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Am tearing my hair out as I promised to give a work colleague my year old Samsung Notebook. However as this has no DVD drive I cannot blitz information left on hard drive and also has no \”restore to factory settings\”, so cannot do that. Any ideas on how to clean hard drive and if not would I be wise to give this away.

There are companies out there who have the tools to wipe your hard drive of all information. They do this by “over-writing” the drive with random bits seven (7) times over. This may seam like a thorough cleaning, however, the federal government will not certify this procedure as an acceptable method for cleaning government computers – that is because there is still a possibility of retrieving the original information from it. In other words, even if you could reimage the computer with a factory install disc, your information could still be retrieved.

The fact is, there are very few people in the entire world that could perform such an operation. The odds that the person you sell your computer to who have access to this technology is lower than your odds of hitting two royal flushes in a row at the final table of the World Series of Poker Tournament.

What you need to decide is whether the information on your computer is really that private.

If it is, then the best solution is to contact the manufacturer and request a copy of the factory install disc.

For the largest majority of people the best option is to delete all information that you don’t want to pass on, this should more than suffice to protect information. The following is a list of things that will completely erase most information off your drive:
- Delete all personal files, including the entire contents of you’re My Documents folder. The best way to find all your files is by using the search function. When you search, use search terms for all of a specific file type (ex. *.doc (MS Word), *.exe (MS Excel) or *.mp3, *.mp4, *.wav, *.acc (music files)).
- Uninstall all programs that were not part of the factory install, including deleting their folders from the Program Files folder of your root drive.
- Clean all files from your desktop.
- Empty your Recycle Bin
- Go to User Accounts section of the Control Panel. Delete all your personal User accounts and choose to delete all files when prompted. Change the Administrator account’s password (be sure to pass this info along to the new owner). Create a generic user account (i.e. “New Owner”) with no password. If there is a prompt to boot to this account automatically, select it. When the new owner boots up, the New Owner account will display on the Welcome screen, or it will just boot into that account.
  
  For added cleaning:
- Before you delete your user profile - Download and install the CCleaner software (it’s free) from http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner (look at the right side of the page for Download Latest Version). The program will clean both your hard drive and registry. Be sure to check all boxes in the Cleaner section under the Windows tab before running the Cleaner. This will delete all Browsing History, Cookies, Autofill information and other things that you normally do not think of.

Monitor just over a year old! when turned on, it starts to floicker and then the screen goes black! Unplugged it over night and the same thing happened when I started it up. Hokked my old monitor up and it works fine!

The straight truth is, if another monitor works on the machine, you already have your answer - the monitor is bad. It’s not completely uncommon, but it is very unfortunate for one that’s not that old.

If i use a program that has virus,will my computer get the virus???

The answer may not be as simple as the question. If you know the program has a virus, it is always good practice to NOT run the program for obvious reasons. Try contacting the software developer through their website to get a clean copy of the software.

If I plug a flash drive into a computer can I use it as ram?

If you are using Microsoft’s Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can insert a USB flash drive and commit some or all of the space on the drive to be used as memory. It called ReadyBoost and Windows uses it as a secondary cache of memory to help speed up your computer’s performance.

Simply right-click the drive and select properties, if it a ReadyBoost compatible drive, you will see the ReadyBoost tab at the top. Just follow the instructions and you’ll be set to go.

For Windows XP users, the ReadyBoost option is not available, but there is a third-party program that claims to offer the same boost for your XP machine. The software is called eBoostr™ (http://www.eboostr.com/)* and, according to its claims, it can also use a USB flash drive for memory.

*Note: Ask The Computer Experts has not tested this third-party software and can not verify it’s claims.

Hi - after it took me hours to find help and instruction to reformat my computer, it then should install Windows XP but it let me through all the way to hitting F8 to accept license agreement then it just sit there and won’t continue. It only let me hit esc to reboot again and again but it won’t let me continue after I hit F8. Can you please help? Thanks.

There are only three reasons we can think of that would cause this issue. First, Microsoft sometimes requires that you actually scroll down through the entire license agreement, all the way to the bottom, before it will accept an F8 key press. Second, your keyboard F8 button is not responding, or third, your keyboard has a USB connection rather than a PS2. Some motherboards can not respond to USB keyboards during the boot (Windows driver for keyboard loads after boot), except for basic keys such as Esc and Enter. If this is the case, booting up with a PS2 connected keyboard should solve the issue.

I am running Windows XP Pro and Comcast as my server. I am using AVG Anti-Virus (Free Download). My friend is telling me to use McAfee Anti-Virus a free download from Comcast. I am trying to find out what is considered the better anti-virus program. Thanks Fred.

Some interesting developments in the antivirus world have many IT experts wondering what will become of the current antivirus leaders like MacAfee and Norton. In 2009, Microsoft will begin to offer antivirus free to all Widows users. While AVG may not provide the world’s best protection, it is free and will help to protect you from most know issues.

The thing about viruses, is that there is no such thing as prevention. Antivirus programs are a re-active process to viruses that already exist and could potentially already have caused their damage. The best antivirus is still never perfect protection.

That being said, any free antivirus program will provide good protection. MacAfee may be a better solution as their program is funded by subscription services from companies world wide. Comcast has a vested interest in keeping your system free of viruses, so they are probably providing the free services for their own interest. We recommend migrating to Microsoft’s free antivirus when they release it. After all, who knows better how to protect windows than Microsoft?

What is the difference in the many Intel Quad processors?

Today’s processors have many features that 95% of all computer users will never use. Quad core is one of these features as there are only a handful of programs that can even take advantage of all four internal processors. Most of these programs are video games and highly sophisticated image processing software. Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, along with most programs such as Office or Adobe, do not even use dual core processors to run their main functions. While it is possible that all the software developers may someday take advantage of the processors abilities, most still work as good as they ever will on a single core, 1GHz or less processor.

Processor manufactures have made great effort in convincing us we need to upgrade to their faster processors, but software developers (with the exception of those who develop games) have not adapted their programs to take advantage of this faster speeds.

Purchasing a quad or dual core processor will never give you less performance than a single core, but it may be several more years (is ever) before you will ever use the processors full capabilties.

…is there a way I can copy ALL my files from my DESKTOP over to my LAPTOP without having to do CD Rom copies? Just straight transfer of all my files, fonts, folders etc etc... like with a USB wires or ethernet wires? What is the procedure if I may ask?

The answer to your question is not an easy one, or should we say there are several possible answers. We will try to break down a few of the more viable possibilities here:

There are cables that can connect your laptop to your desktop for communicating info back and forth, but typically, these are hard to setup and it is difficult to find software to make the transfer care-free. So let’s eliminate that possibility.

You can use a Flash drive, much like you are currently using your CD Rom to copy files back and forth. Flash drives come in sizes ranging from 265Kb for $5 at the checkout counters of your local grocery stores, to 16Gb for $100 or so. They are pocket sized, re-writable devices that connect through a USB connection and act just like your hard drive. The advantage of these drives is they are easy to carry and can be accessible from any computer.

Perhaps the most common method of sharing files between computers is to set up a network for the computers to communicate. Just like your office computers connect and share files through a common network, you can set up a similar network between your desktop and laptop computers. All you need is a common connection method, which you probably already have.
- If both your desktop and laptop connect to the internet through your wireless modem (Cable or DSL) then you are already on a network, you just have to let each computer know how to find the other. The same is true if both computer connect using a CAT5 cable directly.
- If your laptop is wireless and your desktop is wired, you might already have a common connection port called a hub or router. Your modem may actually act as this connection port as well, you can find out by following the Network Setup detailed below. If not, a router or hub can be purchased at a computer supply store for around $50.
- To get your two computers talking to one another, all you need to do is start the Network Setup Wizard that comes with you Windows XP operating system (Vista has one as well). The Network Setup Wizard can be found in your Control Panel. Once you setup your first network, it should offer you the opportunity to create a setup disk for your second, but following the exact same procedures with the second computer will work as well.

Once you setup the network and get both computers talking, the next step is to share your drives so each computer can recognize the other computers hard drive. To do this, right click your C Drive (or whatever drive you want to share – you can share just specific folders if you prefer) and select the Sharing and Security option. Once you get past any security warnings about sharing, it will allow you to share your drive (you should do this on both computers).

*It is important to remember that creating a network does open up your omputer system to security vulnerabilities. We recommend you using a different name than the default option when selecting a network name during Network Setup and, as always, your modem/router/hub should have a firewall built in and wireless access to your system should be protected with a secured password.

I have a sony vaio model VGN-A150 and i bought Roxio easy cd and dvd burning software thinking that i could burn dvds regardless of copy protections on dvd discs. well i was wrong so is there something that i could buy or somewhere you could send me to help me figure out how to get past the copy protection on dvds. keep in mind though that im not very computer friendly so if you could make as stupid proof as possible that would be really great. thanks for your time.

You must forgive us, but it would be very unprofessional of us to tell you that DVDFab Gold or DVDFab Platinum are commonly used software products for breaking the encryption of DVD movies, allowing the user to make illegal copies of copyrighted material. It would be very unprofessional indeed to tell you that the program is easy to use and even more unprofessional to encourage you to check out www.dvdfab.com for pricing and more information.

AskTheComputerExperts.com does not condone or endorse copyright violations. All third party references are not the responsibility of AskTheComputerExperts.com.

My sister has MSN Messenger 7.0 installed on her computer. She claims that it installed itself because she already had a hotmail account and Microsoft regular updates created this service and downloaded it to her computer. She has her name in LiveSpaces with her profile and has Live Mail and other services. I am asking if this MSN Messenger 7.0 can download on to your computer by itself or does it need to be downloaded by the user. Thanks for your consideration and I am serious although this sounds pretty crazy.

Microsoft’s MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live Messenger) is installed on every Windows based PC. The version installed on a computer is dependant on when your sister’s PC was purchased. Microsoft has many ways to initiate Messenger on your system, such as by starting Outlook or Outlook Express to mention a few. In fact, there are several things that can start Messenger running on the computer. When the program starts it usually stays running unless actively canceled. While the program is running, it will regularly check the web for version updates and pop up a small box asking if you want to install the latest version. It is very common for people to accept this request and Windows will install the new version for you.

Because Microsoft is trying to connect all aspects of its software and operating systems, as well as it online features, it will often gather information from a user and, by asking a innocent sounding question, implement that information to other Microsoft programs. Such is the case with what is called the .NET ID. The .NET ID automatically logs you into Microsoft related web pages such as Hotmail, MSN and Live Spaces. Live Spaces is actually an online version of the Messenger and automatically transferred information about me from my account as well. I also did not ask for this, but I would assume that Microsoft will claim that it is a condition we accepted when we electronically signed our Hotmail account.

In short, your sister’s computer probably already had MSN Messenger 7 installed (the latest version is 8 I believe) and in conjunction with her Hotmail account, all the rest was done by Microsoft automatically (so don’t blame her). She can remove the information from her Live Spaces account by select Account from the bottom of the main page. In there she will be able to remove any info that she does not wish to display. There may also be a way to hide her profile, but I am sure Microsoft makes it difficult to find the way to do this. Typically, a nasty email to the “contact us” department will get results.