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Tech News & Commentary
Jen in Jefferson City, Missouri listening on 1240 KLIK asked: “My grandson has a laptop that we are uninstalling several games and I wanted to know what we would have to do – System Mechanic or something like that – to get rid of the rest of the files so that he has enough room to play another game he wants to install.”
It’s true that after uninstalling a game, or any other program for that matter, some files will likely be left behind, but those files are so few and so small that they will have no impact whatsoever on your grandson’s ability to replace the game he’s uninstalling with a new one.
You can use System Mechanic or similar software to remove old, unused and unnecessary system files from your computer, and it may help in other ways but, in terms of freeing up the room to install a new game after deleting an old one, those programs will really have no effect.
Just run whatever uninstaller came with the game and almost 100% of the space the old game was taking up will be freed up again and he’ll be able to use it to install whatever new software he wants.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into
Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Emeka listens and is calling in via the Android App asked: “I’m trying to find out why guest accounts can’t scan using my Kodak Hero 6.1 Wireless Printer. I can print on administrative accounts, but what happens is that when I’m on the guest the software launches and then closes.”
Emeka, Thanks for using our App and good luck to you in our special Giveaway! The problem is most likely that you’re not giving guests permission to print on that computer.
If you log in as an administrator and go to the Control Panel and then open Devices and Printers you should be able to find the printer you’re trying to scan with. If you right click and open that printer’s properties there should be a tab called Security that lists who has the right to do what on that printer.
Make sure that Print and Scan have the Allow checkbox selected for user group Everyone. The Guest user is the lowest of the low, so if you want it to be able to do anything, you have to allow everyone access to that action. Alternatively, if for any reason you want to prevent some users from accessing that printer, you can just add the user Guest to the list and give it permissions, but if you’re allowing Guest to scan you’re probably ok with allowing everyone else to scan as well.
The other issue is, if you’re talking about scanning, then you’re usually talking about running a specific scanner app on the computer to receive the data from the printer/scanner. You said the app opens up and then closes. It’s possible that the app itself requires Administrator level rights to run.
Windows Vista, 7, and 8 support something called Standard User Accounts in addition to Administrator accounts. You might want to give a try to creating a Standard User Account and call it Guest. You can’t call it just Guest because, like Administrator, that’s a pre-set account in Windows. But call it My Guests or something like that, make it a Standard User Account, and then see if the app runs there. Standard User Accounts are one level up from the Guest account and one level down from Administrator accounts.
You might also try setting the properties of the shortcut that starts the scanning software. Under the compatiblity tab, select Run this program as an administrator. Now, you will have to supply the password for an Administrator account each time you launch it, but it will elevate the access for that application, just for the duration it runs this time.
Hopefully some of this can help you Emeka! Good luck!
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Jake in Illinois sends us the following email: “I just recently bought a laptop with Windows 8 on it with intent of launching a second internet radio station, but on a few occasions, I have seen this blue screen of death that pops up with an error of SYSTEM_SERVICE EXCEPTION. (He sent us a screen shot and we have it on our show page this week)
Is there a simple way to fix this?”
Jake, unfortunately we have to say no, there isn’t a simple solution, at least not without having some more information.
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION probably means that there was some kernel level issue, likely a bad driver, the best case scenario would be that something connected to your computer can’t talk to it. To see if that’s the case, unplug everything you don’t need, external hard drives, USB speakers, USB microphones, anything that you don’t need for the computer to run.
If it’s still crashing it may either not be a driver issue or it could be a driver issue affecting a component that’s inside your computer. If that’s the case, check that there are no updates for your new laptop, if there are updates, install them.
Other than that we can’t tell you much, SYSTEM_SERVER_EXCEPTION is a very general error, it’s basically Windows saying “something went wrong at OS level!” which is not super helpful, since that’s the main reason you’d get the blue screen of death to begin with…
It is also possible that you have a bad piece of hardware on your hands. A bad CPU, for example, can cause that error. Bad RAM can also cause it. In fact, anything that causes the data that your computer is working with “in its head” to become corrupted can cause this error. That’s why it’s so very hard to troubleshoot. It’s simply a very general error message.
