Tag: control panel
October 14, 2009 by
Jason
Keeping Windows 7 and Windows Vista running under normal parameters takes much more work than is done in Redmond alone. Fact is that the ecosystems of software and hardware products designed to integrate with the Windows clients have to do this seamlessly, especially when dealing with solutions that hook into the core of the operating system. Driver update failures for example, can easily cripple Windows 7 and Windows Vista, causing the two platforms to no longer start.
“This problem may occur if any one of the following conditions is true: The new device or the driver causes conflicts with other drivers that are installed on the computer. A hardware-specific issue occurs. The driver that is installed is damaged,” Microsoft explained.
In case you performed a driver update for a device component of your computer and Windows 7 and Vista are acting up, then your best choice to resolve the matter is to roll back the changes. Reverting the driver update will cause the issues introduced by the refresh to go away. First you will need to boot into Windows.
Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
October 09, 2009 by
Jason The purchase of a record-breaking windows 7 operating system to make it faster, better one day before the start of the second series I share with you.
21. Presentation Nirvana. Press Windows+P to access the new Presentation mode, and easily turn on your projector and laptop screen at the same time. No more messing with vendor-specific utilities and arcane keystrokes. (Windows+X accesses the Mobility Center, with additional presentation options.)
22. Cut the Clutter. Press Windows+Home to minimize all but the current window, removing background clutter and letting you focus on that report your boss has been bugging you about.
23. Be a Mouse-Click Administrator. Windows 7 makes it easy to gain admin rights with a keyboard shortcut. Click on Ctrl+Shift on a taskbar-locked icon, and voila! You’ve launched it with appropriate admin rights.
24. Faster Installations. If your computer is capable of booting from USB, try this: XCopy the Windows 7 installation DVD to a sufficiently large USB drive, boot from that drive, and install Windows from there. It’s faster than a spinning platter.
25. Burn Discs with a Click. Or two; double-click an ISO file to burn it to your CD or DVD writer. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 2 Comments »
September 17, 2009 by
Jason Internet Explorer 8 includes a security feature that shuts down misbehaving applications before they can harm your system.
This capability, known as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), runs by default when IE 8 is installed on XP SP3 and Vista SP1 or later, but it may not always be clear to you why DEP has put the brakes on one of your PC’s applications.
DEP is the best reason I know for updating to Internet Explorer 8 and Vista SP1. For many years, Microsoft has included DEP which is also called No-Execute (NX) only in parts of Windows. For example, DEP is available in IE 7 but is off by default to avoid conflicts with old, incompatible programs.
DEP is now a key part of Vista and Internet Explorer 8. When I try to install older software on newer machines, I must configure Data Execution Prevention to allow the software installer to run with DEP disabled.
To open the Data Execution Prevention dialog in XP, open Control Panel, choose System, and then select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Performance section and select the Data Execution Prevention tab. In Vista, choose Performance Information and Tools, click Advanced Tools in the left pane, select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows, and click the Data Execution Prevention tab. Read More»
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
As Windows 7 advances toward RTM, the operating system is accompanied by a range of resources focused on the next iteration of the Windows client. An illustrative example is the software development kit, designed to streamline the development of native (Win32) and managed (.NET Framework) applications. Proof that the Windows 7 SDK is evolving comes from the Redmond company’s Visual C++ Team. A member noted that an issue related to Windows 7 SDK RC and Visual Studio 2010 had already been dealt with in the RTM version of the software development kit.
“If Win7 SDK (RC) is installed SidebySide with Visual Studio 2008 RTM before Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is installed, x64 and Itanium platform will not be available from the New Platform drop-down list. Build targeting x64 and Itanium will also fail. Note that the issue has been fixed in Win7 SDK RTM,” the Visual C++ team representative stated.
