Take action, track down what causes your computer to lock up on you and how you can stop it from happening. We have previously introduced 7 Common Reasons Why Windows Can Get Unresponsive. This article examines how you can troubleshoot the causes for a freezing computer and what you can do to fix it.

If you’re struggling with a slow and unresponsive system, we will shortly be publishing a PDF manual called Windows on Speed which will help you learn what makes your system become sluggish and how you can regain a top Windows performance.  Make sure you subscribe to MakeUseOf so you don’t miss the manual when it comes out!

Prelude: Make a Backup

The very first thing you need to do when your computer starts acting up is to create a backup of your personal data. Don’t waste time trying to troubleshoot or fix anything. Just make a backup. Right NOW!

• The Best free Backup Software for your PC by Aibek
• Top 10 Backup Software Apps For Your PC by Justin

You should consider logging into Safe Mode to perform the backup. You may find that it makes your system a lot more stable! That would also be a first step in troubleshooting.

• How To Start In Windows Safe Mode & Its Uses by Tina

Now that you have your personal data backed up, let’s start troubleshooting and resolving the issues.

1. Troubleshoot Software Issues

A freezing operating system may have a lot of underlying issues. To verify whether or not your freezes are software-induced, boot your system into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode is a boot option that launches your computer in a very limited state. Only the most basic files and drivers absolutely necessary to run the operating system are loaded. If your system appears stable in Safe Mode, it is very likely that you have software issues, like driver conflicts or malware.

The article below explains how to boot into Safe Mode:

• How To Start In Windows Safe Mode & Its Uses by Tina

If you do not see an improvement in Safe Mode, proceed to point 2.

If you do see an improvement, try the following:

• uninstall recently installed devices and their drivers.
• make sure you only have one antivirus program installed.
• perform a Windows upgrade.
• update any programs you are using regularly and all hardware drivers.
• if running a specific program causes the freezes, try to update, uninstall, and reinstall the program.
• in Safe Mode, scan your system for malware and remove anything you find.
• perform general system maintenance.

Here are some useful resources for the above steps:

• How To Uninstall Applications Efficiently And Remove Obsolete Files by Stefan
• Stop & Delete Spyware With Malwarebytes [Windows] by Jimmy
• 7 Essential Security Downloads You MUST Have Installed by Aibek
• 10 Quick Fixes to Make your Windows Computer Faster by Shankar
• Speeding Up Windows 7: Everything You Need to Know by Mahendra

2. Troubleshoot Hardware Issues

The Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) is a strong sign for a hardware incompatibility. The displayed error code provides a clue for what caused the computer to crash. Subsequently, you should analyze the error reports that Windows stores in response to a BSOD crash.

The following resources will help:

• 4 Tips To Help You Fix The Windows Blue Screen Error by Ryan
• How to Find BSOD (Blue Screen) Error Messages
• How To Use the Windows Debugging Tools to Analyze Crash Dump (BSOD)

If updating or removing hardware drivers didn’t work and in case you don’t get a BSOD, you need to examine potential physical causes. Your computer could be overheating, a device could be damaged and dying, or a cable could be loose. Before you touch your hardware, however, make sure your computer is properly turned off to protect yourself. You must also ground yourself to avoid a discharge of static electricity, which could (further) damage your hardware.

The best way to troubleshoot hardware issues is to…

• physically clean your hardware, i.e. free fans and power supply from dust.
• check all cables for damage or loose connections.
• check whether hardware components like the graphics card are properly plugged into the motherboard.
• remove or replace single components like RAM modules and boot the computer without them.

The last point will reveal whether one of these components is broken.

3. Restore Windows

Windows can create restore points that allow you to roll back your entire system to a previous stable state. Make use of this feature and go back to a restore point where your system did not freeze or crash. The best thing is that you won’t lose your personal files.

This articles explains how it’s done:

• How To Fix Your PC Using Windows Restore in XP, Vista & 7 by Jack

Last Resort: Repair Or Reinstall Windows

The easiest way to resolve issues with a Windows operating system that constantly freezes is a fresh installation. It is normal to reinstall Windows every 6 months to 2 years. If you’re running an older installation, it’s about time that you give it a fresh start!

• How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data by Jorge
• How to Prepare Yourself for System Restore From Scratch by Tina

Did this article help you to fix your computer from freezing? Please report your experiences!

