2006 PC Doctor Columns use the edit...find... button to find a word or topic.
December 26, 2006
Dear PC Doctor:
I have been ScanDisking once a week forever. I have Windows 98SE. Suddenly about a month ago, when I do the Crtl,Alt,Del to get rid of running programs, the computer "freezes up". Any idea of why this is happening??
CR
Dear CR:
As I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, I consulted with a couple of other computer people and they are in agreement about a couple of things. One is that you are using a computer that runs Win98SE which is a very old operating system and from the sounds of it may be trying to run modern day programs which the computer can’t handle and is now balking at. Of course the solution to this is to consider reformatting the computer and seeing if you can upgrade to better specs and operating system like Windows XP or alternatively, just getting a new computer.
The second thing is that both suspect that the computer OS / registry is probably corrupted. This could easily have been caused by using “ctrl-alt-del” to get rid of running programs. This is usually a last resort step since it stops the computer dead in its tracks so to speak. It’s the old – which came first, the chicken or the egg – meaning, was the registry corrupted so you had to use ctrl-alt-delete or did using that all the time cause the registry to become corrupted. Either way, it needs to be fixed. In Windows 98 it is possible to use regedit to edit and clean up the registry, but this is tricky business and should only be done by someone who knows what they are doing. Microsoft has instructions on using regedit on their website (www.microsoft.com) if you feel you want to try however I would not recommend it. Good luck.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
After using my computer for a year, I seem to have acquired a number of icons on my desktop that I don’t want or need. However when I try to delete them, a box pops up and asks if I really want to send it to the recycle bin. I’m not sure how to answer that because I don’t want to delete the program from my computer but I want to clean up all the stuff on the desktop. What should I do?
Bea
Dear Bea:
Don’t worry about this, just go ahead and say yes. The computer just wants to make sure that you really want to delete the icon. It is not deleting the program, just the icon from the desktop. If you want to double check, delete it and then go to the Start button, click Programs and then find the one you ‘think’ you deleted and try to open it. It should be there and working fine. Then you can go to your Recycle Bin and double click on it and you should see the deleted icon in there.
If for some reason you decide you want the icon back, just click on the icon (in the recycle bin) to highlight it and then right click on it and select ‘restore’. You can also chose ‘restore this item’ from the left hand column in the box. Just remember that once you empty the recycle bin, the icon will be gone for good. (The reason you would empty the recycle bin regularly is to free up some hard drive space.)
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
How do I turn off that annoying box that pops up whenever the Internet connection messes up? You know the one that asks whether I want to send the report of the problem to Microsoft. Like they are seriously going to look at those reports. I don’t think they do and I don’t want to see that box anymore.
Thanks for your help. Abby
Dear Abby:
Well, I agree with you! To turn it off, either right click on the My Computer icon (if it’s on your desktop) and select Properties or go to the Start button, choose Control Panel and double click the System icon. In the box that opens, click the ‘advanced’ tab and then find the ‘error reporting’ button. Now you can choose ‘disable error reporting’. Click the OK button and that message should stop.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Why do I keep getting this message "You are not authorized to view this page" when I visit some websites? They look like regular websites and I know my friends go to some of them and they don’t get the message. Why isn’t the site letting me look around?
Pam
Dear Pam:
One of the problems may be that the website you want to look at requires that you sign up as a member. This can be for a number of reasons, for example, to track users so that new information can be forwarded to your email or to sell your name to other advertisers or so the site can adjust their information based on users’ habits. Regardless of the reason, the bottom line is that they have coded the website and you must register to use it. If you want to use it and it is free, then just register. Do note whether there is a box (usually near the bottom) that asks whether you want to receive ‘additional or periodic emails about new products or services’. Unless you want to get more advertising emails, be sure to uncheck that box.
Another explanation may be in the browser you are using. I don’t know which one you are using, but perhaps you can try a different one to see if there is something in your current browser that is causing the problem. If you’re using Internet Explorer, then try Mozilla Firefox or Netscape. If you go to www.netscape.com or www.mozilla.com , you can download the free version of their browser.
