Practical Technology

For some reason, we still don’t know why, some Windows 7 installations are deleting Windows 7 Restore Points. Here’s what we know and what you can do about it. One of the few original contributions to operating systems that Microsoft can claim is its Restore Points feature. First included with Windows XP and the now-forgotten [...]

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Recently, a friend reported that since the April 13th Windows security patch, her copy of 64-bit Windows 7 is marking all folders as “read only” and she couldn’t find an easy way to fix it. She’s not alone. But this isn’t a problem that’s unique to either 64-bit Windows 7 or this particular set of [...]

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Ever have a hard drive burn out completely? I have. It’s no fun. It’s even less fun when you discover that while your backup brought back all your files, it didn’t do such a hot job on your applications, Windows registry, and drivers. You know — all the stuff that spells the difference between a [...]

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Like everyone who makes his living from computers, I’m always getting called on by friends and family to help them fix their PC problems. Thanks to the Gentoo Linux-based SystemRescueCD though, I’m usually able to fix most of their troubles without breaking a sweat. SystemRescueCD, like the name suggests, is a system rescue disk. You [...]

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Recently, a user who had replaced Windows on his netbook with Ubuntu Linux discovered that, as far as Best Buy was concerned, he had voided his warranty. For all practical purposes, he had. In The Consumerist, the disgruntled netbook user reported, “My four month-old netbook’s touchpad and power adapter all stopped working. I took the [...]

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