If you’re like me, you probably spent at least some of your Christmas holiday puttering about on your computer, either playing games or just trying to keep up with the never-ending tsunami of e-mail. In the midst of the chaos, however, I did have a chance to push Santa aside and write up some useful Q&A articles on common Windows topics:
(more…)

A reader sent me in a question about the amount of available memory on his Windows computer, surmising that the reason that there was such a disparity between the installed memory and the available memory was some sort of rampant memory leak. Odds are that’s not the reason why his system is showing a different available memory figure than he expects, as you can read for yourself:
(more…)

Here’s a pretty common Windows question: what do you need to modify so that your screensaver doesn’t automatically prompt you for a password each time you want to go back to using your computer after it’s kicked off? And, for that matter, how do you fix it if the screensaver starts up way too fast, just minutes after you stop using your computer? Both are answered here:
(more…)

It’s inevitable that some people would sign up for a beta test of a product without really thinking through the ramifications of running relatively untested software on their computer. Not necessarily a crisis if it’s a new Web browser or e-mail program (though losing data is never good!), but would you sign up to help Microsoft debug a new comprehensive anti-virus, anti-spyware management system for Windows if you knew you had to disable every other safety application on your computer to do so? Maybe. But then what happens when you decide you want to quit?
(more…)

Modern operating systems are designed more for ease of use than flexibility, but that doesn’t stop people from wanting to tweak and modify how their own system works, and Windows users are definitely in this category. One of the more interesting modifications you can make to your Windows setup that makes it easier to use while also leveraging greater disk space and reliability is to move your Documents folder onto a different drive. The process to accomplish this is detailed here:

Move Documents Folder onto a second hard drive.

Much easier than having to download some tiny “disk management” shareware application!
(more…)

In what I can only describe as an ironic turn of events, I received a question about PC support from a Hewlett-Packard Technical Support Specialist. Fortunately I didn’t have to guess about the possible causes of his customer’s Windows XP Home Edition system being unable to properly restart when that option was selected, because I turned to my friend and colleague Jim Boyce for his expert opinion. Here’s how the dialog went:

I am a technical support specialist at HP. One of our customers has an HP Pavilion PC. The OS is Win XP Home edition and there was some problem with Internet connectivity. HP and Charter troubleshot the problem, and now, he is able to connect to the Internet.

(more…)

When my computer boots up, it gets past the reading and verifying of the computer’s components fine. But when it gets to the reading of the hard drive to launch a platform (Windows XP), it asks me which Windows I would like to load. So I have gathered that the computer thinks i have two Windows XPs installed. But the twist is that one is corrupt… as in, it cannot find the system32 file to run the Windows platform, while the other version of Windows runs just fine.

I have tried to sort this out myself and have been looking for the file that is telling my computer there are two Windows XPs installed but have not succeeded. Can you help?

(more…)

How can I convert my AOL files, Favorites, and Address Book info from the America Online (AOL) program to MSN? I am switching from AOL dialup to a new high-speed connection. Please let me know.

While America Online (AOL) is quite popular with a large group of people, it’s also a common place for people to learn about the Internet then “graduate” to a more traditional Internet Service Provider.

The problem is, AOL has lots of proprietary data formats and its entire AOL software suite seems custom designed to make it hard for you to switch to another service, as you’re now realizing. There’s no convenient “Export Address Book” function, for example. Search for that phrase in the AOL 9.0 help system and you’ll get clear details on how to export from other programs and import those addresses into AOL Mail, but not a word about how to export from AOL Mail.
(more…)

The scenario: My primary hard drive (HD1) became infected beyond the capabilities of adware & spyware tools, AV, or firewall. I then transferred my important data files to (what I thought was) a storage hard drive, (HD2). Thinking that I had designated a second hard drive (HD2) as the storage drive, I reinstalled WIN XP Home SP1 from CD, and then installed SP 2 from CD onto HD1. Then I went looking for my saved data files. I could not find HD2 using Windows Explorer. So, I opened the case, only to find that HD2 was not connected to the system or power. Thinking back, I remembered that I had partitioned HD1 and used the large partition for storage, not HD2. Ok, now you have the story. Stupid mistake.

