While trying to save a file out of Excel, clicking the parent directory button would cause a delayed reponse taking about 20 seconds to a few minutes before the file requestor would update. I immediately thought, could a virus have slipped through? Is spyware causing this?

After running some virus scans and running spyware searches, I determined that the problem only occured while accessing files. No other program had this delay, but it certainly existed and persisted even after a reboot. Going on the notion that it was file access related, I tried cleaning up my messy desktop. No help.

Finally, after disabling all network connected devices the problem went away. The network device which caused these problems for me was an HP printer’s Card Reader slot. I never wanted this installed on my system, but HP insists that I share and enjoy all their bulky device software. No doubt that I will post a solution for that in the future.

 For shame Microsoft! Every other program seems to understand how to handle a disconnected device better using your own OS than your own programs!

Are you a web developer and want to see real responses to your URLs that you enter? Did you know that often times typing a wrong URL may direct you to what it thinks you want or even to a search engine? This is thanks to AutoSearch.

I’ve had this problem once before, solved it, and subsequently forgot what I had done when I needed to remember it later. The quick way is to edit your systems registry which stores all sorts of important settings and information which Windows and all your programs rely upon. It goes without saying, use extreme caution when editing your system registry!

 Solution:

Step 1 - Click your Start bar and click on ‘Run…’

Step 2 - Enter ‘Regedit’ and hit enter

Step 3 - Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/

Step 4 - Within the Main folder, double click on the REG_DWORD ‘AutoSearch’ and write this value down for safe keeping

Step 5 - Change the value to 0 (zero) and hit enter

Step 6 - Close RegEdit and Internet Explorer

Now when you type google.c9m in your browser, you should receive the familiar ‘The page cannot be displayed’ error.