Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader 'Mike' writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks for your helpful site. I enjoy reading your advice and keeping up with the news. My question relates to the KB3000850 patch , which is a major update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based systems. It ... is a whopping 775 MB download; it first appeared as an 'optional' download, and then later as 'important'. I've tried installing KB3000850, but it has failed to install on 4 separate occasions. Googling KB3000850 gets into stuff way beyond my understanding, but one page by Woody Leonhard said not to install it . I ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Fred J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I had to reinstall Windows 8 on my machine, and I wanted to download the Windows 8.1 update afterward. But when I try, that I'm told I must have all the current Windows 8 updates installed. So, I ... looked at the updates for Windows 8 and there are over 150 of them. I requested that they all be downloaded and installed, and they did. However, when the installation and configuration starts, I get the message that there was a ' Failure Configuring Windows Updates; Reverting changes ', and then Windows Update fails. Now I'm ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Michael E. writes: " Dear Dennis, Do you know if Windows 10 (including Windows 10 Technical Preview) requires Physical Address Extension (PAE) support for the processor? " My response: That's an interesting question. The short ... answer is that yes, Windows 10 requires that your processor supports PAE. The good news is that the PAE feature has been available in most processors since 2003, so if your computer is 12 years old or newer, it's a safe bet that you don't have anything to worry about. Windows 8 and Windows 10 PAE Support In general, Windows 10 ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Michael E. writes: " Dear Dennis, I read your newsletter all the time; thanks for publishing. Question: is there a way to block an entire web domain from sending email to me? I use Microsoft Outlook. The reason I ask this is ... because I constantly receive spam email from numerous web domains which seem to exist for the purpose of sending spam emails only, and therefore deserve to be totally blocked. I would like to be able to fill in a domain name in Outlook, and then never see emails again from those web domains in my inbox. " My response: Unfortunately, blocking an entire ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Anne F. writes: " Dear Dennis, After a Windows Update, my laptop rebooted and then displayed a blue screen of death (BSOD) with the error message CRITICAL SERVICE FAILED. After that, the computer reboots and goes into a continuous ... loop -- I am not able to get into Windows at all. I used various repair discs and managed to gotten rid of the CRITICAL SERVICE FAILED message, but now my computer boots into a black screen with the message No Operating System Found. When I use one of the downloaded repair disks, I see my C drive and Windows 8 is still on there, so I don' ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm not sure what happened, but the other day I was using my computer and the icons on my desktop became sticky. I double clicked MS Word to launch it, but it wouldn't do anything. So I tried ... clicking on Foxit Reader, but both MS Word and Foxit Reader were selected and I couldn't open either one. To make things worse, now my desktop icons are gigantic and are taking up most of the space on my screen. I can't seem to figure out how to make the icons go back to the original size they were on the desktop. Any idea why this happened and how I can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Barry P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 8.1. When I go to the Settings menu and then click on the 'Change PC Settings' link, nothing happens. It shows for a quick glimpse, but then disappears almost immediately after. ... I simply can't get into the PC Settings to make changes to my computer. Any ideas how to fix this problem? " My response: This is a very common problem that plagues Windows 8.1 users, especially those that upgraded from Windows 8 previously. Based on various posts I've read online, the same issue can result in a blank screen when the PC Settings ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Phil' writes: " Dear Dennis, I am using Windows 7 Home Edition and have been using CCleaner (crap cleaner) for a long time without any problem. However, I've been having difficulty with the last four updates to the program. Each ... update will download as usual, but the green installation progress bar stops after having moved about a quarter of an inch. It doesn't move any further, even if I leave the system on all day. Any ideas what might be causing it or how to resolve the issue? Your help would be most appreciated. " My response: Oftentimes if a program doesn't update ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Vlad M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm using a laptop that I've had for several years, during which time I've accumulated a sizable number of fonts in the c:\windows\fonts directory. Some of the fonts I chose to install, some came ... pre-bundled with programs, and some came from previous versions of Windows when I upgraded (I am now using Windows 7 Ultimate). Question: how can I determine which fonts are necessary for Windows to run properly, and which I can uninstall to reduce load time and clutter? Thanks! " My response: There isn't a clear-cut way to do this in Windows, and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Paul H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded my Internet connection speed through my Internet Service Provider, and I now have 60MB broadband service. As I expected, I have really fast downloads and web pages load lightening ... fast. However, some websites are considerably slower than I would expect, even slower than before the upgrade. Any ideas why that might be? " My Response: There are many reasons why some pages don't load as fast as others, even if you upgraded your broadband. The most important point to understand is that even though you have a fast ... (view more)