I received a question from Adam, a Terry’s Computer Tips web site visitor recently, who was having problems with two of his computers:
Hey Terry, just read your XP SP3 woes, got another one two for you. i have a small home network running with shared internet connection. When SP3 came out [...]

Long-time subscriber Irving wrote to ask:
I have XP SP2. I downloaded a zip file to my desktop. I then clicked the icon and ran into a problem. The screen started to “blink” and I couldn’t do anything. CTR-ALT-DEL couldn’t do anything. I had to shut down with power switch. Tried again…..same problem. This has also [...]

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 [...]

  
Sponsored Advertisement
Sunbelt Personal Firewall for Windows 2000, XP and Vista
Two-way firewall to control inbound and outbound communications. 30-day Free Trial.
Discounts for multiple computers & multiple years!
Unlimited Home Site License available, too.
It’s my choice for all my computers.

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″
[...]

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 [...]

Recently, I received two interesting questions from U.K. subscribers. I wrote about and answered the other one, which was about external hard drives, in this week’s email newsletter.
In this question, subscriber Robin wrote about problems she is having with her broadband connection…
Hi Terry
I have a stand alone [...]

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 [...]

Like many of the other downloadable programs that are designed to scan and fix computer problems, Optimize 2.0 from PC Pitstop is a program that can be run on schedule to routinely check for and fix problems, or can be run on request to fix and find problems.
Of course, the most significant value will be [...]