Operating System

Uninstalling and Reinstalling Programs

July 3, 2011 By Terry Stockdale

Every once in a while, we decide to uninstall a program because we don’t need it any longer. We go to Start / Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs. After Windows shows the list of programs we can uninstall, we select the one and click on the Remove button. Sometimes, we have to go to the Start Menu section for that program in order to find the uninstall program.

The process is usually very easy. Some programs, unfortunately, do not always clean up after themselves properly when they uninstall themselves.

“When they uninstall themselves?” Yes; although you might believe that Windows is actually uninstalling a program when you use the Add/Remove Programs tool, all you are really doing is running the program’s own uninstall routine. The programmer has to create the uninstall program and register it with your copy of Windows for it to show up in that list.

There are some third-party programs that are designed to monitor program installations so that they know what to “put back” if you use the third-party program to do uninstalls. Norton CleanSweep is one that comes to mind. You can buy it separately or as part of the Norton Systemworks package.

Sometimes, though, the uninstall completes but leaves your computer disabled in some way. Norton Antivirus 2002 was such a program — on some computers, it would uninstall perfectly. On others, it would not remove one of its settings in the Windows Registry. I had NAV2002 uninstall perfectly on two computers and fail to remove a registry setting on two others.

Unfortunately, the setting told Windows not to …

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Reinstalling Windows XP Upgrade On An Old Computer

June 10, 2010 By Terry Stockdale

Subscriber Louis Zarowin wrote this week to ask for some guidance. Louis needs to reinstall Windows XP on an old computer that had been upgraded to Windows XP.

At a time like that, we always worry about whether we’ve found all the needed disks and files, so we can make sure that all our software and hardware works again.

Terry:

I have a somewhat older computer I still use (Dell Optiplex GX-110) and I recently was told by “Dell Tech. Suport” who was on line screen sharing with me that I need to re-install the operating system on it all over again.

It originally had a “Windows 98 S. E. on it” then before I actually got it, it was upgraded somehow to “Windows XP Professional” but the problem with just going ahead and re-installing the “Windows XP Professional” all over again is that the “Drivers/Drives” aren’t directly there, so I was advised that if I can re-install the “Windows 98 S. E. again” then “Upgrade to Windows XP Professional” this would be fine as the “Drivers/Drives” for that older operating system can simply be downloaded from the “Dell Website” as they still have them for that older operating system, but they don’t have them for “XP Professional” from what they told me already.

Microsoft will be sending me the “Disc to Upgrade to XP Professional” shortly but I need the “Windows 98 S. E. Original Disc” and that may be difficult to find right now.

Do you have any further information and/or possible suggestions that can help me?

I trust that you will reply to me about this issue when you have a chance and thanks for the assistance in this.

Yours Very Truly,

Louis R. Zarowin

I wrote back to Louis to suggest that he try to get a replacement Windows 98 SE cdrom from Dell. That’s his best bet if he can’t find his original Windows 98 SE cdrom..

Whether you have to install Win98 before installing WinXP or not…

Continue reading Reinstalling Windows XP Upgrade On An Old Computer

Filed Under: Operating System, Software, System, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Windows Updates, Windows XP

A First Look at Windows 7

November 15, 2009 By Terry Stockdale

Well, the install was a pain. Not really — but my initial install worked extremely smoothly until Windows rebooted.

At that point, it simply failed to boot with an ambiguous error message that was less than helpful. It told me to reboot the installation DVD and select the Repair option.

When I did selected Repair, there were five new options that showed up. Fortunately, one seemed appropiate — automatically fix the windows installation (or something like that). Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The only good thing was it told me that it was unable to fix it.

Here’s what the real problem was, which was not identified by the Windows 7 RC installation: I was trying to install Windows 7 on a Logical drive within an Extended partition. So far, every Windows version has required that it be installed in a Primary partition.

Continue reading A First Look at Windows 7

Filed Under: Operating System, Software, System, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows 7

ReImage for Windows XP

June 8, 2009 By Terry Stockdale

I received a question from Adam, a Terry’s Computer Tips web site visitor recently, who was having problems with two of his computers:

Hey Terry, just read your XP SP3 woes, got another one two for you. i have a small home network running with shared internet connection. When SP3 came out both computers immidiately downloaded the update. on PC1 the same happen to as did to your previous writer with the dvd-rom issue (gave up and bought another) on PC2 my onboard network adaptor, uh, mulfunctioned and my computer no longer registers any outside computers from my network port. i do not want to use system restore point. is there a way of repairing online? SP2 cd does not work

I wrote back to Adam to tell that there is a new online service about which I have been reading, that might be what he was looking for. InformationWeek, NetworkWorld and eWeek had very interesting articles about it. I also advised him that I have not tried ReImage yet.

Continue reading ReImage for Windows XP

Filed Under: Driver Corruption, Operating System, System, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows XP

HOWTO: Open a Program in a Maximized Window

January 17, 2009 By Terry Stockdale

With some programs, we always may want to open them in maximized (full-screen), or even minimized (hidden), mode. Windows allows us to accomplish this via a setting in a program’s shortcut.

