Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
Ever wonder who’s really behind a certain website or online product? So did this reader — and you can apply the answer to almost any online site or product: Q: Is ‘Ad-Aware Web Companion for Windows 10’ third-party software? (via Quora) A: Yes. ‘Ad-Aware Web Companion’ is not a Microsoft product. It’s offered by a Canadian anti-malware/antivirus…
Part One: At first, the email subject line was only mildly alarming: It said, “Security alert for your linked Google account.” That usually signals some minor event, such as a new login from an unrecognized device. But this was different: The body of the email began, “Your Google Account has been deleted due to Terms…
Reader Oystein Ravner asks (via the CONTACT link): Hi Fred! I am glad you are back! Problem: W7 Disk Defragmenter. System Disk is successfully analyzed, but with result 41% fragmented. Clicking ‘Defragment Disk’ leads to nothing. System Disk has capacity 100MB, free 70%, status Healthy. Why is there no defrag action when Microsoft advises such…
Reader George asks (via the Contact link): “Fred, I have two PCs and when they are not in use I put them into ‘sleep’ mode. When I wake them up one or both of them do not connect to the internet but when I restart them they then make the connection just fine. Any thoughts…
Reader Bill Hagemeyer asks, via the Contact link: Q: I have tried to do your Win7 no-reformat reinstall several times, but the system just doesn’t ever finish. It gets lost in the middle of the process and never completes. Any advice would be welcome. A: I think we can get you going, Bill! I have…
I’m again experimenting with voice-to-text transcription. I keep hoping for that Star Trek experience — you know, where the characters whap their comm badge, speak with normal speed and diction, and have the computer fully understand them. But for me, that’s truly fiction. In real life, with free-form text, voice to-text accuracy is likely to…
Q: How do I fix the “an operating system wasn’t found” screen, with all the words are mixed up and the screen is white and twitching? (via Quora) A: An “Operating System Not Found” or “Missing Operating System” or similar message will occur when you boot/start/restart a PC, but something prevents the hardware from seeing…
Farewell, Disk Cleanup! Microsoft has announced that Windows’ classic Disk Cleanup tool — which can strip gigabytes of junk and obsolete files from your system — is being discontinued. Here’s what’s going away: Here’s what’s replacing it: Win10’s new Free up space now setting. Access it via: Settings/System/Storage/Storage Sense (on); then click Free up space…
Q: How do you type a unusual characters like “≥” (greater-than-or-equal-to) in Microsoft Word? (via Quora) A: It’s easy! Every electronic keyboard has a set of built-in computer codes for a given language’s most-commonly-used letters, numbers and punctuation. These are the symbols you see printed permanently on the tops of your keyboard’s keys. But the…
Q. What is Windows doing when it takes so long “Working on updates” during a restart? (via Quora) A: Software that’s in use and actively running cannot be updated or replaced on the fly. The in-use software has to be shut down, then replaced, then restarted. When Windows Update needs to replace an in-use, system-level…