Windows Tools, Help & Guides

In this guest post, James Ricketts discusses how to handle PC sound card problems. Find out more about James at the end of this post.

You just double-clicked your favorite song, turned the volume up, but guess what – there is no audio! You wait wondering what the cause could be, but still no luck. Your speaker simply refuses to produce any sound.

You frantically scan your sound file for a virus and the scan results show everything is clear. Your computer is new, so the cause cannot be a faulty sound card, or incorrect entries in the windows registry.

Read the rest of this entry »

In this guest post, James Ricketts explores the basics of computer drivers. Find out more about James at the end of this post.

Device Drivers – An Introduction

Computer operating systems, such as Windows, Linux and Mac, and hardware components, such as sound cards, memory cards, and video cards do not speak the same language. To communicate effectively, hardware devices and operating systems require an interface. This interface is provided by device drivers. These drivers enable the computer operating system and installed software to communicate with the hardware devices.

In this article, you will learn:

• Why it is necessary to use only the latest drivers
• Which is better – manual driver updation process or automatic driver updation process
• What is Driver Finder?

Read the rest of this entry »

Windows Guides’ Rating	User Rating	Compatible with	System
5 out of 5	(46 votes, average: 2.35 out of 5)

jv16 PowerTools is the ultimate Windows optimization and tune-up utility suite. The bottom line is that it keeps your computer running smooth, fast and greatly improves its overall stability. If you’re still (gasp!) using our old RegCleaner program, or an older version of PowerTools, it’s time to wake up and pay attention! PROS: Fast. Lightweight, Easy to Use. CONS:Not Free VERDICT:Overall the most reliable “optimization and tune-up utility suite” I have ever encountered. No matter if you are an experienced user or not – JV16 PowerTools will become your best friend – ensuring your computer a long and healthy life. PRICE: From $29,95 VERSION REVIEWED: 2.0.0.986 DOWNLOAD: JV16 Power Tools 2010

jv16 PowerTools 2010 is here and it’s sweet!

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re the type of person who installs a lot of software on your PC *puts hand up*, then you may have seen the following message after successful installations:

Most of the time, the program I am installing installs fine and this message is an inconvenience. In a quest to click my mouse less, I set out to disable this dialog box. Learn how to disable this also in this guide.

Read the rest of this entry »

You try to initiate the dialer in Windows 7 and only found that it doesn’t work and returned with an Error 651: Your modem (or other connecting device) has reported an error. You had tried to restart your PC, your router, your modem etc. and the problem doesn’t go away.

The Possible Solutions

It is not hard to find that there are a number of users encounter this issue on the internet, but surprisingly this error bugs some of the Windows 7 (Beta or even RTM) users and it seems that there is actually no official solution for it.

There are, however, a lot of workarounds, suggested, of course, by other users. If you have this problem in Windows 7 (or may be Windows Vista/XP as some of the solutions works on these operating systems, too), check out what I have found for the possible solutions for this error:

Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification issued: December 9, 2010
Microsoft Security Bulletins to be issued: December 14, 2010

This is an advance notification of security bulletins that Microsoft is intending to release on December 14, 2010.

This bulletin advance notification will be replaced with the December bulletin summary on December 14, 2010. For more information about the bulletin advance notification service, see Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification.

To receive automatic notifications whenever Microsoft Security Bulletins are issued, subscribe to Microsoft Technical Security Notifications.

Microsoft will host a webcast to address customer questions on the security bulletins on December 15, 2010, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada). Register now for the December Security Bulletin Webcast. After this date, this webcast is available on-demand. For more information, see Microsoft Security Bulletin Summaries and Webcasts.

Read the rest of this entry »