Search Results for: create system image

10 New Years Resolutions that every computer user should keep

Posted on January 1, 2014

2014 I’ve never really been one to make New Years Resolutions, but this year I’ve come up with 10 of them that can help all of us keep our computers running smoothly and the hackers at bay. I hope you find at least a few of them useful.

Note: All of the links contained within the following list of resolutions will open in a new window. This will make it easy to return to the next resolution by simply closing the current browser window or tab.

Rick’s 10 New Years Resolutions for computer users: [Read more…]

How to reclaim 6GB of wasted disk space after upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1

Posted on November 17, 2013

windows-8-1 If you have recently upgraded your Windows 8 installation to Windows 8.1, you can reclaim 6GB of hard drive space by removing the old Windows 8 files. Here’s a little background info for you…

When you upgrade to a newer version of Microsoft Windows, the version being replaced is retained in a folder called Windows.old just in case the upgrade fails or you wish to revert back to the previous version for some reason.

The amount of space required to store the previous version of Windows varies depending on the versions involved. Since you have just upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, you now have roughly 6GB of old (and now useless) Windows 8 system files just sitting there taking up valuable disk space. [Read more…]

Q&A: Is it possible to uninstall a bad Windows Update?

Posted on October 12, 2013

Question from Brandon H.: The other day I checked to see if there were any Windows Updates available for my PC and saw that there was an optional update for my video card available.

I installed the update and immediately after the reboot my PC began running very slowly. Programs take forever to load, web pages open slowly if at all, and none of my games will run correctly.

Is there any way to uninstall a bad update or will I need to reinstall Windows 7? What really sucks is this was an optional update which means I didn’t really have to install it in the first place!

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why can’t my Acer Aspire 5251 get past “Setup is starting services” message?

Posted on August 21, 2013

Question from Todd B.: Rick, I turned my laptop on yesterday morning and it suddenly shut off in the middle of the boot process. I turned it back on and it started to load Windows again, but then it displayed the message “Setup is starting services” and just sat there.

I finally gave up waiting for it to resume and turned it off, but now every time I turn it on it gets stuck at the same message.

I hope you can tell me how can I fix this? It’s an Acer Aspire 5251 running Windows 7. Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Stop your PC from going to sleep at the most inconvenient times

Posted on August 1, 2013

Have you ever been reading a lengthy article or watching a video and had your computer go into sleep mode or activate the screensaver right in the middle of it? Me too, and it can get rather annoying.

Depending on your system’s power settings, Windows will often think you aren’t using your PC if several minutes go by without you pressing a key or moving the mouse, and it will happily activate your screensaver or go into sleep mode. And when that happens it’s usually at the most inconvenient time possible.

A great free download called Caffeine will keep Windows from interrupting your work even when it thinks that the computer is sitting idle. Just activate it when you know you’ll be doing something for a while that doesn’t require keyboard or mouse activity, then de-activate it when you’re done. That way you can leave your power settings as they are.

Here’s how to use Caffeine to keep your PC active during long periods with no keyboard or mouse activity: [Read more…]