You might want to try restoring the computer back to its factory settings, to see if it’s some driver or application you’ve added, before you write things off completely. If this is a new machine, you might be able to exchange it under warranty and see if different hardware clears up the problem.
To give the Windows Vista bootloader control again.
Step 1. Get your Vista DVD and reboot your computer using that DVD.
Step 2. At the install screen, choose the link for Repair Your Computer.
Step 3. Choose the link for Command Prompt.
Step 4. Enter the following commands in the command prompt window:
Bootrec.exe /fixMBR
Bootrec.exe /fixBoot
To check that you have both operating systems listed and set a default, do this.
Step 1. Click Start, Computer.
Step 2. Click System Properties.
Step 3. Click Advanced System Settings.
Step 4. Click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Step 5. Check to see that both Vista and Windows 8 are listed as available operating systems. Select the default and the menu timeout here.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Ramon in Saudi Arabia listens on the Armed Forces Network sends us the following email: “Hi Dave,
I have a high profile saudi man who has a problem with internet. Any time he googles his name a nasty derogatory statement is written about him. My question to you is how can he delete this information from the site? The statement appears in Arabic language.
First, thanks for listening on the Armed Forces Network. There are some companies like Reputation.com that will try to take it down for you, but once it’s up there, there’s no guarantee it’s ever going away.
You can try reporting the URL to Google and explaining why it should not be indexed anymore, but that’s not very likely to work, unless you have a very good reason. If they have Google ads, that could help you. Look for violations to their terms of service, if you can spot any, they may take some form of action against them, but then again, they could just correct the violation and move on.
To be totally honest, you may have to tell the high profile man that this may just be a problem he’s going to have to learn to live with, if he’s going to remain high profile.
You didn’t tell us where these statements were being made. Is this all from the same source? Are they on message boards, blogs, websites, where? You may want to consider hiring an investigator with some experience at cyber-forensics. They can track down the owners and/or operators of websites, even sometimes when they try and cover their tracks. If you find a common thread of ownership or a specific name of an operator, then you may have legal avenues open to you, once you know who or what you are up against.
All that being said though Ramon, the unfortunate reality is that what is written on the Internet is not written in pencil, it’s written in ink. Anything that does happen to be removed is still somewhere out there in cyberspace, no page or data is ever truly deleted I’m afraid, though it may be difficult to find. I think the bigger question here though is why does it bother your high profile friend so much? If it’s not true, it only reflects poorly on the person or persons who said it. If it is true they should take it as a lesson learned and try to deal with people differently.
Fact is if they’re rich and high profile, who cares what anyone says about them? Neither they nor anyone else can control what anyone else says on the Internet, that much should be painfully obvious at this point, even to high profile Saudis.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guests in this hour:
Chrysta Olson, Director of Communications – Pheed
Pheed is a free social media platform that provides a unified platform for sharing all forms of digital content including text, photo, audio clips, voice notes, video, and live broadcast
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
Traffic information is always getting better and is constantly updated. With the introduction of a “Traffic Message Channel” at the International Funkausstellung in 1997, car radios with TMC reception got updated information continuously. The information was stored internally and could be retrieved any time, acoustically or via the display. TMC is still an essential element of dynamic navigation systems today, which use the updates to find the best way around a traffic jam.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yo — A clever solution to tangled earbuds.
Iolo: System Mechanic – Fix and speed up your PC… Automatically.
Magellan: eXplorist 610 – Premium, rugged, handheld GPS with camera, microphone and speaker to record all your actions in the outdoors.
Yamaha: PDX-11 Portable Speaker — Free your iPod and iPhone music for your active Lifestyle.