Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader 'Jackie' writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read the article you wrote about ' How to Fix: Windows 10 Black Border (Shrinking Screen) ' and have a similar question. I just upgraded to Windows 10; I have an HP laptop and have connected ... it to my big flat screen TV. The problem is that as soon as I plug in my HDMI cable to connect the HDTV to the laptop, the laptop displays black borders on the sides of the screen. How can I fix that? " My response: The reason you have black borders on the side of the screen whenever you connect your HDTV through the HDMI cable is because the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Tom M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running Windows 10 that came with my computer. I decided I want to do a clean install of Windows 10 while I'm still logged into my Windows 10 desktop - this is possible if you run setup.exe form ... the disc, then select "Custom" during the installation procedure. I used the Media Creation Tool (from Microsoft) to download Windows 10 x64 10586, and I burned that to disc. However, when I try to run setup.exe from the disc, it gives me an error that says: 'Use the other installation disc that says 64-bit. When you insert it, Windows setup will ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Denise N. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks for your article on ' How to Fix: Increase Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7, 8, 10 '. I have a similar question. I recently purchased a new PC with Windows 10, and the monitor ... resolution is 1920 x 1080. The problem is that when I go to My Pictures folder, the picture thumbnails are too small and I have a hard time figuring out what is in the picture thumbnail preview. I have tried setting the icons to 'Large', which is a bit too small, but when I set it to 'Extra Large' it is way too big. How can I make the picture thumbnails in ... (view more)

How to Fix: Increase Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7, 8, 10 Infopackets Reader Tim R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just purchased a brand new laptop with Windows 10 and it has a 4K screen resolution of 3840 X 2160 (exactly twice the resolution of ... Blu-Ray, at 1920 x 1080). The problem is that when I have many programs open on my task bar, I cannot see the taskbar thumbnail preview - it is far too small to read. Therefore I have a very difficult time figuring out which thumbnail belongs to which program I have open. Is there any way I can increase the taskbar thumbnail preview so it is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader William O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a Samsung smartphone with a 16 GB SD card, which I use to store all my pictures and videos. I have taken the SD card out of my smartphone and placed it into an SD card reader, so I can copy ... files over to my computer. I get about 13% through the transfer and then I get an error message that says: 'Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.' I then have the option to skip the current file; when I click that, the transfer resumes, but then it says it will take over 1 day to complete the transfer ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Pat S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running Windows 7 and I'm trying to shrink my C drive, but Windows won't let me shrink it to the desired size - even though I have tons of free space. I have a 500 GB drive and I'm trying to ... shrink the volume to 250 GB. Whenever I try to shrink the C drive it only lets me shrink 70GB. Can you help? " My response: I have had this problem many times in the past - especially when I am trying to shrink the C drive for my clients so that I can split the drive in half and make a disk image backup onto the second partition. The reason why you can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Leonard C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just upgraded to Windows 10 recently. Every time I click on a link in my emails, Windows 10 keeps asking me 'How do you want to open this file?'. It gives me three choices: 'Internet Explorer', ... 'Microsoft Edge', and 'Look for an app in the store'. How can I get rid of this annoying window? I am currently using Microsoft Outlook 10 as my email program and I use Internet Explorer to browse the web. " My response: If you are running Windows 10 and if you ever come across the window which says: "How do you want to open this file?", it is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jason B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. After a few days of the upgrade, I keep getting a strange DLL error message stating that 'SysMenu.dll could not be found'. The error ... message always seems to appear right after I boot or reboot the computer, and about 2 or 3 minutes after I gain access to the desktop. The error message is: 'There was a problem starting C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\System\SysMenu.dll. The specified module could not be found.' I have searched Google from high to low on how to fix this error, but the solutions ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sam S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded to Windows 10. During the installation procedure, it asked me to enter in an email address. I did that, however, now I can't remember what password I used for the email address - ... and now I can't login to Windows 10! I am completely locked out of the system. How can I get back in if I don't know my email password for Windows 10? If I'm able to get back in, how can I set it up so I can login without having to use the email login? " My response: This is a very frequently asked question. The short answer is that you can attempt ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim N. writes: " Dear Dennis, Ever since I upgraded to Windows 10, I have no sound. I have looked at all of my speaker / headphone volume settings, and have searched Google for 'windows 10 sound not working' and 'windows 10 sound ... drivers', but nothing seems to apply to my situation - my sound simply does not work. I realize that this is a very common problem, but having no sound in Windows 10 is driving me nuts. Is there a simple fix for this or should I go back to Windows 7? " My response: I can tell you that based on my experience, the sound in Windows 10 cuts out ... (view more)