marked as incorrectly spelled by MS Word 2013.

The usual approach for ignoring such error is to right click on the word and select �Ignore all�. But if you have thousands of words that needs to be ignored that is going to be take a lot of time and will become a real headache. It will be really convenient if you could disable the red squiggly line completely. So how do you do this? Here are the steps to remove all spelling errors in Microsoft Word 2013 and MS Word 2016:

• Click on the"File" Tab (on the top left corner)
• Go to �Options� >> Select �Proofing�
• On the bottom you will find Exceptions For: name of your document
• Enable/check mark this option: �Hide spelling errors in this document only�
• You can also enable �Hide grammar errors in this document only�

Now all those ugly squiggly lines will get out of your way and you can work on your document without the annoying distraction.

Delete and merge unallocated Ubuntu partition in Windows

Users who have deleted the Ubuntu or Linux partition from Windows have faced a problem with extending their hard drive to merge that unallocated or free space which was previously occupied by Ubuntu or other Linux operating system. In most cases the option to �extend� a primary hard drive is greyed out. Fortunately, after a lot of searching, I have found a sure fix for this issue.




Since you are about to delete the Ubuntu or Linux partition, I am assuming you are trying to completely remove Ubuntu or Linux and just want to boot from the Windows 7,8 OR 10 operating system. To do this in a safe manner, follow the below steps:

How to remove GRUB Ubuntu/Windows dual boot

Before deleting the Ubuntu or any Linux partition you need to make sure your boot loader is repaired via Windows.Here are the steps for it:

• For this you will need to boot into Windows setup via DVD or a bootable USB. You can easily create bootable USB using a program called Rufus.
• Insert the bootable DVD or bootable USB. Press F10 or F12 to boot from USB/DVD.
• After booting into Windows setup via DVD or USB,, select the language
• Click on �repair your system�.
• Now find and open command prompt and type bootrec /fixboot >> Press Enter
• Again type bootrec /fixmbr then hit enter.

You�ve successfully remove the Ubuntu-linux/ Windows GRUB boot loader and you will boot directly into Windows 7. Now, to safely delete the partition occupied by Ubuntu follow these steps :

Delete Ubuntu/Linux partition in Windows and merge it with primary drive

1. First Download & install  MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition
2. Open the MiniTool Partition Wizard
3. Then right click on the unallocated or ubuntu partition and select wipe partition/delete >>  Click on �Apply� (top left )
4. Close Minitool Partition Winzard
5. Now press windows key + R and type diskmgmt.msc >> press enter
6. Alternately, press windows key and search for disk management and select �create and format hard disk partitions�
7. Now the disk management utility will open
8. Right click on the unallocated or free partition >> Select �Delete Partition�
9. Now right click on the disk drive you want to expand and select �extend� and then choose the unallocated space. Now the unallocated or free space will be merged to that drive. In the third image below, C: is the drive I extended after deleting  the unallocated/free Ubuntu partition. 

Deleting Ubuntu partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard 

Running Disk Management Utility in Windows

Deleting Ubuntu Partition to merge it with Drive C:

If you've followed the above steps correctly, all of the free space previously taken by Ubuntu or Linux will be  allocated to your primary Windows drive.

Netbook fix: Video Lagging Choppy in VLC Player

VLC is the favorite media player of many users but it seems to hate Intel Atom based netbooks and HD videos really stutter and skip frames while running VLC on such devices. Netbooks are primarily meant for lightweight tasks so they come with only basic hardware that can hardly handle any type of intensive tasks including HD video playback. A netbook running Windows 7 Starter with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor and 1GB of RAM will be very slow for multitasking and web browsing with multiple tabs. If you want to do some multitasking then there is no other option than to upgrade the RAM of your netbook but if you just want to be able to play HD 1080p or 720p video files (mkv, mp4 etc) without lag, choppiness or skipping, then there are a few tricks you can apply. There are other alternatives to VLC that will actually resolve this issue in an instance but if you are bent on using VLC then apply the following tricks on your beloved Netbook:

