Simple Solutions to Common Windows Problems

Learn about some free software utilities that will help you fix the most common Windows problems. They are all compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Fix Windows Problems with Free Tools

Q1. I am trying to delete a file from my desktop but the computer won’t let me do that. Instead, it throws me an error message saying that the file /folder is in use by another program or user.
A: You can either reboot your computer in Safe mode to delete that file or, if you want something more simple, get Unlocker. It’s a free utility that will let you close all the processes that have possibly locked the file and once they are closed, you can then safely delete the file.

Q2. I am trying to play a video file on my computer but the media player says that I am missing certain codecs.
A: You can use a tool like Video Inspector to determine which audio and video codecs are required to play the video file on your computer. Alternatively, you can download a codec package like the K-Lite Pack that will let you play virtually any audio and video format on your computer.

Q3. I am running out of disk space on my Windows computer. How can I remove all the unnecessary files from the computer and recover some disk space?
A: There are three things you can do here:

• Open the Run box and type “cleanmgr” to open the built-in Disk Cleanup utility. It will remove all the temp files and the unnecessary system files that you no longer need.
• Use WinDirStat to determine where all your disk space has gone. Sometimes files are hidden in sub-directories that you can safely move to other drives or even delete them permanently (more options).
• Use Duplicate Cleaner to identify and delete all the duplicate files on your hard drives. You can move the duplicates to the recycle bin or, if you want to play safe, to any another folder from where they can be easily recovered.

Q4. My computer takes lot of time to boot-up. I checked the “start-up” folder in the Windows start menu and there aren’t any applications out there.
A:  Type “msconfig” in the Run box to open the “System Configuration” tool and then switch to the “Start-up” tab. Disable all the programs that you don’t need to run during start-up. If you are a power user, you may also switch to the “Services” tab and disable all the unnecessary services.
Autoruns is another excellent utility that shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login.

Q5. I am trying to uninstall a program from my computer but the standard add-remove programs is not letting me through.
A: You can use the free Revo Uninstaller utility to remove every single trace of any program from your computer. Revo can also remove entries from the Windows Registry that may have been left by previous un-installation routines.

Q6. My Windows crashed with a “Blue Screen.” Why?
A: You really need to get in touch with a geek to debug the cryptic Blue Screen errors (aka “Blue Screen of Death”) but if you are lucky, a free utility called BlueScreenView can provide vital clues. Blue Screen View will scan the Windows dump files to determine the device drivers that possibly caused the crash.

Q7. It takes ages to copy files in Windows from one folder to another. The situation is marginally better in Windows 7 (over Vista) but still, is there a way to copy files faster?
A: You can use an external file copying utility like TeraCopy or even RichCopy – they’ll not only copy /move files across drives faster but you can also resume broken file transfers (similiar to FTP operations).

Q8. I think I deleted a file by mistake. Can I recover it?
A: Recuva is a free software that will scan your hard drives, USB stick and other external drives for any deleted files that it can possibly recover. It may not work in all cases especially when you securely deleted a file.

Q9. Every time I copy something new to the Windows clipboard, the previous content gets erased. Can I make it permanent?

A: You can use Ditto, a free utility that sort-of adds memory to your Windows Clipboard. You can copy anything to the clipboard and it will stay there as long as you want.

Q10. How do I protect files and folders on my computer?

A: While there are free tools like Hide Folder that let you easily protect files and folders with a password, use TrueCrypt if you want a more secure solution. The obvious downside with a program like TrueCrypt is that if you forget the password, it is nearly impossible to retrieve the protected files.

Source:http://download.cnet.com
 

How to Free-up Disk Space on your Windows PC

Hi friends,

If your using Windows computer is running out of disk space, here are few steps you should absolutely do to instantly recover tons of free space.

1. The Obvious Methods to Free Disk Space

a. Use CCleaner to quickly clear your Windows recycle bin, temporary Internet files, log files, memory dumps and other stubborn files that don’t show up in Windows Explorer. CClean also provides an option to clean your unused Windows Registry keys and your browser cookies but that won’t save any disk space.
b. Use Revo Uninstaller (the free version) to remove software programs, game demos and other stuff that you no longer use. Revo has a useful “hunter mode” to help you uninstall programs that are not listed in the “Add/Remove Programs” section of the Control Panel.
c. Use either WinDirStat or Space Sniffer to locate files that are taking the maximum amount of space on your hard disk and either erase the unnecessary ones or move them to another partition. You may also use Windows Desktop Search to easily find the largest files on your system from Windows Explorer.
d. Use Duplicate Cleaner to find duplicate files on your hard disk. These may include videos, documents, MP3s, zip archives, images and all other types of files. Duplicate Cleaner compares the MD5 hash of files – not just the file names or their byte size – and is thus pretty accurate at identifying duplicates. Another good alternative for removing duplicates is Duplicate File Finder – this is more suitable for novice users.
e. Check your downloads folder and get rid of all the program installers, driver packages, ISO files, IPSW files, virtual machines, and other bulky files that you may have downloaded from the Internet.
f. If you enjoy watching video podcasts, it may be a good idea to delete old episodes from the disk. iTunes, Zune and most other podcasting software offer easy options to automatically delete podcast episodes that either too old or have been watched.
g. iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users should consider deleting device backups from the computer to reclaim space. Open iTunes – > Preferences – > Devices and delete all backups of your iOS devices but for the most recent one.
h. If you have been an Outlook user all your life and only recently migrated to Gmail, you can backup Outlook’s bulky PST files to Gmail and then move them to another drive for safekeeping. All your old emails can be easily access from Gmail itself.

