The file or directory is corrupted or unreadable (Solution)

Symptoms:

A file or folder in your non-system partition or USB external hard drive etc is not accessible.  When you try to delete it, it's saying "The file or directory is corrupted or unreadable".

WARNING: DO NOT TRY TO USE THE METHOD IF YOU ARE NOT TRYING TO DELETE THE CORRUPTED FILE OR FOLD. IN THAT CASE, YOU NEED DO DATA RECOVERY ON YOUR DRIVE OR PARTITION




Solution:

Let's assume, you are trying to delete a folder called "Sam Photos" in your partitions E: when you are getting error message, the path is "E:\Sam Photos"

1. Go to 'Start' -> Click 'All Programs' -> Click 'Accessories'

2. Right-click 'Command prompt', and then click 'Run as administrator'

    * If you are in Windows 8, use Windows logo key + Q  to search in Metro (right side of your     

       screen). In the search field, type in 'cmd', in the search result, you will find 'Command prompt', 

       right-click 'Command Prompt', then click 'Run as administrator'.

       

3. When the "Command Prompt" opens, . type in following command,

chkdsk /f e:
then, press "Enter" key

When you see "Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)
type "y" and "Enter" key to start the scan


4. Once the scan is finish, you will find the "Sam Photos" has been completely removed from your system.

How to set default IE home page via Domain Group Policy

1. Open your Group Policy Management


2. Edit your existing default domain group policy or you create a new group policy object; also very important you have to add permission in "Security Filtering", so this policy only apply to certain people


3. Go to,

“User Configuration” -> “Preferences”  -> “Windows Settings” -> “Registry”
Right Click on “Registry” -> “New” -> “Registry Item”

4. Then, in the “New Registry Properties”, update information as follow,

Action: = Update
Hive: = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key Path: = Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Value name = Start Page      <- or anything you want, for example, Default Home Page
Value Type: = REG_SZ
 Value data: = http://www.google.com     <- here is your default home page URL

5. Also you need disable an “IE security Alert” which are caused by previous action.
“User Configuration” -> “Policies” -> “Administrative Templates” -> “Windows Components” -> “Internet Explorer”
Find and open “Turn off the Security Settings Check Feature"

6. Choose "Enable" option in "Turn off the Security Settings Check feature", click OK to finish. Then, close the Group Policy Management console

7. In command line do "gpupdate /force" to force group policy update on any computer or simply just wait for group policy update.

How to disable Windows Firewall via Domain Group Pollicy

1. Open "Group Policy Management" for your domain controller or remote group policy management

2. Create a new Group Policy Objects called "Disable Firewall" or Something you like in your domain. Try not add it into your "Default Domain Policy". This will make your life easier in the future when you need undo Windows Firewall. Then, you need add permission in "Security Filtering" accordingly.

3. Right click on "Disable Firewall", click on "Edit..." to edit your new group policy object

4. Go to,
“Computer Configuration” -> Windows Settings” -> “Security Settings” -> “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security” -> “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security”

Then, click on “Windows Firewall Properties”

5. Click on “Domain Profile” tab, in “Firewall state:” drop down menu, choose “Off”
* You can also turn on/off windows firewall for "Private Profile" and "Public Profile" in different tabs

6. Click "OK" button to finish, close Group Policy Management; open command line and run,

gpupdate /force



7. Done

Windows 8 or Windows 8 VM machine 100% disk usage problem

Lately, I have encounter a problem that a Windows 8 VMware virtual machine hard drive usage gone 100%. When that happening, you almost cannot do anything with your Windows 8 computer. So, I come across a solution might helpful for you.


 Solution:

1. Right click on "This PC" icon on your desktop, then click on Properties
or alternatively you can go to "Control Panel" -> "System and Security" -> "System"

2. In the "System" menu, click on "Advanced system settings" located on the middle left

3. In "System Properties" windows, Click on "Advanced" tab, then click on "Settings..." button where under Performance

4. In the newly popped-up windows called "Performance Options", click on "Advanced" tab, then click on "Change..." button where is under "Virtual memory"

5. When the "Virtual Memory" windows come up, you might see something like this,

6. Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" option, then check "Custom size:" option, then you want Virtual RAM size in "Initial size (MB):" and "Maximum size (MB):" fields,




The "4096" is equal to 4GB (* 1GB = 1024) and "8192" is equal to 8GB. This virtual memory thing is actually using part of your computer hard drive as computer memory. So, when the virtual memory is very small, your computer will be busy with very limited space for the virtual memory. So, you want increase the virtual memory size. If your hard drive has lot of space, you can set your virtual memory to 16GB or 32GB.



7. Click "OK" buttons to close all the windows, then you will need to reboot your computer.

How to Turn Off "Frequent Places" (Visit History) in Windows 7, 8 and 8.1

A lot of people start to have privacy concert on "Recent Items" and "Frequent Places" in Windows 7 and Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Since someone else might be able to find out what was the last folder or file you accessed on your computer if someone gain the access to your computer. Here are some examples:

If you need to turn them off, here is the solution

Solution:

1. On the desktop, right click on a empty area on the Taskbar, then click on "Properties"

2. In the newly popped up windows "Taskbar and Navigation properties", Uncheck "Store and display recently opned items in Jump Lists" or you can change "Number of recent items to display in Jump Lists:" from default "10" to "0". Then, click "OK" to finish and close. 

3. Now, check again, your jump list will be disappeared. Hopefully, this will help.

Cannot delete a folder or file - Error "this is no longer located in"

Cannot delete a folder or file - Error "this is no longer located in"

Symptoms:

Trying to delete a folder or file and getting an error message "this is no longer located in [FOLDER NAME]"

Solution:

1. Go to 'Start' -> Click 'All Programs' -> Click 'Accessories'

2. Right-click 'Command prompt', and then click 'Run as administrator'

    * If you are in Windows 8, use Windows logo key + Q  to search in Metro (right side of your     

       screen). In the search field, type in 'cmd', in the search result, you will find 'Command prompt', 

       right-click 'Command Prompt', then click 'Run as administrator'.

       

3. In the newly popup command prompt, go to the folder that you cannot delete

    * in my case, i will use a folder called "Best Friends" as example

4. run "dir /x/p/a" command, you will see the following result

5. rename the "Best Friends" folder to a folder called "folder" with following command "ren     

    BESTFR~1 folder"  

    * The "BESTFR~1" is showing in your previous command, you will find your own folder name 

       from last command

6. Once, the "Best Friends" folder has been renamed to "folder", you can delete from anywhere.