Windows Tips

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 Janie T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I wanted to know if I should use a VPN (virtual private network) to connect to my bank website. A service I came across called saferweb.com claims that they will encrypt my connection, but I don't ... know if they can be trusted or not. What do you think? PS: I love your daily infopackets letters - they are very informative. " My response: This is a good question. When visiting saferweb.com I noted the following statements on their site: "Safer Web gives you an extra layer of security against Internet hackers. By hiding your IP, we keep your ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Tim S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am upgrading the hard drive and CPU on a computer for a friend of mine. His computer does not have a dedicated video card; as such, he is using the onboard graphics built onto the motherboard, which ... is very outdated and slow compared to today's standards. I would like to buy him a used video card, but am not sure which model to get, as the model numbers seem to be very confusing - whether it's an AMD video card or an Nvidia card. How can I compare video cards so I know which card is better than the other? " My response: This is a very good ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Kathy aka VJ' writes: " Dear Dennis, In regard to John Lister's article ' Windows 10 install surprising users ' - how about an article about switching to Linux instead of Windows 10, including a how to, cost, warnings, software ... compatibility, etc. I've just about had it with Microsoft and it's aggressive tactics, trying to get me to install Windows 10 with its 'gotcha' updates . As such, I am thinking it's time to get myself out from under the Microsoft umbrella. I am expert with MS Office and would hate to switch, but if it won't run under Linux, I may have to stick with ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gerry O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running windows 8.1 and have a program that reports an ntdll.dll failure. Will an upgrade to Windows 10 (not clean install) create a new ntdll.dll file, would I need to do a clean install of ... windows 10? Is there another way of getting a clean ntdll.dll file without upgrading? " My response: The file ntdll.dll is typically located in c:\windows\system32, and in very old versions of Windows (such as Windows XP), in the c:\i386 directory. The ntdll.dll file is a legitimate dynamic link library file (DLL) and is referred to as the "NT Layer ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Philip' writes: " Dear Dennis, Recently, I uninstalled Windows Essentials, not realizing it contained Windows Live Mail. I therefore thought I had completely lost my emails and address book, but when I did a search on my hard ... drive with the program called 'everything', I found some data files in 'C:\Users\phil\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail' folder. So, I tried to download Windows Essentials from Microsoft's website, thinking I would be able to access my Windows Live Mail emails once again; however, I received a message stating that Windows Live Essentials has ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill V. writes: " Dear Dennis, We have two computers running Windows 7; one of them has the white Microsoft logo on it which says it's ready for the Windows 10 upgrade, while the other one does not. I'd like to upgrade both ... computers to Windows 10, however, we have a very important Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet set up and I would hate to find out that I can't use the spreadsheet after upgrading to Windows 10. Is there a way to know if a program is compatible with Windows 10? " My response: I've been asked this question quite a bit lately and the easiest way to find out if your ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Perry F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have two laptops with Windows 7 that I would like to upgrade to Windows 10. From what I understand, I can use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to download Windows 10 in an .ISO file format. When ... that is done downloading, I would then burn the .ISO disc image file onto a DVD, then use the DVD to install Windows 10 onto my machines. The problem however is that I don't have a DVD drive on either laptop - so how can I use the .ISO format to install Windows 10? " My response: In a nutshell, an ISO file is an exact copy of an entire CD or DVD, ... (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 Sammy T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I own two systems running Windows 10; my laptop just updated yesterday and I confirmed that it's running the latest version of Windows 10 (10586.104). However, my desktop PC is still running an ... earlier version (10586.63) and hasn't been updated in over a month. When do a manual check for Windows Updates on the PC, it says 'checking for updates ...' and continues to do so for a very long time, until I receive the windows update error 0x800705b4. Any idea how I can get my desktop PC updated to Windows 10 version 10586.104? " My response: I also ... (view more)