How to speed up HD Video playback on VLC Player on a Netbook

• Go to Preferences >> On the button
• Under Input codecs expand �video codecs� and select �FFmpeg�
• Now on the right a bunch of options will appear
• Check �Allow speed tricks� option
• For Skip loop filter for H.264 select �All� from the drop down menu
• For Hardware Decoding select �Disable�
• Now Save your changes

VLC Player Preferences

Tweaking VLC video codec settings

In most cases the videos should now run smoothly but in some really old devices you may still experience some lag. If you are still unable to play your MKV files properly, then install Media Player Classic on your Netbook. MPC-HC is a very lightweight media player and it supports most of the video formats just like VLC and plays 720p & 1080p videos easily

If the video is choppy even on MPC-HC player, I am guessing you have only 1GB or less of RAM in your netbook or mini PC. Upgrade to 2GB memory and you will notice improvement in video performance. Your netbook might also be slow because your operating system have been corrupted or affected by malware or viruses. So install an antivirus software and run a full scan. If you�re running Windows 7 Starter then I suggest installing the full Windows 7 Home or Ultimate and then switch to classic Windows theme.

On my old Samsung NP-102S netbook I�ve installed a lightweight Ubuntu OS called Lubuntu. While it doesn�t support windows applications or advanced features of Windows 7, Lubuntu runs really fast even on an underpowered netbook. I suggest installing Lubuntu or Xubuntu if your primary use involves watching YouTube videos, web browsing and document editing.

How to check your laptop battery health in Windows 10

Is your laptop's battery draining faster than normal? For example- your battery used to last 5 hours but now barely an hour. Or,the battery indicator shows sudden or sharp drop in the percentage remaining. Sometimes even new laptop batteries can show such signs. Did you get a faulty battery or an old one with a very low capacity? So how do you check if your battery is in working condition or is it really damaged and needs to be replaced? If you're a Windows user there no need to install a separate program for this because Windows has a simple command that helps you easily check the condition or health status of your laptop's battery.

How to checking laptop battery Condition in Windows 10

1. Click Start >> Type CMD in the search bar
   
2. Right click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator"
   
3. Now in the command prompt type cd %userprofile%/Desktop >> Press Enter
   
4. Type powercfg -energy >> Press Enter 

After a few minutes the command will generate an energy-report.html file, which will be saved on your desktop. Simply head to desktop and then open that file. The energy report has full information about your Laptop. However, you don't need to go through all of that to check the battery health. Simply scroll down and find a section called "Battery Information". For simplicity press ctrl+F and then type "Battery Information" in the search bar.

The things you should look at are the(Factory) Design capacity and Last Full Charge values. If your Last Full Charge is closer or not very low compared to the Design capacity, then your battery is in good condition/health. However, if its too low then your battery is in poor health and needs to be replaced because it cannot hold charge at its design capacity. For example- in the picture  above you can see Design Capacity is 47520 but the Last Full Charge is 2610. This indicates your battery now holds a maximum of only 5.5% charge of the original capacity. This battery barely lasts 15 minutes.

Is it safe to delete Windows.old folder in Windows 10?

The Windows.old folder in Windows 10 contains installation files of your old Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 version. As you know Microsoft has given you one month to revert back to your previous OS after Windows 10 upgrade. If you press Start (windows key on the keyboard) >> Settings >> Update and Security >> Recovery, you will see an option to go back to your previous operating system. With all the cool UI improvements and performance enhancements in Win 10, I don�t think most users will roll back to their previous OS. If you are absolutely sure that you are going to stick with Windows 10, you can safely delete Windows.old folder which is sitting in your Windows installation drive and taking up huge chunk of Hard Drive space.


