When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
Externe can't boot his laptop from a CD or a flash drive. He asked the Answer Line forum for help.
When you turn on a PC, you usually want and expect it to check the hard drive or SSD and, from there, load Windows or another operating system. But occasionally you need to boot into an alternative environment that isn't on your hard drive. You might, for instance, need to install an operating system or scan for malware from inside a clean environment. That's when you need to boot from a CD, DVD, or flash drive.
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
BearPup sometimes wants to open a file in one program, and other times open it in another. He asked the Answer Line forum for an easy way to do this.
Windows uses a file's extension--the part of the file name after the period--to identify what program should open it. When you double-click, say, a .docx file, Windows checks to see what application is associated with that extension (probably a word processor) and opens the file in that program.
You can change these associations yourself, and you can associate multiple programs with a single extension. In fact, there's a good chance Windows has already done that for you.
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
Sibi Marcos asked about removing a laptop's battery to increase it's life.
Here's one of those sad facts of life that you just can't avoid: Like cars, clothing, and people, batteries wear out. You can't stop this process, but with proper care you can slow it down.
What wears down a battery? Charging and discharging. Obviously, you can't avoid either of those acts entirely (although if you could, you wouldn't have to worry about wearing out your battery). The trick, of course, is to do as little charging and discharging as possible. And one way to avoid charging and discharging is to remove the battery when you don't need it.
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
Cydney Bulger bought a used computer that came with unwanted programs and content. What's the best way to make it like new?
Almost every major-brand Windows PC from the last decade came with a built-in restoration tool. This is usually a partition on the hard drive that contains an image backup of the hard drive's contents when it left the factory.
So you need to figure out how to launch this tool on your particular computer. This generally involves pressing a particular key or key combination early in the boot process--before Windows itself starts to load.
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
How to grab a freeze-frame from a video
Thc008 asked the Photo Editing forum about saving a video frame as a single photo.
Before I tell you how to do this, allow me to give you some caveats and advice:
