A common question which I have been asked about Windows XP is why the Autoplay feature (for example, when you insert CDs) stops working. This is quite a common issue in Windows XP, but there is an easy way to resolve the problem. Microsoft has released a small utility called the Autoplay repair wizard which can fix these Autoplay problems in Windows XP. To download the utility, go to www.microsoft.com/downloads and search for “Autoplay repair wizard”.

Whenever I insert a DVD or CD into an external DVD burner, connected via USB to the computer, the entire computer freezes. However, this only generally occurs if the DVD or CD has data – it does not happen for blank discs. Originally I thought that this may be a problem with the computer, so to narrow down the issue I connected the device to another computer. Interestingly enough, the problem also occurred on the other computer using the same DVD burner. At this point I made the assumption that the DVD burner was faulty and purchased a new internal DVD burner. Frustratingly though, the same problem also occurs with the internal DVD burner. This is quite an annoying problem, as I use the PC quite a bit to make DVDs but cannot subsequently use them. The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

I have been attempting to install Ad-Aware Free on my Windows XP computer. When I visit the Ad-Aware website (www.lavasoft.com) to download the product I follow through the prompts, but at the end when I am about to commence downloading the product a message appears saying “This website has been reported as unsafe. We recommend that you do not continue to this website”. Why is Internet Explorer reporting that the Ad-Aware download is unsafe, and how can I download this product? (more…)

In Windows 7 you can easily configure which icons should appear in the notification area (next to the clock, in the bottom right-hand corner of the task bar). To configure these settings, click on the arrow in the notification area and a small menu will appear, where you can click “Customize”. In the window that appears, you can customise the icons and notifications which should appear on the task bar.

When attempting to launch Team Fortress 2, or any other game made by the Valve company (such as Half Life, Portal), the error “Hl2.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close, we are sorry for the inconvenience” appears and the game will not launch. I have re-installed the game, verified the integrity of the game caches, and de-fragmented my system but these procedures have not fixed the problem. Can you help? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)