How to reset or clear data usage in windows 10

Technology was a saviour during Australia’s pandemic lockdowns – it allowed us to go to work, attend school, visit the doctor, and connect with family and friends. However, for children and, in particular, teens, this unique situation has seen screen time skyrocket, surpassing any limitations previously set by parents.

Marina Passalaris, founder and CEO of youth mental health service Beautiful Minds, says it’s important to help children reset and find a healthy balance with screens as we emerge from lockdown. “During lockdown it was not uncommon for children to log out of online classrooms and go straight onto digital devices, be it mobiles, iPads or gaming devices, to relax and connect with friends,” she explains. “While this connection was important, it meant kids’ screen time became excessive.”

American figures published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics found that screen time outside of virtual school among US teenagers doubled from pre-pandemic estimates of 3.8 hours per day to 7.7 hours. With Australian teenagers having similar access to digital devices, social apps, streaming services, and gaming stations, these numbers would be reflective of Australian teenagers’ usage.

Australian parents now face the unenviable task of trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Post-it Brand by 3M found that 65% of Australian students who have been studying online at home in the past three months felt that being locked to their computer was affecting their overall wellbeing. This was impacting their motivation and energy levels as well as their ability to collaborate and think creatively. These figures are indicative of all ages, as Australian students transitioned from in-person classroom interactions to online learning.

“Home schooling was a necessity and while that associated screen time is not inherently toxic, it can have detrimental effects. If it impacts on academic performance, sleep, relaxation and overall wellbeing then it is important that teenagers are alerted to what that screen time is replacing,“ says Marina. “Parents should now be looking for ways to start rolling back that dependence on digital devices to seek balance.”

“Simply putting in new restrictions and aggressively policing them is not only unrealistic, it’s counterintuitive in terms of stress and anxiety for everyone, as conflict is inevitable in this scenario.”

Marina’s suggestion is to tackle the start of the day first, making mornings a device-free time.

“The first few hours of the day are crucial to overall human wellbeing. It is a case of ‘win the morning, win the day’. Get this right and everything pulls into line on a biological level,” explains Marina.

Here, she offers some principles for families to remember:

SUNLIGHT AND SLEEP

It’s super important for us to get direct sunlight on our eyes upon waking, even on cloudy days. It sets our biological clock and triggers the neural circuit that controls the timing of cortisol and melatonin. Those hormones dictate the effectiveness of our sleep. With poor sleep, we have poor memory, mood disorders, lowered immunity, and our blood sugar regulation is affected, which is key in terms of emotional regulation for teens and overall health.

MANAGE DOPAMINE

Dopamine is a neuromodulator that influences motivation, mindset, drive and craving. Experience of life and motivation or drive is relative to how much dopamine you have at any given moment.

It is critical to keep our dopamine balanced throughout the day. If it spikes, then it naturally must dip equally. When it is depleted, we need a full night’s rest to replenish. Once depleted we languish through the day and derive no pleasure from our activities.

The Post-it Brand survey also discovered that 69% of those working or studying from home found it hard to stay motivated and energised, and it’s likely that this feeling is directly related to excessive screen time.

Unfortunately, our devices, apps, and games have all been designed to take advantage of our dopamine system. They’re all addictive.

When we wake up and reach for our gadgets, not only do we interfere with the natural downloading of information that needs to occur after a night’s rest and dreaming, but we can quickly exhaust our day’s dopamine supply. You’ve essentially short-circuited your body’s natural goal-setting and reward system.

ACTIVATE AIRPLANE MODE

The solution is to hit airplane mode on our devices. Our children’s mornings need to become sacred and purposeful family time again. Without morning rituals or routines, we lose our anchors and the feeling of control over our worlds. There is also a loss of belonging and a sense of connection with the people around us. Add them to the issues listed above and is there any wonder we have such poor mental health outcomes in our communities?

Try these tips to implement Airplane Mornings in your home:

• Ask your children to leave their phone on the kitchen bench overnight so they don’t reach for their device first thing, or worse still, “check in” on their social channels in the middle of the night, interrupting their sleep patterns and circadian rhythms.
• Fill the morning device time with something positive, such as starting the day with an early family walk/run, or taking the dog for a quick walk. It’s all about getting moving to avoid the temptation of sitting and reaching for the device.
• Sit down at the breakfast table together and write down your plans or key reminders on Post-it Notes. The actual process of writing means everyone will better remember what is required and will take greater ownership. It’s a contract of sorts. I also use Post-it Notes to write positive affirmations in our Beautiful Minds sessions. Not a bad way to start the day either!

“If we can carve out that time for nourishment and sacred family time and stay off these devices till at least the time our workday or school day starts, we’ll be working toward having happier, stronger, and kinder families,” says Marina.

Marina Passalaris, CEO of Beautiful Minds is one of the experts featured in a Post-it® Brand Masterclass series to be released across Post-it® Brand social channels later this year.

** The research by Post-it Brand was conducted in September 2021 by OmniPoll and surveyed a sample of 1215 people aged 18+. The results are post-weighted to the Australian Bureau of Statistics census data, providing statistically reliable insights into the attitudes of Australians working or studying online from home.

Get Adele’s Fabulous New Look With These Simple Hacks

Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times and Reader’s Digest, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek. Read more.

Windows 10 tracks how much data you use, which can help you stay under data caps, whether you’re on mobile data or your home internet connection.

The latest versions of Windows 10 makes it easy to clear your usage data. For example, you might want to erase these details and start over on the day your internet service provider starts counting your data for a new month.

To do this, head to Settings > Network & Internet > Data Usage. You can press Windows+I to open the Settings app from anywhere in Windows 10.

Click the name of a network under the “Overview” section or click “View Usage Per App.” Either way, the same screen will appear.

You’ll likely see a list of apps and their data usage on your current Wi-Fi network along with a grayed out “Reset usage stats” button. You can also view some app network usage information in the Task Manager.

Click the “Show usage from” drop-down menu and select “Wi-Fi (all networks)” to clear usage data from Wi-Fi networks, “Ethernet” to clear usage data from wired networks, or another type of network to clear its usage data.

Click the “Reset Usage Stats” button to clear the data usage statistics for the type of network you’ve selected.

Click the “Reset” button to confirm.

Note that you can’t clear usage data for a single Wi-Fi network. Windows forces you to delete your usage data for all Wi-Fi networks.

Your usage data statistics will be erased. Windows will begin counting your data usage from scratch.

Older versions of Windows 10 didn’t provide a graphical option to delete this, forcing you to delete the contents of the C:\Windows\System32\sru folder while the Diagnostic Policy Service isn’t running. That’s no longer necessary.

Regular computer users usually keep an eye on their data usage and bandwidth consumption, especially users with limited data consumption plans. While the earlier version of Windows 10 lets you reset or clear Network Data Usage via Settings, Windows 10 has no direct settings for the same.

Windows 10 comes with a built-in data usage monitor which calculates and shows the network data consumption by all your apps, software, program, Windows Update, etc.

How to view network data usage on Windows 11

To view data usage on Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. Press Win+I to open Windows Settings.
2. Click on the Network & internet option on the left side.
3. Click on the Advanced network settings.
4. Click the Data usage option under More settings.

View Network Data Usage in Windows 10

To get a detailed view of your data usage, press Win+I to go to Settings, click on Network and Internet and go to Data Usage. Here you can see the data used in the last 30 days.

Click on View Usage Details and you can get to see the data consumed by each of your apps and programs.

If you wish, you can reset or clear your Network Data Usage limit on your Windows 11/10 PC manually, using a Batch File or a freeware.

Clear Data Usage in Windows 11/10

1] Manually delete contents of sru folder

To reset the Data Usage counter to zero, you will have to do the following.

Start Windows in Safe Mode. The easiest way would be to press Shift and then click on Restart. Once in Safe Mode, open the following folder location:

Once here, delete all the contents of the sru folder.

Restart your PC in normal mode and see. Your Network Data Usage will have been reset.

The other way to do it manually would be to open Services Manager, stop the Diagnostic Policy Service, clear the contents of this sru folder, and then restart the Diagnostic Policy Service.

2] Data Usage Backup, Restore, Reset Script

But you have an easy option. You can use this Windows 10 Data Usage Reset Script sent to us by Hendrik Vermaak.

