WebUser – 04 April 2018

66 4-17April 2018

Askthe Expert

Roland Waddilove,computerprogrammerandPC

journalistsince1981,answersallyourtechnicalquestions.

[email protected]

SECURITY

Investigate mysterioususer

account

Q

Iwas lookingatmyharddrive the

other dayand in C:\Users,Ifound

foldersfor theDefault account, the

Public account, my accountand another

onecalledUpdatusUser. This is also

listed as auseraccountinfile

permissions, butitdoesn’t appear in the

User Accounts sections of theControl

Panelorthe Windows Settings app.

I’m worriedthatthis maybemalware

or thatahacker mighthave got intomy

computer.ShouldIdeletethe folder?

HowdoIdeletethe account if Ican’t see

it in Settingsor the Control Panel?

JHarris, viaemail

A

We cansee howfindingastrange

user accounthidden on your PC

couldbeworryingbut in this case,

there’snocause foralarm.

On some computers withNvidia

graphics cards, thedrivercreates this

accounttoperform updates. It’s a

specialwrite-restrictedaccount, which

youcan’t access in theusual ways.

Deleting it maystopthe video driver

beingupdated,soit’sbestleftalone.

GENERALPC

StopcycleofPCcrashes

Q

My PC crashed whileIwas updating

Windows and afew other programs.

When Irebooted, some programsfailed

to startand awindowopened telling me

that System32.dll hadfailed.

AfriendsuggestedIreplacethe DLL

file and use my Windows 7disc to repair

the harddrive, but the DVDdrivewon’t

read, and an external DVDdrivedidn’t

work either.Myfriendsaid the only other

optionmightbe to connectmy hard

drivetohis PC and recoverorreinstall

from there. Whatdid my PC catch?

RogerIrwin,via email

A

It didn’t necessarilycatch anything

–sometimes updatesjust go wrong

fornoapparentreason. It’s toolatefor

this now, butfor thebenefit of others,

backingupwithatoolsuchasEaseUS

Todo Backup Free (bit.ly/easu446)

allows youtorestore Windows easily.

Thereare severalpossible fixes. First,

go to Start, AllPrograms, Accessories,

System Tools, System Restore. Here,

you’ll find alistofrestore points.Select

onethatwas savedonadatebefore

your problems started, click Next and

follow theinstructions.

Another possible fixistogotoStart,

AllPrograms, Accessories, Command

Prompt.Right-click it and select ‘Run as

administrator’.Inthe window, type

sfc /scannowand press Enter.

Afinal thingtotry is to press F8 just

afterswitchingonyou PC to summon

theAdvanced Boot Optionsscreen.

Here,you canselecteither Last Known

Good Configuration or Repair Your

Computer. Therepairoptionboots into

aWindows-likescreenwithSystem

Recovery Options. Tryusing Startup

Repair and System Restore.

If allelse fails, your friend’s suggestion

of hookingupyourdrive to hisPCas

aseconddrive mayhelp.

GENERALPC

Give other userspermission

to access files

Q

When Itry to move avideo file from

my hard drivetomynetwork-

attached storage (NAS)device, Ireceive

themessage“Youneedpermissionto

performthisaction”.However, I’ve done

this many timesinthe past withoutany

trouble.Idid switch from aWindows

administratoraccounttoanormal

account, butIthink aWindows 10

update mighthave caused theproblem.

TerryWareing,via email

A

Files canbeassigned to specific

accounts,which meansone user

canhave permission to do what they

like withitwhile another is blocked.

Youcan change afile’spermissions –

there’sasimple waytodothisand

amorecomplicated one.

Q

Iuse Chrome as the

main browseronmy

Windows 10 PC and my

Chromebook,and it

workswell. However, Ican’t getyour

‘Block annoyingads’ tipfromIssue

442toworkoneither computer

because Ican’t seeanentry forAds

under‘Site settings’.

TimHudson, viaemail

A

First, checkthatyou have the

latest versionofChrome: go to

themenu andclick Help,then About

Google Chrome. Next,gotoawebsite

and click thefirst icon in theaddress

box. This displays apanel of

informationaboutthe site.Click ‘Site

settings’ at thebottom, and apage

appearswithsettings relatedtothe

site.The Adssetting is halfwaydown

and should be settoblock by default.

We haven’tnoticed anyreduction in

advertisingonwebsitessince Google

introducedthistool. Theads must

have to be really badtotrigger

blocking, because it seemstolet all

theads throughonthe siteswevisit.

Blockbadads

in Chrome

BROWSERS

Thelatestversion of Chromeincludesadblocking

Access thesetools from thebootmenu

to Repair Windows7