Fix Your Windows 2000 and Fix your XP PC Settings

How do I fix my PC settings?

READ THIS FIRST

If your XP or Vista isn't working correctly...

Wait until this page completely loads before doing anything. Look at the STATUS BAR at the bottom and wait until it says DONE.

Next, if you already know your PC has problems, skip the tests and check your settings.

Click Here to check your Internet Explorer settings.
Click Here to check your Firefox settings.

Try these tests and

Try the recommended settings and

If it still won't work, we can't help you repair a Microsoft product that was never reliable in the first place.

We can suggest you try other Browers, such as Firefox by Mozilla. Its free and it is an Open Source Project so it will always be a little more robust and reliable than the junk Microsoft produces. Open Source projects are tested by tens of thousands of people, old bugs are removed quickly and new changes and fixes are incorporated on a regular basis.

We arent going to argue about Microsoft vs Unix vs Apple. We can only suggest that you need a reliable Browser and ME, XP and Vista don't provide one.

You can get a free Firefox by Mozilla Browser here.

At the bottom of this page are the recommended settings to use for both Internet Explorer by Microsoft and for Firefox by Mozilla.

RUNNING THESE TESTS:

By clicking each yellow word below, you can test your PC and Browser. After clicking each yellow word, the system will wait about 10-15 seconds and then go back to the test you ran. If you don't get a message or new window under the same yellow word, something isn't working right. For example, when you click the word DHTML the screen will refresh and a message will appear under that line that says your DHTML is working. If that doesn't happen, your PC is still broken or has severe problems.

The Gold Pact Power website uses a very basic and reliable web platform that involves seven tests.

THEN DO THESE TESTS

Common HTML and DHTML

Common Javascript

POP-UPS, only when you ASK for information

WMV and AVI (video)

MP3 (sound)

We usually do not use cookies, but a few of our screens do. Usually this is not a critical part of browsing our website, but if cookies are not working it indicates other problems that can prevent you from logging into the system or displaying information correctly.

And a Perl Backbone (on our server)

FIXING THE PROBLEMS

Still, some computers have difficulty accessing pages. Usually this is related to:

A corrupt browers with a virus on your computer or

A poorly written operating system. Windows Vista, Millenium and XP Home Version are all known to be fatally flawed with bugs and inability to run all types of web pages. Unfortunately until everyone gets together (again) and sues Microsoft in a class action suit, you aren't likely to get a refund anytime soon.

Spyware programs and Antivirus programs can also corrupt a Brower. Before loading anythig on your PC spend some time at the forums Programmers go to, such as ZNET.com and DOWNLOAD.COM and CNET.com and find out which Virus protection programs and Firewalls work and which ones are poorly written. There are many reviews at these websites that can help you protect your computer and avoid software that is defective.

We recommend ZoneAlarm for an affordable (often Free) Firewall and Norton for the best Antivirus protection. Other systems work with varying results. If you aren't downloading emails with Outlook, you don't really need an Antivirus program; ZoneAlarm will not clean up viruses, but stops them immediately if they try to run, so they can't propgate across your computer.

Perhaps you are running AOL. This is a crippling interface and most web sites will struggle to display correctly. If you are running AOL, try opening your web pages with Internet Explorer or FireFox by Mozilla, which is also free and very reliable. Either is fine, but running an AOL browers insures that nothing at this website or many websites will work correctly.

The most important thing here is to avoid AOL, Millenium, Vista and XP Home version. If you have any of these installed accessing the Gold Pact Power website will be very difficult and unreliable since these browsers and operating systems are known to be full of bugs and problems.

Still having problems?

Have you tried downloading Firefox? This should fix any Internet Explorer Browser problems you may be having at our web site and others.

If you have already done that and still have problems, please contact us and we will try to walk you through the set up.

We are associated with Kids Computer Kamp (we are one of their sponsoers) also called KCK. They have been providing Free Computers to Kids since 1983 and can be found at EduhHosting.org, a website dedicated to education and free hosting for Teachers.

Many of the Youth Centers KCK serves have donated laptops and these are often resold to the public at very inexpensive prices. Our CEO, Craig and our V.P. Terry work as volunteers for these organizations and we encourage you to contact us by phone (since your PC is crippled) and obtain a fully functional, tested PC or laptop and you can help support the youth centers that assemble, test and sell PCs for as little as $50.00 - $150.00. Many of these PCs are repaired and configured by the Kids in the KCK program who get to keep 100% of the money: call it a modern day paperoute.