This download offers a fast solution for Windows 11/10 users to easily backup, reset and restore the Network Data Usage files when it is required. So not only does this download let you reset or clear Data Usage, but it will also let you first back them up and restore them if you need to. Click here to download it from our servers.

3] Reset Data Usage Tool

The third option you have is to use a freeware. If you don’t want to go through the process of disabling the network adapters or booting into Safe Mode every time, Reset Data Usage is a nice and simple tool to help you here.

It is a lightweight tool that comes in a zip file and takes less than a minute to land on your PC. Download the tool, extract the files, and run executable.

Click on Data Usage and it will take you to the Settings page directly where you can see the data usage for all your apps. Click on Reset Usage and the tool clears all your data usage files and resets it to zero. It is available for download here.

Once you have reset the Data Usage, you will be able to see the results in the Data usage settings page.

You can thus reset or clear Network Data Usage Limit in Windows 11/10 PC.

Data usage high? This post will show you how to limit and monitor Data Usage.

Windows 10 monitors how much of data each app on your computer system consumes. It maintains a log of this data usage for your convenience. However, at times, you might want to clear or reset your data usage. There can be several reasons for that. You might want to keep the track of your data usage from a specific date because of which you want to clear all the previous logs. Whatever the reason is, there should be a way to achieve this goal. In this article, we will explain to you the method through which you can reset or clear the data usage in Windows 10.

Resetting or Clearing the Data Usage in Windows 10

In order to reset or clear the data usage in Windows 10, you will need to perform the following steps:

Type settings in the search section of your taskbar and click on the search result to launch the settings window. The newly opened Settings window is shown in the following image:

Click on the Network and Internet tab as highlighted in the image shown above.

Now click on the Data Usage tab.

Click on the link saying, “View usage per app” as highlighted in the image shown below:

Expand the dropdown list corresponding to the field of “View usage from” by clicking on it as shown in the following image:

From the usage dropdown list, select the Wi-Fi (all networks) option as highlighted in the image shown below:

After selecting this option, click on the Reset Usage Stats button as shown in the following image:

As soon as you will click on it, a confirmation dialogue box will appear on your screen as shown in the image below:

Click on the Reset button from this dialogue box in order to reset or clear the data usage in Windows 10.

Conclusion

In this way, you can easily clear or reset the data usage in Windows 10 by following a very simple set of steps. Data usage log not only helps you to keep a track of your total data usage but it also helps you to control your overall usage by avoiding those apps that consume most of your data. However, if you want to start monitoring your data usage from today, then you can simply do this by clearing your previous log with the help of the method discussed in this article.

Unlike its predecessors, Windows 10 counts the network data consumed by Windows operating system, Windows Update, Store and other apps.

One can navigate to Settings > Network & the Internet > Data usage to overview the data usage for the past 30 days.

The best thing is that Windows 10 separately calculates data usage when you are on Wi-Fi and when connected to Ethernet so that you can get a good idea of the data usage for both Wi-Fi and Ethernet. In short, you can view how much data is consumed by system and apps when you were on Wi-Fi and when you were connected to the Ethernet. This feature particularly useful for users who have limited data plans.

If you click the Usage details link on the same page, you can view data used by all individual apps.

The data usage overview page displays the data usage for the past 30 days, but there is no option to reset or clear the data usage. This means you cannot view the data usage for the current month if you want to.

Many users who are on limited data plans prefer to reset or clear the data usage figures on the first day of the month, but there is no option as such yet.

Luckily, you can reset tor clear he network data usage by deleting a couple of files used to store data usage.

Reset or clear the data usage stats in Windows 10

Refer to the given below directions to reset or clear the network data usage in Windows 10.

Step 1: We cannot reset or clear network data usage in the normal mode. To do so, we need to boot into the safe mode. To start Windows 10 in safe mode, type msconfig in Start/taskbar search field and then press Enter key. This will open System Configuration dialog.

Step 2: Switch to the Boot tab.

Step 3: Under Boot options section, select Safe mode and make sure that the Minimal option is selected. Click Apply button. Click OK button.

IMPORTANT: If you have installed Windows 10 in dual boot with Windows 10 or previous Windows versions, please select your current Windows version/edition that you have boot into under the Boot tab before checking Safe mode option.

Step 4: When you see the following dialog, click Restart button to restart your Windows 10 PC in safe mode.

Step 5: When you are in the safe mode, navigate to the following directory:

C:\Windows\System32\sru

In the above path, “C” is where Windows 10 is installed.

Step 6: Select all files in the sru folder, and then delete them. This will reset and clear data usage figures.

Step 7: Type Msconfig in the Start/taskbar search field. Press Enter key to open System Configuration dialog. Here, under the Boot tab, uncheck the previously selected Safe boot option. Click Apply button. click OK. When you see the confirmation dialog, click Restart button to restart your PC and boot into the normal mode.

Step 8: Open Settings app. Navigate to Network & Internet > Data usage. The data usage counter should now show refreshed figures.’

Hope Microsoft adds an official reset button in the data usage page of Settings.

How to Reset Network Data Usage on Windows 10: Many Windows users keep an eye on the bandwidth/data consume by them in their current billing cycle because they are on a limited data plan. Now Windows give a simple & easy interface to check Data consume by the user in the last 30 days. These statistics calculate all the data consumed by apps, programs, updates, etc. Now the main problem comes when the user wants to reset the network data usage at the end of the month or at the end of their billing cycle, earlier Windows 10 had a direct button to reset the statistics but after Windows 10 version 1703 there is no direct shortcut to do this.

Reset Network Data Usage on Windows 10 [GUIDE]

1.Press Windows Key + I to open Settings then click on Network & Internet.

2.From the left-hand menu select Data usage.

3.Now in the right window pane, you will see the data consume in the last 30 days.

4.If you want a detail explanation then click on View usage details.

5.This will show you how much data is consumed by each app or programs on your PC.

Now that you have seen how to view network data usage, did you find a reset button anywhere in the settings? Well, the answer is no and that’s why a lot of Windows users are frustrated. So without wasting any time let’s see How to Reset Network Data Usage on Windows 10 with the help of the below-listed guide.

How to Reset Network Data Usage on Windows 10

Make sure to create a restore point, just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: How to Reset Network Data Usage in Settings

Note: This will not work for users who have updated Windows to build 1703.

1.Press Windows Key + I to open Settings then click on Network & Internet.

2.Click on Data usage and then click on View usage details.

3.From the drop-down select WiFi or Ethernet according to your usage and click on Reset usage stats.

4.Click on Reset to confirm and this will reset your data usage for the selected network.

Method 2: How to Reset Network Data Usage Stats using a BAT file

1.Open Notepad and then copy & paste the following into the notepad as it is:

2.Click on File then click on Save As.

3.Then from the Save as type drop-down select All Files.

4.Name the file Reset_data_usage.bat (.bat extension is very important).

5.Navigate to where you want to save the file preferably desktop and click save.

6.Now every time you want to Reset Network Data Usage Stats just right-click on the Reset_data_usage.bat file and select Run as Administrator.

Method 3: How to Reset Network Data Usage Stats using Command Prompt

1.Press Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).

2.Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter after each one:

net stop DPS

DEL /F /S /Q /A “%windir%\System32\sru\*”

net start DPS

3.This will successfully Reset Network Data Usage Stats.

Method 4: Manually Reset Network Data Usage Stats

1.Boot your PC into Safe mode without networking using any of the listed methods.

2.Once inside safe mode navigate to the following folder:

C:\Windows\System32\sru

3.Delete all the files & folders present in sru folder.

4.Reboot your PC normally and again check network data usage.

Method 5: How to Reset Network Data Usage Stats using 3rd party software

If you’re comfortable using 3rd party applications or programs then you could easily reset network data usage stats with just a click of a button. It’s a lightweight tool and a freeware which you could easily use without having to install. Just download the Reset Data Usage Tool from here, extract the files and run the executable.

Recommended:

That’s it you have successfully learned How to Reset Network Data Usage on Windows 10 but if you still have any queries regarding this post then feel to free to ask them in the comment’s section.

Aditya Farrad

Aditya is a self-motivated information technology professional and has been a technology writer for the last 7 years. He covers Internet services, mobile, Windows, software, and How-to guides.

Data usage is a handy feature of the Windows 10 operating system that reveals the data transfer totals from the last 30 days.

Besides displaying the total amount of data that was transferred in the last 30 days, it may also highlight data for different connection types — e.g. Ethernet and Wireless — and list the top applications.

