The “Sorry, something’s wrong with your Microsoft account” error message is a common issue that Xbox users sometimes face whenever they try to sign in their Xbox live accounts. If you are facing a similar problem, in this article, we will tell you how you may be able to fix this problem and successfully sign in your Xbox live account. Note that it is possible that instead of getting the “Sorry, something’s wrong with your Microsoft account” error message, you may simply be stuck at the sign-in loading screen. This is the same issue and requires the same steps to fix.
Account.live.com Fix Method 1:
Restart your Xbox
Even though this seems like a really simplistic fix, it could potentially work in a lot of cases where users cannot sign in their accounts. Simply turn off your Xbox and wait a couple of seconds. Then turn it back on and try to sign in again.
Account.live.com Fix Method 2:
Remove and re-add account
Disclaimer: Note that you must know your password and username prior to this step or else you may not be able to enter your account again.
The first thing you must do here is press the Xbox button on the controller to open the starting menu and then go to Settings > Settings > Remove Account.
Now, select the account that gives you the error when you try to access it and then confirm its removal. Removing the account won’t delete your account or delete any saved games, personalized settings, or achievements.
Once you remove the selected account, open the starting menu again and go to Sign in.
Next, select the Add new option and then type in the email/phone number/Skype username and the password of the account you are trying to access and then sign in.
You will be asked to customize your security preferences but you can skip this step by selecting the No Barriers option and go back to those settings later.
In most cases, this simple method should be enough to allow you to restore the access to your account.
Account.live.com Fix Method 3:
Verify your account information
In some cases, you may be required to verify some account information before you could enter your account again. Here’s how you can verify the information on your Xbox live account:
First, go tothis page and provide your email address and password to enter your account. Now check all account information – see if everything’s filled out with and that there’s no outdated info. This includes all phone numbers and emails connected to the account, as well as the security questions and answers.
Once you update your information, save the changes you’ve made and try to enter your Xbox live account. Note that if you have indeed made any changes by updating the information of your account, the changes will take place in 30 days. This is a security measure intended to prevent any potential attempts by hackers to steal your account.
The “Sorry, something’s wrong with your Microsoft account” error message is a common issue that Xbox users sometimes face whenever they try to sign in their Xbox live accounts. If you are facing a similar problem, in this article, we will tell you how you may be able to fix this problem and successfully sign in your Xbox live account. Note that it is possible that instead of getting the “Sorry, something’s wrong with your Microsoft account” error message, you may simply be stuck at the sign-in loading screen. This is the same issue and requires the same steps to fix.
Account.live.com Fix Method 1:
Restart your Xbox
Even though this seems like a really simplistic fix, it could potentially work in a lot of cases where users cannot sign in their accounts. Simply turn off your Xbox and wait a couple of seconds. Then turn it back on and try to sign in again.
Account.live.com Fix Method 2:
Remove and re-add account
Disclaimer: Note that you must know your password and username prior to this step or else you may not be able to enter your account again.
The first thing you must do here is press the Xbox button on the controller to open the starting menu and then go to Settings > Settings > Remove Account.
Now, select the account that gives you the error when you try to access it and then confirm its removal. Removing the account won’t delete your account or delete any saved games, personalized settings, or achievements.
Once you remove the selected account, open the starting menu again and go to Sign in.
Next, select the Add new option and then type in the email/phone number/Skype username and the password of the account you are trying to access and then sign in.
You will be asked to customize your security preferences but you can skip this step by selecting the No Barriers option and go back to those settings later.
In most cases, this simple method should be enough to allow you to restore the access to your account.
Account.live.com Fix Method 3:
Verify your account information
In some cases, you may be required to verify some account information before you could enter your account again. Here’s how you can verify the information on your Xbox live account:
First, go tothis page and provide your email address and password to enter your account. Now check all account information – see if everything’s filled out with and that there’s no outdated info. This includes all phone numbers and emails connected to the account, as well as the security questions and answers.
Once you update your information, save the changes you’ve made and try to enter your Xbox live account. Note that if you have indeed made any changes by updating the information of your account, the changes will take place in 30 days. This is a security measure intended to prevent any potential attempts by hackers to steal your account.
It has come to our attention that many of our readers have questions about a program called SpyHunter. Namely, people are questioning whether this piece of software is, in fact, safe to have on their computers and whether or not it actually does what it says it does.
We have tested this software and would like to give our honest opinion and an unbiased review of SpyHunter in this brief post.
SpyHunter is an antimalware tool that is designed to locate and remove malicious programs, as well as browser hijackers and various other ad-generating software pieces from your Mac. Furthermore, it is also set to prevent other such harmful or potentially unwanted programs from getting installed in the future.
And as we have seen for ourselves, SpyHunter is indeed legitimate software that does exactly what the developer claims it does. This is contrary to the common belief floating about that SpyHunter is some kind of virus or scam. This is decidedly not the case, and this malware removal tool won’t do anything to harm your machine in any way.
