Figure 8-34
Summing Up
In this lesson, you learned some ways to keep your computer operating safely and at maximum performance, as well as how to create a safer comput- ing environment for young computer users. Here are the highlights:
✓ User Account Control (UAC) is what pops up those warning messages when you make system changes. You can make it more or less aggres- sive by adjusting its settings.
✓ Windows Defender guards against both viruses and other malware in Windows 8; virus protection within Defender is new to this version of Windows.
✓ Leave Windows Firewall turned on unless you have a third-party firewall that takes its place. You can allow individual programs through the fire- wall as needed.
✓ Disk Cleanup identifies and deletes files that you may not need on your hard disk, saving disk space.
✓ Optimizing a disk, also called defragmenting, relocates the parts of a file so that they’re contiguous, making it quicker to read them from the disk.
✓ Windows Update automatically downloads and installs updates to Windows and to some Microsoft programs. You can configure it to hold off on either downloading or installing without your explicit permission each time.
✓ Windows Parental Controls offers several ways to keep your children away from inappropriate content. You can restrict web content, games, applications, and usage hours.
Know This Tech Talk
adware: Software that displays unwanted ads.
defragment: To reorganize the file storage so that as many files as pos- sible are stored contiguously.
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB): An organization that rates games to determine what age of children they are appropriate for.
firewall: Hardware or software that prevents unauthorized access to a port.
fragmented file: A file that’s stored in multiple noncontiguous areas on a hard disk.
Know This Tech Talk
maintenance window: The time specified when Windows 8 should per- form routine maintenance tasks on the system, provided the PC is pow- ered up but not actively in use.
malware: A class of computer threats that includes both spyware and adware. Some people use the term malware even more generically, to include all software that harms a computer or compromises its security or privacy.
port: A numbered software channel that directs network input and output.
spyware: Software that spies on your usage and reports it to someone.
User Account Control (UAC): A security feature that notifies you and requests your permission whenever a system or Windows setting change is about to occur.
virus: Code that attaches itself to an executable file, such as a program file, and does something bad when that file executes, like slowing down performance or deleting certain files.
Windows Update: A free service from Microsoft that downloads the latest patches, fixes, and updates from Microsoft’s servers for Windows 8 and other Microsoft products.
Lesson 9
Troubleshooting Common Problems
✓ Shut down an unresponsive program.
✓ Find a lost file.
✓ Configure compatibility settings for older applications.
✓ Control which programs load at startup.
✓ Repair or reinstall Windows.
2 . One of my older programs doesn’t work anymore now that I’ve upgraded to Windows 8.
Learn how you can trick the program into running by
consulting page ... 293
3 . A bunch of stuff I don’t want always loads at startup.
What can I do?
Stop those unwanted startups from happening. See page ... 310
4 . I had this file, but now I don’t remember what I named it or where I put it.
This is more common than you might think. Find out how to
find it on page ... 297
5 . I’ve tried other fixes but Windows is still messed up.
Try repairing it. Check out page ... 301
6 . The repair didn’t work. Now what?
Reinstalling Windows will make everything right again. See page ... 313
C omputer problems can be frustrating, but here’s the good news:
it’s never been easier to fix them than with Windows 8. Windows 8 has a variety of utilities and troubleshooters that can walk even the most clueless newbie through the troubleshooting and repair process.
And if the problems are so severe that you can’t go on, Windows 8 can repair itself, all the way back to a pristine new Windows installation.
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to troubleshoot and fix several common prob- lem types, and how to repair or reinstall Windows when everything less dras- tic fails to solve the problem.
Fixing Application Problems
Individual applications can run into a variety of problems, any of which can cause it to become unresponsive, or “crash.” When a crash occurs, there may or may not be an error message asso- ciated with it, and the problem may or may not be confined to that individual application. In some cases, a crashed app can take the entire
system down with it — so that even the mouse pointer stops working, and you have to restart the computer to clear up the problem. The problem may be a one-time fluke, or it might occur every time (or most times) you try to run that program.
So what do you do about an app crash? Here’s a general troubleshooting pro- cess to go through:
1. If the app didn’t shut itself down when it crashed, shut it down yourself.
See “Shutting down an unresponsive program,” later in this lesson.
2. Restart the computer and pretend it never happened. (See Lesson 1 if you need instructions for restarting the computer.) If the problem hap- pens again, go on to the next step.
LINGO
A crash occurs when a program stops responding to user com- mands. Crash is only a metaphor;
no physical items are crashing into each other.
3. Go to the app developer’s website and look in the Support section to see if any known bugs might be causing the problem, especially incompat- ibilities with certain hardware. (Display adapters and games frequently have incompatibility issues, for example.) Try whatever is recom- mended to fix it.
4. See if an updated driver is available for your display adapter. (Check with the company that made your PC if your display adapter came with the PC.) If so, install it using the setup program that you download from the manufacturer. It doesn’t hurt anything to update to the latest ver- sion of a driver, and this has been known to fix problems with certain applications, especially games.
5. If it’s a program designed for an earlier version of Windows, adjust its compatibility settings so that Windows provides it the environment it needs. See “Configuring compatibility settings” later in this lesson. If that doesn’t fix the problem, go to the next step.
6. Repair the program, if there’s an option to do so in the Control Panel.
(See Lesson 2 for instructions.)
7. Uninstall and reinstall the program. (If the program files were corrupted in some way, that’ll fix the problem.) Again, see “Installing, Repairing, and Removing Applications” in Lesson 2. If that doesn’t fix the problem, go on to the next step.
8. Give up. No, I’m not being facetious here. Sometimes you just can’t get a particular program to run on a particular PC, and it’s more trouble than it’s worth to keep chasing a solution. Sorry, but it’s true.
Shutting down an unresponsive program
When a program crashes, it might termi- nate itself automatically, usually with an error message explaining what happened.
However, in some cases, the program window stays open, and you must shut down the malfunctioning program manually.
In Windows 8, when a program stops responding to keyboard and mouse input, Windows displays that program’s window with a white haze over it, and a message box
appears, letting you know that the program has become unresponsive. From there, you can choose to restart the program or return to the program to wait for it to respond. (Some programs trigger false alarms because they take longer than normal to respond to certain commands.)
LINGO
Task Manager is an interface for viewing what programs are run- ning and their statuses. It can also show detailed memory and CPU usage for each program when it’s in More Details mode.
Fixing Application Problems
If Windows doesn’t notice that the program has become unresponsive, you can display Task Manager, and shut down the program manually from there.
You shouldn’t use the Task Manager method of closing a program under normal circumstances because it doesn’t save your work in the program, and because there’s a possibility for file corruption. Use this method only when you can’t shut down the program by normal methods.
In the following exercise, you’ll shut down a program using Task Manager.