While the stat is quite handy to have, as it provides an overview of data transfer on the device, it is not as handy as it could be.

Data usage has no reset option, and that is something that some users may want to check data usage in a given time period and not the past 30 days.

Users who are limited in terms of data usage for instance, may want to reset the figure when their plan stars over to keep an eye on the usage and avoid additional fees or limitations.

While there are better applications out there for that purpose, some Windows 10 users may prefer to use the information that Windows 10 provides by default.

Tip: Check out the following reviews for free data monitors: NetSpeedMonitor, Network Bandwidth Monitor, Net Guard, or Bandwidth Monitor.

Reset Data Usage in Windows 10

To display data usage stats on Windows 10, do the following:

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Windows-I to open the Settings application.
2. Go to Network > Data usage.

There you find listed the total amount of data in Gigabytes that was transferred in the last 30 days. You can click on usage details or on the total to display the list of applications that were used to transfer data sorted by those that used the largest amount at the top.

There you find options to filter the data by connection type, e.g. Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

Resetting the data

Windows 10 ships without options to reset the data in the interface. You have two options when it comes to resetting the data usage data.

Manual Deletion

This can be done right in File Explorer. It requires no extra software and no special permissions.

1. Open File Explorer on the Windows 10 machine.
2. Go to C:\Windows\System32\sru
3. Delete all files in the folder.

You can check data usage afterwards, and will notice that it has been reset. If you use a program like CCleaner regularly, you may add the folder to the cleanup process so that data usage is reset automatically on schedule.

Using Software

Several programs have been created that you may use to reset data usage stats on Windows 10. The following three provide you with the option:

• Reset Data Usage — Simple program that features a reset button, and a button to open Data Usage in the Settings application. Can be run from the command line.
• Windows 10 Data Usage Reset Script — A batch file that you may use to reset data usage on Windows 10.

Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times and Reader’s Digest, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek. Read more.

With Windows 10’s Anniversary Update, you can now reset an app’s data without actually uninstalling and reinstalling the app. This can fix problems when an app has gotten into a bad state, or just quickly restore an app to its default settings.

You’ll lose any settings and cached data in the app, so you’ll have to set up the app again from scratched afterwards. This new option only works for the “Universal Windows Platform” apps, which are generally installed from the Windows Store, but we have some tips on resetting desktop apps in the latter section of this article.

How to Reset a UWP App’s Data on Windows 10

To reset an app’s data, open the Settings app from your Start menu. Head to System > Apps & Features.

Locate the app you want to reset in the list of installed apps and click or tap it. Click the “Advanced Options” link under the application’s name.

Click or tap the “Reset” button to reset an app’s settings.

You’ll have to click a second “Reset” button to confirm you want to clear the app’s data.

In the future, you’ll also be able to remove app add-ons and other downloadable content from this screen. However, no apps currently use this feature.

How to Reset a Windows Desktop Application

Unfortunately, there’s no standard way to reset a Windows desktop application’s settings. If you select a desktop application in the Apps & Features list, you won’t see the “Advanced Options” link.

You’ll have to find an option specific to the application itself. Some applications have built-in options for resetting themselves to the default settings. Others may require you dig into your file system and delete a program-specific folder under the Application Data (%APPDATA%) directory, for example.

In many cases, you can wipe an app’s settings by uninstalling it, telling the uninstaller to delete any settings, and then reinstalling it.

To delete a Windows desktop app’s data, you’ll need to search for an option specific to that program itself. Search the web for the name of the application and “reset settings” or something similar to find this information.

Cache data is basically the temporary files that your computer saves to make services and other apps load faster. This data helps speed up your computer, but it has a downside. It takes up a lot of space, and if you have a small SSD, you can run out of storage pretty quickly. So, to prevent this, you should remove cache data now and then. In this tutorial, I will show you how to clear cache data on Windows 10 computers.

Clear Cache Data

Removing this data can help the overall performance of your system, especially if it is not working optimally. There are different kinds of cache files that you can remove, and I will walk you through the process.

Temporary Files

Step-1: Go to the Start menu and type disk cleanup. Click Open.

Step-2: In the Files, to delete a section, select the files you wish to remove.

Step-3: Select Clean up system files.

Step-4: The app will then calculate how much space will be freed up if you delete these files.

Step-5: Select the files you wish to remove and press OK.

Step-6: Select Delete Files.

Now, wait till the process finishes.

Windows Store Cache

When you download or update an app using the Microsoft Store, cache data is stored. This also takes up storage space, and you can delete it to save space.

1. Open the Run box using Win + R keys.
2. Type WSReset.exe and press Enter.

This will reset the Windows Store and delete the cache data.

Location

Location data can reduce storage space as well.

Step-1: Go to the Start menu and select the Settings cog. (Shortcut keys: Win + I)

Step-2: Select Privacy.

Step-3: On the left pane, there are various options. Select Location under App permissions.

Step-4: Scroll down and under the heading Location history, select Clear.

DNS Cache

Step-1: Go to the Start menu and type cmd.

Step-2: Select Run as administrator.

Step-3: You will be asked, ‘Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?’ Click Yes.

Step-4: Type the following command and press Enter:

Browser

Your browser has the clear cache feature that allows you to ensure that you can free up precious storage space. I am going to show you how to clear cache data in Chrome and Edge.

Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Now press the Ctrl + Shift + Delete keys on your keyboard.
3. Select All time in the Time range drop-down menu and check the Cached images and files box.
4. Select Clear data.

Edge

1. 1. Open Microsoft Edge.
   2. Click on the three horizontal dots on the top right corner of the window.
   3. Select Settings.
   4. Click on Privacy, search, and services from the left pane.
   5. Scroll down and in the Clear browsing data section, select Choose what to clear.
   6. In the Time range drop-down menu, select All time. Check the Cached images and files box.
   7. Select Clear Now.

The above methods will help you free up precious storage and ensure that your system runs at optimal levels.

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How to securely and completely delete files in Windows 10 without third-party software

How to securely and completely delete files in Windows 10 without third-party software

Deleting files in Windows 10 does not really delete the file. Security best practice requires deleted files to be completely overwritten more than once.

Image: vbacarin, Getty Images/iStockphoto

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In general, when you delete a file or directory in Microsoft Windows 10 it is moved to a special location known as the Recycle Bin. If you want, you can retrieve a file from the Recycle Bin and restore it to its previous status. To permanently delete a file in Windows 10, you have to empty the Recycle Bin—this is common knowledge for most users.

However, because of how file storage works in Windows 10, with some simple tools, a person with malicious intent could still retrieve a deleted file, which could be a serious problem if that file contains sensitive data. To securely and completely delete a file, you have to overwrite the specific memory sectors on your storage device with new data. Third-party tools are available for this process, or you could opt for a free Microsoft-provided tool.

This how-to tutorial explains how to download, install, and use Microsoft’s SDelete utility, which allows users to securely and completely delete files in Windows 10.

How to securely and completely delete files in Windows 10

SDelete is a Sysinternals command-line utility you can download for free from Microsoft. Extract the two executable files (Figure A) found in the ZIP file to this folder on your OS hard drive, usually, Drive C.

C:WindowsSystem32
Figure A

Locating the .exe files in the System32 folder will give you access to the application no matter where your deleted files are located.

The basic command-line structure for the SDelete utility is:

In Table A, Microsoft explains each parameter’s function.

Table A

By default, SDelete will overwrite a deleted file only one time; however, best practice and organizational policies may dictate a more stringent protocol. The US Department of Defense, for instance, has two different standards that require three passes and seven passes, respectively. For most situations, three passes should be more than enough, but you should always follow established organizational policy.

How to use SDelete

To use the SDelete utility, open an administrative-level command prompt (Figure B) by right-clicking the Start button.

Figure B

At the prompt, type in your command for SDelete (Figure C). The command-line entry for three passes in quiet mode with recursed subdirectories would look like:

sdelete -p 3 -r -q C:SensitiveData
Figure C

Note: The SDelete utility does not delete files itself–it only overwrites the memory sectors of files located on the storage device that have previously been deleted. For example, if you were to enter this SDelete command using the clean free space parameter into your prompt, the utility would overwrite all of the previously deleted files on the D: drive without impacting any existing active files stored on that drive.

Proactive security

While the SDelete utility is a command-line tool, it is not too difficult for most users to apply at the local level. Couple that with the fact that the tool cannot harm existing files, and there is really no excuse to not use it unless you have deployed a security solution already.