Is SpyHunter for Mac Safe (Legit)?
SpyHunter can be downloaded from the official website of the developer. And after you run the easy installation of the program, you will be all set to run a full scan of your system or use any of the software’s other functionalities.
Now, SpyHunter for Mac is still quite new on the market and it has yet to stand the test of time. There’s no way we can be sure that the developers will be able to keep up the good quality of this product a few months or years from now. But for the moment at least, this has proven to be a reliable and excellent tool that offers great value for money.
Speaking of money, though, the only negative feedback we’ve seen from other users has primarily to do with the price. So that, too, goes to show that there’s nothing genuinely worrisome about this software.
And that leads us to another thing. There’s something users need to understand when it comes to paid and free software. It’s natural that many will expect to be able to receive the same service offered by a paid program from one that’s free. However, this is an unrealistic expectation. The production of a quality antimalware tool (or any other software product for that matter) requires a substantial amount of funding. Hence, the less funding there is – the lower the quality of the product will be.
Free programs are generally developed and distributed with the intention of promoting the other products of the same developer. So their functionality will quite understandably be very limited and nowhere near on par with software that was created to serve the end-user and provide actual value to them.
With that in mind, we would like to point out that SpyHunter is certainly worth every penny. In addition to having detected notoriously persistent malware (e.g. Safe Finder) on computers we’ve tested, it does a perfect job at cleaning junk files in a very user-friendly and convenient manner. Furthermore, there’s 24 hours support available if ever you need it. And in the event that you aren’t happy with the multiple different clean-up options and improved system performance, the company will give you your money back.
One of the most asked questions in our comments seems to be “Is FreshMac safe?” That is also the question that seems to come up in most FreshMac reviews out there. And since we are a security website, we perfectly understand the importance of this question, so we installed and tested FreshMac to determine whether the software lives up to its marketing, tag price, and if there are any shady practices it is involved in.
A quick word: This FreshMac review is intended to be completely objective. If you feel the author is biased, please write back to us in our contact form and inform us which part of the FreshMac review you feel needs to be changed.
We will leave the comment section below open to anyone who wishes to leave an honest opinion, but if you intend to say the software is “the best” or “the worst” we will ask for proof of purchase. This is simply to make sure our readers can get an unbiased opinion. The last thing you and I want is for the people behind FreshMac or their competitors to start writing here.
Q: What is FreshMac?
A: FreshMac is a safe anti-malware program that can remove malware, adware and all other varieties of threats. It will also prevent new ones from installing themselves and act as a cleaner for your Mac.
Q: Is FreshMac safe?
A: You might sometimes come across instances of this software being associated with computer threats, e.g. “FreshMac virus”, “FreshMac malware” and the like. However, as pointed out above, the FreshMac removal tool is perfectly safe to use on your machine.
After you have downloaded the FreshMac software from the developer’s website, you will need to install it before you can scan your Mac. The process is very simple and all you have to do is double click the install file, which will open the FreshMac installer. Next, just click “Continue”, then “Install” and the FreshMac installer will do the rest.
BUT! Here is a very big caveat – this is new software. It works perfectly right now, but we never know for how long the developers will be able to keep up the quality. Still, our verdict is that FreshMac is not only safe to use, but your Mac can benefit substantially from it. As of the time we are writing this FreshMac review there is almost no negative user feedback on FreshMac – and the negative feedback that does exist seems to focus solely on the price, which feels like these people are hoping to get a free meal out of it. Mac optimizer/cleaners generally have a fishy reputation, for one simple reason: many believe that free software can achieve the same results as a paid one.
Let me be loud and clear on this – paid software will always be head and shoulders above any free one you can find. Free software tends to be made by enthusiasts or companies that want to popularize their other services through it. In both cases, this means a very limited amount of resources (read: money) was invested in the project and the overall quality and support suffer from that.
Paid programs, on the other hand, are a “professional” class of software – everything negative about them starts and ends with the fact that you need to take money out of your wallet to use them. Yes, part of the profits are just that, profits for whoever created the software, but this also means that these people are more motivated to make the software better. This is when paid software truly begins to shine. In the case of FreshMac, my honest opinion on the matter as a security specialist is that if you value your machine and want to keep it secured, clean and fast – try FreshMac or another program of this type. If you regret the decision, you can always cancel your subscription. The reason I recommend this to you is that nowadays more and more malware is targeting Mac devices and these figures will just keep growing.
My personal experience with FreshMac Installer
The first thing I did with FreshMac was run it on my old Macbook Air 2014 (the link is to Apple’s website) just to see if it does anything at all. The first impressions definitely raised my eyebrows a bit. As you can see on the screenshot below, according to FreshMac, my Mac has 4474 issues on it. To my knowledge, if there truly were that many issues, my Mac would be garbage by now – so one negative strike here for overestimating the problems.
