If your copy of Windows XP is using the NT file system (rather than FAT32) and cannot process all the Input and Output requests as your computer shuts down this may force your PC to restart.

If these restarts become a problem a good tip is to run the Chkdsk tool to repair any problems with your disks volume.

To do this Click START and click RUN and then type cmd in the box. At the command prompt type chkdsk /R /C (i.e. repair your C Drive) and hit ENTER.

If the following message appears: “Cannot lock current drive. Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts?”

Type Y and hit ENTER

Reboot the PC and Chkdsk will automatically run and check the drive for errors. It will then attempt to repair these.

This will usually fix the shut-down and restarting problems on most Windows XP machines.

Microsoft has started to roll out Vista Service Pack 1 via its Automatic Update process.

Until late last night (Wednesday 23/04/2008), Vista owners had to manually download the Service Pack. Now it will be automatically downloaded on machines that have Automatic Updates switched on, with the PC alerting owners when the full patch is ready to install.

However, not all Vista PCs will see SP1 immediately. Microsoft is gradually phasing in the software, while it attempts to overcome problems with third-party device drivers that can cause the operating system to hang.

Source: PC Pro

Microsoft has released the third Service Pack for Windows XP to manufacturing.

Confirming last week’s leaked launch dates, Microsoft will release the Service Pack to the public next week, on 29 April. It will then be rolled out via Microsoft’s Automatic Update system “in early summer”.

Microsoft is desperately trying to play down the benefits of XP SP3, as it attempts to migrate more users to Vista.

The final XP Service Pack arrives just as Microsoft is preparing to withdraw the operating system from sale at the end of June.

Source: PC Pro

Steve Ballmer has admitted that Vista is “a work in progress”, and admitted the company has to learn lessons from its release.

Speaking at the Most Valuable Professional Global Summit in Seattle, Ballmer resisted calls for a slimmed down Windows 7: “Vista is bigger than XP and it’s gonna stay bigger than XP. We have to make sure it doesn’t get bigger still.”

However, Ballmer went on to admit that it had taken too long to get Vista out the door and admitted it had caused problems: “Vista is a very important piece of work, and I think we did a lot of things right, and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from.

Source: PC Pro

The number of viruses, worms and trojans in circulation has topped the one million mark.

The new high for malicious programs was revealed by security firm Symantec in the latest edition of its bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report.

The vast majority of these programs have been created in the last twelve months, said Symantec. The report notes: “almost two thirds of all malicious code threats currently detected were created during 2007.”

The vast majority of these viruses are aimed at PCs running Microsoft Windows and are variants of already existing malicious programs that have proved useful to hi-tech criminals in the past.

Source: BBC Tech News

If you change a file name of one or more of your web pages and a visitor tries to access the old page saved in their browser they will get a 404 page (not found) response from your hosting server. So what’s the best way of ensuring all your visitors end up on a different page so that you can make it more user friendly ?

Our latest web design article focuses on using a .htaccess file to achieve these re-directions and a whole lot more – read more about this now.

The fifth and final beta version of Firefox 3 was released on Wednesday, ahead of the updated browser’s final release in June.

The new beta includes more than 750 changes from its predecessor, according to Mozilla, the maker of Firefox. The company has claimed that security, stability and web compatibility have been improved, and suggested that Firefox 3, which is based on the new Gecko 1.9 web-rendering platform, will be the fastest-ever version of the browser.

It also appears that one of the most significant issues with Firefox in recent times, its heavy memory leakage, has been fixed. The memory footprint is now also smaller than that of competing browsers, such as Safari and Internet Explorer.

Source: ZDNet

Demand for subscription massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) will top $2bn (£1.3bn) by 2013, according to a new report.

The study, by analysts Screen Digest, said the market had been driven by attempts to emulate World of Warcraft.

The findings suggest that the MMOG’s market in Europe and North America grew by 22% and was worth $1.4bn (£0.9bn). There are at least 220 active MMOGs, although many of these are exclusive to South East Asia.

Speaking to the BBC, Piers Harding-Rolls – senior analyst with Screen Digest – said that despite the recession, subscription MMOG’s were still showing significant growth.

Source: BBC Technology

How many times have you had your computer freeze with the message System Failed CPU Test appearing on your monitors screen or even spoken to you through your speakers? Hopefully never, because it can be a difficult task to track down the reason for this error message.

There is a ton of advice on the Internet but basically there is a set routine to try. First, don’t assume that your PC’s CPU is at fault. In fact this is very unlikely.

To see the steps to follow take a look at our latest PC Help article “System Failed CPU Test“.