The alternative of allowing sensitive data to be potentially accessed because deleted files were not securely and completely overwritten could be costly. Your organization should have policies and protocols in place that require something more than just a simple file deletion.

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When you wake up and see the world as it is, there is no going back to what was.

Because I’m such a nice guy, I’m going to teach others a simple fix to improve Windows 10’s performance. This is not guaranteed to cure all your Windows 10 problems, but it will help. It consists of resetting virtual memory in Windows 10. And, I’m not even going to explain what virtual memory is, because to do this, you don’t need to know.

Step 1 – Bring up Task Manager (right click on the task bar, and in the popup menu, click on Task Manager). If the Task Manager window looks like this:

Click on the More details item to make it look like this:

See that column labeled Disk? If that reads 100%, you now know why your computer is pathetically slow. Hopefully, the remaining steps will fix your computer, so this column reads a much smaller number. If it doesn’t read 100%, you don’t have to do anything, but you can continue with this reset if you wish to.

Step 2 – In the Windows search box (where it says, Type here to search), search for View Advanced System Settings. See that identified application? Click on that. You should now see a window like this one:

Step 3 – In the window area labeled Performance, click on the Settings… button. Now, you should see a window like this one:

Step 4 – In the Performance Options window, click on the Advanced tab. The window should change to look like this:

This is where the fun starts. The area named Virtual Memory shows you how much of your hard disk drive (or solid state drive) is being used by Windows as if it was memory in your computer. If your computer isn’t running well, and your Disk column in Task Manager said 100%, resetting this Virtual Memory should help.

Step 5 – In the Virtual Memory area, click on the Change… button. This will pop up another window that looks like:

Step 6 – Change the Virtual Memory settings by unchecking the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox, and by clicking on the No paging file radio button. It should look like this:

Step 7 – Click on the Set button. You will see this alert pop up.

Click on Yes. Now, click on the OK button in the Virtual Memory window, then restart your computer.

At this point, you have removed the virtual memory from windows. Your computer WILL run slower. It will take longer to do anything, and everything. Don’t worry. We’re not leaving Windows this way. We’re going to reset virtual memory.

Step 8 – After you are back in Windows, bring up the View Advanced System Settings window again. If you forgot how, see Step 2 above. As before, bring up the Virtual Memory settings (see Step 3 and Step 4). You should be back at this window.

Step 9 – Check the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box. And click on the OK button at the bottom of the window. Now, restart your computer one more time.

Step 10 – Repeat Step 1 of this procedure. The Disk column should gradually drop to a much smaller number, and your computer should run better.

For those interested, here’s a brief technical note on what this process does, and why it works.

Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10) all use a section of your Hard Disk Drive/Solid State Drive, as extra storage space to keep thing in instead of keeping them in RAM all the time. Unfortunately, over time the content of that section of your drive fragments, and then fragments even more. It may even become so fragmented it’s not really usable. Since the virtual memory function of Windows runs all the time, it’s trying to process the content of that drive section all the time. If that content is too fragmented, and even damaged, Windows begins to spend all of its time processing that drive section.

When the Virtual Memory is reset, as described in this procedure, that drive space is first erased, and then a new, clean space is created. This new space does not have the problems the old space had. The result is Windows runs much better, because it doesn’t have to spend all of its time figuring out what’s in that drive space.

Note that I have started resetting virtual memory on my home computer, and on every Windows 10 computer I work on for other people. Because. This works. And it helps the computer run better.

Note: If you try this, you’re on your own. I’m not responsible for anything that may go wrong. I’m just trying to be nice here. If this works for you. Good. If it doesn’t. Well. I tried.

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Windows 10 Data Usage Reset Script is an easy way to reset the data usage in Windows 10 whenever you like.

It uses the Command Prompt (CMD), so Reset_Data_Usage.bat must be Run as administrator by right-clicking on it.

Installation Notes:
1. The Setup script can be used to automatically copy the “Data_Usage_Reset_Scripts” folder to the root of the C:\ Drive, add a flyout menu to the right-click context menu, and create a Start menu folder for improved user experience.
2. The Setup script can also be used to quickly delete the “Data_Usage_Reset_Scripts” folder from the root of the C:\ Drive. The Start menu folder and the context menu flyout menu will also be removed. Uninstall options are also available in the “Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features” and “Settings->Apps->Apps & Features.”
3. A preconfigured scheduled task is included as an option to import with the Setup script. It can be used to conveniently backup and reset the Data Usage Stats on the last day of each month.
4. During the uninstall process, the pre-configured scheduled task will also be deleted if it is installed.
5. The “Installer_files” folder located in the “Data_Usage_Reset_Scripts” folder can be ignored as it forms part of the Setup and Uninstaller scripts.
6. Five Batch Scripts are available for use:
a. Data_Usage_Backup_Reset.bat for User interaction.
b. 1_Click_Reset.bat for a quick 1-Click Data Usage reset solution or for the use as a scheduled task.
c. 1_Click_Backup_Reset.bat for a quick 1-Click Data Usage reset solution with a backup function or for the use as a scheduled task.
d. Data_Usage_Manual_Restore.bat to assist the User with restoring Data Usage files manually from a backup when required.
e. Data_Usage_Manual_Reset.bat to assist the User to manually copy, cut, or delete the Data Usage files when required.
7. The Data Usage Reset Scripts can also be used as individual standalone scripts.
8. The setup script will automatically remove the current installation when reinstalling or installing a new version of the scripts.

Issue Summary: When the Data Usage Stats are reset to 0, the Diagnostic Policy Service is restarted automatically, and if any of the network adapters have active connections, it may cause the Data Usage to show “

By Alisa | Follow | Last Updated April 01, 2022

Summary :

You can use Netsh Winsock reset command to reset Winsock catalog and reset your network adapter’s software to default setting when you have Internet or network problems on Windows 10. Check the detailed step-by-step guide in this tutorial. MiniTool software also provides you many useful solutions in computer hard drive management, data recovery, system backup and restore, etc.

When you have network problems on Windows 10 computer, you can use Netsh Winsock reset command to reset Winsock Catalog, and reset your computer network adapter’s software back to default settings.

Winsock, short for Windows Socket, contains data that programs use to access the network. If a program needs to access the Internet, it has to use Windows Socket.

For how to troubleshoot Internet connection problems, performing a Netsh Winsock reset Windows 10 is a common troubleshooting step. Check the step-by-step guide below for how to use Netsh Winsock reset command to fix Windows 10 network problems.

If you are looking for the best free VPN for Android devices, this post introduces some choices for you.

How to Use Winsock Reset Command Windows 10 – 3 Steps

It’s quite easy to run Winsock reset command on Windows 10 to reset Winsock Catalog to default setting. Just follow the instructions below.

Step 1 – Run Command Prompt as Administrator

You can press Windows + R on the keyboard at the same time to open Run dialog. Type cmd in the search box. Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open and run Windows 10 Command Prompt as administrator.

You can also click Start, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt desktop app in the list, and choose Run as administrator to open the elevated Command Prompt.

Step 2 – Run Netsh Winsock Reset Command Windows 10

Then you can type the Netsh Winsock reset command line below in Command Prompt window, and hit Enter button to execute the command.

netsh winsock reset

Step 3 – Restart Your Windows 10 Computer

After the Netsh Winsock reset process is completed, you can restart your Windows 10 computer to let this Windows 10 Winsock reset take effect.

This post introduces the best free VPN for Windows 10/11 PC/laptop. Choose the best free VPN service of 2022 to browse worldwide content privately and safely.

What Internet Connection Problems Can Winsock Reset Command Tackle?

Winsock reset Win 10 can resolve many networking problems for you. Normally it can repair these Internet connection problems.

• Fix network problem after you remove malware, virus, etc.
• Can’t access Internet or can’t open some webpages like meeting an error “This site can’t be reached” when trying to visit a website.
• See some pop-up network connections errors on your Windows 10 computer.
• WiFi connected but no Internet access error due to registry errors.
• Resetting TCP/IP didn’t fix Internet connectivity issue.
• Find some problems in DNS lookup.
• Fail to renew IP address.
• Fix some other DHCP errors.
• Limited Internet connectivity in Windows 10.
• Other devices can connect to the same Internet but your Windows 10 PC can’t.
• Other network problems in Windows 10.