You can also ask your friends if they use a particular website because of their work or have a special password for some reason. For example colleges have websites that are open to the public, but certain pages are restricted only to their students or professors. These pages display the message you are mentioning, however if you were a student there, you would get the password from school in order to access that section.
Hopefully one of these will be the answer you are looking for.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I was playing a game on my computer when the screen went black then
came back on with the game. When I closed the game my desk top had
changed. All my icons were gone...and whatever I opened was in large
print. When I tried to send new icons to the desk top I couldn't do
it...the computer wouldn't let me. I did make what I do open smaller
like it was before the problem. Can you help me get my icons back
and help me understand what happened?
Thank you,
Marcia
Dear Marcia:
This sounds like a classic case of the screen resolution being changed without the user consent. Computer games often require different screen resolutions to run properly. Sometimes the resolution change is marginal so a combination of the computer and video card are able to accommodate the needs of the program. When a large difference in screen resolution is encountered the computer will use its best judgment and try to compensate for what is required of it. This usually ends with the computer realizing it can not handle the requests in front of it and reverts the desktop to a super inflated size. The usual solution for this involves making sure the video game you are attempting to run is satisfied by the specification on the machine you are trying to use it on. Many modern day games require better than your typical bare bones stock video card offered on many new computers and the user ends up upgrading their video card to something higher end. The other possibility is that your video card is going and you’ll need to replace it. Unless you are very familiar with changing cards, you may want to have a professional or knowledgeable friend take a look.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor,
When some people send me pictures they are huge. I would like to know how they can make them smaller. My problem is where I live I can only get dialup. I have verizon and can't get all the pictures because they keep coming in over and over. The attachment is too big for dialup to handle. I have to go into webmail and delete them in order to stop them from trying to come in. Do you have any advice?
Thanks, Al
Dear Al:
Have your friends go to the Start button and choose My Pictures from the right hand column. Find the photo that they want to send and right click on it. From the drop down menu choose Send To and from the next drop down select Mail Recipient. A small box will open up and they will want to place a check in the radio button for ‘Make my pictures smaller’. Click OK.
This will attach the picture to an open message box. Type in the recipient’s email address, type any message and then click Send. This smaller picture should be easier on the receiver’s mailbox!
Also if they want to send several pictures from the same group, just click on the first picture, hold down the shift key and click on the last picture. This method allows them to select a group to send. Then follow the procedure from above.
Hope this works for you.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I just bought a new computer and the background when the screen is up is blatant commercialism for the company that made the computer (no names mentioned of course). I would like to change it to something more pleasing. Can you tell me how to go about that? Thanks
Joyce
Dear Joyce:
This is very easy to do. Close any programs you have running or minimize them so that you have a clear desktop. Then on a ‘blank’ area (any place that there is no writing or icons) just right click with your mouse. From the drop down menu that appears, choose Properties. In the dialogue box that opens, select the Desktop tab. Scroll through the ‘background’ choices to see if there are any that appeal to you. You can even click the Browse button and find your My Pictures folder to see if there are any of your own personal photographs that you might like to have as your desktop picture.
Next make your choice and click the Apply button to see how it would look on your screen. If you like it, then click the OK button which will close out the box.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I installed a new dial up service for my husband on his computer and the name that showed up on the icon for the desktop is some weird name that I know he won’t understand or remember. I’d like to change the icon name to something easy, like ‘double click here for Internet’. Is there a way to change a name?
Pat
Dear Pat:
Yes, just right click on the icon and from the drop down menu choose Rename. Your icon will be highlighted blue so you can just type in your new name.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I’ve been hearing some buzz around about Vista and that it is being released soon. As a new person to computing I have no idea what they are talking about. Can you let me it on this?
