When trying to launch Adobe Reader you receive a message saying “a plugin has crashed and you will need to abort the program”. Restricting you from opening and reading any PDF files in Adobe Reader.

Cause

The plugin that is crashing is caused by the TextHelp Read and Write Gold plugin called PDF aloud.

Solution

1. Ensure Read & Write and Adobe Reader are closed.
2. Download and install PDFaloud from the following link:
   ftp://gold.user:texthelp2009@ftp.texthelp.com/101212/PDFaloud.exe (approx 8MB)
3. Once installation has completed, restart your computer.
4. Open Adobe Reader and go to Edit > Preferences > Security (Enhanced)
5. Untick the option ‘Enable Protected Mode at startup’
6. Click OK to save your settings and close Preferences.
7. Close Adobe Reader.
8. Open Read & Write and click on the PDFaloud button to open a PDF document to be read by PDFaloud. You should now see ‘Extended’ in the top the Adobe Reader window. PDFaloud will be available under ‘Extended’

There are times, when working on an Office document, that you might forget where you saved the file. If you need to find out where the currently open document is located, you can use Save As to find out. However, there is a quicker way.

Solution

You can display the location of the currently open Office document on the Quick Access Toolbar. To do this follow these steps:

1. Open any document or a blank document in Word and click the FILE tab.

2. Click Options at the bottom of the options list on the left.

3. On the Word Options dialog box, click Quick Access Toolbar in the options list on the left.

4. To narrow the choices in the list of commands and make it quicker to find the desired option, select Commands Not in the Ribbon from the Choose commands from drop-down list.

5. Scroll down in the list of commands until you find the Document Location command. Select it and click Add to add it to the Quick Access Toolbar.

6. Click OK to accept the change and close the Word Options dialog box.

7. The Document Location box and drop-down list displays on the Quick Access Toolbar and shows the path to the currently open document.

Click on the start menu and no recently used programs show up.

Cause

The feature may be disabled or a corrupt registry may be to blame

Solution

1. Enable the feature
2. Correct faulty Registry

Solution 1 – Enable The Feature

Solution 2 – Correct Faulty Registry Entries with a pre-made download

Outlook shows the message “we didn’t find anything to show here.” when looking in a folder that shows unread items.

Cause

The views in outlook can become unresponsive causing it to not display the emails.

Solution

Reset the view in outlook

1. Open outlook and select the folder you are having issues with.
2. On outlook ribbon click “View”
3. Under current view category, click the Reset View

Screenshot from Outlook 2013

Google Chrome won’t open in Windows 8. It won’t give you any errors as to why it won’t open. Repairing and re-installing Google Chrome won’t fix the issue either.

Cause

Common cause is third party toolbars or search bars. In turn it may be worth removing add ons individually to isolate the cause. Its a real pain

Solution

1. Hold Windows key and tap the X key.
2. Select and open “Control Panel”
3. Select “Programs and Features” and uninstall any toolbars or search bars in list.
4. Reset Google Chrome.
5. Test and try to open Google Chrome again.

You want to be able to add startup items that run when Windows starts. In previous versions of Windows, you could easily add them to the “Startup” folder in the Start menu which is no longer visible.

Solution

1. Open the Windows 8 start screen by doing one of the following:
   • Press the Windows key
   • Move mouse to the bottom left of the screen. When the start screen icon appears, click once.

   OR (as commented by Rick) Press the ‘Windows key’+'R’

2. Type %appdata% and press Enter. This should take you to “C:\Users\<User-Name>\AppData\Roaming”.
3. Navigate to “\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup”. The full path should now look something like:
4. “C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup”.

You can now add any shortcuts you want to start when you start your computer.

Apple Mail is very slow in it’s response. Message lists take ages to update and the app itself seems to pause for 15-20 seconds.

Cause

The SQL database that Mail uses to catalog your email addresses needs a bit of housekeeping now and again, you really need to have a tidy up!

Solution

First quit Mail – then:

For OSX Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8) you need to do the following:

1. Open the Terminal App – You can find this by using spotlight and typing terminal.
2. Copy and paste this command into the command line of Terminal:
   sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;

For Snow Leopard (10.6) you need to do the following:

1. Open the Terminal App – You can find this by using spotlight and typing terminal.
2. Copy and paste this command into the command line of Terminal:
   /usr/bin/sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;

You should now find that Mail runs much faster.

When using multiple monitors on Windows 7 or 8, you are unable to “Snap” windows side by side by dragging the window to the edge of the screen.

Cause

Windows does not support snap on a single monitor, via mouse drag, in a multi monitor configuration.

Solution

You may however snap the Windows manual using the shortcut key.

1. Select the window you want to snap
2. Use the following shortcut keys to snap the window left or right:Windows + Left Arrow Key
   or
   Windows + Right Arrow Key

Continue to press the shortcut key until the window is suitably place. Pressing the same shortcut key repeatedly will cycle through all possible snap locations, on all available monitors.

You try to print and receive the message: “Print Spooler Error 1053″.

You may also get the following message if you attempt to restart the Print Spooler service:

“Windows could not start the Print Spooler service on Local Computer.
Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely manner.”

Solution

1. Click the Start button.
2. Type services.exe press Enter.
3. Once the Services window appears, look for “Print Spooler” and double click on it.
4. Click on the Log On tab and uncheck the checkbox “Allow service to interact with desktop” and click OK.
5. Click on the General tab.
6. Click on the Start button.
7. Once the service has started, you can click OK and close Services.

Your network icon will incorrectly show you are disconnected from the network (displaying a red cross through the signal bars) and it will also show “You are currently not connected to any networks” in the Network and Sharing Center. However, you are able to use the internet without any issues.

Cause

This is caused by your permissions being set incorrectly within the registry.

Solution

1. Click Start
2. Type in regedit, right click on the application that appears and click “Run as administrator”.
3. Navigate through the folders (by clicking on the small arrows to the left) in this order:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft >Windows NT> CurrentVersion >Network List

Once on Network List do not navigate any further and instead right click on this folder and select “Permissions”

1. Click on Advanced
2. Please Remove all the permission entries in this window before adding the three new users below:
3. Add new User and name this “Administrator”. Give it “Full control Permission”
4. Add new User and name this “Users”. Give it “Full control Permission
5. Add new User and name this “CREATOR OWNER”. Give it “Full control permissions”

Apply this and Restart your computer.