Month: January 2014

Unfortunately, the only restore point had been created after Windows 8.1 initially set up for the first time. I had video driver issues after updating to the latest HD6450 driver set and needed to do a system restore because roiling the drivers back hadn’t worked. The result was the equivalent of a Windows 8 refresh which = absolute chaos. So it was another late night spent re-installing everything, and this morning spent altering a few settings.. definitely nothing like fun. I also have a new policy in place which revolves around creating restore points every time that I make a … Continue reading System Restore did exactly what it said on the box..

You would think that everybody would find this easy but it isn’t. I met up with somebody the day before yesterday who told me how bad Windows 8 was. His mother had bought a new Windows 8 computer, and he had a few minutes on it, setting up and sorting.. So, with Windows 8.1 up and running, he searched for a hack which would get back the Start menu. Needless to say, there are no hacks. I suggested that he should change the search criteria, and try this line.. Windows 8 start In a Bing search, this is what comes … Continue reading Learning how to search..

.. and it isn’t even February yet. It started out with a desire to de-dust my machine mid morning yesterday and turned into a nightmare which saw me start a major re-install late evening. After cleaning out the case, I attached the peripherals cables into the rear USB ports, hit the power button, but soon realized that not all was well when I couldn’t use the spacebar to get beyond the Windows 8 lock screen. Attaching a PS/2 keyboard and cheap USB mouse got me beyond login, but it didn’t get any better. The MS Comfort 5000 desktop set, LX3000 … Continue reading The mother of spring cleans..

A client of mine has recently bought a Windows 8 laptop, but she may not have it for too much longer. She likes the laptop and she likes Windows 8 set up to work like the Windows 7 that she had before. Everything was going well and then it happened. The Windows 8 tiles showed themselves. She wanted to get into her Rogers Yahoo mail, saw the mail tile and clicked on it. She was presented with a ‘You need a Microsoft account’, but she doesn’t have one. Her mail is ROGERS YAHOO, not Microsoft. She called her daughter to … Continue reading Changes need to come FAST..

Embracing change is all very well, but there is no guarantee that new technology will help everybody

Five Windows 7 machines all updated and no problems encountered.. One Windows 8.1 machine updated and no problems encountered. My Windows 8.1 machine did suffer one critical error when the power failed in the building. It happens and was not the fault of the system. General advice given to somebody putting together a PowerPoint presentation for the very first time worked well.. The above events were the high spots of the week. Trying to explain that one has to be able to walk before attempting to sprint Explaining that no version of Windows has ever been able to extract YouTube … Continue reading The last seven days – still no easier overall..

What is ReadyBoost? It is a fast disk cache which can help increase performance in low specification systems. It was developed for use in Vista, and has carried over into Windows 7 and 8. Devices suitable for ReadyBoost Fast USB flash drives. If your flash drive does NOT meet the requirements set by Microsoft, you will NOT be offered the ReadyBoost option. You will also not be offered the option if your computer has an SSD drive fitted either as the boot drive or secondary drive. Will ReadyBoost work with Windows 8? Windows 8 will present you with this message … Continue reading Windows 8 and ReadyBoost

Good news for Windows users who like to tweak. The latest UWT, now at version 3, supports Windows 8 and 8.1.. “Ultimate Windows Tweaker 3.0 for Windows 8 has been released and is now available for download. While Windows 7 & Windows Vista users should continue to use Ultimate Windows Tweaker 2.2, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 may be happy to know that your favourite freeware Windows tweaker is now available for download. Use the Ultimate Windows Tweaker to customize your Windows 8 to meet your requirements. With judicious tweaking, it can make your system faster, more stable, personal and … Continue reading Ultimate Windows Tweaker 3

It’s 2014 and still NOT a good idea to: Never backup anything. If your data is important, treat it as important… Run a registry cleaner, and no, it doesn’t make anything any faster.. Leave a laptop running on soft furnishings. The grilles on the base are to let air in, not gain better traction on the arm of a couch.. . It’s 2014 and Microsoft is NOT about to: Make Windows 8 go away. It is an OK operating system.. Give XP yet another reprieve. It’s old and needs to lay down.. Produce hardware drivers. It is not in the … Continue reading Where to start..

The machine is a two year old Lenovo G780, the largest laptop made by Lenovo, and is part of the ‘General use’ range. Ours is an i3 and was bought for $500. There are higher spec Lenovo G780’s sporting i5 and i7 Intel processors. The original 4gb RAM was upgraded to 8gb last year. It performs well generally. I took out the hard drive containing the original OEM Windows 7 installation because this upgrade was a test. The regular user is typical of the breed, never any time to make small adjustments, never makes backups, doesn’t like change, and in … Continue reading The Lenovo gets Windows 8.1.. briefly..