Bottom Line

When you are facing network connection problems on Windows 10, you can follow the guide above to fix Internet problems with Netsh Winsock reset command Win 10.

If you have other problems on your Windows 10 computer, you can further repair Windows 10 with Startup Repair, SFC Scannow, etc.

To recover lost data or mistakenly deleted files on Windows 10/8/7 computer, please turn to MiniTool Power Data Recovery. The free edition of this software allows you to recover up to 1GB data totally for free. Extremely intuitive interface and 100% clean.

Check the list of the 10 best free VPN services for Mac and choose a preferred Mac VPN for safe and fast online browsing.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Position: Columnist

Alisa is a professional English editor with 4-year experience. She loves writing and focuses on sharing detailed solutions and thoughts for computer problems, data recovery & backup, digital gadgets, tech news, etc. Through her articles, users can always easily get related problems solved and find what they want. In spare time, she likes basketball, badminton, tennis, cycling, running, and singing. She is very funny and energetic in life, and always brings friends lots of laughs.

I recently was troubleshooting an error a user was reporting while navigating to the All vendors list page within Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations that I could not reproduce in any related environment or with any other user.

I made sure that her usage data was cleared as that is the typical “first place to look” type of scenario, and she had routinely cleared it herself out of habit when troubleshooting problems. However, this did not prove to accomplish much and her problem remained.

For those that are unaware of Usage data — it is very common for users to tailor their experience by moving fields on forms, adding elements, defining selection criteria, creating queries for reports, etc. All of these activities, selections, and changes are stored within the database as “usage data”. Another term you may hear for usage data is personalization. However sometimes, especially during active development, this data may get old and will interfere with normal user operations. Therefore, a common “did you turn it off and back on again?” type of first-line response is to delete this usage data for the user and see if the problem went away.

Apparently, the concept of clearing usage data has been changed a bit from Dynamics AX 2012 to D365 FinOps.

In Dynamics AX 2012, you would navigate to System administration > Common > Users > Users. Select the user account and then click the Options button.

As you can see from the screenshot, I’ve got some form personalization records. When clicking the Reset button on the General tab, I expect all usage data and personalizations to be wiped:

But in D365 FinOPs, the Reset button now clears everything BUT personalizations:

To remove personalizations, you will now have to perform an additional step of clicking the Delete all personalizations button on the Personalization tab of the Usage data form. This is a big difference for veteran Dynamics users who are used to how the Reset button behaved in prior versions.

You can also one-by-one delete form personalizations from here or by right-clicking on a form you want to reset, Personalize > … > Clear

Let us know if you have found any other discrepancies between processes in Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 FinOps in the comments below.

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How to clear the Recent items list in Windows 10

How to clear the Recent items list in Windows 10

The Windows 10 Recent list offers fast access to your latest work. But sometimes, it’s a good idea to clear the list and start fresh.

Windows 10 keeps track of all the files and folders you open and displays that information in a number of locations within the user interface–such as Jump Lists associated with applications and the Frequent Folders and Recent Files sections of File Explorer’s Quick Access feature. But the goal of the Recent items list is to make it easy for you to access files that you use often. Instead of burrowing through File Explorer or an Open dialog box, you can access the Recent items list, select the file you’ve been using, and get right back to work.

Now, even though Recent items is a boon to your productivity, you will probably reach a point when you want to clear out the list and start over from scratch. In this article, I’ll show you how to do just that.

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How it works

Before I show you how clear the list of Recent items, let’s look at how the feature works. If you launch File Explorer and select the Quick Access panel in the tree pane, you’ll find the Frequent Folders and Recent Files sections, shown in Figure A.

Figure A

File Explorer’s Quick Access panel shows the Frequent Folders and Recent Files sections,

The Frequent Folders section displays the folders you access more than once, while the Recent Files section lists all the files you’ve recently opened, regardless of the file type. The file you opened most recently will appear at the top of the list.

Jump Lists, on the other hand, will show you a list of the files you have recently accessed with a particular application. For example, Word’s Jump List will display DOCX files and Notepad’s Jump List will display TXT files, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

A Jump List will show all recent files associated with a particular application.

Once an item appears on a Jump List, you can make it remain on the list indefinitely. To pin the item to the list, click on the pushpin icon adjacent to the item.

• Of course, Windows follows a few rules when it comes to Recent items. According to a WindowsDev Center article covering the Recent items feature:
• A new item is always added at the top of the Recent items list.
• Items will move down in the list over time. Once the list is full (reaches the maximum number of items specified in markup), older items fall off the bottom of the list as new items are added to the top of the list.
• If an item already appears somewhere in the list but is accessed again, it moves back to the top of the list.
• If an item is pinned, it will still travel down the list, but it will not fall off the bottom. Instead, once the list is full, the first unpinned item above the pinned item will fall off when a new item is added to the list.
• If the number of pinned items ever reaches the maximum number of items, then no new items will get added to the list until an item is unpinned.

SEE: How to use Task Manager’s Processes tab to troubleshoot issues in Windows 10

Clear Recent items

You can clear all the Recent items by turning the feature off and then turning it back on again. To do so, access Settings from the Start menu and then open Personalization, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

After you launch Settings, select the Personalization tile.

When the Personalization window appears, select the Start tab to access the settings shown in Figure D. Then, toggle off the Show Recently Opened Items In Jump Lists On Start Or The Taskbar option. As soon as you do, all the Recent items will be cleared. (Anything that you have explicitly pinned will remain.) You can then switch the toggle back to On.

Figure D

On the Start tab, turn the toggle switch to Off and then back to On.

Also read…

• The Universal Windows Platform flexes its muscles at Build 2016
• The Windows 10 roadmap provides in-depth details on Device Guard and Credential Guard
• Windows 10 rollout: Unwary small firms complain of unwanted upgrades
• Windows 10: The best new features coming to Microsoft’s latest OS (pictures)

What’s your take?

How much do you rely on the Windows 10 Recent items feature? Share your experiences and advice with fellow TechRepublic members.

To reset an app in Windows 10:

1. Right-click the app in the Start menu.
2. Choose More > App settings from the context menu.
3. Scroll down the app settings page to the “Reset” button.
4. Click “Reset” and acknowledge the confirmation prompt which will appear.

Sometimes you might get into a situation where an app’s not working properly or you just want to return it to a freshly installed state. Fortunately, Windows 10 has a built-in reset option that means you don’t need to actually reinstall the app.

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The quickest way to do this is to right-click the troublesome app in the Start menu. Click “More” and then “App settings” in the context menu which appears.

The app’s page within the Settings app lets you review its details, terminate any running processes and change basic configuration details. Scroll down the page to the Reset heading.

Click the “Reset” button to clear all data stored by the app, as if it was being reinstalled. Acknowledge the confirmation prompt to complete the action. A word of warning – this will delete all data associated with the app, such as your settings and any saved progress (in the case of games). Although some apps save to the cloud, you should make sure you have a backup of anything important before using this option.

With the app reset, launch it from the Start menu. With a little luck, your app should now be working normally again. You’ll need to reconfigure it as if it had just been installed for the first time.

When the time comes, and you need to delete a profile on Windows 10, don’t worry. The process is painless and, best of all, easy to do.

When the time comes, and you need to delete a profile on Windows 10, don’t worry. The process is painless and, best of all, easy to do. You can delete accounts under Other Users and also Windows Family members, as you can see below.

Deleting a Windows Profile, Other Users

Simply stated, you should remove a Windows 10 profile from your computer when you no longer want the person to have access to it. For example, a guest account. To delete the profile, you must use an Administrator account.

To delete an account:

1. Click on the Windows icon at the bottom-left of your device.
2. Search for, then select Settings.
3. Choose Accounts on the Windows Settings page.

1. Click Family & other users from the menu bar on the left side.
2. Select the name of the account holder you wish to remove under the Other users heading on the right.

1. Click Remove.
2. Choose Delete account and data in the pop-up.

That’s it! You’ve deleted the account on your Windows 10 machine.

Deleting a Windows Profile, Family Members

If the account you want to be deleted was created as a Family Account, you must follow different directions that will take you out of Windows Settings and onto the web.

1. Log into your account at
2. Click Other Options under the name of the person you wish to remove from your Microsoft Family.
3. Select Remove from the family group.
4. Click Remove in the pop-up to confirm the removal.

The family member is now deleted from your Microsoft family, including their associated data, documents, and more.

