lokoike

I've wondered about that myself. In fact, several months ago when I was reinstalling Windows on my notebook, I think I stared at the user name blank for about ten minutes before typing in my name. I didn't know if I should, but then my fear was that if I used a false name, it would show up that way on my files and such, and would be a nuisance. So finally, I used my real name. Do you know whether or not MS is able to obtain personal information, such as names? MS always claims to not get personal information during transactions such as Windows Updates, but I'm sure that they have some clause that gets around this.

Oh, just thought of something obvious: were there other devices plugged into the surge protector when you hooked it up to your computer? High power devices, by any chance? Maybe that is the problem. If you already have several devices hooked up to the surge protector, and then you also hook up your battery back-up and computer, you may be overburdening it.

Oh well. I took Eldmannen down with me! No, just kidding; I got no beeves (plural of beef) with Eldmannen. I just didn't want him bashing PicAFlic when he himself was just as guilty of grammatical imperfection. Apparently I am too!

I agree. In fact, if CCleaner could organize all of your programs into categories, such as Image Editing, Word Processing, Windows Updates, etc., that would be awesome. It could be similar to Add or Remove Programs, in that, by using a drop-down combo box, you could organize your apps by name, group, date, etc. I think that having this feature would give the user more flexibility, and make CCleaner easier to use at the same time.

She does, eh? That kobrakommander is one lucky guy!

Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!! In my defense, I didn't start this, I was just sticking up for the underdog.

You know Eldmannen, you really shouldn't be so picky about how other people write, considering... He may argue like a little kid, but you write like a forth grader. At least his comments were intelligible.

You can always tell the guys who don't trust MS with their names. Course, not that I blame him!

I've been waiting for this to be released for at least half a year! This is great! If it is around $300, that still isn't terrible, considering its capabilities (better than paying $80 for a keyboard without characters). Plus, OLEDs are supposed to replace LCDs, so obviously the price will be coming down shortly after its release.

Hmm... perhaps you have a bad surge protector. Has your surge protector been through any power outages or spikes? If so, perhaps it is going bad now. How old is it? APC is supposed to be really good stuff, but you never know. Have you tried other devices in this surge protector, such as lights or kitchen appliances? And if so, have the devices behaved strangely?

Sorry bout the italics; wasn't trying to be cocky, just trying to stress it. And the picture thing is totally umm... kobrakommander's fault. Anyway, hope that helped you out a little.

IEXPLORE.EXE is Internet Explorer, which is why it is in the IE folder. I use ZoneAlarm as well, and periodically, when I run certain programs, it says that they are trying to act as a server. Usually, I get this warning about Firefox, since that is my default browser. If ZA comes up with something that I don't understand, I usually just tell it to Deny. Worst case senario, the program I was using doesn't run, and I just Allow it to next time. Nothing is harmed that way.

By the PSU powering up in a higher gear, I assume you are actually referring to the PSU's fan, right? If that is the case, your PSU might have some sort of temperature monitor on it, and it raises every time the PSU gets too hot. Try sucking the dust out of the fan; often, dust can cause fans to not operate properly, so they have to work harder to achieve the RPM necessary to cool the device. I clean my fans every couple of weeks. If you are referring to electrical noise coming out of the PSU that is unrelated to the PSU's fan, that still shouldn't be because of plugging the battery into the surge protector. Actually, having the power go from the outlet, to the protector, to the battery, to the PSU should be giving you more stable power, not less stable. Is this the same computer that you've been using for a while, or is it the new one with the 500-550 watt PSU? If it is the new one, perhaps your house has old wiring and your new computer is somehow overburdening it? Otherwise, it could just be that the PSU is going bad, or it could be overheating (possibly because of dirty fans). One way to test if your PSU is going bad is to play a game that is very graphically intensive. If, after 15 minutes of playing or so, your picture starts to pixelate, or you computer freezes, you could have a bad PSU. Of course, usually if a PSU is bad, it'll poop out shortly after the computer starts up.

