In this blog post, I will explain how to show file extensions, and how to view hidden files and folders on your Windows 11 system.
By default, Windows 11 hides file extensions, and any files and folders marked with the attribute “hidden”. At some point, you may have a need to change a file’s extension manually (e.g., “.txt” to “.ini“). It can also be useful to see any hidden files and folders on your computer.
ℹ️ Notice
No reboot is required for these changes to take effect.
Open the File Explorer.
If you wish, you can use the [ Windows Key + E ] keyboard combination to open File Explorer.
After the File Explorer opens, click on the ellipsis menu button.
Now click on the “Options” menu item.
Click on the “View” tab.
Now do the following:
Select the option, “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” (under “Hidden files and folders”).
Uncheck the option, “Hide extensions for known file types”.
Click the “OK” button.
That’s it. You now can view file extensions, and view any hidden files and folders on your Windows 11 computer.
In this blog post, I will show how I fixed the Google Messages app from freezing. Please keep in mind, this fix worked for me and a couple of other people. While it may not work for everyone, I am sharing it in the hopes that it might help someone else experiencing the same problem.
Background: For the last 3 months, I have been encountering an issue with Google Messages. Every time I opened the app, it would completely freeze within 10 seconds, forcing me to close it manually. Initially it seemed to go away with a Google Messages update. Unfortunately, it started freezing on me again.
After tinkering with it for a bit, I figured out the “Automatic previews” feature was causing the app to hang. Disabling the “Automatic previews” option resolved the issue.
If you wish to try the fix for yourself, here is what to do.
1. On the top-right of the app, tap on the icon as shown in the image below.
2. Open the settings menu.
3. Find “Automatic previews”, and tap on that.
4. Make sure the highlighted options are disabled.
And that is it. This worked for me, and hopefully this will work for you too.
In this blog post, I will show how to reboot Windows using PowerShell.
As you know, rebooting Windows is typically done through the graphical interface, but understanding how to reboot Windows using PowerShell can be beneficial for various reasons (e.g., automation tasks, install scripts, etc.). Also, you may find yourself in a Windows environment that requires the use of the command line (e.g., Server Core).
ℹ️ Notice
You don’t need administrator privileges to reboot a desktop version of Windows, but you do need them to reboot a Windows Server.
To reboot Windows from the command line, run the following command in a PowerShell terminal.
Restart-Computer
If you need to forcefully reboot Windows (without waiting for all the programs to close first), use the “-Force” switch.
In this blog post, I will explain how to disable memory compression on a Windows 10/11 system via PowerShell.
For those who don’t know, Windows compresses infrequently used memory instead of writing them to the page file. This way if your computer needs to use that particular data, it just has to decompress it in memory rather than access the much slower page file on your hard drive or SSD.
Since memory compression uses up CPU cycles, this can potentially slow down a computer.
Interesting Fact: Microsoft disables memory compression, by default, on Windows Servers. That right there tells you memory compression can potentially slow down a computer system.
ℹ️ Notice
Disabling memory compression on computers with limited RAM ( < 16GB ) can decrease performance rather than improve it. It is always recommended to run benchmarks before and after disabling memory compression to verify that you indeed received a performance increase from turning off memory compression.
To disable memory compression on Windows 10/11, run the following command in an Administrator PowerShell terminal.
Disable-MMAgent -mc
Of course, if you wish to re-enable memory compression, just type the following command.
Enable-MMAgent -mc
ℹ️ Notice
It would probably be a good idea to reboot Windows after disabling or enabling memory compression to make sure the change is applied.