files

Infopackets Reader Tom T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently had to reinstall Windows and I'm trying to clean up the root directory of my C drive to keep things tidy. I have a Windows.old.000 folder that I would like to remove, but every time I try ... to delete it, I get a window that says 'You need permission to perform this action' and nothing gets deleted. I've tried ccleaner (crap cleaner) and check marked the 'Delete old windows installation' option (under the Advanced menu), but that doesn't work, either. What do I have to do to remove the Windows.old.000 folder and its contents? " My ... (view more)

Controversial file sharing site owner Kim Dotcom has come another step closer to being extradited to the United States. It comes despite a New Zealand court agreeing with one of Dotcom's key arguments against extradition. Dotcom, who changed his ... name from Kim Schmitz, was the man behind one of the biggest alleged piracy websites, "Megaupload." It was a site where users could upload files, either as a form of back-up, or as a way to share files with other people. Not surprisingly, many users found that Megaupload was an excellent way to illegally share copies of copyrighted music ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ron C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have several drives on my network that I'd like to defrag, but none of the defrag software programs I've tried allow me to defrag a network drive. Any suggestions on how to defrag a network drive, ... or a program that can provide this functionality? " My response: The reason you can't find a program to defrag a network drive is because this is not possible - the easiest way to explain "why" is that the remote drives are owned by another operating system. Simply put: your system does not have permission to move these files around. With ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gene R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I installed Windows 10 when it first became available as a free upgrade, back in August 2015. However, since then my PC has been acting very erratic - as such, I have decided I would like to reset ... it. My question is: if I reset Windows 10 what happens? As far as I recall there is a hard drive partition on my system for resetting the PC - will I still get Windows 10 or will I get Windows 7? What does system restore do? " My response: This is a very frequently asked question, though your question in particular deal with three completely separate ... (view more)

Duplicate files are the curse of every computer user - even professional computer technicians have them. While duplicate files are not really something that harms your PC, they do take up disk drive space, slow the PC down (especially when thumbnail ... previews are generated in Windows), and make things very disorganized. So, if you have a large drive - or a couple of them - and store lots of files on your PC, one thing I recommend my clients do is to take some time to manage duplicate files in order to free up space. This not only saves backup space, but also the users' sanity, should they ever ... (view more)

Facebook users have been warned to watch out for bogus links in messages that appear to be from friends. While Facebook appears to be on top of the problem for now, it's an approach that could lead to personal data being siphoned off, or computers ... locked. The problem was highlighted by security researcher Bart Parys who became aware of the problem this weekend after a tip-off from a friend. It involves Facebook messages which appear to consist only of an image but are actually a type of file called SVG (scalable vector graphics). 'YouTube' Video Next Step In Scam Normally such ... (view more)

Is there fair play amongst ransomware scammers? A particularly lazy variant of "ransomware" is making its rounds, though researchers say that paying up will never pay off. For the most part, ransomware usually involves a nasty malware program ... encrypting files on a PC, followed by a promise of a decryption key - but only if the victim pays a ransom. It would make sense that if people stopped believing this would happen, they would stop handing over the cash. Files Deleted Rather Than Encrypted Now security company Talos has spotted a variant where there's absolutely no prospect ... (view more)

Researchers say they've found a way of severely limiting the damage ransomware causes. Meanwhile California legislators are mulling over new laws specifically aimed at the tactic. Ransomware involves attackers remotely installing malicious software ... that encrypts files and makes them inaccessible without an unlock key. In many cases, this means victims can't access the data and may be unable to use the computer at all. The attackers then demand a fee to provide the unlock key. The tactic has led to controversy over whether victims should pay the fee , something critics say merely encourages ... (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 Tim H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just upgraded to Windows 10 recently and one thing that bothers me when I'm using File Explorer to browse my files is the 'Quick Access' section. Previously in Windows 7, this section was called ... 'Favorites', and contained only the shortcuts that I wanted listed. For example, I could go into c:\users\my user name\favorites and add a shortcut to my taxes folder. Now that I've upgraded to Windows 10, I'm stuck with Quick Access which not only shows my previous Favorites, but also includes a bunch of other junk - such as recently opened files and ... (view more)