Free PC Help Forum Information Center

Congratulations, Dougie. I'm glad this has happened.

Comcast had a major outage which affected the site. The site was down for about 6 hours due to the problems. We are back, but, according to the account rep there could be lingering issues throughout the next couple days. IN any case I apologize for any issues you have accessing the site.

allheart55 (Cindy E) submitted a new resource: [plain]How to Extract Images, Text, and Embedded Files from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Documents[/plain] - [plain]Extract Images[/plain] Read more about this resource...

Most expert computer users know the basic keyboard shortcuts, like pressing Control (Ctrl) + P on a PC to print a document. But did you know there are plenty of other useful-not to mention pretty darn cool-key combinations out there? From instantly zooming in to a larger view to quickly closing your browser window, these shortcuts will put the World Wide Web and more at your fingertips-because every second counts. 1. Add a Bookmark Tab your new favorite website for easy access by bookmarking the page with the following quick trick. PC: Ctrl + D Mac: Apple key (see right) + D 2. Delete Forever When you know you want to nix a file forever-instead o…

I have moved the Announcements and New Member Introductions forums into the general forum area of the site. This was done to streamline the forum list and to bring the tech forums to the top of the list.

allheart55 (Cindy E) submitted a new resource: [plain]Reset Your Windows 10 System[/plain] - [plain]data, files, recover,[/plain] Read more about this resource...

allheart55 (Cindy E) submitted a new resource: [plain]How To Solve UEFI Boot And Startup Problems[/plain] - [plain]Solving Boot and Startup Issues[/plain] Read more about this resource...

I have changed the default skin used for the site. The old default had some issues when viewed with a mobile browser. Once I fix them I will make it the default again. If you use that skin as your default it is still available.

Site search will be unavailable this afternoon for a short period of time while I upgrade the search service and rebuild the indexes.

I upgraded the site email server a short time ago. In the process, nothing is as easy as it seems for me lately, I lost all the settings. To make sure that everything is working as it should could you make sure you're getting email from the site for PM's and subscribed threads? I think I restored everything correctly, but, I want to make sure.

I have lightened up the sidebar on the new default style to make it better for those that don't particular like dark colors. I have also added an area to discuss the guides and tutorials posted in the Resources Section of the site. It was an oversight on my part not having a discussion area for that section. Now when a new resource is posted a thread will also be created in the resources discussion forum so that you can discuss the resource or ask questions about it.

As previously noted in another thread the move to the domain http://freepchelp.forum is complete. All previous links should re-direct properly. If you notice any broken links let me know so I can fix them. Also the new default style is turned on. The old styles will remain for a short time. The style change goes hand in hand along with re-branding the site. You may be logged out when you first visit on the new domain.

I have added chatroom to the site. It will show on the forum index as a small chatbox. You can also access the full chat by using the Chat link in the navigation bar or by clicking the title on the chatbox. If you would prefer not to view the chatbox above the forums on the index page then you can edit your preferences and set it to not display. Once you do that the chatbox will be hidden and only be accessible by using the Chat link. This is just one of the many improvements you will see over the course of the next few weeks. We are going to be making the site more social for our users. We want to be more than a tech help site. Also the site domain will be chang…

DSTM (Dougie) is the newest member of the Free PC Help Forum administration team. Dougie has been a member since the site was first re-opened and had been a member of staff as a Super Moderator. He is also a good friend and great person to know. Congrats Dougie.

Free PC Help Forum is back. Well the name is anyway. I had several computer related sites and last year I imported them all into one database. I opened up Tech Help Forum with that data. Feeling nostalgic this weekend while celebrating the 4TH of July Holiday I decided to bring back Free PC Help Forum. The domain was not being used so I changed the name and re-activated the domain. Welcome to the rebirth of Free PC Help Forum.

Free PC Help Forum staff are trying to come up with a time for the chat session that will accommodate all users. Our members are scattered all across the globe so we are looking to set the time so the members that would normally be in bed can make it. As you know we will use TeamSpeak and have our own TeamSpeak server set up so we don't have to rely on an external provider. To prepare for the Free PC Help Forum official chat or if you want to try out TeamSpeak you can download the TeamSpeak client at: http://www.teamspeak.com/?page=downloads Select the correct version, 32bit or 64bit, for your operating system. There is also a version for IOS and Android if…

After sitting back and thinking about this for a few days I have decided that Free PC Help Forum can not nor ever will support any software when you explicitly have to opt out of an installation of any other software that is bundled with it. I understand that most software products do ask if you want to install other products. They get paid to bundle these products from the company that created the software. I do, however, have a problem when you have to opt-out of the install of these extras by checking/unchecking a box. A novice user could get unwanted software that could cause them problems. While I will not be taking part in any chat sessions on Paltalk and Free…

If you are browsing the site and someone replies to one of your posts, post something in your profile or send you a private message you'll get a real time notice in the bottom left corner of your browser while on the site. So if you see this popup you'll know what it is for and what it does. It's one of the changes towards making the site more interactive.

I was a few revisions behind on the style we used as the default for the site. Because of that it became bloated as I added new stuff for new features and never removed the old. I decided to install the newest version and scrap the old. For the most part it isn't much different. There is a new logo, but, colors are basically the same. It should load much faster because for 1 it isn't bloated and 2 it has less images and images that are used are compressed. Also you'll notice that there are no more banners for staff. Instead you see a shield next to the usernames. Another noticeable change is the way the posts look. The user info which used to be on the left is now o…

I am in process of moving the site to another server. I had some problems last week with the server and moved it to a backup server until I could get things troubleshooted and fixed. The problems are now fixed so I will be moving the site off the backup server. Downtime should be minimal. It will depend on how long the IP change takes. If you get a closed sign when visiting the site do a hard refresh of your browser. You might also have to use ipconfig to flush the DNS cache. Files are being copied over now. Once that is complete I will dump the database and move it. After the database is dumped I will close down the site and change the IP in DNS to the other server…

I am having some problems with the server this site is on. To troubleshoot it I have to take it offline. I am in the process of moving the site to another server. At times you might not be able to get to the site. You might notice some quirkiness when on the site. I have a powershell script querying the server from the backup server and if it finds the server went down it reboots it via the KVM. This causes a hard reboot, similar to unplugging the server, so when it comes back online you might get errors for a short time. After the script reboots the server it times out for 15 minutes and then runs a repair on the database. Each time the server has gone down today t…

We have opened a flash games arcade for your enjoyment. There is a good assortment of games available so everyone should be able to have a fun time. If you would like to suggest games to be included in our arcade let us know.You can suggest new games in this thread. The arcade is located at http://freepchelp.forum/arcade/ Enjoy and have fun.

Free PC Help Forum is much more than a tech forum. We strive to be a helpful bunch, but, we also like to socialize. In keeping with those ideals we have created more forums for our members to enjoy conversation and interact with the members of Free PC Help Forum. You can check out the new forums at http://freepchelp.forum/f/21/

I have been meaning to fix this for a while and finally had the time to get it done. If you have an animated avatar please re-upload it. Doing so will make the animation work in all areas of the site. The old image processor only supported the large avatar image. The new processor keeps the animation for all sizes.