Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader S. Doe writes: " I somehow inadvertently deleted Windows 98 'Picture Viewer' from my computer. Windows came pre-installed on my computer and I have all of the discs that came with it, and I think Picture Viewer is there somewhere. ... How do I figure out on which disk I can find it to reinstall that program? None of them list it specifically on the disk. Thanks in advance for your help! " My Response: If your computer came with a pre-installed copy of Windows, there is a good chance that the discs that also came with it may only contain a recovery disk image and will ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bruce W. writes: " I enjoy your newsletter very much and I also have a question. I read with interest your last article on Registry Backup and DLL Hell . In the past, I've found programs on the Internet that I'd really like to ... have (regardless of free or paid) and I've downloaded them to my computer. My question is: sometimes I download a program and it tells me something to the effect 'unable to locate DLL library: installation failure.' Why does this happen with some programs but not others? It's frustrating! " My response: The error message you received isn't ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader David R. writes: " Hi Dennis! A while back, I was playing around with a program and my drive letters somehow got re-assigned. My CD ROM drive (D) became E, and E became F. I am trying to put in a Video input card ... and every ... time I try to do the driver install, the PC says it cannot access drive D. Since Drive D became Drive E, there is no disk in D and thus installation cannot be performed. Is there a way I can reassign the Drive letters or reassign the default CD Rom? I posted this message on the message board at Tech TV and here is the response that I got: ' Do ... (view more)

Today, Anne from Canada told me of a very strange situation with her computer. She writes: " Hi Dennis! I have a question. Sometimes there is an image under the email page, or Internet page, and it has a small eye with a white box and a red X in it. ... It annoys me, and I try to get rid of it, but nothing works. Could this be some sort of Spy, because that's what it reminds me of. It's not always there for long, and then disappears. Any ideas? " My Response: All I can say is: "that's weird!", and maybe you've got some type of Spyware installed on your system? I've never heard ... (view more)

With respect to yesterday's feature article, "SiS KHooker, DownloadWare, and Video Display Trouble?" (Gazette, 20030917), Sarah M. writes: " Dennis, I did some research on my own and found that SiS KHooker.exe is not a homepage hijacker (as far as I ... know). Here is the info on that from the answersthatwork.com task list [URL not given]: ' Khooker (KHooker.exe by Silicon Integrated Systems – SiS): Description: SiS Keyboard Daemon. System Tray utility which gets installed by the drivers of the latter day SiS VGA cards. The utility itself is not of much use in our opinion and may ...<a href="/news/9209/sis-khooker-downloadware-and-video-display-trouble-part-2" class="more-link">view more

Recall -- On Monday, Temple D. told me of a familiar problem with Windows XP and Dialup Networking: " I have just bought a new Dell computer that has Windows XP and I use dial-up Internet. Every time I disconnect from the Internet, my computer ... defaults back to 'Never Dial a Connection'. I've reset it to 'always dial my default connection', hit 'Apply', and 'OK' -- but, when I try to connect again, I get an error message which reads 'No Connection Available.' Subsequently, when I go into Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections, the option 'Never Dial a Connection' has been re- ... (view more)

Die-hard Infopackets Reader Brandon L. writes: " Dear Dennis, Do you have any idea why my taskbar icons have suddenly become so large and 'clunky' looking? The graphics which represent each running program have become very poor quality and I can't ... seem to figure out why this has happened. Do you know of any solution? Take care, and thanks for the great newsletters!" My response: Oddly enough, I found myself in the same predicament only a few weeks ago when I was visiting my mother using her computer. I noticed that her taskbar icons were oddly shaped and also noticed that some of ... (view more)