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Here we go for 2008:
January 2, 2008 - With the start of the new year, I was asked to discuss Internet Safety with parents. At Christmas, a lot of families get new computers and new technology. For a lot of families, it is their first computer. They rush to get the Internet and then let their children use the Internet. Unfortunately, a lot of parents know less about the Internet than the kids do. That can create some problems and, in some cases, grave situations and problems. In frustration, some parents are resorting to taking their Internet modems with them when they leave the house to prevent their kids from using the Internet when they are gone. I have documented over the last three years many safety tips and warnings for parents. Here are a few of the absolute and most important tips for using the Internet.
You are not invading the privacy of your child by demanding the above guidelines. You are educating them and helping them to be responsible and safe. I have five children and have encountered just about every excuse as to why I don’t need to know everything having to do with the computer (Please let me know the excuses you hear so I can know them all).There are many types of software on the market that can assist you governing the activities of your child’s Internet experience. If you would like me to review a particular program, just email me and I will help you out. If your children become troublesome over this issue, I can teach you how to modify the computer to help you accomplish your goals of safety and responsibility.
January 9, 2008 - Melanie from Windsor had an issue this week regarding the blue screen of death. She wrote, “Came back to use my computer after an hour or so and found a blue screen advising me there had been a serious error and the computer had been shut down. then it said it was dumping files - which appeared numerically. I then shut it down - took 3 tries and it came back up, which confirmed my computer "had recovered from a serious error".
Melanie has experienced the blue screen of death in Windows XP. Usually this happens when there is a conflict on the computer that Windows cannot resolve. Instead of damaging the computer or Windows installation, the Operating System just stops everything and displays a blue screen telling you what is wrong. However, sometimes the blue screen does not stay up long enough for you to read what has happened. The computer automatically creates a file called a dump or minidump. It will have a .dmp extension and will be located in the Windows directory. I had Melanie email me this file and Tech Support people, such as myself, have tools that help us look in this file to find out what caused the problem. After examination, I found that a new program that had been installed was causing the conflict. She uninstalled the program and the problem went away. In Windows XP, you can view dump files by Selecting Start >> Run. In the window that appears, type drwtsn32 and click on OK. The program that opens up allows you to view the contents of the dump file. If this does not work, you do not have the Administrator Tools installed on your XP machine. In Vista or XP, you can download the Windows Debugging Tool from Microsoft.com. For those who program, Visual Studio or Dreamweaver may let you have a look at the file.
January 16, 2008 - This week’s article is a follow up to my article late last year outlining the security hole in Windows Vista and OpenVpn. After some investigation, I have found the following. When OpenVpn install in Vista, it installs itself as a service and sets itself to start automatically when you start your computer. Therefore, when you make the connection the first time, the connection does not shut off because a service only shuts off in Windows if you tell it to. In order to use an OpenVpn connection securely, you must jump through the following hoops: Each time you are finished with your OpenVpn connection, you must go to got to the Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Services. From the list, find OpenVpn Service. Right-click on the service and select Stop from the menu. Now you connection is closed and you PC is secure. Make sure the service is set to Manual. If it is not, Double-click on the OpenVpn service and the Properties Box will open. Change Startup type to Manual and click Apply >> OK. This secures your computer from anyone who wants to try and access your VPN connection. The sad part is you have to reverse this every time you want to use your VPN connection client. There is a solution being researched by the OpenVpn community where, through a GUI (Graphical User Interface), you will be able to Start and Stop the service more easily than the way described above. Oh, one more little wrinkle. You must be logged on as an Administrator or the annoying security popup windows will keep appearing as you go through all the steps above.
January 23, 2008 - I have been asked many, many times over the last few weeks about my opinion regarding the age I think is appropriate to allow a child to use MySpace.com ™ and Facebook.com ™. First and foremost, I believe, that no one under the age of eighteen should have a MySpace or Facebook account. If a parent or adult wants to see the kind of activity that can result from MySpace need to visit http://www.deadkidsofmyspace.com. This site may be a bit unnerving for some adults when they read some of the results of the atrocities that have taken place as a result of communicating through MySpace.com. Because it is a site of mostly adults, the content is mostly adult. Unfortunately, the people who want to use it for fun can still be inundated with requests and interruptions. In my opinion, adults are more prepared for this kind of garbage than children.
Facebook is definitely an adult site. By adult, I do not mean pornography rather, it is the mature content of the site. Pre-teens and young teens do not need to be made subject of the conversations and threads running through some of the sites. I realize that Facebook is the flavour of the week right now; just beware. Second, unless you turn off a lot of features, every update you make to your page or anyone else’s page is seen by every member of those pages. If you want to see just how many people are looking at your pages, click on Forward when you receive a message and Select Ctrl + F4. It will display all of the usernames of people accessing your account through this particular thread. As MySpace continues to move more toward the Facebook model, I do not have a good alternative as of yet. Anyone can email me to suggest a site for me to investigate that may be better for younger people.
Remember scott@slconsultingsolutions.com for all of your questions or comments. By the way, happy belated birthday Mr. Mayor.
February 6, 2008 - I had an interesting chat with the owner of Village One Computers in Belle River, Tom Szaran (v-one@cogeco.ca). We were discussing the importance of having the right back up system for your small business or home business information. Tom’s specialty is Data Recovery. In the event of a catastrophic failure of your hard drive system, there isn’t much that Tom cannot recover. Tom emphasizes that even though your hard drive my fail, do not give up hope. The data is still there in some form. Even if you have performed a low level format of your drive, there still may be some hope. Low level drive formats are different today than they used to be. In the old DOS days, a low level format pretty much guaranteed no data would be recoverable from the drive after that. Today’s low level format is more of an aggressive formatting of the drive user areas rather than what a true low level format was on much older hard drives. In language we can understand this means, that even though the data appears to be gone; some of it is still there.
In order to lessen the risk of loss of information due to hard drive failure, be sure to make regular backups of your information by burning your files on to CD’s or DVD’s. CD’s will hold up to 800 MB of information and DVD’s will hold up to 4.3 GB of information. A point to remember: you cannot backup up programs such as Microsoft Office. You must reinstall programs because the folder that says Microsoft Office in your Program Files directory is only a small portion of the actual program. The rest is installed elsewhere on your hard drive.
I would like to thank Tom (v-one@cogeco.ca )for his insight into data recovery. It is certainly comforting to know all is not lost.