Why is FreshMac finding so many issues?
A closer look at the FreshMac scan log reveals that 4248 of the 4474 issues were so-called “privacy” issues, which is to say many cookies and other browser-related stuff – the entirety of these 4000 issues resulted in a total of 4kb, which is vastly inferior to the other ones it found. Another Mac I tested the FreshMac removal tool on had a whopping 66613 issues – again, about 99% of them were privacy issues.
A lot of programs do this. They count every single tracking cookie as a virus or a problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Without any context or explanation, you are left lacking the full picture. What happens in reality here is that these “issues” are simply cookies that allow Google and other websites to offer you targeted ads – yes, the annoying kind, but hardly an “issue.” This is a marketing strategy that can be very misleading if you don’t understand what you are looking at. Some of the programs and adware that we have found with FreshMac are Weknow.ac, Safe Finder, My Quick Converter and Similar Photo Cleaner all of which have been vulnerabilities at some point.
Is FreshMac any good?
There was malware called Safe Finder on the second machine I tested (the one with 66000 issues). If you do a quick Google search you will find that it is a huge issue that’s been plaguing users for years. The malware redirects users to shady websites and offers them unsafe advertisements – and FreshMac absolutely took care of it in a matter of seconds. The problem did not reoccur after. I am highly confident FreshMac is one of the best Mac cleaners out there if you are battling malware. I’ve been using a Mac for 8 years and I pretty much know how to clean it myself, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that FreshMac sped up the process by at least 25%. I don’t have the necessary tool set to estimate exactly how much, but it was absolutely a noticeable difference.
So, the bottom line is: despite the confusing marketing, FreshMac performs well on all fronts and is definitely money well-spent.
FreshMac – Pros and Cons
The following are some of the pros and cons of FreshMac that we thought you need to know.
Pro Factors:
FreshMac offers a One-Touch scan, which is done very quickly and can contribute to improving the system performance.
Provides multiple clean-up options.
FreshMac offers you the functionality to remove duplicate files from your system.
It has a user-friendly interface and is extremely easy to use.
24h support
Money back Guarantee
Con Factors:
FreshMac confuses the user with “privacy issues”
No free trial version.
Do you have any experience using FreshMac yourself? We want to hear about it! Please tell us all about your thoughts on the FreshMac removal tool in the comment section below.
if you liked my FreshMac review, please like and share it!
One of the most asked questions in our comments seems to be “Is FreshMac safe?” That is also the question that seems to come up in most FreshMac reviews out there. And since we are a security website, we perfectly understand the importance of this question, so we installed and tested FreshMac to determine whether the software lives up to its marketing, tag price, and if there are any shady practices it is involved in.
A quick word: This FreshMac review is intended to be completely objective. If you feel the author is biased, please write back to us in our contact form and inform us which part of the FreshMac review you feel needs to be changed.
We will leave the comment section below open to anyone who wishes to leave an honest opinion, but if you intend to say the software is “the best” or “the worst” we will ask for proof of purchase. This is simply to make sure our readers can get an unbiased opinion. The last thing you and I want is for the people behind FreshMac or their competitors to start writing here.
Q: What is FreshMac?
A: FreshMac is a safe anti-malware program that can remove malware, adware and all other varieties of threats. It will also prevent new ones from installing themselves and act as a cleaner for your Mac.
Q: Is FreshMac safe?
A: You might sometimes come across instances of this software being associated with computer threats, e.g. “FreshMac virus”, “FreshMac malware” and the like. However, as pointed out above, the FreshMac removal tool is perfectly safe to use on your machine.
After you have downloaded the FreshMac software from the developer’s website, you will need to install it before you can scan your Mac. The process is very simple and all you have to do is double click the install file, which will open the FreshMac installer. Next, just click “Continue”, then “Install” and the FreshMac installer will do the rest.
BUT! Here is a very big caveat – this is new software. It works perfectly right now, but we never know for how long the developers will be able to keep up the quality. Still, our verdict is that FreshMac is not only safe to use, but your Mac can benefit substantially from it. As of the time we are writing this FreshMac review there is almost no negative user feedback on FreshMac – and the negative feedback that does exist seems to focus solely on the price, which feels like these people are hoping to get a free meal out of it. Mac optimizer/cleaners generally have a fishy reputation, for one simple reason: many believe that free software can achieve the same results as a paid one.
Let me be loud and clear on this – paid software will always be head and shoulders above any free one you can find. Free software tends to be made by enthusiasts or companies that want to popularize their other services through it. In both cases, this means a very limited amount of resources (read: money) was invested in the project and the overall quality and support suffer from that.
