QUICK TIPS
APC and its readers can be one giant helpdesk. If you have a technical problem, chances are one of us can solve it.
We fix readers’ computing problems
APPLICATIONS BUILDING A PORTABLEAPPS TOOLKIT I’d like to install PortableApps and build my own toolkit. Do you have any tips or pointers for which apps I should include? Frank Plunkett
First, download and install the PortableApps plaform (available from
portableapps.com) on a different drive or partition to Windows if you can; however, if you have a nonpartitioned SSD on which Windows is installed, install the app in a folder inside your user folder, making sure that the folder is synced to the cloud using OneDrive or a similar service so it can be easily restored following a crash or reinstall (plus shared on any other PCs you have).
Once installed, go through the extensive list of apps provided and add those you want. Other portable apps can also be incorporated by extracting them into a folder inside the main PortableApps sub-folder and choosing ‘Apps > Refresh App Icons’. Finally, these programs will appear under the Other category — take the time to right-click the program shortcut and move them to the category you want. Mayank Sharma
NETWORK PROTECT NETWORK WITH OPENDNS I understand that I can use DNS settings to secure my computers at the network level. How do I do this? Craig Jarvis
OpenDNS ( www.opendns.com) offers several ways in which you can both improve security and performance across your entire network. For it to apply to every device on your network, log on to your router through your web browser and go hunting for its DNS settings — these may be on their own tab, on the main screen or under the DHCP settings. For basic OpenDNS, set the primary DNS to 208.67.222.222 and the secondary DNS to 208.67.220.220 respectively. This should deliver noticeably faster response times when accessing web pages. Some protection is built-in, but if you’re happy to apply a network-wide pornographic filter, set the router’s DNS settings to 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123 instead. Now all adult content will be blocked automatically from all connected devices. If that’s a step too far, leave the basic OpenDNS settings in place and sign up for OpenDNS Home Free at signup. opendns.com/homefree — once done, you can log in and set up custom filters utilising over 50 different categories. Set up your home network, then choose a basic filtering level: High, Moderate, Low, None and Custom are all available.
Work through the various options for protecting your network from malware and botnets to phishing. Finally, if your public IP address changes over time, tick Dynamic IP Update under Advanced Settings and download the Dynamic IP Updater client on a PC that’s on 24-7, so changes are automatically forwarded on to your account; otherwise you’ll need to log in whenever the IP changes to continue being supported. Mayank Sharma
SOFTWARE AVAST UNINSTALL ISSUES I accidentally installed Avast, which I didn’t want. I used IObit UnInstaller to remove it, but it stayed and took control. I used the company’s own uninstaller in safe mode but it disconnected me from the internet. It doesn’t allow me to delete it from the Registry. I’ve tried a program called Revo Uninstaller, but that didn’t find the program at all. Any ideas would be welcome. David Horrocks
It’s possible IObit Uninstaller has messed something up during its attempt to uninstall Avast. We’d try reinstalling Avast from scratch, then try again with the company’s official uninstaller to remove it: www.avast.com/en-au/ uninstall-utility.
After checking back with David a few days later, he reported that he re-used the Avast uninstaller outside of safe mode, which appears to have removed everything this time. Dan Gardiner
INTERNET BEST INTERNET ACCELERATOR I would like to speed up my broadband connection. What’s the best free internet accelerator tool for Windows 7? Peter Claxton
Internet accelerator tools basically attempt to tweak various system settings to fine-tune network and internet performance. They won’t have any effect on your physical connection, but you may find they have a minor performance benefit (it’s unlikely you’ll see major improvements, however). We could only find one free tool — Internet Accelerator, which you can download from www.pointstone.com (look under ‘Software > Freebies’). Although Internet Accelerator will run on Windows 10, it’s not been designed for it; we recommend trying it on older versions of Windows, and take a System Restore point or drive image first, just in case it makes things worse and the Restore Defaults option doesn’t work. Rob Mead-Green
WINDOWS UPDATE CRIPPLED USER ACCOUNT My main — and only administrator — user account has lost key functionality after a Windows feature update: no Start menu, search facility, library files or drive access. I’ve tried various solutions, and even performed a refresh install, but it hasn’t fixed the problem. Strangely, my wife’s non-administrator account is unaffected. Can you help? Kevin Riddick
Kevin had managed to create another user account, but it was a standard user, with no apparent means for elevating to administrator. Thankfully, this can be done by temporarily enabling the system Administrator account. First, while logged into your non-administrator account, right-click the Start button and choose ‘Command Prompt (admin)’ or ‘Windows Powershell (admin)’. Enter the password for your corrupt administrator account, then type the following command: net user Administrator / active:yes
Close the command prompt window, then log out. You should see a new Administrator account appear, select this to log in (it’s not passwordprotected). Now go to ‘Start > Settings > Accounts > Family & other people’. Select your new account and click ‘Change account type’. Select Administrator and click OK. Log out of the Administrator account and back into your new account — click ‘Start > Settings > Accounts > Your Info’ to verify the account is now an administrator one. You can now open another Command Prompt (admin) window and type: net user Administrator /active:no
Once you’ve transferred any files
“I accidentally installed Avast, which I didn’t want. I used IObit uninstaller to remove, but it stayed and took control.”
