2007 PC Doctor Columns use the edit...find... button to search a word or topic.
Dear PC Doctor:
I was pretty excited to get a new laptop for Christmas this week but already I’m having a problem. It has Vista and in reading your column I’ve noticed that there have been several complaints about stuff. My first one is about the Start button. I don’t seem to have one so I have been turning off my computer by pushing the button but I can’t get to my programs either. I also would like to connect the laptop to the Internet. It has wireless and I use Verizon. My desktop is still hooked up because my husband uses that. Is there any way we can both be hooked up?
Pam
Dear Pam:
The Start button is now called the Start Orb. In the same place as your Start button you should see a circle or ‘orb’ with the Windows four colored logo in it. Just click on that the same as your Start button and you will get the window that slides up listing all your programs.
As for the wireless you will need to purchase a wireless router which you can get from many sources, Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Staples, etc. Just follow the directions that come with it and hook it up with your existing desktop. It should be fairly easy. This setup will keep your desktop plugged in with the cable while allowing your laptop to connect wirelessly. If you have trouble, just call Verizon to find out how the router works with your system. Then when you turn on your laptop, click on the Start orb and select ‘connect to’ and find the router from the list. You can click ‘always connect to this connection’ if that is going to be your primary connection.
If you are at another location such as work, the library or other commercial location, just do the same thing (Start, connect to) and select the connection listed. Usually they are aptly named so you can tell, for example at the library we call our wireless connection APL Public. Have fun with your new laptop!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor,
I use outlook express for my email when I type out my email and hit send, it comes back as error, message could not be sent, rejected senders email address. How do I fix this? It is a new problem; I use XP and Time Warner Road Runner. It happens to a couple of people but not all the time.
Diane
Dear Diane:
I also use Outlook Express and Road Runner and have not experienced this issue so I’m going to give a couple of suggestions for things that might vary for your system. Sometimes your anti-virus program can cause problems especially if you have recently updated or changed it. In the configuration settings section you should make sure that it is set up to allow outgoing emails from Road Runner.
Another thing to notice is if the rejected emails are going to the same server or ISP. For example email@verizon.net where you insert a different person’s email address into the spot where it says ‘email’ but they are all going to the same ending place (i.e. Verizon) If this is the case then perhaps Verizon (for example) has set up an anti-spam system that is rejecting your emails for some reason. In this case you would have to contact Verizon to find out why your email is being rejected. Or if your Time Warner address uses a proxy redirect it can also happen. You can contact Time Warner to see if other customers are experiencing similar problems and how they would suggest it can be corrected.
If the problem has gotten better, it could be that the Time Warner server was having hiccups. Again talking to their help desk might answer this.
A final thing to check in Outlook Express is to go to the upper menu bar and choose Tools, then Accounts, click the Mail tab and find your Road Runner account. Click on it to highlight and then select the Properties button. Under the Servers tab check to be sure that you have the same outgoing and incoming mail server. In this instance it will probably say something like - incoming mail (POP3): pop.mass.rr.com and outgoing mail (SMTP): smtp.mass.rr.com. So you can see that for both incoming and outgoing it is mass.rr.com. Hope one of these suggestions helps.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Of course I’m waiting until the last minute to get a holiday gift for my wife and I was wondering about a new computer. She has one that she actually never complains about but I figure she’s had it a few years and it’s probably time for a new one. Can you tell me when you know it’s time for a new one?
Tom
Dear Tom:
Get her jewelry, that usually goes over well – ha ha. As far as when to get a new computer, unless the thing is totally not working and a computer repair store has told you to get rid of it, it’s kind of an individual choice. Many people who only use it for word processing don’t really need to upgrade or get a new one if it’s serving their purpose. Sometimes I think people feel pressured into a new computer when they don’t really need one.
I would suggest that if the computer can’t do something you wish to do such as some of the newer high memory hogging games or working with video, then you need to think about a new one. Sometimes just upgrading the RAM memory will suffice. I usually go to
www.crucial.com and run a scan of my computer to find out what (and if) I could add to make it run a little faster.Otherwise if it’s serving the purpose and she is happy with the one she has, I would not spend the money.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I am having trouble reading some of the email messages that come to me. Some are fine but others are too small. Is there anything I can do?
Sore eyesight
Dear Sore eyesight:
An easy trick is to hold down the Control (CTRL) key and slide the wheel on your mouse up and down. As you do this and watch the screen you will see the print size increase and decrease. Just let go of the wheel when it reaches a point that makes you happy!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I just bought a new computer with Vista and I hate it. Is there any way I can go back to XP?
Andy
Dear Andy:
Not cheaply or easily. You would need to purchase a copy of Windows XP which is getting harder to do. Most stores are now carrying only Vista software. And because now all copies of Windows must pass all WGA tests (which happens when you try to do updates or download things from Microsoft), it would have to be an OEM copy or retail copy bought new for your new machine.
Once you did the installation, you would then have to search for all the drivers necessary to run your new machine such as video, audio, network, etc. A lot of time and effort.