Paid programs, on the other hand, are a “professional” class of software – everything negative about them starts and ends with the fact that you need to take money out of your wallet to use them. Yes, part of the profits are just that, profits for whoever created the software, but this also means that these people are more motivated to make the software better. This is when paid software truly begins to shine. In the case of FreshMac, my honest opinion on the matter as a security specialist is that if you value your machine and want to keep it secured, clean and fast – try FreshMac or another program of this type. If you regret the decision, you can always cancel your subscription. The reason I recommend this to you is that nowadays more and more malware is targeting Mac devices and these figures will just keep growing.
My personal experience with FreshMac Installer
The first thing I did with FreshMac was run it on my old Macbook Air 2014 (the link is to Apple’s website) just to see if it does anything at all. The first impressions definitely raised my eyebrows a bit. As you can see on the screenshot below, according to FreshMac, my Mac has 4474 issues on it. To my knowledge, if there truly were that many issues, my Mac would be garbage by now – so one negative strike here for overestimating the problems.
Why is FreshMac finding so many issues?
A closer look at the FreshMac scan log reveals that 4248 of the 4474 issues were so-called “privacy” issues, which is to say many cookies and other browser-related stuff – the entirety of these 4000 issues resulted in a total of 4kb, which is vastly inferior to the other ones it found. Another Mac I tested the FreshMac removal tool on had a whopping 66613 issues – again, about 99% of them were privacy issues.
A lot of programs do this. They count every single tracking cookie as a virus or a problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Without any context or explanation, you are left lacking the full picture. What happens in reality here is that these “issues” are simply cookies that allow Google and other websites to offer you targeted ads – yes, the annoying kind, but hardly an “issue.” This is a marketing strategy that can be very misleading if you don’t understand what you are looking at. Some of the programs and adware that we have found with FreshMac are Weknow.ac, Safe Finder, My Quick Converter and Similar Photo Cleaner all of which have been vulnerabilities at some point.
Is FreshMac any good?
There was malware called Safe Finder on the second machine I tested (the one with 66000 issues). If you do a quick Google search you will find that it is a huge issue that’s been plaguing users for years. The malware redirects users to shady websites and offers them unsafe advertisements – and FreshMac absolutely took care of it in a matter of seconds. The problem did not reoccur after. I am highly confident FreshMac is one of the best Mac cleaners out there if you are battling malware. I’ve been using a Mac for 8 years and I pretty much know how to clean it myself, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that FreshMac sped up the process by at least 25%. I don’t have the necessary tool set to estimate exactly how much, but it was absolutely a noticeable difference.
So, the bottom line is: despite the confusing marketing, FreshMac performs well on all fronts and is definitely money well-spent.
FreshMac – Pros and Cons
The following are some of the pros and cons of FreshMac that we thought you need to know.
Pro Factors:
FreshMac offers a One-Touch scan, which is done very quickly and can contribute to improving the system performance.
Provides multiple clean-up options.
FreshMac offers you the functionality to remove duplicate files from your system.
It has a user-friendly interface and is extremely easy to use.
24h support
Money back Guarantee
Con Factors:
FreshMac confuses the user with “privacy issues”
No free trial version.
Do you have any experience using FreshMac yourself? We want to hear about it! Please tell us all about your thoughts on the FreshMac removal tool in the comment section below.
if you liked my FreshMac review, please like and share it!
Choosing a password that is reliable, difficult to figure out and, at the same time easy to remember, is something that every web user has to do. Usually, a strong password requires a specific set of letter and numbers, combined in an unlikely way.
But the difficulty many of us face is how to remember all these specific symbols and to create unique password for each and every of our web accounts. Fortunately, on this page, our “How to remove, team, has come up with some tips and suggestions on crafting hard-to-crack and easy-to-remember passwords that can give you some good ideas, in case that you have ran out of options.
The basics of secure password creation
1 Think of a password, that is unusual and hard to guess.
Do not use a password that can relate to your name, date of birth, year or birth, company, profession, or other kind of information, which could easily be discovered on your public profiles and online accounts or by your family members. Nowadays, such information is at one click if someone does just a bit of research.
Passwords such as “password”,”password123”,123456, “admin”, “guest”, and similar, are easy to remember, but they are also among the first that a hacker would try and can commonly be found across the Internet. That’s why, avoid such default passwords to protect your accounts, especially your Online Banking, Email and other sensitive accounts.
2 Keep your password in secret.
Do not share passwords with coworkers, relatives and friends and do not send them across emails, instant messages and chats, as they can easily end up in the hands of someone, which may not be supposed to use them.
3 Create a long password
Four or six symbol passwords not only are much easier to guess but also cannot offer so much of variety. To create a strong password, make sure you include at least eight to ten different characters.
4 Include lowercase and capital letters
Mixing up different lowercase and capital letters makes the password more difficult to predict, especially if they are not grouped together.
5 Include special symbols
Underscore “_”, *, #, @ and other special symbols lift the difficulty of your password and make it harder to break.
