The Older Geek

How to Fix a Windows Corrupted User Profile

30. January 2012

Your heart may skip a beat when you turn on your Windows computer and see an error dialog window informing you that your User Profile is corrupted, and, therefore, unavailable. Don’t worry– your files and other data is still intact on your hard drive. A corrupt file is preventing you from accessing them, but you [...]

What To Do When Your Computer Gets a Virus

21. January 2012

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What To Do When Your Computer Gets a Virus

My computer recently got a virus. Although I’ve been through the practice sessions and have thoroughly planned my emergency response should the event ever occur, I was shocked to find that my emotions were largely ruling my decisions at first. When you get a virus, the effect is usually swift and strong. For me, I [...]

How to Fix an HDTV That Displays Only Black and White

13. January 2012

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How to Fix an HDTV That Displays Only Black and White

From doing a little searching online, this seems to be a common problem but I saw few solutions. You plug in your old DVD player or Wii or Playstation console only to see that your HDTV (High Definition Television) is displaying the images in black and white. The problem is not with the HDTV settings, [...]

How to Check Your Smartphone for Carrier IQ Rootkit

5. December 2011

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How to Check Your Smartphone for Carrier IQ Rootkit

The big news in technology this week is the Carrier IQ fiasco. In case you haven’t heard, Trevor Eckhart posted a YouTube video exposing the secret recording capabilities of Carrier IQ on an Android phone. Here’s the video: Called a rootkit, I think Carrier IQ is heinous. Millions of other cell phone users also seem [...]

How to Fix the Windows Sidebar Calendar Orange Problem

29. September 2011

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How to Fix the Windows Sidebar Calendar Orange Problem

You may log on to your computer to see that your Windows sidebar calendar displays an orange block. What is up with that?! I had this problem on both my computers, a Windows 7 and a Vista machine. It’s a weird issue, but I isolated my problem to a bug with the latest Internet Explorer [...]

How To Avoid Being Duped By Social Engineering Hacks

9. July 2011

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How To Avoid Being Duped By Social Engineering Hacks

In a previous post, I reported the prevalence of “social engineering,” which is a new technique that’s been developed by hackers. Now that computers and browsers are becoming more secure with improved bug fixes and firewalls, hackers are looking to deceive computer users– YOU and ME. According to one report, 1 in 14 downloads is [...]

Are You 1 in 14?

20. June 2011

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Wow, a news story I read at Computer World sure shocked me! According to a Microsoft report, 1 in 14 downloads is malicious! The next time a website says to download new software to view a movie or fix a problem, think twice. There’s a pretty good chance that the program is malicious. In fact, [...]

Got Java Problems?

9. June 2011

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Ugh, Java. I recently had problems with javascript on one of my websites. Apparently, two different jquery files were interfering with each other and the plugins were canceling each other out. I still haven’t resolved the issue, even after getting some help from a web developer and searching for answers on the Internet. I had [...]

How to Fix the “Access to the Administration Control Panel is not allowed” phpBB Error

27. May 2011

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How to Fix the “Access to the Administration Control Panel is not allowed” phpBB Error

Here’s the fix for the “Access to the Administration Control Panel is not allowed” error that shows up for new phpBB forum accounts. A little background: You have just built a phpBB forum/message board (see my post How to Make Your Own Forum Website for more on this) and you are trying to sign in [...]

How to Locate Missing Software

23. May 2011

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My blogging friend, Karen, recently asked me about a problem she’s had. Her computer was recently reformatted by a computer repair shop. They managed to reinstall her photos and documents and a few basic programs, but her beloved Kodak EasyShare software program was missing. Karen wants to know how to get it back. A reformat [...]

How to Safeguard Your Identity Online

5. April 2011

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I guard my online identity jealously. When I started tinkering with online activities more than a decade ago, most users were very hesitant to post anything personal online. Things have radically changed today. Not only do users freely post their full names and children’s names, they may post their addresses, phone numbers, and other identifying [...]

How To Tell If Your Blog Has Been Hacked

1. April 2011

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How To Tell If Your Blog Has Been Hacked

It’s a heart-stopping moment, when you get an email from one of your blog’s readers notifying you of “weird popups” or “redirects to other websites” when they visit your blog. Or, worse still, Google has emailed you informing you that they have blacklisted your blog and removed it from their search engines, due to a [...]

Why Do Pop Ups Still Appear After I Have Blocked Them?

25. February 2011

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Why Do Pop Ups Still Appear After I Have Blocked Them?

I addressed the dangers of browser popups in Internet Explorer and how to block them in my post “How to Prevent Popups in Internet Explorer.” You may have followed my advice and set the popup blocker to a high setting, blocking all poipups unless you manually override it or created a whitelist of allowed sites. [...]

How to Protect Your Facebook Account

8. February 2011

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Face it, Facebookers, there is no such thing as privacy on Facebook. Problems with Facebook: 1. They sell your personal information, and you have no control over who gets it. According to CBS News, Facebook sells your information to third party vendors, such as marketers and advertisers. This policy seems to change from time to [...]

Fixing Bookmark Problems in Opera Browser

19. March 2010

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Fixing Bookmark Problems in Opera Browser

A reader named Martin sent me in a question: Any ideas why opera browser suddenly will not allow bookmarks to be saved, and any idea how to correct this? Martin, it sounds like you have a corrupt opera6.adr file or a corrupt bookmarks.adr file (depends on your Opera version and if your Opera uses imported [...]

How to Avoid Computer Viruses and Phishing Hacks

3. March 2010

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How to Avoid Computer Viruses and Phishing Hacks

Not too long ago, getting a computer virus or falling for a phishing scam was something that happened to other people. It was like hearing about a tragic earthquake or tsunami– it happened and it was awful, but it was far away and didn’t affect you very much. My, how the times have changed! Today, [...]

Fix Firefox Problems

23. February 2010

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A few people have asked me a some questions about solving problems with the browser Mozilla Firefox. I think Firefox is a terrific browser: it’s safer than Internet Explorer; it’s faster; and it’s got innumerable options, themes, and addons available. However, when it has problems, it’s usually more complex than the basic Internet Explorer crash. [...]

Archive | Troubleshooting RSS feed for this section

How to Fix a Windows Corrupted User Profile

What To Do When Your Computer Gets a Virus

How to Fix an HDTV That Displays Only Black and White

How to Check Your Smartphone for Carrier IQ Rootkit

How to Fix the Windows Sidebar Calendar Orange Problem

How To Avoid Being Duped By Social Engineering Hacks

Are You 1 in 14?

Got Java Problems?

How to Fix the “Access to the Administration Control Panel is not allowed” phpBB Error

How to Locate Missing Software

How to Safeguard Your Identity Online

How To Tell If Your Blog Has Been Hacked

Why Do Pop Ups Still Appear After I Have Blocked Them?

How to Protect Your Facebook Account

Fixing Bookmark Problems in Opera Browser

How to Avoid Computer Viruses and Phishing Hacks

Fix Firefox Problems

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