IT Queries: Computer problems answered

Please advise if there is a FREE download to remove the Crap from my computer. I have tried two but they want a $30 US payment. pcdecrappifier and crapcleaner.com. Can you help?

There’s plenty of tools for removing rubbish from your PC. If you are looking at cleaning your computer up then two free tools are the excellent Cleanup! and the slightly more comprehensive, but more likely to mess up your system, CCleaner.

If you are talking about removing trialware from a new computer. Then we’d recommend going to “Add or Remove Program Files” in the Control Panel and uninstalling unwanted programs first. When you’re finished, download and run the PC Decrapifier.

For all three of these programs, we’d recommend backing up your critical data before running them.

“Most times I switch my computer on my sound doesn’t work.Other times it does.Do you have any idea what is wrong?”

The most common problem is the Windows Audio Service being set to “manual”. To fix this, open your Control Panel, click Administrative Tools then Services.

Scroll down the list until you find Windows Audio, double click on it and change the Startup Type to Automatic.

Click Start and once the service starts, click Okay and you’re back in business.

Recently I have heard a lot about running software to repair the hundreds of faults that you have on your computer that occur in your registry, I`m new to all this computer stuff so just wandering where do I get the software to repair my registry or do I really need to repair it at all?

The registry is the core of Windows operating systems. It’s where all the system settings are kept. If the registry gets damaged, then your system is in trouble.

A lot of registry cleaner programs are snake oil. We’d strongly recommend saving your money.

It’s best for none technical users to avoid doing anything with the registry. This engine of your computer and it’s best to leave it alone unless you know what you are doing.

If you insist on cleaning the registry, CleanReg is a good free program and Microsoft have a registry repair tool called RegClean. Neither these are tested with Microsoft Vista and we’d strongly suggest not using them on Vista systems.

On the subject of snake oil, if you are getting boxes popping up on your system claiming you have registry errors, then it is possible you have a spyware infection. If this is the case, run a scan and contact your local computer tech.

Overall we recommend leaving the registry to qualified computer techs.

I have some emails that I saved and now want to read but when I click on them the wrong program opens and all I see is gobbledygook. How do I get my email program to open them?

What’s happened is your computer is associating the wrong program with the files. When Windows tries to open a file, it looks for three letters at the end of the file which are known the file extension.

Windows keeps a list of programs that open with each file extension. For instance, Microsoft Word documents open with doc while Notepad opens files with the txt extension.

For Outlook, the message are saved with an .msg extension, Outlook Express uses .eml

On your computer, the wrong program is associated with one of those file extensions. To change it do the following.

Right-click on one of the files that won’t open, a menu will appear and select “Open With“. Select “choose program” then find the program you want to use for this type of file, tick the box that says “always use this program to open files of this kind of file” and click “Okay”.

If the program isn’t listed, you’ll have to click “browse” and search the hard drive for the program you want. Most programs are kept in the c:\Program Files folder.

Losing file associations is a nuisance and this is why it’s important to read all messages and notes when installing new software or making changes to your computer.

I use MSN Mail and I’m worried about backing up my email files

Your MSN Mail is hidden away deep in the program settings. To find it, click on start and then either run (Windows XP) or Search (Windows Vista) and type the following:

C:\Documents and Settings\

You’ll get a list of users on the computer. One of those will be your profile name. If you aren’t sure which one it is then note all of them.

Again, click run or search and type. “your_user_name” will be what you found in the previous step. If you aren’t sure which one it was, use each one until it works.

C:\Documents and Settings\your_user_name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN\

When it does work, you’ll see a folder called “DB” which contains your email. Copy it to a flash drive, removable hard drive or anther computer.

A newsletter I subscribe to had an item regarding Broadband speeds. It recommended readers check their download speeds by going to “speedtest.net“

When on that site a link was shown to products which offered access to free applications that would clean your computer and make your computer run faster. Do you know of these applications and are they safe? The applications are listed on the right hand side of the Speedtest screen

Anthony

Hi Tony,

I had a look at that site too. It’s a terrific little setup.

