Have you ever been annoyed by the windows popup that keeps appearing when you are on the internet. Shove off you say! Why are you coming up when I am on broadband? It can even come up when you are not connected dial-up or otherwise.

Why does it keep coming up? Well first you must have a dial-up connection configured so if you don’t use it any more get rid of it. If you still require your dial-up connection then there are other things you can do to stop it. (More about this later)

So why does it keep coming up? Well if it comes up while you are connected to your broadband network it can be caused by a temporary drop in you broadband connection. This triggers an automatic start of your dial-up connection. Another reason is that you may have a nasty program in your computer and it is trying to dial out. If you allow it to dial out you may be charged through your telephone company especially if it happens to be a program trying to connect to a porn site. Get rid of it, run your virus program and anti-spyware and whatever else you have to search it out. (You do have these programs don’t you?) You are being naughty if you don’t.

Some legitimate applications are configured to check for updates automatically by contacting home. If they are courteous they should identify and notify you before contacting their servers. This may be caused by parasites as well. Adware contact their servers to fetch Ads and some Trojans may even grab and send out your valuable information.

So what can we do to stop this? Well first if you do not need a dial-up connection anymore this is how you remove it.

Left click on the “start” button at the bottom left of your screen, Left click on “settings” then “Control Panel” if you are using the “classic” menu or just “Control Panel” if you are using the normal menu.

When the “Control Panel” window appears, find the icon that says “Network Connections” and double left click it.

You will now see a list of all your Internet connections. There will be one under “Dial-Up” right click and then select “delete”. Whoopee! No problems anymore.

So what do you do if you want to keep your Dial-Up” connection. Well we have to get a little bit more techie here but not much. Windows–XP has what are called “services” These do a lot of the things behind the scenes for you. One of these is to allow remote auto access. This service is called. “Remote Access Auto Connection Manager” service. (Microsoft loves rambling identifiers) We are going to seek it out and stop it and this is how:

If you have a “My Computer” icon on your desk top, right click it and select “manage”

If this icon is missing then click on the “start” button and get to the “Control Panel” window again. Look for the icon named “Administrative Tools” and double left click on it. Another window will appear where you will see an icon named “Computer Management” double left click on it. Wheee! you will end up in the same place as you would have if you had a “My Computer” icon but in a roundabout way.

In the window presented, expand in the left column (click on the +) where it says “Services and Applications” then click on “services”

A list of all the “services” run by windows will appear in the right hand column, some with impossibly long names. You may have to make the window bigger and increase the column size to see the entire name. (Move the | dividers in the headings)

Scroll down and find the “Remote Access Auto Connection Manager ” and double left click on it. In the window that appears find the label “Startup Type”. In the drop down box select “disable” then click on “apply” then “OK”. Bingo! No more dial-up, pop-up windows.

Now just close all the windows and go on your way and forget about that annoying windows popup in windows-xp.

Ever had this and shuddered that you are confronted with deleted files in windows xp and thought how do I go about recovering deleted files.

Mom! I have just deleted all the photos of your wedding. Sorry about that, said little kiddykins all of 6 years old. (They know more about computers than I did at 21). Gone forever! Maybe, or maybe not. Fortunately Windows-XP has provided for these little happenings.

It’s called the recycle bin. Well as long as you are not a regular reader of the posts on my other blog (Windows-XP slow startup) and followed the wonderful things there to speed up the startup of your PC. Then you may be OK. That’s if the recycle bin has not been cleared out. (Of course that should not be the case as long as kiddykins has not kept quiet about the little slip) and you have since conscientiously cleared it out.

Even then all may not be lost. Even though the file or folder may have been deleted it still remains on your disk until the space is needed for something else. Unfortunately the only way to find out is by using some third party software. Doesn’t cost a lot but maybe worthwhile if you want to try and recover some precious files.

Anyway back to the Recycle Bin. You may have an icon on your desktop labeled “Recycle Bin” If so double click it. If not right click on the start button (bottom left of the screen) and left click on “explorer”. You will get the file manager screen. Scroll down the box headed “Folders” and you should find the “Recycle Bin” folder somewhere near the bottom. Left click on that and you will get the same screen as if you had clicked on the “Recycle Bin” icon on your desktop.

Now all you have to do is find your files or folders select each one in turn, right click to open another little box where you will see an item “restore” left click it. Hey presto! Your file or folder (with the files in it) are instantly restored.

Mom’s precious files are back kiddy.

Can’t find your file or folder? Sorry it is back to the third party software hope that helps you out.

Windows xp hibernate with your own sleep button Is the Sleep button on your Windows XP machine in an inconvenient location for regular use? If so, follow these simple steps to create your own. Many computers or keyboards have a Sleep button, which when pressed puts the computer into either Stand By or Hibernate mode depending on how Windows XP’s Power Options are configured. However, the Sleep button might not be in convenient location for regular use. For example, it might be on the front of a mid-tower case that’s under your desk.

You could activate Stand By or Hibernate mode from the Shut Down Windows dialog box. An alternative to this method is to create your own Sleep button by creating a shortcut on your desktop. Here’s how.

1. Right-click on the desktop.
2. Select New | Shortcut.
3. Type rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState in the text box.
4. Click Next.
5. Type Sleep in the text box and click Finish.

Now when you click the Sleep icon, Windows XP will put the computer into either Stand By or Hibernate mode depending on how the When I Press The Sleep Button On My Computer setting is configured on the Advanced tab of the Power Options Properties dialog box.