Find out what your Windows Hotfixes do Every now and then my Windows XP automatically updates. Usually these are to plug holes in the system (as you know, Windows XP is a work in progress). But what exactly do all those hotfixes do? Well, I discovered a way to find out. First, you need to go to your Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. Next, scroll down toward the bottom and you will see "Windows XP Hotfix..." Click the hotfix and it will expand to show "Click here for support information". Clicking there will bring up another screen with...

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Deleting Unwanted Programs It seems like I get questions all the time asking how to remove / uninstall programs. So, here's the step by step procedure: 1. The first thing to do is click the Start menu, Programs. Then hunt for the program you want to delete. Oftentimes, you'll find an Uninstall program under it's program group. 2. Another way would be to click the Start button, Settings, Control Panel. Then open the Add/Remove programs icon. You'll see a list of programs that Windows can remove from your system....

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Win XP Time Travel Have you ever made a change to your computer that messed everything up? A great feature of Windows XP is System Restore. You can go back to a previous setup without losing your documents, jpegs, emails, or other files. It keeps track of changes in your system and automatically creates what are called "restore points". These points allow you to travel back in time to when your system was more stable. To bring up System Restore, go to Start/Programs/Accesories/System Tools then click "System Restore". You must...

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Check for Corrupt System Files Did you ever have the suspicion that one of your Windows system files was corrupt? Normally, this problem causes lots of frustration while you try to hunt down the impaired file or do a complete re-install of Windows. Well, hold your Install Disks! There's another way. Prior to Windows 2000 the operating system might overwrite shared system files (for example .dll and .exe files) when you install software. Overwritten system files cause unpredictable system performance, strange program behavior, and operating...

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Monitor Your CPU Activity I don't know about you, but I'm a hardcore multi-tasker. Sometimes I'll have four programs up, two web browser windows, and some music playing all at the same time. For a while I had a real problem with my computer freezing up since I didn't know how many running programs were too many. Then I learned to monitor my CPU usage. Windows 98/Me has a Resource Meter that puts a little icon down in your System Tray so you can always see what's going on. To open it go to Programs / Accessories / System Tools...

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Defrag Mysteries Is your computer running slow? Is it locking up on you? Are programs suddenly terminating? Perhaps it’s time to Defrag! When you "defrag" your hard drive, you run a disk defragmentor program to optimize the placement of files on your hard drive. Here's what happens. As you use your computer, it writes to the first available spot on the hard drive. Over time, files tend to get rearranged on your hard disk, or fragmented. If your disk is fragmented, when it tried to load a program, it may...

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Recapturing Speed When you first purchased you computer everything ran fast. Now you've had your computer for a while and it seems like it just keeps getting slower and slower. You want fix your speed issue, here's how. One sure-fire way is to do a reformat and re-install (NOT an exercise for beginners). If you've been running your system for awhile and have not done this, it may be something to look into. We ran a 3 part series on this topic awhile back. Here are the links to those pages: Part 1 - Reformat and Reinstall Part...

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A Fast System Properties Box Need to get to your system properties? Well, you *could* click the Start button, Settings, Control Panel, then open the System icon. Want a faster way? Hold down the ALT key and double click the My Computer icon on your desktop. And you get this: ...

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Full Path Have you ever gotten a little lost while using "My Computer"? Before you get buried in another deep directory, tell Windows to show the full path in the title bar. I know, it doesn't sound all that profound, but it really comes in helpful. Here' how: Open My Computer (or any folder) and click the Tools menu, Folder options. Click the View tab and check the "Display full path in title bar" checkbox. That's it, you're only a glance away from knowing where you're at in any directory structure. ...

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Shut Down Hang Ups Do you have problems when the time comes to shut Windows down? Does it try to shut down and just kind of sit there, all confused and locked up? If this happens every time, or most of the time, here's some steps you can take to correct the problem: 1. Programs Not Closing - This is probably the number one reason for Windows hanging at shutdown. When you shut down the computer, Windows tries to shut down all the programs that are currently running (both regular programs and those running in the ...

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System Password Protection *This tip is for advanced users only. If you try it and mess your computer up, don't come crying to me. Password protecting Windows will keep most people out of your computer, it won't stop 'em all. I can get into a password protected Windows computer in less than 2 minutes. For obvious liability reasons, I'm not going to tell you how, but rest assured I (and many others) can. So, what can you do? You can password protect the whole computer by putting a password into your computer's system settings. No, these aren't...

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Save My Bookmarks! If you're like me, you've spent countless hours locating sites that you find useful. It would be more than a little upsetting to lose all those hard earned bookmarks, right? Well, it can happen, especially if your hard drive expires unexpectedly or you switch computers. So, how do you save them? Easy! Explorer: If you use Internet Explorer, just head to your Favorites folder, located under your Windows Directory. (The fastest way to get there is to right-click your Start button and select Explore....

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