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Why Don’t Deleted Emails Appear in the Recycle Bin?

October 20, 2011 By

Subscriber JPB had a question about deleting emails, and why they don’t get recycled:

When you delete files (normally) they go to the recycle bin. How come E-mail doesn’t work the same way. it get’s compacted? I’m using Thunderbird and Windows 7.

The reason that deleted emails don’t show up in the Recycle Bin is that the Recycle Bin stores files after you delete them (note that some programs will delete files without putting them into the Recycle Bin). This is sometimes a problem with older programs or programs that are simplistically ported from another operating system.

Most Windows email programs store emails as data in large files containing multiple emails. They’re not stored as individual files. Email “folders” are actually files, in most cases, although some email programs may not create separate files for the folders.

Thunderbird is one such…

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Filed Under: Communications, Email, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Thunderbird

Uninstalling and Reinstalling Programs

July 3, 2011 By

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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Filed Under: Operating System, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I Want a Real Backup Program

June 21, 2011 By

Subscriber Mike Gallagher wrote recently to ask about backing up his computer:


Hi Terry,

I am confused about "backup" your computer. I see all sorts of ads and articles about backing up a computer. Most all of what I see is not a REAL backup. What I mean as a "real backup" is that if a hard drive crashes — even one with the operating system on it, full recovery can be made. This is true even if the disk crashes with sound, smell, and visual effects included — a head crash resulting is lots of nasty noise, circuit board shorts with sparks and nasty smelling smoke. O.K. you get my point.

If I have a REAL backup, I replace the hard drive, load the backup CD or DVD, boot and start loading all the necessary files onto the new hard drive, remove the backup media, re-boot and am right where I was, running, just before the excitement.

Does such a procedure really exist, or is "backup" just a save application programs, but without all the install and run info? It seems that this is what most backup programs do.

I am looking for a backup program, or whatever term you want to use, that allows me to create a CD / DVD, or set of them that I can recover as described above, without having to go find my original install disks for the operating system and the applications as well.

I am running windows 7, 64 bit, home premium.

Thanks,

Mike G.

Mike’s asking for it — and I’m already using it, as a number of Terry’s Computer Tips readers. The solution is an image backup program called Acronis True Image Home 2011.

Continue reading I Want a Real Backup Program

Filed Under: Backups, Software, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Reinstalling Windows XP Upgrade On An Old Computer

June 10, 2010 By

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

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

OpenOffice 3.0 Installation Issues

January 28, 2009 By

Subscriber and friend Ron Spruell wrote about a problem he had with the new OpenOffice 3.0. The problem occurred with one of the free antivirus programs, so this may be of particular interest to many readers:

OpenOffice 3.0 Problems: Terry — I tried Oo 3.O. I did not uninstall 2.4 first. Oo 3.O increased my CPU usage to 80% to 100%. My computer would barely run. I had to uninstall and go back to 2.4. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Would a clean install solve my problems. BTW, I love Oo. I find Writer much easier that MSWord. Calc has a few short comings. I use Impress for all presentations. I never did learn how to use Power Point. Ron Spruell

I wrote back to Ron to tell him that I had not heard or read about any problem before seeing his email. I asked if he used Process Explorer or Task Manager to see which application was bouncing to 100%.

Continue reading OpenOffice 3.0 Installation Issues

Filed Under: Anti-virus, Performance Tweaks, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows XP

What’s a PDF and Why Do I Need One?

January 6, 2009 By

Recently, as I wrote in my weekly email newsletter (sign up in the link in this web page’s header or the link in he footer), one of my subscribers wanted to know about a free program to let him fill in PDF forms.

The Portable Document Format (PDF) was created by Adobe to be a cross-platformm document display tool. Whether the user is using Windows, Mac, Linux or some other operating system, if they are using Adobe Reader to read a PDF file, the displayed document will look the same. I wish we could say that about word processors, spreadsheets and presentation software…

Adobe had the sole control of the PDF world for a long time, with their free Adobe Reader program (originally called Adobe Acrobat Reader) and their flagship product Adobe Acrobat, which created the PDF files.

Continue reading What’s a PDF and Why Do I Need One?

Filed Under: Software, Terry's Computer Tips

New articles at Terry’s Computer Tips

December 30, 2008 By

There are a bunch of new articles at Terry’s Computer Tips:

Filed Under: Communications, Hard Drive Recovery, Hard Drives, Networking, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Improving Your Wireless Security

October 16, 2008 By

If you’ve read some of my other articles about having an open, unsecured wireless network versus securing your wireless network so that others can not get into it, you know that I believe in security.

I recommend that everyone secure their wireless network to the extent possible. It’s impossible to completely secure a wireless system, but you can block out most users. You can make it difficult for others to use your network.

The point is to make the process hard enough that the visitor — the unauthorized person who is trying to use your network for normal Internet usage or illegal and/or immoral actions — decides to use someone else’s network.

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Filed Under: Communications, Networking, Security, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Windows Updates, Windows XP

More Windows XP SP3 Woes

October 7, 2008 By

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 …

Continue reading More Windows XP SP3 Woes

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