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I'm one of today's best-selling computer book writers, with more than 15 million books in print.

This website keeps you up-to-date on my books, and your computers. Each week, I answer a reader's question on-line.

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Archive for 'Safety'

Creating a Recovery Drive in Windows 8

Windows 8: How to create a Recovery Drive on a flash drive, DVD or CD. Be prepared for when your Windows 8 PC, laptop or tablet refuses to load.

Making a Recovery Drive for the Microsoft Surface RT

One of the first things to do after bringing home your new Surface RT is to create a Recovery Drive: a USB flash drive capable of bringing an ailing Surface RT to life, even if the Surface’s built-in recovery partition is damaged.

How does a System Image differ from a backup of Windows’ registry?

Q: What’s the difference between a System Image backup versus a backup of the registry? When should we back up the registry? A: The Windows registry is simply a database: a bunch of text and numbers, as shown to the left. It’s a mighty powerful database, though, because Windows stores thousands of important settings inside […]

Why does Windows show my file names in green letters?

Q: My friend sent me a folder with zipped files. When I opened it on my computer, Windows showed the files’ names in green letters, rather than the normal black. And when I tried to copy the zipped folder, Windows sent me this error message: “Confirm Encryption Loss. Do you want to copy this folder […]

Formatting a hard drive with NTFS

Q: I tried to create a System Image on my external hard drive, but Windows came up with this message: “This drive cannot be used to store a system image because it is not formatted with NTFS.” The hard drive already has some files. How do I format the drive to NTFS? A: Creating a […]