I had this issue the other day and wanted to write it down both as a reminder to myself and a hint for anyone that might be suffering from it.

Basically, some programs (I had it with Broderbund Print Shop which seems to be the most commonly found option) that burn things to disc mess with settings that hose the pagefile, making the computer running badly and having the window to change it popup after every boot.

The fix is actually very easy and quite painless. Just drop to a command prompt and type:

sc config afs start= disabled

Reboot the computer and that should solve the issue, it did for me.

When a computer is in safe mode, the Windows Installer Service isn't started. This can cause some issues as some malware can be removed easier through safe mode or maybe other issues in uninstalling a program force you to use an alternate method. However, if you just try to start the service in safe mode, it fails with an error message (Could not start the Windows Installer service on Local Computer. Error 1084: This service cannot be started in Safe Mode).

Enter SafeMSI.exe, a tiny (and portable) free app that starts up the Windows Installer Service for you. In reality, it's simply running a registry tweak and starting the service but this makes it a lot easier than editing the registry & starting the service on your own.

You can download the program here

A short url for accessing this page is at http://nixgeek.com/fixwin/

Enable / Disable the Hidden Administrator account on Windows 7 or Vista

Microsoft Fix It Solution Center - It doesn't get much easier than this: Select a device or program, select a problem area, then browse the tips and programs that Microsoft offers as a solution.

PCWorld - Articles seem to be kind of dated but still some good information in here

Microsoft at Home - Fix common PC problems - This guide from Microsoft covers the basics for keeping a healthy PC, plus tacks on some tips for locating problems. Reading through this should let you know if you have a software, hardware or connectivity issue and give you the smarts and apps to tackle it.

ESET Online Scanner - Free online Virus Scanner from ESET

Kaspersky Online Scanner - Free online Virus Scanner from Kaspersky (has been offline recently, good option if it is working again)

TrendMicro Housecall - Free online Virus Scanner from TrendMicro

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (Download) - Very good malware scanner and removable tool. The official website is good, however they usually forward you to CNET's Download.com which has started to do some very spyware-like practices themselves so I recommend downloading from FileHippo instead

SuperAntiSpyware (Download) - Another very good anti-malware scanner and removal tool

This is just a quick tip to remind myself and in case anyone else stumbles upon the same problem.

While installing Windows 2008 r2, I encountered a 0xc0000225 error immediately after starting the boot from the iso. It turns out that you need to edit the settings for the VM to turn on IO APIC (Under System, Motherboard tab) in order for the install to complete. Soon as I did that, the install continued as normal.

Simple fix, hopefully it helps someone pulling their hair out in frustration.

Ever thought that your USB storage device was running slower than it should? It seems that the default settings for Windows 7 regarding the maximum transfer size are quite low (64KB in fact). This means your speeds may in fact be lower than what they potentially could be.

To help with this issue, Microsoft has release an update to help users potentially increase their USB storage device transfer speeds. KB2581464 is the knowledge base article and the KB2581464 fix can be downloaded from here. After the fix you can change the maximum transfer size from 64KB all the way up to 2MB with the following directions:

1. Click on start menu (or press Windows + R keys) and enter regedit

2. Now navigate for following registry path (Note: VVVV represents device descriptor idVendor in hexadecimal and PPPP represents device descriptor idProduct in hexadecimal): HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlusbstorVVVVPPPP

3. Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORDValue.

4. Type MaximumTransferLength, and then press Enter.

5. Click Edit, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type a value to specify the maximum transfer size between 65535 (64KB) and 2097120 (2MB)

7. Exit Regedit

The hotfix is compatible with Windows 7, Sp1 & Windows 2008 R2 (32 as well as 64 bit operating system).