IN THIS CHAPTER

Enjoying the magic fixes in Windows

Toning down Windows permission screens

Reviving deleted files and folders and their older versions

Retrieving a forgotten password

Fixing stuck menus and frozen screens

Sometimes you just have a vague sense that something’s wrong. Your computer displays an odd screen that you’ve never seen before, or Windows starts running more slowly than Congress.

Other times, something’s obviously gone haywire. Programs freeze, menus keep shooting at you, or Windows constantly nags you with an incomprehensible error message every time you turn on your computer.

Many of the biggest-looking problems are solved by the smallest-looking solutions. This chapter points you to the right one.

The Magic Fixes in Windows

For years, System Restore was the Windows go-to fix when your computer began running roughly. System Restore lives on in Windows 11, as I describe in this chapter’s later sidebar, “Restoring from a restore point.” But Windows offers several other powerful tools that bring an ailing computer back to health.

The following sections explain each tool, when to reach for it, and how best to make it work its magic.

Windows Keeps Asking Me for Permission

Like earlier Windows versions before it, Windows 11 offers both Administrator and Standard user accounts. The Administrator account, meant for the computer’s owner, holds all the power. Holders of mere Standard accounts, by contrast, aren’t allowed to do things that might change the computer or its settings.

But no matter which of the two accounts you hold, you’ll occasionally brush up against the Windows version of a barbed-wire fence. When a program tries to change something on your computer, Windows pokes you with a message like the one shown in Figure 18-5.

Standard account holders see a slightly different message that commands them to fetch an Administrator account holder to type a password.

Of course, when screens like this one pop up too often, most people simply ignore them and give their approval — even if that means they’ve just allowed a virus to settle comfortably inside their PC.

So when Windows sends you a permission screen, ask yourself this question: “Is Windows asking permission for something I did or requested?” If your answer is yes, give your approval so Windows can carry out your bidding. But if Windows sends you a permission screen out of the blue when you haven’t done anything, click No or Cancel. That helps keeps potential nasties from invading your PC.

If you don’t have time for this bothersome security layer, and you’re willing to suffer the consequences, you can find out how to turn off user account permissions by reading Chapter 11.

I Need to Retrieve Deleted Files

Everybody who’s worked on a computer knows the agony of seeing hours of work go down the drain: You mistakenly delete a file.

The Windows File History backup program, described earlier in this chapter, is a lifesaver here. But if you never turned on File History — an easy task I explain in Chapter 13 — Windows offers another way to retrieve your deleted files: the Recycle Bin.

The Recycle Bin works because Windows doesn’t really destroy your deleted files. Instead, Windows slips those files into your Recycle Bin (shown in the margin), which lives on your desktop.

Open the Recycle Bin with a double-click, and you find every file or folder you’ve deleted within the past few weeks. I cover the Recycle Bin in Chapter 3, but here’s a tip: To restore a file or folder from the Recycle Bin, right-click the file and choose Restore. The deleted item magically reappears in its former home.

I Need to Fix Broken Apps

Windows makes it fairly easy to repair apps, which are almost always downloaded from the Microsoft Store. If an app no longer seems in good health and you’d like to reset it and start from scratch, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button, and choose the Settings icon from the Start menu.

   The Settings app appears, open to the System page.

2. From the right pane of the System app, click the Apps icon (shown in the margin). When the Apps window appears, click the Apps and Features section from the window’s right edge.

   The Apps and Features page appears, listing your apps alphabetically along the bottom.

3. Click the More button (shown in the margin) next to the malfunctioning app’s name, and, when the menu drops down, click Advanced Options.

4. When the Advanced Options settings appear, click the Repair button.

   This tells Windows to repair the app, if possible, preserving your settings and data.

5. If Repair doesn’t fix the problem, click the adjacent Reset button.

When you choose Reset, Windows deletes and reinstalls the app from scratch, taking any of your preference settings and sign-in details along with it. This isn’t a big deal with, say, the Calculator app. But more elaborate apps like Mail and Calendar may take some time to bring back up to speed with the right settings.

My Settings Are Messed Up

Sometimes you want to return to the way things were before you started messing around with them. Your salvation lies in the Restore Default button, which awaits your command in strategically placed areas throughout Windows. A click of that button returns the settings to the way Windows originally set them up.

Here are a few Restore Default buttons you may find useful:

• Apps: Windows includes a Repair and a Reset button that restores malfunctioning apps back to their original working condition. I describe how in the previous section, “I Need to Fix Broken Apps.”

• Firewall: If you suspect foul play within Windows Firewall, bring back its original settings and start over. (Some of your programs may need to be reinstalled.) Click the Start button, and type firewall and network protection in the Search box. When the Windows Security window appears, choose Firewall and Network protection from the left pane. In the right pane, click Restore Firewalls to Default. (Be careful with this one, as you may need to reinstall some apps and programs.)

