How-To
Unable to Boot Windows with External Hard Drive Attached?
I recently purchased a 2TB Western Digital My Book and connected it up to my Windows PC at home. Everything...
Windows 7
How-To
Blue Screen of Death BSOD Restarts Too Fast in Windows?
I recently got a blue screen of death (BSOD) error on a Windows computer. However, upon restarting the computer and...
How-To
System Restore Points Missing in Windows?
I recently ran into a problem where all my restore points in Windows were disappearing. If I created a system...
How-To
Lost Windows 7 Install Disc? Create a New One From Scratch
If you’ve misplaced your Windows 7 install disc, which may be the actual discs that came with your PC or...
How-To
Fix “Setup is Preparing Your Computer for First Use” on Every Reboot
Have you ever run into the problem where every time you start up Windows, you get the following message: Setup...
How-To
Create a Custom Windows 7 Install Image
Creating a customized Windows 7 image can be accomplished using a few different methods and Microsoft even supplies some tips...
How-To
Fix Windows Explorer Window Opening on Startup
I recently ran into a really annoying problem on my Windows 7 64-bit PC: every time I restarted it and...
How-To
Remove Dotted Border Around Icons on Windows Desktop
Have you ever noticed that sometimes Windows will give your desktop icons a dotted line border? It’s really annoying and...
How-To
How to Clean Up the WinSxS Folder in Windows 7, 8.1, 10, and 11
WinSxS eating your disk space? You can't delete it manually. Use Disk Cleanup, DISM, or Storage Sense to safely reclaim...
How-To
6 Ways to Fix MP3 Album Art Not Showing in Windows Explorer
MP3 album art not showing up in Windows Explorer on Windows 10 or 11? Six fixes covering view settings, ID3...
How-To
How to Fix “COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working” in Windows
"COM Surrogate has stopped working" usually means a bad codec is crashing dllhost.exe. Nine fixes for Windows 7 through 11...
How-To
Tab Key Not Working in Windows 7
Having problems with your tab key in Windows 7? I know I am! My desktop machine runs Windows 7 64-bit...
How-To
Fix “Windows Anytime Upgrade was not successful” Error
One of my clients ran into a problem when they were trying to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to...
How-To
How to Fix No Sound or Audio in a VMware Fusion Windows VM
No audio — or crackling, distorted sound — in your Windows VM in VMware Fusion? These 6 fixes cover everything...
How-To
Unable to Pin Programs to Taskbar in Windows 7?
So I ran into an interesting problem the other day when I tried to pin a program to the Windows...
How-To
Uninstall and Reinstall IE in Windows 7
Internet Explorer was recently having some strange issues on my Windows 7 machine and instead of spending hours trying to...
How-To
Force Windows 7 to Use Wired Connection over Wireless
So here’s an interesting situation I ran into when using Windows 7 connected to both my Ethernet network and my...
How-To
Windows 7 Screensaver and Power Options Not Working?
I’ve had my share of problems with Windows 7, but I still use it regularly along with my MacBook Pro....
How-To
How to Fix Realtek Audio Crackling and Popping on Windows 10 and 11
Realtek audio crackling or popping on Windows 10/11? These 8 fixes go from quick settings tweaks to driver swaps —...
How-To
Windows 7 Devices and Printers Hangs or Won’t Open?
I ran into an annoying problem on my Windows 7 virtual machine the other day when I tried to open...
How-To
How to Combine Two Images Without Photoshop in 2026 (4 Easy Methods)
No Photoshop? No problem. Combine two images for free using Google Photos, Canva, Paint.NET, or MS Paint — step-by-step, no...
How-To
Windows 7 Switch User Disabled or Greyed Out?
A client of mine recently had a strange problem in Windows 7 where he could not switch between users using...
How-To
Top 10 Differences between Windows 7 and Windows 8/10
Like Windows 7 was to Windows XP (see our previous post on the differences between Windows XP and 7), Windows...
How-To
Merge Two Partitions in Windows 7/8/10
One common complaint that I get from friends and family is that their computers with default system configurations from Dell,...
How-To
Cursor Jumps Around While Typing in Windows?
So I encountered a strange problem recently where my mouse pointer/cursor would randomly jump around the screen, making it impossible...
