# Have a Computer Question ? Read this first. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887 "2004-06-06T00:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![ombre3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@ombre3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ombre3)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/141 "2006-01-20T04:31:38Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Have you tried emptying your Internet caches and Windows temp files? That can cause problems like that. From the Start Menu, select Accessories, Systems Tools, Disk Cleanup. Select the C: drive, and hit OK. After the program scan your computer, check all the boxes on the left side, and hit OK. When it says Are You Sure, hit OK. > > They used to, I have a disc dated February, 2004 that had all the security updates to that date for Win98se, WinME and WinXP. Unfortunately, that disc is out of print now. Great post—wanted to print it out, like another very good post on the subject------but I still can’t get my printer to work. Otherwise, except for no printer, the 'puter works great===no more very numerous “error” statements --Do you want to go on even tho there is an error? Of course I have always said “OK go on”. And it does “go on”-----but I tend to worry that I am somehow compounding problems by “going on”. And another good side is that the 'puter does work much faster after the system restore. Problem still right now is no printer. Windows can’t seem to find the printer that it could easily find 4 months ago. And also the fact that Windows Updates says I have no updates since 5 years ago. -------which may be why it can’t find the printer. But I can never get the Windows Update site to actually do anything to actually do any updates. (Next computer I buy will be an Apple.) ---
**Author:** ![ombre3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@ombre3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ombre3)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/142 "2006-01-20T04:38:59Z")
> [@ombre3](#): > > Great post—wanted to print it out, like another very good post on the subject------but I still can’t get my printer to work. > > Otherwise, except for no printer, the 'puter works great===no more very numerous “error” statements --Do you want to go on even tho there is an error? Of course I have always said “OK go on”. And it does “go on”-----but I tend to worry that I am somehow compounding problems by “going on”. > > And another good side is that the 'puter does work much faster after the system restore. > > Problem still right now is no printer. Windows can’t seem to find the printer that it could easily find 4 months ago. > > And also the fact that Windows Updates says I have no updates since 5 years ago. -------which may be why it can’t find the printer. > > But I can never get the Windows Update site to actually do anything to actually do any updates. > > (Next computer I buy will be an Apple.) Not to mean to ignore your post suggestions. I have written it all down on paper with pencil and will try it. ---
**Author:** ![ombre3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@ombre3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ombre3)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/143 "2006-01-20T04:52:09Z")
Tried it ------didn’t work. Computer still doesn’t recognize my printer. Thanks anyway. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/144 "2006-01-28T22:30:23Z")
I wish someone would answer my January 18 posting–post No. 140. :sigh: ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/145 "2006-01-29T23:43:10Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > By “toothpick” prompt I mean the blinking cursor in a text box, waiting for me to key text in. Specifically, on the page for the SDMB, I wanted to key in my Username and password, but with no cursor blinking in the text box I couldn’t enter any text. > The only problem I have now is I can’t get the colored icon on the gray taskbar, along the bottom, indicating AVG is updated; nor can I use AOL’s own Search engine. Sorry about that dougie\_monty, I didn’t get an email notifying me that there was a response, so I didn’t check back. As for you not having the avg icon down in the systray, I’d suspect you’ll need to re-install. If the icon is there, but is actually a grey colour…right click on it and choose “check for updates”. AOL has been a pain for you hasn’t it? I’ve never used it, so am only flying by the seat of my pants. Can you use Google as an alternat search engine? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/146 "2006-01-30T08:54:12Z")
