PC Community Main Meeting
7:30 - 10 pm February 6, 2015
Calvary Baptist Church 28924 Ruus Road, Hayward California

The meeting was called to order at 7:41 pm by Treasurer George Kornbluth, in the absence of Presidnt Chuck Horner. Get your raffle tickets, door prize tickets, and 3” x 5” cards to write questions for discussion/answers at the end of the Meeting. Get at least one $5 raffle ticket for this month’s raffle prize, Monster Green Power Audio/Video 7 Outlet PowerCenter.

Sadly, it was reported that long-time member Bob Kiessling has passed away.

Presentation: Member Andrew Tews reported on Windows 7. He noted that Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will not be supported after January of 2020. It has been a reliable system and the major problem with it has been due to users not unchecking add-ons that come with various downloads. The downloads often have small, well-hidden checkboxes to opt out of various toolbars and other items that slow down the system. Ccleaner, while it solves many problems, cannot remove the traces from the Registry and does not compact the Registry after fixing issues. System Mechanic can clean the Registry, but Andrew has had problems with some of their business practices.

Andrew has two computers at home, one of which he uses for most of his Internet activities. The machine that he uses for banking and similar sensitive activities is rarely exposed to the Internet.

Some repair tips:
Follow the path:
>Control Panel
>Administrative Tools
>Disk Manager
You will see the Partition Table. The option to restore a partition to factory settings will be available. If you don't have a backup, you will lose your data and programs.

Type “System Info” into the search window to get some data about the computer.

For better detail, go to
>All Programs
>Accessories
>Right Click on Command Prompt
>Run as Administrator
>Type in “SystemInfo” (one word).
You'll get a history of backups and updates.

>All Programs
>Accessories
>Right Click Command Prompt
>Run as Administrator
>FSC /scannow

Support.microsoft.com/kb/020833 will explain what the error numbers mean and how to repair the errirs from a system backup disk.

Before doing anything else with the Registry, make a backup of it. If you mess up while doing something in the Registry, you can import your backup back into the Registry and recover from your error.

DxDiagnostic will show you many details about your system. It is also built into the system.

Follow the path
>Programs
>Accessories
>System Tools
>Disk Cleanup
Click on Clean the System Files. Then Run Clean the System Files again. Every time you turn on your computer, additional information is written to the disk. If your system is running well, there is no reason to keep old updates and error reports.

To repair the hard disk and isolate bad sectors, follow the path:
>Programs
>Accessories
>Right Click Command Prompt
>Type the command: Chkdsk /r

The command Chkdsk /? will get a list of CheckDisk options.

From the DOS prompt, run CredWiz to backup and restore passwords and usernames.

Andrew also provided a brief peek at the Windows 10 Technical Preview. Windows updates will be automatic, occur in the background, and not offer user options. DirectX 12 will promises a major speed increase. Spartan will replace Internet Explorer. Reports are that Spartan is a better browser.

Member Question: Is data in bad sectors lost?

Answer: Chkdsk will do some repairs. But if too many sectors are bad, the data will be lost. If a drive starts making noise or reporting bad sectors, take action immediately—especially if you hear a high pitched metal-on-metal whining or chattering on boot up. You should keep your backups current in any case. It's the cheapest insurance available. Two TerraBytes is probably the sweet spot.

Door Prizes
Top 10 Brands from China bag Bayle Emlein
BorrowLenses bag Michael Wong
ClickFree bag George Kornbluth

Raffle Prize
Monster Green Power Audio/Video 7 Outlet PowerCenter Bayle Emlein

Thank you to George Kornbluth for taking care of refreshments. Thank you also to Michael Wong for helping with room logistics and with the signs.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:58 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Bayle Emlein