However, deleting this Windows.old is not straightforward because Windows won�t let you manually delete some system files inside that folder. You�ll have to use the �disk cleanup� utility to delete folders like windows.old, $Windows.~BT and $Windows.~WS. If you were wondering what is eating up so much space in your HDD after the Win 10 upgrade, its these folders. Here are the simple steps to delete these folders and free up lots of of storage :

How to delete Windows.old folder in Windows 10 

• On the windows search box (in the task bar) type �Disk Cleanup� and press enter 
• Select the Win 10 installation drive which has the Windows.old folder (example: C:) 
• Click �OK� 

• Now from Disc Cleanup box (above), select �Clean up system files� 
• You will again be prompted to select the drive >> Select the drive and click "OK". 
• Wait for few seconds for Disc cleanup to check your drive for system files 

• In the new box (above), scroll down and check �Previous Windows Installation(s)� 
• Also check �Temporary Windows installation files� if you want to delete the $Windows.~WS folder. 
• Now select "OK" 
• A new dialogue box will open >> Click �Delete Files� 
• Another box will open >> Click �Yes� to confirm that you don�t want to restore back to previous Windows version 
• After few seconds, your windows.old folder will be deleted. 

If you also selected the option to delete the �Temporary Windows Installation Files� in the disc cleanup, your $Windows.~BT and $Windows.~WS will also be deleted. By now you will have freed a lot of space. In my case I managed to free over 55GB GB using disk cleanup to remove system files.

How to Fix Chrome using too much RAM in Windows

Chrome browser using too much RAM or system memory is a very common issue experienced by Windows 7 and Windows 8 PC users. When you open multiple tabs on Chrome, each tab executes a process- so you will see multiple Chrome processes running at the same time and using lots of memory. This is normal as long as your system is not badly hogged down. My laptop has only 4GB of RAM installed and I experienced the same problem with the Chrome browser. If you are also experiencing freezing or lag due to Chrome browser using too much RAM, you can take the following steps to resolve it:

Disable or Uninstall extensions/plugins

If you have lots of extensions installed on Chrome that is probably eating up most of your system memory. Each tab has its own processes that use some memory, and similarly every extension allocates some RAM for its processes. AdBlock, Download Manager, Pocket, Buffer are some of the extensions I use. Those extensions can be very resource hogging. Now I disable most of them and only use them as needed. I recommend uninstalling all the extensions you hardly use. That will make a huge difference. To disable/remove extensions Press Menu on top right >> Go to Settings >> Extensions (left sidebar).

Disable features you hardly use

Go to settings and disable features that you don�t use often. For example- I disabled �Offer to translate page� under Languages and �Popups and enabled �Do not allow site to show notifications� under Privacy >> Notifications. There may be other Chrome features that are worth disabling.

End processes that use up too much memory

Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc and then simply choose tasks that are eating too much memory. This will free up used memory. However, the system usage may still build up gradually, so you'll have to repeat this again and then restart the browser.

Chrome memory Leak

This is another common issue reported on Chrome browser. If your tabs are taking too much memory than they should then it could be a memory leak issue. Users widely reported cases where the RAM usage gradually shot up to 90% even with only 4 or 5 tabs open. A possible fix recommended in Google Chrome Help Forum is to re-install Chrome. Do that and check your memory usage. If you had 64-bit Chrome installed, this time try the 32-bit version and see how that goes.

Try a different browser

Most of you have probably tried this. If you haven�t, then give Opera, Firefox or Maxthon a try and see if it resolves the issue.

Add more RAM 

This is obviously a last resort for most. You might be someone who needs lots of tabs open for research or someone who uses lots of extensions. Such usage will require lots of RAM- I�d say at least 6- 8GB. So, if you have just 4GB or 2GB of RAM, either try to keep the number of tabs low or install additional RAM.


The above steps are very general and easy. Most of you already know it but you might�ve been too busy to try it. Just give it a go when you�re free and you might be surprised by the improvement it will bring to your system performance while browsing the web.