Windows Help & Advice - USA (2019-11)

Jargonbuster!

Windows
BLANKWINDOWS
OPENONSTARTUP

Q
Canyouhelpmeplease?On
myAcerlaptopI getsixorso
blankwindowsappearatstartup,
vanishingassoonastheystart.I
thinkit’ssomethingtodowith
Officetryingtostart.
RaymondWhithall

Ian’ssolution
Raymondeventually
tracedhisspecific
problemtoa driver
update– onceinstalled,theblank
windowsvanished.If you’re
plaguedbysomethingsimilar,use
a toollikeAutoruns(https://bit.ly/
autoruns)toseewhat’ssettoload
withWindows– runthetoolasan
administratorandinvestigatethe
Logontab.
Disableanysuspiciouslooking
entriesandthenreboottoseeif the
blankwindowsdisappear– if they
do,investigatethedisabledentries
further(right-clickit andchoose
‘VirusTotal’toseeif thefileis
knownmalware,thenright-click
andchoose‘SearchOnline’to
investigatethefilenamefurther
usingGoogle.
BootRacer(https://greatis.com/
bootracer)canmonitorthestart-up
processtoseewhichbackground
programis startingwhenthe
windowsflashup,thenusethatas
thebasisforfurtherresearch.

Hardware
MOUSEANDKEYBOARD
PROBLEMS

Q My new PC is giving me

problems – or rather my

keyboardandmouse.Keystrokes

areperiodicallydelayedbya few

seconds,whilemousemovements

canalsoappearjerky.Theproblems

areintermittent,butif I rebootwill

occasionallygoawayfora while.

AndrewInglis

Carrie’ssolution

Thissoundedlikea

classicissueofsystem

resourceissues– some

rogueprocessorheavyduty

program(Andrewwasusing

Photoshopinconjunctionwitha

scannertosortthroughover 50

yearsofaccumulatedphotos)

consumingsomuchprocessortime

andRAMthatthesystemgrindsto

a halt.Theproblemwasthat

Quickfirequestions

FIND THE SOLUTION! Fix Windows 10 webcam issues

Visit https://support.microsoft.com/kb/13753 for a step-by-step

troubleshooting guide for misbehaving webcams.

I’m getting a message about a

power surge on a USB port.

Lionel Stuart

Check for devices drawing

power from your USB ports

• maybe USB speakers or a
  hard drive. You may need to
  consider powering these from
  another source, including a
  self-powered USB hub.

Can I enable DNS over

HTTPS in Google Chrome?

Jen Oswald

From version 78, it should be

an experimental feature in

chrome://flags(ifnot,visit

https://judge.sh/how-to-

enable-dns-over-https-on-

chrome-right-now/fora

workaround).

“Heuristic detection

worksbylookingfor

suspiciousbehaviour”

VirusTotal

A freeonlinemalwaretoolthat

usesover 70 differentantivirus

engines.Filescanbeuploaded

manuallyorsubmitted

throughotherprograms.

DNS over HTTPS

Resolving domain names over

an encrypted connection to

increase privacy and security.

MONITOR STARTUP

BootRacer lets you see

what’s starting with

Windows as it loads.

MEMORY TIMINGS

Some RAM

needs timing

adjustments

before it works.

Support

Technical help

November 2019 | |^65