Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader "Sue" writes: " Dear Dennis, I've recently upgraded to Windows 10 and now the 'My Computer' icon is missing from my desktop. Now I don't know how to get to my files! I am completely lost and also very frustrated. Can you help? " ... My response: If memory serves correct, the "My Computer" icon was removed from the desktop starting with Windows 8, and is now called "This PC". Personally, I have always used "My Computer" as a starting point whenever I need to access a file or folder located somewhere on my hard drive, so I am not really sure why Microsoft decided to stop placing ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader "Ainsley" writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm using Windows 10. My screen has two big black bars on either side of it taking up approximately 2 inches on each side, shrinking my available screen. I have tried updating the video driver and ... restarting. This did not help. I have googled the issue and found your article ' How to Fix: Windows 10 Black Border (Shrinking Screen) ', but I don't see the windows registry entry that starts with 'DALR6 DFPI'. Please advise. Thank you. " My response: This is one of the most frequently asked questions I receive, having written 5 articles on the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader "Ivar" writes: " Dear Dennis, I just upgraded to Windows 10 and am using a monitor with 60hz and 1600x900 resolution. Since the upgrade, I have encountered problems with my screen shifting whenever I play some games. When this ... happens, my screen shifts to the left, leaving a black bar of about 4 centimeters on the right side. This only seems to happen when the games change resolution to 1024x768 - however, in Windows 7, changing resolutions worked flawlessly. I came across your article on how to calibrate your screen , and looked for the 'auto calibration' button you ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Elijah N. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have an HP laptop with Windows 10. Yesterday the laptop was working perfectly fine, but this morning I tried to turn it on and all I get is a black screen. The power light turns on, and the ... screen appears to be on (the screen backlight is on), but the screen is black and it won't boot into Windows 10. Nothing happens. What can I do to get my laptop working? " My response: This is a fairly common issue, and is either a hardware problem or a Windows boot problem. Some possibilities include: the laptop motherboard or display may have died, or ... (view more)

Infopackets Shelly R. writes: " Dear Dennis, Every once in a while, when I try and delete a folder on my network share, Windows tells me that 'This action can't be completed because the folder or file in it is open in another program'. I click the ... 'Try again' button multiple times but that rarely ever works. Can you please tell me why this keeps happening and what I can do to delete the file / folder? " My response: The reason why you receive the 'File in use' error (or 'Folder in use' error) is exactly that - the file or folder is in use by some other program, however, Windows isn't saying ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jane T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and have been using the Edge browser fairly extensively. One thing that really bothers me is that when I first start Edge, it displays a bunch of photos on the ... screen, including: My News feed, News, Entertainment, Sports, Money, Lifestyle, and Autos. Is there any way to disable these permanently so that only Edge shows up? I really don't care to read any of those items - in fact, I'd much rather just have Google as my home page. Can you help? " My response: By default Edge will display the items you mention, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader "AJ" writes: " Dear Dennis, After having a conversation with Microsoft tech support yesterday, I realized that I was scammed. I took necessary steps to cancel credit card. I do not do business on my machine - just communication ... with friends, etc. I do see that the techs that took my money have done some work on my computer and it seems to run a lot better. Question: is it still harmful to leave my computer as-is, or should I hire another tech to clean my machine again? The people that took my money also gave me their phone numbers so that I can be in contact with them at ... (view more)

Infopackets reader Julia R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently installed Windows 10 and while cleaning things up, inadvertently installed a program called 'Advanced PC Care' from my Download folder. Now when I go to use Internet Explorer 11 and Edge ... in Windows 10, I receive an error message stating: 'There is a problem with this website's security certificate,' no matter what website I try and visit. I have uninstalled the Advanced PC Care program but both IE11 and Edge are broken. I am completely at my wits end. Can you help? " My response: I asked Julia if she would like me to connect to her ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Tom S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have an older Windows Vista machine and I'm trying to upgrade it to a clean install of Windows 7. The problem is that this PC is an all-in-one unit, and the DVD drive is broken; replacing it would ... be extremely difficult. I had a friend of mine convert the Windows 7 installation DVD into a bootable USB thumb drive, but it appears that my system does not support booting from USB. I also tried running the Windows setup.exe file from the thumb drive on my Vista desktop, but I receive a message that 'Windows installation could not be started from ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader David L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I read your article about still being able to upgrade to free Windows 10 even after the deadline. I've downloaded the Windows10Upgrade24074.exe file and ran it; however, it takes over an hour to ... download the files and then the Windows 10 upgrade assistant gets stuck at 99% complete. I have tried doing this 5 times and the upgrade assistant keeps getting stuck at 99%. I've left it for an entire day and - as you may have guessed - Windows 10 upgrade assistant is still stuck at 99% complete. What can I do to get the free Windows 10 upgrade, and/ ... (view more)