Computer management
Be careful of driver update scams
Hardware drivers can be a source of trouble and keeping them updated is not always easy for home PC users. Playing on this difficulty are some Internet scams that pretend to help you update. At Windows Secrets, Scott Dunn gives some advice about checking your drivers.
Finding those pesky product keys
A lot of PC users seem to lose track of their product keys for Windows or Microsoft Office or other expensive software. This can be a real problem if you need to reinstall something. One of the nice features of the Belarc Advisor previously mentioned is that it provides a record of your product keys. [...]
Find out all about your system with Belarc
My experience is that most home PC users have only a vague notion of what’s actually on their computer. It’s a good idea to have a record of what software you have installed, what updates have been made, and what hardware you are running. There are several ways to go about generating a report of [...]
Microsoft Vista Compatibility Center
Want to know what software or hardware will work in Windows Vista? Microsoft finally has a site where you can check if something is compatible with Windows Vista. It would be a good place to visit before you upgrade an existing system to Vista or to find out if your programs and peripherals are going [...]
How to set up a new account in Windows Mail
In a previous post, I promised a slide show on how to set up an email account and here it is. Before you start to set up an account, remember that you need the email address, your password, the email service’s POP3 and SMTP addresses.
How to set up Windows Mail accounts
view presentation (tags: windows email [...]
Some email terms
A reader sent me a message yesterday concerning an email problem he is having. One of his comments was that he didn’t understand what was meant by “POP” and I suspect a lot of average PC users don’t know the term. POP stands for “post office protocol”. Most of the time, it isn’t necessary [...]
Determining what runs at startup- Autoruns
There are a variety of ways to find out what starts running on your computer when you turn it on. The utility Autoruns from Sysinternals (now part of Microsoft) is probably as comprehensive as any. I’ve mentioned it before but a new version is out.
Troubleshooting tips
To paraphrase the Scottish poet Robert Burns, “The best laid plans of man and computers gang aft agley”. In other words, computers will develop problems. Before you call for help, Scott Dunn gives a troubleshooting checklist that may assist you to find and fix a problem yourself.
ZoneAlarm workaround
I previously posted about the Microsoft patch causing ZoneAlarm users to lose connectivity to the Internet. ZoneAlarm has posted workarounds.
Installing Windows XP on a new computer- drivers
With all the talk going around about keeping Windows XP and skipping Vista, some PC users who want a new computer are going to be installing XP on a new box. If you already have an actual full Windows XP installation disk (not a restore disk or an OEM disk) and want to install it [...]