Having sufficiently, verbally abused myself for such an arcane move, I moved on with data recovery. I installed WIN XP Home SP1 from CD, and then installed SP 2 from CD onto HD2. I am now using HD2 as primary, and have disconnected HD1 from the system and power. I need to know how to proceed to recover as much of my data as possible, much of which is several folders of JPEGs. I have a copy of Encase 2004, which I understand is very strong, but I am intimidated by the warnings in the 300 page, online manual.

(more…)

I found a program on my computer called Windows Audio Converter. If I change all my wmas into mp3s, will I be able to use them on my iPod?

First off, I have to say that I’m suspicious of any software that you just “find” on your computer. In this day and age, if you don’t know where a program came from and how it got on your computer, it’s probably smarter to avoid using it.

As you know, your iPod can’t play WMA (Windows Media) format files and you need to convert them to MP3 format for them to work properly. Fortunately, this isn’t too hard if you are willing to download an application off the Net.
(more…)

This may be a really stupid question, but I have a family friend who recently bought a six-year-old Compaq computer running Windows 98. Her father is currently updating it to be Windows 2000, but once she found out I still had my Windows XP restore/install discs she asked if I could update her to Windows XP. I just want to know, though - is this legal? Or will I be chased down by guys in black jackets and charged? (lol worst case scenario). I just want to know if it’s okay sharing the discs with a friend or not?

Well, this isn’t a bad question, per se, but I think you already know the answer, somehow. The answer is that Windows XP and just about every other non-Open Source operating system is licensed for you to install on a single computer only.
(more…)

I had Windows XP Home Edition on my computer and then I installed XP Professional. I thought it would format the hard drive and erase XP Home Edition, but now when I start the computer, it always ask which one to choose: Home Edition or Professional. How can I tell it to always choose professional?

There are two possibilities here - one, you actually have two Windows installations, or two, your boot menu just thinks there are. Microsoft writes about this situation in Knowledge Bulletin #Q289022, but I hope my answer will get you going faster, anyway.
(more…)

I’ve just signed up for MSN Hotmail and I like it. In fact, the ability to access my email from anywhere on the Internet is way cool, and 250MB of disk space for storing my old messages seems like a ton of space. The only problem is that I have a ton of contacts in my Outlook Express program on my office PC and I’d really like to have access to them in Hotmail. Is that doable?

Glad you like Hotmail. Lots of people are still quite devoted fans of this, possibly the oldest of the Web-based email services, and with 250MB of disk space, what’s to complain about, right? :-)

It turns out you can accomplish what you’re asking about, exporting your Address Book from Microsoft Outlook Express and importing it iinto MSN Hotmail. It’s easy, but there are a number of steps you’ll need to take.

First off, on your office PC start up Microsoft Outlook Express and choose…

Dear Dave, I have a PC with Win XP Home, 1GB memory, SP2, etc. I have a Western Digital 320GB external hard drive. I don’t log on Win XP with a password. Problem: when I want to ’schedule’ an incremental backup with XP Backup program to the external hard drive, it always asks for Computer Name and a password in order to do this. When I create one to do this backup, it won’t let me. How can I get around this problem and not use this password thing to do this scheduled backup? Thanks so much.

Windows has a feature called Scheduled Tasks that allows you to run something on a schedule you define. This is commonly used for backups, and also has a number of common uses in corporate IT departments (scheduled restarts, automated maintenance, system reports, etc.).
(more…)

Dave, I’ve read through your previous Q & A about how to create an AOL screen name, but it doesn’t apply to the new AOL 9.0 Security Edition. Can you help me figure out how to add a screen name with this latest Windows application?

