الوسم: check

  • How To Check If Your Windows PC Is Ready for the Secure Boot Certificate Expiry in June 2026

    How To Check If Your Windows PC Is Ready for the Secure Boot Certificate Expiry in June 2026

    Most people will likely never need to worry about Secure Boot certificates. They reside deep within your PC’s firmware, quietly doing their job since 2011 without requiring much attention. However, that silent operation is coming to an end. The original certificates are set to expire in June 2026. While Microsoft automates updates for many systems, a significant number of PCs may miss the notifications entirely. Here’s how you can check if your device is up to date—and what steps to take if it’s not.

    Step 1: Verify if Your PC Has the Updated Certificates

    Before doing anything else, find out whether your system already has the current certificates installed. The fastest way is through PowerShell.

    Open the Start menu, type PowerShell, right-click on it, and select Run as administrator. When the window opens, copy and paste the following command exactly as shown, then press Enter:

    powershell
    ([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI db).bytes) -match ‘Windows UEFI CA 2023’)

    You’ll receive a response—either True or False. A True indicates your PC already has the latest 2023 certificates, and no further action is needed. A False signals your system is still running on the outdated certificates that are due to expire, and you’ll need to proceed with the next steps.

    Step 2: Run Windows Update and Check for Firmware Updates

    If your system shows False, the first move is to update Windows and look for any firmware updates provided by your PC manufacturer. Open Settings, navigate to Windows Update, and check for updates. The latest certificates are often delivered through routine updates, so it’s worth ensuring your system is fully current.

    If updates don’t resolve the issue, especially on older hardware, the next step might require support from your device’s manufacturer. Visit their support website—such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, or others—and search for firmware or BIOS updates specific to your model.

    Step 3: If Firmware Updates aren’t Available, Try the Manual Registry Method

    In cases where an official firmware update isn’t available but your PC supports a supported version of Windows 11, Microsoft provides a workaround that bypasses the need for BIOS updates.

    Open Command Prompt as an administrator and run this command:

    cmd
    reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSecureboot /v AvailableUpdates /t REG_DWORD /d 0x40 /f
    Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName “MicrosoftWindowsPISecure-Boot-Update”

    You will need to restart your computer a couple of times. After rebooting, run the initial PowerShell check again to confirm the new certificates are in place.

    Important Note for Windows 10 Users: Microsoft has indicated that unsupported versions of Windows 10 will not receive the new Secure Boot certificates. If you’re running Windows 10 without an Extended Security Update (ESU) subscription, the above methods won’t work. The only way to stay current is to enroll in ESU before October 14, 2026, which will give you access to the update and some extra time before the certificates expire. Upgrading to Windows 11 might also be an option if your device supports it.

    Taking these steps will help ensure your PC remains compatible and secure as the expiration date for these certificates approaches.

  • How to Complete All Quest Directives in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check

    Rave From The Grave
    A new drug mixes soda with infected blood. Kids drink it to get high and then turn into zombies. If you see anyone with a soda can, confiscate it immediately.
    Check all bags for soda cans, especially the red ones labeled SODA, and remove them.

    The Gray Tide
    There are many rats lately, and it’s unclear if the virus affects them directly. They’re getting dangerously large, similar to stories about boars.
    Use your gun or hammer to kill three rats. Killing one rat earns the Janitor achievement, and killing 30 rats earns the Rat Slayer achievement.

    Wanted: Food Monster
    There’s a rumor about a survivor who eats people. He’s described as overweight with vitiligo, a condition causing patches of lighter skin.
    Identify survivors fitting this description and eliminate them with a gun or by hitting them with a hammer. Sending them to Liquidation is recommended.

    The Kids Aren’t Alright
    A sixteen-year-old girl escaped from a harsh orphanage known for severe beatings, injections, and exposure.
    Look for a young woman with visible bruises, particularly on her torso. Send her to quarantine for questioning. She can then join the survivor block if she shows no other symptoms.

    Wanted: Saw
    There are reports of a person who dissects people alive. They likely carry equipment like saws, chainsaws, or knives.
    Find the person with these tools in their bag and neutralize them.

    Wanted: Patient 0.5
    A survivor’s evidence suggests they lived at 8 Horatio Street, Apt. 94, New York.
    Identify the survivor with this address on their records and send them to Liquidation.

    Lone Walkers
    Several zombies are near the wall, marking territory by smearing the cement. More appear hours later, indicating they’re trying to attract a horde.
    Find and eliminate three wandering zombies anywhere in the compound.

    Dead Zone
    A nearby district was overrun by zombies, but someone might have escaped before it was sealed.
    Check for survivors from districts with animal names, such as Beak Street, using their address details. Send any matches to quarantine.