We told one of our Reps not to buy a new desktop and they insisted. Nearly a year later, due to problems with Vista and HP ('pure junk') it became the longest PC repair and configuration nightmares I can remember. Currently that Rep is using a $50 PC we gave her free. That works. New PCs are a complete waste of time and money and the warranties they give you aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

These youth centers also have laptops starting as low as $150.00 and up and usually they don't get crushed by the Post Office and come fully loaded with XP or Windows 2000 and are tested to make sure they work with most websites, including ours.
You can skip this page and get a very nice laptop or desktop at a very cheap price and help these Youth Centers out along the way.

Its up to you.

Settings in Windows Internet Explorer: we suggest you try Firefox and save yourself the trouble The following screen shots are primarily from XP Home version. Why switch to Firefox? Simply put, Microsoft released more junk with XP Home version. You should have paid for regular XP or stayed with Windows 2000. Most of our screens and forms work well with XP in default mode, but sometimes they don't. Internet Explorer is simply not a reliable, robust browser. You love Microsoft? Fine. Lets see if we can get you up on the road again with your Internet Explorer. Several users have suggested the following steps seem to work and they can get in and everything works even with XP Home Addition. So try following these step-by-step images and text and see if it works for you. If you have some other Operating System like XP Business or Windows 2000, you can try these settings, but normally you should be fine without jumping through hoops to make your computer work correctly. If you have Vista, we can't help you. It is known industry wide as the worst operating system Microsoft ever released, although Millenium is a close second. No point complaining...onward.
Note: the IMAGES below are just samples. The actual screen you see as you follow the instructions may be slightly different. Follow along with the instructions on the right Use the DOWN ARROW KEY to review each instruction and make changes to your own settings.	MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER SETTINGS You are determined to get your Internet Explorer to work. Great. But if this doesn't work out, please click here and install Firefox that does work, not just at this website but at most websites that Internet Explorer cannot visit due to a variety of problems. First Step Click the Start Button.
	Select Control Panel Settings.
	Select Internet Options
	Select Settings This button can be hard to find depending on the Version of Windows you are running.
	Select EVERY VISIT TO PAGE YOU MUST USE THIS SETTING WITH DHTML DHTML stands for Dynamic HTML which means that every time you visit a web page it may have NEW DATA on it. An example is a Report where one minute you are looking at a Wind Farm in Nebraska and the next minute you are looking at a Geothermal Plant in Thailand.
	This is the common mistake Microsoft can't do anything automatically without screwing it up. They aren't going to load a new page everytime and they can't detect when the data has changed. The only time you want to use AUTOMATIC or any other setting is if you are on Dial Up and loading a new version of a page everytime would take too long. Anyone with Broadband or any High Speed Connection should always load the newest version of every web page every time for the latest information.
	Under SECURITY SETTINGS TAB, sometimes just adjusting your Security Level to Medium works. Usually it doesn't, but you may want to try this first. Click OK and see if the tests above work. If not, onward....
	Under the Security Tab is a series of items to check. If all else fails, ENABLE EVERYTHING. Allowing BIll Gates the ability to protect you from computer problems is like allowing President Bush to protect you from Terrorists, Try the various settings as shown at left.









	After clicking OK and saving the Security Settings, click the ADVANCED TAB at the top and try these settings.





