Newsletter Archives

• From bad to worse: A repair goes awry

  Posted on May 10th, 2021 at 01:04 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  Sometimes, well-intentioned repairs can actually make things worse than before. That’s what happened to a reader who was trying to correct a Windows login error but ended up with a completely unbootable PC!

  Is it possible for him to get Windows running again with its already installed software still intact and working? Or is a full reinstall in his future?

  Plus: The care and feeding of that little coin-cell battery on your PC’s mainboard.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.17.0 (2021-05-10).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, LangaList, Repairs, Windows

• More on OneDrive, and Symlinks

  Posted on May 3rd, 2021 at 01:06 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  A recent column on OneDrive problems brought a ton of email from readers asking for help with overcoming OneDrive’s poor documentation, weak user interface, and other limitations.

  The largest group of questions was about using symlinks to allow OneDrive to automatically sync and process files or folders without having to first move and fit them all into the local C:\…\OneDrive\ folder.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.16.0 (2021-05-03).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, OneDrive

• RAID 0 error = Total data loss!

  Posted on April 26th, 2021 at 01:04 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

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  By Fred Langa

  RAID — Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks — is an old technology that offers few real benefits on today’s standard PCs — but man, does it have drawbacks!

  Today’s first reader-submitted letter illustrates the case. A system problem rendered essentially all the user’s data inaccessible and unrecoverable, across the entire RAID array!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, RAID

• OneDrive, several problems

  Posted on April 19th, 2021 at 01:06 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  OneDrive’s poor documentation and weak user interface can cause endless frustration.

  Some important OneDrive procedures are left unexplained; others literally cannot be accomplished from the desktop and can be done only via the Web interface — but again, with nary a word of guidance.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.14.0 (2021-04-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Microsoft 365 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, OneDrive

• Check or change Win10’s file-sharing encryption level

  Posted on April 12th, 2021 at 01:04 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  If you’ve upgraded your PC from Win7, Win8, or early Win10 versions, it may still be using a thoroughly obsolete and nearly useless level of encryption for file sharing!

  Plus: More on “stuttering mice” and a potentially dangerous charger-cord fire hazard!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.13.0 (2021-04-12).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, encryption, hardware, LangaList

• Touchscreen misregisters point-and-clicks

  Posted on April 5th, 2021 at 01:10 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.12 • 2021-04-05

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  Touchscreens are ubiquitous and usually reliable, but when one malfunctions, even simple pointing and clicking can become an exercise in extreme frustration.

  Here are the likely causes of touchscreen miscalibration, and several easy ways to get things working properly again.

  Plus: How to protect yourself from Windows’ dangerous, semi-secret back door!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.12.0 (2021-04-05).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.12.F (2021-04-05).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, LangaList, Touch screen

• A wide-ranging trio of questions

  Posted on March 22nd, 2021 at 01:06 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  This week’s top reader-submitted questions cover quite a spread of topics, starting with some unexpected lithium-ion battery behavior.

  Then we examine the reasons for a reader’s deep misgivings about the safety and reliability of cloud-storage services, and we’ll wrap up with a super-simple, three-click solution for a notebook PC whose unplugged performance is simply too slow for practical use.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.11.0 (2021-03-22).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Power settings, Windows

• Windows’ semi-secret “back door” still exists!

  Posted on March 15th, 2021 at 01:06 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  All current Windows, including Win10 20H2, contain an old, sneaky workaround that lets you log in to a PC even if the usernames and passwords are scrambled, unknown, or forgotten.

  You can even use this method to create a new administrator account on a PC that doesn’t have one and then use that new account to log on and perform recovery or repair operations.

  Plus: Win8/10’s free, automated, Robust File Copy — Robocopy — to the rescue!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.10.0 (2021-03-15).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Back Door, LangaList, Windows

• Finding working drivers for an older PC

  Posted on March 8th, 2021 at 01:06 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

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  By Fred Langa

  Drivers are the software ‘glue’ that connects your PC’s hardware to its operating system. Without drivers, nothing works.

  Once a PC is no longer supported by the manufacturer, its abandoned drivers can become incompatible as new versions of Windows roll out.

  Here’s one known-good way to track down a still-working driver for an older PC.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.9.0 (2021-03-08).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware drivers, LangaList, Windows Update

• “Stuttering” glitch on a brand-new PC

  Posted on March 1st, 2021 at 01:08 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  LANGALIST

  “Stuttering” glitch on a brand-new PC

  By Fred Langa

  A subscriber’s new system experiences erratic mouse and touchpad problems almost from the very first startup.

  Unwanted pauses, hesitations, and stutters can afflict any PC of any age, potentially causing problems with numerous subsystems: mouse, keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, disks and memory, screen operations, and more! Here are the likely causes, and fixes.

  Plus: Taming CCleaner’s Smart Cleaning feature.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.8.0 (2021-03-01).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.8.F (2021-03-01).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, LangaList

• Glacially slow, 10-minute boot times!

  Posted on February 22nd, 2021 at 01:04 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  Glacially slow, 10-minute boot times!

  By Fred Langa

  When a PC bogs down to the point where it takes a full 10 minutes just to fully wake up, you know something’s seriously wrong!

  The PC’s owner thinks his startup apps are to blame, and asks how to analyze the PC’s boot process.

  Win10’s free, built-in startup analyzer is part of the answer — but only after trying several other approaches first!

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.7.0 (2021-02-22).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Slow boots

• From the mailbag: PDF woes; and a cleanup tool kills two PCs!

  Posted on February 15th, 2021 at 01:05 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  From the mailbag: PDF woes; and a cleanup tool kills two PCs!

  By Fred Langa

  One reader-submitted email asks for the fastest, easiest way to print or save-as-PDF only limited portions of AskWoody Plus — or any other email or web page!

  The second details a reader’s first-hand experience with the destructive power of a too heavy-duty PC maintenance tool.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.6.0 (2021-02-15).

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