February 20, 2008 - Shawn from Windsor had a potentially critical problem that we were able to resolve. His computer came up with an error that said “lsassrv.dll cannot be found. Windows cannot logon”. Even in safe mode, he was not able to log on. After some investigation, I found out that he had just uninstalled his anti-virus program. Unfortunately, when the program uninstalled it took this file with it. The lsassrv.dll file is the main, critical file that allows a user to log into Windows. Even if you have no log in screen that appears at log on, the computer still goes through a log on sequence. The computer accesses this file to tell it all is in order and the computer is allowed to operate normally. Shawn thought he was going to have to reinstall Windows to get this file back. Normally for most novice users, this is the solution. For those who are not novice, get the lsassrv.dll from the C:\Windows directory of a Windows XP computer and copy the file to a floppy disk. Only if you really know what you are doing should you copy it to a USB flash drive (you have to make sure to enable USB devices in the bios). Boot the computer using a MS-DOS boot disk or Windows 98 boot disk. Take the boot disk out and put in the disk with the lsassrv.dll file. At the A:\ prompt type copy lsassrv.dll C:\Windows and hit enter. Some DOS versions may have you type diskcopy instead of copy. A message will not appear if the file copied successfully. The A:\ prompt will appear again. Remove the diskette and reboot the computer normally. Your Windows should boot normally and all is good. Because this file doesn’t hold the actual logon names and passwords (it just references that file), no one’s names or passwords will be transferred to your computer.
One brief reminder as we stay indoors for the winter weather. Remember to clean the inside of your computer. As your house collects dust, so does your computer. Now may be the time to unplug your computer, open it up and use a can of compressed air to clean it out. The damage dust can cause when not cleaned out is only measureable when you have to replace parts because it got too hot and burned out.
March 5 -This week’s tip may seem a bit out of the ordinary. Often when a person’s hard drive fails, all hope is lost. Many individuals and companies lose information every day because their hard drives crash and because they do not have a back up of the files. They frantically call their local computer guy in a panic asking us to get all of the crucial files off that they forgot to back up. Here is a tip that we use to solve the task of getting old files off a crashed hard drive. First, a basic overview of a hard drive: The hard disk drive is a permanent storage area for data and the programs used to create the data. Inside the hard disk drive are individual platters, covered on both sides with a special magnetic material. Drives work by writing small magnetic charges onto the surface of the disk platter. These platters spin at thousands of Revolution per Minute (RPM). A hard disk has a certain number of heads, tracks per platter, and sectors per track. A computer’s BIOS is set up so the PC knows how to access the drive. The physical components are: Platters, Heads, a Spindle Motor, the hard disk drive controller of the hard drive itself. Since digital information is a stream of ones and zeros, hard disks store information in the form of magnetic pulses. In order for the PC's data to be stored on the hard disk, it must be converted to magnetic information. When it is read from the disk, it must be converted back to digital information. This work is done by the integrated controller built into the hard drive, in combination with sense and amplification circuits that are used to interpret the weak signals read from the platters themselves. Solution: freeze your hard drive. Yes, I said freeze your hard drive. This typically works when there is a problem with spindle motor, armature control motor or bearings. Freezing them basically shrinks the mechanical components just enough that they may operate as normal for a short time afterwards. This method does not work if the problem is with the logic board. You need to leave the hard drive in the freezer at least four hours if you want it frozen enough to last longer than the boot time. Typically ten to fifteen minutes is all you have. When you put it in the freezer, make sure to put it in a sealed bag and suck as much air out as possible. When you remove it from the freezer, time is of the essence. Every minute counts. As the hard drive warms, so do the defective components. Get the hard drive into the computer. Attach your jump drive before booting so that no time is wasted. If it boots? Save, save, save. I have used this method several times with positive results.
March 12 - This week’s question comes from a reader who wants to know why her videos that she plays on YouTube are very choppy. They start and stop and start and stop all the time. Our reader has a DSL lite connection to the Internet.
There are two reason why your video keeps stopping every few seconds. First, your internet connection is a basic connection so it lets information through at about 64 KB to 100 KB per second. Normal DSL lines let 100 KB to 300 KB information through at a time. Most videos want to play back at 192KB to 300 KB per second on a computer through an internet connection. When you are playing the video, your computer downloads pieces of the file before it plays. If your connection is slower, the player is going faster than the video is downloaded. Therefore, it stops to catch up with the downloading video. The only way to avoid the stop and start is to get a faster connection or wait until the entire video downloads to your computer before starting to play it. The download is usually indicated by a small bar across the bottom of the video screen indicating how much of the video has been buffered for playing. When it has filled the entire bar, you can play the video uninterrupted.
March 19 - Computer Data Products (http://www.cdppc.com) from Amherstburg notified me of a new virus circulating throughout email boxes everywhere. They had computers lined up for cleaning because of this and other viruses. It is called a MailMerge virus. This particular virus attacks your address book first. It takes all of the addresses in your book and, one at a time, constructs a letter (from a template contained in the virus program). Here is the scary part. The virus is sent to every email address in your address book. The email comes from you, it is signed by you and addressed to the person in your address book. The rule used to be that if you did not recognize the email address the email is originating from, delete it immediately. This is no longer a 100% safe option. Computer Data Products suggests the following to consumers: create a keyword that only you and your contacts will know and put it in the subject of all your emails. When a recipients receives the email and sees the key word in the subject, the receiver will know it came from you and not from an automated virus program. Enter the email address in the To: line (i.e. info@ cdppc.com). In the subject line type your subject. Now type the keyword beside the subject. Now type your regular email. The virus cannot pick up on this keyword (I guess I should say, Yet). Your email receiver will know it is an authentic email from you.
March 26 - Vista Service Pack One was released to the public this week. Windows Vista SP1 adds numerous improvements to the original Vista release when it comes to security, reliability, application compatibility, power management and device support. Naturally, Windows Vista SP1 also includes all previously released updates for Windows Vista. For example, the Search option has been removed from the Start menu. There is also a new option in Windows Vista's Disk Defragmenter allowing you to choose which volumes you would like to defragment. On my notebook, I have two drives (one internal and one external). I was able to choose, specifically, to defragment my second hard drive. This worked great. I've also taken notice to improvements in overall responsiveness of my PCs. Improvements were also noticeable in resuming from Hibernation or Sleep on both my desktop PC and laptop running SP1. I discovered copying files from one directory to another is a bit faster. Emptying the recycle bin is faster as is the writing of the file to the hard drive after download. And on my laptop - battery life seems to be improved since running SP1. I have also noticed that transferring files to my other computers are a bit faster than they were previously without SP1. Overall performance in accessing my mapped network drives is improved as well. I store quite a bit of data on my external hard drives so this was a huge plus for me. Windows Vista now uses less RAM memory to run. These are just some of the performance improvements I've seen running SP1 so far. My wireless network experience is improved on my laptop. Prior to SP1, I had been experiencing issues in losing connectivity on my wireless home network and having to repair the connection (especially after resuming from Sleep or Hibernation). Since SP1, I've not had to repair my connection once. All of the applications I used before SP1 still work properly after SP1. By the way, if you do have problems, you can uninstall it from the Programs / Feature in the Control Panel.
