Dual Monitors in Windows 7 - Quick Fix

I disconnected one of my monitors, don't ask why, when I reconnected it the display was not active. Could I remember how to get both monitors working? Anyway a quick google reminded me that all you have to do is press the Win and P keys to show the appropriate dialogue box. Select the "Extended" option and Bingo, two monitors working again.

For more information follow the link to the Microsoft Support page.

Windows 7 Fails to Start - Error Code: 0xc000000e

Screen Clip

I came home from a weekend away to discover that my PC had rebooted and the screen showed the above message, presumably after a Windows Update.  The options were to Escape or Continue.

I tried to Escape and ended back here. I inserted my Rescue Disc, which had worked on a similar occasion. The boot screen appeared but when I hit return I ended up back here. I tried the Windows 7 Disc with the same results.  I Googled the problem, most of the advice led me down the same road, with no resolution of the problem. I tried turning off and back on using the button of the front panel, sill no luck.

In desperation I turned off the computer using the On/Off switch on the power supply unit on the back of the computer. I left it for a bout 3 minutes and then turned it back on. Magic it Re-Booted and started normally.

Now't so weird as computers...

Solid State Drive (SSD) - Optimising Drive Space

Re-bloged fron ZDNet

Solid-state drives are wicked fast. They can breathe new life into a PC whose performance is being dragged down by a slow conventional hard drive. They’re also expensive and (at least for now) limited in total capacity. So how do you get the performance benefits of an SSD upgrade without breaking the bank?

Read this article on the ZDNet website to discover how.

Windows 7 and SSDs: Cutting your system drive down to size

How do I tell if my Windows 7 Home Premium is 32 or 64 bit?

Hold down the Windows key and press Pause|Break. It will tell you

there.

 

OR

 

Click Start, right click Computer

Click Properties

Look under System > System type:

There you will see if you have 32 or 64 bit Windows operating system installed.

 

Free Up Disk Space on a Solid State Drive (SSD) in Windows 7

Like many folk these days my main PC main drive (Drive C:) is a Solid State Drive (SSD).  Due to the cost of these devices it is tempting to fit a much smaller capacity than a typical mechanical hard drive (HDD),  mine SSD is only 120GB. This small size means you have to be very careful about conserving disc space. For example I locate most of my non critical software on a second mechanical hard drive (Drive D:). Drive C: is reserved for the operating system and the likes of Adobe Photoshop. This means that rather sooner than later you will face the "not enough free space" problem no matter how careful you are. Which is the problem I just ran into. I have been quite strict about running the standard Windows 7 Disk Cleanup utility. I have also been careful to delete or relocating any unwanted software.

When searching for a solution I came across a very good blog post: 7 Ways to Free Up Disk Space on an SSD in Windows 7.  The post suggested followin these steps:-

1. Disable hibernation 
2. Decrease the size of the page file
3. Turn off System Restore
4. Perform a Disk Cleanup regularly
5. Use a third party disk cleaning tool regularly
6. Uninstall programs you do not use
7. Disable File Content Indexing

I followed most of the instructions and managed to release 12 GB of space, that's 10%.
I missed out steps 3 - Turn Off System Restore and 5 - Use Third Party Cleaning Tool. But I will look into these options later.The two steps that seemed to make the biggest difference where steps 2 and 7.

Follow this link to the original blog post.

Slow Boot - Optimize Windows 7 for Faster Start-up

No matter how fast or shiny computers might be when they're new, they all seem to get slower over time. My Samsung NC10 netbook running Windows 7 was taking forever to start up so time for a sort out. As a yardstick they reckon if your computer is taking more than 45 secs to boot up there is something seriously wrong, mine was taking nearly 2 minutes. 

A quick Google throws up a bunch of useless information most of which is a disguise for selling you some 3rd party software solution. So I started with the Microsoft suggestions "Optimise Windows 7 for Better Performance".

First suggestion is to try the Performance Troubleshooter, which can automatically find and fix problems.

•  Open the Performance troubleshooter by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting. Under System and Security, click Check for performance issues.

I discovered that about 10 programmes were opening at start-up. None was essential, Microsoft hides the essential programmes from view, so I chose the global option to close all. I rebooted as requested and amazingly the NC10 booted in 30 seconds which I call a result.

There are other things you can do, if you are not certain about the security status of your computer you may wish to double check you have no nasties lurking about on you HD. Make sure your ant-virus software is up-to-date and run a full scan. If you don't already have it, upload anti-malware software such as Malwarebytes, get the free version here. If you not up to speed with security software I suggest you have a look at this video by Britec09 on YouTube, this guy knows what he is talking about and there are no catches.

Send to OneNote Printer Option Missing

With Microsoft OneNote installed in Windows 7 there is Print to OneNote option in the Printer List. Occasionally this can go missing. Here is a solution. 

Repair the Microsoft Office program installation

1. Close all Office programmes.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. Copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Open box, and then press ENTER:
   appwiz.cpl
4. In the Currently installed programs list, click the installed version of the 2007 Office program, and then click Change.
5. Click Repair, and then click Continue. 
6. Restart computer.

Snip Tool Missing in Windows 7

Having upgraded from Vista 64 bit to Windows 7 64 bit  I discovered the very useful Snip Tool had disappeared. A quick Google revealed a variety of suggestions. The simplest one was to click on the Start button, bottom left corner and in the Search box, type: - %SystemRoot%\system32\SnippingTool.exe or if you are lazy like me Copy "CtrlC" and Paste "CtrlV" . SnippingTool.exe will apear in the results, right click and select "Pin to Taskbar".