Archive (Read Only)

I have added new style for your use. It is a clean light style with red highlights. It will be the site default style once I finish some minor tweaking. To use the new style choose Free PC Help Forum 1.5 Red from the style drop down on the bottom left or simply click this link: http://freepchelp.forum/misc/style?style_id=36 To make it your default style select it in your control panel under options. Let me know if you find any quirks in the style so I can fix them.

I have installed a more modern style. This style highlights the newest posts and content instead of the forums themselves although the forums are still easily accessible from the left sidebar. If you encounter any bugs please let me know. This skin has been tested with Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer 8 and 9 so it should work for everyone. If you have display problems you can change your skin to the Microsoft Blue skin by using the skin chooser at the bottom of the page. Thanks and hope you all enjoy the new look of Free PC Help Forum.Org.

I have removed the old styles replacing them with a new state that has a dark and light variation. You can switch between dark and light by using the cog icon next to your user info top right. More change on the way. If you find any bugs in the new style let me know.

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 have changed the look of the site. Many thanks to VistaBoard for making this style available. Hope all of you like it.

Windows 11 was released for the general public starting October 5, 2021. The rollout through Windows update has started to the eligible devices and continue until 2022. Windows 11: A new era for the PC begins today | Windows Experience Blog Introducing Windows 11 | Windows Experience Blog What’s coming in Windows 11 Accessibility | Windows Experience Blog DOWNLOAD PC HEALTH CHECK APP (aka.ms) Windows 11 available on October 5 | Windows Experience Blog Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com) Windows 11 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Docs Resources for Windows 11 on Microsoft Community: The following Forum Articles from our Article Authors at Microsoft…

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

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…

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.

The server for the site is in Florida. Last weekend we had hurricane Debby pass through. While we weren't directly in the path we were close enough that power was out until yesterday afternoon. Battery backup kept the site up for a few hours as it was designed for. After it went dead we had to wait until the power was restored. I apologize for the downtime.

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 upgraded the community to the newest version of software. I also updated all the apps that power the community. We also have a new style. It uses the default Windows 2012 colors if if you use the Windows 2012 GUI install. As always if you find any bugs let me know.

I have upgraded the site to the newest version of xenforo. In the process I had to shutoff a couple styles that weren't compatible. If you find any bugs let me know by posting in the Site Feedback / Bugs / Features forum and I will get the problems fixed.

Site upgraded and new skin added. Members make sure to check out all the new features in your admin cp.

I have upgraded the site to the newest version of xenforo. In the process I have also updated the privacy policy and terms of service to be fully compliant with GDPR. Next time you log in you will be asked to acknowledge that you read the privacy policy. If you run into any problems let me know.

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.

There are 2 ways to submit resources to the new resources section of the site. One way is to simply post your article, tutorial or guide in this forum. Once you do staff will move it into the new Free PC Help Forum Resources section. The other way you can submit an article, tutorial or guide is to browse to the Free PC Help Forum Resources section and submit it from there. Doing it either way will work to get your resource added to the Resources section of the site.

Google has changed policy and will treat any site that requires a user to log in as insecure unless they switch to using SSL. This takes effect after the first of the year. To make sure it doesn't get us delisted, which is the penalty, I have switched the site over to SSL. Until I run a few queries to change http to https in the links you might, from time to time, get a yellow warning instead of green lock on some pages. This will correct once I complete the full conversion.

When I decided to open Free PC Help Forum I had a plan that included eventually consolidating the other tech sites I owned by importing them into here. I am also going to import my 2 off topic sites into the new Off Topic Forum that I opened alongside this one. My idea was to consolidate all sites into 2. One tech site and one off topic site. Now that I have everything back as it was I am going to start the process of importing the data from the other sites. The sites to be imported are: Computer Support Forums - FreePCHelp.uk Microsoft Forums I will keep you updated to what is happening. The site will be shut off during import. I will keep you updated by leavin…

I have finished the upgrade and the new style is turned on as the default. If you prefer the old style just select the Windows 2008 Conventional style from the drop down on the bottom left of the page. If you come across any bugs while using the new style please post in this thread and I'll look into them and fix them. If you use Internet Explorer 9 set the browser to use IE 8 compatibility mode to refresh the js. After you do this you can switch back to IE 9 mode and everything should function as is. The only glitch with IE 9 is the header does not render as it should although it doesn't affect the functionality of the site. Post any bugs you find in this thread…

I am upgrading the site to the newest version of xenForo. This is a major version upgrade so I have temporarily shut off the custom styles which are not compatible with the new version. I will upgrade the styles once the site is upgraded.

I'll be upgrading to vbulletin rc4 this weekend. I was going to wait until vb3 is final. I decided that it would be an easier upgrade to final from rc4. I'm not sure how the upgrade will affect the styles. If the styles work the upgrade should be smooth. If they don't the upgrade will take longer.

I have changed the look of the site. It makes the site more efficient and it looks much better. If you have any problems or find any bugs with the new skin please post them in the site suggestions forum. The old skin is still active and you can select it by using the drop down skin selector at the bottom left of the page.

We are now on a brand new Windows 2008 R2 server. If by chance you are still hitting the site with the closed sign then flush your dns and you'll get to the new site. If you find any bugs let me know.