PC Support

I ran into this problem the other day while trying to print from a laptop running Windows Vista to a PC that was running Windows XP. The XP machine had a USB printer that was being shared and was visible on the network. I installed the shared printer through the Add a printer function as a network printer on the Vista machine and it installed without error. When I tried printing something to the newly installed printer nothing happened, no error, nothing…

When troubleshooting problems with various devices and components, there will be times when you would like to see information such as the hardware ID of the device or other information that is not available by default in Device Manager. You can configure Device Manager to display more detailed information.

Making changes to the registry in Windows has been a fact of PC life for a long time now. Before making any changes it’s always a good idea to make a backup of the registry just in case. Many registry modifications take effect immediately and there is no “undo” function. If you make a mistake while editing the registry, it can cause major problems, including a non-bootable system.

It is possible for the “Folder Options” choice to be missing from the “Tools” menu within Windows Explorer, try this to restore the “Folder Options” if you are running Windows XP Pro:

Antivirus 2008 Screenshot

This is something that I have ran into quite a bit lately. It goes by many names, some of the ones I have come across:

• Windows Antivirus 2008
• XP Antivirus 2008
• XP Security Center
• Antivirus 2008

All of the many variants of this spyware/malware are grouped under the name SmitFraud and are some of the hardest infections to get rid of that I have come across so far. The best tool for removal that I have found is SmitFraudFix.