Chapter 9: Stabilizing Your Operating System

Overview

There are several features and functions that you enjoy with your PCs that you could actually do without if you needed to. You don’t usually need sound, for example, and few people have ever died from their inability to play computer games.

Yet the one feature you can’t live without is a stable operating system because it serves as the foundation for almost everything you do, regardless of how you use your PC or how the PC is equipped.

When the operating system is unstable, you might experience some of the following symptoms:

• Programs may close as soon as you open them or fail to open at all.

• You’re unable to use onboard tools such as MSINFO32 and Disk Defragmenter (called Defrag in some versions of Windows).

• Good passwords may fail.

• If the system lets you work at all, you may feel insecure about your ability to save your work properly.

• Often-changing error messages may block your ability to perform the simplest of tasks, use important hardware such as your printer or CD drive, or force Windows to either reboot or shut down altogether.

If this sounds like a nightmare scenario, it really is. It’s a disastrous situation that usually gets worse as time goes on, where one problem or Windows crisis ends up causing another problem, and so on.

This chapter will explain the most frequently reported causes of operating system instability and describe the tools you can use to assess and report the difficulties. You’ll also learn how to weigh your options for how to proceed to get back to the point where you can work effectively.