Alan
Dear Alan:
For those who are wondering, Vista is the new operating system being released by Microsoft. Microsoft hasn’t had a newer version than Windows XP in about five years so this new version is eagerly awaited by many. Currently it has just been released to the business community but it’s not expected to be available for the mass market (read, the rest of us!) for approximately two more months. Our tech person who is also in the military had the opportunity to test drive it recently and reported that he thinks it is awesome. Of course he thrives on new software and gadgets, looking forward to problems and glitches so he can attempt to fix them. The rest of us however look forward to increased features and better usability so based on that, unless you plan to buy a brand new computer, I would suggest that you consider waiting to upgrade to Vista. And with the specifications for a ‘Windows Vista Compatible PC’, you’ll want a computer with 1 gig of system memory and at least a 1 gigahertz processor.
Several reasons for waiting include the fact that many third party vendors have not really upgraded their software products to be fully compatible with Vista. So some of the software that you currently enjoy using and that works well may not work when you upgrade. Also your present computer may not have the necessary specifications, such as adequate RAM, etc., to run Vista efficiently. Many of your hardware drivers (for printers or card readers for example) may also need to be upgraded and may not even be available yet. Finally, let’s face it, there are probably going to be bugs and problems that only us end-users are going to find out through day to day operation. Frankly I don’t want to be the guinea pig in this equation. I’d rather let people like our tech have fun finding these things out.
That being said, if there’s some feature you desperately need (and you can check out the features at www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/ ) and your computer is relatively new, then go for it and be a pioneer!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
My computer printer died and the floppy drive doesn’t work. I would like to use the library computers to print a few Word and Excel documents. How can I get something off to do that?
Will
Dear Will:
If you have access to the Internet, you can create an email to yourself and attach the documents to it. Then when you get to the library, go to your email, open the attachments (documents) and print them.
To attach a document, all email providers are not created equal so you will need to search around on your screen to find the appropriate buttons I’ll describe. Create a new email and then look for a button or link that says ‘attach’ or attachments’ or something similar. Click on it and you should find a ‘browse’ button. When you click on that it will open a window that allows you to search for your My Documents folder (which is where I assume you have the documents saved). Find them, highlight them and click on the ‘attach’ button. Go ahead and put in your own email address in the ‘send’ box and click the Send button.
You can also buy a USB jump drive (sometimes called a flash drive or memory stick) for a very small price, of course provided you have a USB port and use that to save to. Unplug it and bring that to the library to use on our computers.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
While typing on a Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop with Windows XP using the word program, I somehow manage to hit a key or maybe keys and end up erasing part of what I have already typed. It isn't necessarily the last thing I typed but perhaps where the mouse is. It happens very fast and in an instant it seems to highlight and erase. The redo key is not there and it just has undo typing. I don’t know how to get back what was erased. Obviously I'm not very good with a computer, but is there some default setting or something I can do to stop this from happening (other than keeping my fingers on the correct keys!)?
Thank you kindly for your time. Sandy
Dear Sandy:
If you have a touch pad on your laptop, you might be accidentally touching or tapping it with your thumb when you try to hit the space bar. Then what is happening is that you are overwriting your text (as opposed to actually deleting it). This would be why the ‘undo typing’ feature is not working.
There are a couple of things you can try. Use the CTRL key plus the Z key to see if your text will appear. You can hit CTRL + Z over and over to keep getting back the lost text. If this doesn’t work, some laptops allow you to disable the touch pad while you are typing. There might be a switch on the laptop itself or go to the website for your brand of computer and put ‘touch pad’ in the search box to see if they have instructions.
At this point I’m just guessing because I can’t see you typing, but maybe one of these will work for you.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I read in one of your columns that there is a way to send email messages to several friends and have it so that no one can see who else got the message. I understand those instructions, however, there is no BCC line in Outlook Express on my computer. Do I need to download something to get this part? Thanks for your help.
