0Xc0000076 Error in Windows 10

By Richard Peck

The 0xc0000076 error is caused by a lack of a "library" on Windows, typically Visual C++, DirectX or similar.

The error shows when you are trying to run a "large" application such as a game or some sort of graphics application. It is caused because the application will require an element from the library, which is either not installed or not accessible on your system.

The error will typically show as "0xc0000076" or more commonly "0xc000007b" error, cited after the application tries to load.

The way to solve this problem is to ensure that you have the appropriate library / dependencies required by the application to run. It should resolve 90% of the issues with the error.

Cause

The typical error message for the 0xc0000076 error is as follows:

The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000076)

The key to fixing this is to understand that every application on Windows requires a series of "libraries" or "dependencies" to help it run.

These libraries are stored on the hard drive as DLL files, applications such as DirectX and "redistributable" packages such as Visual C++. Whilst Microsoft distributes most of the most popular libraries, there are a number provided by other companies too.

The bottom line of the 0xc0000076 error is that your system is unable to load the dependencies required to run the application.

Solution Steps

1. Reinstall Visual C++

Visual C++ is typically the culprit here. It is a collection of programs distributed by Microsoft to help enhance the functionality of Windows.

Unfortunately, like many things "Microsoft", they've overcomplicated it - making VC++ a totally third party download and splitting up between different versions, each of which has to be downloaded in order to provide the required functionality.

Unfortunately, it is often the case that even if the correct VC++ is installed, it becomes damaged or corrupted, preventing applications from reading it correctly.

The first step to fixing the 0xc0000076 error, therefore, is to ensure you've installed the latest versions of the required VC++ redistributable packages...

In Windows 7, click onto "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Add / Remove Programs"

In Windows 10, right-click onto "Start" / "Windows" button > select "Programs and Features"

From the list that appears, select any versions of "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable", and NOTE DOWN their year number (this is important)

After noting down the years, you should then right-click each of the listings and select "Uninstall"

After uninstalling them, restart your PC

After restart, you'll need to browse to Google and look for "Microsoft latest visual C++ packages"

For each of the "years" that you noted down before, download the appropriate download and install.

A quick note on this topic - when you download each VC++ package, you'll be asked whether you want the "x64" or "x86" version. This corresponds to the "architecture" of your system.

If you're not sure which version of Windows you have, you need to do the following:

Press "Windows" + "R" keys on your keyboard

In the "Run" dialogue, type "dxdiag" and press "Enter"

When DXDiag shows, look for the "Operating System" listing

Take note of whether it's 64-bit or 32-bit - 64-bit is x64 and 32-bit is x86

From there, you should install the various VC++ packages and then let it run.

2. Update DirectX

Next, you need to update DirectX.

DirectX is a core element of Windows which allows your system to run 3D graphics etc.

Unfortunately, due to many games etc putting their own versions of DirectX files onto your system, it is often the case that applications will show a large number of errors etc with it.

If this is the case, you'll want to install the "update" to DirectX which should replace any of the potentially damaged files it may have...

Click onto "Google" and look for "DirectX Download" - click the first link

Click on the orange "Download" button

Click "No thanks and continue"

Save the file to your hard drive

Open the application and click through the process (make sure you don't accept the "Bing Bar" scamware)

Let it install the files required to update DirectX

Restart your PC

Once your PC has restarted, you should proceed to the next step.

3. Reinstall.NET

.NET is similar to the above two dependencies, in that it provides a large number of features, files and settings required to get Windows working properly.

Unfortunately, like the others, it can become damaged or corrupted. If this is the case, you'll want to update it to the latest version, which can be done with the following:

In Windows 7, click onto "Start" > select "Control Panel" > "Add / Remove Programs"

In Windows 10, right-click onto "Start" / "Windows" button > select "Programs and Features"

From the dialogue that shows, click on "Turn Windows features on or off" - Uncheck ".NET 3.5" and ".NET 4.6.2" and then click "OK"

Let the uninstall process happen & restart your PC

After restart, you'll want to look on Google for ".net web installer"

Click the orange "Download" button and then proceed to install the package.

This will replace any of the.NET framework files which may be damaged or corrupted on the system. This will basically reset the majority of dependencies on your system which *could* be damaged.

Further to this, you'll also want to ensure any "registry" errors are cleaned out on your PC...

4. Clean Out Registry Errors

Registry errors are caused when the Windows "registry" becomes damaged or corrupted.

The registry is a central database which Windows uses to store all the settings and options your system requires to run.

This database is responsible for everything from your desktop wallpaper to user avatar. Unfortunately, it can become damaged or corrupted - preventing your PC from being able to read the settings it requires.

