Technically Easy

Category: Windows

Windows being the most used operating system, the posts in this category will provide information about software that can run on Windows.

  • Restart or Shutdown Windows from a Batch File

    Some time ago I wrote a post title Automating Computer Maintenance where I talked about creating batch files to execute some anti-virus, anti-spyware and a defrag application on a computer. The batch files can then be scheduled to run on a computer at a specific time to ensure that regular maintenance is performed without having a user remembering to do it.

    After the post, I received e-mails about having the batch files also shutdown the computer once the maintenance was completed. The good news is that getting a batch file to shutdown, or even just restart, a computer running Windows is very easy to do. Let’s look at how this is done.

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  • Windows Vista Freezing After Log On

    I recently had an issue with my laptop. For some reason when Vista loaded, I was able to log on, but then it would stay on the Welcome screen. While I couldn’t see anything on the screen, I did notice that there was a lot of hard drive activity, so I knew that something was executing on the system. A funny thing is that when I pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL to try and restart, Vista would instead continue to load and I was able to view my desktop.

    After doing a quick search online, I couldn’t find a solution to my problem, so I began to try various things to try and find the problem. After some testing I did manage to correct the issue and Vista no longer hangs at the Welcome screen. I’ll explain the process I used to solve this problem.

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  • Fix: Audiodg.exe High CPU Usage

    Fix: Audiodg.exe High CPU Usage

    I recently had a problem when playing movies through iTunes on a laptop. At various parts of the movie, the entire laptop would become extremely slow, causing the movie to sputter. This happened at infrequent intervals. The laptop has a dual core 1.6Ghz and 2GB of RAM, so I new it was more than capable of playing a movie.

    To look into the problem, I had the performance monitor running while I played a movie. Once the movie began to slow and sputter, I viewed the performance monitor to see which process was causing the problem. When I viewed the performance monitor I noticed that a process called audiodg.exe was consuming 35-40% of the CPU. I then investigated the problem and found a probable fix to the issue.

    Other related posts:

    How to Disable Audio Enhancements in Windows 7
    How to Disable Audio Enhancements in Windows 10

    What is Audiodg.exe?

    The audiodg.exe file made its appearance in Microsoft Vista, which explains why I haven’t seen this file before. When I viewed the properties of the file, the description stated Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation, which doesn’t help explain what it does.

    After doing a little research I found out that the audiodg.exe file hosts the audio engine for Vista, and from what I hear Windows 7 as well. All the DSP and audio processing is performed within this file. Vendors are able to install their own DSP and audio effects into the audio pipeline, which will then be processed by audiodg.exe.

    Unfortunately, this can also lead to some problems, as I experienced. Some audio effects can consume CPU and memory if not properly coded. How do we fix the problem? Lets take a look.

    Disabling Audio Effects

    In order to fix the high CPU usage, I disabled the audio enhancements processed by the audiodg.exe file. To disable the audio enhancements, use the following steps:

    1. Right-click the speaker icon in the lower right corner.
    2. Select Playback Devices from the menu. A list of devices should appear on the screen.
    3. Double-click the device that has a green checkmark. The properties windows for that device should open.
    4. Click the Enhancements tab at the top.
    5. From the list of enhancements, uncheck all of them, or click the Disable all enhancements checkbox.
    6. Click the OK button to save your changes and close the window.
    7. Click OK to close the Playback Devices window.

    Once I disabled the enhancements, the movie played without any issues. I also didn’t notice any difference in sound with the enhancements disabled. If I do want to use sound enhancements, I’ll stick to the the options provided in the application.

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  • How to Connect to a Network Printer in Windows XP

    How to Connect to a Network Printer in Windows XP

    For most home users it is very easy to connect to a printer. Older printers are usually connected to the parallel port, while the new printers are connected to the USB port. Once the printer is connected and drivers loaded you can easily select the printer from the list and begin printing.

    For those on a network that have printers you can use, you have to take different steps to connect to the printers. While the steps to connect to a network printer are different than connecting to a local print, they aren’t complex and can be performed very easily.

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  • What are Batch Files?

    I recently was in charge of creating a silent install for an application. While many installations include a silent option, this one was a bit different. I had to also run other installs, as well as import registry settings, and also copy files.

    To help me with this task I used a batch file that was easily able to handle everything I needed. If you haven’t used batch files before, then this post will explain what they are and how they can be used.

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  • How to Map a Hard Drive to a Directory

    In my last post I mentioned that I have been exploring the option of backing up my data online. In that post I mentioned two services, Carbonite and Mozy. Although both were similar, Mozy was the only service that could backup data located on an external hard drive.

    During my test with Carbonite, I managed to find a method of backing up my data from an external hard drive. This method involved mounting my external hard drive as a directory on my C drive. I will explain how I did that in this post.

    Drive Letters and Paths

    When you connect an external hard drive to your computer, Windows will assign it one of the unused drive letters on your computer. Unless you change drive letters of your devices regularily, Windows will continue to assign that drive letter to that hard drive.

    If you choose to, you can assign another drive letter to that hard drive, or even a folder on another drive. In the case of Carbonite I assigned the drive to a folder, while still keeping the original drive letter. To assign a drive to a folder, use the following steps:

    1. Create a new directory on your computer. For this example, I created a directory called Backup on my C drive (C:\Backup).
    2. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop and select Manage from the popup menu.
    3. On the left, below Storage click Disk Management. A list of all the drives connected to your computer should be displayed on the right.
    4. Right-click the drive you want to map to the directory created in the first step and then select Change Drive Letter and Paths. A dialog box should open.
    5. Click the Add button.
    6. Select the Mount in the following empty NTFS folder option, and then enter the path to the folder, in my case I would enter C:\Backup. Alternatively you can click the Browse button and navigate to the folder.
    7. Click the OK button to save and close the window.
    8. Click the OK button on the next window to close that window as well.
    9. Open windows explorer and check the directory you have created. The contents of the directory should now be the same as the hard drive.

    I found that this method worked with Carbonite to allow me to backup my data that was located on an external hard drive. It is important to note that you won’t be able to access the directory if the external hard drive is not powered on. Also, the drive letter that was assigned to the external hard drive will still be assigned to the hard drive. You will now have a directory and drive assigned to that hard drive.

    Summary

    While testing two online backup services (Carbonite and Mozy) I noticed that Carbonite didn’t allow data on an external hard drive to be backed up. I then mapped the external hard drive to a directory on my C drive and Carbonite was able to backup the files.

  • How To Open Microsoft Office 2007 Documents in Earlier Versions

    I recently ran into an issue with an e-mail attachment. The extension of the attachment was .xlsx, which made me believe that it was a Microsoft Excel document. I saved the document to the local hard drive and attempted to open it, but was dismayed to find that no application was associated with it.

    After looking online to find the application associated with the extension I found out that it was indeed an Excel file for Microsoft Office 2007. I had Office 2000 installed, which explains why I couldn’t open it. After some more research I found out that there is a tool you can download and install that will allow older versions of the Office tools to open files from newer versions.
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  • Fix: Internet Explorer Opens a Blank Window

    I recently was informed of someone having an issue with Internet Explorer. The problem happened when they clicked on a link that opened a new browser window. Once the new window was opened, the new Web page was not requested and the browser window remained blank.

    After some quick searching, I came across a fix that was easy to perform and fixed the issue. I explain how to perform the fix in this post.

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