How do you solve technical problems (without using Minion Bandaids!)

I am still planning on sharing pictures of the night sky but, to take pictures of something other than clouds, there has to be both a night when I am still awake and where the sky is clear. Those conditions have not existed for the past five or six days. In part because after a couple of long days this week I fell asleep before the sun went down. The other because the nights I was away the sky was gray. I am ready to go, but need a clear sky!

It can be a balancing act sometimes, trying to find the time to use technology. When you start at 4 in the morning, sometimes it is hard to remain functional 14 hours or later.

OK, rapid Tech Wiz subject change. I had an issue on one of my computers the other day. I ran into the known issue of the Start Menu not working in Windows 10. I started off my troubleshooting by researching a little. The easy button for modern researching is to head out to the internet, and frankly, if you are going to search the internet, Google Search is the best starting point. I searched start menu and a variety of variations. (Start Menu won’t open windows 10, the fatal error must log out windows 10) And soon! There are several options to consider when trying to solve this specific problem. The first is to hit control-alt-delete and launch task manager. Select the file option, and run a new task. Click the dialogue box that says run as administrator and type Powershell in the window. Hit return, this will launch the PowerShell window. Then when you see the flashing cursor, type the following: SFC /SCANNOW. SFC is the System file checker, and the applications will compare your installed windows with Microsoft’s known version.

There are some other steps after that first one. The thing that fixed my issue was removing the Dropbox application. Doing that, rerunning the SFC /SCANNOW process a second time was perfect. I did also try reinstalling Cortana (based on another article), but that also didn’t work. That got me thinking about the concept of troubleshooting. The last question in the poll today is how do you troubleshoot. I know for example that my wife normally starts troubleshooting by asking me. If I don’t know, I go look it up. I start with Google but wander to the manufacturer website if I cannot find the solution on Google. There is no right answer to how to solve technical problems, there are many options, and you have to do what works for you!