Image credits: vladislav_studio, iQoncept

Some viruses are better than others. Particularly evil ones will prevent you from installing software to remove them. When that happens it’s time to turn to a live CD, which runs in spite of the operating system you may be using. This is good, because if your default operating system (typically Windows) is compromised completely you need to attack the virus from outside it.

Let’s take a look at the Kaspersky rescue disk and how it’s used.

Getting Started

First things first: you need to download and burn a copy of the disk. You’ll find the ISO file over at Kasperky’s official download page for the rescue disk. You’ll also find a tool for making a bootable USB disk here.

It’s best, however, to burn the ISO from a disk and then boot your computer from it. You probably have software on your computer capable of burning an ISO image, but if not check out the best free alternatives to Nero Burner to find a program right for you.

Once you’ve burned the file, you need to boot from it. Doing this varies from computer to computer, but most the time it’s as simple as inserting your disk and rebooting the computer. If not, watch carefully when your computer first turns on for instructions regarding the “boot menu”. On most Dells, for example, you’re going to need to press “F8″ before Windows starts. If you see a bootscreen of options congratulations: you’ve started the CD. Select the GUI and let’s get started!

Using the Scanner

Eventually you’ll see a GUI, which will begin operations by mounting your hard drive(s). This might take a while, so don’t worry. When the disk boots you’ll be presented with a familar virus scanning interface:

Don’t get ahead of yourself. You could scan your computer right now, but odds are if you’re infected badly enough to need this disk your malware is fairly recent. For this reason, you should click the “update” tab before you start your scan:

Go ahead and click the “Get Updates” button to get started, and you’ll see the uploads take place. This may take a while, depending on your Internet connection, but it’s well worth it. Once you’ve updated everything you might want to take a look at the settings:

There’s not too much to configure here; just the level of security and whether malware is to be removed automatically or at your discretion. Configure to your taste and you’re not ready to scan. The scan shouldn’t last too long, depending on the amount of data on your hard drive, so don’t be surprised if it finished quickly.

What You Get

The main aspect of this CD, obviously, is the malware scanning capabilities. As you can see above, this tool can remove a variety of malware from your computer.

But there’s a bit more here. There’s a terminal, if you want command-line access to your computer. There’s also a Mozilla-based browser; useful if you want to research a particular virus or file before removing it. Finally you’ll find the XFE File Browser, for those who want a GUI way to browse their files.

Similar Tools

Kaspersky isn’t the only rescue CD on the block: the BitDefender Rescue CD is another tool for cleaning your computer when all else fails. Keep both of these disks in your toolkit and you’ll be able to save your friends from just about any infection!

Neither of these tools are an alternative to a real-time scanner, so I highly recommend you check out the top ten free antivirus programs and find the program right for you. Use the Kaspersky rescue disk only as a last resort!

Does a tool like this seem useful to you? Are you excited to have free access to Kaspersky’s respected anti-malware technology? Share in the comments below!

There may come a time in your computer ownership that you decide to basically hit the reset button.

This may be because your computer was struck by a virus, or it may be because you are selling your computer and you want to make sure your personal information can’t be retrieved by the person you are selling to.

Whatever your situation, this guide will help you completely restore your computer to absolutely pristine factory settings.

Step 1: Save Files & Folders

Depending on your version of Windows and the recovery system your computer’s vendor uses, some of your settings and files may be saved when you restore your computer to factory settings. However, it is best not to rely on this.

Treat your restoration to factory settings the same as you would a complete re-format of your hard drive. Assume all data will be lost and back up all crucial information to an external hard drive. Don’t bother backing up programs you can reinstall, but make sure to back up everything you don’t already have a copy of.

Also, make sure that you back up your browser information. The help website of the web browser you use should provide instructions on how to back up your browser. If you don’t do this you will lose all of your bookmarks and saved passwords.

Step 2: Start The Recovery Program

There are two common methods for returning your operating system to factory settings. One of these is to simply reinstall the operating system through the operating system’s own repair or reinstall process. With Windows this usually requires access to a Windows installation CD  or the creation of a boot CD. If you have this available, you can refer to our guide on how to re-install Windows.

