Replies

Previously on Win7 I use AVG or Avast – free versions. Now on Win10 only depend on Window Defender supplement with Supersntispyware – free edition. Never believe in paying for such software. No matter what program you used it always boils down to your surfing habits & how discrete you are. The best antivirus won’t help a bit if you download or open attachments freely or click on every link without thinking.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/26/technology/microsoft-windows-xp-navy-contract/index.html
There’s still millions of WinXP users around the world. Just because MS stop supporting doesn’t mean that every vendor will follow. There’s still loads of free antivirus & anti spyware available. As long as we surf the web with care the security issues are no different than that with the newer OS

Back in June when I inserted a 64Gb usb drive to my PC while running Win 10 Insider Preview there’s a message saying that the usb drive need to be scanned to resolve some problems. After scanning I open the drive but there’s nothing there – my 50Gb of data disappeared & all these were created in WinXP.
So those WinXP users out there take note about this not to share your data from WinXP with Win 10

Now it got worse. Last night when I boot up with WinXP I move about 200Gb of videos from one HDD to another. Now the whole lot disappear in Win 10. That means I can’t share HDDs with both OS. I think have to connect them externally

I had problem updating to Build10074. So I download the iso & did a clean install on an SSD. Then got problem updating to Build 10122. Tried several times & still having errors. My system running on an AMD graphic card. Then I read about the updating problems involving AMD graphic cards. I swopped the AMD card to an Nvidia & updated the driver. Then I can update to 10122 & later on to 10130 without any more problems.

I check with that ISP provider that supply the email – that’s nothing wrong with the server. When I changed from Window Live to Outlook Express on the desktop & to Microsoft Outlook on the laptop, everything returns to normal. All emails can be send & received & nobody got anymore bounced back mails At first I suspected the antivirus program. My friend was using a free program from Panda. I uninstall the Panda & install Eset NOD32 but the problem remains. I told my friend to stop using Window Live indefinitely until there’s a sure solution.

Do a full inventory of your data whether it’s pictures, videos, applications or documents. Check their properties & add up the total file size & compare with what is shown in My Computer. If the total sum of your data is less than what is reported, then there are some hidden files lurking around in your system. Go to Folder Options in Control Panel & check the ‘Show hidden files & folders’ . Do a disk cleanup & checked all items. If after doing all this & still it didn’t show any improvement, got to do something drastic. First disable UAC & System Restore & do a reboot. Do a defrag preferably use a 3rd party like Defraggler or My Defrag. After that you should see some great improvements.
When I first install Vista Ultimate 64bit a year ago, I disable both the UAC & System restore right from the start. Never have any problem with storage or not recognising external storage devices like thumb drive, external HDD or storage media. I did that with Win7 Ult 64bit on another system

Why use Windows defrag tool? Download ‘Defraggler’ from cnet.com
It works very fast in Vista & Win7 64 bit & you can see the defragging in action & the defragged files & folders.

For those who started computing before Windows find it harder to adapt to the latest Windows. My brother in law was a computer programmer who writes software back in the late eighties. I was computer illiterate at that time & he find it hard to teach a moron like me to use the PC – that’s what he refers to me. I started with Win98 in 1998, went on to WinME & Win2000 briefly & have a long love affair with WinXP. My system now is loaded with WinXP, WinVista Ultimate 64 & Win7 Ultimate 64 on different hard disks. I have no problems using all 3 OS though each one is loaded with different programs. My brother in law on the other hand can run his XP quite well but getting worried about upgrading to Vista or Win7 but too proud to ask a moron like me who is now an expert in DIY, photo & video editing softwares. Whenever I faced a problem in Windows I would go online to ask my peers & elders for advice. The whole world is using Windows & whether you love it or hate it, you still have to use it or be left out. Unless you want to be a guru who lives high in the mountains….
PS I am not a supporter of Microsoft. They are earning tons of money & they should write a simplified OS for free distribution.

The best thing to do is still have to do it manually. Go to Run & typed msconfig & enter. Click Startup & a whole list of startup programs appears. The thumb of rule is if you don’t know what this means, do not delete or unchecked. Unchecked all those you don’t need them to start when Windows start. Things like Search engines, adobe acrobat speedup, anything to do with websites, home theatre link, soundman, etc All these will appear on your taskbar on the right side. If your system is not always online, you can unchecked the antivirus & anti spyware too because they slow down the system a lot but remember to enable them before you go online.
The best way to increase your system’s performance is to do Disk cleanup & defrag your hard disk regularly. For disk cleanup, open My Computer. Right click your C drive & click Properties & click disk cleanup. Check all items & click ok. If this is the first time doing this, it will take quite a long time depending on your partition size. If it’s done weekly, it will be very fast. As for defrag you can use the Windows defrag tool. Right click C drive & click Properties/Tools & click defrag now. There’s a few defrag programs that are freeware. I like the ‘Defraggler’ from Piriform. I forgot the website but go to cnet.com & search for ‘defraggler’
My system have 5 hard disks totalling 5.5Tb with 17 partitions ranging from 150Gb to 400Gb. I defrag them manually once a week without fail but my Diskeeper software can handle 4 partitions at a time. I did not install antivirus on my system because it’s never online. I used another PC for surfing.

Clicking on the Drver tab shows that the driver is the original Microsoft driver dating back from 7/1/2001. Clicking on Update Driver and allowing Windows to search (online) for the best driver has no results – it comes back saying that the current driver is already the best driver.

If the drivers are really from the 2001 era, it’s pre-SATA. Is your older drive an IDE or SATA? if it’s IDE, you must go to BIOS or Setup when booting up to enable the SATA settings but since this is an HP machine, there might not have such a setting. Going back to HP will not help much because traditionally, HP do not have support for old systems as far as my experience can recall.

I have been using this usb sound device called Musical SX from Creative for 2 years. It has 2 line in, 1 line out, 1 SPDIF in, 1 jack each for headphone & mike. Adjust level for input & headphone usage & volume control. I have one more set which I used as an amplifier for my Dvd player & TV. You can connect 5.1 series speakers too. It’s reasonably priced too.

In Vista & Win7 by default System Restore will use up to 15% of the hard drive to save the restore points. So, these days having 30GB of system restore data is easily seen with the size of hard drives now.

It seems that these System Restore files cannot be defrag or moved & they are all over the place. No wonder Win Vista is so sluggish in performance esp when the C drive is configured less than 100Gb in size. In fact the C drive on the laptop only have 60Gb. Do Win 7 have a similar problem or are they creating bigger partitions for the C drive? It seems that the only solution is to reduce the space use for System Restore. I remember the time when the first laptops were sold with Vista preinstalled & the C drive only have 30Gb – same as those with WinXP. No wonder people hated Vista.

I did not change anything in Windows & I am not suppose to without the owner’s permission – I only troubleshoot.
I don’t think the Window Restore files will amount to 30Gb. This laptop was purchased brand new with Vista preinstalled & not upgraded from older OS. So there should not have any shadow copies of old OS within. I couldn’t find anymore folders to match this 30Gb size but after I finished using ‘Mydefrag Consolidate Freespace’ this 30Gb disappears & the freespace is reclaimed in C Drive.

If the 2 drives had been using for 7 years, it’s time to change them including the system as well. I change my DVDRW every 12 to 18 months – I have 4 of them on the same system & I used them very regularly. Sometimes I have this problem – one particular drive had been burning Dvds for more than 6 months continuously & then I try to burn a cd in it – it refused to burn. It do not even recognise the blank disc