Tom
Dear Tom:
No, you don’t need to download anything to get the BCC (or blind carbon copy). It’s a simple feature that you need to turn on. While in Outlook Express, just hit the ‘create mail’ button on the tool bar. In the new message window that opens up, go up to the menu bar and choose View. (Notice this is not the View on the main OE window, but in the ‘create mail’ window). From the drop down menu, make sure ‘all headers’ is checked and if not, highlight it and click on it. You should see the BCC line now on all your new emails. You won’t have to do this procedure again unless you somehow uncheck ‘all headers’.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Whenever I open up my stationary that I made in Word, the date listed is today’s date. Unfortunately when I save it and then go back a different day to continue working, the date changes to that day’s date. It’s really annoying when I go back to check on when I originally sent something to have the date changed to today’s date when I know I sent the letter at least a month ago. Can this be fixed?
Pat
Dear Pat:
It sounds like you have something called a FIELD inserted into your template. If you delete the date field in your template and then go up to the menu bar and choose Insert, you are given the option for ‘date and time’. Click on that. When the box opens, choose the type of format you want your date to appear as (for example 11/26/06 or November 26, 2006). Then, more importantly, look near the bottom of that box on the right hand side and uncheck the box that says ‘update automatically’. Click the OK button.
Then go up to the upper menu bar, choose File, then Save As and make sure that at the bottom of the save box under ‘save as type’, you use the down arrow and select ‘document template’. Name the template a different name or keep the same name to overwrite your old stationary and click the Save button. Now whenever you use that particular stationary, your date should remain as you first entered it.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I saved a copy of a document from a friend’s computer onto a CD. When I use it on my computer though, it tells me it won’t save it. What is the problem?
Matt
Dear Matt:
While you can write to a CD, you can’t change the information on it. What you can do is save the file again with another name or save it onto your hard drive (go up to File and choose Save As, then save to your My Documents folder on the C drive). This way you can open, change and save the document as many times as you want. When and if you want to return it to your friend, you can save the finished product onto a CD and give it to him or her.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I bought a book on CD and when I put it in my car player it just keeps popping it out and saying Err. I have been able to play CDs in it before and just to try it out I stuck another one in and it works fine. What is the problem?
Ash
Dear Ash:
Without seeing the disk, I can only give you a couple of options to check out. First off, check the disk to see if perhaps there is a scratch on it. You can try some of the commercial products available to see if you can clean it and try to minimize the scratch. Rainex (yes, the product you use on your car windshield) can sometimes work so try putting some on a clean soft cloth and lightly running it over the CD. Remember the side that your player wants to ‘read’ from is the side opposite the label.
The other obvious thing to check is whether the format of the CD is compatible with your car player. Look on the box and if it is an MP3 CD, it probably won’t work in your car. If you have an MP3 CD player or know someone who does, you can try the disk in that and see if it works there. This is a very common problem so I’m guessing that is it. Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot you can do other than change your player to listen to accept MP3 formats or borrow a portable player from someone to play it.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have a fairly new laptop and have some extra stuff to add to it like an external hard drive and a docking station, etc. I would like to know how to change the drive letters for some of this stuff so I don’t end up with duplicate drive letters. Is there a way for me to do that manually?
Jon
Dear Jon:
Yes there is, although your computer should automatically assign an available drive number. At the risk of messing things up, I will tell you how to do it and assume that you are familiar enough with computers to know what you are doing. Those readers who don’t need to do this shouldn’t do it just to try it out.
You’ll need to click on the Start button and choose Control Panel. If you are in the classic view, you will double click on the Administrative Tools icon and then on the Computer Management icon. (If in category view, click once on Performance and Maintenance and then on Administrative Tools near the bottom. After that it should be the same as the classic view.) The screen will be divided in two sections, look on the right hand side and double click on Storage and then on Disk Management. Near the bottom of the right hand screen you should see your various drives. Right click on the one you wish to change and on the drop down screen that opens, choose ‘change drive letter and path’. Yet another window will open and you can make the changes however you desire. Good luck with this!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
A simple question really or at least I think so. How can I center words on a paper I’m working on? Right now I just use the space bar to move them over but when I print it sometimes it doesn’t line up with other stuff I’m trying to center. I end up counting the spaces as I hit the space bar which is a royal pain. Any hints?