	If you have Internet Explorer carry out the process below to add GoldPactPower.com as a trusted website. Open up Internet Explorer, Click on the Tools Option on the toolbar, then click on 'Internet Options' choice. Click on the Security Tab at the top, you should see this image or similar. Click on the Trusted Sites icon and then click on the Sites Button, On the following screen enter *.goldpactpower.com in the text field provided below "Add this website to the zone:" You should have a screen showing something like this.
	Now click the Add button and it should move the text you entered into the bottom window as shown. Click the OK Button, and then click the OK Button on the next screen to complete adding goldpactpower.com as a trusted website. Check if you can login and use our site correctly now. We strongly suggest you also add eduhosting.org (our Kids Computer Kamp Free PCs for Kids affiliate) domain. Because we are their biggest sponsor, our web servers are managed by this group (and Terry and Craig volunteer time in the KCK labs). The KCK team has also worked with the University of Phoenix and Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. KCK has been providing free PCs for Kids since 1983. Finally, you should add the windgenzen.com website and any other affiliate websites you may be discussing windfarms with. If these changes did not solve the problems, carry on with the following steps.
	Try running the tests before doing this step. If it still won't work, use this step only when you are on our website or if you have a ROUTER. A ROUTER will act a a Firewall and prevent malicious attacks. If you don't have a Router or a Firewall, do not leave your settings like this. Under the Security Tab of your Internet Options, select CUSTOM LEVEL.
	Set it to the LOWEST SETTING. Try the tests again and see if things are running now. The problem is that Microsoft can't do anything without screwing up everything; their software is not debugged and even though VISTA is the worst operating system they ever released (although there are others nearly as bad), even their Security Features don't work. If your system works after making this change, here is what you did: you allowed us to run Javascript on your PC and access databases on our website. We didn't write data to your PC. We didn't change your PC. We simply ran Javascript on your PC which almost every website uses and which cannot access your data or change your files. Yet, the other Security Settings of XP wouldn't allow the scripts to run. That's because it was never tested and debugged correctly to work with Javascript that everyone else uses. When you are finished surfing our site, set this back to Medium or whatever level you believe will keep your PC safe. The only way to keep your PC safe is to use a Firewall and an Anti Virus program and never use Outlook. For all their Security Features, Microsoft Outlook is still the number one way to get a Virus. Microsoft isn't alone in their problems with bugs. Norton is pretty good, but McAffee is pure junk and many Anti Virus programs are poorly designed and cause more problems than they fix. Try the next section if you are still having problems.
	If you have any security programs installed such as McAfee / Nortons or any other Anti Virus / Security / Spyware programs, these can cause problems and as the quick search at Google shows, they are often full of bugs. We only looked at McAfee (which we know has problems), but all Anti Virus software causes problems. We suggest Norton and ZoneAlarm as two solutions that cause the least problems. Try to temporarily disable these while you use our site and see if any of these are causing the issue. If so it will probably be a setting within the program for cookies or scripts. So either disable that setting or add: goldpactpower.com, eduhosting.org and windgenzen.com us as a trusted source within the Anti Virus program. After all these setting changes, try the tests again If that doesn't work, consider Firefox (below) which is a little more reliable and is free. If that doesn't work, please either contact us or call us at 415-374-6674. We are here to help you, but if Bill Gates and his billion dollar team of software engineers (kids who can't code) can't fix Microsoft products, please don't expect that we can do it. ...we can only recommend you switch to a more reliable Browser. Try Firefox and see if you don't agree; it is a much better, much more reliable Internet Browser.
These suggestions are brought to you by someone who has run 3 computer stores and started writing software and fixing computers back when a 10 megabyte hard drive cost $500. You can ignore the advice, but here it is: DO NOT buy a new PC. Buy a used one with a guarantee that has Windows 2000 or XP on it. Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 is actually more robust. If you need a PC for full multimedia action get XP and use it as a personal PC. Your business PC should be the most reliable device you own and that probably means Windows 2000 and not ME, XP or Vista. If you are still on 95 or 98, please move up. "A Genentech Doctor is a neighbor of the CEO of GPP and was laughing about Vista, the new Microsoft release, saying "Unfortunately when a friend installs Vista and it crashes and asks how do I fix this, I have to tell them the upgrade for Vista is XP - the older version of Microsoft's operating system." We suggest that if you want something even more reliable, stick with Windows 2000 until Uncle Bill comes up with a more reliable OS than either XP or Vista. If you have XP Home Version you are doomed to crash and burn web sessions and life with a crippled computer. Sorry. We think they planned it that way so you'd have to buy XP pro and therefore have been forced to make two purchases instead of one: a dirty trick to tap into your wallet. DO NOT expect that Millenium, Vista or XP Home Version will ever work right. They are pure junk. You got ripped off by Microsoft and there is nothing you can do about it except get rid of it and get a copy of XP pro. DO NOT buy an Apple or Mac. Pure junk that doesn't belong in the business world and we've had some nasty arguments with Apple heads who issue documents from their PC that simply aren't compatible with Microsoft and can't be read easily by the rest of the world. Sure, apples and Macs are great for photo and music processing. Sure, you can make it work with the rest of the world with enough adjustments, but hardware is more expensive, technical support is more expensive (and hard to find) and it just isn't the dream machine as advertised, although their swtch to a Unix OS was a step in the right direction. Where are you going to get a fully functional business PC for $50? Not an Apple or a Mac, but there are plenty of PCs out there in that price range that will do the job nicely. DO NOT run a PC without a hard Firewall in between your computer and the Internet. A router is a great item for $40 that can save you all kinds of problems. DO NOT download emails with Outlook. That is the fastest way to get a virus on Earth. Outlook is junk. Get your emails online. DO NOT visit Porn Sites. If you want to find every nasty virus in the world, the funny thing is, like disease, many of them come from Porn sites. DO NOT let your kids install game software they got at school. At lot of that stuff also has Viruses and problems in it. DO let your kids have their own PC. That way if they wreck it they can learn how to fix it at a Kids Computer Kamp lab and then you have your own Tech at home who can keep your PC alive too...a very smart idea. DO try Firefox. It will fix 99% of the Browser problems you are having with Internet Explorer.