There are always way to many times people download a file of the Internet, which they delete straight away because their system does not recognize it, others would call some tech person that they know and ask about it or search the Internet for help. We are really tired of explaining this over and over, so we put up these two little posts that will help you solve your problems.
We want to make it very clear right now, enabling file extensions in Windows can be VERY dangerous to your system!
Every new computer or a fresh install of Windows does not show file extensions by default, it is disabled for one good reason. Once you enable file extensions, you can accidentally rename them too.
If this option is disabled, users can't see and can't overwrite the three letters of almost every filename. If you rename your simple text file into text.txt2, Windows will open and show your text.
If you enable this option and look at the same file now, it would be text.txt2.txt and renaming it to text.txt2 or just text again may render the file to be unusable. Of course, most files, you can rename back and they will work again. You can always disable this option, but if you do leave it on, be careful not to rename or move any system files!
If you want to enable this option, you have to have any Windows folder open on your desktop. In the File menu select Tools, then Folder Options. This will bring up a little settings window, select View tab and in advanced settings, without scrolling down, you should see the lowest one "Hide extensions for known files", check that box and click Ok. Here you can also select to show hidden files, folders and system protected files. You can see them easily, they usually are see-through or have blue names.
You should now be able to see all these different file types that you have in Windows Operating System. This will solve the first problem, now you know that you have some type of unreadable file. You can call your tech friend and ask for info on that file type and why it does not work on your machine or you could read our second post, in which we will explain how to open any file that you may have. Be sure to read it!
Continue to Three Letter File Extensions Post 2
Read More......
Sunday, 30 November 2008
The Three Letter File Extensions Post 2
All files are created by programs or are used by programs that run on your computer. All of them can be opened using compatible programs or tools. Like the way you need a CD player with MP3 support if you want to play your MP3 on it, the same way there specific files that are used in Windows OS and can be opened with specific programs.
Very often someone calls and asks how can you open this or that file, if a person mentions that file's extension, you can tell straight away what application should he or her look for. Then of course, you have to guide them all the way through - until they have their file opened.
You can, of course, leave your restless PC helper for a while and try to do it yourself. Search on-line for a program that reads or creates these file types. Most of the time you just have to ask how to open a zip file or simply type in zip file extension and you should find some info about that file type.
Some programs open more similar files than others. Some Media Players recognize and play more files than others, while there are some which are specifically created to open specific files. Keep in mind that for audio/video playback of different file types you require different codecs not players. Some archive files can only be extracted with a certain software.
When ever you install a new program that reads or creates files that you want to open, it will always ask if you want to associate them with it. You can always change your default associations simply by right-clicking your file, selecting Properties. Then clicking the button Open With.. and browsing to your preferred program's exe file.
We hope this info was helpful to you and now you will be able to open any file that you want. Check our site regularly for the latest free expert tips! Read More......
Very often someone calls and asks how can you open this or that file, if a person mentions that file's extension, you can tell straight away what application should he or her look for. Then of course, you have to guide them all the way through - until they have their file opened.
You can, of course, leave your restless PC helper for a while and try to do it yourself. Search on-line for a program that reads or creates these file types. Most of the time you just have to ask how to open a zip file or simply type in zip file extension and you should find some info about that file type.
Some programs open more similar files than others. Some Media Players recognize and play more files than others, while there are some which are specifically created to open specific files. Keep in mind that for audio/video playback of different file types you require different codecs not players. Some archive files can only be extracted with a certain software.
When ever you install a new program that reads or creates files that you want to open, it will always ask if you want to associate them with it. You can always change your default associations simply by right-clicking your file, selecting Properties. Then clicking the button Open With.. and browsing to your preferred program's exe file.
We hope this info was helpful to you and now you will be able to open any file that you want. Check our site regularly for the latest free expert tips! Read More......
|
Bookmark this post:
|
|
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Random Access Memory - RAM
We continue our Simple PC Specs series with a post about RAM a.k.a. physical memory of your computer. RAM is confused a lot of times with the memory of your graphics card and even hard-drive space. This post will explain in simple plain English all about RAM, so you will never be confused again. Hopefully after reading post you will be able to upgrade your memory or at least know where to look for memory and what type of memory too look for, read on!
