IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I recently visited the website of a large multi-national finance company to check details of a contract we have with them.
Since visiting their website, I have sent a number of emails and received replies from their Australian office.
I am using Windows XP Pro SP3 with Norton 360. I use both Outlook and Outlook Express as email client programs.
After visiting the website of this finance company, I noticed that many of my desktop icons and shortcut icons have changed. Instead of showing icons for Norton 360 or other shortcuts that are normally on my desktop, I now see icons with the logo of this finance company instead. The icon titles are still the same as they used to be.
Any ideas? How do I fix this?
Is this because this company has placed a series of cookies on my PC?

It doesn’t sound like something the finance company would have done. What has probably happened is something in your Windows XP registry has managed to mess itself up.

The simplest fix is to visit the Kelly’s Korner XP Tweaks website and download the Restore Desktop Icons and Taskbar tool (line 195).

Run the tool, while watching out for warning messages from Norton and Windows about the dangers of running Visual Basic Scripts, and that should clear the problem.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO OPEN A FILE THAT WAS CREATED IN A NEWER VERSION OF WINDOWS ON OLDER VERSION OF WORD?

First, don’t type in caps, it’s the Internet equivalent of shouting. See our email etiquette guide for more information on this. 

Yes, it is and we’ve discussed it previously when answering the I can’t read Office 2007 documents query.

One thing to keep in mind is that really old versions of Word may not work with the Office compatibility kit so you may have to install the Microsoft Word reader instead.

Further to our post on disabling unsolicted downloads, here are the instructions on disabling Quick Time’s update services.

In Windows, click Start, Control Panel  and select QuickTime.

The QuickTime preferences panel has a number of tabs across the top. Select Updates and take the tick off Check for updates automatically. Click OK and it’s done.

The process is the same for the Apple Mac, click the Apple Icon in the top left hand corner, select Preferences and go to the Quick Time preferences from there.

With all programs, QuickTime is updated on a regular basis so it’s a good idea to check for updates every month or so.

The first way of reducing unsoliticed downloads is to turn off Windows Automatic Updates.

To do this, click start, settings and click on Control Panel. 

On Windows XP machines, it may be necessary to click Switch to Classic View

In the Control Panel, click Automatic Updates (for XP) or Windows Update (for Vista).

Once in the Update control panel, click the option “Notify me but don’t automatically download or install them”

Note that it is important to regularly update your operating system as they are an important part of protecting your computer from newly discovered bugs and security flaws.

This is an easy one! In Vista Home Basic, how can I have Explorer opening up in full screen everytime i open it up and other pages.

Yep, that’s pretty easy, but it is an irritating Internet Explorer habit of remembering the size it was last opened at.

To fix this, close all Internet Explorer pages then open a single Internet Explorer page. Click on each corner of the IE screen and drag it to the size you want.

Hold down the CTRL key and close IE. In future it will start in that size.

Another alternative is to reset Internet Explorer. Be warned though that this can change other settings. Microsoft have instructions on doing this and list what features are reset.

I just zapped a brand new office desktop by neglecting to switch the voltage from 110V to 220V. We operate in a 220V country, but we buy all our computers from the US (110V). There was an immediate, short, loud zapping noice as soon as I plugged the cable to the electrical outlet, and smoke came out of the back of the CPU.

What can I do to salvage this desktop?

This is a pretty common problem when plugging a US purchased computer into 220 or 240v mains system. While you get an impressive bang, it usually only destroys the power supply.

Just take the computer to your friendly local computer shop and get them to replace the power supply. Usually this will cost less than $100.

Try to get a power supply rated at least 400 watts as many systems only come with 200w power supplies or less which mean you can have problems when power hungry peripherals are plugged into the USB ports.

USB problem – write protection

I have three USB drives – LG, DSE and Verbatum – which have all somehow write- protected themselves – (on three different computers)

What is happening?  What can I do?

It sounds like a file autorun.inf has found its way onto the flash drives.

Click Start, Search, find all files and folders and type autorun.inf into the file name box. Below that choose your USB drive in the look in box and under more Advanced Option choose Search hidden files and folders.

Then click the Search button.

Any autorun.inf files the computer finds should be renamed to autorun.old. When you remove and reinsert the drive, the problem should have gone away.

The cause of this is almost certainly some software writing to the drives. You’ll need to watch closely to find what’s causing this.

Help! I’m being overwhelmed by emails offering free Auto Identification Cards and confirming air tickets with airlines I’ve never heard of.

Do not open the attachments on these emails!

This is a nasty little piece of malware known as the Ztob Trojan, it pulls all the tricks in the book including disabling firewalls, anti viruses, spamming your inbox and, finally, stealing your credit card details.

Using emails claiming to be spurious airline ticket bookings to spread the thing shows how devious the malware writers are. While it reminds us of the Anna Kournakova virus of 2001, the motives are totally different. It shows how things have changed in the last seven years and today viruses are written by organised crime to rob you.

We need to be careful with these things this Trojan is rapidly being rewritten by the malware designers and many antivirus programs are having trouble keeping up with the changes. We do have some discussion about this in our PC Rescue newsletter.

Do not open anything with a .Zip attachment unless you have confirmed with the sender this is a legitimate file.

Sadly there’s not a great deal we can do about these emails as the spammers are ahead of the curve on this one. All we can suggest is keeping your security software up to date and practice safe computing.

I am unable to access Task Manager from the task bar in XP Pro, it is “greyed out”

Can you help please?

It sounds like you are logging in as a Limited User or your profile has restrictions added to it. The first thing to try is holding down the Control, Alt and Delete keys together to see if the Task Manager starts. If it does there is a problem with the shortcut.

The next thing to check is User privileges. Open the Control Panel, click Users and check that your profile has Administrative rights. If it doesn’t, you need to logon as an Administrator to run MSConfig.

If you have account limitations on your machine, it may be this has been set as part of an office installation. This is one reason why we recommend avoiding second hand computers. To overcome this, you will have to remove the restrictions and it may be easier to reinstall Windows.

Fiddling with these settings can be risky. We recommend calling a technician to look at it if you are not computer savvy.

We have a laptop with Windows XP loaded. We have forgetten the password to unlock it on startup.

We’ve covered this problem before and it’s relatively easy to fix if you are competent with computers, patient and have another machine available.

If you find the program difficult to use, then you should call in a computer tech.

Once you do get the problem fixed, it’s important to run the XP Password Reset Tool. Microsoft have instructions on how to do this, however you will need a floppy disk.