Having downloaded and installed Windows Live Messenger from the Microsoft website I am having a problem directly accessing my email from within Live Messenger. Clicking on the Mail icon within Live Messenger it requests me to sign-in and then the following message appears: “Recovering the Live Windows Database”. Shortly after, an error message appears: “Windows Live Mail could not be started as could not open the Live Mail Message Store. Existing messages under Orphaned Accounts 0×00000000.2”. Then a final message pops-up: “Computer may be out of memory or disk full 0×80070002”. There is plenty of memory and disk space, and all the other Live Messengers accounts on the computer work perfectly, it is just my account. The computer is running Windows XP Service Pack 3 with all updates. (more…)

On more than one occasion when I have copied data to a dual-layer DVD the data has gone missing from the DVD. That is, when I insert the DVD into the computer and read the DVD the data is not present. Would changing to a different brand of dual layer DVDs prevent the loss of this material? Also, are dual-layer DVDs as reliable as single layer DVDs? On a separate issue, I have successfully saved some YouTube videos on my computer using the Any Video Converter utility. The videos play perfectly fine on my computer in Windows Media Player, but when I attempt to play the same download on another computer only the audio is played. Why is this video restricted to only playing correctly on my home computer? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

The Paint image editor which comes standard with all versions of Windows is quite limited in the operations which it can complete. However, there is an excellent free image editor for Windows called Paint.NET (www.getpaint.net). This provides much more functionality than the default Paint image editor while also keeping it simple, so you can accomplish image editing tasks quickly and easily.

I am confused as to the need for security software (anti-virus, anti-trojan, anti-spyware, firewalls, etc) for my new iMac. Many books and online articles state that such software is essential, however other articles and, perplexingly, store salesmen say that such utilities are an unnecessary waste of memory, as the threat is simply not there. Who should be believed, and what would you recommend? I am running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.6). (more…)

The Recycling Bin icon has disappeared from the desktop. This problem first occurred a while ago when I logged into Windows and noticed that the icon was missing. I managed to locate the Recycling Bin but the only method to get the icon back to the desktop was to create a shortcut. However, I have now accidentally deleted the icon (again) and forgotten how to find the Recycling Bin’s location again. Would it be possible to recover the Recycling Bin, preferably in the original form not the shortcut form. The computer is running Windows Vista. (more…)