Random Access Memory is sometimes referred to as computer's physical memory because it is the place where all the calculations take place also you can physically touch RAM chips. When ever you open a word document it is loaded into javascript:void(0)RAM and stays there until you close it or save it to your virtual memory which is your hard-drive. RAM is counted now in Giga Bytes and Mega Bytes on graphics cards. RAM chips are different in packages and types, most desktop PCs today use DIMMs and laptops use SODIMMs. Also the most widely used type of memory is DDR and DDR2, your computer should be using either of these.
When you upgrade your RAM you simple add more space for your processor to work in. It wont speed up your Internet, or games, but it will make your games lag less and let you have more open programs and running processes at the same time.
You can find out how much memory you have by clicking properties of My Computer, the default tab System Properties shows you your processor speed and all the physical memory that you have installed.
To see if you actually use all the memory, you just have to open Task Manager and see Performance tab. If the numbers are high even if you don't run anything like a video game, you should upgrade your memory. You should upgrade it if your computer hangs often and you can't run multiple programs at once. Vista operating system requires more RAM than XP, all the latest games and 3D modeling programs use a lot of RAM. Otherwise there is no good reason to buy expensive RAM. A lot of the time, just saying I have 4 GB of RAM is very cool, you probably barely feel the difference when you use your upgraded PC.
If you decide that you still want to upgrade your memory, be sure to read the manual of your computer and see exactly what RAM chips your computer uses and what are the upgrade options, and limit. Be sure to have the correct info of your chips before you go out buying new ones, if you can and feel confident enough, open your box and write down everything that is written on those chips, don't take them out unless you are absolutely sure you can do it, read, watch some guides before attempting to remove your RAM chips. RAM is vital to your computer, just taking it out an placing back in may stop your computer from working. It is always better to get a professional engineer to do it for you, even if it costs a little more.
We hope this post helped you to understand RAM better and now you are ready to upgrade it if you ever need to. We hope you enjoyed reading this post, come back soon for more great info and tips!
Read More......
Random Access Memory is sometimes referred to as computer's physical memory because it is the place where all the calculations take place also you can physically touch RAM chips. When ever you open a word document it is loaded into javascript:void(0)RAM and stays there until you close it or save it to your virtual memory which is your hard-drive. RAM is counted now in Giga Bytes and Mega Bytes on graphics cards. RAM chips are different in packages and types, most desktop PCs today use DIMMs and laptops use SODIMMs. Also the most widely used type of memory is DDR and DDR2, your computer should be using either of these.
When you upgrade your RAM you simple add more space for your processor to work in. It wont speed up your Internet, or games, but it will make your games lag less and let you have more open programs and running processes at the same time.
You can find out how much memory you have by clicking properties of My Computer, the default tab System Properties shows you your processor speed and all the physical memory that you have installed.
To see if you actually use all the memory, you just have to open Task Manager and see Performance tab. If the numbers are high even if you don't run anything like a video game, you should upgrade your memory. You should upgrade it if your computer hangs often and you can't run multiple programs at once. Vista operating system requires more RAM than XP, all the latest games and 3D modeling programs use a lot of RAM. Otherwise there is no good reason to buy expensive RAM. A lot of the time, just saying I have 4 GB of RAM is very cool, you probably barely feel the difference when you use your upgraded PC.
If you decide that you still want to upgrade your memory, be sure to read the manual of your computer and see exactly what RAM chips your computer uses and what are the upgrade options, and limit. Be sure to have the correct info of your chips before you go out buying new ones, if you can and feel confident enough, open your box and write down everything that is written on those chips, don't take them out unless you are absolutely sure you can do it, read, watch some guides before attempting to remove your RAM chips. RAM is vital to your computer, just taking it out an placing back in may stop your computer from working. It is always better to get a professional engineer to do it for you, even if it costs a little more.
We hope this post helped you to understand RAM better and now you are ready to upgrade it if you ever need to. We hope you enjoyed reading this post, come back soon for more great info and tips!
Read More......
|
Bookmark this post:
|
|
Installing Fresh Windows
Installing new Windows is an everyday job to a computer technician. Some think that it it pretty amazing to know how it is done, but the reality is that this job is very, very boring and time consuming. Through out the install there is nothing to do for you, but just watch the estimated remaining time until it completes. Most of the work you do is type in the serial key number of your Windows CD.