    Wanted: DEAD Pike Mussik
    Pike Mussik is a criminal and con artist who stabbed a guard at Checkpoint Foxtrot and fled.
    Identify him by name on the symptom chart, then shoot, hit with a hammer, or send him to Liquidation.

    Firestarter
    If someone arrives with a flamethrower, do not confiscate it. They’re helping burn corpses to prevent infection, as the smell attracts zombies.
    Allow survivors to carry flamethrowers if they bring them through security.

    Classified Gear
    A survivor with a chainsaw is likely carrying a US Army prototype. Their serial number matches our records, and they’re assigned to evacuate that unit.
    Let survivors take chainsaws if they bring them in.

    Marked One
    A cult believes getting bitten grants eternal life. They have a tattoo on their chest indicating their bite mark.
    Use your scanner to find the tattoo and mark them as a threat. Send them straight to quarantine overnight for further investigation.

    Wanted: Bruised Face
    Someone intentionally let zombies into the last safe zone. He was beaten heavily before escaping and might try to re-enter.
    Look for a man with a lot of bruising on his face. Do not mistake bruises for cuts or necrosis. Send him directly to Liquidation.

    Brotherhood
    A survivor carrying a police baton is likely taking it to a fallen officer’s family. Do not confiscate these items.
    Check all bags for a police baton and allow anyone carrying it to keep it.

    Smuggler’s Run
    Someone is hiding infected tissue inside candy wrappers to smuggle out and sell.
    Remove any candy bars found in survivors’ bags.

    Skeletons In The Closet
    A person burned down their infected family’s house after an outbreak at Ash Ridge Street. They are about 30 years old and start with the name “An…”
    Review survivor details, focusing on the street name, and send matches to quarantine.

    Wanted: Explosive Expert
    Someone stole ignitable lemons and caused a fire that killed five guards and eight survivors.
    Remove anyone carrying lemons from their bags.

    A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
    If someone brings a book titled “How To Quit Smoking,” confiscate it. It’s a fake cover hiding a report they’re passing to higher authorities.
    Thoroughly check all bags for this book and take it away.

    Toxic Avenger
    A civilian approached with a backpack full of Limburger cheese. The smell is so bad even zombies avoid him.
    Confiscate the cheese, even if it’s just a small piece in their bag.

    All these actions are critical for safety. Use your judgment to identify suspects based on descriptions and the items they carry.

  • How to Add Custom Survivor Characters in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check

    How to Add Custom Survivor Characters in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check

    You can now create custom characters in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check and select their symptoms yourself. This new feature is available with the full release of the zombie apocalypse checkpoint simulator, and anyone can participate.

    If you have a Twitch account, you can invite followers to add their own characters or join a live stream to create a survivor with custom symptoms. Here’s how to make your own custom survivor characters:

    1. Create a Twitch account if you don’t already have one.
    2. Launch Quarantine Zone: The Last Check.
    3. Link your Twitch account to your game account from the main menu.
    4. Find your favorite Twitch streamer playing Quarantine Zone.
    5. Look for the QZ icon (a green square logo, sometimes with a +1 badge).
    6. Click the icon and choose three symptoms for your character.
    7. Hit Save and wait. Your character will arrive at the checkpoint the next day, depending on how many characters others are adding.

    You can select any three symptoms, including contraband, to make diagnosis easier or more challenging. Depending on the streamer’s settings, your Twitch username may be displayed with your character, making it easy to recognize when the symptoms are checked.

    This feature is only available during streams in Endless Mode, so players going through the campaign mode won’t have access to custom symptoms.

    You can add a new character once your current one passes through the checkpoint. Adding a new character before yours arrives might change your existing character’s symptoms.

    To enable custom characters on Twitch:

    1. Create and log into Twitch.
    2. Open Quarantine Zone: The Last Check.
    3. Link your Twitch account in the game’s main menu.
    4. Before streaming, go into settings and under Gameplay, find the Twitch section.
    5. Enable Twitch features and decide whether you want followers’ usernames visible; enabling them enhances engagement.

    As followers add their custom characters, they will be visible at the next day’s checkpoint for you to scan and diagnose. You can keep receiving new characters with unique symptoms throughout the game, providing a diverse range of infected, sick, or safe survivors to manage.

    Followed characters may also be kept in a cage as zombie pets during gameplay, periodically fed human remains, for an extra touch of fun and engagement.

  • 7 Tips for Completing Quarantine Zone: The Last Check and Solving Challenges

    7 Tips for Completing Quarantine Zone: The Last Check and Solving Challenges

    At the quarantine checkpoint in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check, your role is crucial. You are responsible for scanning new arrivals, managing the safe zone, and ensuring survivors are fed and protected until evacuation happens.