Infopackets Reader Gene R. writes:

I installed Windows 10 when it first became available as a free upgrade, back in August 2015. However, since then my PC has been acting very erratic – as such, I have decided I would like to reset it. My question is: if I reset Windows 10 what happens? As far as I recall there is a hard drive partition on my system for resetting the PC – will I still get Windows 10 or will I get Windows 7? What does system restore do? “

This is a very frequently asked question, though your question in particular deal with three completely separate issues, with three completely different outcomes. I’ll explain more in depth, below.

Explained: if I Reset Windows 10, What Happens?

First let’s discuss the differences between a system restore (restore point), a Windows 10 reset (keep files / remove everything), a factory reset, and even resetting (reinstalling) Windows from DVD / USB media. Each method I’ve listed from left to right as least destructive to “most” destructive in terms of wiping out personal data.

Resetting Windows 10: using a Restore Point

Compared to a full backup of the C drive, a System Restores works like a ‘partial’ operating system backup.

In this case, parts of the operating system (including the Windows Registry, system files, and system settings) are backed up and then can be restored to a previous state. User files are left untouched, though some installed programs may lose their settings. A user might issue a system restore if parts of Windows are no longer functioning properly – for example, the Start menu stops working. A user can issue a restore point from within the Windows 10 desktop environment, from the Windows 10 DVD itself, or from a startup repair.

Restore points work sometimes – but oftentimes they do nothing to resolve deeply rooted issues. In that case, you may want to do a “Reset”, described next.

Resetting Windows 10: Using the “Reset this PC” option

A “Windows 10 Reset” is similar to reinstalling Windows 10 from scratch with some exceptions (described below) – the major difference with a “reset” compared to a “reinstall” is that you don’t need to boot from a Windows 10 DVD / USB drive in order to reinstall Windows. Here, Windows can “reset” itself from a pre-Windows environment, which basically overwrites Windows over top of Windows. Once that is complete, Windows 10 is reset from the beginning – as if it were brand new (similar to a reinstall), without any installed programs, patches, or operating system updates.

If you choose to do a Windows 10 “Reset”, Windows will reinstall itself using two methods pertaining to user data:

1. “Keep my files” – here, Windows is reset; settings and installed programs are removed, but your personal files are left in place. You might want to do this if your system is acting erratic, or something in Windows doesn’t work properly.
2. “Remove everything” – this is the same as option #1 above, except all personal files are removed. You might want to do this if you want a completely clean slate and don’t care about losing all of your personal files. This is another good option to use if you want to give away your PC to a friend but don’t want them having access to your personal data. For all intents and purposes this is similar to formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows.

With that said, many users have emailed me to say that oftentimes, the Windows 10 “Reset” feature is broken. Indeed, this is a very common issue. In that case, the next best option would be to make a Windows 10 DVD or USB drive, backup the system, do a clean install of Windows 10, then restore user data. That is easier said than done, as restoring the user data also means resetting file permissions on that data, then moving it to the appropriate location, then reinstalling all programs, re-importing data, etc. This can be very overwhelming for most users (and something I can help with if you need it) – I’ll discuss more of this situation further down.

Before I get into that, please allow me to explain what a “Factory Reset” does.

Resetting Windows: Using a Factory Reset

Many users that upgraded from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 (for free) have purchased PCs or laptops that came with a “reset DVD”, or a “reset partition” on their hard drive. Often, vendors such as Lenovo, Dell and HP will provide this to users instead of giving them a Windows DVD for the purpose of reinstalling Windows. The option to “reset” is usually presented before Windows is booted (or you would insert the “reset DVD”).

When the system is “factory reset”, the hard drive is formatted, all user data and programs are wiped out, and Windows is reinstalled. The major difference to note here is that if you use this method to reset Windows 10, you will be reinstalling the operating system that – ORIGINALLY – came with your PC or laptop (such as Windows 7 or 8) – and not Windows 10. In other words, you most likely wouldn’t want to use this method.

In that case, you will likely want to use the next option, described next.

Resetting Windows 10: from DVD or USB

Another method which has not been mentioned in your original question is to reset Windows 10 using a Windows 10 DVD or USB drive.

In this scenario you can use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool (free from Microsoft) to download the Windows 10 ISO file, then burn it to DVD (or USB thumb drive) and what you get is essentially the retail version of Windows 10 on DVD or USB sold in stores. From there you would boot from the DVD / USB and perform a clean install of Windows 10. You would likely use this method if the System Restore, or “Reset this PC” doesn’t work, or if you prefer to wipe everything out manually.

That said, the best option for reinstalling Windows 10 (equivalent to a reset) is the “Custom” install method using the Windows 10 DVD / USB media. In this scenario, Windows will create a new install of Windows 10, leave your old Windows installation folder (renaming it to Windows.old), all the while leaving your old user data in tact. However, you will need to reinstall your programs and reset permissions on your previous user data – otherwise you won’t be able to access the files. Explaining how to do this goes beyond the scope of this article – in that case you are welcome to contact me for additional support.

Additional 1-on-1 Support: From Dennis

Resetting Windows may not be as easy as it sounds – as I have pointed out: the system restore doesn’t always work, and the “reset this pc” sometimes breaks. What you may be left with is the only option of reinstalling Windows manually. This can be very overwhelming, especially if you have important programs and data you need to re-import into a freshly formatted system.

If you need help in some way or another resetting your PC, I am an expert at getting this job done and can assist you using my remote desktop support service. Simply simply contact me with a brief message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Got a Computer Question or Problem? Ask Dennis!

I need more computer questions. If you have a computer question – or even a computer problem that needs fixing – please email me with your question so that I can write more articles like this one. I can’t promise I’ll respond to all the messages I receive (depending on the volume), but I’ll do my best.

Here’s what you need to do to clear the local cache for Microsoft Teams.

1. Quit Microsoft Teams.
2. Cut and paste the following location into File Explorer: %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams
3. Delete contents of the entire folder.
4. Restart Microsoft Teams.

At the moment, Microsoft does not have a way to clear the local cache in Microsoft Teams. On the Microsoft Teams UserVoice, users have requested an option to clear the cache on Microsoft Teams from within the graphical user interface (GUI). At the moment, there is no way to clear the local cache directly from within the Microsoft Teams app until Microsoft pushes out an update. Thankfully, there is a workaround.

Here’s the workaround to clear all of the cache from Microsoft Teams.

1. Quit Microsoft Teams. Right-click the icon and select Quit.
2. Cut and paste the following location(s) into File Explorer: %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams (note, this is an updated location)
3. Delete the contents of the entire folder.
4. Restart Microsoft Teams.

The folder that you deleted will remove everything cached from Microsoft Teams on your Windows 10 PC. The cache deletion will not remove the Microsoft Teams app from your PC; here is how to completely uninstall Microsoft Teams. Your new Microsoft Teams cache directory will be restored automatically by using your organization’s Microsoft 365 cloud account. Your previous saved Microsoft Teams settings will be completely erased.

The cache deletion will remove the following Microsoft Teams items from your Windows 10 PC; the web client cache, icons, thumbnails, local message history, your Microsoft Teams display images, and any other Microsoft Teams add-ons. You may need to log back in to Teams again once the app restarts, but you should be able to use Microsoft Teams without any issues.

This method works similarly on a Mac by deleting the following directory;

/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams. On Windows 10, this cache deletion method is particularly helpful if are having issues logging into Microsoft Teams if you have multiple accounts, or are trying to remove old Microsoft Teams account information.

So, if you run into any random login issues with Microsoft Teams or the app seems to be running slowly on your Windows 10 PC, this method is the best way to clear all of your Microsoft Teams cache and start fresh. Check out all of our Microsoft Teams coverage in our dedicated news hub.

Have you tried to clear your cache in Microsoft Teams? Let us know in the comments.

Cache data is basically the temporary files that your computer saves to make services and other apps load faster. This data helps speed up your computer, but it has a downside. It takes up a lot of space, and if you have a small SSD, you can run out of storage pretty quickly. So, to prevent this, you should remove cache data now and then. In this tutorial, I will show you how to clear cache data on Windows 10 computers.

Clear Cache Data

Removing this data can help the overall performance of your system, especially if it is not working optimally. There are different kinds of cache files that you can remove, and I will walk you through the process.

Temporary Files

Step-1: Go to the Start menu and type disk cleanup. Click Open.

