29 Jun, 2009
The Windows Error-Checking tool (Chkdsk) can identify and fix potential problems with your hard disk. Run it every few weeks or once a month if everything seems to be performing fine. It’s also worth running Chkdsk straight after every crash or hard-disk reset.
To access the tool, open My Computer (Computer in Vista), right-click your system drive and select Properties. Go to the Tools tab, click the Check Now button and add ticks to ‘Automatically fix file system errors’ and ‘Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.’ You’ll probably have to restart Windows before Chkdsk can begin checking the drive.
10 Nov, 2008
When you plug a USB flahs memory drive into a PC, Windows scans it and presents you with a menu, prompting you to choose whether to transfer photos, view pictures, open a folder to view the files and so on. I find it a bit irratating if I don’t actually want to do any of these tasks straightaway and I have to click the Cancel button to dismiss the window. You can stop this from happening by holding down the Shift key as you insert the USB flash memory drive. It’s made ready for use, but you don’t get the annoying pop-up dialogue box.
6 May, 2008
If you often use Windows Help to find out how to do stuff or get the solution to a problem, it’s useful to bookmark the pages so that you can easily return if you need them again. I have lots of useful topics bookmarked. When you view a Help page, just click the ‘Add to Favourites’ button above the text. It’s then added to the Favourites button in the toolbar.
