Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Martin R. writes: " The email newsletter I receive from you is showing in my gmail as "unencrypted," with a red pad lock . There is also a new warning banner that says: 'Be careful with this message. It contains content that's ... typically used to steal personal information.' The options are: learn more, report this suspicious message, ignore, or 'I trust this message.' This is not the only email I get that shows as unencrypted. What does this mean and how can it be fixed? " My response: Essentially it means that the mail you received (at gmail) was not sent using email ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a question regarding the Microsoft policy to have Windows 10 reboot after an update automatically. Oftentimes the automatic reboots cause me to lose my work (example: open documents, open ... tabs on my browser, certain folders open, etc). I would prefer to have it so that Windows 10 doesn't reboot on updates. I understand the policy to reboot on update is forced Windows 10 users but can this be prevented? " Update 20200701 : The script below now works with Windows 10 1909 and Windows 10 2004 branches. My response: You can stop Windows 10 ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jerry C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I took your advice on antivirus and tried to install Avast! using minimal settings, but the install fails with an error message ' Avast cannot be installed into the folder you entered (directory not ... empty) '. I have searched for the answer to this but no one seems to know the answer. Can you help? " My response: I asked Jerry if he would like me to connect to his machine using my remote desktop service and he agreed. I have not seen this error message before, and tried running the "Avast Uninstall Utility" to clean up any left-over remnants ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am using a Windows 10 PC. This past weekend, my grandchild made some changes to my PC and now every time there is sound, the screen flashes. I have searched and searched how to fix this but I am ... cannot seem to find a solution. Can you tell me how I can make windows 10 stop flashing on sound? " My response: I have not heard of this issue before but suspected it may have something to do with the "Ease of Access" mechanism which has been built into Windows as far back as Windows XP. According to Microsoft, Ease of Access "helps make your PC ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Harlen W. writes: " Dear Dennis, I own a Dell PowerEdge T110 server, which runs Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation and is equipped with a Dell Perc 300 RAID card . We have 3 x 250 GB hard drives in RAID 5 format attached to the ... Perc 300 RAID card. According to the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (which we use to manage the RAID via the browser), the 'Alert' log file is reporting ' Device failed: Physical Disk 0:1 Controller 0, Connector 0 '. I would like to hire you to help me fix this problem, including testing the failed hard drive . If it passes, I want to put it ... (view more)

Infopackets Ready Sally G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just bought a new Windows 10 laptop and the touchpad scroll does not appear to be working. On my old Vista laptop, I had a scroll bar on the touchpad (on the far right), but the new Windows 10 ... laptop doesn't have this feature. Normally when I open a PDF file I need to zoom in and out. I would do this on the old laptop by pressing CTRL on my keyboard and using the scroll bar on the touchpad. On this laptop, I am at a complete loss. Can you tell me how I can fix my touchpad scroll? " My response: Each laptop manufacturer has their own way of ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sarah H. writes: " Dear Dennis, A few days ago, my PC got stuck updating Windows 10 (for over 30 minutes), so I pulled the power cord out. After that, Windows wouldn't boot to the desktop. It would give me blue screen of death ... (BSOD), then reboot, then BSOD, ad infinitum. I knew it was stuck in a reboot loop, so I decided to install Windows 10 again. During the Windows 10 setup, it asks me to select where to install Windows. I selected the C drive, but I get an error message that says: ' Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Giselle' writes: " Dear Dennis, Recently my Windows 10 computer upgraded to the 'Creators Edition', and now the Windows 10 'Photos' app has magically replaced the 'Windows Photo Viewer'. I absolutely can't stand the 'Photos' app ... and I want Windows Photo Viewer back on my system! I have tried going to Control Panel -> Default Programs to change the settings but Windows Photo Viewer is nowhere to be found! Can you help? " My response: I also noticed that the Windows Photo Viewer went missing with the Creators Edition update. Windows Photo Viewer has been a staple in ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jill G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a Windows 7 Pro machine that we use at work which has a broken Windows Update. I have tried to do an 'upgrade repair' in hopes of fixing the issue, but the Windows installer exits immediately. ... The major issue we're facing is that our Windows 7 machine has new user accounts on it which we did not create - we suspect that it has become compromised because it has not downloaded Windows Updates in over a year. From what I read online, it is possible to upgrade from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 8 Pro (not 8.1!) which will keep my programs and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jeff L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a Windows 7 machine I'm trying to virtualize, which is connected to a Windows Server 2012 network. The issue I'm having is that the newly created virtual machine works fine after it's been ... virtualized but later it won't work. Whenever I try and login to the network, I receive an error message ' The security database on the server does not have a computer account for this workstation trust relationship. ' I am using VMWare Workstation as the hypervisor. I have tried everything I can think of to fix this but there is absolutely no way for ... (view more)