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Filed Under: Operating System, Performance Tweaks, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Windows XP

Making the Quick Launch Bar Accessible

December 14, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

Subscriber Helen Day wrote to ask about the Quick Launch bar:

How to keep the “quick launch” bar exposed when I’m using different programs. Regardless of what I open I have to minimize to find the bar and some programs won’t let me do that. I tried changing the resolution but that didn’t work.

The Quick Launch bar is a portion of the Windows Task Bar that is used as a mini-menu. If you put a program icon in the Quick Launch bar, you can start the program with one click. Although many programs want to install their icons in the Quick Launch bar, it’s real use if to make your favorite programs easily accessible.

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Filed Under: Operating System, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows XP

More Windows XP SP3 Woes

October 7, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

Reader Tom Linton wrote about is problems that occurred when he installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 shortly after it was released:

Terry,

I made the mistake of not being patient. SP3 had been out about a week and I hadn’t seen very much in the various email newsletters I subscribe to. A few friends had told me they installed SP3 and had no troubles. One even commented that his PC ran noticeably faster after the upgrade. So, I went ahead and upgraded 2 of my 3 PCs. Bad timing!

My primary PC (a Gateway GM5045H) did not appreciate the medicine, my secondary PC (my hand me down to my wife, a DELL Dimension 8200) upgraded with no know problems, and my third PC is to old to run XP.

My Gateway refused to run I.E.7, crashed my Media Center, would not let me connect to the Internet, and generally ran very slow. There may have been other problems I didn’t wait around to find out about. I did research (which I should have done before the SP3 upgrade, but I trusted MS to get this right since it was so long coming) with my wifes PC. The consensus was to uninstall SP3. I did this. My Media Center worked again but I.E.7 refused. I uninstalled I.E.7 back to I.E.6. It seemed to work OK. I upgraded to I.E.7 and it crashed again. Back to I.E.6. I only use I.E. for those pages that will not run properly in Firefox.

My real problem is my personal LAN. All the other PCs can see my main PC but my main PC cannot see them. Network Magic could not resolve the problem. I have searched the Internet and tried several suggestions on various forums. None have restored my ability to see my other PC’s on my LAN. I cannot PING the other PC’s. It is like the SP3 upgrade changed some settings to tighten up LAN security, but I cannot find how to undo them.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Tom,

Tom said that he could not ping the the other computers from his computer. — by name – or by ip address? If you can’t by IP address, then something is blocking them. If you can ping by IP address but not by name, you would know that it’s Windows name resolution that is causing the problem.

I suggested …

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Filed Under: Bug Fixes, Microsoft Updates, Operating System, Patches, Security Fixes, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows Updates, Windows XP

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Woes

October 5, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

So far, I’ve still avoided installing the new Windows XP Service Pack 3. I know that a lot of people have installed it without any problems.

However, when there is a problem, it is not trivial! Recently, two subscribers wrote to tell me of their horror stories and ask for suggestions on solving them.

Delmer Tergarden wrote to say that he had installed Windows Service Pack SP3 and the drivers for both the CD and DVD drives stopped working. Even though he restored the system to its state just before back up, his CD and DVD drives still were not recognized by Windows. He wanted to know how to get the drives working again.

I wrote back to say:

I haven’t installed XP SP3 yet, to avoid running into any of the early-adapter problems like you did. That’s why I think Microsoft made a blunder in its choice to push SP3 as a high-importance update as its initial release. It really abuses our trust of the update system.

Anyway, …

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Filed Under: Operating System, Security, Security Fixes, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows Updates, Windows XP

Staying Up-to-Date – Problem Running Online Games

August 6, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

I received an email from subscriber Bev, who wrote that she was having problems running some online games:

Hi, Love your newsletter and look forward to it. I don\’t know how to explain myself very well so you can shorten my description immensely. I have an HP Vista Home Premium 3 months old. 2 gig ram. I play games on Pogo.com every day. I have an HP Laptop XP Pro 2 years old. I have a Linksys router G 4 port 802.11G I use Cox Cable IP. I have been having a big aggravating problem with my game page just dropping out losing my progress. I play Mahjong Garden and many others. It leaves a page saying Unable to connect to server.

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Filed Under: IE, Microsoft Updates, Operating System, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips

Outlook Express Links Don’t Work

January 14, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

I received an interesting question from subscriber Maria. She has been using Firefox, as many people do, including me. In this case, she had just upgraded her Internet Explorer to IE7 and was having problems with Outlook Express.

Maria wrote:

Terry, I currently have Fire Fox and Internet Explorer on my computer. I just added the Internet Explorer as a browser after removing it some time ago. Outlook Express is my default email handler. The problem is that in Outlook Express the links don’t open since I added Internet Explorer. [Tech guy] at [a local computer shop] says that it seams like the two are competing I am hoping that you have some ideas as I have tried a few from a Google search.

Fortunately for Maria, I had seen this problem before and thought I knew the answer.

Internet Explorer 7 messes up Outlook Express’ settings if Internet Explorer is not the default web browser when it is installed.

Continue reading Outlook Express Links Don’t Work

Filed Under: Email, IE, Operating System, Outlook Express, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Web browsing, Windows XP