Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader Gene R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I installed Windows 10 when it first became available as a free upgrade, back in August 2015. However, since then my PC has been acting very erratic - as such, I have decided I would like to reset ... it. My question is: if I reset Windows 10 what happens? As far as I recall there is a hard drive partition on my system for resetting the PC - will I still get Windows 10 or will I get Windows 7? What does system restore do? " My response: This is a very frequently asked question, though your question in particular deal with three completely separate ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded to Windows 10. Everything worked fine for a few months, but all the sudden my Start Menu stopped working. To fix that issue, I created a new user account and migrated over my data ... to the new account. Everything worked fine after that - however, my Thunderbird spell check won't work. If I go to Tools -> Options -> Composition -> Spelling tab, it has a check mark beside 'Enable spelling as you type', but the 'Language' option is grayed out. How can I fix this? " My response: I have not had this problem before, so I ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gale S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I read with great interest your series of articles on Mozilla Thunderbird. The last article I read was in regard to Thunderbird: One Inbox, Multiple Email Accounts . Near the end of that article you ... mentioned there would be another editorial piece to explain how to archive emails for offline viewing using Thunderbird. I would personally love to download my Gmail emails to my PC and store them locally. Can you explain how to do that? " My response: I've already written an article on how to do that , though I'd be happy to go over it again in ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Shirley B. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks for your article on how to remove AVG Web TuneUp ! I have a similar question. Recently I downloaded Adobe Flash Player and it came bundled with McAfee Security Scan Plus. I already have ... antivirus software installed on my machine so I don't need it. I tried to remove Mcafee Security Scan Plus using the Control Panel -> Programs and Features, but it won't uninstall. Can you help? " My response: I had a hunch that the removal procedure for McAfee Security Scan Plus was going to be similar to the article I had already written on how ... (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 Gord F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently installed Windows 10 on my PC. Everything has been working fine for over a year, however, all the sudden my Logitech webcam 300 stopped working with Windows 10. I thought perhaps I may ... need to reinstall the driver, so I went to Device Manager to locate the webcam but it is not there anymore. Instead, I see an 'Unknown device' and if I double click it, it says: 'The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28) This operation requires an interactive windows station'. I have absolutely no idea what that means. I tried ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Karin S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently received a letter in the mail from the government requesting additional information on my account. The letter states that I can mail or fax in my information back to them (they won't ... accept email attachments for some reason). As such, I would prefer to fax the information as that is the fastest method. I would like to know if you can recommend a good, free fax service over the Internet that I can use to send this information? Thanks! " My response: I did a bit of research, and there are two popular websites offering free faxes ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader George M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I upgraded to Windows 10 a few months ago - however, just recently when I right click on a file, the 'Open with' option is missing from the menu. For example, normally when I right click on a video ... file, I have the option to 'Open with', and then I can choose Video Lan Player, or Windows Media Player, etc - but that option is no longer available. I have searched the web on how to fix the broken 'Open with' option but NONE of the fixes online work! Can you please help? " My response: I contacted George and asked if he would like to connect to ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Dan A. writes: " Dear Dennis, I upgraded to Windows 10 last year and now all the sudden I keep receiving popup notifications from the Windows 10 Action Centre that my Windows 10 password is about to expire. I have never received ... this password expire notification before. How can I disable these notifications? " My response: I also started receiving these notifications some time in the last two weeks and I'm not sure why. Perhaps there was an update to Windows 10 that caused these notifications to appear. How to Fix: Disable Windows 10 Password Reminder There are a few ways ... (view more)

This article will explain how to keep your email inbox clean, and how to sort and store your email messages locally (or by remote) using Mozilla Thunderbird. This article is the 6th article in a series of articles I've recently written on ... Thunderbird, including: How to Fix: Thunderbird: One Inbox, Multiple Accounts How to Fix: Minimize Thunderbird to Tray Bar (Not Task Bar) How to Fix: Thunderbird Paragraph Mode (Press Enter Twice) How to Fix: Disable Thunderbird Popup Notifications How to Fix: Disable Thunderbird Attachment Reminder How to Fix: Sort and Archive Emails with Thunderbird ... (view more)