Procedure to Access Advanced Boot options in Windows 8:

• Open command prompt in your Windows 8 either by pressing “Widows + R” to open the run command to enter “cmd” and “Ok”. Alternatively, you can also start the command prompt manually.

• In command prompt, you need to enter the below mentioned command and press enter for restarting the computer. The below mentioned command will apply the legacy boot policy.

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

• Please note that during the restart process, you need to press the F8 to access the boot option. So, just in case if you wish to return to the default Windows 8 method, you need to enter the below mentioned command in the command prompt. The below mentioned command will apply the standard boot policy.

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

Recovery section of PC Settings just to access Safe Mode, you’ll find that hitting F8 is a quite easier and quicker. So there you go, you have now successfully learn ton how to access the advanced boot options in the Windows 8 operating system. Do let us know if you have any queries w.r.t the advanced options in the comments section below.

Thus, several svchost.exe processes running in the background would not be a surprise, but they would be annoying at particular times when all the 100% processes usage is taken up by them, and you wonder what could be done about that. Not sure whether your computer has these running in the background? open Task Manager and go to the Processes tab, where you need to select the option “Show processes from all users”, and a big list of such host processes would appear under the user names “Local”, “System” and “Network”.

Another way to check the processes running with the svchost.exe, is by opening the Command prompt. Not sure how to do that? go to Start and type “cmd” and open the cmd prompt.
Type the following text and press enter:

tasklist /SVC

This again is actually not useful if you aren’t unsure of the different cryptic names given along, and the command prompt won’t be able to help you in doing something with them.

Check Services being run by svchost.exe

If your computer’s CPU cycles are being eaten up by the svchost processes, then checking for the services which are actually being run by them have to be checked and manually terminated if you feel they shouldn’t be running. That can be done either through the Task Manager, or through third party software like Process Explorer, though the Task Manager here is quite enough, and the steps below would explain how to check for the services.

In the Windows Vista, Windows 7 / 8 the process is the same. Right click on one of the svchost.exe processes in the Task Manager, and click on the option “Go to services”.

That would open the Services tab with the all svchost.exe based services running highlighted. Sort them by group and you would be able to see the real name of the service under the Description.

Close Particular Service run with svchost.exe

Now comes the main part, which you wanted to do when your computer was suffocating without much space to breathe, because most of the cycles were eaten up by the svchost.exe processes. Frankly, I saw the Windows update using at least 30% of the CPU cycles many a times, and that was unnecessary especially when there is something else to do but the computer slows down and doesn’t allow me to.

From the list of the services being run, select the particular service which you feel is using up the cycles and is not really needed for now. Right click, and you would see the option “Stop Service”. Click on that and relax, the performance would get better. But don’t assume that as an achievement because you are killing tasks which Windows OS has marked as Important, thus it is running it in the background – especially the Windows updates.

The advantage here is, that you can always stop and again start the service manually from the same section, thus you are not totally killing or terminating a task for it’s own automated start up, but you can start it again once you feel things are back to normal.

Is the svchost.exe harmful / vulnerable to Virus?

As far as things aren’t being picked by your Antivirus (given that you are using a well recommended one), it is safe, and if these all exes run under the System32 folder under the Windows directory, your computer is safe and this is not a virus file. And the vulnerability part doesn’t come here because these are just the host files to run the .dll files.
But if you see such svchost.exe files in any other folder than Windows/System32 then you better check it with an antivirus software as that is unusual and risky.

Other workarounds for svchost.exe service management

The other workarounds which would be useful if you are using any other Windows OS version, than the Windows 7, 8 or Vista, include using these softwares which are not really hard to understand.

• Process Explorer – A tidy software for this, where you can hover the cursor over the particular svchost.exe file and it would show you the services run. Click on the executable, and simply click on Stop.
• Task Scheduler – This is something seen in the NT based Windows OS versions, and this would set some automated programs to happen at particular times. You can directly alter the programs and stop the hosting of services that are going to happen on timely basis.

Some times, the file gets locked due to a running known program, or by a background process which didn’t close well, and thus the lock status remained as it is. If at all you are in a situation where you didn’t want to close the app (it’s not just the movie but any type of application or file), and still wanted to make a few changes like renaming the file, moving the file to any other folder or even deleting it, there is a utility that would assist you with that.

We are talking of the utility called Unlocker, which would assist not just with these functions like renaming or modifying a file that is already running somewhere else, but there is a lot more possible with it. Here’s where the Unlocker would be helpful, a list of situations where the file acts stubborn and you are left with no option but to use this tool (or some alternatives such as Process Explorer):

• The file is in use by another program or user
• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• The source or destination file may be in use
• There has been a sharing violation
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use

These above situations arise with the file when you are trying to change the name, or delete or try to move it from the current location.

