You’ve seen the problem. The program you use every day, or maybe one you use occasionally, isn’t doing what it should.

Perhaps the program can’t load one of its data files, so it doesn’t actually start. Perhaps it won’t do the task you told it to do – even if it worked yesterday. Perhaps the program crashes when you run it.

There is one often-forgotten cure for Windows.

In today’s world of Windows, fast computers, fast Internet connections using cable modems, DSL modems or even Ethernet connection to the ISP, many of us leave our computers turned on all the time.

We take the prudent and necessary steps of running a two-way firewall (like Sunbelt Personal Firewall), we run an anti-virus program that auto-updates, we run an anti-spyware/anti-adware program (like CounterSpy v2), and maybe even run an anti-spam program.

But, we forget to reboot our computers occasionally. We joke about calling technical support at a software company and being told to reboot.

Continue reading Number 1 Step in Computer Troubleshooting