Tag Archives: windows 7

Quick Tip: Finding Large Files in Windows 7

With some inspiration from Rick’s article about finding space hogs over at What’s on My PC, I figured I would post a quick tip on how to find large files using the Windows File Search feature. I want to add that the tool Rick talks about looks like a solid tool as well. I will be illustrating this in Windows 7, but the general concept will work in Windows 8.

Searching for Files larger than 1MB

Searching for large files in Windows is quite easy. In Windows 7, open up a Windows Explorer window. The icon looks like the following and it should be in your bottom task bar: read more

Disabling Windows Startup Programs Can Speed Up Your PC

So, your computer seems to be getting slower and slower as time goes by. Over time, you have probably installed a ton of programs, tools, add-ons, etc. One tip to regain some PC speed and to speed up your startup times is to disable some of the programs that automatically startup when Windows starts. You can still use these programs, they just won’t automatically be loading every time you start your computer. This is a pretty easy thing to do to.

Use MSConfig To Change Windows Startup

Windows 7 and older versions of Windows such as XP and Vista come with a very handy tool that allows you to manage what starts up when Windows starts. This tool is the System Configuration tool or MSConfig. To run msconfig, simply click the Start button or Windows logo in the bottom left of your screen, type in “msconfig”, then hit enter. The system config tool will popup. To edit startup programs, click on the tab that is aptly labeled “Startup”. It will look like the picture below. read more

Windows Explorer Has Stopped Working Problem

I often get called or emailed when someone I know has a tech issue. I ran into an interesting problem recently. During normal operation of the computer, Windows would suddenly pop up an error message stating that “Windows Explorer has stopped working”.

After some messing around and some research, I was able to find a pretty simple answer. You don’t need to perform a system restore or insert your Windows disc to fix the problem. The solution to the problem is very simple and only involves changing your thumbnails to icons.  If you are having this problem, follow the steps below to fix the problem. read more

Windows 7 Blank/Black Screen Problem

My sister just bought a new Dell laptop a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, she already started to run into a few problems. In particular, she was getting a blank screen right after she got past the Windows login screen.

I started debugging by trying ctrl+alt+delete at the blank screen and then attempting to run explorer.exe. Luckily, this worked, kind of, and I was able to see the normal desktop. However, when I tried to run Firefox, IE, or a few other programs, they would not start correctly.

Debugging in Safe Mode
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