Troubleshooting & Maintaining PCs All-in-One For Dummies

Show your PC who's boss

Nothing's more annoying than a tech malfunction, especially when it’s your PC—with the exception of perhaps wading through reams of random, unreliable theories online looking for a solution, or paying an expensive tech geek to show up to perform a five-minute fix. The latest edition of Troubleshooting & Maintaining Your PC All-in-One For Dummies puts all this frustration behind you and gets you straight to work solving the problem yourself!

In his straightforward, friendly style, Dan Gookin—bestselling tech author and all-round Mr. Fixit—packs everything you need to know into 5-books-in-1, giving you the knowledge and process to hit on the right solution, fast. From identifying common problems to methodically narrowing down to the correct fix, you’ll save hours of frustrating research—and experience the sweet, righteous satisfaction of having achieved it all yourself.

• Pick up quick fixes
• Understand and reconnect networks
• Restore memory
• Boost your PC's performance

Every problem has a solution and PCs are no different: get this book and you'll never catch yourself shouting at your monitor or frustrated with the motherboard again—well, maybe not quite so often.

Introduction 1

Book 1: Solve My Problem Now! 5

Chapter 1: Trouble Comes Hither 7

Chapter 2: Quick Fixes 15

Book 2: O, We Got Trouble! 29

Chapter 1: Startup Problems 31

Chapter 2: Disk Disaster 47

Chapter 3: Monitor Mayhem 83

Chapter 4: Internal Issues 107

Chapter 5: Printer Problems 137

Chapter 6: Peripheral Perils 155

Chapter 7: Software Situations 177

Chapter 8: Network Nonsense 197

Chapter 9: Shutdown Issues 225

Book 3: Tools to Use 237

Chapter 1: Windows Recovery Environment 239

Chapter 2: The Device Manager 257

Chapter 3: MSCONFIG and the Task Manager 265

Chapter 4: Safe Mode 279

Chapter 5: System Restore 293

Chapter 6: The Task Manager 305

Chapter 7: The Windows Registry 317

Chapter 8: Events and Diagnostics 329

Book 4: PC Privacy and Security 341

Chapter 1: PC Privacy 343

Chapter 2: Keeping Software Current 353

Chapter 3: Keep Mr PC Safe 363

Chapter 4: Backup and Restore 375

Book 5: This Old PC 389

Chapter 1: Performance and Resources 391

Chapter 2: More Mass Storage 399

Chapter 3: Boost PC Performance 415

Index 427

Dan Gookin wrote the very first For Dummies book in 1991. The author of several bestsellers, Dan’s books have been translated into 32 languages and have more than 11 million copies in print. Dan is the bestselling author of all editions of PCs For Dummies and Laptops For Dummies.

It’s easy to become your own PC hero!

Toss out that incomprehensible manual and close the how-to videos. This one book arms you with everything you need to diagnose and correct whatever’s bugging your PC. Computer won’t start? Printer on the fritz? Audio sounding funky? Networking woes? This guide walks you through these solutions and more, in terms you can understand. Plus, you’ll learn how you can (fingers crossed) prevent that PC from going haywire next time, with advice on beefing up security, backing up data, and otherwise keeping your computer in tip-top shape!

5 Books Inside. . .

• Solve My Problem Now!
• O, We Got Trouble!
• Tools to Use
• PC Privacy and Security
• This Old PC