Windows May Update 1903 enabling Sandbox mode and turning on Virtualisation on ASUS ROG AMD system SVM/Virtualisation

With the latest Windows update (May 1903) we get a new feature called Windows Sandbox. This allows us to run a sand-boxed (protected, isolated, quarantined) version of windows for opening dodgy files/testing etc. when you've finished with the sand-box and closed it the settings are gone and whatever damage/changes were made are gone for good.

This comes with Windows 10 Pro and above!

To enable sand-boxing, you firstly need to check if you have virtualisation enabled on your system, and that is supports it.

1. Open command prompt
2. Type "systeminfo" and press enter
3. Look for the Hyper-V line that says "Virtualisation Enabled in Firmware"

If its "Yes" then you're good to go. However, if like mine it says "No" then I had to reboot my system and enable it in the BIOS.

Typically, I couldn't find a Virtualisation Option anywhere. I have an AMD machine with an ASUS motherboard, and to enable it you need to find an option called SVM. On my system this was under the advanced view (as opposed to the EZ view), and then the advanced section, CPU Settings and then SVM

Once done, you can now add this feature to Windows by searching the start menu for "Turn windows feature on or off"

When this window is open, tick the "Windows Sandbox" option and let Windows install the new feature. After its finished you will be prompted to reboot.

And that's it! the Sandbox should be on your start menu under "Windows Sandbox"; running it opens up a virtual Windows 10 ready for you to destroy

Enable Google Face Recoginition in Google Photos - UK

It recently came to my attention that folks in the US and other parts of the world get access to a great feature called "Google Face Recognition" - something that's been blocked in the UK due to GDPR issues amongst other things.

I wanted this feature, and with a little bit of effort you can enable it in your own account

1. You'll need a VPN to use so that your browser thinks you're in the US
2. I used "tunnelbear" (i have no affiliation with them). URL below:
https://www.tunnelbear.com/download

3. If you're using chrome, download the chrome browser extension
4. Sign up to tunellbear for their free 500MB account, its more than enough
5. Once you're signed up, click the VPN button and connect to the US. Icon looks like the below in the task bar:

6. Once connected, you can then sign into Google Photos
7. And thats it! Face Recognition should be enabled - you can check it under Settings > Group Similar Faces

One thing to bear in mind is that it takes a few days for Google to crawl all of your photos, and then eventually you should get a new album called "People and Pets" where you can then name each face and group them together

Love it!

Getting Access to Xiaomi themes, store and other apps when you recieve "Themes not supported in your region" message - Miui10

I recently purchased a Xiaomi Mi 9 SE (such a good phone for the money!) and tried to install some third party themes on it.

However, being set to the UK I received the error "Themes not supported in your region"

To get around this, I simply searched the settings page for "Region" and then changed myself to India

I could then download and install all the themes I wanted and then reverted my region back to UK after I had finished

Easy!

Upgrading to May 2019 Windows 10 update early (1903)

Want to get the May 2019 (1903) update before its fully available to everyone on Windows Update? It's pretty simple! Just go to the below address and click "Update Now"

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

And you can download the installer to upgrade your PC/laptop

Enjoy!