Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-05-11)

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Why didn’t your thumbnail fix

work for me?

Q

Your solution for Lance Mauger

not seeing thumbnail images in

Windows 11’s File Explorer

(Issue 628, page 68) didn’t work for me.

Like Lance, I found that upgrading to

Windows 11 removed these pictures from

the folder icon. I followed your

instructions, but, as you can see from my

screenshot, the box you mention is

already unticked. There is something

going on though, because if you look at

my second screenshot with the box

ticked, the folder icons do look slightly

different.

Phil Atkinson

A

There are several reasons why

files might not show up as

thumbnails in Windows. First,

we’d suggest forcing Windows to rebuild

its thumbnails by deleting its current

thumbnail cache. To do this, open the

Settings app and navigate to System,

Storage. Once the screen has loaded, click

‘Temporary files’. Make sure that the

Thumbnails option is among those that

are ticked (^1 in our screenshot below),

then click ‘Remove files’ at the top^2. This

may not appear to fix the problem right

away because Windows will need some

time to recreate the thumbnails.

You could also double-check that

thumbnails are enabled in the advanced

performance settings. Search for

advanced sys, then click the ‘View

advanced system settings’ option. Click

the Settings button under Performance.

Make sure that both the ‘Save taskbar

thumbnail previews’ and ‘Show

thumbnails instead of icons’ options are

ticked, then click Apply, OK.

Finally, if it’s only happening to certain

types of files (photos, for example), you

could try changing the default program.

Right-click a file and select ‘Open with’,

then click ‘Choose another app’. Select

the program you want to use instead,

then tick ‘Always use this app to open...’

and click OK.

How can I download Ocenaudio?

Q

Issue 627’s feature ‘Stop Using

Rubbish Software’ was welcome,

but when I tried to download

Ocenaudio (www.ocenaudio.com) –

which you recommended as an

alternative to Audacity – I got the

following message: ‘ocenaudio_

win10_3.11.7.exe isn’t commonly

downloaded. Make sure you trust

ocenaudio_win10_3.11.7.exe before you

open it’. I reported it as safe, but still

couldn’t open the file, then got another

message asking me to choose an app to

open the file. But whatever I selected, the

file wouldn’t open. I managed to

download a portable version to a USB

stick, but then my web browser froze and

I had to use Task Manager to close it.

How can I download Ocenaudio safely?

Julian King

A^

When we tried downloading

Ocenaudio, Edge blocked it just

as Julian describes. This is

another case of Microsoft’s security

features overreacting by giving a false-

positive result. We ran Ocenaudio

through VirusTotal and it’s perfectly safe.

To unblock the file, click the Options

(three dots) button in the top right of the

browser window (^1 in our screenshot

above) and select Downloads. Edge’s

download window will appear – move

your mouse over the ‘...isn’t commonly

downloaded...’ message and another

three-dot button will appear^2. Click

this, then click Keep^3 and you’ll see a

message about how SmartScreen wasn’t

able to identify the file as safe. Click

‘Show more’ here, then click ‘Keep

anyway’ and you’ll find the file in your

Downloads folder (or wherever you save

your downloads).

Why can’t I install Windows 11

from a USB stick?

Q

I tried following Issue 628’s

Workshop (page 38) on using

Rufus to beat Windows 11’s

hardware restrictions. However, the

Rufus 3.18 beta is no longer available, and

the versions that are don’t have ‘Image

option’. Is there a solution to this?

Grahame Mills

A

As Grahame correctly points out,

Rufus 3.18 beta is no longer

available, but we tried the latest

non-beta version of the tool and it still

worked as we described.

However, we noticed that Rufus doesn’t

let you select an ‘Image option’ unless a

USB stick with enough space has already

been selected from the Device menu at

the top. With no USB stick selected, the

‘Image option’ is greyed out – it’s easy to

miss this and could be what’s causing

Grahame’s problem.

Issue 631 • 11 – 24 May 2022

Deleting your thumbnail cache will force

Windows to recreate them

2

1

Click ‘Keep’ in Edge’s Download options to

unblock a file you know to be safe

1

(^32)