PCTips Box

Windows XP works with countless different printers, scanners, digital cameras, and other devices. It does so with the help of drivers, unique software programs that help your operating system communicate with individual pieces of hardware. If your computer starts to freeze, crash, or if a hardware device stops working, you can troubleshoot the problem with the Device Manager.

Device Manager shows you how the hardware on your computer is installed and configured, and how the hardware interacts with your computer’s programs.

You’ll typically use Device Manager to check the status of your hardware and update device drivers on your computer. Advanced users who have a thorough understanding of computer hardware might also use Device Manager’s diagnostic features to resolve device conflicts and change resource settings.

Note You may need to be logged on as an administrator or be a member of the Administrators group in order to use some or all of the features in Device Manager. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure. (more…)

If you want to reduce the number of unnecessary files on your hard disk to free up disk space and help your computer run faster, use Disk Cleanup. It removes temporary files, empties the Recycle Bin, and removes a variety of system files and other items that you no longer need.

1. Open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking System Tools, and then clicking Disk Cleanup.

2. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, choose whether you want to clean up your own files only or all of the files on the computer. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. (more…)

User Account Control can be annoying, but it’s an extra layer of protection that protects your computer from viruses, hackers, and poorly written software.

UAC lets you know when someone or something is trying to change a setting or install/uninstall software on your computer. It also removes administrative rights from software making it harmless to critical system files and services.

Before UAC, settings could be changed and software could be installed/uninstalled without you knowing. Software running under an account with admin rights also had full admin rights which gave it full access to critical system files and services. (more…)

Do you feel that the free space on your hard-disk is too little ? Does it seem that something fishy is going on which is eating your hard-disk space? If your answer is yes, read on till end to uncover the secrets of this type of behavior.

Some of the key reasons are:

* Temp files on C drive
* Temporary Internet files
* Backup files created during installation
* Windows system restore data
* Duplicate copies of large files like movies, songs etc.
* Deleting Uninstall files for windows updates.

There are some more reasons as well, but these are most common reasons which can be observed. Now the important question, how to fix it ? Lets read on for the solution. (more…)

Microsoft is advising Windows XP end users to make room for the third and final service pack designed to update the predecessor of Windows Vista by mid 2008, according to the official timetable provided by Microsoft. The move comes as testers of beta builds of XP SP3 have come across an error message when trying to deploy the service pack followed by the failure of the installation. “You do not have enough free disk space on %SystemDrive% to archive the uninstall files,” reads the Service Pack 3 Setup error.

“Additionally, the following error may be logged in the service pack installation log: 8007F02B – STATUS_NOT_ENOUGH_WITH_UNINST. This installation log typically resides in the following location: Drive_Letter:WindowsSvcpack.log. This problem may occur if the free disk space that is available on the computer is insufficient to archive the uninstall files. (The uninstall files are also known as the backup files),” Microsoft revealed. (more…)

The long awaited, highly anticipated Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) will finally be available by Microsoft. For many, SP1 is the promise land for fixing those annoying performance, compatibility and slow file copy problems that have plague Vista since it’s release.

Only time will tell.

Regardless of what happens, pre-cautions should be taken to ensure a successful upgrade to Vista SP1.

Below are five steps you should follow BEFORE installing SP1, that should help with achieving a successful upgrade and ensure no data is lost. (more…)

After over a year since the release of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 in October 2006, and then along with Windows Vista in November 2006 and January 2007, Microsoft has delivered the first beta of its next iteration of Internet Explorer. IE8 Beta 1 is a release aimed at web content developers, but the company has provided full access to the bits, with the promise that Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 will be more user-centric.

IE8 Beta 1 integrates seamlessly with Windows Vista Gold and SP1 RTM, but also with Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows XP SP2 and SP3. With the exception of Windows XP SP3, IE8 Beta 1 will support both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions of the operating systems enumerated above. Of course, XP SP3 only comes in x86 and not in a x64 variant. At this time, Microsoft offers XP SP3 RC2, with IE8 Beta 1 installing on the beta of the third and final service pack for XP even though it fails to do the same with pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1. (more…)

AutoPlay or AutoRun dialog window will pop up when an removable drive, portable device such as digital camera and media player or CD/DVD disc been inserted into computer or placed into optical drive, with plenty of action choices in a list of options for users to choose to perform on the just connected drive and drive contents. Each item in the AutoPlay list is a handler installed by various applications to show as an option for a particular events or content types such as Pictures, Videos, and Mixed.

Windows by default has several AutoPlay handlers, and other third-party programs, especially media player such as MusicMatch Jukebox and RealPlayer, and image burning software such as Nero will add their own AutoPlay handlers and shortcuts into the list. Over the time, the AutoPlay list can get longer and longer, and some entries can become invalid or orphaned when the program has been uninstalled by the AutoPlay handlers are not removed. (more…)

Windows Vista introduces a new tool on top of what its predecessor Windows XP had to offer in terms of dealing with licensing resources, from the product key to information related to the activation status of a machine. The Windows Software Licensing Management Tool can be accessed via the “slmg.vbs” command and will offer users the possibility to activate, rearm and display the activation status of Vista, but also to install and uninstall product keys. In this context, the “slmgr.vbs –upk” command, designed to uninstall a Windows Vista product key, may result on the Business and Enterprise SKUs of the operating system into the scraping of all the licensing information, synonymous with a lost activation status, and the transition of the platform into reduced functionality mode.

“After you run the slmgr.vbs –upk command on a Windows Vista-based computer, you cannot see the licensing information as expected. Additionally, the Windows Vista activation status is lost. (more…)

Internet Explorer has some quirks as we all know. However, if there is any chance that you may uninstall Internet Explorer, there could be some problems. In fact, you may not even be able to start Windows with a full functioning desktop.

Apparently, Internet Explorer version 6 and 7 are not getting along. If you upgrade IE, uninstall, reinstall, or download a version from Yahoo, Google, or Adobe, then you may lose your Windows functions after you shut down your computer. When Windows starts up again, it boots to only a blank desktop screen. A popup window will give an error code of “iertutil.dll is missing or corrupt.” There is not a way to use Windows or see your taskbar. However, we can solve this quickly with the help of another computer and we can prevent this type of situation from happening again with all Windows programs. (more…)