GSN

No problem, I'll keep monitoring this thread in the meantime. Windows 10 Keyless Digital Activation takes place when a Microsoft Account is present on the device and has been activated on the machine before, Microsoft will recognise the Hardware Identifier of your system and assign a digital license that binds to your Microsoft Account automatically. Usually, adding an account to Windows and running the Windows Activation Troubleshooter instantly fixes the problem. If you need help with this, please don't hesitate to ask me. Regards,

When you go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation, please can you provide a screenshot of what's displayed so I can address any potential error codes and such. Usually this issue is caused by repair companies simply installing a fresh ISO of the operating system. Also make sure you're signed into Windows 10 with a Microsoft Account. This will ensure that when Windows attempts to reach activation servers (KMS), it will use the HID from your motherboard and assign a digital license accordingly. Regards,

Hi AtlasTabulae, It looks like you're using Windows 10 Build 1909, being the latest build, support for Windows Update handling of drivers has been improved. Have you attempted to run Windows Update and allow it to check for the most recent drivers. Windows Update supports Realtek driver installations. Update with any feedback after checking. Regards,

Hi rawrturkey, Please could you elaborate on the version of Windows that you're trying to activate? Regards,

To be fair, I've never understood why people have such a problem with companies removing the headphone jack from their products, AirPods have a 60% global market share of wireless earbud sales (which included offerings from Jabra, Sony, Samsung and Xiaomi). Wireless is the way its going and there is nothing wrong with that, there is nothing more convenient than being able to free yourself of wires on the move. If you're going to make the argument about wired sound-quality then you start dipping into the market for high-fidelity portable music players, which will all still support wired inputs until music technology allows true lossless audio quality over Bluetooth. This is getting closer and closer with technologies like LDAC bringing it pretty close though.

Much better way of doing it, if you're going to use multiple firewalls then splitting your network into zones will make management of both far easier. Let me know how you get on and if you need any help configuring.

Running Firewalls on top of Firewalls is never a good thing, you'll get too many conflicts in rules and policies between them. Pick a firewall and rely on just the one. If the one you have control over is working fine then go ahead and use that one, 9/10 you're pretty secure on your home network anyway, people don't typically try to penetrate home networks.

Hi There, It is not recommended to keep using Windows 7 after the deadline date in January. Your PC won't get ongoing security and quality fixes from Microsoft and you'll be vulnerable to errors in new games that are released. Since build 1903 specifically, there is no reason you shouldn't be using Windows 10, if you're feeling really special about Windows 7 and want to keep the basic functionality and don't need the Microsoft Store and other 10 features, you might want to try using Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB. The list of benefits to Windows 7 over WIndows 10 is quickly shortening and you'll probably find a fresh installation (not an upgrade) of WIndows 10 will probably make your PC faster and more stable. Also there will come a point where software developers for popular programs like Google Chrome, NVIDIA GeForce Experience and more will stop releasing updates that support older versions of Windows.

If you follow my above instructions, you can't go far wrong. You can try the use of the DMZ port but this won't do much good for securing the rest of your network, you really need to make the firewall the first point in your network after the WAN modem to make the most of it.

The only reason I made my previous statement on the matter is that a hardware firewall requires some advanced configuration that can be a pain to your interconnected devices on your network. To run a hardware firewall properly, you really need to put your broadband modem/router into Modem-Only mode, plug in the hardware firewall using Ethernet, configure the firewall to monitor incoming and outgoing connections and then plug a Wireless AP into it (providing the HFW supports DHCP). This way, all of your connections are being routed through the firewall, wireless and wired, making your network more secure and impervious to attack from the WAN.

Hi There! Firstly, are you running the Minecraft Server on your Windows PC? If so, if its a private server for your friends, you don't really need to add a hardware firewall into the mix, this could cause more issues than it solves. Maybe if you're running a public server then this would be necessary, but apart from that, you're better off just port-forwarding in your normal router settings and relying on the SPI firewall built-in. The mix of both software (Windows Firewall (ADV)) and SPI (Router) will likely be sufficient for a private server, just make sure that if you're sharing out your IP address in public forums that you have sufficient protection. For more help configuring SPI and Hardware firewalls, please feel free to message me or reply to this topic.

If it's a newer BIOS version than the one you have then you should definitely flash the update. Just use the tools that the manufacturer give you and you can't go too far wrong, just make sure you don't touch the computer while the process is completing to avoid data loss or firmware corruption.

Hi There! I've had a read through some of the answers and they're all great steps to follow! If the issue is persisting, for a Windows 10 installation, you'll have the option to perform a Network Reset in Settings. Right-Click on your Network Icon in the System Tray (bottom-right corner) and click Open Network & Internet Settings. Proceed to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page that appears and click Network Reset. This is a good step to resolve most common issues with Networking Issues in Windows 10. Also ensure you follow the other basic troubleshooting steps including (but not exhaustive of): Resetting the DNS resolver cache (in cmd: ipconfig /flushdns) Resetting the Winsock (in cmd: netsh winsock reset) - This step will require a reboot on completion Ensure that your anti-virus software hasn't installed its own CA Authority certificate by checking the certificate store. Manually configure your own DNS in Adapter Properties on the same Network & Internet Settings page as mentioned before. Feel free to drop me a message or reply if these troubleshooting steps don't resolve the issue.