You’re absolutely right. In typical update fashion, the AOL development team have fiddled with what menus lead to what features and made it either easier or harder to find your overall AOL preferences, depending on how you look at it, making my article on How to create new screen names on AOL obsolete.
(more…)

Windows usually hangs when a DVD or CD is loaded into the DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive, and, on startup, it hangs if there is a disc in any of the optical drives. Then I have to reboot the system manually, eject the optical drive quickly, and remove the disc in order for Windows to load successfully. After doing this, I can insert the disc and it will be read successfully and autorun will execute.

Then, when trying to install, for example a CDROM game, the install wizard will successfully launch and the software will start to install. Once I’m prompted to insert disc 2, the tray opens and closes successfully, and as soon as the drive attempts to read the new disc (drive busy reading light starts flashing) the entire system locks up and Windows hangs. Pressing ctrl+alt+del buttons twice to restart does not work and I have to actually press the restart button to reboot the system.

My system configuration: Windows XP (SP1) 2.8 Ghz Intel CPU, 512 Mb ram, 300w PSU, PNY 6800GT graphics card, gigabyte motherboard, Aopen DVD-RW, Samsung CD-ROM. This problem occurs with or without Win XP SP1 loaded and I have installed the latest drivers for the DVD-ROM that I’ve downloaded from Aopen’s Web site. Help!

(more…)

I have Windows XP. When I boot up my computer I get to the user screen. It says “To begin, please click on your username” and under my username, it says: “426 unread mail messages.”

When I move my mouse to this, it brings me a pop up and tells me that 426 unread messages from 3 different e-mail addresses. The problem is, my friends have checked their e-mail on my system and now I’m seeing their messages as well as my own! How can I delete their accounts?

(more…)

What are SXGA and (WVA) on monitors? I’m looking for a new laptop and one of the sites I’m checking out described some laptop monitors as “LCD : 15″ SXGA+ (WVA).” Another site described a laptop screen as “Wide Angel.” Is that just a misspelling of “Wide Angle,” and does that mean widescreen?

As someone who spends more time with Macintosh systems than PCs (though I own two PCs and am getting a new IBM Tablet PC this week), I have to admit that if there’s one area where techies have made it incredibly hard for customers to figure out, it’s PC screen resolutions. There are seemingly hundreds of different variations on “GA” ranging from VGA to SVGA, XGA, SXGA, and on and on and on.
(more…)

Dave, this is driving me crazy: when I first got my computer, it was snappy and applications launched in just a second or two. Now, a year later, it’s like someone poured molasses over the hard disk without me noticing, because everything just seems to take forever. Why is my computer slowing down and how can I speed it up again?

One of the stranger aspects of computers is that they do indeed suffer from old age, as you are noticing. Oddly enough, the longer you use a computer - particularly a Windows PC, in my experience - the slower it ends up running. It could be a plot forcing you to always buy newer and faster systems, but more likely it’s just that as you use the system, you put increasing levels of demand on the hardware with different helper apps, more running in the background, animated desktops, flashing icons, custom cursors, RSS readers, and stock tickers, and even programs helpfully checking for updates at random intervals. It all adds up.
(more…)

The power supply for my PC intermittently, and for no apparent reason, shuts down completely (no voltage on PS-ON). When this happens, if I immediately cycle the power switch on the power supply and then press the on/off switch, the computer starts normally. However, if this happens when I am away from the computer and everything has had time to cool, the above procedure does not work. When I attempt to start by using the above, the panel lights flash momentarily and the power supply shuts down again.

The only way to get it to start is to run a hair dryer into the power supply fan for a few minutes, and then it will start. I don’t think that it is anything in the power supply that needs to be warmed, but probably something else. I have disconnected everything connected to the motherboard, but nothing makes any difference. It would appear that the power supply is bad, but this is not the case, as I have replaced it with a known good unit, and the problem remains. I would certainly appreciate any help.

(more…)