I would like to suggest one thing that might make Vista more palatable for you. Go to the Start button, click on Control Panel, find the icon for Taskbar and Start Menu. Click on the Start Menu tab and choose ‘classic start menu’ and click the OK button. Now you will see your old familiar XP start menu and that in itself may help you adjust easier to some of the other Vista features. Because although Microsoft has mentioned they may bring back XP due to customer complaints, I think the bottom line is that sometimes you have to move forward.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Someone gave me a box of Avery labels and I would like to use them. But whenever I try to print on them it doesn’t seem to line up properly. Is there some trick to it?
Dennis
Dear Dennis:
Not knowing which labels you actually have, I would suggest probably the easiest thing to do is go to the Avery website at
www.avery.com and download their free program called Design Pro. You will choose it from their main menu first by clicking on ‘software/templates’ and then on ‘Avery software’. Just follow the on screen prompts to download. I have also just typed in the number of the labels (check the outside of the box) into the search box after you have clicked ‘software / templates’. This will bring up the exact template that you need.The other thing people normally do is to fix the margins from the printer when they actually go to print. Again, without knowing how you have your labels formatted or which printer you are using, it’s a little difficult but basically when you go to print, click the Properties button and you should see some options to change the paper size. Also you can format from the software program from within which you’re working. For example, if you’re in Word and you want to do labels, go up to the upper menu bar and click on Tools, then Letters and Mailings, then Envelopes and Labels. This gives you several choices for types of labels. You can also click on File, then Page setup and there are various styles to select.
You can see there any many ways to attack this but honestly I think the easiest and most efficient is go to the Avery website and download the free template that matches your label exactly.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have Vista and am a new user. I keep getting a message that an unidentified user is trying to access my computer. I always hit the cancel button instead of the allow button but I’m wondering what the problem is? Any ideas?
Mel
Dear Mel:
It sounds as if your firewall is not activated. Go to the Start button and click on Control Panel. Click on the Security tab and then on Windows Firewall. Click on the ‘change settings’ link and click Continue. Click in front of ‘on’ to turn it on and then select the OK button to save your changes. Hopefully this will help.
PC Doctor
Tip for Power Point users: I was creating a presentation with lots of graphics in PowerPoint the other day and happened upon this nifty hint on the Internet. Instead of holding and dragging each item when you want to move things, just click at one end of the objects you want and drag a rectangle around all the objects, making sure everything is inside and all the objects will be selected thereby allowing you to move them all at once.
Dear PC Doctor:
My computer is Windows XP and I'm using Internet Explorer. I have automatic updates and I've been offered one called Microsoft. Net Framework 1.1 Service Packet 1. When I try to download it, all I get is a message saying that it can't be downloaded. I'd like to know why and also how do I get rid of the symbol in the lower right corner that says "update is ready"? This is the first time this has happened. Thanks for any help.
Audrey
Dear Audrey:
In doing a little research on this topic, it appears that for a weird reason the Windows updater can’t do the update while it is running (if that makes sense). There are some ways to correct this by running the registry but this can be very dangerous if you aren’t familiar with working with the registry and make a wrong deletion. So a helpful forum poster suggested this easier method which I hope will work for you.
Go to the Start button, then Control Panel, Administrative Tools and then Services. Scroll through the list to find Windows Update, double click on it and disable it by clicking the Stop button. Close out of the boxes.
Right click on the Start button and choose Explore. Scroll down the list on the left hand side and follow this path, clicking on each folder as you go:
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downlod\install and look for a folder in the install folder for the 1.1 service pack that looks something like NDP1.1sp1-KB867460-X86.exe. Double click on this to re install your service pack.
Follow the directions in paragraph two to enable the Windows Update Service and click Start (instead of Stop). Run the Windows Update again.
Reboot your machine and see if that takes care of it.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I am a new Vista user and although I have used computers for a long time there is a new ‘feature’ (ha) that is driving me NUTS! Everytime I try to download something from the Internet or install a new program or breathe….it seems… there is a popup box asking for my permission to continue. Alright already just do it and quit asking me! Please please tell me how to turn it off.
Bob
Dear Bob:
I feel your pain, this was a source of annoyance to me too. So here’s an early Christmas present in how to turn it off. Of course with the Microsoft caveat that you do not turn it off for safety reasons but it’s your choice not to have it pop up if you have all your other security features in place and are careful about what you download, etc.
Go to the Start button and then Control Panel. At the very top of the window in the search box, type ‘user account’. Double click on the user account icon in the box. Not surprisingly THAT POPUP BOX will appear one last time asking for your permission. Click Continue. Then uncheck the box in front of ‘turn user account control (UAC) On or Off’ and restart your computer.
