Windows is a CLOSED source operating system. It is made by a software developing company known as Microsoft. Nobody except Microsoft has much of an idea of what goes on behind the scenes of Microsoft Windows at all, no matter what they might tell you. Microsoft Windows was originally based on a primitive operating system which imitated a few of the features of UNIX, BSD and similar operating systems. Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft DOS, were an attempt to bring computing to the small business and the home user by cutting costs and removing features that were too difficult, or too unnecessary, to deal with at the time.

Back to the present day. After twenty years, Microsoft Windows still contains ALL the flaws that have been allowed to build up in it, all in the name of backwards compatibility (meaning that the system can run programs that are significantly older than itself, and which were designed to run on a previous version), and the punchline to this huge joke is that nobody can fix the problem because Microsoft will not let anybody see the source code that goes to make up their operating system.

All this adds up to the following: I cannot fix your problem, YOU cannot fix your problem, not even the best computer 'guru' in the world can fix your problem. Nobody knows how to fix your problem. You have five choices. They are:

A) Search the web for an answer to your problem. Maybe you will get lucky and somebody else will have had the same problem. You should not spend too much time on this choice since you are more likely to find thousands of other people with the same problem than you are to find an actual solution.

B) Ask people. Visit web discussion boards and chatrooms and hang out in your local computer shop or other geek hangout hoping that some whizzkid will know the answer to your query. While this might seem to be more promising than A) at first glance, don't hold your breath. Somebody who is perceived as a computer 'guru' has got a reputation to uphold, and so will wax lyrical to you whether he knows the answer or not.

C) Reinstall, reinstall, reinstall again. This is often standard practice with Microsoft Windows, and is often the advice you will get from many seasoned Windows diehards. I will refrain from commenting on the quality or reliability of an operating system that needs to be completely reinstalled just to function correctly.

D) Call Microsoft support, or send Microsoft an email asking for assistance. This one is so ludicrous that many windows users do not even take it seriously. Nevertheless, if you *really* believe that windows can do everything you want it to, then you have every right to ask Microsoft for assistance. You will find that they have a huge website, and you will find that they make their telephone and other contact details readily available to you. It is standard procedure for Microsoft to charge you by the minute for any technical assistance they may attempt to provide, so do not be alarmed if the first thing they ask you for is your credit card details. It might also be worth noting that you are required to pay for their services regardless of whether or not they actually help you in any way. I will refrain from mentioning anything about the expediency of a help service that charges by the minute.

E) Get rid of Windows, get a different operating system. Sound radical? Well whether it is or not, hundreds, or possibly thousands do this daily. There are many to choose from, most are much more stable and reliable than Microsoft Windows, many are open source (meaning that anybody and their dog can see how the system works, and so every problem can be instantly fixed once it has been spotted), many are free of charge, and the main ones can all share your computer with Windows (although why you would want to keep Windows on here after your little mishap is beyond me). Free and open source operating systems include GNU, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and a variety of others. These will all run on an Intel or AMD home computer and there are several versions of Linux that run on an Apple Macintosh. Many companies, such as Red Hat, SuSE, Turbolinux and Mandrake will provide you with an operating system and support for a fraction of the price that Windows currently retails at. Other good quality operating systems include MacOS, RiscOS, Darwin, BeOS, UNIX and Sun Solaris, which run on a variety of different computers including, but not limited to, Apple Macintosh and AMD/Intel computers.