Tag: windows

This action cannot be completed because the file is open in another program PDF

“This action cannot be completed because the file is open in another program.  This is the message I was receiving when trying to delete some PDF files.  It took me a full five minutes but there are tons of comments about this on Adobe’s website. The solution is simple and it doesn’t seem to be related to Adobe in any way.

If you have the preview pane open then close it.  Then the PDF files are unlocked and can be moved or deleted.

I said it would be a simple answer.

What is a good Pen PDF application?

thinkpad-stylusI haven’t found a good pen PDF application for android or Windows.  I don’t have an iPad so I don’t know about pen pdf apps on it.  What I mean by a pen PDF is being able to use a stylus to write directly on a PDF and have it save.  First, the adobe reader app for android does do this.  However, the stylus I use has a fat rubber head and I am not sure I will get the lines thin enough with a more pen-like stylus.  I need more accuracy to fill out entries on a pdf.

PDF apps on my Thinkpad 2 tablet are not very good either.  I have tried 3 of them thus far and they have all sucked.  Adobe reader doesn’t support stylus, foxit shows that it can do it but I couldn’t get my stylus or finger to draw anything and the other program I downloaded I can’t even remember it’s name now.

Lastly, Windows built in PDF Reader happens to work the best if I can even use that word.  First, there is no undo, Second, it is lagging and lastly, writing on the table while it is in vertical mode is a waste of time.  It is virtually useless.   You might think that all I would need to do is to turn it back to landscape then, well, at least this tablet has a very difficult time rotating.  For some reason it just won’t rotate if I am looking at a PDF.  Sometimes it doesn’t rotate even if I am in the desktop!

I work about once a week doing independent contractor work at different sites.  As you can expect I have lots of paperwork to fill out.  Instead of wasting the ink and paper to print and bring with I much prefer to have it all in my tablet.  Even if it was printed on paper I would be scanning and emailing the document once I was through with it.  From what I can tell there may be some excellent apps on the iPad that would do what I am looking for.  Unfortunately, I can’t justify the cost of an iPad for just one purpose. Believe me when I say just 1 purpose because I can’t stand how the iPad is locked down.

I am going to keep on searching but I hope I can figure out a solution to this.

A required CD/DVD device driver is missing, usb installation Windows 7

A required CD/DVD device driver is missing.  This is an error message you do not want to see when doing a clean install.  It’s even scarier when you are using a jump drive and not a dvd to do it.  I had to make sure I added this one to my blog.  Unfortunately, I left it sitting in drafts.  I probably wasted probably an hour and a half on this stupid error.

When installing Windows 7 from a USB I continuously got this error message saying “A required cd/dvd device driver is missing.  I felt it strange for two reasons.  The first being i was using USB and not a cd/dvd drive.  The second being I have used this particular flash drive numerous times without fail.

I searched many different sites looking for an answer but I kept being pointed in the wrong direction.  Thankfully the answer turns out to be quite simple.

Unbeknownst to me, you can’t use a USB 3.0 plug to install from a USB 2.0 device.  I had no idea the notebook even had USB 3.0 which made it more frustrating to me.

Obviously the error message is too generic and not very intuitive but remember if you see it, it may be as easy as choosing a different USB port.

Tips and Tricks to help a slow computer

First off, virtually every tool that you will need to keep your computer running smoothly is already in Windows ore can be found on the Internet for free.

Here are a few things a person should check on a regular basis:

Here are two items to keep in mind:

  1. Not all antivirus programs really are antivirus.  Many of them will infect your computer instead.
  2. System cleanup programs are not created equal.  In fact, most delete simple little files called ‘cookies’ and tell you that your computer is running fine.
  3. It’s always important to do your research before buying or downloading any programs.

And now for the list…

  1. System Defragmentation (defrag) – Depending on how much adding and deleting of files you do on your computer will determine the frequency of how often you should run a defrag.
  2. Examples
    1. My work computer is defraged once every 3 months because I am only adding and deleting small files
    2. My home computer, where I do lots of streaming, huge movies, etc. is defragged once a week.
  3. I would recommend you do it once a week and you can setup your computer to run it automatically at the same time each week.
  4. Do not run it once a day.  It will shorten the life of the hard drive from all the writing and rewriting it does.
  5. I’d recommend saving this to your hard drive and running this defrag instead of the Windows XP version. It does a better job.  I have recommended JKDefrag in the past.
  6. Start – Programs – Accessories – System Tools – System Cleanup
    1. This should be ran once a month or whenever it starts to feel sluggish.
    2. After awhile, it will bring up a list of file types and ask you if you want to cleanup any of them.  You can put checkmarks in front of all the files except Office install files.  It’s good to keep those there.  The key to the system cleanup isn’t the deletion of the temp files, it is the compacting of the older files.
  7. Make sure Windows Update and automatic updates are turned on.  It is important to keep everything up to date.  (start -programs – windows update)

That’s it!  The only other suggestions is to make sure you have 2 gigs of Ram (4 is overkill and can’t even be used by 32 bit Windows.)