Question:

Hi Tony

        I have Windows Vista Ultimate. For some reason right-clicking Computer has no effect, so how do I enter the product key?

            Regards

                Peter

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Question:

I just purchased a dv6500 notebook direct from HP. Before I bought it, the sales guy on the phone assured me that this laptop included a TPM chip, and thus could run Bitlocker. I bought the system with Home Basic, and then installed a copy of Ultimate (which I bought from my university for half the price HP was charging to install it), and partitioned my drive accordingly. However, the bitlocker application says that I do not have a TPM chip.

After several calls to HP, most involving supervisors and managers, I was told by technical suppport that they had never heard of TPM or Bitlocker. Finally, I found someone who would tell me that “the hardware requirements for Bitlocker are met on your notebook”. He, another sales associate whom I called, both said that the TPM chip is installed on all dv6500 notebooks.

However, since I installed the copy of Ulimate myself after purchase, HP will not help resolve any issues that are within Vista Ultimate, nor will they provide any support for me. 

Thank you for any assistance you can provide,

Chris

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Question:

Hello Tony:

Well, here’s one for you…

I purchased Windows Vista and a brand spankin’ new computer a month ago.  Needless to say, it’s bee harried at best!

Well, anywho, here’s the problem now: 

Periodically (often, but not always), when I try to get online via email or internet (I have DSL), a window pops up and says “unknown error” and won’t let me get connect. 

THEN a window comes up and asks me if I want to let the computer try to diagnose the problem.  I say yes.  Then it says that I have more than one network connected or something like that and that I need to unplug one of them for 10 seconds….    

Well, I don’t have more than one connection.  So, I go into the place where you “repair network settings…”  It doesn’t work, but I see my network listed, then another one called “unidentified network” listed!  This isn’t all the time.   

Well, after much on/off trying to get onto the internet, eventually, a window comes up and asks me if I want the computer to try to “reset” or repair or something like that, my network settings.  I say yes, and it repairs.  Then I can go online.  Any answers?

D

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Question:

In the Windows Explorer window there is a folder named Searches which contains a folder named Recently Changed. This folder shows every file that I have ever recently changed. These are not shortcuts so if I try to remove this evidence of my work by deleting a file in this folder the actual file is deleted from the folder it actually sits in. I need to be able to empty the contents of this Recently Changed folder (obviously without losing any files) and then disable it permanently. This is a terrible feature that denies the main user of a computer security and privacy.  All other users have access to the Recently Changed folder.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Les

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Question:

Hi there, i’m having some trouble with my Vista search function. it has suddenly stopped working. When i use the search in the start menu, i get this message “search failed to initialize”. When i try opening the the “search window”, nothing happens when i press enter. Please help!

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Question:

I cannot open any WMV sent to me. I see a one shot preview but that is all. Then I get is a pop up that states I have no rights or proxy setting s are wrong or file location not correct. Everything looks ok to me.

Regards, Steve

Answer:

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I wrote an article about this topic for Microsoft a while back, and got an e-mail from someone with some tips that are actually pretty useful (rare for one of these sales-type articles). Here ya go:

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Question:

Hi Tony

I have a new laptop at home that has Vista Home Premium. I am really disappointed to find that when I email work Excel spreadsheets to my home computer – spreadsheets with several tabs of worksheets, Vista will only allow me to open one tab at a time in the Vista spreadsheet program This is so annoying as often I need to be flicking from one sheet to the other.

Also, when I email myself a Word doc from work and open it in Vista’s Wordprocesser program, often the formatting goes all over the place, and it does not recognize certain features that were used on the original Word doc.

I feel like I have got extremely basic versions of the the Word and Excel docs I am used to working with and I am amazed that Vista’s packages don’t seem very compatible.

Do I need to get Ultimate to fix these issues? Does everyone have these problems?

Cheers,

Adrianne

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Question:

Tony,

I have Windows Vista Home Premium, and want to use Task Scheduler to schedule Automatic Backup to my DVD to wake-up and run this task after I put my computer into Sleep Mode.  In Task Scheduler, I click on Create Task, and when I get to the Actions window, I click on New, and then click on Browse, and then click on Look-In.  However, I can’t locate the Backup task in the Look-In portion of the Actions window, so that I can schedule it to wake-up the computer (on the Conditions window), in order to run backup, after I have put it into Sleep mode.  Can you tell me how to locate Backup in the Look-In window?  Your prompt reply will be greatly appreciated.

Stan  

Answer:

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Question:

I installed windows vista on my laptop computer and the computer desktop shrunk and got very small.

How can I fix this problem?

Answer:

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Question:

Tony I am a novice with a laptop on vista. I tried to put the software for photocam and it crashed my computer. Saying vista does not take this software, I am looking for a software to put in so I can put my pictures from my camera to it and size it to put in ebay.  Can you help and suggest something?

Thanks,Carole

Answer:

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Question:

Hi Tony,

I am now preparing for MCTS 70-528 certification. I have studied the training kit of yours.

But is it sufficient for the exam? This is my first certification so I am not having any idea of how difficult the questions might be.

Tell me some sites which I can explore and prepare for this certification and also nice sites for the mock tests.

Thanks in advance.

Nita

Answer:

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Question:

Tony, I am still using Windows 98 on one of my old computers (I just like 98!) and I have been unable to download for quite a while. I have spent hours on the Microsoft web site trying to resolve this issue but nothing has worked!   I found your “fix” on your website for Vista where you referred to chris123nt.com.  I copied the fix but, when I tried to import it into Windows 98, I got this message “Cannot import file.  The specified file is not a registry script. You can only import registry files”.

     I guess in my haste I should have determined if this would fix would work in Windows 98?  Do you know if it would and, if so, how do I import it.  If it doesn’t work, do you have any idea where I could find the proper fix?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  p.s. I have been using XP for the past 4 years and I want to buy a new computer but I have been hesitant because I am afraid some of my old (irreplacable) programs will not work with Vista.  Have they finally worked out all of the “bugs” that I have been reading about?

Answer:

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Question:

 Is there a way I can get the MS Scanner and Camera Wizard on my laptop that has Vista?  I really do NOT like the way the pictures download with Vista (no preview available to see the pictures I want to download before the download starts and save, is my biggest peeve).  Plus I must immediately name the group and it’s too quick to ask me if I want to delete them.

I don’t usually delete photos from my camera/card until I have downloaded and burned them to a disk.  So if I take more pictures, when I go to do the download, it gathers ALL the pictures I’ve taken and groups them.  Grrrrrrrrr

Maybe I’m being stubborn to change, but I tried playing around with the Vista download from my camera for over 2 hours (trying different things) and I still wasn’t happy and went back and downloaded the pictures on my PC with Windows XP.

Is there a way to change settings for the picture download in Vista (I can’t seem to find them) or is it possible to get the MSSCW on my laptop.

Thanks a bunch!

Answer:

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Question:

 I have been having problems using multiple monitors recently.  I hook
up to a projector as my second monitor.  It used to work just fine,
but suddenly not.  Now, when I connect my laptop, the monitor on my
laptop shows a blank desktop (as I would expect on monitor 2).  No
toolbars, no icons, nothing.  It is basically a paperweight.  The
second screen says “Computer 3″ in the upper right-hand corner
and “No signal.”  There apparently is no computer 2.  

I have tried to change the display settings on my computer.  It shows
monitor 1 as a generic PnP monitor and shows 2 as default monitor on
mobile intel …  It seems to me that the PnP would be the secondary
device that I plug in and not the primary.  I’m very confused.  I
don’t know if I should disable the driver and if so for which one?

I have a Gateway.  Can you help me?

Answer:

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