However, most computer vendors no longer ship out a copy of the Windows installation CD with their computers. Instead, the computer ships with a recovery partition or recovery disk. Each vendor uses their own particular type of solution, but the basics of them are the same. The most common names used by each company for their recovery solution can be found below. Note that manufacturers do change names from time to time – usually it will simply be something with the vendor’s brand name and the word “recovery” included after it.

• Acer – Acer eRecovery
• ASUS – ASUS Recovery Partition
• Dell – Dell Factory Image Restore
• Gateway – Gateway Recovery Management
• HP – HP PC System Recovery
• Sony – Sony Vaio Recovery Wizard

You can start the recovery program from within Windows. Alternatively – if perhaps your computer is having problems booting into Windows – you can usually access the recovery partition during your computer’s boot cycle. Pay attention to the display when your computer boots. There should be text indicating what button you need to press to start the recovery process. Typically, it will be a function key.

Step 3: Restoring To Factory Settings

Each vendor has their own recovery solution, so there is no way to provide a definitive guide to each and every vendor within the scope of this article. However, the general process of restoration almost always works like this.

• First, you will start the restoration program in Windows.  The program will ask if you’d really like to begin the restoration process and warn you that your data could be (or will be) destroyed during the process.
• Once you confirm that you would like to start the recovery process you’ll reach some sort of progress screen.  The computer may reboot to access this, or it may simply exit Windows and boot directly into the restoration program. At this point you’re set in your course – do not cancel the process. This can take half an hour to several hours depending on the speed of your computer.

• Once the restoration to factory settings is complete the computer will reboot and begin the Windows setup process. You will have to set up your user account and your settings just as you did when you first purchased the computer.

Step 4: Finishing Restoration

Ideally, the factory restoration wizard will completely restore everything needed to make your computer fully functional. However, in some situations you may find that a few drivers were not installed. For example, you might find that the screen brightness buttons no longer work on your laptop.

If you run into this problem you’ll need to download the drivers for your computer, which can be found on the vendor’s support website. You can either enter the serial number of your computer to obtain the proper drivers or you can find your model of computer yourself.

Once you have downloaded the appropriate drivers and installed them your system will be returned to its original factory settings. It will work just as it did the day that you bought it.

Do you have any experiences – good or bad – about restoring computers back to their factory settings?  Do you have any tips or advice you would like to share with us?   If so, head towards the comments below.

Sometimes after cleaning a virus or spyware infection, applications can be damaged and Internet Explorer is usually the victim.

In a case like this, Internet Explorer will not display web pages or it might take you to somewhere you do not want to go.

Sometimes an error like this one is displayed:

If these are your issues and you can not format the machine, it might be time to reinstall Internet Explorer (insert your own switch to Firefox joke here). I recommend uninstalling the browser totally, rebooting and then reinstalling it. This way, we are sure that we ripped out all of its guts and nothing is left behind lingering. You can also use these steps to simply remove Internet Explorer.

How to Efficiently Reinstall Internet Explorer

When you remove Internet Explorer 8, your previous version of Internet Explorer will be restored. For example, if you upgraded Internet Explorer 6 to IE8, you will wind up with Internet Explorer 6 after you remove Internet Explorer 8. But I will walk you through reinstalling the latest and greatest version of IE8 before we are complete. If you are using Windows 7, removing IE8 will leave you without a browser so be prepared with the installation files on a USB stick. You can get the files here.

To perform these actions, you will need to be logged in as an Administrator. For this example, we will be using Internet Explorer 8 on a Windows XP SP 3 machine. First, let’s open Add or Remove programs by going to the Start menu then hitting Control Panel and then choosing Add or Remove programs.

Once Add or Remove programs opens, scroll down the list until you see Windows Internet Explorer 8 as you see in the example below:

Click on the words Windows Internet Explorer 8 and you will see a ‘Remove’ button appear as you can see below:

After you click on the Remove button, you will be brought to a screen like the one below. From here, all you need to do is click on Next. This will start the removal process.

The removal process lists applications that were installed after Internet Explorer 8 was installed. Sometimes applications rely on Internet Explorer for functionality. This warn us that we may have problems with these applications after the uninstall is complete. Don’t worry, we will be reinstalling it when we are done! Go ahead and click on Yes to continue.

You will see file copying going on, followed by 4 removal steps. The computer will run through each of them until IE8 has been uninstalled and replaced with an older version.

