control panel

Microsoft has unveiled the latest batch of changes coming to Windows 10. Most are usability improvements, though fans of the Control Panel might be concerned. The changes come in the latest release in the Windows Insider Dev Channel. That's ... recommend only for the most technically confident users and is the first place that new features and changes are tested by people outside of Microsoft itself. One change had already leaked, namely the appearance of the tiles in the Start menu. They will now be partially transparent and will reflect the user's choice of a light or dark theme, the idea being ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a program called 'AVG Web TuneUp' which refuses to uninstall from my system. I have gone to the Control Panel -> Programs and Features and right clicked it, and selected 'Uninstall' ... multiple times. It goes through the process each time and tells me to reboot - however, after the reboot the program is still there. Is there a way I can remove AVG Web TuneUp from my machine manually? " My response: I asked Steve if he would like me to connect to his machine via my remote desktop support service to have a closer look, and he agreed. ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jason B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. After a few days of the upgrade, I keep getting a strange DLL error message stating that 'SysMenu.dll could not be found'. The error ... message always seems to appear right after I boot or reboot the computer, and about 2 or 3 minutes after I gain access to the desktop. The error message is: 'There was a problem starting C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\System\SysMenu.dll. The specified module could not be found.' I have searched Google from high to low on how to fix this error, but the solutions ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Dan F. writes: " Dear Dennis, When I run Windows Update, it tells me there are .NET Framework 3.5 updates available. Should I install these Windows Updates, even though my computer has .NET framework 4.5? Also, should I remove old ... .NET framework (versions 1, 2, etc) from the Windows Control Panel? Or will it cause problems? " My response: I recommend installing Windows Updates as soon as they are available (for the reasons I outlined in the comments section of yesterday's article), as the latest Windows Updates usually address bug fixes or security-related ... (view more)