6 Choose different passwords for separate accounts.
If you use one password for many accounts, you can easily put in danger all of them in case that single password gets compromised. That’s why, experts advice to create different passwords for each separate account.This is especially valid for more delicate accounts such as bank account, email, cloud storage and popular social media accounts, which often are target of the cybercriminals. If you cannot remember so many passwords, use similar base but try to change some characters.
7 Keep your password safe
In case that you want to write down your password, keep it away from your device, and store it in secret. When writing your password down, it is a good idea to create your own coding language with letters and symbols that correspond to the logic of your password.
Creating a Secure Password – the steps
1 Pick a phrase or sentence as a base
Avoid anything relevant to your personal information and rather think of a statement or a favorite phrase that you can easily recall. Use variety of characters such as upper and lower-case letters, numbers, or symbols. Try taking certain letters from your phrase or statement, and assemble a password that is easy to remember. For instance, use the first two or the last three letters from each word in your phrase and put them together.
For example, a sentence like “My favorite actor was born in New York on 25th of March” might become a password like MyFaWbiNyo25Om. You could be creative and come up with something that you could easily remember.
2 Remember to update and change the passwords in a couple of months.
Using the same password for years and years is not a good idea. Changing it once in a couple of months, however, greatly increases the safety of your profile.
Password Managers
Password Managers are great pieces of software, which automatically handle all of your different passwords for applications and accounts. All you have to do is to simply remember and enter one “master” password and the software will manage each of your requested logins.
1 Select a password management program. There are many password management programs online (such as LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, 1Password and RoboForm, etc.) and with a simple research, you can find one of your liking.
2 Download and install a password manager. Visit the official website of the developer of the program that you have chosen and Follow the on-screen instructions about download and installation.
3 Set up the password manager and customize your preferences. Most of the best password managers will prompt you to create a master password and will offer you a set of settings controls.
What do I do if I need to create a new password, but I ran out of ideas?
Use foreign names or places that are unusual.
Use a secret nickname for yourself, which is unusual and not associated with your real name.
What about first line of your favorite song or movie? It’ll be easy to remember, but certainly difficult to crack.
Is it also a good idea to use multiple languages for a password. That would make it even more difficult.
Write the name of your favorite food, sport, hobby, or animal, and then add some numbers and symbols to it.
Be creative and try to come up with something that you can easily remember but also is complex and meets the best recommendations for strong password.
Cannot find a Valid Peer Process to Connect To – how to fix this?
The users of Mac computers are occasionally reporting a “cannot find a valid peer process to connect to” error when they try to install VMware FUsion on MacOS High Sierra or a newer version. The issue typically occurs when the people are upgrading or resuming a Windows virtual machine. The most probable cause of the “Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to” on MacOS” error is related to some security changes that Apple has implemented to High Sierra. In case that you’ve tried to install VMware Fusion after these changes, the chance is that you might have missed out a prompt, which is telling you that some System Extension has been blocked because certain MacOs security systems have prevented them from running. In order to return the normal functionality of VMware Fusion, you will need to follow a series of steps. However, an installation glitch or a Gatekeeper that might have quarantined the extension may also be the cause for the blockage. That’s why below we have provided you with a couple of troubleshooting methods, that can prove effective in resolving the problem, depending on its particular cause.
Method 1: Allow VMware system software to load from the Security & Privacy menu
If you see the “cannot find a valid peer process to connect to” error when trying to start a virtual machine, it is possible that the security system has blocked the VMware system extension from running. To fix that, here is what you need to do:
Select “System Preferences” from the Apple icon in the top-left corner.
Next, go to Apple icon > System Preferences
From theSystem Preferences menu, select Security & Privacy.
In the Security & Privacymenu, navigate to General tab and select the “Allow” button associated with VMware Inc.
Next, go to the VMware program and resume the virtual machine. You should no longer see the “cannot find a valid peer process to connect to”
If the “Allow” button is inactive, please see the next method.
Method 2: Set up the ”Anywhere” option in the Security & Privacy menu
In order to avoid the “cannot find a valid peer process to connect to” error when installing the VMware Fusion application , you can use the following steps to set up an “Anywhere” button:
From the bottom-right corner use the “search” function and search for Terminal.
Next, select it from the “top hit” tab and press Enter.
In the terminal, type the following command and press Enter. This will set up the Anywhereoption in the Security & Privacy tab:
sudo spctl –master-disable
Once you run the command successfully, select the Appleicon in the top-left corner and navigate to System Preferences.
Next, click on Security & Privacy and go to the General tab. If the command was applied successfully, you will see the “Anywhere” option under “Allow apps to be downloaded from”. Select “Anywhere”.
Finally, run the VMware emulator again to see if the “cannot find a valid peer process to connect to” error is solved.
Method 3: Trigger the System Extension confirmation message to appear again.
In case that, after completing the Fusion installation, you cannot see the prompt, which is telling you that a System Extension has been blocked, here is how to trigger it to appear again:
First, ensure that Fusion is completely shut down.