• Media Player: When the age-old Media Player Library contains mistakes, tell it to delete its index and start over. In Media Player, right-click the Forward or Backward arrows in the top menu, click Tools, choose Advanced from the pop-out menu, and choose Restore Media Library. (Or if you’ve accidentally removed items from the Media Player Library, choose Restore Deleted Library Items instead.)
• Colors: Windows lets you tweak your desktop’s colors and sounds, sometimes into a disturbing mess. To return to the default colors and sounds, right-click the Start button and choose Settings. Open the Personalization category, choose Themes from the right pane, and choose the Windows them from the Current Theme section.
• Fonts: Have you tweaked your fonts beyond recognition? Return them to normal by clicking the Start menu, typing Control Panel into the Search box and pressing Enter. When the Control Panel appears, click Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Fonts. In the left pane, click Font Settings and then click the Restore Default Font Settings button.
• Libraries: In Windows 11, libraries are hidden by default. (I explain how to turn them on in Chapter 5.) When turned on, libraries appear in every folder’s Navigation pane. But if one of your libraries is missing (say, the Music library), you can put it back. From within File Explorer, right-click the word Libraries along the right side of any folder, choose More Options from the pop-up menu, and choose Restore Default Libraries. Your default libraries — Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos — all reappear.
• Network adapters: This one-click solution removes and reinstalls your network adapters and switches your network to its original settings. To reset your network, click the Start button, choose Settings, and choose the Network and Internet category from the left pane. From the right pane, click the Advanced Network Settings section, and then click the Network Reset option. Finally, click the Reset Now button. To restore your network to working order when this process finishes, you’ll need to complete the steps I describe in Chapter 15 that show how to share files with your networked computers.
• Folders: Windows hides a slew of switches relating to folders, their Navigation panes, the items they show, how they behave, and how they search for items. To mull over their options or return them to their default settings, open any folder and click the More icon shown in the margin. When the drop-down list appears, choose Options. The Folder Options window appears, which lists a Restore Defaults button on each of its tabs: General, View, and Search. (Click Apply after each change to make it stick.)

Finally, don’t forget the Reset option in Windows, described at the beginning of this chapter. Although it’s overkill for many problems, it resets most of your settings to the default.

I Forgot My Password

When Windows won’t accept your password at the Sign In screen, you may not be hopelessly locked out of your own computer. Check all these things before letting loose with a scream:

• Check your Caps Lock key. Windows passwords are case-sensitive, meaning that Windows considers OpenSesame and opensesame to be different passwords. If your keyboard’s Caps Lock light is on, press your Caps Lock key again to turn it off. Then try entering your password again.
• Use your Password Reset Disk. I explain how to create a Password Reset Disk for a Local account holder in Chapter 14. (The disk doesn’t work for Microsoft account holders.) When you’ve forgotten the password to your Local account, insert that disk to use as a key. Windows lets you back into your account, where you can promptly create an easier-to-remember password. (Flip to Chapter 14 and create a Password Reset Disk now if you haven’t yet.)
• Let another user reset your password. Anybody with an Administrator account on your computer can reset your password. Have that person head for the desktop’s Control Panel (see Chapter 12), click User Accounts, and then click User Accounts again. There, they can click the Manage Another Account link to see a list of every account. They can click your account name and click the Change the Password link to create a password you can remember more easily.

Note: If you’ve forgotten the password to your Microsoft account, none of the preceding suggestions will work. Instead, open any web browser and visit www.live.com. Enter your Microsoft account email, and click the Forgot Password? link. The site then leads you through the steps to reset your password.

If none of these options works, you're in sad shape, unfortunately. Compare the value of your password-protected data against the cost of hiring a password recovery specialist. You can find a specialist by searching for recover windows password on Google (www.google.com). Look for one with good reviews and who’s been in business for a few years.

My Computer Is Frozen Solid

Every once in a while, Windows just drops the ball and wanders off somewhere to sit under a tree. You’re left looking at a computer that just looks back. None of the computer’s lights blink. Panicked clicks don’t do anything. Randomly tapping the keyboard does nothing, or worse yet, the computer starts to beep at every key press.

When nothing onscreen moves (except, perhaps the mouse pointer), the computer is frozen up solid. Try the following approaches, in the following order, to correct the problem:

• Approach 1: Press Esc twice.
  • This action rarely works, but it’s a quick first salvo that can’t hurt anything.
• Approach 2: Press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys simultaneously, and choose Start Task Manager from the menu that appears.
  • If you’re lucky, the Task Manager appears with the message that it discovered an unresponsive application. The Task Manager lists the names of currently running programs, including the one that’s not responding. On the Processes tab, click the name of the program that’s causing the mess and then click the End Task button. You lose any unsaved work in that program, of course, but you should be used to that. (If you somehow stumbled onto the Ctrl+Alt+Delete combination by accident, press Esc to quit Task Manager and return to Windows.)
  • If that still doesn’t do the trick, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete again and click the Power icon (shown in the margin) in the screen’s lower-right corner. Choose Restart from the pop-up menu, and your computer shuts down and restarts, hopefully returning in a better mood.
• Approach 3: If the preceding approaches don’t work, turn off the computer by pressing its power button. (If that merely brings up the Turn Off the Computer menu, choose Restart, and your computer should restart.)
• Approach 4: If you keep holding down your computer’s power button long enough (usually about 4 to 5 seconds), it eventually stops resisting and turns off.