Windows Tips

Tue
26
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Mouse is frozen sometimes in Windows XP?, Part 2

Recall Jack G.'s question from last week: " Every now and then my mouse is frozen when I boot up Windows XP. Is their anything I can do to fix this problem? " Since then, I've received a whole whack of suggestions from readers of the Gazette. In ... fact, I couldn't believe how many people share the same problem as Jack. Unfortunately, it would appear that there is not a one-set solution to this problem. So, I'll give you the best of the suggestions I received and hopefully it may resolve some of your problems. Suggestion #1: CTRL + ALT + DEL The most popular (temporary) solution was to ... (view more)

Wed
20
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

My Shutdown Menu is Missing?, Part 2

Recall yesterday's Visitor Feedback question which dealt with a disappearing Shutdown menu: " I'm running Windows 2000 Pro. When I try to shut down the machine by clicking on Start -> Shutdown, I no longer have the option to Shutdown, Restart, or ... Hibernate! In fact, the machine automatically does a restart, offering *no* choices when Start -> Shutdown is clicked... " There were many good suggestions sent in from the Infopackets Readers. Since I've never experienced this problem before, I can only guess at the most probable answers, starting with Pattie W.'s suggestion: " ... (view more)

Tue
19
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

My Shutdown Menu is Missing?

Infopackets Reader Larry O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 2000 Pro. When I try to shut down the machine by clicking on Start -> Shutdown, I no longer have the option to Shutdown, Restart, or Hibernate! In fact, the machine ... automatically does a restart, offering *no* choices when Start -> Shutdown is clicked. The only way I can actually shut this computer down is to either pull the plug from the outlet or to hit the sleep button on the keyboard. Any ideas? " My Response: I have no idea on this one -- aside from maybe a Registry Tweak (where to start?) or, worse yet ... (view more)

Thu
14
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Required Dll not Found Error Message?, Part 2

Recall: Yesterday, Don W. sent in a question which asked why he kept getting a Window every time Windows booted up saying that the file "DDRAW.DLL" could not be found . My suggestion to Don was to search for the .DLL on his system and try to locate ... the program folder to determine where the .DLL came from, uninstall the program, and then reinstall it in hopes of clearing up the error message he was receiving. Unfortunately, I forgot that some Windows operating systems will not display a .DLL file by default. Furthermore -- as Darren B. points out, the DDRAW.DLL file is actually a ... (view more)

Wed
13
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Required Dll not Found Error Message?

Infopackets Reader Don W. writes: " I have Windows 98 second edition. Just recently when windows is loading it gives an error popup; A required DLL file -- DDRAW.DLL -- was not found. Windows seems to operate as usual, but I really don't know what ... this file does and how to resolve this problem. Do you have a suggestion? " My Response: Click Start -> Find -> Files / Folders and type in the DLL file name. The result should come up with a folder that the DLL has been installed to -- this should give you an indication what the program is for. After that, you can attempt to ... (view more)

Wed
06
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Uninstall Windows Media Player beta 9?

Infopackets Reader Liz H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I appreciated the information on how to uninstall MSN/Windows Messenger -- although, I personally like it -- but, I'd rather see how to uninstall Windows Media Player (v9.0 beta specifically for Win ... XP) WITHOUT reformatting the hard drive or using System Restore. I'm of the opinion it can't be done without resorting to these fairly drastic measures. PS: Thank you for these wonderful newsletters! " My Response: I visited the Microsoft download web site in search of Media Player 9, and I found these comments: " Note: [Windows Media Player beta 9 ... (view more)

Tue
05
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Space used by programs, Part 2

Last week's Visitor Feedback question asked, "How how can I tell what programs are taking all my space in my hard drive?" My first thought to this question was to use a minimalist approach, because I believe in "doing things myself" -- providing ... that the proposed solution is relatively simple. If you recall, my answer to the above question was straightforward: right-click on a folder and display its folder Properties, and have Windows display its disk usage. This gives a very general idea as to how much space was being used by an installed program. Fact: Programs that are ... (view more)

Tue
05
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Uninstall MSN Messenger for Windows XP, Part 2.5

My last attempt to show how to remove MSN Messenger from Windows XP appeared to worked fine for me, but I received emails from folks who have MSN Messenger popping up in their face *still* whenever AOL is loaded or whenever there is an update. Death ... to MSN Messenger -- for good. Jeff R. sent me his thoughts and a final solution to remove MSN Messenger from the Windows Registry: " It appears that your previous article is confusing Windows Messenger with MSN Messenger*. These are both separate programs. Windows Messenger is the one that installs with Windows XP. * The "Windows ... (view more)

Thu
31
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Space used by Programs, Part 1

Infopackets Reader Victor V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I love your newsletters and read them every time I receive it. I have a question for you and I hope you can help. Can you tell me how can I tell what programs are taking all my space in my hard ... drive and how to remove them? I am running out of space! " My Response: To get a general idea of what is installed on your system, you could start with the Add / Remove programs in the Control Panel. Here you will find a list of installed programs. Since all programs are installed to folders (99.99% of the time, anyway), you can then attempt ... (view more)

Tue
22
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Download Kazaa Lite 2.0

There's lots o' interesting news to tell you in this issue of the Gazette. Recall that October 16th's issue of the Gazette proposed the question of whether or not Kazaa (Sharman Networks) implemented some sort of cap on bandwidth (downloads). I ... received a few suggestions from our readers, and without further adieu, let me attempt coordinate some of their thoughts. Kooby writes: " I updated to Kazaa v2 to find this new thing called a kazaa participation level. Because I have a cable modem (high speed internet) with only mediocre upload speed, I don't share any files with other Kazaa ... (view more)

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