windows

Microsoft has detailed the intricate and carefully crafted attack techniques of a longstanding group of online spies. They include taking advantage of a now-retired Windows feature for easier updates. Thankfully for home users, the attacks from the ... group Microsoft dubs "Platinum" have been highly targeted at government, defense, communications and intelligence agencies and organizations. That's promoted speculation a government may be behind the attacks. The details come in a report by Microsoft's Windows Defender Advanced Threat Hunting. It notes that while some attacks are ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Lee' writes: " Dear Dennis. I have done a clean install of Windows 10 and downloaded all updates; however, I keep getting a blue screen error message that "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED". Prior to that I was running Windows 7 - but also ... had the same error CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. I have done several clean installs, but no luck. I've run chkdsk (check disk) and did a memory check - but neither report any errors. I did the 'sfc /scannow', but receive an error that 'windows resource protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them'. Can you please help? " My response: ... (view more)

Microsoft has unveiled a couple of changes to improve Windows 10: smartphone owners will be able to see notifications on their computer screen, while many Chrome extensions could be coming to the Edge browser. A forthcoming update will introduce ... something called "notification mirroring." That will mean pairing a Windows or Android smartphone or tablet with a Windows 10 computer. Users can then automatically have any notifications that normally appear on their smartphone or tablet show up on their computer screen instead. The idea is that while somebody is working on their computer, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Colin' writes: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows 10 64-bit and when I try and run an old Visual Basic software program, it says 'This app cannot run on your PC'. I believe the Visual Basic program uses 16-bit architecture. So the ... question is, how can I run 16-bit programs on Windows 10 64-bit? " My response: The simple answer is that you cannot run 16-bit applications on 64-bit Windows directly , including Windows 10 64-bit. The same holds true when trying to run 16-bit applications on Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 8 64-bit. That said, there are workarounds to the problem. ... (view more)

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 '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 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)

Two German researchers have revealed that the world's most secure operating system could be Red Star OS. If you've never heard of it, that's probably because it's used only in North Korea. Florian Grunow and Nikalaus Schiess say that the system, ... which was created by the country's government, tracks virtually every file a computer user opens or handles. (Source: ccc.de ) The system is widely used on publicly owned computers. Reports from the country say the very few privately owned computers in North Korea are more likely to run Windows XP. System Uses Open-Source Base ... (view more)

Windows 10 is picking up new users at an increasingly slower pace according to newly-published figures. An international breakdown suggests the decision for Microsoft to give Windows 10 away free of charge may not have had as much impact as ... expected. The main set of new figures covers November 2015 and is from NetMarketShare. As with several other companies, it provides visitor analysis for a large number of websites (around 40,000) and regularly collates the data from these sites. Windows 10 Still Behind XP, 7, and 8 During November 2015, Windows 10 was used by around nine percent of ... (view more)