April 9 - William and Edith from Cottam were experiencing some unusual behavior from their computer. It would turn on and boot up without any problems. They would be able to use the computer and perform any tasks without issue. Then, all of a sudden, the screen would disappear and say that it was in standby mode. After some investigation, they determined that the monitor would turn off approximately 10-15 minutes after boot.
This type of behavior from computer is indicative of a heat problem. When first hearing about it, I considered two possibilities: one was the video card was having heat issues by getting too hot and the other was the cpu fan had quit. Computers are designed to help prevent further damaged is another major component fails. Because the fan that cools the cpu failed, the motherboard and the computer chip were getting too hot. Therefore, instead of allowing the damage to occur, the computer turns itself off to prevent the damage. The reason the computer worked for a little while before shutting off was that it had not yet reached the dangerous temperature. It starts cool then heats up. The solution was to replace the heat sink and fan for the computer chip. For those who know that the heat sink and fan come apart, you may ask, “Why not just replace the fan?” It is a good question. The fan and heat sink are matched when produced. The fan is engineered to draw the heat away from the heat sink. It makes sense to keep matching components together to issue a properly running computer.
April 30 - This week’s issue involves Internet Explorer 7.0 and spyware. Our reader had clicked on a suspicious ad and realized that he probably shouldn’t have. Instantly, he noticed that whenever he tried to open a popup type window from his browser (i.e. watching the highlights from an NHL game on Yahoo sports), only a blank window appeared. What was really unusual, he thought, was that the blank window had a URL in it from his browsing history. He knew he was prepared to thwart this new problem because he had heeded advice and purchased an anti-spyware program and an adware program to remove such threats. Unfortunately, neither of them worked on this problem. No matter how many times he scanned his computer, it would not remove his problem. He is using Internet Explorer 7.0 and Windows XP. This is when our reader got frustrated enough and emailed me for a solution.
Thankfully for our reader I have witnessed this problem before. This solution will not work for Vista users because Internet Explorer 7.0 comes shipped with the machine. For Windows XP users, your operating system comes with Internet Explorer 6.0 and you have to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.0. To remove the threat, go to Start >> Control Panel. Double-click on Add/Remove Programs. When the program list appears, check the small checkbox at the top labeled Show Updates. Make sure that box is checked. By selecting this box, the program list will expand to show you all Windows updates you have performed. Internet Explorer 7.0 will be in that list. Find it in the list and click Remove. By removing Internet Explorer 7.0 this way, you will retain all of your Favorites but you will lose saved passwords and forms. After Windows is finished removing Internet Explorer 7.0, it will ask you to reboot your computer. Reboot your computer and Internet Explorer 6.0 will be back on your machine. Browse the Internet and you will discover that all functions are back. Within minutes, your computer will alert you that there are updates available for your Windows. That alert is asking you to download Internet Explorer 7.0. Go ahead and install Internet Explorer 7.0 again. This time when the installation is finished, all of your functions will work just like it did before you clicked on the wrong advertisement.
May 14 -This week we are going to talk about the release of Windows XP Service Pack three. It was released to the general public on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 and is now available through the Windows Update. There are only a few subtle changes with the service pack. First, you should see no difference in the way your computer performs. Second, this update will be necessary if you want your XP to last longer than the retirement date of Windows XP. There are a couple of things to beware of. A few weeks ago I talked about how to uninstall and reinstall Internet Explorer 7.0. After you install SP3, you will no longer be able to uninstall Internet Explorer 7.0. The only way you will be able to uninstall it is to uninstall the Service Pack first and then uninstall Internet Explorer 7.0. If you install Internet Explorer 7.0 after you update to Service Pack 3, you will be able to uninstall Internet Explorer 7.0. If anyone wants the ultra technical reason why, feel free to email me at essex_voice@slconsultingsolutions.com. One last caution: The service pack is having a hard time with some AMD computers. After installation, the computer goes into an endless reboot. I’m sure there will be a patch soon. Another small glitch is with some notebook computers and the intelppm.sys (Intel based) and the amdk8.sys (AMD based) files. These are the power management files and on some HP notebooks will cause and endless reboot. The solution is to boot to safe mode and uninstall the service pack. I installed it on my Dell XPS 1710 with 4 GB of RAM and a Dual Core 1.8 GHz cpu and am having no issues thus far. I have been running it for a couple of weeks now.
May 28 - Ken from Essex has been trying to play a network game with his son and cannot see the other computer. When he tries to connect the two games together, it says he needs IPX/SPX installed for the game to work. He wants to know, what is IPX/SPX and how do you install it.
First: IPX stands for Internetwork Packet Exchange and SPX stands for Sequenced Packet Exchange. IPX/SPX is a protocol that is used for intra-network connections. IPX/SPX is similar to TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.). TCP/IP is used for Internet use and Internet/intranet connectivity. TCP/IP is more secure and processes information and packets extremely fast as compared to IPX/SPX. Protocols allow computers to communicate back and forth. Is this case, IPX/SPX is used to exchange information about the game back and forth to the computers. In the end, it appears you are both playing the same game because your computers are set up to communicate back and forth with this protocol. IPX/SPX is not installed by default on Windows XP computers because it is less secure and because it is a protocol that was more popular with Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and 98, Novell and Windows NT. It is older but still needed in particular cases such as ours today.
To set up IPX/SPX on your computer, you will need to complete the following steps. Click on Start >> Control Panel. Double-click on Network Connections. Right click on your network connection icon (usually named Local Area Connection) and choose Properties from the menu that appears. When the small popup window appears, click on Install. A windows will open giving you the option to install a Client, Service or Protocol. Click on Protocol. A list will appear and, from that list, choose NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol. After selecting it, click OK and it will install. Do not try to change any of the settings for this protocol once it is installed. It automatically configures itself to operate on your computer. When it is finished installing, click OK to complete the installation. You should not have to reboot your computer. Open the game and click on your network game option again and the other computer should appear in the list of games you can join. If it does not, chances are the other computer does not have IPX/SPX installed either and it will have to be installed to work. This protocol is not reliable over Wireless network connections. Keep the questions coming to essex_voice@slconsultingsolutions.com.
