Computer locking is a security measure that is common for all Windows Operating system. Whether your computer stays idle for a specific time, or you lock it by yourself (by pressing Win key+L, for eample), the computer becomes "locked" and you have to enter your user name and password to unlock it.

While being effective security tool, it can also be annoying. In order to disable or enable it, we can use Windows Group Policy editing tool.

To start Group Policy editor, go to Start, then Run and type "gpedit.msc". As an alternative, you can type it into search bar.

When you are there, navigate to User Configuration=> Administrative Templates=> System=> Ctrl+Alt+Del Options

Double click on "Remove lock computer" and choose "Enabled" or "Disabled". Click Apply and close the window, you're done!

Case A: Network printer issue.

Sometimes, you may want to use Windows Remote Desktop connection to access a computer in your home from outside. For example, you have a laptop and desktop connected to a router, that is connected to the internet. You may take your laptop to a trip and still be able to access your desktop, if you alter some settings.

Step 1: Make changes to local computer.

Right-click on My Computer (or simply Computer, if you are using Vista) icon and select Properties.  Click "Remote" tab (or Remote settings link if you use Vista). You will see the following window:

Make sure the second option is chosen. Click "Select users..." button.

All users that are in Administrators group by default can use Remote Desktop connection to access your computer. You may add your computer's administrator's account or create a new one using Control Panel-User accounts.

Make sure you add the user you create to Remote Desktop Users group as shown in the picture above.

Make sure your firewall or antivirus doesn't block remote deskop connections.

Step 2: Configure your router's firewall.

You can access your router's configuration via web browser normally. By default, its address can be http://192.168.1.1 . To know the exact one, find out the address of "default gateway" using ipconfig command (click Start, go to run, type cmd, then type ipconfig in console window that opens).

 For example, if I used a router, I would access it by going to http://192.168.150.1

Web interface for configuring a router may differ from model to model. We should look for Firewall settings, specifically, port forwarding.

This website contains sets of instructions for numerous routers and programs.

If you are having troubles navigating the site or know where port forwarding is enabled in your router conifuguration, you have to forward data to port 3389, on the IP of your home networked computer. Some routers provide easy to use interface, which allows you to choose from the computers and also from the vast list of applications (you should be looking for Remote Desktop, do not confuse with remote assistance).

Step 3. Gathering the necessary information.

In order to connect to computer that is in your home network, you will need an external IP address (the IP address of your router).  If you go to this site, your IP address will be printed in bold at the top of the page. You can also know your external IP from the router configuration page.

Of course, don't forget to write down user name and password of your administrator account (or the one you created specifically for using Remote Desktop).

Step 4. Using remote desktop connection from a remote computer.

 Click Start->Run->All programs->Accessories->System Tools->Remote desktop connection.

Enter your external IP address as the  computer name, click connect, then enter your username and password (the one you had to memorize in step3).

Some people may be unhappy with the program they use to  surf the internet. Fortunately, there are many browsers developed by different companies, all with their positive and negative sides. So if you want to change your browser, follow these easy steps:

Download an alternative browser (for example, Opera, Firefox, Chrome or Safari)

Your newly installed browser will ask you if you want to make it a default browser at first run. Even if you refuse now, you can do it at any time.

For Opera, go to Tools->Preferences->Advanced->Programs

Tick "Check if Opera is default browser on startup" box and restart the application.

If you use Firefox, go to Tools->Options->Advanced

And click "Check Now". You can also make firefox check if it is default browser every time it starts.

If you decided to use Safari, click the cogwheel icon in top right corner, select Preferences and choose the default web browser from the drop-down list:

Finally, for Google Chrome, click the wrench icon in top right corner of the window, select options

and click "Make Google Chrome my default web browser".

NOTE: Sometimes your internet settings won't apply correctly and default browser setting won't change. In order to avoid that, reset Internet Explorer settings.

Recovery console is a command line-based tool provided by Microsoft that can be installed as a startup option or run form Windows installation CD. It can be used for troubleshooting different boot up problems that are related to corrupt system files or boot sector.

