What's this ?

[glenbar]

Please could someone tell me what the following is and if I can get rid of it. An icon has appeared on my desktop called hwids. When I click on it it is hwids notepad. Dont want to get rid of it in case it is something important.
Thank you

[ACtheTROLL]

The file is, I think a HardWareID (if you liio at the properties you should see it's got a .dat extension

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272

just why or how one has ended up on your desktop is a mistery
can you think of anything you've done or installed recently?

I think you can delete it safely
(don't empty the recycle bin for a couple of days - that way you can recover it)

[glenbar]

Thanks for the reply. The only thing I can think of is when I was trying to find out about downloading drivers as my sound has gone since my PC had a healthcheck at PC World. Needless to say they didn't want to know and told me to get on to support. I thought it may be the driver so looked into some sites . Unfortunately I was being my usual daft self as I really dont know what I am doing.

[ACtheTROLL]

That would probably do it
Good old PCW

If you know the make of soundcard - it is pretty easy
first check that they haven't just muted your sound!
then check your speakers are plugged in correctly
(duh - I know ... but if the machine has been away .....)
if no joy
go to control panel | system | Hardware | Device manager
and remove any audio entries
restart the machine
let windows sort itself out .... it should detect and re-install the sound card

if no joy
Download the latest drivers
if not ... and you have the original CD - go with that

uninstall the soundcard with add remove progs (if it's there)
restart windows - cancel if win detects new hardware
install the drivers.

if still no joy .....
I'd check to see that the card is seated cotrrectly on the mobo (ignore this if you have integrated sound ;-()

[glenbar]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to be thick but what are the audio entries. I dont want to get rid of something vital.
I have gone through all the procedure with device manager and it says everything is working correctly. By the way my speakers are in my monitor.