Newsletter Archives

• 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

  LANGALIST

  

  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).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList

• More on Win10’s Ransomware protection

  Posted on February 8th, 2021 at 01:45 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  More on Win10’s Ransomware protection

  By Fred Langa

  Many subscribers tried enabling this optional security enhancement, only to discover it can be hard to get going!

  There are at least five reasons why Ransomware protection — and other Win10 security features — might not be available on your PC.

  Here’s what they are, and what you can do about them.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.5.0 (2021-02-08).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Ransomware, security, Windows 10

• Excess heat during laptop recharging?

  Posted on January 25th, 2021 at 01:30 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  Excess heat during laptop recharging?

  By Fred Langa

  A reader is concerned: His laptop’s CPU temperature rises during battery-charging sessions. Why would the CPU heat up?

  Relatedly, what are normal CPU temperatures, anyway? What’s a safe temperature rise?

  Plus: A tiny freeware app that prevents PC overheating!

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.3.0 (2021-01-25).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware, LangaList hardware, LangaList

• Four GB of RAM vanishes … but then reappears

  Posted on January 18th, 2021 at 02:35 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  Four GB of RAM vanishes … but then reappears

  By Fred Langa

  A long-stable Win10 PC with 12GB of RAM suddenly crashes after losing track of a full third of its memory — only to have the missing RAM later reappear and work fine!

  The other symptoms seem to rule out simple RAM-chip failures or software-caused glitches. What the heck is going on here?

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.2.0 (2021-01-18).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware, LangaList LangaList

• Controlling Win10’s sometimes hyperactive security apps

  Posted on January 11th, 2021 at 00:20 Will Fastie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  Controlling Win10’s sometimes hyperactive security apps

  By Fred Langa

  Win10’s built-in security tools offer excellent protection but can be annoying with frequent update cycles and tons of notifications.

  In fact, the amount of activity made one reader wonder whether his security setup was actually broken! Here’s how to tell, and how to make it behave better.

  Plus: More on Win10’s 30 built-in Troubleshooters.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.1.0 (2021-01-11).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList

• ‘Moving house is great fun,’ said no one ever

  Posted on July 13th, 2020 at 01:15 Jamie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BACKUP & RECOVERY

  ‘Moving house is great fun,’ said no one ever

  By Fred Langa

  The Langas’ home and office relocation hits some snags, including fatal damage to 5TB of backup files.

  But after some detours involving both high and low tech, things are finally getting back to normal.

  Testing, testing … is this thing on? Aha, it is!

  Moving mishaps are inevitable, but I didn’t expect this: the destruction of my 5TB, daily-use, primary backup drive — a three-year-old, spinning-platter, external Seagate unit that was stuffed to the gills with incremental backups, my Win10 File History files, my software archive, and gigs and gigs of family photos.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.27.0 (2020-07-013).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList
• « Older Entries