To start the computer and use the Recovery Console:

1. 
   Insert the Setup CD and restart the computer from the CD drive.
2. When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.
4. When prompted, type the password for the local administrator account.
5. To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

Common problems that can be solved using Recovery console:

1. NTLDR is missing.

Possible cause 1: Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file. 

Solution:

Copy the below files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter, which in this case is "e."

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
 

If you  have only one partition ("local drive"), then the CD-ROM letter should be "d", for example.

Possible cause 2: Corrupt boot sector or master boot record.

Solution:

fixboot drive name

where "drive name" is the letter of system drive followed by colon. For example:

fixboot c:

fixmbr device name

device name can be found by running map  command

Sometimes you may need to convert an existing volume from FAT32 to NTFS file system, which provides better security, faster performance allows file compression et cetera.

There is a simple command-line tool that exists for such purpose called convert.

In order to convert one of your drives, click Start, then Run and type:

convert volume /fs:ntfs

where "volume" is a drive letter followed by colon, for example:

convert c: /fs:ntfs

If you are trying to convert a system drive, some files of which are being used by Windows, you may get the following message:

 Convert cannot  run because the volume is in use by another process

In this case, press Y and let your PC reboot. Conversion will take place at next startup.

If you are converting a volume, that is not currently used by any processes, you'll see it converted to NTFS file system.

Initial problem:

After installing a device driver, the device or the whole computer doesn't function properly.

Possible solutions:

 1. Driver rollback.

This cancels the last device driver installation. Use this if you run into small annoyances, or problems, that are related to a specific device functionality that doesn't prevent computer from working.

For example: after installing a new webcam driver, the picture became blurred or unrecognizable. Or, after installing a graphic card driver you are unable to change screen resolution or frequency.

You can roll back driver for a specific device by opening Device Manager:

Locating Device manager in management console:

Selecting a device, which you suspect to have problems with:

And clicking "Roll back driver" in drivers tab:

2. Last known good configuration/safe mode .

If you are not able to start Windows normally after installing a device driver,  you may need to start your computer in Safe Mode to follow instructions described in part 1. Or, you can use Last Known Good Configuration to boot up.

In order to access these functions, you have to push F8 key several times to get a boot menu. It will look like this:

3. System Restore.

While not being the best solution for solving driver problems, it may help if you installed some software package that came with drivers. Usually, printer/scanner manufacturers, as well as graphic card vendors provide additional software together with drivers. If you believe that these managers are causing the problem, system restore is the way to go.

System restore in Windows XP OS

System restore in Windows Vista OS 

Windows Installer Cleanup utility by Microsoft is a small tool that allows you to troubleshoot the problems with software installations that use MS installer. It is advised to use this package in the following cases:

- The computer's registry becomes corrupted.

 - A registry setting that is used by the Windows Installer is
  inadvertently changed, and this change results in a problem.

 - The installation of a program that uses Windows Installer (for
  example, Microsoft Office 2003) is interrupted.

 - There are multiple instances of a setup program running at the same time, or
  an instance of a setup program is "blocked."

This program is small and very simple in use. You have to:

1. Download it from a link.
2. Install it like any other program by running the setup file.
3. Start it  (Start->All Programs) and begin working.

Actual "fixing" consists of selecting the problem installation and clicking "remove", then installing the application again.

User account control (or UAC) was introduced as another security tool in Windows Vista. With this feature enabled, any program that runs on the computer doesn't get administrator privileges by default. Operating system prompts user before running any application, thus preventing malware from being able to compromise your security.

While being effective in some cases, this feature can also be extremely annoying.

There are 3 different ways to enable or disable UAC.

1. Registry editor.

Go to Start->Run, type regedit and search for the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Locate EnableLUA key and set its value to 0.

Close Registry editor.

2. System configuration utility.

Go to Start->Run, type msconfig. Go to Tools tab and locate "Enable UAC" or "Disable UAC" line .