Most new computers bought these days don't even come with a copy of Windows CD or a recovery CD, well, just a picture of it. They simply create a partition with an image of your default system setup which you can restore very easily. The partition is usually hidden so you don't get any ideas, in a way it is much easier for an average user to reinstall Windows without any hassle at all. But if you want flexibility you should do it yourself.
Most of the real work takes place before and after the actual OS installation. Before installing you need to find out and collect everything that you want to keep or backup. You must not forget to transfer any important documents or files to your USB stick, maybe burn those files onto a CD or DVD. Of course, you only need to save everything from the partition that has Windows installed. If you have a partition that contains all your important data on it you don't have to back it up because it is not your system partition, but it is recommended to partition your hard-drive again and clear everything.
Once you have all your music, videos, your favorites or bookmarks, everything from your desktop or maybe some important game saves or updates and files that programs may have created in one of Program Files folders. You have all your latest drivers ready for installing on a separate CD. Now you are almost ready to install fresh Windows, but just before you do that, check if your windows CD is in good condition, try to copy it onto your disk if you get no errors you are good to go, if you do get errors do not use that CD because your installation may end up to be corrupted or even failed.
When you have everything ready it is time for the actual install, but if you want to install windows from a CD, you must change your boot order or select to boot from CD you can do that in your system BIOS, check what keys you need to press to access it just in the first few seconds, when the computer is performing a self-test.
Once you load the CD, the rest is pretty simple, written in white on blue. Select the infected partition where you want to install new Windows on and delete it. From unallocated space that you now have, create a new partition and format it as NTFS file system. Once done Windows will copy needed files from the CD and reboot. Keep the CD in the drive but don't let it boot. From here Windows will load without the CD but it is needed to finish the installation. This is the time to put in your CD key, select your keyboard layout, choose your username. Create a name for you computer and a Workgroup. A few more settings and you are done with the installation, a final wizard comes on from Microsoft which you can skip most of it apart from creating a username.
Finally now you should see your new fresh default Windows desktop, if you do then, you have successfully completed Windows installation, but your work is not over just yet. Get your drivers out and all the necessary programs like anti-virus, Winrar, maybe Divx.
At this point you could create a recovery disk, create a restore point, create an image of your system and keep it separate so when next time you install, everything is ready and running. You could install another Windows on to a different partition for better protection against complete system crashes you can find out more about that in our post about Multiple OS PCs.
We hope you enjoyed reading this post, we hope this information was helpful to you. Comeback soon for more great tips, tricks, solutions and fixes for your beloved PC!
Read More......
Most new computers bought these days don't even come with a copy of Windows CD or a recovery CD, well, just a picture of it. They simply create a partition with an image of your default system setup which you can restore very easily. The partition is usually hidden so you don't get any ideas, in a way it is much easier for an average user to reinstall Windows without any hassle at all. But if you want flexibility you should do it yourself.
Most of the real work takes place before and after the actual OS installation. Before installing you need to find out and collect everything that you want to keep or backup. You must not forget to transfer any important documents or files to your USB stick, maybe burn those files onto a CD or DVD. Of course, you only need to save everything from the partition that has Windows installed. If you have a partition that contains all your important data on it you don't have to back it up because it is not your system partition, but it is recommended to partition your hard-drive again and clear everything.
Once you have all your music, videos, your favorites or bookmarks, everything from your desktop or maybe some important game saves or updates and files that programs may have created in one of Program Files folders. You have all your latest drivers ready for installing on a separate CD. Now you are almost ready to install fresh Windows, but just before you do that, check if your windows CD is in good condition, try to copy it onto your disk if you get no errors you are good to go, if you do get errors do not use that CD because your installation may end up to be corrupted or even failed.
When you have everything ready it is time for the actual install, but if you want to install windows from a CD, you must change your boot order or select to boot from CD you can do that in your system BIOS, check what keys you need to press to access it just in the first few seconds, when the computer is performing a self-test.
Once you load the CD, the rest is pretty simple, written in white on blue. Select the infected partition where you want to install new Windows on and delete it. From unallocated space that you now have, create a new partition and format it as NTFS file system. Once done Windows will copy needed files from the CD and reboot. Keep the CD in the drive but don't let it boot. From here Windows will load without the CD but it is needed to finish the installation. This is the time to put in your CD key, select your keyboard layout, choose your username. Create a name for you computer and a Workgroup. A few more settings and you are done with the installation, a final wizard comes on from Microsoft which you can skip most of it apart from creating a username.