    One mistake can be dangerous, potentially costing lives. Stay alert and carefully observe every individual. Allowing infected survivors into the safe zone can compromise everyone’s safety. To give you a strong start, here are some useful tips for playing the game:

    Inspect and Report Symptoms Carefully

    As each survivor arrives, you must scan them with your equipment to check for infection. Symptoms can range from minor skin issues to signs of serious bites. You start with basic diagnostic tools, with more available as you advance. Use each tool systematically, recording all symptoms to avoid missing anything, which will help you earn a perfect score each round. While early on, you might not recognize all symptoms, with experience, you’ll quickly learn to distinguish between those who are sick and those who are safe.

    Recognize Symptoms for Quick Decisions

    Over time, you’ll observe new and more unusual symptoms, such as blood in odd areas or internal organ damage. When you see a new symptom, mark it on your chart and send the survivor to the lab for further testing. Spotting minor or safe symptoms like yellow eyes, freckles, or bruises helps you identify safe survivors. Conversely, symptoms like necrosis, red eyes, bite marks, high fever, rapid pulse, or reflex issues indicate infection and survivors showing these signs should be eliminated immediately.

    Check and Clear Quarantine Daily

    The quarantine space can quickly fill up, especially if symptoms are confusing or mixed. Each morning, visit the quarantine room to reassess all survivors. If symptoms have worsened, send them for liquidation; if they remain the same or you’re unsure, return them to quarantine. Using new tools daily to detect evolving symptoms is beneficial. If someone develops into a zombie overnight, you must clear out the infected and deceased before starting your next shift by pulling the lever.

    Upgrade the Base Regularly

    Keeping the base secure and functional requires frequent upgrades, unlocked as you increase your Zone Level. Access upgrades through your tablet, and then check the base layout to improve essential buildings like the security tower, tents, generator, canteen, clinic, laboratory, quarantine, checkpoint, and defense center. Prioritize resource buildings and quarantine for upgrades first—these are vital for survival. Once foundational areas are improved, upgrade defenses and the checkpoint to defend better against zombie attacks and support your progress.

    Upgrade the Quarantine Early

    Upgrading your quarantine room promptly is vital for managing survivors with confusing or mixed symptoms. A larger quarantine allows holding more individuals during the early stages. When symptoms overlap—such as freckles combined with yellow eyes or rashes with bruises—it’s hard to tell if they’re infected. To avoid mistakenly sending survivors into the safe zone or getting overcrowded, ensure your quarantine space can handle these cases until you’re confident in identifying symptoms.

    Keep Resources Restocked Daily

    Monitoring supplies each day is critical. Survivors need food and medical kits, and your generator requires fuel. Restock these essentials daily by checking the resource levels in the menu to prevent shortages. Sometimes, you might need to manually turn the generator back on by entering the safe zone and pulling the lever. Making sure provisions, power, and med kits stay topped up helps keep everyone alive and operational.

    Defend the Base Effectively

    From time to time, hordes of zombies will attack your base. If you don’t defend well, they will break through, ending the round. Early on, zombie waves are manageable, but as you progress, they become tougher and more frequent. Use your weapons wisely:

    • The machine gun is your main weapon for smaller waves.
    • The mid-range cannon and long-range cannon are useful against stronger zombies.

    Explosive barrels can be strategically used to damage clusters of zombies. Don’t detonate them prematurely—wait until zombies are close enough to maximize damage. Learn the firing and reloading speeds of each weapon and switch between them to optimize your defense.

    Keeping an eye on your defenses and managing resources carefully will help you survive longer and progress further in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check.

  • How to Check IVs in Pokémon Legends: Z-A While Solving for Completing

    How to Check IVs in Pokémon Legends: Z-A While Solving for Completing

    Pokemon Legends: Z-A is a game focused on battling, and regardless of your skill level, defeating stronger opponents becomes tougher if your Pokémon have poor stats. With Lumiose City hanging in the balance, using Pokémon that naturally excel in battles is the best strategy.

    But how can you tell how strong a Pokémon truly is? Hidden stats called IVs reveal a Pokémon’s potential, but they aren’t obvious at first glance and require some understanding. To really gauge a Pokémon’s strength, you need to learn about its personality and work through challenges to better understand its abilities.

    What Are IVs?

    IVs, or Individual Values, are the innate stats a Pokémon has when you get it. They influence how well each of its stats—like Attack, Defense, Speed, etc.—will grow as it levels up. IVs range from 0 to 31, with 31 being the highest possible, indicating maximum potential in that stat. Most Pokémon have randomly assigned IVs, but Alpha Pokémon always have three stats with perfect IVs of 31.

    What Are EVs?