Open the Finder app and in the list of applications, find VMware fusion.
Next, simply drag and drop the entry into a different folder. For simplicity, you can move it on the Desktop.
In order to continue, click Authenticate and then OK.
Once the file has been moved, move it back to the Application folder and start it again.
When you start the application, you should get the prompt, which is telling you that the System Extension has been blocked. When you see it, use the instructions in Method 1 to fix the issue.
Method 4: Remove the Fusion installation and remove the quarantine flags
Another possible reason that you aren’t able to install the Vmware Fusion Application is, the gatekeeper might have quarantined the downloaded installer. If this is the case, you can run a series of commands and allow the installation to complete by removing the quarantine flags.
Note: This method assumes that you have downloaded the installation .dmg file in the default folder.
Open the Terminal as shown on the picture
Copy and paste the following command in the Terminal application and press Enter:
Note: This command will fetch you a list with .dmg files extended attributes. Also, if you’re installing a newer version, replace the last part of the command with the exact name of the .dmg file.
To remove the quarantine flags for the installation file, copy and paste the following command:
Note: Don’t forget to replace the last part with the actual name of your .dmg file if you’re installing a newer version.
Once the command completes, re-run the installer. You should no longer see the “cannot find a valid peer process to connect to” when trying to complete the installation of VMware Fusion.
How to Use SFC /Scannow to Repair Windows System Files?
sfc /scannow is a command, which is available under the Command Prompt and is commonly used to inspect all of the important Windows files on a given computer, including Windows DLL files and other protected OS files. The role of the System File Checker(SFC) is to find if there is an issue with any of these protected files and to replace them if required. If you ever find yourself in need to repair important Windows files, here we have prepared a detailed guide, which will show you how to use the sfc /scannow command.
How to Use SFC /Scannow?
Open the Command Prompt as an administrator or as it is very often referred to – the “elevated” Command Prompt.
Note: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista require the sfc /scannow command to be executed from an elevated Command prompt window to work properly.
Once you open the Command Prompt, type the following command then press “Enter”.
sfc /scannow
Note: Between sfc and /scannow there is a space. Executing the sfc command without a space, as shown above, might result in an error.
If you are trying to use System File Checker from the Command Prompt available in Advanced Startup Options or System Recovery Options, see the Executing SFC /SCANNOW From Outside of Windows section below for some necessary changes in how you execute the command.
Next, wait for the System File Checker to verify the integrity of all the protected files on your system.
When the verification completes, the Command Prompt window will display a message similar to the one on the picture below, if some issues were found and repaired:
or something like this if no issues were found:
In older versions of Windows such as Windows XP or Windows 2000, you may need access to your original Windows installation CD or DVD at some point during SFC process.
Finally, restarts your computer and check if the sfc /scannow has corrected the issue that you were trying to repair.
How to read the CBS.log File?
When you run System File Checker, it creates a LOG file, which contains a list of every file that has been checked and every repair operation that has taken place. Assuming that Windows is installed on the C: drive, then you can find the log file at C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log and open it with Notepad or another text editor. The information there could be used for advanced troubleshooting of your problem or as a resource for the tech support team.
Executing SFC /SCANNOW From Outside of Windows
In case that you are trying to run the sfc /scannow from outside of Windows, (for instance, from the Command Prompt available when you boot from your Windows installation disc or flash drive), or from your System Repair Disc or Recovery Drive, you will have to specify where exactly Windows exists in order to run the command.
Here, the /offbootdir= option specifies the exact drive letter. The /offwindir= option specifies the Windows path, again including the drive letter.
Note: Keep in mind that when used from outside of Windows, the Command Prompt may not always assign the drive letters the way you see them from inside Windows. The C: drive may become D: in most installations of Windows 7 and above. That’s why make sure you check the letter of the drive where Windows is installed. Usually, that is the drive with the User folder on it.
How to Use SFC /Scannow to Repair Windows System Files?
sfc /scannow is a command, which is available under the Command Prompt and is commonly used to inspect all of the important Windows files on a given computer, including Windows DLL files and other protected OS files. The role of the System File Checker(SFC) is to find if there is an issue with any of these protected files and to replace them if required. If you ever find yourself in need to repair important Windows files, here we have prepared a detailed guide, which will show you how to use the sfc /scannow command.
How to Use SFC /Scannow?
Open the Command Prompt as an administrator or as it is very often referred to – the “elevated” Command Prompt.
Note: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista require the sfc /scannow command to be executed from an elevated Command prompt window to work properly.
Once you open the Command Prompt, type the following command then press “Enter”.
sfc /scannow
Note: Between sfc and /scannow there is a space. Executing the sfc command without a space, as shown above, might result in an error.
If you are trying to use System File Checker from the Command Prompt available in Advanced Startup Options or System Recovery Options, see the Executing SFC /SCANNOW From Outside of Windows section below for some necessary changes in how you execute the command.