CDW
Dear CDW:
You are absolutely right, this is a simple question! First off make sure that you have your formatting tool bar available. Go up to the upper blue bar (not the dark blue one at the very top of the screen, but the lighter blue one underneath it). Right click your mouse and you will see a list of available kinds of toolbars. Make sure that ‘formatting’ is checked. You should now see a toolbar that displays stuff like the size of your text, the type of text, choices for bold, italics or underline. This will also give you three buttons for arranging your text.
Now if your text is not typed yet, when you are on the line you want to center just go up to the upper formatting tool bar and click on the little icon or picture that has centered lines (which will be the second or middle one). The first button is to have text line up on the left hand side, the second is centered, the third is right aligned and the last one is for justified which means that the text will be adjusted to line up evenly on both margins.
If you have already typed your text, just highlight it and then click on the centered button.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have a bunch of Favorites or Bookmarks when I use the Internet but some of them aren’t good anymore or I really don’t use them. How can I get rid of them off the list? I know I could just not use them but they are cluttering up my list. Thanks for your help.
Ashley
Dear Ashley:
That’s pretty easy to do. Just right click on the one you don’t want and choose ‘delete’ from the drop down list that will appear.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I am pretty to new to owning a computer but I’m really getting into email since I enjoy keeping contact with my family and even have discovered some old friends. I also enjoy searching the Internet as well, although I’m not very good at it. I would like to know how to put the website into an email, let me explain what I mean. Sometimes I find the perfect thing a friend has been looking for, like a new lamp. How can I send it to them so they can just click on it and go to that website? I know it can be done because people send it to me like that. I just don’t know how to do it myself. My wife said she bet that you could figure it out.
Ace
Dear Ace:
What you want to do is send what is called a ‘link’. When you have the website you want showing on your computer screen, look near the top (right under the tool bar) and you’ll see a box for Address. There will be a web address there, often with a lot of other writing as well. This gives you the actual ‘page’ of the site to go to rather than the main home page. You need to highlight that whole address. If you click your left mouse button near it, sometimes you can highlight it that way (it will turn blue). Or if that’s not working as it can be a little touchy, just click at the end of the letters, hold your mouse button down and slide it to the beginning of the letters. It should be blue now.
Then you will right click your mouse button on the highlighted text and a drop down menu should appear. Select Copy. Open up your email message that you want to send, click your mouse inside the body of the message and then right click again. Select Paste off the drop down menu.
If you’re worried that it didn’t work, just send the message to yourself (just type your email address into the To: section of your outgoing message). When it arrives, click on that link to see if it opens. If it does then you can send it along to your friend.
If it doesn’t work, you have probably not highlighted the entire website address. Try again. Good luck!
PC Doctor
A little story for those of you with websites and some cautionary advice! Perhaps you noticed that the Athol Public Library website was down for a day this week. We have our website hosted offsite and pay a company to do this. It was assumed that the monthly fee included backups of the website – so let this be a lesson learned that you can benefit from. When we turned on the computers in the morning, our lovely website that our web mistresses had spent many hours on was now in what looked to be Greek. (It was later determined by our multi-lingual new assistant director to be Turkish). A quick call to the company gave us the bad news that our website had been hacked into.
We were under the impression that not only was our website being backed up but that the company had super strict security. Unpleasantly we found it was not so! If we wanted those ‘extra’ features, we needed to pay a higher fee which was never discussed or offered to us. The hosting company also claims that it was hacked into with our own user name and password which is only known to our webmaster and our tech person so it appears it was discovered by someone else.
Luckily only the front page was touched and not the whole website so our webmaster was able to reconstruct it for you to enjoy.
Please learn from our experience and find out from your provider if you have adequate backup or if you can back it up to your own personal computer. Find out what kinds of security they offer and how often they update it. Also remember to change your passwords frequently (on a monthly basis) and use some fairly random numbers, letters and characters, for example iue9$so#
See, it can happen to anyone! But maybe we can save some of you the same worry, it will serve some purpose!
