Virtual Hard Disk (.VHD) files are used by Virtual PC and Virtual Server, and created by Windows Backup when you make a system image backup. If you ever need to access files contained within a .VHD, you can do it using the Disk Management tool built into Windows 7. Just follow these steps:

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I get it, Windows. You downloaded an update and you want to restart. I postpone it four hours, which means six times a day, for the last three weeks, you’ve bugged me with the same stupid prompt. Problem is, when you restart, you stop my music and close the 15 windows I have open. And what am I supposed to do for three minutes while you restart–USE MY iPhone to access the Internet?!

How dare you.

Here’s an easy way to stop Windows 7 from nagging you: stop the Windows Update service. It’ll automatically restart the next time you start your computer. Just follow these steps:

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Ever have a friend ask you to help them repair their computer only to find that its so bloated with malware that you think they should just nuke the site from orbit? Some recent malware can be quite difficult to remove. In these sorts of situations you might try an alternative approach: boot from a CD-ROM or DVD and run the repair tools while the virus-laden operating system (OS) is offline. There are other recovery tasks most easily performed while the OS is offline, but I spend more time helping people with malware than doing anything else for them.

How to create a bootable disc? You could do it with Linux, but then you’d have to learn another OS, I prefer to stick with Windows. Besides, there are a lot of useful tools already available for Windows. You may have heard of the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE or simply PE) that has been available to computer vendors for years. Microsoft made it available to everyone a few years ago, and I’ve found it to be extremely useful. There are several ways to create a customized Windows PE disc, the simplest approach is to use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) that some colleagues of mine in the Solutions Accelerators Team (SAT) at Microsoft created. You’ll need several gigs of storage space to download and use everything described below, make sure you have enough room before you start!

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Ever have trouble remembering where to find specific Control Panel applets? How about the one for configuring  Windows Defender in Windows 7? Its not on the Start menu. By default its not visible in Control Panel either. There are two ways you can get to those hidden or misplaced applets:

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Greetings, Tony

It is nice to be communicating with you. The question for which I’m in need of you help is probably a tough one: I’ve asked it in different places and never got an answer for it. So brace yourself:

I use Windows Media Player to watch movies, especially DVDs, and occasionally, Video CDs. I have no problem playing DVDs, be it a Hollywood one or personal one. Sound and picture is always great. However, Windows Media Player loves to call my beloved movies “Unknown DVD”. (I have included two screenshots.) But why? What’s wrong? How can I make Windows Media Player recognize my movies with their proper names? Is it something related to disc format or Windows Media Player itself?

Curiosity is killing me. Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Regards,

John

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Hi Tony,

I read your article about 10 tips for improving your wireless connection and I have a question for you.

I have an apple mac book pro computer and my husband has an ibm thinkpad. We moved into a new house in July and ever since we moved into our new house my wireless connection has not been working well at all – it is extremely slow but my husbands computer works great and has a very strong wireless connection. The strange thing is it worked fine at our last home with the same set up except that instead of using our apple airport we are now using a linksys router that is connected to our dsl modem. If I take my computer outside of the house and get on another wireless network the internet works fine. The other thing we have tested is actually hardwiring my computer into the router directly and it still didn’t work quickly at all so I am wondering if there is a problem with my computer (being an apple) with a linkys router?

Any ideas? I have been working on this issue off and on for a while now. We have even had our tech guy come out and take a look and he can’t seem to figure it out.

Thanks for you any ideas you may have.

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Question from a reader:

TIME MACHINE 5200 .