Next, wait for the System File Checker to verify the integrity of all the protected files on your system.
When the verification completes, the Command Prompt window will display a message similar to the one on the picture below, if some issues were found and repaired:
or something like this if no issues were found:
In older versions of Windows such as Windows XP or Windows 2000, you may need access to your original Windows installation CD or DVD at some point during SFC process.
Finally, restarts your computer and check if the sfc /scannow has corrected the issue that you were trying to repair.
How to read the CBS.log File?
When you run System File Checker, it creates a LOG file, which contains a list of every file that has been checked and every repair operation that has taken place. Assuming that Windows is installed on the C: drive, then you can find the log file at C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log and open it with Notepad or another text editor. The information there could be used for advanced troubleshooting of your problem or as a resource for the tech support team.
Executing SFC /SCANNOW From Outside of Windows
In case that you are trying to run the sfc /scannow from outside of Windows, (for instance, from the Command Prompt available when you boot from your Windows installation disc or flash drive), or from your System Repair Disc or Recovery Drive, you will have to specify where exactly Windows exists in order to run the command.
Here, the /offbootdir= option specifies the exact drive letter. The /offwindir= option specifies the Windows path, again including the drive letter.
Note: Keep in mind that when used from outside of Windows, the Command Prompt may not always assign the drive letters the way you see them from inside Windows. The C: drive may become D: in most installations of Windows 7 and above. That’s why make sure you check the letter of the drive where Windows is installed. Usually, that is the drive with the User folder on it.
On this page, you will learn how to block emails that are unwanted or irritating from reaching your inbox. The article provides instructions on how to do this on all your devices which are using Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Hotmail and Apple Mail.
If you’ve been constantly bothered by dozens of unwanted email messages sent by specific individuals or different known and unknown organizations, you can easily block them. This won’t stop the spammers from sending you emails, but, at least, you won’t have to see those emails and deal with them again and again.
So, whether you want to block spam, junk mails, or maybe an aggressive salesperson or a friend who simply can’t stop sending you “adorable” picks and links, the fastest way to handle the unwanted emails is to put the sender’s email on a Block Senders list.
The different email service providers have different options for this, but, in general, it doesn’t take more than a few clicks. In fact, in the text below, we will show you exactly how to block the annoying senders on the most popular email service providers. So, if you are using Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Apple Mail or Hotmail, after you follow the instructions, you won’t have to worry about your overloaded inbox anymore.
How to block emails on Gmail
Gmail users can block specific email addresses in just a few seconds. Google’s Gmail platform has a pretty good spam filter and is pretty effective in blocking most of the unwanted messages.
However, if you want to block certain messages from specific senders, the instructions below will show you how to do that on both Gmail’s desktop and Android versions.
Block Emails on Gmail’s Web App
Firstly, we will explain to you how to block emails on Gmail through the web app. Here is a simple step-by-step guide to follow:
Next, find a recently sent email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Open the unwanted email.
Then, in the upper right corner navigate to the three vertical dots and click on the “More” option.
A dropdown menu will open where you will have to select “Block (the sender’s address)”. That’s it.
Block Emails on Gmail’s Smartphone App
If you are on your smartphone and you are using the Android or the iOS app, then you can block unwanted emails on Gmail’s App by following the instructions below:
Open the Gmail app on your smart device.
Next, find a recently sent email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Open the unwanted email by tapping on it.
Next, navigate to the three vertical dots and select the email’s Moreoption. Here it is important not to confuse this option with the Gmail app’s “More” icon in the very upper right corner.
Select “Block (the sender’s address)”.
How to block emails on Outlook
Outlook is the Microsoft’s Hotmail successor. If you are an Outlook user, there are a variety of ways to block senders in Outlook Mail and ban their unwanted messages from spamming your inbox. You can either block specific email addresses or automatically filter anything that looks like spam. Once blocked, the messages from the email address you no longer want to see will automatically be moved to the Junk Email folder.
Outlook has a web app, a smartphone app, and a desktop app and we will show you how to block emails on all three of them.
How to Block Emails on Outlook’s Web App
Here are the steps you need to follow to block an unwanted email address on the Outlook web app:
From your browser, navigate to outlook.live.com and log into your account.
Find a recently sent email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Open the email.
On the email window, click on the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner.
Then, from the menu that appears, select “Block (the sender’s address)”.
How to Block Emails on Outlook’s Smartphone App
If you are using Android phone or iPhone, we should inform you that you cannot block senders directly from the Outlook smartphone app. Instead, what you can do if you don’t want to be disturbed by particular emails is to send them to your Spam folder. All the messages you direct to your Spam folder will go there in the future and you will not see them in your inbox.
Here is how to set the emails from a particular sender to go to Spam on the Outlook’s mobile app:
First, open the Outlook app on your smart device.