To fix this, you'll be best cleaning it out with a "registry cleaner":

Download a reliable registry cleaner tool (I only recommend CCleaner in 2018 which is available from "Piriform" - just Google "CCleaner Download")

Install the tool and load it up

Let it scan the registry of your system (other parts like Junk Files don't matter so much)

After the scan, clean / remove any of the problems it found

Restart your PC

This not only ensures you're able to fix any of the potential problems that your computer may have, but it also ensures that you're able to run the programs effectively.

5. Clean Out Malware & Reinstall Graphics Driver

If the above steps don't work, the next is to reinstall your system's graphics driver (yes, this is a valid cause of the error).

To do this, you'll want to download "DDU" (Display Driver Uninstaller) from Guru3D. This removes **all** of the graphics driver software that your system will have installed...

Click onto the DDU download page: (you'll have to Google "DDU Download")

Save the file to your system

Restart your PC into "Safe Mode"

To do this, there are varying ways depending on which version of Windows you're running:

In Windows 7, click on "Start" > "Restart"

When your system restarts, press F8 repeatedly on the keyboard before anything starts to load

This will bring up the "Advanced Boot Options" menu from which you need to select "Safe Mode"

In Windows 10, click on "Start" / "Windows" button (bottom left corner)

Select the "Power" button - Holding SHIFT, press "Restart"

This will bring up the blue "Recovery Environment" screen.

From here, pick "Troubleshoot" > "Advanced Options" > "Startup Settings" > "Restart"

When the system reboots, it will load the "Advanced Boot Options" screen from which you'll be able to pick "Safe Mode" From here, you'll enter "Safe Mode".

You need to click onto the DDU application you downloaded and then let it run.

You'll want to pick "Clean and Restart (Recommended)".

This will completely remove the graphics driver, which *should* solve any remaining occurrences of the error. Let the system restart into "normal" mode and then try loading the application again.

Once in "normal" mode, you'll have to get the graphics driver installed again. In Windows 10, this will typically be done automatically. The point is that if you have some custom driver, it may be causing some sort of conflicts, which will be resolved by fully removing it with DDU.

If the above doesn't work, you may have a deeper issue within Windows.

Apart from using a more powerful error cleaner tool, you may benefit from seeking more specific advice. To do this, I would advocate either seeing a repair guy (who'll have *exactly* the same recommendations as me), or asking online.

There are several services which can do this. These are free and basically give you the ability to receive advice particular to your error/problem without having to wait for the generic support offered by most outdated "tech support" services.

The most pertinent services in this capacity are " Microsoft Answers or   SuperUser" - these allow you to ask "questions" free of charge to which you're able to receive direct answers about how to resolve your problems.

Know These Cutesy Themes for an Online Baby Products & Toys Shop

By Rob Stephen

Busy parents these days scroll through different websites and online apps to get things for their kids. They hardly get the time to visit supermarkets or big shops, but all they want is to make their kids happy and satisfied. While eCommerce stores are helping them a lot to get everything from food, clothing to toys and stationeries, the retailers too got a huge opportunity to expand their market reach and sales overnight. However, if you are into the selling of baby and kids products, you need to design your store with lovable themes and elements that would complement it well. Only then a store looks appealing to the eyes of parents and convinces them that you truly have an idea of kids' needs and have the best items for them.

To make that happen, there are hundreds of baby themes and templates brought by different eCommerce platforms and below are mentioned some of them.

#1 Infant

This is a 100% responsive theme from Magento to suit all infant products, from clothing (girls and boys) to accessories and toys. With straightforward installation, clean design and easy navigation, it also best suits mobile sites. Its playful background and mild colour tones create an ambience of a carefree childhood. Best store features:

List/Grid view for categories

Icon fonts

Language translation (Localisation)

Slider/ banners with real images

#2 Claudine

Designed by OpenCart with love and care for babies and kids, Claudine is a drag and drop responsive theme. Its playful navigation, eye-catchy elements, and superior resolution images help parents to view the products with complete detailing. Key features:

Drag and Drop layout composer

Revolution slider with multilayer, image, video caption and text

Mega Menu with easy drag and drop interface

Products slider

Unlimited colours and fonts

Featured categories

#3 Bambino

It is a responsive WooCommerce theme and comes with advanced features and fancy design for baby stores. Website customisation is simpler with Bambino. It helps to make pages colourful and elegant with catchy elements like Cherry PopUps, countdown timers, product badges, special giveaways (free images based on category), social options, star ratings etc. It makes sites mobile-friendly too!