June 4 - Mel from Windsor wanted me to investigate the practicality of a new product from http://www.GoClickFree.com. It is a backup device that no longer needs CD’s, DVD’s or Tape backups. For a small business or home user, it is quite cumbersome to always remember to change the tape or keep track of your CD/DVD’s. This solution is a device, much like a hard drive, that connects to your computer through your USB port. The proprietary software included on the hard drive automatically downloads all of the contents of your hard drive to the external backup device. When it is finished transferring the files to the backup device, unplug it from your computer. It is this simple: remove it from its box, plug it in to your computer, remove it when it is finished. There is no software to use to make this work. Now, when you want to complete incremental backups, all you have to do is plug it in to your computer and it will backup all of your hard drive again. Right now, it has a 120 GB limit but I am sure that will change in the near future. It retails for only $149 U.S. and they ship to Canada. Your PC must have the following requirements to use it: Microsoft Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate or Business), Windows XP (Home, Professional or Media Center Edition) or Windows 2000 (with Service Pack 4). An extremely important note is that this will not backup your operating system or system files or program files. It is designed to be compatible with 350 different file types associated with everyday productivity. Some examples of files it does back up are: .jpg, .gif, .png, .psd, .doc, .xls, .ppt, email files, html, htm, etc. translated , it means pictures, documents, spreadsheet, presentations, web pages etc.
June 18 - Pierre from Windsor had an issue he had been struggling with for two weeks. All of his desktop icons disappeared. No matter what he tried, they would not reappear. To make them reappear, right click anywhere on your Desktop. From the menu that appears, select Arrange Icons By. Next, select Show Desktop Icons from the next menu that appears. By making this selection, all of your Desktop icons will reappear in about five seconds.
Our second item for this week comes from a user who cannot stand the Microsoft chime that he hears every time he starts Windows. He wants to know is there any way to change the chime. First off, whatever audio file we use will have to be saved as a .wav file. In Windows XP, the startup sound .wav file is located in C:\Windows\media. The name of the .wav file is Windows XP Startup.wav. If you want to change the startup sound, save the sound file (keep it under 1 MB) and overwrite the Windows XP Startup file. I would make a backup of the original file just in case it doesn’t work and you want to put it back. After overwriting the file, reboot your computer and the new sound should play as Windows starts instead of the old annoying sound.
June 25 - Wayne’s question is twofold: First, my media player has recently not recognized my burn portion of the cd drive. It will play cd's and rip them but will not burn them. Why when I go to burn a cd a message appears stating "connect a burner and restart the player"? This unit has worked well in the past with no problems burning cd's. Second, I installed a second hard drive on my computer because I was running low on memory. I moved all my music files onto this new hard drive to free up room on my original HD. How can I get my media player to recognize/find these files? Should I move the media player to this new drive and if so how? I am currently using the Windows Media Player. Is there a better one out there?
The solution to your first problem is simple but not the one you are looking for. You most likely will need a new burner. This is typical behaviour from a CD-burner that is no longer capable of burning CD’s. The laser that burns the CD no longer functions for burning but will function for reading the CD. All the media software is doing when it rips a CD is read the CD. In order to open and play the music on your new hard drive, open your media player and click on File >> Open. An opendialog box will appear. Navigate to the location of your music and select the file to open. After you select it, the file will start playing. Further, most media players have a library section and you can add all of the files to your library and the player will find them automatically when you want to play them. In my opinion, there are plenty of better media players than Windows Media Player. The Windows Media Player takes a lot of memory to run. There is WinAmp, VLC, Nero Showtime, Divx to name a few. Each person has their own favourite. The most universal one is Windows Media Player and it is compatible with most of the standard audio and video file types. The media player I prefer is VLC by VideoLAN.
July 2 -Frank from Essex writes:
I am a big fan of your column and look forward to reading it in each edition of The Essex Voice. My problem is that my DVD burner will no longer work with all DVD+R disks.
I am running Windows XP Home Edition, use Nero Express for burning DVD's and have an LG Super Multi DVD Drive #GSA-4160B that I installed in 2004. I used to be able to copy/burn DVD files to any brand of DVD+R disks. Now it will only work with Sony 1x - 16x DVD+R disks. If I try to use, for instance, 16x Memorex, Verbatim, Staples, etc they will not work. For some reason Nero Express does not recognize them and the box where you choose the Writing Speed on the Final Burn Settings page is "grayed out" and cannot be selected. I was reading on the Internet that possibly the LG firmware can be updated to improve capability with DVD+R 16x media. Could this be the solution, besides replacing the DVD burner? How do I do this?
Well Frank, you may be in the situation our reader from the previous week is in. Since your burner is four years old, it is susceptible to failures especially if you use it a lot. A typical burner is good for one thousand burns. DVD players/burners can be damaged by heavily damaged disks being used in them. If the tower/laptop is bumped and bruised too many times, the laser may be damaged. However, because you can still burn +R DVD’s, there is hope. In order to update the firmware for your DVD Burner, follow this link http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Firmware/SingleModel.aspx?DriveId=984 and download the firmware update tool (Right-click where it says Download Location 1 beside the version A306 and choose Save Link As… from the list that appears.). After this file downloads, locate the file and double click on it to activate the firmware update process. It is most important that there are no DVD’s or CD’s in the burner before starting this task. You must not turn your computer off or shut it down during the upgrade process. You will guarantee failure and the need for a new burner if you do. After the process is complete, you will most likely have to restart your computer. If your burner still behaves the same way after the firmware upgrade as it did before the upgrade, then the days are numbered for your DVD burner.
A reminder to readers: Because Frank was able to provide me so much detail about his hardware and problem, it makes it a lot easier for me to find and suggest solutions. Please keep providing me with the detail, so I can provide the most complete answer. Email questions to essex_voice@slconsultinsolutions.com.
July 9 - Kelly from Essex was trying to figure a way to have a backup of a file always available to her. She didn’t want to carry a CD copy of it wherever she went, nor did she want to leave it at her desk for fear of the CD being damaged or stolen. Further, home is not the place for it. A solution can be emailing it to yourself. I do not mean email it to your home user account because it will still be on your computer. Email it to your Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail account. Because these servers are worldwide servers, the information is secure on their servers. Now this file is available to you anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access.
July 16 - Melissa from Essex has an Acer laptop with Windows XP and a 16.9GB hard drive. She says she has recently noticed that it is very slow starting up, takes a long time to load, and has been receiving messages that my Windows Virtual Memory is low. My husband suggested defragmenting the system, but when I tried that, there wasn't enough room left on my hard drive to defragment. Even after all of the things I deleted, I still did not have any extra free space left over.
Is there a hidden folder in my computer that is storing files, and if so, how do I access it to erase them? And what does it mean when my virtual memory is low? Can this be fixed?
Let’s start with the most popular definition of Virtual Memory. Virtual memory is a computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory, while in fact it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage. Systems that use this technique make programming of large applications easier and use real physical memory (e.g. RAM) more efficiently than those without virtual memory.
