Welcome to Mightor Industries, Inc. ™

Welcome to our little corner of the internet.  We’ve actually been around on and off for the last 10 years (Read about our history).  In that amount of time, there have been several versions of the site.  I believe this iteration is the best yet.

Mightor Industries is a site that is focused on all kinds of computer technology, both old and new. We cover a variety of topics, including computer support issues (either that we’ve encountered or that another user may have run into), the latest news in computer technology and issues related it, and commentary on different areas of IT and computer technology (because every once in awhile, you just have to vent).

The staff at MI (currently just Greg and I) are both very passionate about technology, having worked with it in detail for quite a few years (started in MS-DOS and worked our way forward).  Fortunately for both of us, not only is technology our hobby, but also our job.  Every day, we get all kinds of exposure to a wide variety of computing technology, as well as our fair share of issues that plague both IT experts and end users alike.  We’re not experts in every area of IT, but chances are, if we don’t know the answer, we’ll be able to point you in the right direction.  Our goal is to share our computing knowledge with you.  We know full well how it is to have an issue and spend hours and hours trying to find a solution (because let’s face it, as good as Google is, if the documentation isn’t out there, solving the problem can take a lot more time).  We want to provide you with good, detailed information and knowledge about the issues we’ve come across during our adventures (or misadventures) with these machines.

In addition to our daily site posts, we also have a community forum (accessible from the top menu, the sidebar or here), where users can participate in all sorts of discussions, both on and off the topics related to the technological world.  As well as a discussion center, the forum also functions wonderfully as an archive of support issues.  As we grow, the number of issues reported (and hopefully solved) will grow.  Over time, this will become a repository that any of you can use to search for a possible solution to a potential issue.  We tend to find that some things require a lot of research to solve and when we find the solution, we publish it (One example of that).  We highly encourage all of you   (even if not registered) to join in the different discussions happening throughout the site.  Every site post links to the forum and new forum topics can be created easily.

With the latest redesign, we’ve added social networking to our repertoire of site features, in order to keep you up to date with the latest happenings.  We’re fairly active (as time allows) on Facebook and Twitter, but can also be found on Google+.   The real gem about social networking is that there are items we post on our social networking sites that are not often published on the site, such as articles and resources we find during our adventures in IT.  The site also comes complete with a fairly active sidebar, which I like to call the “Activity Center”, since it displays all of our latest happenings (including site posts, forum posts, and tweets).

When you find you can’t get enough of Mightor Industries, there are several options for you.  One is that you can subscribe to our RSS feed to get the latest and greatest posts as soon as we publish them.  We also encourage user registration, which can be done using your existing Facebook, Twitter, Google or Open ID account.  If you don’t have any of these, not to worry.  You can also register with a unique username, outside of any of the above mentioned account types. As mentioned above, we’re on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.  Our site is also accessible from most mobile devices through a web browser, simply by going to http://www.mightorindustries.net.

If you have a question, feel free to visit the forum and ask.  We’re always open to questions and will respond as quickly as we can.  If you have suggestions on how we can improve the site, there is a completely separate section in the forum just for suggestions.  Remember, you do not have to be a registered member to use the forum.  We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Tech Tip: Accessing Your Desktop Icons From the Taskbar

Forum Discussion - Tech Tip: Accessing Your Desktop Icons From the Taskbar - 1 post(s)

Let’s say you have several windows open and you need to access something you have from your desktop.  You have a couple of options here.  You can always use the Show Desktop button, which will minimize all of your windows (Windows Key + D, for you keyboard lovers).  However, if your desktop has become cluttered with icons, as many of ours do over time (since it’s a convenient place to put things), sometimes it becomes difficult to weed through the iconic mess.  One way to look at the desktop a different way is to make your desktop accessible from the task bar at the bottom of the screen. To do so, complete the following:

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Tech Tip: Adding Ctrl + Alt + Delete to Your Login Screen

Forum Discussion - Tech Tip: Adding Ctrl + Alt + Delete to Your Login Screen - 1 post(s)

There’s very little doubt that if you are running on a work computer, you’ve seen the screen that says “Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on”.  In Windows NT based OS’s (including XP and 7), this is known as the Secure Attention Sequence.  The idea is that you can only get to a proper login screen once you’ve hit this key sequence, which is designed to prevent login spoofing (a process that is pretending to be the login process but actually is not).  To add this sequence requirement to the login screen, complete the following.

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Tech Tip: Opening a CD/DVD Drive Manually

Forum Discussion - Tech Tip: Opening a CD/DVD Drive Manually - 1 post(s)

Like any piece of machinery, at some point, your CD/DVD drive will probably get stuck for one reason or another.  Of course, when it sticks, you’ll have an important disk in there (like your OS restore disc) stuck in the drive.  Fortunately, there is a way for you to get the CD/DVD out of the drive.  All you need is a paperclip.

NOTE: Before trying the following steps, we recommend you reboot your computer first.  Often times, the drives will stick because either the PC or Windows thinks the drive is in use.  If a reboot has not fixed the issue, try the following:

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Tech Tip: Run Command in Start Menu on Windows 7

Forum Discussion - Tech Tip: Run Command in Start Menu on Windows 7 - 1 post(s)

In Windows 7, Microsoft removed the Run command option from the Start menu.  I know for me, this was almost a huge loss.  However, the reason Microsoft did that is that they added a Search box at the bottom of the Start menu.  While it functions fairly similarly to the Run command, its not exactly the same.  You can always access the Run command option by hitting the Windows Key + R, but if you prefer to have it in your Start menu, here’s how you get it back.

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A Hardware Horror Story

This is not going to be a long post, but just something I thought I would point out from my own experience that could save someone else some major headaches.

It all began in 2003.  I had bought my new gaming computer (customized myself, but pre-built from Monarch Computers [who are no longer in business]), which was an AMD64 Athlon 2800+ and it ran great for several months.  Then, in early 2004, the computer just stopped powering on.  Thinking it was the power supply, I went forward and purchased an Ultra X-Connect modular PSU.  Well, after a lot of testing, I found out the board died (was later replaced).  Unfortunately, the real nightmare did not start until mid-2006, when I started having corrupt video issues (I had an ATI Radeon X850 in the computer that was only 6 months old).  Then it snow-balled into issues with Windows, and me thinking either the primary HDD or motherboard was failing.

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