[Checking for Updates in “Windows 7 Ultimate”]

MagicAndre1981,

 

I followed your advice and the problem was solved. Thanks very much.

[Checking for Updates in “Windows 7 Ultimate”]

The option sequence, Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update > Check for Updates, gave the message:

 

“Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer”

 

I used Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Component Services > Services Local, and found “Windows Update” in the list displayed.

 

In this list the properties of “Windows Update” were listed as “Started” and “Automatic (Delayed Start)”.

 

I nevertheless restarted Win 7 but the properties of “Windows Update” were the same and there was still the same message from “Windows Update”.

 

Any clues about what is going on would be appreciated.  

[Applying a name change to existing comments in an Excel 2007 spreadshe]

jaclaz, thanks very much for the info.

[Applying a name change to existing comments in an Excel 2007 spreadshe]

Applying a name change to existing comments in an Excel 2007 spreadsheet

 

I have inserted comments into cells of an Excel 2007 spreadsheet using "right click mouse > insert comment ". When I hover the cursor over a cell with a comment, a message appears in the "task bar" (not sure this is the correct name for it) at the bottom of the page. The message says, for example,  "Cell E7 commented by JD". I want to expand the initials "JD" to a name and apply the change to all the comments I have already entered.

 

I selected the options, "round MS button at top left of page > Excel Options > Popular > User Name ". The last option is under the heading " Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office".  I changed "JD" to "John". This has become the name that new comments are attributed to but the old comments are still attributed to "JD".

 

Is there a way I can apply the name change to comments entered before the change was made?

 

I would be grateful for any help on this.

[Word 2007 - Spell Check Problem]

Word 2007 Spell Check Problem

When I run a spell check (Word 2007 > Review > Spelling and Checking) I get a message :

Text marked with "Do not check spelling or grammar" was skipped

I have not intentionally marked any text in this way.

The Word 2007 Help has the following :

1. Select the text that you want the spelling and grammar checker to ignore.

2. On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Set Language.

3. Select the Do not check spelling or grammar check box.

4. You can also create a special style that is based on the selected text:

My problem is there is no "Set Language " option in my Proofing group so I cannot do step 2 to reverse the marking of the text.

My questions are :

Q1. What could be the reason there is no "Set Language " option in my Proofing group?

Q2. Is there another way to de-mark text?

Any help with this would be appreciated.

[Excel 2007 : Problem with Excel guessing which cells I want in a form]

Quote from Newbie of 29 Feb

"I suspect that in your case the cell M10 has some value (even if it is a space character or something similar and left over from some other operation). Thus, first check if that assumpation is correct, i.e. if cell M10 contains anything, and perhaps try a Delete and/or Clean Contents operation on M10, then try out writing your formula and see if M10 is automatically selected."

Your assumption is correct. The problem disappeared when I cleaned the cells involved by using the "Clear All" option.

Thanks for your help.

[Excel 2007 : Problem with Excel guessing which cells I want in a form]

23 Feb 2012

Excel 2007 : Problem with Excel guessing which cells I want in a formula

When I enter a formula Excel guesses which cells I want in the formula. For example, if I want cell J10 to contain the sum of cells K10 and L10 (i.e. J10 = K10+L10) and I enter "=" in J10 then click K10 to have it inserted in the formula, instead Excel inserts the range "K10:M10".

Is there a way to turn off this unwanted "help" from Excel?

Of course I done online searches for a solution but they turned up nothing possibly because I don't know the magic words that describe the problem.

Thanks in advance for any help in answering my question.

- Novice

[Excel 2007 : Is it possible to conditionally hide a row?]

Excel 2007 : Is it possible to conditionally hide a row?

Is it possible to make the visibility of a row conditional on a value in a cell of the row? For example, can a row be hidden if the first cell of the row contains the value 5 but otherwise the row is visible?

Ditto question for columns.

The question comes up in the context of time series that are step functions.

Any help would be appreciated. I couldn't find an answer in Excel 2007 Help.

- Novice

[Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change]

19 Oct 11

Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change - Solution

Geej,

Available date formats

The available date formats depend on the location the user specifies on the page:

format cells > number > date.

I could choose 14.03.01 because I had my location as English (New Zealand). This format is not offered if the location is English (United States).

Extension of the problem

I changed my location to English (United States), chose different date formats and tried editing but got the same result as before.

I also noticed that I don't even have to edit the date for the problem to occur. Just double clicking the cell is enough to change the date to text.

Solution of the problem

I had customized my Win 7 date format using:

control panel > region and language > formats > additional settings > date

I went to the same page and chose reset and that has fixed the problem in Excel 2007.

Conclusion

Customizing the date format in Win 7 via the control panel page above, feeds through into Excel 2007 and can cause problems with dates in worksheets.

- Novice

[Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change]

18 Oct 11

Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change

Geej,

Thanks for the suggestion but I had already done what you advise. This is what I did:

1. format cells > number > date > 14.03.01

2. In the cell the date displays as 30.10.95 and in the formula bar as 1995/10/30. No problems at this stage and I can subtract the date from another date.

3. In the formula bar, I then deleted the 0 in 30 and replaced it with 1. When I hit enter, the date as displayed in the cell changed from 30.10.95 to 1995/10/31. In the formula bar, the date displayed changed from 1995/10/30 to ^1995/10/31. The ^ indicating it had become text.

When I edit a number it does not change to text so I do not understand why a date should be any different. I did not have this problem with dates in previous versions of Excel.

BTW, I meant, of course, "Excel 2007 help" in my last post.

