Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Have you ever tried to delete a file only to have Windows respond that the file cannot be deleted because it is in use by one of your programs, but there are no programs running? This is one of Microsoft Windows’ most irritating annoyances, and it happens all too often.
There are several ways to go about deleting these ‘locked’ files. Try the following in the order in which they are listed until you find a method that works for you: [Read more…]
Question from Anthony H: Rick, I have a favorite program that I’ve been using for many years, but they haven’t updated it since 2006 and it sometimes freezes up on me in Windows 7.
When the program freezes my mouse does too, and the only way to proceed is to unplug the power cable. I really don’t like doing that cause I’m afraid it’ll damage my PC. Is there any way to exit that program gracefully when it freezes using just the keyboard?
Rick’s answer: Hi Anthony. My first suggestion would be to ditch that old, no longer supported program and try to find a modern equivalent that won’t crash your computer when you use it. That being said, I understand completely why you’d rather not do that. In fact, I have a couple of programs on my Windows 7 PC that were released long before yours was and I won’t part with them until I absolutely have to!
To answer your question, there is indeed a way to “kill” a frozen program using just the keyboard. Follow these steps: [Read more…]
In Windows XP we could access the ‘Run’ box directly from the Start Menu, but for some unknown reason Microsoft chose to hide this indispensable tool beginning with the release of Windows Vista.
You can always display the ‘Run’ box by pressing the Windows+R key combination, but most Windows users would prefer to have it right on the Start Menu like it was in XP. If you’re one of them, here’s how to put it on there: [Read more…]
If you have ever used Windows 7 you probably remember creating a System Repair Disc soon after setting up your new PC just in case it ever failed to boot up properly. You can create one for your Windows 8 PC as well, but you also have the option of creating a bootable USB Flash Recovery Drive instead.
You can use either a System Repair Disc or USB Recovery Flash Drive to boot a PC that fails to start up properly into an emergency troubleshooting and repair mode. They both do the job equally well, but I prefer the USB flash drive option for a number of reasons. If you do as well, here’s how to create one in Windows 8: [Read more…]
If you’ve been using Microsoft Windows for a while you have surely seen the “USB Device Not Recognized” error balloon pop up after plugging in a USB device.
This happens fairly often, and most of the time unplugging the device and plugging it back in will fix the problem. But what if you start getting this error every time you plug in a USB device?
If all of your USB devices start generating this error when you plug them in, there is an easy fix: [Read more…]