Dear Computer Doctor:
Last Saturday after a storm came through on Friday evening, two of my neighbors and I experienced problems connecting to the internet. We all use dial-up connections to the internet, but we use different services. We live in a rural area on the outskirts of Royalston. Our telephone connections work fine, but there is a little static on the line. We contacted Verizon, our telephone company, and they said that the line was for voice quality and that it was fine. It seems odd that all three of us started having the same problem at the same time. What might cause that? What can we do to resolve it?
Disconnected in Royalston
Dear Disconnected:
Well, I have to say that every once in a while there is a question that stumps us and this is one of those times. It does seem more than suspicious that all three of you starting having the same problems at the same time. If you are having static on the line while talking, despite what the phone company is telling you, you may have to hound them a little bit to come and physically check the lines. I know once (using dial up) that I actually walked the lines from my house down the road and found a tree branch that was touching the wire when the wind blew. Once that was removed, I was fine again.
Another thing you could do is ask your Internet service provider is there is another number you could use for dial up that might be more tolerant of the poor line quality.
If any of our faithful readers out there have any other suggestions for our disconnected neighbors to try, please email them in to info@athollibrary.org.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
What is a power brick? There was something listed on my new components list for the notebook computer I just bought. I don’t see anything that it could be.
Josh
Dear Josh:
Most people know a power brick as a power adapter, the cord that comes with the computer that plugs into the wall to both power the computer up and recharge the battery. The power brick is the rectangular box that is in the middle of that cord.
Because plugging the AC cord directly into your computer (from the wall outlet) would blow your computer’s innards, the power brick converts the higher powered AC to DC which your laptop can handle.
While power bricks come with your computer, you can purchase additional ones from the manufacturer of your computer or from any computer specialty store like Best Buy or Circuit City. I find this handy because I keep one at home and one at work thereby eliminating the need to lug it back and forth and saving me if I accidentally forget it at home when I need it at work. It’s easiest to bring your laptop with you when you go to the store because not all adapters are made the same and the salesclerk can match yours exactly.
A few caveats about power bricks while we’re on the subject. They can get warm while in use so be sure not to put them on something flammable. They should also be laid flat and not hanging off the table. They are heavy and could pull your notebook off the table. There is a little light on the brick which indicates it is plugged in and charging. If your batteries are not charging properly, make sure the connections into the brick are secure, sometimes they are easily jostled. Finally never attempt to open it for any reason. If it needs repair, seek a professional or purchase a new one.
PC Doctor
Tip of the day: If you want to save a picture you have discovered while browsing the Internet, just move your cursor over the photo until your cursor turns into a hand. Then right click your mouse button and a drop down list will appear. Choose ‘save picture as’ and you can save it on your desktop or in any folder (usually My Pictures). You will notice that you can also email it to someone or do any number of other things with the image. Just remember copyright laws and only use it for your personal enjoyment and not as a part of a commercial website, etc. Otherwise have fun!
Dear PC Doctor:
In your column you often write about using Outlook for email and then other times it’s Outlook Express. I’m confused if those are the same thing? I use Hotmail now but I remember how you told us that if we used Outlook then we could save our email on our computer which would save space in the Hotmail inbox. So before I try to figure it out, can you tell me what the score is on this? Thanks for your help.
Tonny
Dear Tonny:
Actually they are two separate programs which happen to share the same name of Outlook and they are both produced by Microsoft. Outlook Express, hereafter labeled OE, is primarily for the home user who wants a simple email and newsgroup program. It will hold your contacts and email addresses and save emails in folders on your hard drive.
Outlook is aimed for the business environment with much more functionality including (in addition to those mentioned for OE) scheduling, calendars, to do lists, folders, and enhanced Internet connectivity. It is also integrated with the Office suite of products, i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and so on.
An important difference is that OE is free when you download Internet Explorer but Outlook is part of Office, which is definitely not free.
To determine what you need, just ask yourself if you just need to check and sort your email, in which case you’d select Outlook Express or whether you are operating in a business situation and need to coordinate not only your email, but your schedule, tasks and perhaps interact with Exchange Server. And you’re willing to pay the price tag for the Office product.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I am thinking of getting an iPod because I like to listen to music while I walk but how do I get the songs I have loaded on my computer onto it. Is that possible?