The definition of "virtual memory" is based on tricking programs into thinking they are using large blocks of contiguous addresses. The larger your hard drive and the more RAM you have, the larger your virtual memory file will be.
Here a few ideas for you: First, when a person says, “I cleaned off unused programs”, I hope it means that the person used the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel to uninstall the program. This insures that all files for that program have been removed. If you used the delete key for the folder in the Program Files directory, it only sends them to the recycle bin and does not remove all of the system files it installed. If you used the delete key, go to the recycle bin (providing you haven’t emptied it), and Restore the programs to their original location and uninstall them properly. If you have uninstalled them properly, I would ask the people of the house a couple of questions. One question would be, “Is anyone downloading music or other programs?” If they are, the files are most likely being stored in a folder called “My Music” found in the “My Documents” folder. If they are using a program such as Kazaa, find the program file folder for it and look in the “Downloaded Files” directory. If they are using a program called a torrent to download, ask them where they are storing the files, or go to the Options tab in the program and see where they are downloading them to.
It seems that the problems started after increased use from the children. Generally, excessive downloading of files and music is the culprit. If this is the case, have them burn the music to CD’s and erase them off your hard drive. To help you understand how much space songs can take, I record music from my vinyl record turntable to my computer. At present, it takes 135 GB of space to hold my songs. If none of the above is true, and you need every program that you have installed, your solution may be to buy an external hard drive for extra storage. Last option would be to completely reformat your hard drive and install only the programs you need. This would show you just how much hard drive space you are supposed to have left over before anyone else gets on the computer.
Next week, we are going to talk about online TV.
July 23 - I have completed some research on watching TV on-line using your computer. There is really no perfect site to watch TV for free from the web. Most have clips available to view for free. Anything worthwhile is usually subscription based. Some sites offer some basic channels, but if you want sports channels or Nickelodeon, you have to go to their sites and pay for it. The most reliable way to watch TV on your computer is to make sure you have a TV tuner card and go to a site like PCTV and buy their software. Now you can watch TV on your computer.
This week’s question is as follows: I just bought a used computer from someone and the username is New. How can I change the username to my name and create a password. I use Windows XP Professional.
Since you have Windows XP Professional, I would suggest using this method over others. Click on Start>>Control Panel. Click on Administrative Tools and click on Computer Management. Click the small plus (+) symbol beside Local Users and Groups. Click on the folder Users. In the panel that appears on the right, find the Username “New” in the list. Right click and choose Rename from the Menu. Type in the name you wish to change it to and hit Enter. Important: You will see that there is an option to Set Password when you right click on the name in the list. DO NOT use this option to change your password. Windows XP creates a unique ID for every username. By resetting the password here, you will create the irreversible loss of data for that user account. Therefore, the next time you log out and back in, you will have lost access to all important files you have created. This cannot be undone. After changing your username, exit out of the Control Panel windows and go back to your desktop. When at your Desktop, press Ctrl+Alt+Del on your keyboard. Choose Change password from the popup. Under username, type in the name you just changed. In this case, your password was blank so leave it blank. Type in your new password and confirm it. Press OK. It is time to reboot your computer. When it has rebooted, change the username to the one you chose and type in the password and click ok. If you have the Welcome Screen login, simply click on your username and type in your password. You desktop will appear just like you left it and all settings will be the same as you left them.
August 13 - This week’s question come from a reader who wants to know what is a “Windows Protection Error”. The Windows Protection Error message is most often seen when you start or shut down Windows. "While initializing device _Some-device-name _ Windows Protection Error" are messages that may appear when the BSOD appears (Blue Screen of Death). These errors can occur when Windows loads or unloads a virtual device driver (also known as a VXD).
A Windows Protection Error can be very difficult to diagnose. The cause of the error may not be apparent even though you may see the VXD name in the error message. The VXD name is only the result of the error. Envision a wine rack that is filled with wine bottles, each bottle has its own slot. Each of these slots represent a memory address. Each VXD is loaded to a memory address. If A VXD is loaded in a memory address that another VXD is loaded, a Windows Protection Error will occur. Why? Imagine that the wine rack is being filled by automation and the slot is already filled and a new bottle tries to take its place. The new bottle will fall on the ground and break. Hence, Windows reports the VXD error; the one that is broken. The one that is trying to fit in the slot or memory address is the real problem but Windows reports it as a problem with the already existing data in the address. The result you may see is something like "Windows Protection Error: VMM (VXD) : 0007:5BDE5". Therefore, if you try to replace that file, you will probably not cure the problem because it is something else you are looking for.
How do you fix the error? Only you know what you have changed lately in your computer. Did you recently add a new piece of hardware or install new software. The real work begins if you have changed nothing in your computer. Unfortunately, if you changed nothing, you need to look at everything. There is no software out there that can find your Windows Protection Error, it is something you need to find yourself. Reinstalling your windows operating system should work most of the time. If it is a hardware problem, reinstalling will most likely not work. At this point, you will have to hire a professional or invest an inordinate amount of time searching for the needle in the hay stack. A professional will have experienced most of the common error and be able to diagnose it much more quickly. Again, this is a reminder to always have your data backed up in case of an emergency.
August 27 - Scott, I would like to download several games from "Big Fish". The problem is in order to get the best price I must join their game club. they say I can quit at any time, but I’m told it may not be that easy. None of us are sure though. We would appreciate your input.
Sorry I missed you the last couple of weeks. I was on vacation. I have looked over the BigFish site and it looks like is it a good and valid site. I have examined the registration policy and cancellation policy. Both can be found at the links listed below.
http://www.bigfishgames.com/company/terms.html
http://www.bigfishgames.com/help/index.html
My only word of caution is to be absolutely sure which package you want and how long the commitment is to the package. If you choose to cancel, but have a one year commitment, there is no refund for any outstanding commitments. You would have to pay for the whole year subscription regardless of cancellation date. I would suggest a month-to-month membership so that cancellation would only cost you the remainder of a month’s balance.
Our second item this week is in regard to moving a computer in your house or business. Another reader had just such an issue. They wanted to move their computer from one room to another. However, the person wanting to move the computer is a computer novice and did not know how to shut down a computer properly. Therefore, to accomplish the task, he just unplugged it from the wall (while the computer was still on!). As a result, he damaged the power supply to the computer (a small power surge from the outlet) and was very fortunate that he did not do permanent damage to the motherboard and other devices inside the computer. It is so very important that a computer be shut down properly whenever it is going to be moved. Do not move it while it is on. An inadvertent hit against the tower or power cord may spell disaster for the computer and for your data. If you are unsure how to power down the computer properly, please ask someone who knows to teach you. It will take about one minute to learn and it may save you hundreds of dollars and inconvenience.