Renaming, Deleting or Moving a Running / Locked File – Workaround

The workaround here is with the Unlocker tool, which can be downloaded from the link given below. Install the executable file just like any software is installed in the Windows OS.

After the installation, go to “Start” menu, select “Start Unlocker” or right click on it, and select “Run as administrator”. Both would work almost the same and it would take you to the Windows file system where you have to select the particular folder where the files are to be unlocked.

Select the particular folder under which the file is present, and click on “OK”.

Once the folder is selected, Unlocker tool would list all the processes that are currently running, and that is shown at the deep level, and you would easily know which program was currently running the file in the background, if you didn’t know that. Select the particular file which has to be unlocked, and click on “Unlock”. Alternatively you can select “Unlock All” if it was multiple files you wanted to make changes to.

Once done, you would be able to make changes to the file and the annoying warnings would not bother you at all.

Note: While you are unlocking the file and making changes to it, and the file is being run under your knowledge, don’t expect the file to function correctly unless you once close the app running it, and re-open it. The file would run continuously (for example, the movie you are watching) until you close it, and that’s the advantage here with the tool.

Final Workaround if above steps don’t work

1. Restarting the Windows computer solves hundreds of such problems, because a restart would shut down all the running processes and restarts them only if you command that to happen. Thus, if the above steps don’t work out for you, try to restart the computer once and if you see one of the above warnings again, try to use Unlocker after the restart.

2. Deleting the file is another option, after you copy and keep a backup of it. That would not be possible directly, so you would need to restart the PC in Safe Mode and then delete that particular file. The copied backup would function just as a new file.

Download Unlocker for Windows: Click here.
> This file is a universal installer for both the 32-bit and 64-bit computers.
> This is the Unlocker 1.9.2 version, and any version from 1.9.0 would work on the 64-bit versions of the PC, thus make sure you are installing the latest one if you are using a 64-bit OS version.

There are some free and paid voice dictation tools available on the web, but why to choose then when a native feature does the same? let me guide you through the Speech Recognition tool, the functionality, how to get started with it, and how to make the best out of it.

How to Set up Speech Recognition

To start using the speech recognition service, you first need to ensure a couple of things:
You have a microphone connected to the computer – could be a headphone microphone, an external USB mic or the desktop microphone. If you are using a laptop or tablet device, you won’t need that and can use the built-in microphone provided in them
You are running Windows Vista or later OS version, i.e. either Vista, Win 7 or Win 8.

Now, to get started, go to Control Panel > Ease of Access (seen as Ease of Access Center in Windows 7/8) > Speech Recognition. If you aren’t able to find it there, search for “Speech Recognition” under Control panel and you would be able to go there.

Click on “Start Speech Recognition” and that would guide you through the process of setting it up before you start using it directly. As this is not just a simple voice recognizer, there are some options you need to set, and permissions to give before the tool actually sits on the top of your screen.

Select the microphone which you are going to use for this tool. If you are using the in-built microphone, select the headset microphone and that would be fine.

You will need to set up the microphone, and then adjust the volume of the microphone which is quite necessary, and you are asked to talk out a line given there so that the computer understands how good the level of volume would be.

Select the activation mode – Here the manual activation mode would make the recognition turn off when you say “stop listening”, and to turn it on, the user has to click the microphone button or press Control + Windows key. While in the voice activation mode, the recognition would sleep and activate only if you say “Start Listening”.

Improve accuracy – this is where you would need to allow the computer to review the documents and emails in your search index. With this, the intelligence would learn the words and phrases, and would understand you when you speak. You can either enable or disable document review.

Once the setup is completed, you will be able to see a speech recognition bar on the top of the screen. There is a small text bar which would show ask you to repeat something that it hasn’t understood.

If that speech recognition bar is annoying enough for you, not for the functioning but the looks, you can minimize it and it would still keep running. It would be visible in the taskbar.

Training the Speech Recognition

After the initial setup of volume levels and even after allowing the recognition tool to access your search index, you can still train the recognition to improve itself. Right click anywhere on the bar and click on “Configuration” and then select “Improve voice recognition”.

You would be taken through some different steps where a few sentences are to be spoken and the tool would understand the way you talk, and the loudness. It is more of a learning from both the ends.

Dictating Text for Notepad or App with Text Field

When you are using the speech recognition tool to make it type the text, you will need to dictate every small punctuation too. The usage is quite easy, because you just need to talk when the application with the text field is running, but the recognition is not that smart to include the punctuations wherever applicable, thus you will have to speak them out.

For example, if you wanted the Windows Speech Recognition to type “Hello, are there any movie tickets available for this Saturday?”, you need to speak – “Open quote hello comma are there any movie tickets available for this saturday question mark close quote”.

It’s not that easy for a user to run through all the punctuations in the mind, but there’s no other option. Making the corrections is also possible, if the speech recognition listens to you and puts it out wrong. Just say “correct *the wrong word*” and it would show you a list of suggestions for the changes, and you can speak out the word which you want to replace the wrong one. This is again the learning part for the tool.