> [@Daizy](#): > > Sorry about that dougie\_monty, I didn’t get an email notifying me that there was a response, so I didn’t check back. > > As for you not having the avg icon down in the systray, I’d suspect you’ll need to re-install. > If the icon is there, but is actually a grey colour…right click on it and choose “check for updates”. > > AOL has been a pain for you hasn’t it? I’ve never used it, so am only flying by the seat of my pants. > > Can you use Google as an alternate search engine? Yes, I can and I do, along with Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. I would reinstall AOL itself, but I only have 7.0–my hard drive has only a 48 ram capacity and can’t upgrade from there. Unless there are any 7.0 CDs around–the one I used is long discarded–I’d be out of luck trying to reinstall AOL 7.0 otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/147 "2006-01-30T21:40:08Z")
Sorry about that dougie\_monty. When I said re-intall, I meant AVG (the anti-virus), not AOL. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/148 "2006-01-30T22:01:43Z")
> [@Daizy](#): > > Sorry about that dougie\_monty. When I said re-intall, I meant AVG (the anti-virus), not AOL. I know that; I just meant that I’d had difficulties enough with AOL that reinstallation would seem to be the best recourse. I have a good mind to reinstall McAfee if I can upgrade it. _ **IF.** _ ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/149 "2006-02-05T06:49:37Z")
Maybe this is the best thread for this. Windows XP now has a built-in firewall, right? How does it work with other possible firewalls, like Zone Alarm? Is it in fact desirable to have more than one firewall - do these support each other, or do they more often interfere with each other? ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/150 "2006-02-05T18:48:50Z")
> [@Civil Guy](#): > > Maybe this is the best thread for this. Windows XP now has a built-in firewall, right? How does it work with other possible firewalls, like Zone Alarm? Is it in fact desirable to have more than one firewall - do these support each other, or do they more often interfere with each other? Oh boy… I’m betting you’re going to get answers that vary here. Xp’s firewall protects you (somewhat) from incoming connections, but not so much with the outgoing. I disabled mine, and installed Zonealarm. [Better description of what I mean, here.](http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpzonea.html) ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/151 "2006-02-05T23:00:56Z")
> [@Civil Guy](#): > > Maybe this is the best thread for this. Windows XP now has a built-in firewall, right? How does it work with other possible firewalls, like Zone Alarm? Is it in fact desirable to have more than one firewall - do these support each other, or do they more often interfere with each other? I recommend installing Zone Alarm. It does not interfere with the in-built firewall (which offers only limited protection). ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/152 "2006-02-06T00:14:22Z")
> [@Daizy](#): > > Oh boy… I’m betting you’re going to get answers that vary here. > Xp’s firewall protects you (somewhat) from incoming connections, but not so much with the outgoing. > I disabled mine, and installed Zonealarm. > > [Better description of what I mean, here.](http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpzonea.html) Okay… but I feel I should issue a low-grade warning in return. (I hope I can describe this without hoplessly muddling it.) I went through some fair trouble figuring out what was going wrong with my system. In earlier versions of Zone Alarm, it just seemed like a good idea to disable the Windows XP firewall - as recommended by the link. After some recent grief, though, I think I finally saw somewhere (can’t prove it easily now) that the latest version of Zone Alarm requires the XP firewall to be left on. Ain’t computers wunnerful? ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/153 "2006-02-26T21:21:58Z")
> [@alterego](#): > > I’m going to change my answer a bit. Don’t worry about any of that technial mumbo-jumbo, just download this program from [boulder.nist.gov](http://boulder.nist.gov) and it will take care of you on your Windows box 🙂 OK, I d/led this and installed it. It ran and updated my time fine. However I set it to update my time every 24 hours and then set it to run in the background. This is fine, but the thing doesn;t appear to be running according to my task manager and it didn’t install anything into my programs folder. There’s no documentation I can find for this. Could you lend a little insight into just what the fuck this thing is doing? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/154 "2006-03-11T13:23:22Z")
