registry

Infopackets Reader Rick F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I had a problem trying to uninstall a program via the Control Panel (Add or Remove Programs / Programs and Features) and ended up having to remove it manually. The problem now is that the program ... won't uninstall from Programs and Features . Is there a way to manually fix a program that won't remove from Programs and Features so it's completely removed from the list? It's like I have a phantom entry and I don't know how to get rid of it. I hope what I'm asking makes sense. I've tried to follow so-called guides online to fix this problem but ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sharon S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just purchased a used Acer laptop with Windows 10 on it. The system is slow and Task Manager shows 100% disk usage by CompatTelRunner.exe . Also CompatTelRunner.exe causes high CPU usage . I ... searched Google on how to disable CompatTelRunner.exe or delete CompatTelRunner.exe but can't seem to find a straight answer. Can you help? " My response: I asked Sharon if she would like me to have a closer look at the issue using my remote desktop support service , and she agreed. Below I will discuss my findings. How to Fix: Disable CompatTelRunner. ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jared P. writes: " Dear Dennis, The right click on my desktop is not working . When I right click on the desktop, all I get is a spinning blue circle . What normally appears is a dialogue menu that shows Display Settings, ... Personalize (the desktop), View, Sort by, and New (to create a folder, shortcut, text document, etc) - but instead, the cursor circle keeps spinning forever. I've left it alone for an hour but the right click keeps loading forever and never produces a menu like it should. Update: Since I've emailed you, I've found a few so-called guides online to fix my ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Georges M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I had to perform a non-authoritative restore on our Domain Controller (DCs) because one of our lower-level techs accidentally deleted an important organizational unit (OU). I got everything ... working again, but I'm having a problem trying to reinstall a program called ScreenConnect, which is used to remotely connect to machines we manage. I noticed you wrote about a previous article about how to uninstall ScreenConnect and was wondering if you could help with this problem. Here's what's happening: when I try to install ScreenConnect, it says ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Simon J. writes: " Dear Dennis, Last week I had a fake 'virus warning' error message pop up in Chrome while I was viewing Amazon.com. It said my computer was infected and to call a 1-800 number to 'fix' the 'problem'. After ... reading your articles, I knew it was a scam. At any rate, I did an antivirus and antimalware (malwarebytes) scan on the system - both said my system was clean. Flash forward a few days later and I got another fake 'virus warning' in Chrome. At this point I uninstalled Chrome, then deleted the c:\users\[my user name]\appdata\local\google\chrome folder ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Paulina K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Whenever I run Excel, it displays an error message 'stdole32.tlb' and nothing else. MS Office then launches the Microsoft Office installer ... (inside of the Excel window), which takes about 5 or more minutes to complete. Eventually I can start using the program, but the next time I run Excel I get the same 'stdole32.tlb' error message. I have tried to uninstall and reinstall Office but it doesn't work. I also tried to repair Office but that gave me the same stdole32.tlb error message. Can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Samir R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently did a clean install of Windows 10 on my machine and now my numlock on the keyboard keeps shutting off during bootup, even though I have numlock enabled in the computer's BIOS. When I was ... running Windows 8 (which I later upgraded to Windows 10), I did a registry hack to keep the numlock enabled after Windows is loaded. Can you help? " My response: I've had this issue before. I had to do a bit of digging and testing to make sure the registry hack you're referring to is compatible with Windows 10, but I managed to find the answer. I' ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Alan B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I rebooted my laptop recently, and now my keyboard has completely stopped working. I looked at the status of my keyboard under Device Manager and it reports that my keyboard is a 'Standard PS/2 ... Keyboard' with an error code 39. The specific error message is: 'Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)'. I have scoured the Internet and have tried various registry 'fixes' online, but nothing works! You fixed my computer a few years back using your remote desktop support service, and ... (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 'David' writes: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows 10, and the updates keep failing. Also, when I try to update Creative Cloud (to upgrade my Adobe Photoshop), it gets to 54% complete and then I receive a message stating that 'Another ... installation is in progress' error. I also received a very strange error message when attempting to install Classic Shell: 'User System has previously initiated an install for product (Microsoft Office). That user will need to run that install again before they can use that product. You current install will now continue.' I click OK and it will ... (view more)