September 3 - This week, we have a reader who wants to host his own web-site from a computer in his own small business providing email accounts and web access to his employees. He wants to know how much effort or resources are needed to accomplish his request. He had heard from someone that it is fairly simple to set up. He asked me for my opinion.
Most of the answer is beyond the general scope of the novice computer user. To answer the question, yes it can be set up for a small business. To do it correctly, involves a lot more than most people realize. To host a web-site at your place of business is the easiest part. You need to obtain a static IP address from your ISP. For Microsoft users, the next step is to install IIS (internet Information Server) on the web host computer. After it is installed correctly, the host of your domain name must be notified to point all domain requests to your new IP address which will find the computer at your small business (This is a greatly simplified explanation of what has to occur). It is time to talk about the setting up of email and web access for employees. To accomplish these tasks, you will need to hire an expert and buy software to do this right. The software that must be purchased is Microsoft Exchange server, Windows 2003 server with Active Directory (10 licenses), a hardware firewall and an email client like Microsoft Outlook. The total cost of the software will be in the neighbourhood of $6000 to $8000 dollars. The cost of a good hardware firewall can be $2000. Windows 2003 server with active directory will be installed first. Next, user accounts must be set up for the employees. In order to do email, Microsoft Exchange Server must be installed and configured to send and receive email. Now Microsoft Outlook can be configured on the host computer to send and receive email. After all is configured, the firewall can be installed. If you do not buy a good hardware firewall, do not bother with any of the rest. Security of your information is key and not protecting it correctly is not responsible. It is time to set up the access for the employees. Your hired professional will set up web portals to let the users access the server hosted at your business. A qualified professional to set your system up properly will charge you anywhere from $3000 to $5000 for the labour. Remember, the explanation I have given today has been simplified to explain only the basics. If you would like the more detailed explanation or would like to hire a professional to quote your business on a project like this, please email me and I will forward your request to professionals I trust and are certified to perform such work.
September 10 - Malware Bytes doesn’t it. Malware is software that installs on your computer and creates popups and desktop shortcuts to places and programs you do not want to go to. This week, I experimented with a Malware that told me I have all kinds of viruses and Malware. It told me about MS Antivirus 2008 and a whole bunch of other programs, dialers and porn DVD’s. Sound familiar to anyone? There are a myriad of programs out there to help combat this nonsense. The two best I have found are: Spybot Search and Destroy and Malware Bytes. MalwareBytes was able to get 19 items off my computer that Spybot Search and Destroy wasn’t. MalwareBytes is available from http://www.malwarebytes.org. MalwareBytes AntiMalware is a free download and does not contain any additional software you have to load to make it work. It does not take up a lot of resources for your computer. There is a version you can purchase if you want it to run as a resident in the background all of the time when using your computer. With the free version, you must manually start the scans. I have been a fan of Spybot Search and Destroy for many years and I still am. However, I think MalwareBytes has moved ahead of it in the game of removing unwanted Malware and Trojan program running on a computer.
September 24 - This week, our reader’s problem was something referred to as PIO mode. His computer has always been slow since the day he bought it and he finally decided to do something about it. He noticed under the Device Manager that his hard drive (40 GB) was operating in PIO mode. PIO mode is the oldest form of data transfer between a hard drive and a CPU. PIO was first introduced in 1981. The motherboard shares the CPU’s power to write information to the hard drive and PIO 1 operates at four Mbytes per second data transfer speed. In this case, our readers’ computer was running in PIO 4 and DMA 2 (Direct Memory Access – topic of a different article) transferring data at 16 Mbytes per second. His CD-ROM on the secondary IDE channel was running at 66 Mbytes per second which was four times faster than his hard drive. He took the hard drive out of his machine and put it into another and it worked at 66 Mbytes per second like it was suppose. He put the hard drive on the secondary IDE channel in his present computer (as a second hard drive) and it registered it a running at 66 Mbytes per second. He thought the solution would be to install the hard drive on the secondary IDE channel and change the bios to boot from the secondary channel instead of the Primary IDE channel. This solution provided no success for what had now become a personal vendetta against a computer that wasn’t cooperating the way it should. Conclusion: Each hard drive has a small chip on it that holds the firmware (information of how the hard drive works and what it is). This reader has a computer whose BIOS and IDE controller chip were so outdated from the beginning that it did not and would recognize the 40 GB hard drive firmware that came with the computer. Unfortunately, I know of no BIOS overlay that would solve the problem. Therefore, our reader must concede that his computer will always stay this way or by a new computer to make the aggravation go away.
October 1 - This week’s question come from a reader who had a problem at work. There are two computers networked together and they both share internet. Each computer has a mapped hard drive to the other so they can share files freely and they do not have to worry about navigating to Network Places to get to the right folder. One of the computers has Norton Internet Security® on it and the other has Norton 360®. Our reader noticed that an update was due on the Norton 360® computer. After completing the update, neither computer would see each other. Both computers were still able to connect to the Internet.
By default, Norton 360® turns off Windows file sharing. Even if you share a folder properly, it may disable it when you update the program. In order to decrease the aggravation and make a permanent solution, do the following. You will notice a small icon in the lower right corner of your desktop with a green and white check mark. Right-click and choose Program Settings. When the welcome screen appears, click on Advanced Settings. Click on the Firewall link. Here, there is a list of programs and protocols that Norton 360 ® automatically blocks by default. Find the entry that is labeled Windows File Sharing. You will notice that Blocked is highlighted in red. Select this entry with your mouse and click on Modify at the bottom of the screen. The next screen gives you the option to allow Windows File Sharing. Select Allow and click Apply. Close the program windows and all should be well with your file sharing.
October 8- This week’s question comes from a reader in Essex. They have three computers in their house and all need to print at different times. Their problem is that the one computer has to be on all of the time because the printer is attached to it. Occasionally the computer (laptop) has to leave the house and no one can print unless they move the printer to another location in the house. The question they had for me was, “Is there a way we can print to a printer without having to have it attached to a computer in the house?” There are two primary ways that you can accomplish this goal. The first is to purchase a printer that has a network card in it. Typically, these are laser printers. Second, you must have a router or server of some kind. You plug a network cable from the printer into the router/server. The router assigns it an address and you install the printer on each computer to look for that address. It is not hard to do. You just follow the instructions that come with the printer. The printer will be located near your router and probably centralized in your house. Now, anyone can print at any time as long as you do not turn off the printer. The second way is to buy a print server that you can connect in a similar way. Usually, you connect using a USB cable or network cable. The print server comes with software and instructions and is similar in set up as a network printer.
