troubleshooting

Try ChatGPT to First Understand Program Code & Error Messages

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ChatGPT session with prompt.

While reading a Slack message group, I saw a member post a code snippet. It wasn’t something I was familiar with, but I was curious. Using some online tools I was able to gleen more information. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use SnagIt and ChatGPT to better understand code examples or error messages.

Consider Windows Step Recorder for Troubleshooting & Teaching

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Excel file with Steps toolbar on top.

Are you one of these people that gets frustrated with tech support? You explain your problem but the support rep still doesn’t understand your problem. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the Steps Recorder in Windows. Not only is this utility free, but it’s easy enough for anyone to learn. And it can help troubleshoot other PC programs.

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How to Find All Your Chrome Extensions and Folders

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Module table showing browser extension info

Many times when troubleshooting browser issues you need to find out all the extensions. This can be a time-consuming process. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to find all your browser extensions using net-export. The nice thing about this tool is it also shows the extension ID which is the folder name.

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Easy Fixes to Make Email Links Open Gmail

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Dev tools responds with "undefined"

Somedays, I want to scream when things break. For example when you click an email link on a web page and it should open your default email application. Instead of getting Gmail to open in my browser, I was staring at the Microsoft Store email app. In this tutorial, I’ll show how to make mailto links open in Gmail

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How to Check PC Specs With Free Windows Tools

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Speccy summary panel

Recently, I was trying to check my computer specs and ran into a snag. It had to do with this Meltdown and Spectre chipset nonsense. It seemed that some articles referenced the “chipset” and others the “code” name. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a Microsoft Windows decoder ring, so I decided to see if any system utilities could help. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to check PC specs.

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Solution: PivotTable Field Name is not Valid

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PivotTable Field Name not valid error dialog

I have a love-hate relationship with software. It’s great when it works, but it’s so frustrating when you get a cryptic error message. And these messages seem to appear when you’re short on time and patience. This happened to me recently. Microsoft Excel was telling me my PivotTable field name is not valid. In this tutorial, I will show how to fix this with 2 easy solutions.

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Managing Pop-Ups in Google Chrome

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Adding a domain

Chances are, you block pop-ups in your web browser. After all, many are intrusive and interfere with reading. However, sometimes you need them for regulatory notices or functionality. This happened to me when I was going through an online course. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to allow pop-up windows on Chrome or block them without needing a browser extension.

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Fix Missing WMVCore.dll File in Windows 10

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error message for missing WMVCore.dll

Upgrading to Windows 10 has been amazingly smooth for me and worth the effort. But, you might encounter some compatibility errors about missing files. One case is WMVcore.dll. The solution is to get Microsoft’s Media Feature Pack.

How To Remove My Chrome Extensions

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I love my Chrome extensions. But I ran into a problem when one of my add-ons crashed when I opened my browser. Worse, because it didn’t load properly, I couldn’t uninstall it in the normal manner. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to remove Chrome extensions using several methods.

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Misbehaving Outlook Email

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Image (c) WikiMedia

Some say that computer problems happen at the worst times. I’m not sure that is true, but I won’t argue. Without warning, my Outlook email stopped working last week. I could receive email, but I couldn’t open any items. Instead, I saw an error message that read “Cannot open this item. The text formatting command is not available. It may not be installed correctly. Install Microsoft Office Outlook again.”