“Create a new System Restore point
before you begin, so you can roll back
easily if you need to to start again”
Windows 10
Your PC problems fixed
August 2019 | |^17
1
Quick and easy
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hit OK. Switch to the Boot tab, tick ‘Safe
boot’ and select ‘Network’ to allow access
to the network. Click OK. Windows will
now always boot into Safe mode with
networking support until you reverse
your settings.
2
One-off reboot
A one-time trip to Safe mode can
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open ‘Settings > Update & Security >
Recovery’ and click ‘Restart now’ under
Advanced start-up. Your PC will now
reboot to the ‘Choose an option’ screen –
click the Troubleshoot option.3
Complete trip
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followed by ‘Start-up Settings’ and Restart.
Your PC will reboot a second time, this
time presenting the Startup Settings
screen with a list of options – press 5 to
load Safe mode with networking and
internet support.Reboot in Safe mode
right-clicking and choosing ‘Go to
details’. This will take you to the
Details tab, where processes are listed
with more information – their status
(running or suspended), the user
who launched them (typically you,
SYSTEM or a SERVICE) and a PID
(Process ID).
To try and free up an unresponsive
thread from here, right-click it again
and choose ‘Analyse wait chain’. This
will list any threads that are using or
waiting to use resources being used
elsewhere, which can result in the
program freezing. Clicking End
Process here will end just that
thread and may be enough to free
up the program without crashing it
- but be prepared for the entire
program to close.
Sometimes Task Manager appears
to have no effect. In these
circumstances, you may be forced
into a reboot. Before doing so, attempt
to close down all other programs and
processes (including those running
the Taskbar’s Notification area) by
normal means to minimise the damage
and improve your chances of avoiding
bigger problems.
Run older programs
Got an unsupported program you’d like
to run in Windows 10? Just because it’s
unsupported doesn’t mean it’s not
compatible, but it’s worth going online
to see if others have tried and either
succeeded or failed before you. Step
one would be to simply try installing the
program as normal, but this may have
unintended consequences, so take a
System Restore point or update your
drive imaging tool before you begin, so
you can roll back easily if necessary to
start again with no major consequences.
If this fails, try Windows’ own
compatibility tools next: right-click the
program executable file if it’s
successfully installed – or its installer if
it hasn’t – and choose the Properties
> Compatibility tab. Click ‘Run
compatibility troubleshooter’ to see if
Windows can detect and apply settings
that will work, or manually select aversion of Windows you’re confident the
program last worked in. Other settings
can also be tried – ticking ‘Run this
program as an administrator’ may work
for apps that predate Windows Vista.
If this doesn’t work, and you have
access to an old copy (and licence key)
of Windows, download and install
VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org) instead.
Create a virtual copy of Windows, then
install your app in that. Under Settings >
Network, set the network to Bridged
Adapter and your virtual PC will be
visible on your network for the purposes
of transferring files. If you don’t have a
copy of Windows, try installing ReactOS
(www.reactos.org) in a virtual machine
instead. If you’re looking to resurrect
really old apps and games, take a look at
DOSBox (www.dosbox.com).Resurrect old versions of Windows in VirtualBox to keep really old software going.