- Novice

[Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change]

17 Oct 11

Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change

When I edit a date (e.g. changing the month) the format of the cell changes from "date" to "general" and the edited date has a ^ symbol before it in the formula bar indicating it has become text. This stops me from using it in formulas (e.g. I cannot subtract it from another date to find the interval between them).

I have searched Word 2007 help without being able to find a way to stop this format change. Any help would be welcome.

- Novice

[MS Word feature similar to a Workbook in MS Excel 2003?]

16 Dec 2010

Does MS Word have a feature similar to a Workbook in MS Excel 2003?

Does any version of MS Word have a feature similar to a workbook in MS Excel 2003? That is, a single file containing multiple documents preferably accessed by clicking on a tab.

I have tried searches of Word Help using keywords such as "workbook", "volume", etc but did not find what I was looking for.

I would appreciate any help answering this question.

-Novice

[Win XP Booting Problem]

23 May 10

Clarification

Apologies. I did not make it clear what I was asking.

I do not want to revert to Win XP. Instead I want to replace my Win XP / Ubuntu 9.10 dual boot with a Win 7 / Ubuntu 9.10 dual boot.

In the best of all possible worlds I would leave my BIOS unchanged with its current AHCI setting and install Win 7 which would subsitute itself for my disabled Win XP in my dual boot menu. However I have a feeling it will not be that simple. I suspect installing Win 7 (assuming that is possible on top of a disabled Win XP) will mess up my dual boot menu which was created by Unbuntu 9.10 when it was installed.

My questions are :

Q1. Can Win 7 be installed on top of a disabled Win XP ?

Q2. If yes and I install Win 7 will it mess up my dual boot menu or simply substitute itself for Win XP in the menu ?

Any help in answering these questions would be appreciated.

Enabling AHCI on Win XP without reinstalling Win XP

I am not sure I could implement the solution at http://forums.pcper....ad.php?t=444831 .

One reason is I do not understand a basic premise of the solution. For example, it begins:

“1. Go to Intel's download centre and download the latest version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (7.6.0.1011, 8/2/2007 at time of writing) for your OS:”

Where do you go FROM to get to Intel's download centre ? My Win XP will not start in “Safe Mode” so what is the environment in which the solution can be implemented?

- Novice

“Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler” - Einstein

_________________________________________________________

[Win XP Booting Problem]

WIN XP Booting Problem - 22 May 10

Tripredacus, thanks for the info in your post of 6 May. It is exactly what I did. I installed Win XP with the BIOS set for IDE and subsequently set the BIOS for AHCI.

I found the following at http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831

“The problem is that if you installed Windows in IDE mode (ie you didn't use F6 and supply a driver disk), then simply changing the BIOS setting to AHCI mode and rebooting will cause Windows to fail and will require a repair install. Most people have been advising to reinstall Windows if you want AHCI enabled.”

I have read that Win 7 supports AHCI “out of the box” so instead of re-installing Win XP I may try to install Win 7 to replace Win XP.

I had previously installed Win XP then Ubuntu 9.10 which created a dual boot menu. If I install Win 7 the order will be Ubuntu 9.10 (which is already present on my HDD2) followed by an install of Win 7 to my HDD1.

Any ideas on whether this will work would be appreciated.

- Novice

[Win XP Booting Problem]

WIN XP Booting Problem - 6 May 10

Thanks for the suggestion to try F8 before the Win XP flag page appeared.

I was able to get the F8 menu but when I chose the “Safe Mode” option the BSOD flashed past in the usual way and my computer restarted. I then tried the “disable automatic restart on failure” option on the F8 menu and this stopped the boot process at the BSOD and at last I could read its message.

MESSAGE DISPLAYED ON BSOD:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technicial Information:

***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xBACC3524, OxC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

END OF MESSAGE

I Googled 0xBACC3524 and at

http://www.techtalkz.com/windows-xp/438085-windows-service-pack-2-issue.html

I found this entry :

STOP: 0x0000007B

Some Common reasons for this could be:

1) This is the most common reason. The Operating System, in this case

Windows XP does not have working a driver for the controller card that is

being used in this system.

2) This can be caused by boot sector viruses. So make sure that the system

is scanned for viruses before starting the SP installation.

3) The volume could be corrupt and is not readable. When trying to read the

volume it is not finding the data on it or the data is illegible.

4) The registry may be corrupted.

5) Drive Translation is being used that is not being understood.

Given my problem started with using Gigabyte's “Easy Tune 6” to change CMOS settings I am guessing something in the MBR no longer agrees with the CMOS settings.

- Novice

[Win XP Booting Problem]

WIN XP Booting Problem - 5 May 10

I have a problem starting Win XP (Home Ed).

Win XP is installed on a first hard disk drive (HDD1) and Ubuntu 9.10 on a second (HDD2).

The dual boot worked well up until one day I used a Gigabyte utility called “Easy Tune 6”, installed under Win XP, to change CMOS settings. Now when I choose Win XP from the dual boot menu, the boot process gets as far as displaying the Win XP flag page for about 5 secs and then changes to a blue screen on which flashes a message too fast to capture and then my computer restarts. Ubuntu 9.10 continues to boot without any problems.

Questions I would appreciate help with are :

1. At what stage of the Win XP boot process is the Win XP flag page displayed ?

2. Do I need to reset the Master Boot Record on HDD1 and reinstall Win XP?

3. On which HDD is the dual boot menu located? Win XP was installed to HDD1 before Ubuntu 9.10 was installed to HDD2. The Unbuntu 9.10 install created the dual boot menu.

- Novice