Some of its exceptional features:

One-click installation

AJAX Filter

Compare and Wishlist

Quickview

Products Carousel Widget

#4 Kiddo

Again a Magento theme, it is best known for kids fashion items. Site created with it quickly adapts to any devices, irrespective of the screen sizes and do not restrict visitors with respect to the locations. Its exclusive set of features:

Newsletter Subscription Pop-up

Film Slider

Sorting Options

TM AJAX Search

Catalog Images Grid

Featured Products

Special Price Countdown

#5 KidFun

If there's one template for toys store that can woo the young ones and their parents, then it is KidFun, designed by OpenCart. It is a well-documented and custom-made template that showcases games and toys in pro way. Moreover, intuitive navigation with product quick view and drop down cart offers the buyers a hassle-free shopping experience.

Special features:

Parallax

Theme Colour Switch

Multi-currency

AJAX search

Product Badges

Facebook Like Box

Cross Browser Compatibility

Valid Semantic Code

Babies and kids store themes need to be clean and colourful and must have a mix of elements that can capture the attention of parents. These customised themes and templates adhere to all of these. So, if you have thought of launching such a store, personalise it using one of the above that will best help you represent your products.

Rob Stephen is an expert eCommerce developer who works at PHPProgrammers, a leading Magento development company in Australia that has been helping businesses all over the world to reign the online market with versatile and exceptional stores. You can follow the   Facebook Page to know our more about our eCommerce services and web solutions.

Book Review: Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

By John Powell

Having followed with interest the actions of every US President since Franklin D Roosevelt, and having concluded that the personage who filled that office with the greatest dignity and highest aspirations was Barack Obama, his book was sought to shed light on how such an exemplary character had been moulded. The book is beautifully written and tells a story of absorbing interest, but in terms of insight into the author's personal development it leaves some questions unanswered. Maybe further significant progress was made after the book was written.

Barack Obama relates how he was born in Hawaii of a white mother and a black father who was a student from Kenya. His father left after two years and Barack was raised by his mother and her second husband in Indonesia, and by his mother and her parents back in Hawaii. His father came on a one month visit when Barack was ten years old and this was the only contact he could remember. Yet being only half-black and raised by his white family, Barack became mindful of the colour of his skin, writing: '... my color had always been a sufficient criterion for community membership, enough of a cross to bear.' After working with the poor black communities of Chicago, he set out to explore his father's roots in Africa.

Children of mixed parentage can vary widely in skin colour from almost as black as the black to almost as white as the white. Barack Obama seems to have considered himself to be towards the darker end of the spectrum. For example, he relates how he was mistaken for a deceased half-brother, David, who was a full-blooded Kenyan. Another half-brother, Mark, who was born in Kenya to a white mother, Ruth, is described as being 'a black man of my height and complexion.' His appearance being in no way unusual, Barack became readily accepted into his wide ranging extended family in Kenya.

Half-brother, Mark, is reported to have been moved by Beethoven's symphonies and Shakespeare's sonnets and to prefer the USA to Kenya. One suspects these sentiments are shared by Barack, but he does not say so. However, in the preface to the 2004 reprinting of his book, Barack Obama mentions that his mother passed away shortly after the original publication. He writes movingly that 'I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book - less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life.' It is perhaps with this additional insight that we can begin to see how the most admired US President of the modern era came to harmonise and personify the best characteristics of two continents and two cultures.

My novels set in Ghana: The Colonial Gentleman's Son and Return to the Garden City, as well as my children's book: Saint George: Rusty Knight and Monster Tamer, are available on amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Return-Garden-City-John-Powell/dp/184624949X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442856892&sr=8-1&keywords=Return+to+the+Garden+City http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saint-George-Rusty-Knight-Monster/dp/1910508195/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1EEZ4CA5ZNVKJ0ZZNGTN

Why Customer Support Is Your Marketing Strategy's Best Friend

By Donald Smithon

Let's say you've started managing your brand's online activity. You're molding g your brand's personality and handling all your business' social accounts. Promotion for your business is doing well, but you want more creative content for better results.

And just when you think you're running out of ideas, your customers start sending you emails. You can leave that to the people handling customer support. But if you're a smart business owner, you can turn those emails into a marketing opportunity.

It sounds like two far out ideas, but customer support and marketing actually go hand-in-hand. When you're promoting your business, you want to show prospective customers your relationship with your present ones and how you handle situations with them. This is your chance to show people why they should choose your brand.

Here are the benefits of using customer support for your next marketing strategy.

1. Gives you an opportunity to be proactive for your customers

You can have potential customers knocking at your door, but the real question is: are you keeping your current ones comfortable? When you not only entertain concerns but actually do everything you can in your power to help your consumers get the best services, you can be sure your customers are more likely to remain loyal.

And sometimes, if you're lucky enough, you get people who take time off their busy lives to screenshot the way you handle situations, and get them to post their satisfaction on social media.

