GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 41, 11-13-08

[Kevin-PC Gurus]

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Vol. 8, No. 41                 

11-13-08

 

1 Tools you never knew you had          

2 Click THIS!        

3 Gambling, Google time machine, bad idea, ME III

4 Convert videos   

5 Printer problem

 

I apologize for the missed issue.  Last week was rather tumultuous for me with the election and some personal matters to attend to and honestly, the Newsletter got shoved aside for a few days.  I'll try not to let that happen again.  On to another issue, now back on track.

 

There are tools built into Windows that you likely are familiar with, either from personal experience or through this group via newsletter or email.  One is Msconfig, which many of you use to clean out your start up items.  The other, Task Manager, has been around in one form or another since you old DOS days and you probably use it to kill unresponsive programs.

 

Both are fine for those purposes but they have a myriad of uses that you may not know about.

 

Msconfig has the Startup tab and, coupled with information sources like http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php, is invaluable for information on all the icons sitting in your System Tray using resources but sometimes the process comes back.

 

If that happens there's also a Services tab that shows programs that are embedded deeper into Windows.  You have to be a lot more careful in this list because many of these are core Windows processes listed here that may prevent the OS from starting if they aren't present, although you can alleviate this by checking the Hide All Microsoft Services and clicking OK.

 

Stubborn and annoying items like Google Updater are listed there, however, and that one certainly doesn't need to run.  Don't get me wrong, I use the Google Toolbar and love it but all these other chunks of it are wasteful and in my opinion shouldn't be installed in the first place.

 

In addition, Msconfig always starts on the General tab and in the bottom right you'll find a button to launch System Restore.  This of course allows you to "roll back" changes to Windows that may have rendered it useless or broken companion programs like AV and spyware scanners and productivity programs like Word or Open Office.

 

Click the button, tick Restore to an earlier date and Next, then choose a bold date from the calendar on the left and Next and follow the directions on screen from there.

 

The .INI tabs in Msconfig should probably be avoided.  These are extremely technical and can really hose a PC, especially the BOOT.INI tab.

 

The last tab, Tools, contains links to many other tools like IPConfig, the Event Viewer, System Information, Add/Remove Programs etc.  There are other ways to get to these tools but you may find this one handy when you forget the command to start these apps.

 

Task Manager, a tool commonly used to end hung applications, also has the means to start new tasks, monitor resource usage per processes, gauge resource usage over time and see network traffic levels.

 

On occasion when you end a task the screen may go to the wallpaper and not display the desktop icons and Task Bar.  Before you brute-force the PC off try a couple of things in Task Manager first.

 

The Desktop is just the Graphical User Interface for Windows and not the base OS.  It's controlled by a program called Explorer, not to be confused with Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer.  Try relaunching Explorer by clicking on File and clicking New Task, then typing in explorer and clicking OK.

 

Worst-case scenario, that won't bring back the Desktop, but you can still shut down or restart normally from within Task Manager.  Click Shutdown and choose the method you prefer.

 

If you notice the PC bogging down now and then you can use Task Manager to figure out what's causing it.  Click Processes and look down the CPU column.  If anything is extremely high, say 50 or more, there's your culprit.  If you know what it is and don't want it running you can click once on it and choose End Process but, like the Services tab in Msconfig, many of these are core Windows processes and shouldn't be killed willy-nilly.

 

The Performance and Networking tabs offer graphical real-time monitoring if you prefer visual information as opposed to raw numbers.

 

Try these things yourself if the need arises, just don't get carried away ;)

 

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

 

 



 

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

 

 

Tech News of the Week
 

The U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve issued a final rule on Wednesday aimed at stopping illegal Internet gambling:

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE4A97TB20081112

Google Earth is extending its satellite perspective to paint a picture of what the ancient city of Rome looked like nearly two millennia ago:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10095955-93.html

IBM is once again planning to set up a broadband over power line (BPL) system in the US:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2230428/ibm-gets-back-bpl-business

Microsoft may call the newest version of its operating system Windows 7, but you may want to think of it as Windows 6.5---it's a lot like Vista:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9119378&source=landingpage

Copy us on the good stuff!

 

Matthew Dattilo

thepcgurus at gmail.com 

www.mattstodayinhistory.com

 

 

Download of the Week
 

Playing video doesn't mean you're tethered to your PC. Countless different other devices can play video as well, including hand-held devices and music players, mobile phones, and the PlayStation Portable. Trouble is, the videos you've downloaded to your PC might not be in the formats those devices require. This free piece of software solves the problem. 

 

Any Video Converter Free Version is a universal converter that converts files between many different formats, including just about any you'll find online. It even handles .flv files so that you could, for example, download YouTube videos using TubeMe, then convert the file to a format you can play on a portable device. Converting files is simple: Select the videos you want to convert (you can do multiple files), select the format you want them converted to and then click the Encode button.  Keep in mind that it can be a slow process depending on the size of the files so be patient.  Get it here: 

 

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/# 

 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com 

 

 

Email Question of the Week
 

Q:  I keep getting the following message: Microsoft Visual C++ Library Runtime Error ! Program: C:\Windows\System\spoolsv.exe This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information. I can't find which app. is the problem. I have an HP M8400f with AMD Phenom Quad-Core and Vista. I bought it in May, the first 30 days I used it and then the next 30 days the geek squad, they replace the mob. How can I stop this message?

 

A:  The spooler is a service that caches print jobs until the printer can warm up/catch up with the data.  I would suggest uninstalling everything to do with the printer (remove it from Printers and Faxes and uninstall it from Add/Remove programs) and shutting the PC off.  

 

Disconnect the printer and fire the PC back up.  Go to the manufacturer's website (www.hp.com, www.epson.com  etc.) and download the latest driver.  Start installing that and when prompted reconnect the printer.

 

That will likely fix it, give it a try and let me know...

       

Kevin Mefford

pcguru at microdome.net

 

 

Contact info and legal stuff
 

If you have tech support questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please submit them by visiting www.thepcgurus.com and click on the "Email the Team" icon. 

  

Copyright 2001-2008 The PC Gurus, all rights reserved.  Publication, rebroadcast or storage is prohibited without prior consent, however you may freely forward this publication to friends as long as A) it is forwarded in its entirety and B) no fee is charged.

 

Information provided in this publication is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.  Although the information provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL systems.  Make use of any information supplied at your own risk.

 

The PC Gurus are a group of volunteers who provide support for the PC, Mac and Linux users in the Kentuckiana region.

 

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