The problem was initially signaled on June 15th, by the Windows SDK team. At that time, Microsoft warned that installing Windows 7 SDK (RC) and Visual Studio 2008 RTM could disable VC++ configuration platform options. In this specific scenario, the Itanium and x64 listings will be missing from the New Platform drop-down lists of both the New Project Platform and New Solution Platform dialogs in Visual Studio IDE. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
January 18, 2009 by
Jason
In the next version of the Windows client, end users will be able to customize the level of nagging that the operating system generates via the User Account Control, revealed Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, on behalf of the team building the feature. Sinofsky emphasized that, as early as Windows 7 pre-Beta Milestone 3 Build 6801, users of the operating system would be able to see a reduction in the volume of prompts associated with UAC. At the same time, Microsoft started implementing the new dialog designs into the platform, along with the new UAC Control Panel.
The User Account Control was introduced in Windows Vista with the purpose of making all Windows users run under standard privileges, even those with administrator accounts. In this respect, the mitigation is able to provide an extra layer of defense against malicious code that would attempt to install itself on a machine, as UAC requires the user to grant it the rights. Sinofsky indicated that, in Windows 7, users would have more control over UAC compared to what was made available in Windows Vista. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
January 09, 2009 by
Jason While Outlook 2007 offers many new features that do indeed offer real benefits it can come at a price – performance.
On my Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM Outlook 2007 originally took a good 20 seconds to fire up from a fully booted PC and appeared to be constantly sluggish. So what can be done about it?
Tip 1: Delete attachments
A little-known feature in Outlook is the ability to keep an email but delete one or several attachment. Firstly, sort your inbox by file size (descending) and open a message (by double clicking so it opens in a new window) where you no longer wish to keep the attachment. Right click over the attachment and select Remove. Now save the email, repeat with all relevant emails in this mailbox and then repeat in any other mailboxes (including your sent items). Read More»
Posted in Office | 3 Comments »
December 23, 2008 by
Jason You’ve read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it’s time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP’s secrets.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type ’systeminfo’. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type ’systeminfo > info.txt’. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run… and type ‘gpedit.msc’; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only). Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 3 Comments »
November 18, 2008 by
Jason Use the following steps to identify your chipset using the Microsoft Windows* Device Manager.
1. Open Device Manager.
for Windows Vista
Click Start » click Control Panel » click System and Maintenance » clickDevice Manager
for Windows XP
Click Start » click Control Panel » double-click the System icon » click the Hardware tab » click Device Manager
for Windows 2000
Click the Start button » click Settings » click Control Panel » double-click the System icon » click the Hardware tab » click Device Manager Read More»
Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
October 30, 2008 by
Jason Have you ever clicked on the Shutdown or Restart button in Windows and have absolutely nothing happen? Sometimes Windows gets stuck because of some process that has become hung, meaning it is running, but can’t be ended in the normal way.
Hence, you try to shutdown or restart your computer, nothing happens at all. If you’re lucky, after a minute or two, you might see a message pop up saying that a process is hung and you can either let Windows try to end it or you can press End Now. I always prefer End Now!
Unfortunately, sometimes Windows simply refuses to shutdown and it won’t give you any kind of message. Don’t worry, the underlying cause of this is still a hung process, so all you need to do is kill the non-critical Windows processes one by one or modify the registry so that a hung process is automatically ended without manual intervention. I’ll explain both methods. Read More»
Posted in Computer | 2 Comments »
October 05, 2008 by
Jason
Are you experiencing problems with your computer network? Are these error messages appearing?:
- Unable to clear the DNS cache
- Unable to renew your IP address
- An operation was performed on something that is not a socket
- Unable to clear the ARP cache
If so, here are some potential solutions for Windows XP/Vista.
1. Check to make sure your computer is on and is connected to a network.
2. Be aware that Windows has a built in function to repair a network connection. This function can give valuable information in the form of an error message if you know what you are looking for. Some common error messages given are:
- Unable to clear the DNS cache
- Unable to renew your IP address
- Unable to clear the ARP cache Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
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