The best Wintel how to advice? Get a Mac

Dear Bloggie:

I have a win2k pro desktop system. Whenever I use the drag-and-drop feature, particularly with the ramdrive, the drag-and-drop usually stops working, and will not start working again in any application until after a re-boot. Any ideas why?

Signed:

booted in client-server land

Dear booted:

Well, Dana is sympathetic, here's what he said:

Oh, do I hate Windows 2000! I had two PCs here running it for some time. They belonged to my children.

If I had a dime for every day one or the other kid would come to me and say "the Internet is broke" I'd be Bill Gates rich. (Well, off the street anyway.)

As to the specific question, what appears to be happening is you're accessing memory in two different ways for different purposes and Windows 2000 is getting confused by it all.

Windows is notorious for sticking stuff in high memory. Often it's stuff you don't need, or even want. Some comes from Microsoft, but Microsoft vendors are also involved (even Apple).

One way to find out what's really going on in your PC is with a $35 utility I reviewed a few months ago called

Your problem might come down to over-use of memory by other programs. The program tells you how to unload those features from start-up, keep your PC memory clear, and (hopefully) speed things up a little.

Paul, on the other hand, isn't the least bit sympathetic. Here's what he said:

Sorry, we should have been clearer. Bloggie only does Windows how to stuff when he's really bored - and your question nicely illustrates why we'd generally rather not.

It's too hard, it's fact it's impossible. A ten second google search turns up several pages of possible explanations each of which ultimately depends on some aspect of your set-up and behavior - none of which we can see, and none of which we can control.

On the other hand, we're always happy to give good advice so here it is: want drag and drop to work all the time? Get a Mac.