or settings across from your old user account to your new one, you can then delete the old account. Nick Peers
WINDOWS BEST REINSTALL METHOD
I’m about to install the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update having decided to reinstall Windows from scratch following your guides. Should I reinstall Windows 10 first and then apply the update, or should I reinstall after I’ve done the update first? Adam Griffin
Why not do both at the same time? Download the latest version of the Media Creation Tool from www. microsoft.com/software-download/ windows10 and use it to create a fresh Windows 10 installation DVD or USB flash drive. Use this to install Windows 10 with the Fall Creators Update included following one of our recent guides. Doing so means you’ll have a fresh system with the latest version of Windows on it. Cat Ellis
SOFTWARE CLONE AND COMPACT VIRTUAL HARD DISKS
I’m running out of space on my VirtualBox partition, where I keep multiple virtual machines. Can I reclaim drive space without moving them? Craig Hurst There are two different techniques we’ll look at — start by browsing to forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. php?t=22422 where you can download and extract the portable CloneVDI tool. Then follow these steps: Virtual machine snapshots take up a lot of space. Delete the ones that you no longer need by rightclicking a snapshot and choosing Delete — their changes will be merged into the current state or the next snapshot in a chain. Over time, your virtual disk files will become bloated — by cloning the disk using CloneVDI, you can opt to compact them by removing all unnecessary space. Launch CloneVDI and click Browse to select your source hard disk file. Click ‘Browse...’ to choose a different folder or drive. Make sure that the name of the file matches the original. Tick ‘Keep old UUID’ and ‘Compact drive while copying’ on the main screen. Click Proceed and wait for virtual disk file to be cloned. Once complete, check that the new file is smaller than the old file. If it is, move the original out of its folder, then move the cloned file in. Close and restart VirtualBox and test to see if the clone works correctly; if it does, you can discard the old file. Rob Mead-Green
HARDWARE FLAKY ETHERNET CONNECTION
Since upgrading to fibre broadband, my PC’s Ethernet connection has kept dropping out. I have a Wi-Fi adaptor, which works fine with it, and none of my other Ethernetconnected devices have any problems. What’s the cure? Tom West
This could be either a driver problem or a hardware glitch. Tom tried a different Ethernet cable as well as router port, all to no avail, plus verified he had the latest drivers installed. The upgrade to fibre appears to have been coincidental, although the act of plugging the PC’s Ethernet cable into a new router may have triggered or exacerbated an underlying issue.
“I’m about to install the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Should I reinstall Windows 10 first and then apply the update, or should I reinstall after I’ve done the update?”
Tom revealed that his Ethernet port — which was part of his PC’s motherboard — did wiggle when touched, which suggests a loose connection caused by a dry solder joint. Tom wasn’t confident with a soldering iron, but he had a spare internal PCI-Express slot, so we directed him towards the TP-Link TG-3468 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet card ( bit.ly/2hTDmZQ), which is available for around $14 online. Installing and using this resolved Tom’s connection problem. Mayank Sharma
LINUX VERY INSECURE
I’ve just had a new computer made and ordered without an OS so that I can install Ubuntu. But it has come with Secure Boot enabled in the UEFI bios. The facility to turn it off is greyed-out so I cannot change it. The motherboard is ASUS H110M-R: Micro-ATX. There is a facility for running legacy software, but Ubuntu will not run with UEFI enabled. Ubuntu is configured to ignore Secure Boot, and runs in “insecure mode”. The problem is that other Linux discs will not run in the DVD drive. Is there a way of turning off Secure Boot? Bryan Mitchell
As you’ve discovered, only a small number of Linux distros have the correct keys to support Secure Boot; Ubuntu being one but also Fedora and openSUSE. Most others don’t and so won’t be able to run on any PC that has this applied. It’s not an evil conspiracy to kill Linux, it’s a security feature, but obfuscated options like this don’t help.
ASUS does provide a way to disable it, though, and the process is loosely this: enter the UEFI, select ‘Advanced Mode Menu > Boot > Secure Boot’. Change the OS option from Windows to ‘Other OS’, which should mark the Secure Boot keys as unloaded. The UEFI won’t usually be the issue, as the GRUB2 boot loader handles passoff from this. APC team
WINDOWS FOLDER WINDOWS APPEAR ON STARTUP
Some weeks ago — and with no apparent reason — Windows started opening folder windows on startup. It doesn’t happen every single time Windows loads, but I consulted some online experts who copied and pasted some code to make changes to the Registry. I’m a little wary of this as the instructions were rather vague. Can you assist please? Ian McAndrew
We instructed Ian to first verify the problem wasn’t linked to any start-up programs. To this end he installed BootRacer ( www.greatis.com/ bootracer) and enabled Startup Control. This not only lists start-up programs as they’re being loaded, it implements a 10-second delay before starting them to give Windows time to finish setting itself up. The windows all appeared during this initial delay, which indicated that the problem was with Windows itself.
There are a few Registry entries that — if altered incorrectly or missing — can cause File Explorer windows to appear. But even after correcting these, Ian was still plagued with three pop-up windows, all pointing to different external hard drives. Ian checked ‘Start > Settings > Devices > AutoPlay’ and set the default AutoPlay behaviour for removable drives to ‘Take no action’.
On rebooting Windows, the three remaining pop-up windows completely vanished. Mayank Sharma