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Here are questions from friends, family, clients, and TBCS members, along with the best answers I could give them; most of my answers were arrived at by searching the Internet using Google, the best of all possible search engines. In those cases where I say things nice or otherwise about a particular program, please note that I'm expressing only my opinion, and not necessarily those of TBCS. You'll also note that there are still a lot of Win 98 users out there, ten years after its release. |
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I loaded a screen-saver on my old Win 98 computer, called America.exe. I subsequently tried to uninstall it, but whenever I double-click on a file in Windows Explorer, I get an error message saying "can't find America.exe...", which is needed to open this kind of file. What is going on, and what can I do about it? This is standard virus behavior. The malware program has modified your initialization files so as to make sure it gets run several times during each computing session, so just taking it out of Startup won't keep it from running and doing its programmed mischief. Remove it thus: reboot in Safe Mode; before running any programs, click on START » RUN » type in System.ini, and click OK. Look for the line that starts shell=Explorer.exe. If there's anything after the Explorer.Exe part (like America.Exe), delete it - LEAVE THE REST OF THE LINE ALONE! Close the file, saving your changes. Next, click on START » RUN » type in Win.Ini, and click OK. In the first section, look for a line that says load=America.Exe or Run=America.Exe. If either or both are there, delete the lines. Close the file, saving your changes. Next, click on START » RUN » REGEDIT. Click on EDIT » FIND » type in America.Exe, click OK. If the Search stops anywhere except at the message "Finished Searching the Registry," press the DEL key, followed by the ENTER key. Then press the Up arrow, followed by F3 to continue the search. This process will remove every instance of America.Exe that's called by the registry. Once your see "Finished Searching the Registry", exit Regedit (no need to save your changes - they're already saved by the program). Reboot and see if we've caused more trouble than we've prevented.
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I have 3 (three) user acconts in Windows 98 Standard Edition, and was wondering if each account could have its own media folder, so that each person who logs in has their own sounds played. I understand that each user has personal sound schemes along with their desktop settings; what about individual sound folders?
No, to the best of my understanding, the separate users must share a single C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA folder. But, that's okay, because the individualized sound schemes do exactly what you were asking about — they cause each user to hear only the sounds they've chosen to hear. And those sounds don't have to consist ONLY of files stored in the MEDIA folder; each user can browse to whatever folder stores their personal favorite sound files — their own media folder(s), if you will, not just C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA.
I'm having a TurboTax problem: While just about completing the work a message came up stating that "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be closed down." I Clicked on a button for details and it said that ITAX caused an invalid page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at 0137:bff858cd. and lists many registers. What does all this gibberish mean to me, and what can I do about it?
As the computer boots, alternately press Ctrl and F8 — one of these will bring up the boot menu. Choose Safe Mode (usually the third choice).
Once the computer has finished booting into Safe Mode, press [ENTER] to make the Safe Mode startup message go away. Click on START » SETTINGS » CONTROL PANEL » ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS. Look down the list and double-click on MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER *.* AND INTERNET TOOLS (the *.* represents your version number, which is irrelevant for this process). In the menu which pops up next, choose Repair » OK » and YES to start the repair of Internet Explorer.
When it's finished, restart the computer and try running TurboTax again. If it still has a problem, contact Intuit's tech support and tell you've already repaired Internet Explorer but still have this problem.
While running Norton's System Checkup, I get an error warning on the Windows Registry Scan line as follows: Invalid ActiveX/Com entries - 2 errors Norton repairs the problems, but they recur on a rather frequent basis. Can you tell me what I am doing to cause this problem? Thanks much!
The most likely cause of this is, Windows downloads the ActiveX control from the Internet as it's needed. You delete it when you run Disk CleanUp — it empties the Downloaded Program Files folder to reclaim the disk space. To keep the message from coming back, next time you run Dick CleanUp, un-check the Downloaded Program Files checkbox before you click on OK. It should stay un-checked for subsequent invocations of Disk CleanUp.
You suggested that I remove "realplayer". In my uninstall window, I have realplayer 4.0 and Realplayer Basic. Which do I remove?
Remove both of the RealPlayer programs from Add/Remove Programs, as well as any other programs like RealDownload that might be there. ALL RealNetworks software is obtrusive and slows down your computer.
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...question and signature.. ...answer... Dale |
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"Computer Quandaries" was a column I wrote for Bits & Bytes, the online newsletter of the Tampa Bay Computer Society, from March 2006 thru April 2010. When I became the BnB editor, I split it into two separate columns: "Computer Quandaries" was the Q & A or Help Desk portion of the original column, while "Hints Tips & Rants" was the collection of random thoughts that had previously been tacked on as an afterthought. When I gave up the editor job, I took both columns with me, to post on my website and/or blog.
| See you next month. Please email your questions to DaLe@ComputerRepairShop.biz |
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I got my website from 1and1.com Get yours today, starting at only $0.99 for the first year! |
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