Hi there! There are a couple of things to bear in mind, some of them may seem really trivial, but it's important to check either way: Make sure the HDMI/DP cable is plugged into the GPU and not the motherboard. Download GeForce Experience for your RTX 2070 and make sure your drivers are up-to-date (this is known to improve compatibility on AMD systems). Ensure that Windows is instructing your games to run using the High Performance Graphics Processor, more info about this can be found at AddictiveTips on this issue. There are of course some less common issues if none of the above are affecting you: Check the TDP of your components against the PSU rating - If your system is drawing too much power, it can limit or even fail, either way, you'll experience degraded performance. It's not uncommon for certain pre-builders to 'cheap-out' on PSUs to cut costs of the system. Make sure your UEFI firmware is up-to-date, Windows Update will often do this automatically, but you can check on the respective manufacturer's website of your motherboard. Download tools like CPU-Z and Speccy to monitor the load and performance of your hardware components - Sometimes knowing more about the internal workings of your PC can improve your ability to troubleshoot. I hope this helps and please don't hesitate to either reply or message me if you need more help.

If you have the original OEM license key for Windows 10, when you login with your Microsoft Account, it should attribute the two automatically and activate as a Digital license linked to your Microsoft Account. Mine looks something like this and yours should look the same; If it doesn't then you may need to contact Microsoft Support.

So it's been a while since I put my 'two-pence' in with regard to smartphones, and being a hard-core Samsung fan, I can't let too much time pass without making a post, so here-goes, my impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+. Note that this isn't a full review, I'll be posting my full review and impressions as soon as I have collected mine on the 20th April from my local phone shop. Samsung It's been somewhat a long road for Samsung over the past year, firstly, the Galaxy S7/E were amazing phones for 2016 (some may argue, the best). But it hasn't been an easy ride from there, they've lost some consumer trust with the whole Note 7 issue, not to mention some obvious profit loss that would've caused. The question is, how badly is it really affecting them? Galaxy S8/+ pre-orders are currently through the roof and it hasn't even hit the deadline yet (that's on the 18th). That's seriously impressive, we'll talk a little more about why this might be the case in my following points, but its worth noting that Samsung is making a massive come-back with these handsets. New Technologies Needless to say that even during the storm of the Note 7, Samsung still haven't stopped pioneering, coming right out of the (now settling) dust is the 10nm commercially-available Exynos 8895V/M and also the Snapdragon 835 (which is co-engineered by Samsung and Qualcomm of course), these chips boast some serious performance increases which will be powering the next generation of smartphones throughout 2017 and I would expect they'll need it given the displays and resolutions manufacturers are pushing these phones to. Speaking of display, have you seen that Infinity display? You really need to, like right now, it's the single most beautiful smartphone display out there, hands-down, nothing even comes close apart from the Galaxy S7 which is still surpasses by a landslide. Credit: PhoneArena The edge-to-edge and nearly top-to-bottom screen real-estate is simply stunning, they've even invented a whole new aspect ratio just for the occasion (18.5:9), now this does cause some cropping in standard 16:9 content but this can all be tweaked using software built-into the phone, it's a display you really have to see with your own eyes before judging it. Verdict Samsung are obviously going all-out on this device and I can't wait to get my hands on the Plus, I'll be posting my full review of it right here on LTT so keep your eyes-peeled.

Of course, there is this one too which looks like you'll get a bit of a brighter image, it's slightly more expensive than the other one but doesn't breach your budget still! ELEPHAS 1080P 2600 LUMEN PROJECTOR

Understandable, I just had a little chat with a friend of mine who specialises in Home theatre (Shoutout to Oxford Audio!) and at your price-point he suggests this one: ELEPHAS Projector, bonus too as it's currently on sale, first-look would suggest good things, it has good reviews, worth checking out!

I would definitely give them a call, game servers are slightly different to speedtest ones however, but yes the 23ms doesn't seem bad.

I believe WD Red drives support SATA-3 6.0Gbps so you may be getting some kind of bottleneck there.

I would suggest getting the 1080P one, as you won't only save some $$$ but you'll probably have a nicer experience gaming too. Also, if you're thinking of getting the 960M model, you'll get much better game performance at 1080P, so if you don't go for the 4K display, you won't have issues with interpolation etc.

I wouldn't even watch movies on that projector, let-alone get into any gaming on it. Best bet is to get a TV with a good refresh rate, Sony are typically the most popular among living-room gamers, I know it may be out of budget but save up a little bit and you won't be disappointed

In the meantime, check and make sure the built-in Firewall on the router isn't causing any issues, also your latency may be a problem, what ping do you typically get on Speedtest.net? Also when using Speedtest, it's worth running the test on countries that game servers are likely to be hosted in (e.g. UK, US, Canada etc.) as this can give you a more accurate idea of your latency and may explain any intermittent connectivity issues.

I would say it's probably something worth contacting your provider about, try rebooting your router, it frees up the RAM inside and usually resolves connection issues like this. It may be that you need a new router (which your provider should supply free providing it's faulty).

Samsung have never moved the fingerprint scanner on any of their previous devices, they've always been in the home button.