That said, I wouldn’t trust any broadband accelerator with a bargepole. You can slightly improve the speed of your Internet connection with various tweaks and but the risks of messing something up are high. A lot of the paid for accelerators are snake oil and many of the free ones are spyware supported.

We’d recommend you give them a miss.

My Internet Explorer 7 window keeps shutting down by itself. What could be the cause of this problem? I am using Windows XP on a Centrino Duo Laptop.

Thank you!

First of all you need to clean to clean up your browser. First of all, uninstall all toolbar packages, search assistants and similar things that might be loading up with Internet Explorer.

Next, clean out your temporary files. Internet Explorer has a horrible habit of accumulating too much. We recommend using the excellent Cleanup! tool. Make sure you read the instructions before running it.

The next step is to make sure you don’t have any spyware on your computer. We recommend running the free online XScan to start with. If it detects any spyware then you’ll need something stronger like Spybot, Adaware, AVG or a visit from your local computer tech.

If the problem still persists it’s worthwhile uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 and returning to IE6.

It’s also worthwhile running the System File Checker while the computer is in IE6, you can do this by clicking Start, Run and typing SFC /scannow this does take some time and you may be asked to provide your original Windows XP disk.

If the scannow and revert to IE6 work, then reinstall IE7 and see if the problem is then cleared.

Good luck

Currently I can receive and post email however when opening internet explorer 7 I cannot display web pages unless I \”Pause\” Kaspersky.  Any suggestions appreciated

Regards,

Barry 

Hi Barry,

I assume by Kaspersky you mean Kaspersky Internet Security.

What’s happening is the firewall has blocked the program from accessing the net. If the firewall doesn’t trust the program then it won’t let connect. This is what a firewall is supposed to do and why a firewall is an important part of protecting your computer from malware.

Like all firewalls, you can manually change the settings, Kaspersky have the instructions at their website. When you click “add” to the trusted the file path should be %ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe. 

While IE7 is a good browser, we’d still suggest you use Opera or Firefox for day-to-day browsing and only use Internet Explorer for sites that won’t work with the other two.

Good luck

When I click on my Windows Explorer I get a new screen rather that the old one. This new screen warns me of a risk to my security level. I use PC-ciilin already. This new one appears to be a windows explorer security service and tells me I should download asoftware called “Spi Heal” and “Dr Antispy”. Is this a legitimate warning and should I download it. When I close it, my wndows explorer screen closes so I can’t use the internet. Should I get rid of it and, if so, how?

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

You’ve got a spyware infection.

The first step is to do a quick scan using an online scanning program like the XClean online scan. We’d recommend downloading it then restarting in safe mode and running the spyware scan.

Unfortunately these type of warnings usually indicate a fairly advanced infection. Once you’ve cleaned it, it might be worthwhile to run a system restore to an earlier point which will hopefully not be infected.

If you continue getting these messages, you’ll need to call your local friendly computer tech. Make sure you back up your important data as it might be best to reformat your computer.

Suddenly, all software programs on my computer (Windows XP) have become “.lnk” files and I am unable to open them.

What caused this? and how do I overcome the problem?

Please help!

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

What has happened is your computer has forgotten how to deal with these files, in computer languate they have “lost their associations”. This problem is usually caused by an errant software package messing with the settings. Some security programs like Lavasoft Adaware block the files with the same result.

Fixing it is awkward and might require the services of a technician. There is a simple fix you can try before getting on the phone.

Open the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F5 key as the computer starts. You should press the key just after the black and white screen but before the “starting Windows screen” appears. You might have to do this a few times before you time it right.

Once in safe mode, click “Start” then “Run” and type “CMD”. A command box appears. In the command box type the following:

“%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe”.

The System Restore function will start and you can take the system back to the point before this started.

If this doesn’t work, Doug Knox has some tools to fix it on his website, you can download them from his web pag. Be warned that these are not for the inexperienced. If you don’t understand what you are doing, you need to consult an experienced technician.