One issue I have experienced in Windows Vista is that the Power button on the Start menu puts the computer into sleep mode, as opposed to shutting down the computer. However, the behaviour of the Power button can be changed. Open the Start menu and in the Search box type ‘cmd’ (without the quotes) and press ENTER. This will open a Command Prompt window. At the command prompt, type ‘powercfg.cpl,1′ (without the quotes) and press ENTER. This will open the Power Options with the Advanced Settings. Expand the ‘Power buttons and lid’ section, and then the ‘Start menu power button’ section. Here you can change the behaviour of the Power button. By default, this will be set as ‘Sleep’ but it can be changed to ‘Shut down’. Once you are finished, click OK and the setting will be saved. (more…)

Windows 98 had a very valuable utility called Scan Disk, which I always ran before running the Disk Defragmenter. However, I cannot find Scan Disk anywhere in Windows XP. Can you help me locate this utility? Also, when I am on the internet playing games at Yahoo I have to open Outlook to check if an email has been received while I am playing. Is there a method to have a notification appear in the system tray when an email message arrives? (more…)

There is an empty folder on the computer hard drive that I created a few months ago, but now refuses to be deleted. I am aware that stubborn files and folders can be deleted through DOS, but I wanted to check whether there is an easier way to remove this folder using Windows? I have found two utilities which claim to complete this task. The first utility is Unlocker 1.8.5 by Softpedia, but after unzipping the downloaded file the .EXE file refuses to open. The second utility is called ForceDel.exe, and while I have found reviews about this utility there are no download links. Can you provide any further suggestions? The computer is running Windows XP Professional. (more…)

After logging into Windows the following message appears: ‘ANIWZCS2. Service launcher has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you were in the middle of something the information you were working on might be lost’. I don’t know whether the above is a virus or adware, but clicking the ‘Don’t Send’ button in the error report message causes the error to disappear and Windows to continue operating as normal. The computer is running Windows XP Media Center Edition. (more…)

When a Windows program crashes, a message will appear asking whether you would like to report the error. More often than not, this message is an inconvenience and submitting an error report will not result in a response which fixes the error. To turn off the error reporting feature in Windows, go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’ and open the ‘System’ control panel (you may need to first click the ‘Performance and Maintenance’ category). In the System Properties window, click the ‘Advanced’ tab and then the ‘Error Reporting’ button. Select ‘Disable error reporting’ and tick ‘But notify me when critical errors occur’ (as you would still like to be notified when an error occurs). Click OK in all the windows to save and close. Now, error reporting is disabled. (more…)