Microsoft XP

[Cathy]

I was helping my girlfriend over the phone with her
computer. Her internet server AOL has been working very
slowly so I suggested that she delete her temporary
internet files. She has kids that use her computer so I
figured she probably had alot of temporary internet files
that could be causing some of the slownest. Anyway to
make a long story short she was seraching for the
temporary files that seemed like it was taking forever so
I told her to exit out and we would try a different way
of finding these files. I don't know what she did but for
some reason she couldn't get out of the search and then I
told her just to restart it and she said her machine
would not shut off. I asked her to double click on the
internet explorer button to see if she could access the
temporary files that way and when she did she got the
windows xp screen and nothing happen from then. I told
her to try to reboot and she had to shut off her machine
by her power strip. When the machine came back up a
window appeared and said that microsoft was osrry about
the problem and ask her if she wanted to go into safe
mode or safe mode networking or something else and I told
her to click on safe mode and now it just sits there with
the microsoft home page screen. When it first gave her
this option we didn't do anything and the microsoft xp
home screen appeared so I felt her best chance was
picking an option before the error screen disappeared
again. She has lost her mouse through all of this also.
Can you give me some options she might try to restore her
desktop.
Thanks,
C. Coblentz

 

[Jim Macklin]

Better than searching for files to delete, use the disk
clean-up utility (My Computer, right click on the driver,
select properties. Or, Start/all
programs/accessories/system tools.disk cleanup.

It will find the files that can be safely be deleted.


message | I was helping my girlfriend over the phone with her
| computer. Her internet server AOL has been working very
| slowly so I suggested that she delete her temporary
| internet files. She has kids that use her computer so I
| figured she probably had alot of temporary internet files
| that could be causing some of the slownest. Anyway to
| make a long story short she was seraching for the
| temporary files that seemed like it was taking forever so
| I told her to exit out and we would try a different way
| of finding these files. I don't know what she did but for
| some reason she couldn't get out of the search and then I
| told her just to restart it and she said her machine
| would not shut off. I asked her to double click on the
| internet explorer button to see if she could access the
| temporary files that way and when she did she got the
| windows xp screen and nothing happen from then. I told
| her to try to reboot and she had to shut off her machine
| by her power strip. When the machine came back up a
| window appeared and said that microsoft was osrry about
| the problem and ask her if she wanted to go into safe
| mode or safe mode networking or something else and I told
| her to click on safe mode and now it just sits there with
| the microsoft home page screen. When it first gave her
| this option we didn't do anything and the microsoft xp
| home screen appeared so I felt her best chance was
| picking an option before the error screen disappeared
| again. She has lost her mouse through all of this also.
| Can you give me some options she might try to restore her
| desktop.
| Thanks,
| C. Coblentz

 

[T.C.]

Cold boot the system. Before the Windows logo shows start pressing the F8
key to get the menu to boot into Safe Mode. It might take a few tries
pressing the F8 key at just the right time to bring up the menu, If the
Windows logo comes up, you've gone too far, and have to power off and try
again. When you finally get the menu, press the number key for: Safe Mode.
Before Safe Mode loads the desktop, you'll be given the choice of going to
the Desktop or going directly to System Restore. Take the option to go to
System Restore.

Once in System Restore, in the right pane, click to select the option to
Restore my computer to an earlier time, then click the NEXT button at the
bottom right of the window. You'll then see a split window. On the left
will be a calendar. The dates in BOLD font are the ones with System Restore
Points. Click on a date that's bold, AND is just prior to the problem.
Then in the right pane you'll see the System Restore Point (or Points)for
that date. Click on the Restore Point in the right pane that you want to
restore from, and it will highlight. Click the NEXT button, and continue
with the wizard. Assuming that she has never created a Restore Point
herself (which she, or you should do, before making any system changes) most
of the Restore Points will be named System Checkpoint (by default Windows XP
is set to automatically make its own Restore Points). When you finish with
the System Restore wizard, the system will reboot into normal mode, and
hopefully the problem will be gone. FYI, Windows XP Temporary Internet
Files, have nothing to do with the speed of the AOL server.