Category: Technical

Migrating Operating System to SSD

FOR~GO
(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
10 June 2018

One of the most cost effective ways to improve the performance of a computer is to migrate the operating system from a mechanical rotating hard drive to a solid state drive. Accessing and reading data from a solid state drive can easily be at least 30% and up to 100% or more faster. With prices as low as $25 for a 120GB SATA type, it is the most bang you can get for your buck and is relatively easy to do. Here is the easiest method for any desktop or laptop computer with a SATA type hard drive:   Continue reading “Migrating Operating System to SSD”

Virtual Machines

 

FOR~GO
(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
9 May 2018

A virtual machine is an emulation of a computer system in software. It provides the ability to test or try out various operating systems on your current computer, often at no cost for non-commercial use. It was even provided by Microsoft as an optional Windows feature that could be enabled in Windows 7 Professional to run Windows XP in a virtual machine. For those who still like to tinker with old DOS programs or games, free emulators such as DOSBox are available.   Continue reading “Virtual Machines”

USB Info & Tips

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(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
17 March 2018

USB or Universal Serial Bus started showing up in computers in 1998, beginning with the Apple iMac. The USB 1.1 ports were designed for Low Speed (1.5 mbps) or Full Speed (12 mbps). Three years later the USB 2.0 standard improved USB to High Speed (480 mbps) and supported up to 100mA (0.5W) of power for low power and up to 500mA (2.5W) for high power. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 devices started showing up in 2010. The first generation USB 3.1 supports 5 gbps speed and up to 150mA (0.75W) for low power or up to 900mA (4.5W) for high power. The second generation of USB 3.1 increased the top speed to 10 gbps, and the current USB 3.2 top speed is 20 gbps. The USB 3.x standards are backward compatible to USB 2.0 devices.   Continue reading “USB Info & Tips”

Windows 10 Download

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(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
14 February 2018

So now that both the free upgrade to Windows 10 for the general public and the extended free upgrade for those using assistive technologies have ended, you are out of luck for a free upgrade, right? Well, not necessarily. Supposedly if you download the Windows 10 installation software from Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/en-in/software-download/windows10
and upgrade using a qualifying Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 license key, it will still upgrade and activate Windows 10 for free.   Continue reading “Windows 10 Download”

Windows Reliability Monitor

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(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
4 January 2018

If you have ever tried to analyze the contents of the Windows Event Viewer to troubleshoot a computer, you should appreciate the value of the different views of events offered by the Reliability Monitor.
Start typing Reliability Monitor in the Search bar and you should see “View reliability history” as a Control Panel item show up in the search results. Running the Reliability Monitor produces a daily summary of events by categories and a reliability trend curve scaled from 1 to 10. Clicking on a particular day will list the events for that day, where you can also click to view technical details for each event.   Continue reading “Windows Reliability Monitor”

Fixing Printer Offline

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(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
3 December 2017

Recently a lot of people have been experiencing their network printers going offline and having great difficulty getting them back online or keeping them from going back offline. These are printers that had been working fine in the past and something must have changed to create the problem. It could be due to a change in the router firmware by the internet service provider, an operating system update, or a printer driver update. It has occurred with various makes and models of printers, multiple internet service providers with various makes and models of routers, and both Windows 7 and Windows 10 operating systems.    Continue reading “Fixing Printer Offline”

MBR and GPT Based Hard Drive Partitions

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(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
6 November 2017

Windows on a UEFI-based device must format the hard drive for Windows with a GUID partition table (GPT) file system instead of a Master Boot Record (MBR) file system. Besides the EFI System Partition on a GPT drive, it will have a Microsoft reserved partition (MSR) to help with partition management, the Windows partition, and a Recovery tools partition for the Windows Recovery Environment tools image, which also supports booting partitions with Windows Bitlocker Drive Encryption, if used. Additional OEM-utility partitions or data partitions could optionally be present.   Continue reading “MBR and GPT Based Hard Drive Partitions”

About ISO Files

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(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
25 September 2017

An ISO file is the image of a CD or DVD that is typically used for burning a copy of the CD or DVD. Windows 8 and 10 come with a built-in ability to mount an ISO image directly from the file so that a CD or DVD player is no longer needed. A utility can be added to Windows 7 or Vista to provide the same capability. For information on how to mount (and unmount) an ISO file or to obtain the utility, see the following link:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/mount-an-iso-image-in-windows-vista/

Continue reading “About ISO Files”

Restoring the F8 Function During Boot

FOR~GO
(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
1 September, 2017

Welcome to zero-day for my new blog. I thought it might be fun to start a blog for the more advanced senior computer users interested in digging into the bowels of the Windows beast. I may also sprinkle in some opinions, reviews, rants, and even some Apple or Android nuggets from time-to-time. What you will not find are step-by-step tutorials (except in links) as they should not be needed for the intended readers.   Continue reading “Restoring the F8 Function During Boot”