Finally now you should see your new fresh default Windows desktop, if you do then, you have successfully completed Windows installation, but your work is not over just yet. Get your drivers out and all the necessary programs like anti-virus, Winrar, maybe Divx.
At this point you could create a recovery disk, create a restore point, create an image of your system and keep it separate so when next time you install, everything is ready and running. You could install another Windows on to a different partition for better protection against complete system crashes you can find out more about that in our post about Multiple OS PCs.
We hope you enjoyed reading this post, we hope this information was helpful to you. Comeback soon for more great tips, tricks, solutions and fixes for your beloved PC!
Read More......
|
Bookmark this post:
|
|
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Multiple OS PC
We wanted to share this solution because we find it really extremely useful. What do you do when you can't boot into your Windows machine? What do you do if your OS has so many viruses it is not possible to recover anything? It is still probably possible to recover your data from these situations but if you don't know how to - you have lost all your data. Hopefully it is the first and the last time this happens. The best you can do now is to prevent it from happening ever again, with this superb solution we are offering to you, free of charge.
We, the PC Helpers are always coming up with new and interesting solutions, fixes that anyone could make good use of. This solution is no different, we like to think that we invented it and no one can say otherwise.
These days a lot of people have computers that contain hard-drives with over 100GB of space, but most users don't use it up and this space goes to waste. So why not create another partition and install another Windows or even two, maybe you would want to install Linux on to a partition of your hard-drive. Xp or Vista don't take up a lot of space, just a few GBs and having a extra OS installed can be life saving.
If you have a second OS on a partition that you never use, how high is the possibility for a virus reach it? Can your anti-virus program installed on this second OS scan the infected Windows partition? You can simply copy all important files to your healthy partition and install a fresh on where your infected partition is or try to repair it.
You could also have a USB memory stick that has windows on them and boot from it, if your system's BIOS supports that. We will teach you how to do that sometime too, you have to keep checking our little site.
If you do install another OS on to your PC, you have to have a way to access it, there are two ways to do it. First is to edit Boot.ini and add information about your second OS, this file is hidden system file so you have to make it visible first. Be sure you know what you are doing because one little mistake and you won't be able to access your Windows at all. We recommend a multi boot manager, multiple OS boot tool or something like that. There are many to choose from, you will find one you like. Also to create a free partition you would need a partition tool or partition when you are installing your first Windows.
We hope this post was helpful to you. We hope you enjoyed reading our tips, please leave a comment. Don't forget to comeback soon for more great info.
Read More......
We, the PC Helpers are always coming up with new and interesting solutions, fixes that anyone could make good use of. This solution is no different, we like to think that we invented it and no one can say otherwise.
These days a lot of people have computers that contain hard-drives with over 100GB of space, but most users don't use it up and this space goes to waste. So why not create another partition and install another Windows or even two, maybe you would want to install Linux on to a partition of your hard-drive. Xp or Vista don't take up a lot of space, just a few GBs and having a extra OS installed can be life saving.
If you have a second OS on a partition that you never use, how high is the possibility for a virus reach it? Can your anti-virus program installed on this second OS scan the infected Windows partition? You can simply copy all important files to your healthy partition and install a fresh on where your infected partition is or try to repair it.
You could also have a USB memory stick that has windows on them and boot from it, if your system's BIOS supports that. We will teach you how to do that sometime too, you have to keep checking our little site.
If you do install another OS on to your PC, you have to have a way to access it, there are two ways to do it. First is to edit Boot.ini and add information about your second OS, this file is hidden system file so you have to make it visible first. Be sure you know what you are doing because one little mistake and you won't be able to access your Windows at all. We recommend a multi boot manager, multiple OS boot tool or something like that. There are many to choose from, you will find one you like. Also to create a free partition you would need a partition tool or partition when you are installing your first Windows.
We hope this post was helpful to you. We hope you enjoyed reading our tips, please leave a comment. Don't forget to comeback soon for more great info.
Read More......
|
Bookmark this post:
|
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