Ryle
Dear Ryle:
The key is you need to have all your music stored in the iTunes library. If you are not already using this on your computer, you can download it free of charge on the Internet at www.apple.com/itunes (although it’s an Apple product it allows you to download a Windows version). The newest version is 7.0.2.
Then you can move your music from whatever software package you are currently using into the iTunes library. First you’ll want to open up iTunes (go to the Start button, All Programs and then iTunes). At the upper menu, chose Edit and then Preferences. Under the ‘advanced’ tab, choose the ‘general’ tab and make sure the ‘copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library’ is checked by clicking the box. Click the OK button. This will make sure that the song file is copied directly to your folder rather than a link which may later lead to nowhere.
To get the music into your iTunes library, go back up to the upper menu under File and choose either Add File to Library (if it’s a single song) or Add Folder to Library (if you have kept your songs in a whole folder). A second box will open up that will require you to browse and look for the song or folder to move. Select it and click OK.
An alternative is to find the song or folder by right clicking on the Start button, choosing Explore, searching for what you want and then dragging and dropping it onto the iTunes main window.
When this is complete, then you can follow the directions to hook your iPod to the computer and the music will be synchronized from the computer to the iPod.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have a new computer with Windows XP and it’s doing something my other computer didn’t do. When I put a premade CD, this program starts and tries to read it as a music CD or something. I can’t quite figure it out. How can I get rid of that message?
Nick
Dear Nick:
This is the Autoplay feature starting up and trying to read the CD. If it’s only doing it for that one CD, the easiest thing is to hold down the Shift key on the keyboard, put in the CD and when the disk drive stops (the light will stop blinking) then let up on the Shift key. This will stop the AutoPlay from kicking on. There are more permanent ways of stopping it but I hate to have you shut down everything for one CD. Email me back if you want to disable it altogether.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I use Outlook Express and when I get mail with links to other sites that people want me to look at; I can’t seem to make them work. Am I doing something wrong and how can I get them to work?
Webnut
Dear Webnut:
First you have to make sure that you have Internet Explorer as your default browser. To do this click on the Start button and choose Set Program Access and Defaults. Under Custom, click on the arrow button on the right hand side (next to Custom) and another box will open with all the various options. Under Choose a Default Web Browser, click Internet Explorer and then click the OK button.
Open up Outlook Express and see if the links are working now. If not, then try this: again click the Start button, then My Computer, Tools and Folder Options. Click the File Types tab and scan down the list to find URL:Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Highlight it and click the Advanced button. Under Actions, select Open and Edit. Under the ‘application used to perform action’ box you should see the following (and if you don’t you’ll need to type it and make sure to add the quotation marks). “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” –nohome
Click the OK button and do the same steps except choosing the file type URL:HypertextTransfer Protocol with Privacy this time. Click OK at the end to close out.
Hopefully this will solve the problem.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I sent an email that I would like to get back. I wish I didn’t send it and although it’s too late to take it back now, I was wondering in the future if there is any way to cancel an email.
Sorry
Dear Sorry:
Unfortunately sending email is not a controllable situation because your email server and the server of the person you are sending to are normally different. Bottom line is that you have to be very sure of what you are sending before you hit that send button. I guess the best thing is to let a little time go by if you are angry, etc. before sending email that you might later regret.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Every so often I get this message that says I have unused desktop icons and this program will get rid of them for me. Do I want to do this or how can I get rid of this message? John
Dear John:
If they are seriously icons that you no longer use, certainly get rid of them. This won’t remove the program from your computer so you can still click on the Start button and find it through All Programs.
If you want to get rid of the message, right click anywhere on the desktop that there isn’t text and from the drop down menu choose Properties. From the Desktop tab, click the Customize Desktop button near the bottom of the box. Uncheck ‘run desktop cleanup wizard every 60 days’ and click the OK button two times.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I am making some signs for my school play and I would like to use some large letters but the box only lets me go up to 72 size. I would really like to use larger letters. Is there any way I can do that?
