U2start.com | Technology Topic

Originally posted by haytrain[..]

He's kind of our resident tech guru, but he's in Australia, so I have no idea what time it is there....he's usually on later in the evening (for me, at least). He'll definitely get back to you though.

Good, because I can't put up w/ restarting my computer to open a different program much longer

. I could go on my laptop, but all just about 9GB of my music is on this computer

And the laptop is slow

drewhiggins

17 years

Originally posted by U2NickDon't worry, thanks for taking your time to respond. So Drew, can you help?

I certainly can try my best.

PLEASE back up anything important before you read any further, you do it all at your own risk....

Enabling AutoPlay in Windows Vista Home Basic / Premium / Business / Ultimate

When AutoPlay used to come up (if ever), I'd check the following: Click the Start orb (left-hand corner), click Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > AutoPlay.

To turn it on, click the 'Use AutoPlay for all media and devices' box and click Save. It should then work.

Missing icons and start bar in Windows Vista Home Basic / Premium / Business / Ultimate

Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose Task Manager. Click File > New and type explorer.exe - that should bring them back and if they stay you can certainly try this:

Go to Start and type regedit.exe and in the results, right-click regedit.exe and select the Run As Administrator option - if User Account Control comes up press Continue or type your password. Now, in the registry editor, navigate to the following Key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

With the Winlogon key selected, look in the right side window for the 'Shell" value. Double click Shell. In the Value Data box, you should see Explorer.exe and nothing else. If anything else is in that box, change it to Explorer.exe and click OK.

Exit the registry editor and restart the computer.

You could also try a Windows Repair or a System Restore

From World Clock estimates, if Jeremy (haytrain)'s time is about 10.30pm, it'd be 2.40pm in Australia, so from a rough guess, we're about sixteen hours apart.

MWSAH

17 years

Drew, you're the walking technical guide of U2Start...

djrlewis

17 years

Originally posted by MWSAHDrew, you're the walking technical guide of U2Start...

Indeed

Very useful and welcome

drewhiggins

17 years

Aw, thanks. I just hope it works. Always lots of fun to solve these problems, if I can.

U2Nick

17 years

I just woke up, thanks soooooo much!!!! What would you suggest for backing things up?

And, thank you for the elabrate post. It is very easy to follow. Once I back everything up, I'll do what you said, then report back.

drewhiggins

17 years

What sort of stuff do you have, like external hard drives, CD/DVD burner etc? I usually just copy the files over or burn straight to disc. I've never bothered with the Windows Backup wizard program, because I find that sometimes the files become corrupted through that way.

Thanks for the comments as well - it kinda becomes annoying reading through shitloads of text. Actually the same thing has happened to me; but through XP. I did the System Restore to a way earlier date and it was all good again - but never underestimate the importance of backups. Once it's gone, it's gone unless you can recover it somehow.

Good luck!

U2Nick

17 years

OK. I Have a CD/DVD Drive. I'll look into the external drives. I need to get ready for the day now... I'll be back In a little while. You know you listen to too much U2 when you describe when you will return to the forum w/ a song. Back on subject...

drewhiggins

17 years

Originally posted by U2NickOK. I Have a CD/DVD Drive. What does an external drive usually cost?

Anywhere from $100 for maybe 200GB to $300 for around 750GB.

If you've only got less than 15GB worth of stuff, I'd go DVD if you have some spare, but it's completely up to you.

U2Nick

17 years

I don't have anything in my house... crap. I'll do some shopping on the laptop later.