FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  590 (20/11/07)

Q. Can you recommend any reasonable priced software to straighten a digital photograph that is a few degrees out of vertical? I have taken a photo of a doorway at the House of Commons and it would look much better if it were vertical.

David Shepherd, via email

A. I think you will agree that you cannot get more reasonably priced than free, gratis and for nothing, because that's the price of two excellent programs called Picasa and PhotoFiltre (links to both at: http://tinyurl.com/yuxms7).

Picasa is simply the best photo manager and viewer program there is and in addition to a number of simple but highly effective editing tools it has a really easy to use 'Straighten' facility (under Basic Fixes).

PhotoFiltre is a more advanced image editing program and I use it in preference to commercial applications for most of my picture editing jobs. PhotoFiltre's picture controls are very accessible and easy to use, and it's almost worth getting to know it just for the Gamma Correction option, which fixes all sorts of problems with overly light or dark images. In amongst the tools (on the Image menu) there's picture 'Rotate', which will spin your snaps one way or the other in increments of 0.5 degrees.

Q. I have recently purchased a 8Gb flash drive (manufacturer unknown) for use on a PC running Vista Home Premium. When inserted, Vista does not recognize it as new hardware and when viewed on the device manager screen, it shows up as an unknown device, which is not configured properly (code 1). Windows cannot update drivers for it because of this. It works perfectly on our other PCs running XP and Vista Home Basic. Any ideas?

Chris Drinkall, via email

A. I have come across several USB drives and devices that stubbornly refuse to work with Vista but are recognised straight away with XP, and the same Vista PC will work happily with other devices, so it's not a hardware fault. It appears to be a bug in Vista and I have a couple of fixes and workarounds that usually fix the problem.

In Device Manager right-click the 'Unknown Device' and select Uninstall and this will force Windows into having another go at locating the correct driver.

If Vista responds when you plug the drive in but says it cannot find a driver or asks for a CD then use the Browse button to direct it to: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\usbstore.inf (make sure the item 'Include subfolders' in the Browse window is checked). Windows should now install the correct driver.

If that doesn't work then there might be a conflict with missing, corrupt of differing versions of the usbstore.inf file. The solution is use Computer or Windows Explorer to open Go to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository, scroll down the lost and look for a file called usbstor.inf, and if there's more than one of them double click on the most recent one. Inside you will find another file called usbstor.inf, right click on it and select Copy, now make your way to C:\Windows\Inf and Paste (Ctrl + V) the file into it. Reinsert the device and if you still see an error message saying that it cannot find a driver use the Browse button to direct it to the C:\Windows\Inf folder.

Q. Whenever I click on a hyperlink in an Outlook email I get the following error message: 'This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator'. Outlook is being used through an Exchange server. The browser is IE 6. Operating system is XP Professional. No other computer in the firm suffers this problem, I'm told. Our system administrator says he has never seen this before and does not know what may be causing it.

Andrew Miller, via email

A. Your System Administrator is excused from not knowing every Outlook error message off by heart, but there's no excuse for not being able to use Google. It took me precisely 30 seconds, using the keywords 'outlook hyperlinks restrictions' to find Microsoft Knowledgebase article 310049. This explains in some detail what causes the problem (a corrupt or missing Registry key) and how to fix it, which basically involves resetting web settings in Internet Explorer, or importing the errant key from another PC.

Q. Is there a way of re-ordering the descriptions shown under 'All Programs' in Windows XP? They seem to be in order of installation, but I would rather they be in alphabetical order.

Nigel Cavey, via email

A. Indeed there is and all you have to do is open All Programs, right click on the first entry and select 'Sort By Name' and it's done.

Q. I recently purchased a Nebula Electronics TV card. Their web site said 'The Asus A7V880 motherboard will not allow installation of any other Fusion drivers'. I have a different model of motherboard (Asus P5S800VM) so I took it that I was OK.

However loading the drivers lead to my computer crashing and the eventual reinstalling of all programs. Not a process I wish to repeat. I have tried, prior to purchasing an alternative to obtain confirmation that the respective cards will work OK in my machine. Sadly no manufacturer has seen fit to answer my emails. Can you please tell me if there are any other PCI TV cards, which may present me with compatibility issues?

Mick Woodhall, West Midlands

A. The trouble is the permutations of motherboard, CPU and memory are almost endless and that's without considering BIOS and firmware, operating system and potential conflicts from other programs and drivers running on your PC, so I have to say I'm not too surprised by the lack of response from the manufacturers, no-one wants to commit themselves. However, there is another solution, and that's to use a USB TV tuner module. Apart from being a lot easier to install they tend not to suffer from major compatibility problems. Freeview Digital tuners also happen to be a lot cheaper than analogue types, and all the ones I've seen come with EPG and recording software, so you can turn your PC into an advanced media centre.

If you have a computer problem write to: fff@telegraph.co.uk

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(c) R. Maybury 2007 3010