The contact manager error is common in browsers that have multiple pop-up blockers enabled. Google and Yahoo toolbars must be disabled before trying to fix the issue. See below:

o Boot options for repair (for users and Tech’s alike)

The following information could possibly help you avoid using the services of a Tech person in the event your computer does not start up properly.

I believe in arming the real estate agent with information that could perhaps save a great deal of time and money. I say this because if your computer does not come to a login screen or keeps restarting, you may be able to resolve the issue very quickly yourself and I will tell you how. Let’s say you turn on your computer and you get a blue screen with text and then it continually reboots. Or, when you boot your computer you notice that you never get to a login screen, or it sits there forever and never makes it to the desktop. What you want to do next falls into 3 choices below from the screenshot below that.

I usually resolve issues in the following order. How you get the boot options to come up is when you first turn on your computer, tap the F8 key once every second until you see the black boot screen in the screenshot below. Up/down arrows will allow you to highlight an option and then click the enter key:

1) Last known good configuration

o This is an easy choice. If there has been a change such as a driver or a program has been installed that is now causing your system to not boot up properly, you may be able to reverse the effects of the install by choosing this option.

2) Repair your computer

o Let’s say you tried the last known good configuration option and that has not worked for you. You can choose this option and what it attempts to do is replace or repair the startup files that may have been affected that are causing the boot issue.

3) Safe mode with networking

o There are times when even though you cannot get to a login screen or to your desktop through a normal boot, you may be able to reach your desktop by choosing this option. If you are able to get to your desktop with this option, then there is a good chance that an installed program is what is keeping you from getting to your desktop with a typical boot. Safe mode with networking temporarily stops drivers and processes from loading up which may be at fault. If you can get to your desktop with this option and you remember that just before your computer crashed that a program was installed, then you can uninstall the offending program from this option and reboot again and perhaps everything will return back to normal.

So as you can see, there are a number of potential quick fixes that can often result in returning your system back to a normal state in less time that it takes to call a Tech, let alone waiting for them to arrive to your location.

Incidentally, this is the last article of the Windows 7 series. We will rotate the articles in this series from time to time. I hope you have enjoyed and learned something from these articles. I wish you many happy years of use of your Windows 7 computer armed with the information in these articles.

Here´s to happy computing!

Richard Tausch, MCSE, CCNA, CompTia Security +

o Enter Shadow Copies

Here is something you may not know. There is a way to restore previous versions of files in Vista and Windows 7. Most systems right out of the box will have the settings for Shadow Copies turned on by default and this will allow you to restore an older version of a file.

To do this, locate the file or folder where you normally keep the file you are looking for the previous version of, right-click on the file or folder that appears to be from a date that was just prior to the point where something had gone wrong. Then select Restore Previous Versions to see what’s available (see below). From the Previous Versions dialog for a folder, you can open the folder and drag the file or files from inside the folder (or the folder itself) to anywhere you wish, such as the desktop. Once you have relocated your file or folder you can verify the version is the correct one you were looking for.

In the next article you will learn how to choose boot options when your computer is having issues.

Here´s to happy computing!

Richard Tausch, MCSE, CCNA, CompTia Security +

o Turning back the hands of time

So here’s the situation: Your computer was working fine recently but it seems that now your browser has been crashing or you can’t get on to Paragon, or you have been getting errors. What do you do? As Tech’s, we like to look at a number of possibilities but when adjustments made to correct the issue or issues do not result in success, a great tool is System Restore.

System Restore can turn back the hands of time to a date you know your system was working. It will not alter data files so there is no reason to worry. How you (or we) run this process is by going to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. It can take a few minutes to come up after you have clicked on the icon. You will have 2 options. Select the one that says “Choose a different restore point”. From there you pick a date that you are certain was before the point of failure.

You can also click the check box Show more restore points for more date ranges. It is better to go back a few days or even a week or more before the point you know your computer was working right, just to be on the safe side if you are unsure. After System Restore runs, your system will reboot. If this process still does improve the situation, you may have a virus or Malware or something else going on. Sometimes System Restore fails to roll back or if the System Restore succeeds, it may not fix the particular issue you are having. This is where you may need to seek out a Tech person or us at CCAR.

In the next article you will learn how to recover a file you had deleted or improperly changed and get back the old version.

Here´s to happy computing!

Richard Tausch, MCSE, CCNA, CompTia Security +

o Creating system repair discs, backing up your personal files

Let’s’ now look at backing up in two important phases.

1) Creating system repair discs

2) Backing up your personal files

First, when you create a set of system discs, you are backing up your entire hard drive including your operating system. You usually do this only once and at the point when you first buy your computer. With system repair discs, if your system crashes, this may end up becoming one of the possible options used for a Tech person to repair it. If you did not create the discs when you bought your computer, you can still create them at a latter point such as right now. Make sure you have 3 DVD’s on hand for this.

Go to Start, Control Panel then click on the Backup and Restore icon. Click on the Create a System recovery disc link in the left blue pane. (See screenshot below). From there you can create your system repair discs. Then store these in a place you remember where you can get to them easily if needed at some point.

This next part could be the most critical point of all my writings because this involves protecting you from what could be the severe consequence of data loss, data that may be unrecoverable if it is not replicated elsewhere. For you, the real estate agent, backing up your personal files regularly should be mandatory above all else.

The following is a simplified version of my article titled “The Greatest Backup on Earth” which is located on ccarhelp.com. I am going to provide a simple and effective solution that I use. I use a combination of a USB Flash drive and free software from allwaysync.com. The reason I use a flash drive is because wherever I go, it goes. If you have an external drive sitting at home, that is great if your computer crashes but NOT good if your computer and external hard drive are stolen or worse yet, your house burns down.

You can buy a USB Flash drive for around $25.00. Make sure you get one that is 8-16 gigabytes. The one I use is SanDisk Cruzer Micro because it has password protection and a nice large flashing light when it is running a backup. You can search for this model on the internet if you like. After you download Allwaysync, you will be able to choose the source and destination folders, the source being your documents folder on your computer and the destination being a folder on your USB Flash drive. Then once each week or so you just have to click on one button on the Allwaysync interface to synchronize changed files, added files, and deleted files. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at Tech Support.

In the next article you will learn how to turn back time on your computer to when it was working properly.

Here´s to happy computing!

Richard Tausch, MCSE, CCNA, CompTia Security +