FAQs

The OneDrive icon on the File Explorer navigation bar can only be removed via registry key.
Please open Registry Editor and go to the following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace
You may see these 2 keys under the NameSpace.

Right click on the {018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} and delete it.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Edit at your own risk.

As you can see, the OneDrive Personal folder is no longer there.

To disable personal OneDrive, you can follow the steps below:

1. Exit from personal OneDrive if you find a white cloud icon in the task bar.
2. Hit Windows + R , type regedit and click Enter to open Registry Editor.
3. Go to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\OneDrive and find DisablePersonalSync, set the value to 1
   Note: If you cannot find DisablePersonalSync ,you can create one directly.
   Just right click below and click New > DWORD(32-bit) Value, type DisablePersonalSync as name and double click it, set value to 1 click OK.

In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, version 1607, Microsoft removed Cortana’s on-off switch. But it’s still there, if you know where to look. Use this tweak to make Windows search strictly local.

In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, version 1607, Microsoft removed the on-off switch for Cortana. But the setting is still available if you know where to look

As with most things Windows, you can remove the search button or box completely if you’re really convinced you won’t use it. Right-click the taskbar and then click Cortana > Hidden.

With that option set, you can still access Cortana’s full feature set by tapping the Windows key and typing. If you want to turn off all of Cortana’s features, leaving only the ability to search for local apps, files, and settings, you need to make a simple registry edit.

On a system running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise edition, you can use Group Policy to apply this setting across multiple machines in an enterprise network; on a single PC, use the local Group Policy Editor, gpedit.msc, to open the policy Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search > Allow Cortana and set it to disabled.

On a system running Windows 10 Home, you need to make a manual edit to the registry. Find the key HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search (you might need to create this key if it doesn’t exist), and then create the DWORD value AllowCortana and set it to 0.

In either case, this change applies to all user accounts on the PC you’re configuring. Sign out and sign back in and you’ll notice that the text in the search box has changed from “Ask me anything” to “Search Windows.” Clicking in the search box displays only a simple prompt. In addition, Cortana’s Notebook is unavailable, only a few settings are available when you click the gear icon, and there’s no option to search the Web from the search box.

Here is how you can fix that:

1. Open Start, type: CMD
Right click CMD
Click Run as administrator

Type in at the prompt OR Copy and Paste these one at a time : (Hit enter after each)

2. Type Diskpart and click through the UAC prompt
3. If you have more than one hard disk in your PC…

a. Type List disk and note the number of the disk on which Windows 10 is installed
b. Type Select Disk N where N is the number of the Windows installation disk

4. Type List Volume to see which partition has the offending drive letter. It will be a drive with a size measured in MB (Megabytes)
5. Type Select Volume N where N is the number of the UEFI partition that’s been given a drive letter, in my experience so far it’s the one called “Recovery”
6. Type Remove Letter=N where N is the drive letter (maybe D or E) assigned to the UEFI partition
7. Type Exit to close Diskpart
8. Close the Command Prompt Window

Have you recently downloaded the Windows 10 ISO and then decided to find out what update version of Windows 10 it is. Fear not the steps below will help you find out…

1. Firstly, you need to mount the ISO – In Windows 10 you can do this by just right clicking on the ISO and then selecting mount.
2. Then open up a command prompt as administrator and run the following command:dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:E:\sources\install.esd /index:1
   (E is the drive letter for the mounted ISO file)

The product key for new computers that come preinstalled with Windows 10 has the product key stored within the motherboard firmware. Users can retrieve it by issuing a command from the command prompt.

1. Press Windows key + X
2. Click Command Prompt (Admin)
3. At the command prompt, type wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

This will reveal the product key.