Ask A Geek

Q: Ok I have messed up big time. I need help! I was running Windows Vista 64 bit on a Dell studio 1535. I had created a partition off my C drive so I could install Windows 7 64bit. I had set it up to duel boot and everything was fine until I decided to stick with only windows 7.

Not thinking I formatted my C drive and lost my boot files so it wouldn’t load anything. Now all I have to load up is vista 32bit. So when installed runs fine, but cant do any thing really. Can I boot off of my recovery drive some how from 32 bit vista into a 64 bit recovery drive?

Q: I have an alienware monitor which is brand new. I was using windows vista and everything was great. I just updated to windows 7 and Now my Screen is too small for my monitor. I tried the resolution settings but they don’t make the screen any bigger. I spent good money on this monitor and I’d like to be using all of it. Any suggestions?

Q: How do I recover deleted browser history? Windows Vista, and the browser IE7. Is it possible to use the regedit command to view it?

Q: My OS is Vista and I am using using IE8. The error on my screen states: “System is unstable, JavaScript disabled, IE crashes. Recommends IE 7.” What is the fix? Microsoft link no help.

Q: How can I fix this error on my Dell computer running Windows Vista, and I have Mcafee installed. The error is “application failed to initialize:000106ba. a problem caused this program’s service to stop. to start the service restart our computer or search help and support for how to start a service manually.”

Q: For the last few weeks I’ve had problems with the google virus. It is opening new tabs on links and redirecting me to other sites namely fasttools and using search2.google.

It maybe unrelated but I since I used an SVHS cable to connect my computer to a TV my has been stuck on what appears to be something like 800 x 600. The problem is when I go into the display settings I get an error saying something about C:windows\system32\rundll32.exe.

I have norton antivirus running and it has quarantined a couple of trojans and I thought that would sort it out but no luck. I am still having the issues.

So my two issues are that my display is stuck at 800×600 and google seems to have hijacked my browser. I’m using firefox with noscript and adblock on a computer running Windows Vista. What can I do to solve these problems?

Q: I have an HP laptop model dv6700 with Windows Vista. I was always able to access wirelessly through verizon modem and a netgear router. Now my connection tells me local only. I show a connection between the computer and an unidentified network but no connection between it and the Internet. This is on the network and sharing center, can you help?

Q: When Windows Vista is logging on the screen goes black and displays out of range message. I tried a lot of stuff to fix it but it won’t work my graphics card is nvidia GT120. What can I do to fix this?

Q: I am running Windows Vista on my PC and my problem is that in the start menu there is a link to music, pictures, documents, games, favorites, etc. and I want to know how to put a link to my videos there and any other folder that I choose.

Under the properties of the start menu I can add other commands such as the ‘run’ command or remove links that I don’t want there, but do not see a video link there. I read that you have to change this in the registry if you really wanted to make this happen, is there any other way?

Q: I have Windows Vista Home Premium installed on my laptop but I want to install Windows XP Professional as well. How would I go about doing this?