q+a I am a student with limited pocket money for Internet data usage on my laptop. I have turned off automatic updates in all of the installed applications. Despite this my Internet data are being used in the background. My laptop is a Sony Vaio (SVE15123CNW) and OS is Windows 8.1. What is eating up my data?

Harshit Agarwal

Luckily, Windows 8.1 allows you to monitor and limit Internet data. If you are on a WiFi or mobile network you can set the connection to metered and automatically curtail data usage. Go to Settings—Change PC Settings. Click on Network—Connections. Find the connection of your choice and set it as metered. You can also make it to measure your data usage. Setting a connection as metered will allow Windows to only download priority updates and stop downloads from the Windows Store. Also updates of Start screen tiles will be stopped.

Next turn off Sync settings and limit data usage in the background. For this once more navigate to Settings—Change PC Settings and click on OneDrive. Choose Metered connections and under Sync settings turn off both sliders. Also under the settings for PC and Devices click on Devices and stop the download of all device drivers.

You cannot set Ethernet network connections to metered. If you are on an Ethernet connection then head to the Windows Store and download a very useful app called Data Usage. With this you will always know how much data you have consumed each day.

System restore

q+a Whenever I start my Window 7 Ultimate computer I am told Windows cannot find “pleasewait.exe”. How can I fix this problem?

Ananya Khanra

Some system files in Windows seems to have developed errors. This usually happens if your computer has just recovered from a virus attack or because of faulty installation of applications. Even an improper shutdown can lead to errors in system files.

Restart your computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key when the computer restarts. Log in as an administrator. Go to Start—All Programs—Accessories—System Tools and click on System Restore. In the new window, select “Restore my computer to an earlier time” and click on Next. Select a system restore point when your computer was fine and click on Next. Confirm your selection and the computer will restart when it is restored.

Too big

q+a Whenever I start my computer the Windows logon screen is magnified beyond my liking. How do I set it back to normal?

Adnan Ansari

The Windows Magnifier tool must have got turned on by mistake. Go to Start—Control Panel—Ease of Action Center. Click on ‘Make the computer easier to see’. Remove the checkmark next to ‘Turn on Magnifier’. Close everything and restart your machine. Everything should be fine now.

Windows defender

q+a I am currently using Windows 8.1 and I had turned off Windows Defender. Now I want to turn it on to check for malicious software but whenever I try to do it, I get a message saying ‘the app has been turned off and isn’t monitoring your computer’. What do I do?

Debanjan Baidya

Windows Defender is turned off whenever you install a third-party anti-virus program. It is recommended that you leave the setting as it is. If you still want to enable it go to Settings—Control Panel—System and Security—Action Centre. On the Action Center window, under Security click the ‘Turn on now’ button for ‘Spyware and unwanted software protection (Important)’ or for ‘Virus protection (Important)’. When the ‘Turn on now’ button for either of the options is clicked, Windows Defender is activated.

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