Thanks for your help.
Sam
Dear Sam:
Yes there are several ways to accomplish this. One is to highlight the letters or words you want to make larger, then hold down the Control (CTRL) key and the closing or right hand bracket ] and the letters will get larger and larger. If you get trigger happy and they are too large just hit the Control key again and use the opening or left bracket [ to make it smaller. It’s kind of cool actually to try this.
Second you can just click your cursor into the box on the upper tool bar (that changes the font size) and then type in a higher number than 72 and hit enter. You may have to play around and type in different numbers to actually get the size you want. That’s one reason the first method might be a little easier because you can actually see how large it becomes.
A third method is to go up to the upper menu bar and click on Format, then Font and type in the number you want into the box similar to what you did in technique two.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
There is a really annoying thing happening to me on my new computer whenever I try to type a list of things. What I mean is that if I am typing a regular sentence and don’t hit the enter key, the sentence just goes down to the next line and the first letter of whatever word is there is not capitalized. However if I want to make a list of things and each is on its on line, whenever I hit enter it makes the first letter a capital. If I go back and change it to a small letter, it just changes it back. It’s very frustrating.
Dan
Dear Dan:
What is happening (since I assume you are using Word) is that a special feature called Auto Correct is turned on. To turn it off, just go up to the upper blue menu bar and click on Tools, then on Auto Correct Options. When the window opens up, find and click on the Auto Correct tab. Look around for ‘capitalize first letter of sentences’ and click in the box in front of it to remove the check mark. Click the OK button. This should take care of the problem and you will no longer be frustrated - by this at least!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I followed your advice about putting people I’m sending emails to in the BCC field so that they can’t see who else is getting the email. It’s worked fine except for one group of friends that I sent a little newsletter to. One of the people is claiming that they did not get an email I sent so they missed a deadline. Is there any way for me to find out if I did include that person’s name on the email? I use Outlook Express by the way.
Worried
Dear Worried:
Well, if you have the ‘save copy of sent messages’ checked in the ‘Send Items’ folder (go to Tools, Options and click on the Send tab), then you can try this. Under Folders on the right hand side of Outlook Express, click on the Sent Items folder. Find the email and right click on it. Choose Properties and click on the Details tab. You will see a list of whoever got the email.
This also brings up the point that you might want to add your email address to the BCC list each time you send an email. That way you will get a copy of your own that you can save to a special folder that you create and then you can double check the names when it comes to you.
PC Doctor
Tip of the week – when using Word, a little shortcut to spell check your document is to hit the F7 key. This will open up spell checker quickly and easily. To use the thesaurus to find alternative words to use instead of the same one over and over, just hold the Shift key and F7. Over to the right a box will open up with suggested words. Very handy!
Dear PC Doctor:
I just got a brand new desktop computer and loaded all my programs and data from my old computer. Surprisingly everything went smoothly until I tried to set up my email accounts in Outlook which I’ve always used. My regular account works fine but I can’t seem to make my Hotmail account work. What am I doing wrong?
SSL
Dear SSL:
I also use Outlook and don’t seem to have any problem with Hotmail so I did some asking around to other people who might have some idea and here is what I found out. It seems Hotmail and some of the other free services like Yahoo mail are now requiring that you purchase at least their cheapest upgrade package to be able to interface with Outlook. Those of us with old free accounts are ‘grandfathered’ I guess you’d say.
With all our many faithful readers out there, maybe someone has figured out a way around this and we’d sure appreciate hearing from you at info@athollibrary.org if you have. I’d be glad to pass along your suggestions to our readers.
So for now, it appears that you’ll have to access your Hotmail account through the website. Sorry not to have better news for you!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor :
Is there a better way to print things off the Internet so you don’t get the whole site? Can you pick and choose? I seem to want one little thing and end up printing out reams of paper.
Jeff
Dear Jeff:
Versions 4.0 and higher of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) offer a “print selection” feature that allows you to print only the part of the Web page you need. Start IE, navigate to the information you need and follow these steps: