Replies

I have the below info for Win XP;
Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for its own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc.) Here’s how to get it back:
Click Start / Run
Type: gpedit.msc
This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:
Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Network / QOS Packet Scheduler / Limit Reservable Bandwidth
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the ‘Explain’ tab:
“By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default.”
So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.

I want to fix this in Win 7 Home Premium but that version does not have gpedit.msc. How do I get to the correct setting? Some say you do do this by editing the registry but which key? Any other way of checking this and setting the value to 0?

James

While marginally effective in win XP, disbling QOS is not going to give you any noticeable improvements in win 7 do to the way win 7 works. Is there a pressing need for bandwidth? what is it you are trying to do

ken J

Hi,

I am trying to get a XP Print Driver to work on Windows 7 but is not successful so far. My printer is a Canon MP190 AIO. Have tried looking for a 7 driver but can only find Vista driver.

Will installing XP mode allows the use of the printer?

It should. Have you tried an earlier driver (vista XP) installed in compatibility mode?

to do that right click the installer>properties>compatibility>choose OS

Ken J

I’m running Windows 7 Home Premium 32, with a couple of Samsung LCD monitors. I recently set up a second user account and have since discovered that my carefully arranged desktop gets all messed up when I switch users then switch back to my account. I’ve managed to tame the icons by putting them on the left side of the #1 monitor, however the gadgets continue to move around. Sometimes they will end up on top of an icon, which is even more troubling.

In addition to this, I also have to often resize windows after switching users. The window size will shrink dramatically, making it useless until I resize it. This also is very aggrevating.

I’m wondering if there is any way to keep the gadgets in their place and also to keep the windows size/positions as they were?

Is this a common occurence, or is it just me?

Thanks for any comments on this.

I have a gut feeling that it is driver related. could we get some info on the video cards and monitors?

Ken J

Ignorant question here. In obtaining drivers and software for my new computer, does “Windows 7 x64” simply mean a Windows 7 64 bit computer, which is what I now have

thanks

kdoc

Kcohen

Absolutely, and dont worry we all were new at this at some point. BTW, if you cant find a win 7 drover for some device, you can use a vista driver by installing it in compatibility mode.

Ken

Sorry, I have probably been lazy by not doing a search first but I have done lots of searches every where else and just got lazy. WIn 7 pro installed on two semi newer DELLS one a precision 690 and the other a latitude D820 although I don’t think it matters from what I’ve read. When set to hibernate or the lowest power consumption I get BSODs all the time and if I let them run on best performance then I don’t get them. I tried a hotfix a while back but not joy. Anyone found a fix or a work around other than telling the systems to stay awake etc? Both system came with Vista and XP of course the Vista disks made nice xmas tree decos. LOL
thanks

We actually could use the actual DMP file created in the crash. Usually located in C:windowsminidump. If not there you can search for *.DMP. with that we can tell you the cause

Ken Johnston

I installed Windows 7 64-bit at the same time I built a new system and ever since I have experienced random crashes. By random I mean that there appears to be no pattern to when everything will just stop, I can be working on something or it can be sitting idle and then reboot. The crashes take the form of either thin color bands appearing across the screen or a blue screen that claims something has caused the crash. The blue screen reason for the crash is different from one time to the next. I have learned how to read the minidump files that provide information about the crash but each one states that it was something different that caused it. For these reasons I am thinking that the cause is a hardware issue, most likely the motherboard. However, I have used various “burn-in” programs to provoke a crash and so far that has not happened. I don’t want to go to the trouble of returning the motherboard only to have them tell me it is okay.

So, does anyone have an ideas about how I might go about further troubleshooting this vexing problem? Any ideas are quite welcome!

Thanks,
Dave

Dave

I would be willing to examine the DMP files for you if you like. I have been doing these elsewhere for quite some time and might be able to shed some light on them. Feel free to message me if you want.

Ken J

MS MVP desktop experience

Hi,

I have a Windows 7 laptop and a Vista desktop on a HOME network both hardwired into a router

The workgroup name is the same on both devices

The Vista desktop has full access to the files of the Win 7 laptop.

The Win 7 laptop can see the Vista desktop but can not see files or acess the drive – I am told “Windows cannot access \XXXXX” when I click on it. The message box shows and error code 0x80070035 – the network path can not be found.

The drive of the Vista desktop is fully shared – passwords are not used.

After a few hours of trying to rsolve this I am appealing to Experts of the Lounge

Help please,

Thanks

Preston

Hi preston and welcome

You wouldnt by chance be running “homegroup”? On some mixed systems homegroup has connectivity issues. YOu can verify if this is the problem yourself by creating a new network connection using the “workgroup” model. Workgroup uses IPv4 and does suffer the same issues as Homegroup.

Good luck

Ken J

I have a new Dell laptop that I really do want to switch to Windows 7. I am not switching because I don’t like Vista because I really do. I am switching because it is a 64 bit vista on the laptop and the very important program I have to run using this laptop will not run on 64bit OS.
My question to you would be W7 home premium or professional. All my OSs have been pro because I like the remote features that pro offers as compared to the others. I do a lot of remote desktop and like the feature.
So, what do you all recommend? Let’s hear it guys. Thanks.

There is very little difference between the two. If I were you I would check the feature set on MS and see if you need the extra ones. I Cant really give you an opinion for I run ultimate, but you will probably be happy with either.

Ken J

Hi,

I have a HP 5300c Scanner and also a new computer with Win7 with XP mode installed and active.

My problem is how to get the scanner properly installed. There is no driver update for Win7 but there is an update for XP3.

However, when I plug the scanner into the USB port, the computer simply cannot find it./recognize it.

Can anyone give me some step-by-step installation info so that I may use the old (but very usable) flatbed scanner with my new PC?

Respectfully,

Chuck

Chuck even beofre I tried using XP mode I woould try re-installing the driver in compatibility mode. To do that right click the installer>properites>compatibility mode>check XP SP3.

Good Luck

Ken J

I just went and cleaned my registry (using Max Reg Cleaner). Before doing so, I had backed up the registry.

After cleaning the sound (set to Windows Exclamation) didn’t work any longer. I restored the registry backup…the sound came back.

KNow the sound name, I did a registry search, and found five keys that call that sound. After changing them, one at a time, to something else, the sound on reg merge didn’t change.

I’m certainly glad I had a backup, but I would also like to understand what got “cleaned”.

Is there somewhere that I could find out what reg key controls that sound? Whatever it is it is being seen as “wrong” when the registry is cleaned — I tried two other cleaners as well, with the same result — and that makes me wonder Wat other issues could be affected.

Regards,
Chuck Billow

Chuck

Im not sure about Max reg cleaner, but most of the reg cleaners have a log file of what has changed. I know it isnt exactly what you want but you could do a find next using something like the sound string. I am not really keen on reg cleaners for you never really know what they have changed unless you do it manually, and frankly I would rather have root canal.

Let us know if this doesnt help

Ken J

I have a Win7 64bit computer and am trying to access a printer over the network. The printer is a Canon Pixma iP1600. I have the install disk, but when I try to run it on Win7 I get a message that it only works on Intel 32bit. I even tried to run it in xp sp2 and sp3 mode, but no go. Canon doesn’t have a driver for it, but sends you to Windows update. When I plug the printer directly into the computer it goes to WU and gets the needed driver almost immediately. The printer works fine. But then I go back to connecting over the network. It sees that the printer is there, but when I try to access it, the computer looks for a driver, goes to windows updates and looks for several minutes before concluding that it can’t find it – why not, it just got it when I was connected directly. I’ve tried to find it on microsoft.com but can’t find how to get to any of the drivers to download them apart from WU. So how do I get a copy of that driver to install it manually, or what do I do to make WU install the driver?

There are some nice things about W7, but there are a lot of glitches in mine and I’m starting to wonder if I did the right thing in getting it???? Any help?

No 32 bit driver will run on 64bit. You can however run a vista 64 bit driver if you install it in “compatibility mode” to do that. right click the installer>properties>compatibilty>vista.

Hope this helps

Ken J

I am running Win 7 Pro on a Dell E4300 (it cam pre-installed). When I run Chkdsk C: /f at a command prompt it tells me that another process is using the drive and would I like to run it the next time the system starts. I type “Y” and get a command prompt, then restart. But Chkdsk does not run. I can tell because if I run Chkdsk C: (without the /f) at a command prompt, I see the same unfixed error that I saw before. How can I get Chkdsk /f to run at startup?

Boot from the win 7 DVD and at the first screen type shift F10 that will get you a command prompt ans run it from there.

Let us know if you need help

Ken J

Hi, I hope that someone can help or point me in the right direction. I have a brand new Dell computer (3 weeks) running windows 7 64 ulitimate. I brought over my programs from my old computer one of which was Family tree maker. When I tired to run it, it wouldn’t work. So I thought that maybe it wasn’t compatable with Win 7. I ordered a new version FTM 2010. When that came I attempted to load that into the computer but it wouldn’t load. It started to load bring up icon, then asking to run a program from Ancestry which I answered yes, then the installwizard started. It looked like it was working then everything went back to the desk top. I spent two hours with tech support on Ancestry, they felt that problem was with the window installer, not their program.The next day I called Dell only to be told that this is a software issue and that I would have to pay for them to resolve the problem. Well another two hours and they couldn’t offer any solution except to reinstall windows. Help!

Andrew

I would examine event viewer (type eventvwr in search). Look in windows log>application tab. Look for critical errors (they have red in the left column) that say app crash, app hand etc. when you find them note the event ID and source codes and relay them to us.

Ken J

Folks;

It’s very important to run Windows XP in a limited privilege mode because XP doesn’t have any UAC capability and malware installs itself most easily when the user account that encounters it has full administrative privilege to change anything on the system. Windows 7 still has the idea of limited user and privileged (administrator) user and, of course, it is still very useful for restricting certain users from making system changes that might damage or disable the system. But for the purpose of blocking malware installations, does limited user mode have any advantage over admin mode? When I run Win 7 in limited user mode, UAC asks me for permission to make changes and requests an admin account password. When I run as an administrator, UAC asks me for all the same permissions, but doesn’t require the password. I simply need to click an OK button on the secure desktop.

So, why should I run Windows 7 as a limited user? Isn’t this advice now obsolete for Win 7?

Kent Hi and welcome

Some people see it as an added layer of security, some simply turn it off. I am one who turns it off. I am the only user in a secure environment with firewalls, AV’s and malware.

Hope This helps

Ken J

This is an old question in a new world.

With an O/S and programs and any assorted data it made sense to have multiple partitions, Along came the registry with its admixture of O/S and programs and it made a mess of things for those who liked compartments. Some swore by a single partition for everything, and others just swore.

What are we to do with Win 7 and a clean install? (I expect a hundred opinionated answers, but that is exactly what I want.) Now we have Virtual Drives (and even a relief from that for XP Mode, Cloud Computing, and all the rest of it. What’s a guy to do? This is not academic, as i may reconfigure a computer quite soon.

My preferred method is for 3 partitions. OS, data, recovery. Keep in mind that I aslo backup that HD to another just in case.

Ken J