When it is done you will see a Finish button. Clicking on Finish will restart your computer. Clicking on the ‘Do not restart now’ button will delay the inevitable but things may be screwy!

After restarting your machine, you will have your previous version of IE installed. You can verify the version by going to help ““ about. This is what I see:

Now from here, I can go to this link to upgrade my Internet Explorer back to 8. Find the ‘Download now’ button in the orange box like you see below and hit it.

Clicking on that button will start your download and installation of a nice clean copy of IE8. This time, watch where you are going and install some sort of protection from those nasty infections. You can check out the post by our very own Aibek on 15 Free Must-Have Applications For Your PC. For more anti-virus applications, check out The 10 Best Free Anti-Virus Programs.

Good luck!

There are a few things that power-users do to every installation or machine they use. It’s a feeling best described by putting on your favourite watch in the morning. The first thing I do on a fresh Ubuntu Linux installation is to fire up the Synaptic Package Manager. This application takes the guesswork out of both updating packages and installing new ones. Even if you’ve got the latest Ubuntu disk image, chances are some packages have already been updated with security or performance fixes, so I always make sure I click on “Reload” and “Mark All Upgrades“.

Then I click on “Search” and enter “ubuntu restricted extras” and select the “Commonly used restricted packages“. This meta-package (so called because it pulls up other applications), will install very useful things such as Microsoft fonts, support for MP3 and DVD playback using Gstreamer, Adobe’s Flash Plugin and Java.

You should click on the checkbox next to its name to “Mark for installation“. I then repeat the process with my favourite toolset of applications, such as:

• Banshee – which I consider to be the premier audio player application available for Ubuntu. Although not as feature rich as Amarok, I find its interface more user friendly, and it is very stable. Another great thing about Banshee is that you can extend its functionality above and beyond with small plugins, much like Firefox’s extensions.



• Cheeze – As a Mac user 90% of the time, I enjoy goofing around once in a while, as well as measuring the growth of my bonsai tree. This application will let you take snapshots from your webcam and apply effects to the image; it’s Photo Booth for Ubuntu.



• VLC – If you’re going to watch any videos at all on your Linux box, VLC is the way to go. Don’t even bother with any other applications.
• Transmission – Another reminiscent from being on a Mac, it actually provides good performance, stability and has the advantage of a familiar UI.



• Getting Things GNOME – A pun on the GTD (Getting Things Done) mantra, GTG is the way to organise your tasks on Ubuntu. It has an interface that closely resembles OmniFocus, which is my favourite task management tool. Unfortunately OmniFocus runs only on Macs and isn’t free either.



• FileZilla – Whether you need to upload some files to your NAS (Network Attached Storage) or your web server half a world away, FileZilla will take care of it.



• Ubuntu Tweak – An incredible time-saver which will certainly get the honour of being written up in a separate article soon, as the new version brings a lot of new functionality. Everything from cleaning up unused packages to fiddling with hidden system settings, all in a simple, straightforward UI. You need to go to ubuntu-tweak to get the package for this one.

I’m satisfied with the other applications in the default set. After I get all my packages installed and up-to-date I go to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers and check to see if I am using the better performing ‘proprietary’ drivers, if available.

I will also set the computer to automatically log into my account, without requiring a password in “Login Window“. Usually this is a security risk, but my main account is limited (not root) and running in a VM (virtual machine). In the “Preferences” menu, I check to see if the resolution is correct (“Display“) and adjust the mouse sensitivity (“Mouse“).

I then go to “Start-up Applications” and add Pidgin (IM application), Firefox, and Getting Things Gnome. Instead of manually typing entries for each app, I open just the ones I want to have automatically start and click on the “Remember Currently Running Applications“.

From System->Preferences->Appearance Preferences I turn off visual effects and set Menus to “Icon Only“. I also decrease all font sizes except Monospace by 1. People with less accurate eye-sight might want to increase the value, at least for the Document font.

If you’re running, or thinking about running, Ubuntu on your computer, we have some great articles on MakeUseOf covering Ubuntu which you can find here. We also have a complete guide which you can download for free, in PDF format.

What are your favourite must-have applications when installing Ubuntu?   The same as mine or do you have others you like better?   Let us know about them in the comments.