That's what happened to UK-based Reddit user Doug D. when he ordered a sweatshirt off American website Archival Clothing. Someone on customer support noticed a sweatshirt in a shopping cart that was never checked out. They found that the shipping costs were high, and was probably why Doug never bought the sweatshirt.

Archival emailed Doug suggesting ways to ship the order for less. Doug ended up ordering more than just the sweatshirt. The brand actively addressed a customer problem that wasn't raised by the customer.

When you find ways to give your customers the best service, they will end up satisfied and may even endorse your brand on social sites. That's marketing you get for free.

2. Improves communication between you and your customers

If you provide a way for your customers to reach you, you have to do your part and answer questions and help them with their concerns. Showing customers you care about them builds trust.

You're not only building trust, but a reputation for your brand as well. Consumers use social media to share good and bad experiences, so brands find ways to make sure their customers have great experiences. One way for them to measure that is through customer support.

Showing them that you're here to listen and guide them will make them stay because they'll expect more from you. You can give them that when you're actively communicating with them and giving them your best.

Sometimes the best experiences your consumers can get from your brand is the way you interact. When it comes to attracting more customers, establishing a good relationship can help you gain more publicity and solidify a reputation as someone who's worth doing business with.

So what's your next marketing strategy? Well, here's an idea: you can ask your brand followers to    email customer support for concerns.

0X8007274c Error Fix for Windows 10

By Richard Peck

The 0x8007274c error shows in Windows 10 when your system cannot sync to the IMAP account you specified.

The error generally shows with the Windows 10 Mail app, although it can also be caused by Outlook. There is a corresponding error code of 0x80072726 which can also show on some systems.

The error is caused by the connection to the IMAP server being blocked, most typically by your third party firewall. SVCHOST.exe is also sometimes blocked, preventing the sync from taking place.

The messages often show as:

"We're having a problem downloading messages. Try again later. Error code 0x8007274c and 0x80072726"

In order to solve the issue, you need to remove any of the potential blocks to the IMAP email connection.

The way to do this is to first ensure your mail app is set up correctly, then that your connection is not being blocked by your antivirus / firewall application.

If you're able to achieve this correctly, you should then be able to receive emails through your chosen email client (be it Windows Mail or Outlook). The process should be relatively simple:

Solution

1. Temporarily Disable Any Third-Party Firewall

If you have a third-party firewall (AVG / Avast / Kaspersky / Symantec), you'll be best to temporarily pause it. This way, you'll be able to see if it's blocking the connectivity of your mail app to the IMAP server. You can do this by using the following steps:

Right-click on the antivirus / firewall icon in the bottom-right-hand Windows taskbar.

From the menu which appears, look for "pause" or "temporarily disable"

Select for 10 minutes or whatever the corresponding option is

Whilst this will leave your PC temporarily exposed, we can just restart after testing out the mail app once more.

Now you need to go onto your mail app and see whether it will download the email this time, or not. If not, it means you need to specifically allow the svchost.exe file in the core elements of Windows.

2. Allow SVCHost.exe Through The Windows Firewall

SVCHost.exe is used by Windows to help services operate on your system. Whilst this application generally works fine, it will sometimes be blocked because it's trying to access files / services that it should not.

If you are still experiencing the 0x8007274c (or 0x80072726) error, you should try making an "exception" for this application in Windows Firewall:

In the search bar at the bottom left of the screen, type "Windows Firewall"

Click on the app which appears first in the list

From the menu which loads, select "Allow an App or Feature through Windows Firewall"

Add a new app, with the directory URLs:
- C:WindowsSystem32svchost.exe

- C:WindowsSYSWOW64svchost.exe

After it has been added, rename it to "Host Process for Windows Service" and then click "OK"

You should then test the Mail app again after this. If it works then you've solved the issue (for now).

If not, you'll have to perform the same process with Windows Defender...

3. Allow SVCHost.exe Through Windows Defender

Windows Defender is the default antivirus app that comes with Windows 10. If the above steps did not work, you'll have to add svchost.exe to its excluded apps:

From the lower-right hand corner of the taskbar, select the small blue shield and right-click

Select "Open" from the menu that appears

Click "Settings"

Scroll down to "Exclusions"

Add exclusion

Select ""Exclude a exe, com or str process" and exclude the following: C:WindowsSystem32svchost.exe & C:WindowsSYSWOW64svchost.exe

Restart your PC

If you're still seeing the error, even after going through these steps, you'll either have connectivity problems (unlikely), software conflicts (unlikely) or some sort of issue in the depths of Windows (specifically, with a DLL file or similar).

You may benefit from talking directly to a specialized technician - the best way to do this for free is through " Microsoft Answers or   SuperUser" (both of which allow you to ask questions free of charge).