Blocking Call-Home Attempts by Microsoft Software

By terry Leave a Comment

A reader wrote to ask for more details about how I configure my firewall to block Microsoft.com’s call–home attempts:

In your Email Newsletter — Volume 3, Number 12 — September 3, 2007, article “Windows Genuine Advantage SNAFU” you say, “When they want to check in with Microsoft, they run into my copy of Sunbelt Personal Firewall,” and “Sunbelt Personal Firewall has shown me that Microsoft’s products often want to connect to Microsoft.com, whether it makes sense or not.” You do not give enough details on the matter so one could take action…or not. QUESTION: 1. Is there a problem if they are prevented from calling home? 2. If not, how can I set up my Sunbelt PFW to do that, as you infer you have done. P.S. I used your links to purchase said product a while back along with Counter Spy and iHateSpam. Thanks in advance for your help.

The good news was that Ed was asking about Sunbelt Personal Firewall, since it will actually apply its controls to Microsoft’s programs. The process with SPF is easy, too.

Continue reading Blocking Call-Home Attempts by Microsoft Software

Filed Under: Broadband, Cable, Dialup, Firewalls, HowTo, Networking, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips

A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

By terry Leave a Comment

Recently, one of my subscribers wanted to know about a free program to let him fill in PDF forms.

I made a quick check and realized that the free PDF reader Foxit Reader would do this. While Foxit Reader also has a Pro Pack available to add additional functions, the free version does almost everything that most users need.

More importantly, it does it without the baggage of Adobe Reader and its huge memory requirement, the huge delays in starting up (unless you let Adobe Reader preload and take up a bunch of your memory all the time, and its automatic updating, which caused me problems.

I’ve been using Foxit Reader for a couple years, off and on, but now it’s my main program for reading PDF files.

Before responding to the subscriber, I checked the Foxit website and found that I was using a version that was several iterations old…

Continue reading A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

Filed Under: Software, Terry's Computer Tips

XP Service Pack 3 Feedback

By terry Leave a Comment

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 my XP Home SP 2 OS was an unmitigated DISASTER (!) and required me to do a format and reinstall of XP SP 2. Then I saw that TechRepublic was kindly offering an ISO download of SP 3 of which I took advantage and burned myself an SP 3 install CD (with install wizard). After disconnecting from the Internet and shutting down everything in my notification area, I ran …

Continue reading XP Service Pack 3 Feedback

Filed Under: Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Updates, Windows XP

More on Windows XP Service Pack 3

By terry Leave a Comment

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 that I said “us” — I haven’t installed it yet, either.

I received an email recently from reader Claire who asked:

Hi Terry, Did XP Service Pack 3 come in as an Automatic Update
or do you have to retrieve it separately? I thought service packs included all important updates in one package. Does the Service Pack have more than what is normally sent out in the Automatic Updates? Thanks.

Continue reading More on Windows XP Service Pack 3

Filed Under: Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Upgrades, Windows XP

Which Program Has Locked My File?

By terry 1 Comment
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One of the problems that plagues Windows users is the “locked file” problem. You know, the one that you want to rename or move, but you can’t because the file is in use…

If you’ve opened a document in Word, you can not rename the document on the disk drive until you close the copy in Word. You can save the copy that’s in Word, either with the same name or a different one, but that’s not always what you wanted to do.

Tech Tip
I’m using Word as an example, but the same issue applies to any file that you open in a program. Until the program tells Windows that it has released the file, Windows protects you from making a dumb move.

Sometimes, though, Windows gets connfused. It won’t let you rename or move a file, but you’ve already closed the program that was accessing it. There doesn’t seem to be any reason that Windows should balk and refuse to make your change.

Continue reading Which Program Has Locked My File?

Filed Under: Other, Software, Speed-up, Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting

CPU Running at 100 Percent

By terry Leave a Comment

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″

How do I get to this application??

The symptoms are that the updater runs and uses 100% of the processing capability of my CPU thereby making use of PC virtually impossible. I found an Adobe tech note that suggests changing the preferences by unchecking the “automatically Check for updates”

Scott has very good question. The problem is that Adobe removed that feature in Adobe Reader 8…

Continue reading CPU Running at 100 Percent

Filed Under: HowTo, Optimize, PC Repairs, Software, Speed-up, Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Updates

Catastrophic Hard Drive Failure

By terry Leave a Comment

Reader Jeanne Wright wrote me about her recent hard drive failure:

My computer just crashed and I had to have a new hard drive installed. Is there any way to get the information on my files and folders from the old hard drive? If so, where can I find someone to do this? Needless to say, I had NOT backed up my computer before all this happened. Thanks!

I wrote back to Jeanne to say that, depending on the nature of the hard drive failure, her data may or may not be recoverable at a reasonable price.

Continue reading Catastrophic Hard Drive Failure

Filed Under: Backup, Hard drive, Hardware, PC Repairs, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Upgrades

Why Back Up Your Computer?

By terry 1 Comment

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 the part of the user, it is easy to lose the critical file on which you’re working. Or, maybe your computer has gotten infected with a virus or a rootkit, such that you decide that reinstalling Windows is the easiest thing to do.

How many times have you opened a file with the intent to make a new version of it, then edited it, and accidentally saved it again with the original name? I have, so I doubt that you’ve missed that thrill. Fortunately, I make daily backups of my data, so that I can recover from those brain failures.

Continue reading Why Back Up Your Computer?

Filed Under: Backup, Hard drive, HowTo, Storage, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Windows XP

Internet Speed Tests

By terry Leave a Comment

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 higher the results you will get for download speed and upload speed.

But, sometimes, the closest site isn’t the fastest. It all depends on the congestion on the net…

Continue reading Internet Speed Tests

Filed Under: HowTo, Networking, Speed-up, Terry's Computer Tips, Web Browsers, Web Sites, Windows XP

Optimize 2.0 Review – Five Months Later Review

By terry Leave a Comment

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 it to check the optimization and for cleanup.

Continue reading Optimize 2.0 Review – Five Months Later Review or get more information

Filed Under: Free Trials, Optimize, Other, PC Repairs, Registry Repair, Software, Speed-up, Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Vista, Windows XP
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