Okay, first off, formatting (as by now, you probably already know) is when you give your hard drive a file system. By doing this, you "erase" all of the information from your HD, including the OS and files. I say "erase" because most of the information is still technically there, but your computer just treats it like free space and writes over top of it. It is the same thing when you "delete" something from your computer; your OS just acts like the file isn't there, and writes over top of it later. Most people (myself included) format their HD before installing an OS, even if the file system is already there, to make it a fresh clean install. That way, if your current FS contains any errors, they will be fixed when your reformat it. One thing you can try is putting in your Windows installation disk and just choosing to reinstall without erasing everything; I think you choose the Upgrade option, but I don't remember, since I usually just do full installs. But if that doesn't work, it very well may be time that you do a clean install and start from scratch. Go into safe mode first and back up all of your important files. You can either do it manually, or use some sort of backup utility, such as the one included with WinXP (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup). Burn your stuff to disks, or hook up an external HD and pop it onto that. Then, put in your Windows install disk, and restart your computer. Hopefully, your BIOS is set to boot from your optical drive, in which case the installation will begin automatically. If Windows tries to boot from the HD, restart again and do the F8 thing I mentioned in my previous post. Select Boot From CD (or whatever the option is called; don't have a WinXP disk on hand right now to test it out). After the installation has started, just follow the instructions given on the screen; for the most part, they're pretty self explanatory.

Although I haven't used Linux, I believe the answer is "yes". Linux file systems can still be partitioned, correct? If so, then you can partition your drive into two sections and install one OS on each partition. In fact, I believe you can even install Windows and Linux on the same disk, if you wanted to.

Sorry about the late reply, krit86lr. I feel your pain; I've had to wipe hard drives (although not always my own) of irreplaceable files and such. Hopefully, you won't have to do that. You said that you tried to run System Restore, and it didn't work. Here is something else to try: 1. Hit F8 (over and over) whilst your computer is starting up, right after the BIOS has finished with the POST. If you aren't sure what I'm referring to, just start hitting F8 (maybe twice per second) as soon as you start up your computer. 2. If you do this correctly, a list should come up. This list will have options such as Safe Mode and Normal Mode. 3. Choose the option titled "Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)" and hit Enter. Hopefully, this will work for you. Sorry once again for not getting this to you sooner. I hope that you haven't already formatted your hard drive!

Oh, I didn't realize it was an animated gif. I just copied it and pasted it to paint, and then saved it as a png. I made some animated gif's with Adobe ImageReady, and I wanted to use those, but they're 128 x 128, so the animation didn't work on this forum.

Absolutely no clue who it is. I got bored, so I googled cool avatars and found this nifty little picture.

Glad you like it!

Weren't there some replies here? Just curious.

Oops sorry, sent it twice.

Ouch. That was harsh. I believe I just got, ahem, pwned.

How about Thread Pwner, or Thread Destroyer, or Teh Thread Spammerer? Sorry, just kidding. And I'm assuming you've seen Pure Pwnage?

And while we're at it, why would you use CCleaner to clear out your unused cookies and temp files; most of them are only a few kilobytes! And why would you uninstall software that you don't use; most people don't fill up their hard drives anyway! And why would you defragment your hard drive... The simple answer is, because it is unnecessary and takes up space. For example, as soon as I had finished installing a WinXP Pro a few months ago, the first thing I did was remove those stupid Internet Games, and freed up 8.5 MB. I also removed Desktop Wallpaper (0.3 MB), Mouse Pointers (0.4 MB), and MSN Explorer (13.2 MB). Just a few small, insignificant files, but I ended up with 22.4 MB of free space, plus less useless items cluttering my menus. That's the whole purpose behind CCleaner: get rid of little useless files. When you add them all together, they don't seem so little anymore.

Good thing there is OpenOffice.org 2.0.1! I can always download the newest version for free, and it supports all MS Office file formats. Not to mention, it allows you to render your documents in the .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) format, a feature still not offered by Microsoft. I don't understand why so many people spend $400 on MS Office 2003 when a stable, free alternative exists! And, it isn't even the slightest bit more difficult to use (although it isn't quite as "pretty" as Office; big whoop).