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Q: Yesterday, when my husband booted up his laptop it had the sound, wireless and Network shut off. Also, it was put back to the Windows 7 classic version, which I thought was easy enough to correct but everything in the personalize was all greyed out. I discovered that everything in the start-up menu was disabled as well as all of his services in MSCONFIG. I got those turned on and did a Restore back to June 12. When it came up everything was back to normal. A little bit later the Network was shut off again and everything froze up. He couldn’t play any games or anything. I ran virus scans, clean disk and defragmenter. How can I turn his network back on? I just can’t find it. I’m planning to run Malware Bytes and another Restore. Is there any suggestions you can give me as to what to do next? I spent all day yesterday working on it and I’m at my wits ends. Thank-you for all your help over the years (still an Official Geek).

– Judie D.
Navarre, Florida

A:  Sure, Judie – but the real test is: do you still have the business card that I autographed for you the day I declared you an “Official Geek”? By the way, that title is good only in the 48 contiguous states, and is void wherever prohibited, taxed, or regulated.

Okay, enough frivolity! On to your problem. First of all, it sounds like your husband’s system is either a victim of Microsoft’s “Patch Tuesday” or some very tricky malware. I’m trending toward the former. Second, if you did things in the order you say you did, it sounds like you enabled a bunch of stuff via MSCONFIG, then proceeded to overwrite those changes by restoring your system to an earlier state (as it was on Spouse Peripheral’s birthday). Depending on the cause of the problem, one of two things then happened: either the restore undid a bum patch, which then re-installed itself (thereby re-instituting the problem) or, the malware took hold again, and re-broke your system. I trust that you know enough about how to scan for malware that I’m not going to address that further.

At this point, I’m a little stumped by the terminology “the network was shut off” and “how can I turn his network back on”, which could mean several things. Since this is a laptop, I hope you’re simply talking about its wireless Network Interface Card, or NIC. Look first for a physical switch or button on the laptop that turns the NIC on and off. Failing that, look for a key combination, probably accessed using the laptop’s “Fn” key that toggles the WiFi on and off. If the problem is not WiFi-related, try looking at the network in general, by going to Control Panel and clicking on “Network and Sharing Center”. Among the items of interest to you on this screen will be links to connect or disconnect from networks this machine is attached to, and a link labeled “Troubleshoot problems” that may help you to diagnose more specific things than I’m able to handle here in the column.

Assuming you’re able to get the system back online, and assuming it is an automatic update that keeps breaking it, you then need to find out which update is the culprit. About the only way I can think of to do that is to temporarily disable automatic updates, then go out in install available updates one at a time until the system breaks again. Keep restore points in between updates, so you can go back and fix it, and don’t be surprised if you make it through all the updates without causing the problem again. Sometimes the order in which things install can be the problem.

Q: I am running Windows Vista on HP Pavilion 6219h. All of sudden cannot open any links. Get message: “Application failed to start because side by side config is incorrect. Please see Application event log for more detail”. I don’t know how to find that log but probably would not help me anyway. I hope that you can help.

– Larry B.
Fort Walton Beach, Florida

A: Oh, so you’re the guy! I’d heard there was someone out there still running Vista! I kid, of course, but seriously, give some thought to upgrading. The only good thing about Vista was that it endeared XP to so many users.

What you are experiencing is malware. Not only that, but poorly built malware, which (probably fortunately for you) isn’t compatible with your computer’s configuration (that darn Vista!). I won’t go into details about what the side by side configuration means (also known as SXS) but for those Geeks who want to do some independent study try reading the article at tinyurl.com/nghy6xj. Warning! Discussion of SXS is packed with jargon from a software engineer’s point of view, so non-engineers venturing to read about it are subject to being quickly put to sleep! You were warned.

The only way to solve your problem, Larry, is to track down and remove the offending malware. I’ve talked about this in many previous issues of I.G.T.M., and am out of room for this week. Hit up the column archive over on my website for more information on general malware removal.