Step-2: In the Files, to delete a section, select the files you wish to remove.

Step-3: Select Clean up system files.

Step-4: The app will then calculate how much space will be freed up if you delete these files.

Step-5: Select the files you wish to remove and press OK.

Step-6: Select Delete Files.

Now, wait till the process finishes.

Windows Store Cache

When you download or update an app using the Microsoft Store, cache data is stored. This also takes up storage space, and you can delete it to save space.

1. Open the Run box using Win + R keys.
2. Type WSReset.exe and press Enter.

This will reset the Windows Store and delete the cache data.

Location

Location data can reduce storage space as well.

Step-1: Go to the Start menu and select the Settings cog. (Shortcut keys: Win + I)

Step-2: Select Privacy.

Step-3: On the left pane, there are various options. Select Location under App permissions.

Step-4: Scroll down and under the heading Location history, select Clear.

DNS Cache

Step-1: Go to the Start menu and type cmd.

Step-2: Select Run as administrator.

Step-3: You will be asked, ‘Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?’ Click Yes.

Step-4: Type the following command and press Enter:

Browser

Your browser has the clear cache feature that allows you to ensure that you can free up precious storage space. I am going to show you how to clear cache data in Chrome and Edge.

Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Now press the Ctrl + Shift + Delete keys on your keyboard.
3. Select All time in the Time range drop-down menu and check the Cached images and files box.
4. Select Clear data.

Edge

1. 1. Open Microsoft Edge.
   2. Click on the three horizontal dots on the top right corner of the window.
      
   3. Select Settings.
      
   4. Click on Privacy, search, and services from the left pane.
      
   5. Scroll down and in the Clear browsing data section, select Choose what to clear.
      
   6. In the Time range drop-down menu, select All time. Check the Cached images and files box.
   7. Select Clear Now.

The above methods will help you free up precious storage and ensure that your system runs at optimal levels.

Simple guide to show how to factory reset Windows 10 without losing your personal files or data.

Sometimes our Windows 10 PC crashes because of :

Some Registry errors or malware attacks or program-incompatibility issues. So getting rid off this crash or Windows 10 errors we go for reinstalling the OS which usually compel us to format our hard disk.

Since to reinstall Windows 10, we need installation media or Windows 10 free download ISO file in our CD/USB drive. And most of us don’t have it. But their is a hidden option in Windows 10 – which help you to reinstall Windows without installation CD or USB drive.

Yes you heard it right :

You can reinstall Windows 10 without installation media – also while keeping your personal files such as documents, music, etc. intact. …

So this Windows 10 hidden feature will work like a factory reset which deletes all the user installed programs without touching your personal data.

So lets start the guide :

How to factory reset Windows 10

Let me explain what exactly factory reset Windows 10 means :

• Resetting will delete all user files in Windows partition.
• Resetting will remove all apps and programs that didn’t come with PC.
• Resetting will change your Windows 10 PC settings back to their defaults.

So before factory reset Windows 10, make sure you already moved your personal data or files from “C: Drive” or Windows partition. So checkout if their is any personal files like images,videos,pdf..etc in Desktop or Download folders. If yes – then move those files to another partition.

Because factory resetting Windows 10 PC means clearing user files or user installed programs – cleaning your Windows 10 partition.

After moving your personal files follow these steps to factory reset Windows 10 :

First navigate to Windows 10 settings or hit ” + I ”

Now you can see all available Windows 10 settings, there choose ” Update & security ”

Choose Windows Recovery option from left panel and click “ Get Started ” button under ” Reset this PC “.

Windows Recovery option >>” Get Started ” button under ” Reset this PC”

Now a window will popup asking two options – how you want to handle Windows 10 reset :

Choose “Keep my files”

If you like to reinstall Windows 10 without deleting your personal files – choose first option ” Keep my files ” or if you want to wipe your data from hard disk and then reinstall Windows 10 – choose second option ” Remove everything “.

Here we are choosing first option because the whole tutorial is about resetting Windows 10 without losing personal data.

So after choosing first option, now a new window will open – which will show all the installed programs in your Windows 10 PC which is going to be removed during factory reset Windows 10.

List of programs going to removed

Don’t worry you will get list of removed programs in your Desktop once resets completes, so that you can reinstall them again.

Now hit ” Next ” button.

Again a new window will open to ask final confirmation about factory reset Windows 10. So click ” Reset “.

Click “Reset”

Now Windows 10 will restart to process factory reset. Wait several minutes to complete the process.

That’s it….. this is how yo reinstall Windows 10 without Windows ISO and keep your file intact during reset. If you got stuck during any steps, feel free to comment below and also let us know do resetting Windows 10 resolves your crashing issue?

Windows computers can run into issues. Often, the best solution is to refresh, factory reset, or restore your computer.

However, not all options are equal. Refreshing your computer keeps your files — though not any installed programs that didn’t come with your computer — and reinstalls the Windows operating system. In comparison, factory resetting your computer reinstalls the operating system but does not preserve any files or installed programs.

The only option that does not result in the total loss of either your files or installed programs is system restore. This restores your operating system — files and programs included — to a previous state, called a restore point. Restore points are either automatically created by the operating system or manually created by you.

Here’s how to refresh, factory reset, and restore your Windows 10 computer.

Restore your Windows 10 computer

You should try restoring your computer to an earlier point when a recent change, such as an application install or driver update, resulted in unexpected behavior or reduced performance.

1. Click on the Windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen.

2. Type Control panel and select the control panel app.

3. Click View by and select either Small icons or Large icons.

4. Select Recovery.

5. Click Open System Restore.

6. Select either the Recommended restore or Choose a different restore point and press Next. You can create a restore point from the Control Panel or by searching “Create a restore point” in the search bar.

Note: If you select Choose a different restore point you will be presented with a list of options. Click on one of them and click Next. If no options appear, click Back and select Recommended restore. If no options are available, see refresh or reset below.

7. Click Finish. The computer will then restart and Windows will restore to that previous point.

Refresh your Windows 10 computer

You should refresh your computer if it is showing signs of reduced performance and restoring to an earlier point does not resolve the issues experienced.

1. Click on the Windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen.

2. Click on the Settings gear icon.

3. Scroll down and click on Update & Security.

4. Click on Recovery.

5. Click on Get started.

6. Click on Keep my files.

7. Click on Cloud download or Local reinstall. Cloud download downloads a new copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft directly whereas a local reinstall uses the Windows 10 version already on your computer.

8. Click Next.

9. Click Reset. The computer will now restart and install a new copy of Windows 10 while preserving your files. When it reboots, you will have a new Windows installation with your same files as before. However, your installed programs will most likely be removed during this process.

Factory reset your Windows 10 computer

You should reset your computer if none of the other options to troubleshoot issues work or you are planning to sell or dispose of it.

1. Click on the Windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen.

2. Click on the Settings gear icon.

3. Scroll down and click on Update & Security.

4. Click on Recovery.

5. Click on Get started.

6. Click on Remove everything.

7. Click on Cloud download or Local reinstall.

8. Click Next.

9. Click Reset. The computer will now restart and clean your hard drive . When it reboots, you will have a fresh installation of Windows 10 without any files or programs from before installed.

File associations are a vital part of a functioning Windows experience, so making sure that the right file types automatically open with the right software is a must. But what if you assign the wrong file association or just want to change it to a better program? Windows 10 has proven more restrictive than past versions in terms of file associations and can be particularly fiddly if you just want to remove an association altogether.

Luckily, we have the answers, showing you how to change, reset and replace file associations in Windows 10.

Also read: How to Disable Recent Items and Frequent Places in Windows 10

How to Set and Change File Associations

First up, the easy stuff. You’ve probably been asked a thousand times by Windows when opening a file whether you want to associate it with a certain program. Maybe you just pick one of the suggested programs, and that’s the end of that.

But Windows’ suggested programs aren’t always the right ones, so how do you pick exactly what you want?

There are two ways to do it:

First, you can right-click a file whose association you want to change, then select “Open With.” If the program you want to open it with isn’t there, click “Choose another app” at the bottom of the window.

In the new box you’ll see much the same list as before, but scroll down and click “More apps” for an extended list to appear. Select the app you want to associate the file with and tick “Always use this app to open .xxx files.”

If the app you want doesn’t appear in the list, don’t bother with the option “Look for another app on this PC.” That will only open the file with your chosen program on a one-off basis.