• New line – saying this would insert a new line in the document
• New paragraph – inserts a new paragraph in the document
• Tab – inserts a tab in the document
• Literal word – inserts the actual word instead of the punctuation mark, e.g. saying “Literal question mark” would insert the words but not “?”
• Go to word – it takes the cursor before the specific word
• Go after word – takes the cursor after the specific word

Some other commands which you can easily understand and make use of, for the different functions in the text documents – Go to start of sentence, Go to start of paragraph, Go to start of document, Go to end of sentence, Go to end of paragraph, Go to end of document, Select word, Select previous 20 words, Select next 20 words, Clear selection, Caps word, All caps word, Delete previous sentence, Delete next sentence, Delete previous paragraph, Delete next paragraph.

Computer Navigation using Speech Recognition

It it was just about the text dictation, we would have recommended something lighter than this. But the tool does more than that, and it includes navigating of the computer with the voice commands. There are several commands which would be followed, and some of them which we could use regularly for the most common functions, are as follows.

• Start – say that and the Start screen would be shown
• Show Desktop – this would take you to the desktop
• Open app – say Open along with the name of the application to open it, e.g. say Open Notepad and the notepad would be opened
• Click or double click – just say Click Recycle Bin, or Double click Recycle Bin or the desired file or folder
• Close program – say Close with the name of the program, i.e. say Close Notepad to close it
• Switch program – when you have multiple programs running at the same time, you can switch between them with the voice command. Just say “Switch to Notepad” from any other program and it would switch to it
• Press key – You can press any key on the keyboard not manually but with the voice, by just saying it. “Press control key”, Press “Backspace” or any key you want to press

The above ones are just the small list of examples, and there are a lot more possibilities with the Speech Recognition, and one would get to understand that only when they start using it.

Program not responding – First Workaround

The first workaround would always be to rectify the actual problem, than to look for a solution to move ahead. One of the reasons for the software to not respond properly is the load it takes. Either the internal hardware of the computer isn’t able to take up the load, or there is something within the software which is making it unstable. You cannot do much about the latter because the software isn’t responding so you won’t be able to access it, and for the former, try to shut down the other running applications and see if things are getting better. Seriously these are not the workarounds which would always become the final solution, but why not try them to understand the root cause?

Program not terminating even from Task Manager? Here’s the workaround

It’s more than just frustration when the app is not responding, and you are unable to kill it through the Task Manager.

You have tried closing the app by clicking on “Close the Program” in the warning popup, that didn’t work. Then tried closing it by going to the Task Manager, selecting the app and clicking “End Task”, but if the app still stays there, unresponsive, then you need to dig into it deeper, and that cannot be done directly through the Task Manager and there needs to be a tool which reaches the process level ID and then kills it from there, which is possible with a tool named “Process Explorer”. It is a free tool, and it works fine with Windows 7 (tested on Home, Ultimate versions) and Windows 8 OS.

Download the Process Explorer zip, unzip it and open the executable file as an administrator and you will be shown the big list of all the applications, system processes running in the computer.

Navigate to the exact app / software which is causing the problem and is not responding even when you are trying to force close it.

Right click on the application. The list of options for that particular application would show “Kill Process Tree”. Click on that to force kill the unresponsive app. The other options in the list aren’t of any help for the current solution.

You would be shown a warning whether you wanted to kill the executable file and its descendants. Confirm it, and you are done. All the headache of trying to close it in your own ways ends with this simple utility, which is good to keep not just for killing tasks but also for every other thing you used to do through the Windows Task Manager.

Download Process Explorer: Click here.

Here is a little explanation on what Process Explorer is.

The Process Explorer doesn’t show you the main application but shows the information about the handles and DLLs processes which are opened or loaded, and there are two modes in which the Explorer runs: Handle mode and DLL mode, where the handle mode would show the handles that the process selected in the current window has opened, while the DLL mode has the DLLs and memory-mapped files which the process has loaded. Such a deep access is what makes the Process Explorer close even the apps which do not respond.

Second Workaround: Use Unlocker Tool

If the Process Explorer is a harder (although very useful) one for you to understand and use to kill a process, the best alternative would be to use a tool called Unlocker, which does it in an easier way, although it won’t show you how and what it does. Download the Unlocker tool and install it. Then, start the software from the Start menu and open the particular folder where the file is located.

Select the executable file which is causing the problem, and then select “Kill Process”, and you are done.

Download Unlocker: Click here.

* These two guides are helpful when you are stuck with some important stuff running around, and you didn’t want to restart the computer at that particular point of time. If you are able to, then restart the computer and most of the problem usually gets solved, but doing that always won’t be a wiser option than using either the Process Explorer or the Unlocker tools.