    EVs, or Effort Values, are points gained by defeating specific Pokémon. They influence stat growth over time. A Pokémon can have up to 252 EVs in a single stat and a total of 508 EVs across all stats. Each Pokémon defeated yields certain EVs; for example:

    • HP: Kangaskhan, Clefairy, Audino, Cleffa — found in Wild Area 19
    • Attack: Weepinbell, Pinsir, Heracross, Scyther, Phantump, Trevenant — in Wild Area 13
    • Special Attack: Pyroar, Lampent — in Wild Area 17
    • Defense: Lairon, Onix, Aron — in Wild Area 14
    • Special Defense: Swablu, Altaria — in Wild Area 18
    • Speed: Pikachu, Espurr — in Wild Zone 3

    Using items like Power Bracers or Anklets from side missions or the post-game can increase EV gains. Each of these items can boost EVs earned from defeated Pokémon, making training more efficient.

    How to Check IVs

    You can’t see IVs until after finishing the main story. Once you’ve completed it, you can judge Pokémon by opening their summary and pressing the Right Joystick, which reveals their IVs. While this doesn’t show exact numbers, you can estimate their quality based on the judgment. The categories are:

    • No good — IVs are very low
    • Decent — 1-15
    • Pretty Good — 16-25
    • Very Good — 26-29
    • Fantastic — 30
    • Best — 31

    You can also use third-party tools like Marriland’s Pokémon IV Calculator for more precise readings, especially for Pokémon at Level 5 or higher. This is most accurate at higher levels when EVs are easier to track.

    How to Change IVs

    In previous Pokémon games, hyper training allowed players to raise IVs to their maximum using Bottle Caps. The same feature exists in Legends: Z-A, but it requires unlocking the Training Dojo by progressing through the Fist of Justice storyline. Your Pokémon must be at least Level 50, and then you can talk to the woman next to Josée.

    • Bottle Caps raise a single stat to 31
    • Gold Bottle Caps boost all stats to 31

    Once hyper-trained, a Pokémon’s stats will display “Hyper Trained!” when checked, indicating IVs have been maxed out. While useful, hyper training relies on rare items called Bottle Caps, which are hard to find and are usually obtained through side quests, special missions, or reward matches in the post-game.

    How to Reduce EVs

    If you make a mistake or want to lower EVs, you can use berries like Kelpsy to reduce a specific stat by 10 EVs or visit the Rust Syndicate office to wipe all EVs for a fee of Mega Shards. You can buy EV-reducing berries at the berry stand in Wild Area 8, a location worth remembering because Tomato berries are needed for certain side quests.

    How to Judge IVs

    After completing the main story, you unlock the ability to judge Pokémon. Open a Pokémon’s summary, scroll to the stats tab, and press the Right Joystick to view their IVs. Although it doesn’t give exact numbers, you can interpret the quality of each IV based on the judgment. To help with understanding, here’s a translation guide:

    Judgement IV Range Description
    No good Very low (0-15) Weak potential
    Decent 1-15 Below average potential
    Pretty Good 16-25 Good potential
    Very Good 26-29 Strong potential
    Fantastic 30 Excellent potential
    Best 31 Maxed out potential

    This way, even without precise IV readings, you can make educated guesses about a Pokémon’s strengths.

  • Tracking Companion Approval Status in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

    Tracking Companion Approval Status in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

    For many players, the bond with companions is as significant as the combat or main storyline in BioWare’s games. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you have the choice of seven companions for your party. You can also engage in romantic relationships with any of them, and your approval ratings and relationship status play a crucial role in how you advance with each character.

    Your relationship level not only determines your romantic options with a companion but also influences the gear they can use and their effectiveness in battles. Therefore, it’s important to enhance your relationship as much and as fast as possible.

    How to Check Relationship Level and Status

    To see your relationship status, go to the map screen and navigate to the Companions tab. From there, you can select any companion to view your relationship level with them.

    On the left side of the companion’s screen, you will see a number within a circle. This represents your relationship level, and the surrounding circle indicates your progress towards the next level.

    To make progress and fill in that circle, complete side quests for the character, engage positively in team conversations, and include them in your party during quests.

    What Is the Maximum Relationship Level?

    Harding's companion screen in Dragon Age: The Veilguard showing max relationship level of 10.

    You can achieve a maximum relationship level of ten with any companion.

    Reaching level ten requires significant effort, so if you want to maximize a character’s relationship, it’s best to keep them in your party as much as possible.

    While all characters follow the same 1-10 level progression, the names given to each level differ based on the companion’s backstory.

    Understanding the Hero of The Veilguard

    Hero of the Veilguard status in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

    Before reaching the maximum relationship level, there is an additional tier known as the “Hero of The Veilguard.” Described as “the Highest Level of focus and commitment possible for Veilguard members,” this status appears on the companion screen.

    This status is essential at the game’s conclusion; it impacts the crucial decisions you make, unlocks legendary equipment for that character, and grants access to new abilities.

    To achieve the Hero of The Veilguard status, you must complete the character’s personal side quests. Once obtained, a small icon will be displayed next to the companion when you select your party prior to a quest.