Tech Questions & Answers Archives - Page 250 of 250

Q&A: If I upgrade to Windows 8 will I be able to go back to Windows 7?

Posted on February 10, 2013

Question from Elizabeth A.: I’m thinking about upgrading my computer to Windows 8 but I have a question first. If I try Windows 8 for a while and don’t like it will I be able to go back to Windows 7 without losing my files?

Rick’s Answer: Elizabeth, the short answer is yes, but you’ll have to prepare for the potential downgrade from Win 8 to Win 7 before you install the upgrade by creating a System Repair Disc and Backup Image for your current Windows 7 installation (click the link for instructions).

You should create this backup set right before starting the Windows 8 upgrade process to ensure that none of your user-created data files will be lost if you end up deciding to downgrade back to Windows 7 later. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my HP laptop turn on?

Posted on February 5, 2013

Question from Sean W.: I have an HP laptop running Windows Vista. Now all of a sudden it won’t turn on. When I press the power button some of the LEDs light up then go right back out and the system is dead. Do you think my computer is fried? Or maybe the power adaptor?

Rick’s answer: Sean, I don’t think anything is “fried”. I believe a hard reset to the machine will probably get you back up and running. Try this: [Read more…]

Q&A: Is there any way to retrieve the files from my old floppy disks?

Posted on February 4, 2013

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Anna G.: Hi Rick. I read your post the other day about playing old games on new computers and it reminded me that I have a ton of old 3.5″ floppy disks filled with stuff that I’d like to check out and possibly copy onto my hard disk.

The problem is my laptop doesn’t have a floppy disk drive. Any ideas?

Rick’s answer: You’re in luck Anna. All you need to do is buy an external USB 3.5″ floppy drive and plug it into your laptop’s USB port. You’ll be able to view the files on your floppy disks and copy them onto your PC’s hard drive, onto blank DVDs or even onto a USB thumb drive.

There are a couple of things to be aware of however: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I restore my Windows PC to the factory default settings?

Posted on February 3, 2013

Question from Lynn: How do I restore my laptop to the factory settings before I give it to somebody else?

Rick’s answer: Lynn, there are two ways to reset a Windows PC back to its factory settings. The first one is to simply insert the Restore disc into the optical drive and boot from it. You can reinstall Windows from there.

The second option is probably the most widely used one these days since most PCs come without a set of Restore discs and few people take the time to create one. Here are step-by-step instructions for resetting a PC that’s running either Windows 7 or Windows 8… [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is everything I click on trying to open in Notepad?

Posted on January 28, 2013

Question from Kim: Everything was working fine until this morning, but now every time I click on a file it tries to open in Notepad. I can’t open anything! Please help??? My computer has Windows 7 if that matters. Thanks!!

Rick’s answer: It sounds like your file associations have gotten messed up Kim. Your PC’s Windows installation associates virtually all common file types with a specific application that it uses to open that file by default whenever you click on it.

For example, files with the .doc extension are usually opened with Microsoft Word while .xls files typically open in Excel. There are literally dozens of other file types with different extensions, and Windows looks at the extension to decide which program it should use to open that file by default. [Read more…]