If you appreciate having all the Windows desktop space possible, hiding the Windows XP taskbar could be valuable. Hiding the taskbar is especially useful when the taskbar is several levels high, allowing you to recover some of this lost desktop space. There are several ways to modify the taskbar behaviour to maximise desktop space. Right-click on any empty space in the taskbar and select ‘Properties’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Taskbar’ tab. Under the ‘Taskbar appearance’ heading, you have the options to ‘Auto-hide the taskbar’ (which will automatically hide the taskbar when not being used) and ‘Keep the taskbar on top of other windows’ (which when disabled, will allow windows to appear over the top of the taskbar). (more…)

Recently, whenever I initially open Outlook Express and my dial-up connection begins to connect, a message appears saying POP3 (or SMTP for outgoing mail) mail server has not responded for 60 seconds, and do I wish to wait. However, before I can respond the email commences sending or receiving in the normal manner. I am not aware of making any changes to my system to initiate this problem. The computer is running Windows Me. (more…)

Whenever I attempt to login to a paid-subscription genealogy website using Internet Explorer, a message appears saying ‘HTTP 500 - Internal server error’. I have been able to successfully use this service previously, and this behaviour only occurred recently. The computer is running Windows XP Professional. (more…)

I have two questions and a problem. Firstly, when looking at the Windows Task Manager (processes tab) there are many processes which I do not recognise (such as LSASS.EXE, CSRSS.EXE, SMSS.EXE, etc). I presume these processes are critical to the Windows system, but is there a way to find out what these processes are, so I know what is running in the background? Secondly, Windows Defender regularly detects DSSAGENT. I always delete the item, but after a few days it reappears. Should I be worried about this behaviour? Finally, every time the computer starts it detects new hardware to install. The hardware is Symantec Settings Manager (which sounds more like software to me’¦). Every time this message appears I must click ‘Cancel’, since clicking ‘Continue’ prompts for a CD which I do not have. Interestingly, I do not have any Symantec products installed on the computer, and there are no such products listed in the Add/Remove Programs control panel. How can I stop the computer from attempting to install this hardware on startup, and can you explain how this situation arose? The computer is running Windows XP Home Edition. (more…)

As the computer starts, a message appears on screen saying ‘CMOS settings wrong. Press F2 to load default values and continue’. Pressing F2 allows the computer to continue to boot, and work normally. However, I would like to get rid of this message on startup. The computer is running Windows Me. (more…)