IT Queries: Computer problems answered

My hard drive just got replaced. I have Windows 7. We set up outlook for my e-mails. It works with my go-daddy account, no problem sending and receiving e-mails.

However, if I’m on a web site, and I decide to right click it and e-mail the web site somewhere, it wants to send it via windows live, instead of defaulting to my outlook instead. How do I get it to work and e-mail from my outlook?

The problem lies with Outlook not being your default email program. To fix this, click the Start Button and select Control Panel.

In the Control Panel screen, select Programs then Default Programs and Set Default Programs.

In the Set Your Default Programs list, highlight Microsoft Office Outlook and click the Set this program as default. Click OK and Outlook will now be the program used for all email function.

I am trying to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 and I’ve purchased a Western Digital external Hard drive so that I use the Windows easy transfer but I cannot save anything to this drive as it doesn’t appear as one of the available drives.

In Device Manager it shows as working correctly. It uses Windows USB drives so I have checked these. I have also used WD Help and they initially thought I had a faulty or damaged drive but I have the same problem with the replacement drive.

The likely problem is Windows has given the wrong drive letter to your external disk which is already in use by another device. This is a common problem on networks.

To fix it, you need to tell the system to change the drive letter. To do this, right-click My Computer, then click Manage and select Computer Management (Local)

On the right hand side of the screen (pictured above) click Disk Management then right-click the new drive and select Change Drive Letter and Path(s).

Click Change, and in the list, select a drive letter for the external drive that isn’t being used by another drive. It’s usually best to leave a few letters spare so this doesn’t happen again, for instance if the existing drives are C:, D: and E:, choose H or I. A good choice is R for “Removable Drive”.

When you’ve selected the new drive letter, click OK, and then click OK again.

My windows XP won’t start. I shut down the computer yesterday, today when I started it it will run till the windows boot screen, when the bar reaches the end the screen will stay black and nothings happens

Really appreciate any help.

The problem sounds hard drive related and running the Windows XP CHKDSK command to see if there are any errors on the disk is the best first step to fix the problem. The old Scandisk command went out with Windows ME.

When you boot from the hard drive, you need to choose the Recovery Mode option which allows you to run basic operations on the system without reintsalling. Microsoft have instructions getting into it on their website. Once you are in the Recovery Mode, type the command CHKDSK /r and be prepared to let the disk check run for anything up to several hours.

If you have important data on the system, it would be best to boot the system from a Knoppix disk and copy all valuable information across to an external drive before carrying out any work.

I have many things that appear twice or more in my add or Delete programs file.Why is this …J2SE Runtime three times.

What is all this stuff and do i really need it all taking up space on my hard-drive…. Grateful for any intelligent but simple language reply Thanks

Sometimes Windows programs don’t behave as they should and you get multiple entries but in this case, it appears they are legitimate programs. Java is particularly notorious for leaving older versions on your computer.

The first thing to do is to run the Windows Installer clean up tool which we’ve described in an earlier post. This will clear out any problems.

For programs like Java which have installed multiple versions, it’s probably best to uninstall all of them then download and install the latest version from the Sun Java website.

In the case of the Windows Updates, these are best left alone as they are specific fixes for known Windows problems. Should Microsoft release a Windows XP Service Pack 4, then it may be worthwhile deleting these before installing the new upgrade.

The Visual C++, we don’t know. Do you have a programmer in your household? If so, best let them deal with it or leave the program alone.

Otherwise, it’s best to delete anything you don’t use often. However the general rule with computer is “if you don’t know what it does, then leave it alone” and that certainly applies to your Add/Remove programs.

What is indexing?

Indexing is noting the names and contents of files so it’s easier to find them later. It’s like the index of a book where you can quickly look up which pages a word, name or phrase appears rather than reading the whole book.

In the computer world and on the Internet, indexing speeds up looking for things as the process of searching through millions of websites or folders for your search would be painfully slow.

On Windows computers, there is the Indexing Service which was designed by Microsoft to speed up search. Unfortunately it never really worked that well and we recommend disabling it.

Overall, Indexing is a good thing as it makes life easier for us in the Information economy. It isn’t foolproof though and if it’s poorly done it can cause problems.

I am running windows 7 ultimate, and installed office 2003. I use outlook for my emails, but when I connect to myInternet service provider (ISP) to retrieve messages from a Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) server, my password is not retained even though I chose to save the password. Entering the correct password again does not resolve the issue. I have tried deleting that account and redoing it, but I still have the same trouble. Also when some friends sent pictures they come in as attachments rather than on the email. I asked it they pasted onto the email or sent as attachments but they have said that they sent it pasted on the email. Is there is a setting that I must change to fix this?

This is a difficult problem as there’s a number of settings that affect how Windows and Outlook retain passwords. The first thing is to visit the Microsoft Update site and make sure both Windows and Office are updated with the latest patches and service packs. Sometimes you have to repeat the process a number of times so keep visiting the update site until you’re told there are no more critical updates.

Once you’ve fully updated your computer, reboot and see if the problem has gone away. If not, open Outlook, choose Tools from the menu bar and select options . In the Options window, select Security.

In the Security settings, select the Zone Settings box. You’ll be prompted about the fact you’re about to change security settings, click OK.

The box that will then open is the Internet Options windows. Select Local intranet and click the custom level button.

Security Settings – Local Intranet Zone will then appear. Scroll to the bottom of the list to User Authentication and tick the Automatic logon with current user name and password. Click okay until you’re back to Outlook, shut down Outlook and reboot your computer.

On rebooting, you’ll be asked for your password one more time, make sure the Remember this password box is ticked and the problem should go away.