I recently tried to restore the McAfee Virus Shield on my Compaq 4000 (Windows 98 Plus!), but it wouldn’t take–except that the Virus Shield icon, covered with the circle-and-slash symbol, is still on the taskbar. Anyway, between that and a purging I did with Ad-Aware, I think I removed a file called “system.ini,” whatever that is, because every time I boot up now I get a DOS message on a black screen saying a “device file” is missing, with that name. I have the Windows 98 operating-system CD-Rom, but the “device file” doesn’t seem to be on it. Is there a way I can retrieve this? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/155 "2006-03-11T14:26:29Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > I recently tried to restore the McAfee Virus Shield on my Compaq 4000 (Windows 98 Plus!), but it wouldn’t take–except that the Virus Shield icon, covered with the circle-and-slash symbol, is still on the taskbar. > Anyway, between that and a purging I did with Ad-Aware, I think I removed a file called “system.ini,” whatever that is, because every time I boot up now I get a DOS message on a black screen saying a “device file” is missing, with that name. I have the Windows 98 operating-system CD-Rom, but the “device file” doesn’t seem to be on it. > Is there a way I can retrieve this? Yes. Click on Start, select Run, and type **sfc**. That will open the System File Checker, where you can either scan for all altered or missing files, or extract a single file from your Win98 CD. By the way, McAfee Virus Shield is so obsolete, it will provide you with absolutely no virus protection for the current crop of viruses that are in the wild. Uninstall it and download AVG, Panda or TrendMicro. Avoid McAfee and Norton like the plague, they will slow down your computer. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/156 "2006-03-11T14:27:42Z")
That should be “Click on Start, select Run, type **sfc** and hit OK.” ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/157 "2006-03-11T20:40:02Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Yes. Click on Start, select Run, and type **sfc**. That will open the System File Checker, where you can either scan for all altered or missing files, or extract a single file from your Win98 CD. > > By the way, McAfee Virus Shield is so obsolete, it will provide you with absolutely no virus protection for the current crop of viruses that are in the wild. Uninstall it and download AVG, Panda or TrendMicro. Avoid McAfee and Norton like the plague, they will slow down your computer. Thanx 🙂 By the way, how do I look for “device drives” on that CD? And I had Grisoft’s AVG for a while, discarding it only when I became unable to key in text on Internet sites (I could only do it with AOL’s e-mail). Somebody answered that specific question for me in this thread, saying it has to do with a “firewall.” I don’t how how, if I download AVG again, to manipulate it so it doesn’t bar me from so keying text in (I _was_ able to do it again after pretty much disabling AVG, which I finally removed altogether once it was obviously useless). ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/158 "2006-03-11T20:54:50Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > By the way, how do I look for “device drives” on that CD? I assume you mean “device drivers”? What device drivers are you looking for? > [@](#): > > And I had Grisoft’s AVG for a while, discarding it only when I became unable to key in text on Internet sites (I could only do it with AOL’s e-mail). Somebody answered that specific question for me in this thread, saying it has to do with a “firewall.” I don’t how how, if I download AVG again, to manipulate it so it doesn’t bar me from so keying text in (I _was_ able to do it again after pretty much disabling AVG, which I finally removed altogether once it was obviously useless). I have never heard of anyone having this problem with AVG, and personally I don’t think it was causing your problem. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/159 "2006-03-11T21:13:27Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > I assume you mean “device drivers”? What device drivers are you looking for?I have never heard of anyone having this problem with AVG, and personally I don’t think it was causing your problem. Specifically, the DOS message (it appeared while I was booting up, the last few times) mentioned a file called “system.ini.” All I know is I’d had AVG for a while when I was suddenly barred from keying in on Web pages. I went through the pop-up menu for AVG (from the taskbar icon) and disabled most of it, and was able to key in on the pages afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887/160 "2006-03-11T21:33:11Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Specifically, the DOS message (it appeared while I was booting up, the last few times) mentioned a file called “system.ini.” Is this the message you are receiving: > [@](#): > > Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Windows application. > > The Windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to this device, but the device file no longer exists … > > If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file. If so, it is not the system.ini file that is missing, but a file that is called in the system.ini file. Probably one related to Mcafee Virusshield. Uninstall Mcafee Virusshield, and see if that corrects the problem. If you are comfortable editing the registry, there is more information [here](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280135/en-us). Be warned that screwing with the registry incorrectly can render your computer unbootable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-a-computer-question-read-this-first/248887.md?page=9)