PC Problem Prevention and Resolution
Longtime subscriber Clif of the Clif Notes Newsletter wrote about my Windows 7 installation experience articles in last week’s online issue:
Hi Terry,Thanks for the preview of the hassle to come when I move my laptop to win7 from the RC. Hopefully the drivers I have backed up will work. I’m hoping the driver backups I have will help me avoid the issues that you had getting the correct drivers installed.
See the following:
Continue reading Comments on Upgrading to Windows 7
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
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
I recently made some boot changes to a notebook computer that resulted in a remarkable increase in the boot speed. The notebook was running Windows XP Home.
It was a small, light Sony — one of the 12-inch monitor models.
Tech Humor
With notebooks, you can get small, light, fast and cheap.
Pick any two…
In this particular case, the notebook took 4.5 minutes to boot, and it’s owner wanted it to be much faster.
I referred to my favorite tool to get his boot process under control …
Continue reading Speeding Up the Windows Boot Process
It’s time for another article on Microsoft Update and why we should be using it.
Although Microsoft has been recommending that users switch from Windows Updates to Microsoft Updates since mid-2005, at the end of 2006 new computers from at least one major manufacturer were still being shipped with Windows Update and not Microsoft Update
If you’re running Windows XP, the choice is simple. Switch to Microsoft Updates!
Read more in Microsoft Update versus Windows Update
I read a couple days ago that IE7 was showing up on Windows Updates automatic downloads. At first, I believed it. Then, when I checked manually (I have automatic turned off), Microsoft Updates did not show it available for my computer.
This morning, though, my desktop (my only computer that still has IE6) had the “updates available” icon in the status bar.
Sure enough, IE6 was there and waiting…
On that particular machine, I will _not_ install IE7 — but only because I need IE6 to be able to view sites in the browser that the Win98, WinMe, Win2000 and much of the WinXP world will be using.
Since I design web sites, I want to make sure that they look good in Firefox (my normal browser), Opera, IE6 and IE7.
Whenever you install IE7, make sure you have 20-30 minutes for the upgrade process. You’ll think that Windows is installing all over again .
The instructions say to turn off your antivirus and antispyware, since both of those types of programs try to protect Internet Explorer from changes — in this case, the protection would mess up the upgrade. So, I turned off NOD32, CounterSpy and WinPatrol. Since I was safely behind a router, I also turned off my firewall during the installation.
Of course, a reboot is required at the end. Actually, it took 2 reboots on my computers, the changes during startup interfered with my other startup programs.
My Philosophy: Many people want to pick their most economical solution and prefer an all-in-one anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall solution. In concept, that’s a great idea. In actual practice, this type of package is not likely to be the best in all the protection categories you need.
Other people want to pick the best of each type program. I’m one of the these folks. Read about my security software choices.
So, I’ve got two types of recommendations: the all-in-one solutions and my picks of the individual products for people who want to pick a program of each type.
Read more in my article Computer Security Software Recommendations at www.TerrysComputerTips.com
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