2. The Not-So-Obvious Ways to Recover Free Space

a. Get Rid of the Shadow Copies

When you install new software program, update device drivers or apply patches and hot-fixes on your computer, Windows will automatically store a snapshot of your system before making the changes. This helps because if something stops working after the installation, you can easily restore your system to the last working state.
Other than system files, Windows also stores backup copies of data files (like documents, pictures, etc.) on your computer which may come really handy if you accidentally modify or delete the original files. Technically, these are known as shadow copies and the feature is available in all editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.
If you have been using your computer for some time, the disk space consumed by these restore points and shadow copies may easily run in gigabytes. You can either remove all the restore points from your system or, if you would like to play extra safe, you can keep the new restore points and just get rid of the old ones.
Click the Windows Start button and type cmd in the search box (not the Run dialog). Now press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open the command prompt with Administrator privileges. Click Yes if you are shown the User Access Control Window.
Now type the following command to remove only the old shadow copies:

c:\>vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /oldest

Or, if your system is working normally, use this command to remove all the shadow copies.

c:\>vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /all

Command Line is quicker but if you prefer the visual option, launch Disk Cleanup from the Start Menu and choose Clean up System Files. Switch to the “More Options” tab and choose “Clean up” under System Restore and Shadow Copies to delete all but the most recent restore point on the hard disk.

b. Make the Service Pack Permanent

When you installed Service Pack 1 (SP1) on a Windows 7 machine, it saves the installer packages in c:\WINDOWS\WinSxS folder. These would be required in case you want to uninstall SP1 later but if that is unlikely to happen, you can remove the SP1 backup files and reclaim some lost space.
Launch Disk Cleanup, choose Clean up System Files, select “Service Pack Backup Files” and delete. Alternatively, you may run the following command as an admin:

c:\>dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

You may have to reboot the machine after the dism command. If you are on Windows Vista, you may also use the Vista Cleaner utility to clean the Service Pack installer files.

c. Reserve Less Space for Restore Points

Windows will continue to save new restore points until all the disk space reserved for saving restore points is filled up. That means if you have less reserved space, the old ones will get deleted more quickly to make room for new restore points.
Go to Windows Start – > Run and type sysdm.cpl to open the System Properties dialog. Click the “System Protection” tab, choose your current drive (C:) and click Configure. Set the Max Usage anywhere between 3% and 5% of the total disk size. Apply the changes.

Now that you have recovered some important space, go back to the “System Protection” tab and click Create to to capture of snapshot of your system in its current working state – just to be on the safe side of things

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Moving to a New Computer ? Plan Ahead and Avoid Problems

Hi Friends Lets Discuss with  Moving to a New Computer ?

So you’ve finally decided to upgrade and purchase a new computer.

You’ll soon get rid of that old computer in favor of a brand new desktop or laptop computer with the fastest processor, lots of RAM and hundreds of gigs of storage.

Everyone in the family is excited about the new computer except for mom – she isn’t sure where to keep that old PC as the store room is already crowded and there’s no storage space available in any of the overhead shelves.

You therefore decide to sell that used computer on eBay and if that doesn’t work out (resale prices of second hand computers can be dismally low), you’ll donate it to a school or charity organization that will pass on the machine to someone in need.


Excellent decision but before you dispose the old computer, there are some very important points to take note of – all your important (and sometimes confidential) data like Office documents, family pictures, videos, emails, MP3 audio collection, internet bookmarks, software programs, address book, etc. are still residing on its hard drive.
You would therefore want to transfer all such data from the old computer to the new one and then also ensure (as a security measure) that you have erased everything off the old computer’s hard drive.

Migrate data from old to new computer – Once your new computer is up and running, you can bring the data from the old system to the new one through a USB data transfer cable – they are cheap and easily available at any computer accessories store.
Another option is burn data from old system onto one or more DVD (or CD ROM) disks. I generally put all the required data inside the My Documents folder and burn it to DVD(s).

You can then create a report of all software programs installed on the old computer using a free utility called Belarc Advisor (review of Belarc) – this helps when you want to maintain a consistent computing environment and don’t want to miss using any of these useful utilities that were on the old system.


To migrate all your internet bookmarks, open the web browser (like IE or Firefox) and export favorites to an HTML file. Firefox users can try the Google Browser Sync extension (Browser Sync review) to save bookmarks and even passwords. If you use a desktop email client like Microsoft Outlook, Eudora or Thunderbird, export all the emails, contacts and calendar to a file and put in the backup folder.
Also remember to transfer any fonts (file like .ttf) that you may have purchased and downloaded from the Internet. If you use an offline RSS reader like FeedDemon (FeedDemon review), export your RSS reading list as an OPML file else you’ll lose the subscriptions.
And if you share the habit of saving everything on the Windows Desktop, do remember to copy the desktop folder in My Documents because you’ll surely need them in the new PC.

