In my August 31st online Terry’s Computer Tips newsletter, I wrote about my experience trying to install Windows XP Service
Pack 3 on my notebook computer. Service Pack 3 didn’t like me.
This week, I got some feedback from Bob in South Africa on his experiences:
Terry, Microsoft’s auto update of SP 3 on [...]

For the first time in a few weeks, I think the last week went by without any new reports from subscribers about problems installing XP Service Pack 3. That probably means that the rest of us are waiting for reports that Microsoft has solved and updated it to fix some of the incompatibility problems. Notice [...]

  
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One of the problems that plagues Windows users is the “locked file” problem. You know, the one that you [...]

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″
[...]

Optimize 2.0 Review Number 2
Back in February, 2008, I bought a license for Optimize 2.0 and was very impressed with its cleanup and speedup changes it made on my computer.
Now, five months later, is it still a worthwhile tool?
As I ran the program on Friday night, it had been several weeks since I had used [...]

Sherrill Kerbaugh wrote about a major problemm she and her husband were having on both of their computers:
Hi, Terry… We have a major problem…. My husband has been unable to delete daily e-mails for a few weeks now….we can’t figure out what in the world is wrong!?!?!?! Now, all of a [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

Are you safe when you use the wireless network at your local coffee shop or airport? Maybe. Maybe not.
Are you accidentally sharing your files on your computer? Is your computer “trusting” connection attempts from the other computers at the hostspot?
A reader asked me
To improve security when using Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or traveling, [...]