Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader James D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 10 and my C drive is nearly full. I've tried to free up as much space as possible, but no matter what I do it makes no difference. That's when I came across your article about ' ... Can't delete restore points (C drive Full) ', in which you recommended a program called TreeSize Free in order to find space hogs on the C drive. To my surprise, when I ran TreeSize Free it says that my Recycle Bin is taking up almost 500GB of space. I've tried emptying the Recycle Bin from the desktop, but TreeSize Free is still reporting that ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Hillary K. writes: " Dear Dennis, My main PC recently upgraded to Windows 10 1909 (November 2019 edition) and now it immediately boots into a black screen . I can move the mouse around, but I can't login because I have a black ... screen. I've tried CTRL + ALT + DEL on the keyboard to bring up Task Manager per Microsoft's website, but it doesn't work. I've also tried Windows Key + P to refresh my display but it doesn't work. I can see the hard drive light blinking, meaning that there is activity and the system appears to be loading and doing things, but that's it. All I get is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gina V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I watch a lot of sermons from my church online, but since around October this year I keep getting 'An unanticipated problem was encountered, check back soon and try again. Error code: ... MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN' I don't understand what this means. I have searched Google and it seems a lot of people have the MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN Chrome error message when playing videos in the web browser. I also have a MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN Firefox error. I'm not sure what to do next. Can you please help? " My response: Generally speaking, the 'MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN' is a generic ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sam G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have an old external 1 TB hard drive I'd like to format for use with Apple Time Machine backup. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as NTFS and is not readable with Time Machine. I ... have searched Google on how to convert a Windows disk to Mac (format to HFS+ on Windows) but can't seem to find a solution to this problem. Any help would be appreciated! " My response: I asked Sam if he would like me to connect to his machine using my remote desktop support service in order to have a closer look, and he agreed. Below I will discuss ... (view more)

Infopackets Val G. writes: " Dear Dennis, Recently my Windows 10 machine failed to update, resulting in an infinite boot loop (Startup Repair). I knew I had to reinstall Windows, but backed up the data first using Macrium Reflect. After that I tried ... to copy the data back from the disk image backup (using copy and paste), but each time Windows Explorer would crash during the file copy. I tried Robocopy to copy the data and this worked - however, I kept receiving errors such as: ' C:\Temp\Users\Default User\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\ ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Samuel P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have two Windows 10 Pro machines, currently running Windows 10 1903. Both machines can't install KB4522355 (released October 24, 2019). This update would bring me to OS Build 18362.449. When I go ... to PC Settings -> Update and Security, it tells me that KB4522355 is pending, and when I click 'download and install', it tries to install but then fails repeatedly. I've tried clearing my Windows Update queue per your instructions but KB4522355 won't install . Can you please help? " My response: I asked Samuel if he would like me to connect to ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Frank G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently installed AVG antivirus and made the mistake of paying for the upgrade to premium, which has slowed my computer down considerably. I've since canceled my subscription and reverted back to ... AVG free (per your recommendation). I now cannot uninstall AVG Secure browser . Each time I try, it says it's removed, but it's still there. I've tried everything I can think of to remove AVG Secure Browser, but it seems I'm stuck with this steaming pile of poo. To make things worse, it automatically loads every time I reboot the machine like it's ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gerry J. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks for your article on how to reset admin password on a Seagate NAS (network attached storage) - this was the only article I could find on the subject. I have a related question. I've done a ... full reset of the NAS (wiping out all data) and recreated my network shares, and now I'm ready to copy data back. In the past, I've used Windows file copy to do this, but sometimes it fails and then I have to start over again. I did research on this subject and it's my understanding robocopy is a much more reliable method and will actually resume the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jerry F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded Kodi media player on my PC from Kodi Krypton (version 17) to Kodi Leia (version 18). It seems that this latest update is now interfering with my Xbox 360 controller. Let me ... explain. For years, I've been using a program called Xpadder with my Xbox 360 controller on my PC, which allows me to map keys (and mouse functionality) to my controller. In this case I've configured it a specific way so that I can use my controller like a mouse which allows me to use it for Windows functions, plus I can use it to control Kodi the way I ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Daniel B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I wanted to pass along this message to let your readers know of a new and incredibly convincing fake Norton email renewal scam involving Norton Antivirus and Lifelock. I received two emails today ... (from two different email addresses) with a special promotion to 'upgrade' my Norton Antivirus and Lifelock with an enticing 67% discount off the retail price. The emails are incredibly convincing, unless of course you are knowledgeable enough to realize it's a scam. If you click on a link to read more or to buy the product, it will lead you to a ... (view more)