Post-data transfer – Once you have moved all this data to the new computer via DVDs or an Ethernet cross over cable or the USB data transfer cable, don’t call eBay or charity yet. Keep the old PC in your 
 possession for some more time until you are confident that everything you may need from the old computer is now available in the new system.


And when it’s time to sell or donate, it is must that you spend some time cleaning the old system – I don’t mean wiping dust off the monitor or the keyboard coffee stains, it’s about cleaning your personal information from the computer’s hard drive – that includes information like your medical records, honeymoon pictures, credit card statements, emails, web browsing history, confidential documents, etc.
Simply erasing stuff by hitting the delete key (or emptying the recycle bin) won’t delete your data permanently from the hard drive – it could still exist on the hard drive and experts (or hackers) will have no problems recovering (also called undelete) those private files.

If you skip this step, you are indirectly exposing yourself to the risk of identity theft. Fortunately, there are some excellent tools that can help wipe everything off your hard-disk (so data cannot be recovered) and one such popular utility is Darik’s Boot and Nuke available at Sourceforge.

This program installs on a Floppy disk or a USB drive or you burn it into a CD. When you are ready to say goodbye to the old computer, put the Darik’s Boot and Nuke floppy (or CD) into the computer and change the boot order of the computer to make CD or Floppy drive first in the boot order. Restart and every bit of data on the old machine will be gone forever.

Before donating the computer, you can install a copy of Ubuntu Linux but if your old computer came bundled with an OEM license (say it came pre-installed with Windows XP and other software like Nero, Norton Antivirus, etc), it’s a good idea to reinstall the OS using the disk that came with the system.
OEM licenses are only valid when used on the original OEM machine on which it was first installed so the license will go waste if you donate the computer without installing the OS.

Delete Files Permanently from your Computer

Learn how to erase files permanently from your Windows Computer use the free sure delete utility and recover free space. Your files are not deleted when you empty the Recycle Bin.

couch mode print story

When you delete a file from your computer, it moves to the Windows Recycle Bin. You empty the Recycle Bin and the file is permanently erased from the hard drive. Right?

Well, the file appears to have been trashed but a skilled techie may have no trouble restoring that "deleted" file using data recovery software – some of which are freely available online. Here’s why:

When you delete files or folders, the data is not initially removed from the hard disk. Instead, the space on the disk that was occupied by the deleted data is "deallocated." After it is deallocated, the space is available for use when new data is written to the disk. Until the space is overwritten, it is possible to recover the deleted data by using a low-level disk editor or data-recovery software.

To permanently erase files and prevent your confidential files from getting into wrong hands, Microsoft offers a free command line utility – SDelete (Secure Delete) – that overwrites all the free space to prevent data recovery.
You can use SDelete both to securely delete existing files (replacement of delete), as well as to securely erase any file data that exists in the unallocated portions of a disk (including files that you have already deleted or encrypted).

Transfer Files between PC and Android wirelessly

Do you transfer files by connecting your mobile phone to PC with the help of USB, thus connecting and disconnecting USB gives you trouble, so turn into wireless, thus reducing your tension of wire. The benefit of wireless is that it is easy to connect and there is fast transfer of files. Here are the few wireless apps which have highest reviews in Google Play store and that will help you to Transfer Files between PC and Android wirelessly

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Apps to Transfer Files between PC and Android

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1.Airdroid :

Airdroid is an top app to Transfer Files between PC and Android. It is available at that size of 6.4 MB and requires Android 2.1 or up. It has the highest rating for wireless data transfer. It is easy to use and even looks much pretty. The Key feature supported by this app is that— desktop SMS service, wireless transfer of files and media data, phone locating technique app management, camera and screenshots.

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 2.ES File Manager :
Its size varies with devices. It is commonly known as an Android File Manager app but can also be used to transfer files wirelessly, select “Remote Manager” under the “Fast Access” list, you can find local network you are connecting to. Tap “Turn on”, find the given ftp address, then input the ftp address in the address bar of computer on your pc. As long as you get used to this app you will find it more than easy to use it.

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 3. 3CX Droid Desktop :

It is available at the size of 2.8 MB and requires android 2.0 or up. It is not as easy to use. The first time you run this app, you are required to set service port and password for your connection. Tap “start server” an IP address is generated for your device, input The IP address and password on computer browser, there will be a page displayed which looks similar to desktop.

3CXDroid also supports USB mode, Desktop SMS, Gallery Viewer, Media Player, FTP Server, WiFi Keyboard, Webcam, Screen Capture, Contact Manager, Remote Call, Wallpaper Utils, APK Web Installer, Terminal Emulator, Logcat, etc.

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 Conclusion :

With the help of such apps our work gets easier and better, and we don’t need the maximum use of USB or any other wiring, which make these apps unique and is greatly appreciated by the users. So what are you waiting for, don’t be in old fashion of wiring stuff just download the apps and enjoy life more easy.