Vista Lessons
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How To Solve...Problems in VISTA
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How
To Solve . . . Problems In Vista
Update using Windows Update?
Click Start, select All Programs, and click Windows Update. Click Check For Updates on the left and wait for the scan to complete. Clicking Install Updates automatically installs patches critical to your use.
Using Windows Update can prevent the majority of system attacks and often adds new features to Vista.
Make sure you click the Change Settings button when you are finished and click the Install Updates Automatically radio button. Use whichever settings you prefer in the drop-down menus, but enabling automatic updates will head off a lot of problems before they begin.
Put the Control Panel into Classic View mode, which you can enter by opening the Control Panel and clicking Classic View on the left.
1. Problem: I want to uninstall a program, but there’s no option to do so on the Start menu.
Solution: If software doesn’t come with its own uninstall utility, Vista has a built-in solution. Click Start, click Control Panel, and double-click Programs And Features. Scroll down the list until you see the name of the program you want to uninstall (sometimes it is listed with the manufacturer name first, so look for that if the software name isn’t listed), click the entry, and click Uninstall from the bar at the top of the list. Follow the steps that appear (they vary from program to program) and reboot the computer when you are finished. Use the Programs And Features menu to evict programs that refuse to leave the Start menu.
2.Problem: Vista interrupts me all the time with User Account Control pop-ups when I’m trying to do something.
Solution: UAC (User Account Control) warns you every time it detects that something is being installed or modified. The utility is designed as a first line of defense to ensure that viruses and other programs aren’t installing or modifying things without your knowledge.
If you feel comfortable turning UAC off (realizing that overall security will diminish), close all open programs, click Start, click Control Panel, and double-click User Accounts. Click Turn User Account Control On Or Off, click Continue, and deselect the Use User Account Control (UAC) To Help Protect Your Computer checkbox. Click OK and click Restart Now.
3. Problem: The Recycle Bin (or another Windows icon) is no longer visible on the Desktop.
Solution: Right-click an open area of the Desktop and click Personalize. Click Change Desktop Icons on the left and select the checkbox next to the icon you want to restore before clicking Apply.
4. Problem: When I connect a device such as a digital camera to the computer or insert a CD into the drive, Vista automatically does something I don’t want it to do. You can change AutoPlay settings for all types of hardware and media using one convenient interface.
Solution: Vista maintains default program settings for all types of hardware and software, and fortunately, changing them is a breeze. Click Start, click Control Panel, and double-click AutoPlay. Remove the check mark from the Use AutoPlay For All Media And Devices box if you want to disable the feature completely. Otherwise, use the drop-down menus next to each entry to select the default behavior for that entry. Click Save when you are finished.
5.Problem: I tried to do something, but a message popped up telling me I needed to Run As Administrator.
Solution: This message tells you a program needs more security permissions from Vista than are currently available to it. It can happen when you are logged in to a Guest account instead of your main Vista account or when a program doesn't work well with Vista. In the former situation, log in to an account that has administrator privileges and try again. In the latter situation, right-click the icon for the program (or its shortcut icon) and click Properties. Select the Compatibility tab and select the Run This Program As An Administrator checkbox if it is available before clicking Apply.
6. Problem: I have a legacy program that doesn’t run (or doesn’t run well) in Vista. Setting up default programs that are used to open particular file types is a snap in Vista.
Solution: Most programs intended for WinXP also work with Vista, but there are still some WinXP programs, as well as many programs from earlier versions of Windows, that either don’t run well or won’t run at all under Vista. Check the manufacturer’s Web site first to see if any Vista compatibility issues exist or if patches are available, because some Windows software won’t work with Vista no matter what you try.
The next step is to run the software in Compatibility mode. This setting tells Vista to copy certain aspects of an earlier operating system so that the problematic software thinks it’s running on the earlier version. It must be applied on a program-by-program basis, so right-click the program’s icon and click Properties. Click the Compatibility tab, select the Run This Program In Compatibility Mode For checkbox, and use the drop-down list to select an operating system that you know is compatible with the software. Click Apply and run the software.
Very old Windows software sometimes won't work unless you return to the Compatibility tab and select one or more of the Settings checkboxes. Try Disable Visual Themes, Disable Desktop Composition, and Disable Display Scaling On High DPI Settings first. If that does not work, select Run In 256 Colors, as well. If that still doesn’t do the trick, select the Run In 640 x 480 Screen Resolution box. When no combination of settings works, you’ll have to contact the manufacturer or wait for a patch that makes the software compatible with Vista.
7. Problem: Icons keep disappearing from the System Tray.
Have a legacy application that doesn’t like Vista? Use Compatibility mode to trick it into working. Solution: If there’s an arrow next to the System Tray, click it and the seemingly missing icons will reappear (they are set to automatically hide so more space is freed on the Taskbar). If you want to always see the icons in the System Tray, right-click any empty portion of the Taskbar, click Properties, and select the Notification Area tab. Remove the check mark from the Hide Inactive Icons box or click Customize to establish your own settings. You can also deselect individual system icons here to remove them from the System Tray before clicking Apply.
8. Problem: Every time I double-click a file, it opens using a program I don’t want to use.
Solution: Vista uses defaults such as Internet Explorer to open Web pages and Notepad to open plain text documents, but you can easily point any file type you want to open in any particular program you want to use as an alternative default. Right-click the icon for the file you want to open, click Open With, and click Choose Default Program. If the program you want to use is not listed in the Recommended Programs dialog box, click Browse, navigate to the program you want to use, click its icon, and click Open. Repeat these steps as necessary for any other files that need different default applications.
