We fix readers’ computing problems.
APC and its readers can be one giant helpdesk. If you have a technical problem, chances are one of us can solve it.
WINDOWS UNINSTALL A STUBBORN WINDOWS 10 PROGRAM
I recently installed a program and now I find that my Windows 10 PC has slowed to a crawl. The app is obviously to blame, but how am I supposed to remove it when everything keeps hanging and crashing all the time? Can you help? Eddie Oswald
If you can get into Windows 10, click Start and hold Shift as you select Restart. When the ‘Choose an option’ screen appears, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings and click Restart. When the boot menu appears, press 5 to launch Windows in Safe mode, then remove the troublesome program via Start > Settings > System > ‘Apps & features’. Once removed, restart your PC and it’ll boot back into normal mode, with your problem hopefully rectified. Mayank Sharma
SECURITY MALWAREBYTES REAL-TIME PROTECTION
I’m running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium and I’ve started getting messages telling me that the real-time protection is switched off. If I try to switch it back on again, it doesn’t seem to work — it appears to be linked to the web protection module. Can you assist? Albert Lechaude
Malwarebytes’ web protection layer helps block websites marked as malicious from a range of programs, including Skype as well as your web browser. Version 3.0.6 was supposed to fix a range of real-time protection issues, but this problem persists for many. First, open Malwarebytes and go to Settings > Protection. Now scroll down to the Startup Options section and flick the switch marked ‘Enable self-protection module early start’ to On. Reboot your PC and see if the problem now fixes itself. You may still get a warning about the web protection module being switched off from time to time, but clicking the button to resolve it should now work. Nick Peers
MAC STAY CURRENT ON A BROADBAND BUDGET
What’s the most efficient way to obtain software updates for my iMac and MacBook without exceeding my broadband cap? Colin Heaton The largest updates you’re likely to need are to macOS itself. Rather than downloading them from the Mac App Store, check Apple’s support pages ( support.apple.com) a day or so after release. Search for something like ‘macOS 10.12.6’, and get the smaller, incremental update (which updates only from the version immediately before its target), not the much larger Combo version. These are delivered as disk images, which you can copy to and reuse on additional Macs. Mac App Store apps can be copied from one Mac to another, but you may be asked for your Apple ID to reauthorise the second one. See apple.co/29b5KzD if you have trouble. OS X Server can cache updates for macOS, apps, personal iCloud data, and other store downloads when one Mac requests it, and distribute it to others as needed, but this imposes its own overhead. Ian Sleightholm
WINDOWS THE MICROSOFT MAPS APP WON’T LAUNCH
My Microsoft Maps app has stopped working. I ran a troubleshooter that indicates the Maps’ cache is corrupt. Please help! Alan Orrell
The Offline Maps cache is the culprit here, and there are three main areas you can investigate in order to try and
resolve the problem: Settings, the cache folder and finally the Registry. Here’s how to investigate further. 1 Click Start > Settings > System and then select ‘Offline maps’ from the left pane. If you’re able to, try clicking the ‘Delete all maps’ option or changing the storage location to see if that is able to resolve the problem with Maps. 2 If that doesn’t work (or the ‘Offline maps’ page loading gets stuck), browse to the following folder and delete all of its contents: C:\ ProgramData\Microsoft\MapData\ diskcache\BundleStore. Try Maps again. With a little luck it should work this time. 3 Still no joy? Press Windows-R, type regedit and Enter. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ Maps. Look for a Storage key — if it doesn’t exist, right-click Maps and choose New > Key and name it ‘Storage’ . 4 If the key already exists, look for a MapsPreferredDeviceGuid value in the right pane. Right-click this, then choose Delete to remove it and reset the offline maps cache back to its default location on your C drive. The Maps app should now work correctly. Nick Odantzis
SECURITY LASTPASS RESET
I have got my knickers in a twist, having forgotten what password I originally used when setting up LastPass. I want to start over by clearing out the old password, but I keep going around in circles. Is there a set procedure I should follow? Bryan Little If you’re trying to recover your master password, then your options are sadly limited since LastPass has no record of it stored for obvious security reasons. If you’ve previously managed to log on successfully with your master password, then open the browser you logged on through, go to lastpass.com/
recover.php and follow the prompts. If successful, you’ll activate a locally generated one-time password that will enable you to generate a new master password, or — if you’ve updated the master password within the last 90 days — revert back to the previous one. If this fails, you’ll have to reset your account — this will free up your email address for use with LastPass, but all your existing saved data will be lost. Go to lastpass.com/delete_ account.php?np=1 if you’re happy to go down this route, as Bryan was. Cat Ellis
EMAIL TRANSFER YOUR OLD EMAILS TO THE CLOUD
How can I easily transfer emails from my old internet provider to Gmail? Bernadette Wallis You could simply forward them on to your Gmail address, but the following technique is quicker, and should work with other cloud providers such as Hotmail too. We’ve used Thunderbird here ( getthunderbird.com), but you should be able to adapt it to your own particular email client. 1 Log into your Gmail account at mail.google.com using your web browser. Click Settings and select the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab. Scroll down, select Enable IMAP and then click Save Changes to access Gmail through your email client. 2 Open your email client and add Gmail as an additional account — in Thunderbird, select Local Folders and click Email under ‘Create a new account’. Skip the new address prompt, type your Gmail address and password and click Continue. 3 Leave IMAP selected, then click Done. You’ll need to sign in to Google and authorise the connection to complete the process. Thunderbird will now begin to download all your mail (including any folders) — you don’t have to wait for it to finish. 4 Now you can now simply transfer your messages by dragging them from your old email account into the desired folder on Gmail (you could set up a dedicated folder for this purpose). They should automatically sync online when you’re next connected. Rob Mead-Green
“Rather than downloading them from the Mac App Store, check Apple’s support pages a day or so after release.”