Steven Datt

Tag: Windows 10

  • Disable the Windows 10 notification sound

    Something that’s been driving me crazy recently is the excessive amount of notifications that pop up (and play a sound repeatedly) when I log in to my home PC.

    Somehow, turning down the system volume does nothing to stop the obnoxiousness of the alert.

    Luckily, there’s an easy, no fuss way to disable this!

    1. Right click on the volume icon in your system tray
    2. Select Sounds
    3. Find the option called Notifications, and set the option in the drop-down list under Sounds: to none.

    Hoping this helps to save the sanity of others (and their PCs/laptops from being thrown out of windows!)

  • Windows 10 – Settings can’t be opened using the Built-in Administrator account

    The Windows 10 rollouts from Microsoft has finally picked up traction. My opinion of Windows 10 has greatly improved due to the cross-platform availability of XBOX One games.

    However, due to the adoption of an app-like structure, this has posed it’s own problems.

    You may find that you’re not able to open built-in programs that you were able to use without any issues in Windows 8, for example.
    Settings can't be opened using the built-in Administrator account

    Luckily! There’s a simple fix for this!

    Please note, this fix applies to Windows 10 Professional versions and above.

    1. Press the Windows Key and R together
    2. Type secpol.msc into the box that appears
    3. Navigate to Local Policies -> Security Options
    4. Find the policy in the list called “User account control Admin Approval Mode for the built-in Administrator account“
    5. Double click on this policy, and change the setting to Enabled

    This fix applies to Windows 10 Home versions

    Unfortunately home versions don’t have a local security policy editor, so we’ll have to resort to editing the registry to achieve the desired effect.

    1. Press the Windows Key and R together
    2. Type regedit into the box that appears and press return
    3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and create a DWORD value called FilterAdministratorToken with a value of 1
    4. Now browse to the folder below, “UIPI” and change the Default value to 1
    5. Open User account control settings, again, by pressing the Windows Key and R together, this time typing useraccountcontrolsettings and adjusting the slider to the second setting “Notify me only when apps try to make changes to my computer (default)“.
    6. Restart your PC/laptop, and you’ll now be able to open the built-in apps without any issues.

    If you don’t feel confident in making changes to the registry, I’ve attached a link to a file below that you can download, Double click, and apply the registry changes automatically.

    File: Registry item (hosted on MediaFire)