Next, find a recently sent email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Open the email.
In the upper right corner of the app’s window, tap on the three vertical dots. Here it is important not to confuse them with the vertical dots in the email window.
Then select “Move to spam”.
A quick tip: You can do the same by long-pressing on the email and then choosing the “More” icon in the top right corner.
How to Block Emails on Outlook’s Desktop App
If you are a Microsoft Office 365 subscriber or you’ve bought their license, then you have access to the Outlook desktop app. To block emails on the desktop app you need to follow these instructions:
First, open the Outlook desktop app on your computer.
Next, find an email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Then, right-click on the email.
From the menu that opens, navigate to Junk > Block Sender.
How to block emails on iPhone
In this section, we will teach you how to block an email address on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
There are many reasons to block an email sender and, sometimes, this may be the only solution to messages from pesky scammers or third-parties who keep sending you irrelevant press and spam. Naturally, Apple has a number of ways to block people from sending junk to your email’s inbox.
How to block an email on Apple Mail
If you are a Mac, iPhone or iPad user, and you want to block someone in the Apple Mail app, you should know that the Apple Mail app on the iPhone does not have a direct option to block people from sending you email.
However, you can do this manually from each individual email service you are using. So to block a sender, the best way is to log into the email service provider’s website (Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) using a web browser or request the desktop site if using an iPhone, and block the sender from there. For reference, feel free to use the instructions on this page for each email provider.
To block a sender in iCloud, you will have to create a “rule”. For that, you’ll need to either use the Mail app on Mac or log directly into iCloud’s web version.
Here is what you need to do to block a sender in iCloud and move its messages to trash:
First, open the Safari Browser and type the following address in the address bar https://www.icloud.com/#mail. If required, login with your Apple ID and password.
If you are doing this through your iPhone you should know that the iCloud’s mobile version does not have a blocking option. Therefore, you’ll need to request the desktop site by tapping and holdding the refresh button in the web address bar at the top of the screen. The moment the menu appears, select “Request Desktop Site”. Refresh the page and make sure you see the desktop version on your iPhone.
Next, open a recently received email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Then, at the bottom left corner of the screen, select the “Gear” icon.
A window will appear where you will need to select the “Rules” tab and then tap “Add a Rule…”. Here you need to create a rule to block a sender in iCloud if you want to send their email to the trash.
Set a rule so that if an email message “is from” the person/organization you want to block, then “Move to Trash”.
Click “Done”.
NB: If you are facing issues while using the desktop website version on your iPhone, try logging in from a desktop browser on a Mac.
How to block emails on Yahoo
If you are a Yahoo user, Yahoo provides a way to block emails from specific senders and you should take advantage of it. Learn how to automatically block unwanted messages in Yahoo Mail with the step-by-step guide below.
Yahoo is among the most popular email providers and offers both a Yahoo web app and a Yahoo smartphone mail app.
Here is how to Block Emails on Yahoo’s Web App
To block a sender on Yahoo through the web app, follow these instructions:
Next, find a recently sent email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Open the email.
In the top right of the email window click on the three horizontal dots.
A dropdown menu will appear where you will need to select “BlockSenders”.
6. A pop-up window will appear where you need to confirm your settings.
How to Block Emails on Yahoo’ Smartphone Mail App
You cannot block a sender on the Yahoo Mail app directly, but you can send the unwanted emails to your Spam folder.
If you want to send all future emails from a specific email address to your Spam folder on the Yahoo Mail app automatically, follow these instructions:
First, open the Yahoo Mail app on your smart device.
Find a recently received email from the person or the organization you want to block.
Open the email.
Next, tap on the right vertical dots on the right side of the screen.
Finally, from the dropdown menu select “Spam”.
How to block emails on Hotmail
NB: Hotmail.com has been upgraded and re-branded to Outlook.com.
Like most other popular email providers, Hotmail has settings that allow you to mark messages as spam. Those messages get filtered directly into your Spam Email Box. This section of the article will provide you with instructions on how to block emails on Hotmail (now known as Outlook).
Basically, Hotmail allows you to manage your inbox content by adding or deleting email addresses on the Blocked Senders’ list.
The process of blocking a sender on Hotmail is simple and here are the instructions for it:
Log into your Hotmail account.
Next, click the “Options” menu in the top right of the screen.
Then, select “More Options”.
Choose “Safe and Blocked Senders”.
Then “Blocked Senders”.
Finally, type the email address of the person or the organization you want to block.
Final words
Unwanted emails shouldn’t get in the way and create chaos in your inbox. However, sometimes spam messages may find their way through the filters and in those cases, you may need to manually block someone from messaging you by adding them in the Block senders’ list.
Blocking certain emails may also be a good preventive measure against email distributed threats such as Ransomware or Trojans. Therefore, do not hesitate to use the instructions above and clean your Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Apple Mail and Yahoo from unwanted spam.