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Personal Tech

Solutions: Uninstall updates to find source of problems

By JOHN TORRO
Published September 4, 2006

Microsoft alerted me to nine critical updates Aug. 9. My computer is set up to accept these automatically, and they were downloaded Windows XP Home. Since that time I have had nothing but problems with a variety of issues. My mouse is acting erratically. When I receive an e-mail and click on it, anything else in my inbox goes into my deleted folder. When I read an e-mail and attempt to forward it or reply to it, up pops a blank e-mail screen. When I click on a drop-down box, it won't hold open. When I try to copy and paste, I can't get the blue highlighted area to stay. I thought I should just replace the mouse. But after talking to others, they seem to be having similar problems after taking these downloads. What do you think?

I doubt that the problems you're describing would have anything to do with those updates. But one way to check if that is the case is to uninstall the updates. To do this, click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, and then scroll down until you see the Aug. 9 updates. Click on the individual updates and then select Remove. Do one at a time, testing your mouse functionality after each removal. You can find the technical details about each of the August updates at the Microsoft Web site (www.microsoft.com/athome/security/update/bulletins/200608.mspx). You may want to try navigating without the mouse to see if the same issues arise. This will at least rule out certain programmatic problems. Most mouse navigation can be duplicated with alt, ctrl, tab key combinations.

Key stroke may have sent e-mail prematurely

I was typing an e-mail when I looked up and saw that my e-mail had vanished from my screen. This is the second time this has happened. Since I am a two-finger typist, I have to look at the keyboard while typing. Am I too long-winded in my e-mail, or am I inadvertently pressing the wrong key?

Maybe you inadvertently hit alt-S (key sequence for Send). Look in your Sent Items folder to see if the disappearing e-mails are there.

Find, replace corrupted .cpl file

I am unable to open anything on my Control Panel (Windows 98 SE). I used to use a shortcut icon for Display to change the time to shut down my computer. The icon would not open, so I tried to use the Control Panel screen to get to the display. While doing this, I found that I cannot open any icon listed in the Control Panel. Everything else seems to be working.

This is an issue when one or more of the .cpl files (used to open individual Control Panel applets) become corrupted. The .cpl files for Windows 98 are in the SystemRoot\System folder. Try this as a workaround: Create a folder on your desktop called Temp. Move all of the .cpl files out of the System32 folder and into the Temp folder. Verify that Control Panel opens (although it will not contain icons after you move all of the .cpl files out of the System32 folder). Now move the .cpl files back into the System32 folder, one at a time, opening Control Panel after you move each file to verify that Control Panel opens. Once it doesn't open, you've found the corrupted file. Delete the file and replace it with a good .cpl file. In Windows 98, all of the base Control Panel .cpl files are on your Windows 98 CD-ROM and are in the compressed Win98_28.cab file.

Added Explorer toolbar likely to slow system

AOL has placed a bar below my toolbar that I cannot get rid of. I have deleted most junk it has sent me and am about to delete it from my registry if I find its junk there. Help us all get rid of this obnoxious pest.

You'll find this from within Internet Explorer menu bar, Tools, Manage Add-Ons. Check the Enabled add-ons for the AOL toolbar, click it once to select it, click the Disable option and then click OK. Adding toolbars to Internet Explorer is a sure way to experience slow and problematic behavior in your browsing. Be judicious in what you add.

Send questions to personaltech@sptimes.com or Personal Tech, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. Selected questions will be answered only in the column. John Torro is a Microsoft certified systems engineer and a Microsoft certified solution developer.

[Last modified September 4, 2006, 06:05:58]