October 22 - For those of us who have not found a reason to go to Vista, Microsoft has again extended the deadline for pulling the plug on shipping new Windows XP products. Originally, it was supposed to be January 31, 2009. Now they have pushed it back again to July 31, 2009. Virtually every new PC being sold today includes Windows Vista. So what happens if you have a machine with Vista on it, but you really want to run Windows XP instead? Brien M. Posey, MCSE has the answer. The answer depends on whether there is anything on the Vista PC that you want to preserve. Some steps in the downgrade process are the same regardless of whether or not you need to preserve any data. But if you need to preserve data off your hard drive, you'll have to run some other steps that are unique to the process. Once you have procured a copy of Windows XP, the next step is to track down Windows XP-compatible device drivers for the computer(s) that you're downgrading. Some manufacturers only offer Vista-compatible drivers, but fortunately this seems to be the exception rather than the rule. The one area where you might run into problems is when it comes to x64 drivers for Windows XP. Even when Windows XP was in its heyday, 64-bit drivers could be a bit hard to come by. Today, the situation is a little better because every new computer being produced has a 64-bit processor. If you have data that you need to preserve or you're planning on blanking your hard drive, I recommend creating a full system state backup before you begin the downgrade process. That way, you will have something to fall back on should the process go belly up. Although creating a system state backup seems self-explanatory, there is one thing that you need to think about. The version of NTBACKUP that comes with Windows Vista is not compatible with Windows XP. This is a big deal if you're planning on blanking your hard drive, because if you need to restore the backup you can always install Vista and then perform the restoration. If you do have data that you need to preserve, use a third-party backup program so you can restore your data to Windows XP if something should go wrong later on. If you do not have a third-party backup program, then one option is to perform a file level copy of your data. You won't be able to perform a full-blown operating system restoration from the file level copy, but you can at least get your data back. Once you have all your ducks in a row, it's time to perform the downgrade. If you're planning to format your hard drive and then install a fresh copy of Windows XP, there's nothing special you need to know. If you're trying to perform the process without formatting your hard drive, you've got your work cut out for you. Windows Setup will not allow you to perform a downgrade if a newer version of Windows is already installed on the system. Therefore, the trick to performing a downgrade is to make Setup think that no operating system is installed. Our expert Brien M. Posey, MCSE explains how to accomplish that next. Once that's done, you can install a clean copy of Windows XP and then manually remove Windows Vista. Keep in mind that the method I'm about to show you performs a clean install, so you will have to reinstall any applications that might be present on your system and manually copy all of your data to the desired locations. With that in mind, insert the Windows XP installation CD and boot to the Recovery Console. Once you arrive at the command prompt, enter the following commands: Fixboot (press enter); Fixmbr (press enter); Cd\ (press enter); Ren Windows Vista (press enter); Exit (pres enter). The first two commands overwrite the hard drive's boot sector, which tricks Setup into thinking that Windows XP was previously installed. The third command drops you down to the root directory and the fourth renames the Windows folder to Vista. Once you have performed these commands, you should be able to boot Windows XP Setup and install Windows XP. When the setup process has completed, you can delete the Vista folder from your hard drive. Brien M. Posey, MCSE, has received Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional Award five times for his work with Windows Server, IIS and Exchange Server. He has served as CIO for a nationwide chain of hospitals and healthcare facilities, and was once a network administrator for Fort Knox.
October 29 - Andrew in Essex had a disaster on his hands. He has a Pentium III computer. His video is an 128 MB AGP card. He wanted to upgrade his computer to a 512 MB card. Two things went wrong: 1. His computer was not unplugged when he went to change his video card and, 2. he did not do enough research to see if his video card was compatible with his motherboard. The result was a spark when he tried to put the card into his motherboard. The end result is that his motherboard will no longer function and he must buy a new computer. Because of the age of his computer, you cannot buy replacement parts for a reasonable cost. You may as well buy a new one. He will not be able to use the video card because the spark took care of that. Here is what went wrong. The different types of AGP video cards have different types of voltage needed to run them. In his Pentium III computer, he had a 2X AGP video card slot. The 512 MB video card is an 8X card and needs only .8v to run. He put the card into a 2x slot that carries a 3.3v charge. The reason he got the spark occurred because he still had power to the motherboard. The computer should have been unplugged insuring no current was in the board. Had it been unplugged the computer would not have worked but would not be damaged because no arc would have been created through existing power. Please do your research before upgrades. Second, remember to have your computer unplugged when doing upgrades to your computer and use a grounding strap otherwise. Had Andrew completed these two simple steps, there is a 100% chance things would have turned out differently. He would have discovered the card was not compatible with his computer and not tried to install it at all.
November 12 - This week’s question come from Bill. Bill has cable internet hooked directly to his computer. He can get onto the internet without issue. Bill tried to install a wireless router to allow flexibility in his house and for some of his kids’ game stations. Bill attached his computer to the router first by using a wired LAN connection. He followed the setup wizard correctly and when he was finished the wizard said everything was set up correctly and he can begin using his router. Now, with his computer connected to a LAN port on the router and the cable modem connected to the WAN port on the router, he expected life to be good and surfing was next. Nothing happened. All he got was the dreaded http 404 error. He turned off the cable modem and turned it back on and nothing happened. He turned off the modem and the router and turned them back on and again nothing happened. Next he hooked up his internet connection the old way and sent me an email for help. Solution: Bill had not made any mistakes in his set up except for one. The computer is the machine that ultimately has to connect to the internet. When a person experiences connectivity issues, do the following in this order: turn off the modem, turn off the router (unplug if necessary) and shut down your computer. Make sure all are off at least ten seconds. Turn on the cable modem and wait thirty seconds. Turn on (or plug in) the router and wait 30 seconds. Turn on the computer and let it boot to Windows. The reason we do it in this order is so the router can pick up the signal from the modem. The modem connects to the ISP server and the router establishes the same connection through it. When the computer boots, it picks up the signal from the router and establishes the connection.
November 19 - This week’s question concerns Microsoft office 2003. Our reader wanted to know how to change the default font in Microsoft Word to be Times New Roman. At present, the default font used by Microsoft Word is Calibri or Arial. What you need to do is
You are finished and all MS Word documents will open with your new default font you just chose.
This week, a reader has sent us a tip for all of the people who want to eliminate housework all together. 1. Make a new file on your computer. 2. Name it 'Housework.' 3. Send it to the RECYCLE BIN. 4. Empty the RECYCLE BIN. 5. Your computer will ask you, 'Are you sure you want to delete Housework permanently ?' 6. Calmly answer, 'Yes,' and press mouse button firmly.. 7. Feel better?
