Nick via email asks:
Hello Aunty.

Since my second hand laptop takes a ridiculously long time to start up and I tend to leave it on 'standby' when not in use, regularly when I prod it awake, although the flashing 'disc' indicator seems to show it is doing something, exactly what is not apparent since it hasn't bothered to switch on its screen. Is there anything I can do to get round this apart from turning the whole thing off and back on, then going to make a cup of tea while it yawns, scratches itself and generally puts off the evil hour of staggering into life and doing something useful?

The machine is an ancient, though otherwise excellent, IBM ThinkPad running XP Pro.
Aunty Says:
Almost certainly in need of some extra RAM Mick. Plenty of usable RAM (or memory) is probably the most important requirement for Windows to run happily, and by usable I mean, not used up by loads of programs and startup functions of Windows. This can be a bit complicated to get right so maybe give eNET Computers a call on 687 362 844 for some advice and possibly drop the old girl into a technician to have a look.

Pam via email asks:
Dear Aunty, I have a Windows 7 netbook and I only use it for basic use. My problem is that I have used it in the UK and here in Spain on WiFi but I have problems trying to connect to the network via a dial-up connection with our local telephone provider, it seems I need a modem to do this. Can you tell me if this is correct?
Aunty Says:
Hi Pam. Yes you do need a modem to connect to the internet using the old dialup method over your phone line. Due to the sheer size of websites these days this type of connection is almost unusable and this has pretty well made modems redundant, hence why they are almost completely left off laptops. You can still buy USB dialup modems from ebay (not to be confused with the mobile SIM type) for around €10, but you may find the Internet too slow to use.

Miriam via email asks:
Good Morning Aunty, I have Windows 7 and my problem is that I want to uninstall Windows Live Mail and obtain my emails from Google mail. I have been to Control Panel, Programs, Uninstall Programs but I cannot find Windows Mail on the list. Please what next?
Aunty Says:
Hello Miriam. 

You should see Windows Live Essentials in the remove programs section and Live mail is bundled with this. When you choose to uninstall it will give you the option to select which components of Live Essentials you no longer want, I personally uninstalled all of it.

Les via email asks:
Hi Aunty, I have used IE (Internet Explorer) for a long time and I recently downloaded Google Chrome which appears to be faster. However, I have no 'favourites' list in Chrome and can't find a way of including this so have to revert to IE if I want to access my favourites. How can I overcome this problem and remove IE from my programs? The other program I have looked at is Opera, is this a better choice?
Aunty Says:
You can do this from the tools icon (looks like a spanner) in the top right corner. Click on ‘options’ ‘personal stuff’ and ‘browsing data’. This will give you the option to select your old browser (IE in your case) and select what you want to import.

Carol via email asks:
Hello Aunty. I'm using Windows XP and cannot get into the Ryanair website. It started using a security check where you have to type letters into a box. The trouble is the letters don't show up on my system so instead I get a message saying “I don't have permission to access this if using an automated program”.
I don't know what this means & if I am using an automated program! My husband has Windows 7 on his system and he is able to see and type the jumbled letters into the box and access the website. I have tried to contact Ryanair but haven’t had any reply, can you help?
Aunty Says:
Those letter type pictures that we see more and more of are known as CAPTCHA, and are there to stop spammers from using a computer program to gain access to certain areas of websites or create hundreds of dummy accounts to use for their skulduggery (hence the ‘automated program’). The CAPTHCA function on a lot of websites is often written using Java or Flash and can be blocked by your browser as a potentially dangerous popup. You haven’t mentioned which browser you are using Carol so I’m assuming IE and you can normally change these settings from the ‘tools’ ‘options’ menu. It can be a little tricky so if you’re not too confident doing that then try installing Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox or Opera and see if that works. Let me know how you get on.

Ask Aunty all your questions over in her forum.