You can also change a variety of default settings at once by clicking Start, clicking Default Programs, and clicking Set Your Default Programs. Click the program you want to adjust on the left and then click Set This Program As Default to set it as the default for all files it can possibly open, or click Choose Defaults For This Program if you want to manually fine-tune the settings.
9.Problem: Folders never work like I want them to work, and I can’t always find certain files or folders that are referenced in troubleshooting guides like this one.
If Vista is running well after a recent upgrade, you can safely remove all of the Windows XP files that were left over after the upgrade.
Solution: Vista has a plethora of folder options, as long as you know where to find them. Open any folder, click the Organize menu, and click Folder And Search Options. The General tab has basic options that let you open folders in the same or different windows or use single-clicks instead of double-clicks to open them. The bulk of the options are in the View tab, where you can scroll down the Advanced Settings list to find the entries you want to adjust. For example, Show Hidden Files And Folders uncovers system files and folders that Vista obscures; whereas, deselecting the Hide Extensions For Known File Types option lets you easily see what types of files you're dealing with while working with Vista. If you want to apply your settings to every single folder in Vista, click the Apply To Folders button instead of the Apply button after you’ve established all the settings.
10. Problem: I just upgraded my computer to the maximum amount of memory, but Vista can’t see it all.
Solution: When you add RAM to a Vista computer, you can see how much of that RAM Vista detects by clicking Start, right-clicking Computer, and clicking Properties. The Memory (RAM) entry shows how much RAM is detected in megabytes, where 1,024MB equals 1GB. The 32-bit versions of Vista that most consumers use can access up to 4GB of RAM, but there’s a catch. Video cards and other devices that have RAM chips installed use up a portion of that 4GB total; so if you have 4GB of RAM installed and also have a 512MB video card installed, Vista reports that it sees only 3.5GB of RAM.
If you really need 4GB or more of RAM and a video card that has a lot of RAM, the only solution is to upgrade to one of the 64-bit versions of Vista (Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium), which can access 8 to 16GB of RAM depending on the version. A lot of consumer applications are designed to work with the 32-bit operating system and not the 64-bit one, however, so overall you’re better off either installing less RAM in the first place (2GB is recommended) or installing 4GB with the knowledge that Vista can’t use all of it.
11. Problem: There’s a big folder called $Windows.~Q taking up a bunch of space on the hard drive.
Vista hides system files and folders by default, but you can reveal them using the Folder Options menu.
Solution: If hard drive space is at a premium and you upgraded to Vista from WinXP, you may notice a super-sized folder named $Windows.~Q. It’s not a virus or anything nefarious like that. Instead, it’s a collection of WinXP files that were saved during the upgrade so that WinXP could be restored in case something went wrong during the Vista installation. If Vista is running fine, you can safely delete all of these files using Disk Cleanup. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and click System Tools. Click Disk Cleanup and use the drop-down menu to select a drive to clean (C: is the usual choice here). Click OK. Wait for the calculations to complete and then click the Disk Cleanup tab. This lists all of the deadweight files that are just taking up space on your hard drive and serving no useful purpose, so feel free to put check marks in any box. The option that will get rid of that strange $Windows.~Q folder is Files Discarded By Windows Upgrade. Click OK, and the folder should disappear.
12. Problem: A program is stalled, and I can’t close it.
Solution: The best thing to do in this situation is to get up from your computer, get a cup of coffee, come back, and see if the problem has sorted itself out. Programs sometimes stall because they ask for more resources than Vista can give them, and although they look frozen, they’re still using the resources they do have to tackle a problem. Waiting several minutes often gives programs the time they need to complete the task and lets you close the program normally so no data is lost.
If you see this message, wait a bit to see if the problem can resolve itself or you risk losing data.
If that doesn’t work, right-click the program’s entry in the Taskbar and click Close. However, whatever files were open in the program at the time may be lost. Repeat this a few times if it doesn’t work the first time and the program should eventually crash, closing in the process.
Sometimes that’s still not enough, and you need to turn to the Task Manager. Simultaneously press CTRL-ALT-DELETE, and when the menu appears, click Start Task Manager. Click the Applications tab, click the name of the stalled program (Not Responding should appear next to it in the Status list), and click End Task. Finally, if that doesn’t work, click the Processes tab, try to find a process that is associated with the stalled program, click it, and click End Process. Ending the process should solve the problem, but if not, close all of your other programs and restart the computer.
13. Problem: I have more than one printer and want to switch the default printer.
Solution: The costs of accidentally printing to your dedicated photo printer rather than your multi-function printer add up quickly, but you can prevent that kind of mistake by setting the printer that is less expensive to operate as the default printer for all documents. Click Start, click Control Panel, and double-click Printers. Right-click the icon for the printer you want to use as a default device and click Set As Default Printer.
Note that individual applications sometimes have their own default
printer settings. For example, Google’s Picasa image-editing and printing
software (free; picasa.goog le.com) will print to any printer you select in
that program by default instead of using Vista’s settings. Be sure to
double-check the Print dialog box in any software you use to make sure it’s
not bypassing Vista’s settings.