Windows 8

Widows 8 is an operating system developed by Microsoft Corporation. It is the successor to Windows 7 and is the most recent OS by Microsoft.

Issues

White or Blank Desktop Icons

On the desktop, there's either one or more icons that are completely white or blank. This is caused by a caching issue.

Solution

1. Press and hold the Windows Key + R or Click Start and search for Run
2. Copy and paste: %UserProfile%\Appdata\Local and click OK
3. Scroll down until you find IconCache.db
4. Delete it and create a new file called IconCache.db
5. Right click IconCache.db -> Properties
6. Under Attributes, check Read-only and click OK
7. Right Click the Taskbar and click Task Manager
8. Click More Details in case you haven't done so before
9. Click on the Details Tab
10. Right click Explorer.exe and End task
11. Click File -> Run new task
12. Type in explorer.exe and press OK
13. View the desktop and the icons should refresh
14. Go back to %UserProfile%\Appdata\Local and right click IconCache.db -> Properties
15. Uncheck Read-only

When installing Office 2010 the install hangs or freezes

Solution

1. Right click on the Taskbar
2. Select Task Manager
3. Navigate to Processes
4. Select "spoolsv.exe"
5. Click End Process

The filename is too long

If you have downloaded or recovered a file that has too long of a filename, Windows will not allow you to rename it. The context menu (when you right click the file) is limited to only a few selections and does not have the option to rename the file. Attempting to rename the file via the CMD prompt also yields the same error.

Solution

1. Open the installed archiver program (WinRAR, 7-Zip, etc). If you don't have one, download 7-Zip.
2. Navigate to the directory with the long file name using the archiver program (e.g. 7-Zip)
3. Right click on the file and rename it

Windows 8.1 Freezes when Scanning for hardware changes

When trying to run "Scan for hardware changes" in Device Manager, the entire computer will freeze. Mouse and keyboard input will not work and restarting the computer is the only way to unfreeze it.

Solution

1. Press Alt + X on your keyboard
2. Click Command Prompt (Admin)
3. Type or copy and paste this command: bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes