Windows – Page 7 – PC Doctor Godalming

Category: Windows

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

Windows Image Backup

18/01/2016 by James

Insert your portable USB drive into a free USB port. If you have USB 3 port (marked SS Super-Speed and blue inside) use this in preference to a USB 2 port to get a much faster backup.

Windows 10

Click Start button (Bottom LH corner) and select Settings Cog just above Power icon. In Settings select “Update Security” > “Backup” > “Go to backup and Restore (Windows 7) “. This will bring up the “Backup or restore” window below.

Windows 7

Click the Windows 7 Start button (bottom left corner) and type “backup”

Windows “Checking for updates” never ends

19/11/2015 by James

Checking For Updates

After installing a new copy of Windows 7 SP1 the first Windows Update can take several hours “Checking for Updates…” and appears to be hung. However, don’t give up. It is processing over 200 updates! The time it takes to complete depends on the speed of your Internet connection and computer. Times can be up to 1 hr.

To avoid the frustration of waiting try to run this first update overnight. Ensure you have set Disk Sleep to “Never” within Control Panel | Power Options to avoid it sleeping mid-way through.

Backup using FreeFileSync

12/10/2014 by James

FFS Dialog

FreeFileSynch (FFS) can be directly downloaded and installed from the author’s site: http://www.freefilesync.org/. FFS is a free Open Source application for backing up and restoring user files and folders on Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. One of the major benefits is that once the first backup has been completed only changes are backed up making subsequent backups faster. Also it supports USB backup drive names, e.g. [My Passport] as targets rather than relying on a drive letter which can change depending on which port the USB cable is plugged into,

Disable Avast Email Signature

04/10/2014 by James

Using the Avast User Interface (Avast UI) you can disable options such as: insert note into out going mail; audio notices; social networking; pop-ups and others.

Open the Avast UI

Navigate to the Avast icon in the Windows notification area. This is to the right of the Taskbar at the bottom right of the screen. If not visible click on the arrow head to the left of the notification area to reveal hidden icons. Right-click on the Avast icon and select Open Avast UI.

Transform Windows 8 to Windows 7 with Classic Shell

27/08/2014 by James

To have a Windows 7 desktop like the one above on your Windows 8/8.1 desktop or laptop follow the steps below:

Install Classic Shell and Windows 7 Desktop data Files

Download Classic Shell 4.1.0 or later from http://www.classicshell.net/ and install with the default settings.
Download [filedownload file=”downloads/Classic_Shell.zip” style=”color:#0000EE;”]Classic Shell.zip[/filedownload] This contains Windows 7 desktop background; Start Button images and Classic Shell “Menu Settings.xml” file with the following custom settings:
- Enable Category View for Control Panel
- Disabled all Active Corners
- Replace Start Button using Windows 7 Start button
- Skip Metro desktop on boot or login
- Metro Apps.

Windows Clean-up Steps

23/07/2014 by James

windowclean

Check Drive Hardware

Install and run Western Digital DataLifeGuard Tools
Select drive and run Quick Test to check the drive for hardware faults
If drive fails test image backup drive if possible and replace

Check Drive File System Integrity

Launch COMMAND window as Administrator. Run check disk with repair option at next boot

CHKDSK C:/F

Substitute “C:” with Windows system drive letter

If CHKDSK reports errors and successfully fixes them repeat command to double check to see if runs without error.

PC Doctor Godalming

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