Also read: Windows Explorer Keep Crashing? Here Are a Few Fixes

To properly manage your file associations, click the Start button, type “default app settings” and click on it in the search results. Here you’ll see an overview of the default file associations. Click any of programs in the list to see your other options for that function.

To see a more comprehensive list of file associations, scroll down and click “Choose default applications by file type.” This will show you a full list of all the file types available and the apps they’re associated with.

You can click any of these, but in many cases you’ll find that there are no options available. This happens with more obscure file types, such as various esoteric image formats that only open with image-editing software like Photoshop. If you have the right program, but it’s not appearing as an option in the associations list, you can force the association using the command prompt (see next heading).

If you want, from the main “Default apps” screen you can click “Reset” to reset the file associations to Microsoft’s recommended defaults. (Warning: Microsoft will of course point you back to using their own software.)

How to Reset or Delete a File Association in Command Prompt

Resetting a file association to nothing is a little more intricate, and you’ll need to do it through an elevated command prompt.

Click Start, type cmd , right-click Command Prompt, then “Run as administrator.”

into the command prompt (where “filename” is the name of the app you want to dissociate, and “ext” is the extension, such as .jpg, bin, .mp3 or whatever).

If you’re unsure of the filename, just enter “assoc” into the command prompt to see a list of all the file type associations. The bit you want to enter after “ftype” is the entire part after the = symbol.

For the sake of the example, we decided to dissociate the “wtv” extension from VLC, so the command we typed was

Once you’ve entered the command, the file type should be dissociated/empty, and you can set a new one when you try to open that file type next time.

Or, if you want to use the command prompt to associate or reassociate files with apps, just follow the below format, replacing the “wtv” and directory with the extension and directory of the program you want to associate it with:

Conclusion

That should tell you everything you need to know about file associations and give you control over which programs go with which extensions. While the command prompt method may be a bit more tricky, it’s less restricted than the “Default apps” window, so if the program you want doesn’t turn up there, you can force the association through the trusty command prompt.

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In this post, you will know how to clear a USB stick on Windows 10 via Command Prompt, or a free partition manager. Choose a proper method to wipe clean your USB stick now.

By Michael / Last Updated March 8, 2022

When need to clear a USB stick?

A USB flash drive is a very common device to store thousands of files. It is easy to use and portable. But after long-term use, you may ask: “How do I wipe a USB on Windows 10/8/7 permanently?” due to the following situations:
в—Џ Reuse: If there are some errors with a USB stick, or your USB stick gets infected by an unknown virus, you can clear your USB to remove them.
в—Џ Sell or giving to others: If you want to sell or give your old USB to someone else. To prevent your sensitive data from being utilized by people with evil intentions, you’d better remove all personal data on the USB drive.
в—Џ Get some more space: When you need more free space for new data, but deleting unnecessary files does not make any difference, then you can back up required files and clean out your USB stick to get full space.

When it comes to clearing data from a USB pen drive, you may choose to format or delete partition USB drive on Windows 10/8/7 computer. However, both methods cannot completely delete data on your USB drive. Instead, those deleted data and files are still there. They just become invisible to the system and can be easily recovered by a data recovery tool.

Here, we will provide 2 methods about how to clear a USB stick on Windows 10/8/7 completely and minimize the chances of data recovery.

Two methods to clear USB drive completely on Windows 10/8/7

To permanently clear a USB thumb drive and prevent recovery methods from retrieving information from it, you can write zeros to USB flash drive. It is one of the most popular methods. It replaces your regular, regular, readable data with zeros. For this task, there are two methods available.

вњЌNote: Your USB stick will be wiped completely via below two methods, so if there are some necessary data on your USB stick, please back up them first. Then check out the following method s.

Method 1. Clear USB with Command Prompt

Firstly, you can write zeros to your USB drive for clearing all the data with Command Prompt. Follow the instructions below:

Step 1.Type “CMD” in the search box, right-click the search outcome, and click “Run as administrator”.

Step 2. Type format X: /fs:NTFS /p:1(X is the drive letter of your USB) in the Command Prompt window and press Enter to format USB with the NTFS file system and write zeros to every sector of the drive. You could change the file system according to your needs.

Step 3. Type “y” and press Enter to confirm. And wait for the process to finish, it may take a long time.

Step 4. You can type a name for the drive as volume label, or don’t and then press Enter.

Step 5. Wait for the “Creating file system structures” to show.

Step 6. When the prompt returns, you can repeat the above steps for other partitions on USB.

Step 7. Type exit and press Enter to exit Command Prompt.

Method 2. Wipe USB device via freeware

As you can see, it is time-consuming and complicated to clear USB with Command Prompt, especially for those who are not good at running complicated commands. Besides, those Commands cannot be undone, you have to be careful input them in the Command Prompt. Or you can choose the second method.

There is an easier way to clear a USB device- AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard . Within just a few clicks, it enables you to clear USB stick quickly and securely. And it supports popular Windows systems, including Windows 10/8/7, Windows XP. Now you can click to the Download button below to install AOMEI Partition Assistant, and follow the guide to delete all partitions and data on your USB.

Step 1. Install and open AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click the USB drive you are going to wipe and click “Wipe Hard Drive”.

Step 2. In this window, you can choose a wiping method. Here we choose “Fill sectors with Zero (Safe, Quick)”.

Tip: You can upgrade to Professional Edition to adopt one of the rest three wiping methods that provides higher security.
в—Џ Fill sectors with random data (Safe, Quick): This method will mean writing random data to all sectors on the USB drive. It is safer than option 1.
в—Џ DoD 5220.22-M (Very Safe, Slow): This wiping standard was firstly published by U.S Department of Defense (DoD). It wipe a drive with 3 passes: zeros, ones, random data to for further security.
в—Џ Gutmann (35 passes, Very Safe, Very Slow): This is also a software-based data wiping method to overwrite existing information on a hard drive through 35 passes. This method is very safe but takes much more time.

Step 3.You’ll return to the main interface, here you can preview the result of this operation. And click “Apply”.

Step 4.In the pop-up window, click “Proceed” to execute the operation.

The same steps can also be applied to wipe HDD, memory card and other external hard drives.

Conclude

This is about how to clear a USB stick on Windows 10/8/7 permanently and securely. Both the 2 ways can erase the data on your USB. But By contrast, the second method is safer and more easy-to-operate.

What’s more, AOMEI Partition Assistant actually is a powerful partition manager. Besides clearing/wiping a USB stick, it also provides lots of other features like partition a USB drive, and you can turn to Professional Edition to unlock other advanced functions like erase SSD drive , recover deleted partitions, etc.

• To delete a user from your Windows 10 computer, go to your Accounts menu.
• You should delete a user profile if you want to remove the owner’s access to your computer.
• You’ll need to be logged into an Administrator account to delete a user in Windows 10.

One of the best security features in Windows 10 is the ability to add multiple user accounts. If multiple people use the same computer, setting up different user accounts is the best way to keep each user’s files and other information, such as saved login info, private.

But if there comes a point when you want to delete a user, either because they don’t need it anymore or you want to block their access, deleting a user account from a Windows 10 PC is simple, as long as you’re using an Administrator account.

Here’s how to do it.

Quick tip: You’ll need to be logged into an Administrator account to delete a user in Windows 10.

How to delete a user from Windows 10

1. Click on the Windows icon at the bottom-left of your screen and search for the “Settings” app.

Quick tip: You can also click on the Settings gear widget directly from the Windows icon.

2. Click the Settings app when it appears in the search results to open it.

3. Click on Accounts.

4. Click on Family & other users from the menu bar running along the left-hand side of the Settings window.

5. Under the “Other users” heading, click on the name of the account holder you want to remove from Windows 10.

6. Click Remove.

7. Click Delete account and data in the pop-up that appears. The account will then be removed.

Note, however, that this method only works for users listed as “Other users.” If you’ve added another user to your “Family,” you’ll have to instead:

1. Go to and sign into your Microsoft account.

2. You’ll be brought to a page that shows all the accounts currently connected to your “Microsoft family.”

3. Underneath the name of the person you want to delete, click More options and then Remove from family group.

Once you do this, their account should be deleted.

Quick tip: Deleting a user from your Windows 10 machine will permanently delete all of their associated data, documents, and more. If needed, ensure the user has a backup of any important files they want to keep before you delete.