Reader Scott Adler wrote about a problem he was having with his computer getting stuck at 100% CPU Usage…

to correct a problem I’m having with Adobe Updater I need to get to change the preferences
Start the AdobeUpdater.exe application from …”\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater 5″
[...]

As a long-time personal computer user, I learned the importance of backing up my data long, long ago.

There are just too many things that can go wrong when you’re working on your computer. Whether it is a hard drive that goes bad (or a floppy, in the old days), or a mental lapse on [...]

I received an email recently from PC Pitstop (I bought a license for PC Pitstop’s Optimize 2.0) announcing their new version Internet speed test.
That got me thinking about the variations in connection speed that I’ve seen over the years — over days and even between sites.
Typically, the closer the bandwidth-measuring site is to you, the [...]

I’m often asked about how I handle passwords for all the different sites that require passwords.
The questioner’s eyes get pretty big when I mention that I use random mixtures of letters and numbers for my passwords, and even bigger when I say that I use a different password on every site.
The immediate question is “How [...]

Subscriber Cary wrote with questions about project common to many people:
I’m starting a little project to record about 100 vinyl LPs to mp3s on my hard drive. I\’m looking for free software that will let me record a line-in source. I\’ve heard that Audacity is very good, but one critical feature [...]

Subscriber Peter Dunckelmann wrote recently to ask about disconnecting and reconnecting his external hard drive from Windows using the “Safely Remove Hardware” function. Although I wrote back to Peterseveral times, he’s got a Yahoo account, and Yahoo rejected my emails to him — it accepted some other emails I sent, so it just looks like [...]

Reader Russ Tinley wrote about a strange problem he was having:

Terry, My computer is connected to a Verizon DSL Modem, and everytime I connect the modem to my PC I get a blue screen and the system reboots. I called Verizon and they replaced my Modem but it still does it. [...]

I’ve done it. I’m sure you have, too.
We’ve all installed a program that arbitrarily grabbed certain file extensions (such as .doc, .jpg, .mp3) and changed Windows’ settings. Now, the new program is the default for opening that file type.
Sometimes, it’s our fault — many programs that can handle multiple file types will give us an [...]

Microsoft built a lot of automatic capabilities into Microsoft Word. By default, it checks your spelling as you type and marks misspellings as it finds them. You can even set Word to auto-correct your spelling for specific typing errors you normally have.
Word also will automatically create bulleted lists. All you have to do is hit [...]

If you’ve been using computers for any length of time, you’ve had the problem.
Maybe you haven’t had a hard drive fail, yet, but you’ve managed to delete or overwrite one of your data files with a changed version — and immediately said “Oh, NO!”
Most people have the problem and have no way to recover a [...]