Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader Fred B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a PIII 933 mhz with various softwares installed. Scandisk cannot complete because it keeps resetting while checking file folders. I am told something is activating and causing the reset. Can ... you shed some light? " My response: Scandisk keeps resetting because Windows is constantly performing background tasks that you are unaware of. Try this: Before the Windows splash screen appears (just as your computer starts to boot), keep hitting F8 on your keyboard repeatedly. You'll get a menu if you pressed F8 before the splash screen ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jayne T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a marvelous new computer and I have transferred everything onto my new machine but I cannot get to my e-mail address book contents and save and replace them in my new identical software. Do ... you have any idea how I can do this? I am running on Windows 98SE and Outlook Express 5. I have tried to save the information as a Word document and import it. I have saved the file via Explorer and all it saves is the empty address book software. I have also tried to send them as an e-mail document but once received I cannot activate the ... (view more)

I've been diddling around with Windows XP now and again on my system. My first take on Windows XP was "wow, this looks really different", but then quickly realized that different is not necessarily good. All the die-hard Windows users will find that ... they will spend much of their first hours of using Windows XP in order to re-orient themselves with the new interface. But fear not, Windows XP can be configured to look like its predecessors if you're resistant to Microsoft's monopolizing change. The biggest issue I have with any new Microsoft Operating System (OS) -- specifically ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Dan F writes: " Dear Dennis, I have added an additional hard drive to my computer as a slave. I partitioned that hard drive into 4 sections. My CD ROM is now designated as 'H'. My problem is that the computer I purchased came with ... about 50 programs pre-installed that need the CD installed in order to run. When I insert the CD, it tells me to make sure the CD is inserted into drive D. Question: How can I change the path for these programs to look in drive H? I'd reinstall the programs except for two things. The first is time and the second is some of the programs need a ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Freda K. asks, "I frequently get a message that says that I have no more space on my C drive. What do I do?" My response: You have 3 options. Free up space on the C drive by uninstalling infrequently used programs. Go to Start ... -> Settings -> Control Panel. Then double click Add/Remove programs, and uninstall the ones you don't want. Set windows to stop alerting you even if you are low on space. do this by going to My Computer, right-click C drive, select Properties. Under the General Tab, click Disk Cleanup and then go to Settings Tab and remove the ... (view more)