November 26 - Our reader from Essex explained: A couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a new computer and gave my old one to my grandson. I deleted most of the programs and documents, my grandson did not need and thought that was all I had to do. But last week my daughter told me that they received an email which was for me. Now I had Jet 2.net as my server and they have Rogers. I thought that once your computer is not connected anymore to my phone line that the contact with Jet2 was broken. How come that they still receive my emails? What should I do the next time I give my computer away?
Dear reader: The Internet knows no boundaries when it comes to sending and receiving emails. As long as your account is set up in an emailing program, and your account is active, it will sign in from anywhere in the world using any available internet Connection. Only by removing the account off the computer do you eliminate the email coming to that computer. To remove the account, and you use Outlook Express, complete the following: Open Outlook Express; Click on Tools and click on Accounts; Click on the Tab labeled Mail; Select the jet2net account you want to delete; Click on Remove; Click on Close. Now they will no longer receive emails for you. If you are using Microsoft Outlook, the process is similar. Now your grandson will no longer receive your emails.
December 3 - This week’s question is from a reader who received the following error: Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. Our reader is stuck and does not know what to do. Our reader’s problem is that his Windows XP registry is corrupt. The first thing to try is to boot the computer to safe mode and try system restore. If this does not work, you can try the solution I am about to give. This solution is absolutely for advanced users only. One caution with this procedure before starting. Some OEM version of Windows XP may have created a hidden Administrator account that you may not know the password. This procedure assumes you now the Administrator password. First, you'll need to use the Windows XP Recovery Console to fix a corrupted registry, this will either require you to boot from a Windows XP Installation CD or boot directly to the Recovery Console if its installed. Follow these steps to boot into the Recovery Console from a Windows XP Installation CD. Make sure your computer is set to show hidden files (be sure to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box) and your bios is set to boot from CD and put your Windows XP CD in and boot your computer from the CD. Wait until you see the "Welcome to Setup" screen, and press R to start the Recovery Console. Choose which Windows installation you wish to load (this is usually #1 unless you have a multi-boot system). Type the administrator password and Press Enter. You should now be at the C:\Windows> prompt.
The next step is to copy the repair files using the recovery console. This procedure assumes Windows is installed on Drive C, if you have installed Windows on another drive, please substitute the appropriate drive letter in the procedure below. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:
md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak
delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default
copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default
Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart, press F8 as it starts and choose Safe Mode. In My Computer, Double-click the drive where you installed Windows XP (usually Drive C) to display a list of the folders. then double-click on the "System Volume Information" folder. This folder contains the system restore points stored on your computer (called a snapshot). The folders will look similar to _restore{EE42BEB8-700A-495F-8004-53D26C2E12C5}.You might receive an access denied error message similar to the following when trying to access the System Volume Information folder (to solve this, you must be logged in as the Administrator (refer to Microsoft KB 309531 for more info). Once you have access to the snapshots, use the instructions below to copy one of the latest snapshots to the Windows\TMP directory so you have access to it. In the System Volume Information Folder, click on View, and then click Details to display the date of each snapshot folder. Double-click on a folder that was not created at the current time but rather before the problem started. Double-click on the Snapshot subfolder. Using your normal windows copy and paste routine, highlight the following files and copy them into the C:\Windows\TMP folder: _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT; _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY; _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE; _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM; _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM. Rename the files that you just copied into the C:\Windows\TMP folder by right-clicking on each filename and choosing Rename, then typing the new name. Repeat this for each file in the list below. Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT; Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY ; Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE; Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM; Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM. Once you have renamed the files, restart your computer again with the Recovery . After rebooting the computer and starting the Recovery Console again, type the following commands at the prompt to replace the files with a current backup. You'll need to press Enter after each command.
del c:\windows\system32\config\sam
del c:\windows\system32\config\security
del c:\windows\system32\config\software
del c:\windows\system32\config\default
del c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\tmp\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\tmp\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\tmp\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\tmp\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\tmp\default c:\windows\system32\config\default
After the files have been replaced, type EXIT at the command prompt to restart Windows in normal mode.
Use System Restore to Return to a Good Backup Point. Because there is more to a System Restore than just the registry files, follow these steps to restore your computer to a good backup point. Click Start, and then click All Programs. Click Accessories, and then click System Tools. Click System Restore, and then click Restore to a previous Restore Point and finish the restore.
Some people do something different rather than go through this whole procedure. They just reinstall windows and take the pain of having to reinstall all of their programs and lose all of their files.
December 10 - Our question this week is about changing the language that is displayed in Internet Explorer.
Two people share a computer and one speaks Chinese and the other does not. To change the language, open you Internet Explorer and click on Tools from the menu. If you are using Vista (or IE 7), the menu may not be displayed at the top. Therefore, you must press F10 first and the menu will display at the top. Click on Tools >> Internet Options. Under the General Tab, Click on Languages. Click on the Add button and select the language you want to install from the list (in this case Chinese). Click OK. If you wish the Chinese to be the default display, highlight it in the list and click Move Up. Once completed, click OK and your web pages will display in Chinese. To change it back, highlight the English from the list and select Move Up and click OK.
The pages will turn back to English.
December 17 - Our question this week will help our reader get her Microsoft Messenger working on her Windows Vista computer. Her problem was that her Messenger icon disappeared and she was not able to find it in her All Programs Menu with Windows Vista. For the solution, at least Vista makes it easy to restart some of the basic programs installed with the operating system. To restore your Microsoft Messenger, Click on Start. When the All Programs menu appears, type in messenger in the search bar near the bottom of the menu. Press Enter on your keyboard and your messenger will start and let you sign in.
December 24
- Our question for this week is stated as such: I seem to have a problem. I am trying to burn a CD with my pictures. I have had no issues with my burner before this time. The light comes on when I load a disk then shuts off. It was working fine last month we used it to watch a video. I am running with Vista. I am getting this error: “cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)”.
When this type of error appears, it is usually a result of uninstalling some software that, unfortunately, uninstalled some necessary files along the way. After more investigation, our reader did just recently uninstall a trial spyware program. The easiest way to resolve this issue is to use the System Restore provided by Windows Vista. In this case, this was the proper solution and her burner works again. When uninstalling programs, remember to always use the Add/Remove Programs dialog in the control panel or use the uninstaller icon that comes with the program. Sometimes it will ask you to reboot the computer to finish an uninstall. Try not to do anymore work before rebooting. This, too, will help prevent these types of nuisances.
To all of my faithful readers and to the residence of Essex and surrounding areas: Have a very Merry Christmas and a great new Year. I will see you again in the New Year as we celebrate the start of our fifth year together.