Computer Knowledge How To... FAQs

Computer Knowledge and the related FILExt (file extension) site are not general support sites; they are, instead, repositories of certain information. However, questions come in anyhow and various issues are discussed in the FILExt forum. The information that comes out of these discussions will be documented here and/or there as appropriate. This page links to all of the FAQs dealing with How To do things with the last modified at the start.

• How to Read a Product Page There are tricks to reading Internet product pages. Some of them are discussed in this article.
• How Do I Find Visual Basic Runtimes? Frequently a program downloaded from the internet or obtain from other sources requires a file of the form VBRUNxxx.DLL in order to run. Sometimes these files are distributed with the program; sometimes they are not. Here is where to get them if you need them.
• How Do I Use My Browser for FTP? You don't need to have an FTP program to download files from an FTP site. Just use your Web browser.
• How Do I Remove Add/Remove Programs Entries? Sometimes if you use the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs tool to uninstall programs some of these uninstalls will leave program names behind which, when clicked on, either produce errors or no action. You can remove these invalid entries using the method described here.
• How do You Register/Obtain DLL or OCX Files? Sometimes a DLL or OCX library or module will become unregistered for the program it supports. This FAQ describes how to fix that.
• How Do I Find Out What a DLL File Does? Sometimes, you might want to know about a particular file; not a data file, but a particular .DLL or .EXE file. There are sites to help.
• How Do I Set a System Restore Point? Before changing your system settings you should always set a System Restore Point in order to make recovery easier.
• How Do I Respond To Identity Theft? Identity theft is increasing in its instance. While prevention is still the best way to manage it, prevention does not always work and you could wake up and find some bill collector calling you about a bill someone else ran up in your name.
• How Do I Find Autostarting Applications? Frequently when Windows starts a number of other programs start with it. But, how do you find the command that starts them?
• How Do I Run Older Programs Under Windows XP? Many older computer programs may not run correctly if you just click on the program's executable file in Windows XP; this is particularly true of older game programs. There can be many reasons why.