Recently a folder appeared in the root of the C hard drive with a name consisting of a seemingly random string of characters. Within the folder was a single executable file called “hotfix.exe” which was apparently created by Microsoft Corporation and another sub-folder called “1033”. When I double-click on the “hotfix.exe” file a message appears saying “Errors Found in INF. The patch request could not proceed due to errors found in one or more INF files.”. Can you clarify the purpose of this hotfix and explain how I can overcome this error? (more…)

A work colleague recently gave me a DVD with several AVI files. Each of the videos is crystal-clear, similar to the quality when playing the video back directly from the camcorder itself. Interestingly, each AVI file is only a few hundred megabytes in size. However, whenever I attempt to create an AVGI movie the picture quality is also degraded and the overall size of the file is dramatically increased. How can I download the video while also compressing the file size, without losing any picture quality? (more…)

Transporting information on portable hard drives and USB drives is a very convenient way of getting information between home and work. However, if you lose that drive then it is possible that someone else who finds the drive may gain access to your personal information stored on the lost drive. A good way around this issue is to encrypt the contents of the portable drive. TrueCrypt is a free encryption program which also has a handy “Portable Mode” allowing TrueCrypt to run as a standalone application on a portable hard drive, requiring nothing to be installed on the destination computer in order to decrypt the drive contents (although you do need administrator rights on the destination computer). TrueCrypt is available for free download from www.truecrypt.org .

Whenever a DVD is inserted into the computer a dialog box appears asking which program I would like to use to open and play the DVD. However, there are quite a few redundant entries in this window referring to programs no longer installed. How can these be removed from the window? Also, is it possible to completely prevent Windows from opening this dialog box when a DVD is inserted? On an unrelated topic, is it possible to convert a Word 2003 document into a PDF file and retain all formatting (such as bold lettering, italics, and hyperlinks)? If so, can you advise what additional software I require and the procedure for the conversion process? (more…)

Several AVI video files on my computer play perfectly, however when I take these files to a different computer they do not play, but instead only the audio component of the video plays. Is there something wrong with these videos preventing them from playing on the other computer? (more…)