Ask A Geek

Q: I have an Acer Power computer with Acer empowering technology framework running Windows XP Pro. When I start the computer up I get a message that says “Administrator has prohibited access to USB/1394 mass storage devices”. How do I fix this?

A: There have been many reports over the last few years of the “administrator has prohibited access to USB 1394 mass storage device” error message on Acer computers. It seems the problem is related to software called LanScope. There does not seem to be a logical way to access LanScope to actually unlock the drives so the only way to resolve this that we have been able to find is to uninstall Acer LanScope.

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Q: I have Windows XP. I want to get rid of Dr. Watson Postemortem Debugger because I can’t install Adobe flash player since I cannot click on ActiveX. All I got is an error message from Dr. Watson Postemortem Debugger has encounter a problem and needs to close drwatsn32.exe. How can I remove Dr. Watson?

Q: How can I uninstall Roxio Content 8 without the CD? It keeps asking for the CD to be installed. I do not have it. Is there still a way to get rid of the program?

Q: I had Norton antivirus installed on my computer when I bought it. I recently just bought Webroot Spy Sweeper because Norton’s subscription expired. Can I delete Norton now then?

Q: I had to remove Microsoft Picture It 7 from my computer. I did a search and remove everything related to it. I have the disc and am trying to reinstall Microsoft Picture It. When I insert the disc in the drive, it starts and asks, Do you want to run Picture It? I click yes and nothing else happens. I also open my computer and the drive and clicked autorun. Still it starts and then nothing. Even copied all the files to my hard drive, clicked autorun and it starts and run (you can hear it) but nothing else happens. My computer is running Windows XP.

Q: I have Windows XP installed on my desktop computer. My silly husband unwittingly tried to install the same XP CD on the laptop. Now, when I try to use my laptop, I get a message saying that the trial version has expired and that I need to activate XP before I can go any further. I tried calling Microsoft about this and they were of no help as the rep barely spoke any English to begin with. So, how do I uninstall XP from this laptop without having to activate it, as it’s already activated on my desktop PC?

A: To remove Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Restart your computer in Safe mode. To do this, press the F8 key while Windows is starting.
2. Log on with an account that has administrative credentials.
3. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add or Remove Programs.
4. In the list of installed programs, double-click Uninstall Windows XP.

Note If Uninstall Windows XP is not in the list of installed programs, you must manually reinstall Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition. In this case, make sure that you back up all your critical data before you reinstall Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition.

5. When you receive the following message, click Yes to start the Windows XP removal:
Are you sure you want to uninstall Windows XP and restore your previous operating system?
6. After Windows XP is removed, your computer restarts to the previously-installed operating system.

I hope this helps.