Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader Fred L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I own an HP computer with Windows 7 and many of my programs keep crashing for no apparent reason. One of the biggest problems I have is that Windows Explorer crashes, then my desktop is reset; this ... happens over and over again, making it impossible to use the computer. I've scanned for viruses and malware and nothing as turned up. As such, I would like to reset the computer to factory settings and wipe out the entire hard drive, similar to when I first purchased the computer. There is something called HP Recovery Manager, but I don't fully ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sammy T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I own two systems running Windows 10; my laptop just updated yesterday and I confirmed that it's running the latest version of Windows 10 (10586.104). However, my desktop PC is still running an ... earlier version (10586.63) and hasn't been updated in over a month. When do a manual check for Windows Updates on the PC, it says 'checking for updates ...' and continues to do so for a very long time, until I receive the windows update error 0x800705b4. Any idea how I can get my desktop PC updated to Windows 10 version 10586.104? " My response: I also ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Ed' writes: " Dear Dennis, Back in the days of Windows 95 and 98 there used to be a utility called Change of address (also known as 'COA' or 'COA2'), which allowed you to move a program from one drive to another. For example, I ... could move an installed program from C: to D: drive, then Windows would run the program from the new location. Is there still such a utility available for Windows 7, 8 and 10? " My response: Change of Address was created by Ziff Davis and is downloadable through PC Magazine's website. That said, the program was made in 2001 and I am not sure if you ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Guy P. writes: " Dear Dennis, A few days ago I turned my PC on and instead of booting into Windows, it went directly into Windows Startup Repair. It scanned the drive but then reported that 'Startup Repair cannot repair this ... computer automatically'. I restarted the system and tried to boot Windows normally, but again it went into the Startup Repair, and with the same results. I backed up my system previously from within Windows but there was no way for me to restore the backup (since the backup program runs inside of Windows). Long story short, I decided to format my hard ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Tim T. writes: " Dear Dennis, My Windows 7 was corrupt and I did a Windows Repair Install to fix it, whereby I used my original Windows 7 DVD (with Service Pack 1) and reinstalled Windows over top of Windows to fix the corrupt ... system files. After Windows finished installing, it downloaded 230+ updates. Everything went fine except I receive Internet Explorer 10 error 9c59 when updating from Internet Explorer 8. I tried to download the full version of Internet Explorer 11 using the 'offline installer' file to get around this problem, but also received error code 9c59 even ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Kamala E. writes: " Dear Dennis, I installed Macrium Reflect on my system recently, and have my C drive backup set for 3 AM in the morning during the week. The problem is that when I turn my computer on at 9 AM, the backup starts ... and takes quite a while for it to finish. In the mean time, I can't use my computer because it's too slow - the backup is eating all my resources. Why won't Macrium Reflect wake my laptop from sleep to perform the backup? How can I make my backup run at the time I specified? " My response: By default, Macrium Reflect should wake a computer from ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just upgraded to Windows 10. In all previous versions of Windows, pressing F8 during boot would display a menu, where I could then choose 'Safe Mode', 'Safe Mode with Command Prompt', and 'Safe Mode ... with Networking' - however, pressing F8 during the Windows 10 boot does absolutely nothing. How can I get the Windows 10 Safe Mode during boot? " My response: You are correct; the F8 boot menu option is no longer available in Windows 10. Microsoft did away with that option for two main reasons: one being that the F8 menu makes the system less ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have about having six different versions of Microsoft's Visual C++ Redistributable Package installed on my system (both in 32-bit and 64-bit versions), as listed in my Windows Control Panel via the ... Programs and Features. Can I remove any of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages, or do I need all of them? " My response: The answer to this question is similar to the question I received about having multiple instances of .NET framework installed on the system . In short: it's not advisable that you uninstall any of your C++ ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'dbrumley' writes: " Dear Dennis, I've had a problem lately with Firefox when visiting Amazon's website. I get a pop-up window saying a 'script on this page is either busy or not responding'. There are 3 buttons that say Stop ... script, Ignore error, and Debug script, along with an option that says 'Don't ask again'. I've tried using the 'Stop script' button, which closes the window, but the browser slows down and the window re-appears. The 'Ignore error' button does the same thing. The 'Debug script' button opens a window with what looks like HTML, but I can't make heads or ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Howard R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have some really old family Quattro Pro spreadsheets from 1994-98. I would like to be able to view these spreadsheets on my Windows 10 system, and if possible, convert the Quattro Pro files to ... Excel files. The Quattro Pro files are using the .WB1 file extension. While the current version of Open Office can read .WB2 files, it won't read these .WB1 files. Do you know of a program that can read and convert the .WB1 files to Excel? I look forward to hearing from you. " My response: After researching Howard's question, I suggested he try ... (view more)