Note: it's really called UAP in some versions. 

3. Using User Accounts control panel applet.

1. Go to Start->Control Panel->User accounts.
2. Click Add or Remove user accounts: 
3. 
4. Click Change Security Settings
5. 
6. Check or uncheck "Use user account control to protect your computer"
7.  
8. 

Also, in some versions of Vista, you may skip steps 2-6, as "Enable or disable user accounts control" is right under User accounts.

Almost every person, that uses computer running Windows operating must have encountered it. All of a sudden, while you surf the internet, you get a pop-up window,  saying your computer is in danger, your browser is infected and tries to steal your credit card info, your computer is plagued by Trojans, et cetera. Actually, that is true. You've got one very annoying trojan, that claims to be an anti-virus and it may cost you hours of your time or even your files to get it off your PC.

Main window of such fraud antivirus program may look like this:

or like this:

(these two seem to be among the most popular, we've received quite a lot user questions regarding them in recent days).

Curing your computer

There are always good tools available to download. I'd recommend going for either Malwarebytes removal tool or SpyBot Search&Destroy

If you decided to remove the spyware manually, here are the steps:

1. Stop the processes.

     Bring up Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) and look for the process names that can be related to the program. For example, PC_Antispyware2010.exe or jugifyryve.exe. They may, of course, vary for different "antiviruses". If there are any suspicious processes, stop them.

2. Look for registry keys.

    For example : 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PC_Antispyware2010
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load "scui.cpl"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load "wscui.cpl"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "PC Antispyware 2010"

Pay attention to the last entry. Any entries put in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run are going to be executed at startup. Delete the entry related to the fake antivirus, or (it would be even better) right-click it, select Modify, and delete the command that is there.

3.  Remove the files.

If you succeeded in completing the first two steps, the fake antivirus can now be removed. You should know where to look for the files. In case of Anti-Spyware2010, they are:

 <code>c:\Program Files\Common Files\aqamodero.dat
c:\Program Files\Common Files\hubeweqa.lib
c:\Program Files\Common Files\jatikysup._dl
c:\Program Files\Common Files\ofyxodaqa.dat
c:\Program Files\Common Files\sahaso.bat
c:\Program Files\Common Files\zotys.bin
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\AVEngn.dll
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\htmlayout.dll
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\PC_Antispyware2010.cfg
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\PC_Antispyware2010.exe
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\pthreadVC2.dll
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\Uninstall.exe
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\wscui.cpl
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\data
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\data\daily.cvd
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\Microsoft.VC80.CRT
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\Microsoft.VC80.CRT\Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\Microsoft.VC80.CRT\msvcm80.dll
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\Microsoft.VC80.CRT\msvcp80.dll
c:\Program Files\PC_Antispyware2010\Microsoft.VC80.CRT\msvcr80.dll
c:\WINDOWS\akudyta.lib
c:\WINDOWS\hoxigawax.inf
c:\WINDOWS\kyci.dl
c:\WINDOWS\nuxojih.scr
c:\WINDOWS\qynomikov.bin
c:\WINDOWS\seni.reg
c:\WINDOWS\yfoneby.db
c:\WINDOWS\system32\_scui.cpl
c:\WINDOWS\system32\cocefezyj.dl
c:\WINDOWS\system32\qebykiti.dl
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\pybisezyr.db
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ulycozoho._dl
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\ekenubes.com
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\icosagula.reg
%UserProfile%\Application Data\jugifyryve.exe
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\PC_Antispyware2010.lnk
%UserProfile%\Cookies\ajeby.reg
%UserProfile%\Cookies\yqeqaranym.vbs
%UserProfile%\Cookies\zebav.pif
%UserProfile%\Desktop\_scui.cpl.txt
%UserProfile%\Desktop\PC_Antispyware2010.lnk
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\xoqupuwytu._dl
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\PC_Antispyware2010
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\PC_Antispyware2010\PC_Antispyware2010.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\PC_Antispyware2010\Uninstall.lnk 
</code>