You will still have a red shield in your system tray but unless it bothers you for some reason leave it there. If it does then go to the Start button, Control Panel, Security and click on the Security Center link. Click on ‘change the way security Center alerts me’ and choose the option that says ‘don’t notify me and don’t display the icon (not recommended)’. Again with the aforementioned caveat.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I know you have gotten a lot of questions about Vista but I have one more if you don’t mind my asking. I like to go in periodically and delete the cookies on my machine because I think it makes it run a little faster. I knew how to do it in XP but now I can’t seem to find it. Of course Internet Explorer looks different too on this computer.
Help
Dear Help:
I’m sure that I will be getting plenty of questions on Vista because it is different and can be confusing as well. So don’t worry about that.
The first problem is that the upper menu bar is missing so you can’t find ‘Tools’. In an earlier column we discussed how to get that to appear permanently so check out the library website to view past columns if this is something you want to do. Otherwise, for the moment if you just hit the ‘Alt’ key, it will make that bar appear temporarily so you can delete your cookies.
So, hit the Alt key and choose Tools. When the Internet Options window opens up, click the General tab. The second option down is ‘browsing history’ and under it you will see two buttons ‘delete’ and ‘settings’. If you click ‘delete’ then another window will open ‘delete browsing history’ and there will be buttons to : ‘delete temporary internet files’, ‘delete cookies’, ‘delete history’, ‘delete forms’ and ‘delete passwords’ or ‘delete all’. Click the buttons for the items you wish to delete and then click the OK button. Close out of the boxes you’ve opened and you should be all set.
Basically the same, just a different way to get there.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Whenever I try to type something in Word, it will suddenly capitalize some words that I don’t want capitalized. Why is it doing that?
Dave
Dear Dave:
You probably have the autocorrect feature turned on. This is a little feature that will correct many of your mistakes and but unfortunately, others that it perceives as mistakes but is perhaps something you really meant to do. To turn it off, just go up to Tools, click Autocorrect Options and uncheck the boxes that you do not wish to have ‘autocorrected’.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I use Outlook Express and I was kind of looking around the other day and found that I have about 2000 old emails in my deleted items folder and 200 in the sent folder. How can I delete though without doing them one by one?
Paul
Dear Paul:
Good news! Just click on the folder from which you wish to delete the items, click on any message in there so that your mouse cursor is in the actual message folder (doesn’t matter which one), hold down the letter A and the Control (CTRL) key together. This should highlight everything in the folder. Now simply press the ‘delete’ key on the keyboard and your messages will be gone for good.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I use dial up at home and wireless at the library when I need some high speed. I have a Dell laptop. Even when I’m not on the internet, a dial up box pops up and it drives me crazy. It seems to be random, coming up all the time. Is there a way to shut it off?
Peeved
Dear Peeved:
Yes, go to the Start button and choose Control Panel. In the window that opens, choose Internet Options. In the next window that opens, select the Connections tab and click in the radio button in front of ‘never dial a connection’. Click the Apply button and then the OK Button. Close out of any open windows and you should be all set.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Someone sent me a document that they typed all in capital letters. It is a Word document. Is there any way to make it lower case without typing the whole thing over?
Allen
Dear Allen:
If you look at your tool bar you should see a button that has Aa on it. If you click on that button, a drop down menu should offer the following choices: sentence case, lower case, upper case, capitalize each word and toggle case. First you will want to highlight the text you want to change (if it is the whole document, then click the control key CTRL together with the A key and that will highlight everything), then click on the Aa button on the toolbar and it should change it to whatever you select.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I tried to use the dictionary that comes with Microsoft Works. I open up word processor, tools, then dictionary look-up and it tells me it is missing and I should reinstall Works. My computer came without any discs and I had to make a recovery disc. How do I reinstall without changing everything? I have Windows XP.
Thanks
Beginner
Dear
Beginner,
Most often
you can call the company that manufactured your computer and they can
send you a disk with that on it. Your documentation should have a phone
number. If not, go online and some companies provide an image that the
end user can use to burn CDs for reinstalling/system backup. If that
is the nature of your “recovery disc” then you should be able to use
that to reinstall the dictionary. Unfortunately unless you are
comfortable with doing some of the procedures suggested, it might be
better to have a friend who is more knowledgeable give you a hand.
If you go on to the Microsoft website for Works at www.microsoft.com/products/works and look on the left hand side you will see ‘support’, ‘advice and tips’, etc. They did have some info that might be helpful or you can search yourself. I am cutting and pasting this from the knowledge base:
SYMPTOMS
The "Dictionary Not Valid" error message occurs when the custom dictionary file has been corrupted. This file can be corrupted as a result of editing the file and saving with the wrong file format, or from hard disk problems caused by faulty hardware or other troubles.
WORKAROUND
|
1. |
Exit Windows and return to MS-DOS. |
|
2. |
Run the MS-DOS CHKDSK /F command to correct any possible problems with the hard drive. |
|
3. |
If the problem still exists, the file may be in the wrong file format from editing the dictionary manually. Open \WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\CUSTOM.DIC in the Works Word Processor. |
|
4. |
From the File menu, choose Save As. |
|
5. |
Select TEXT as the file type, and use the same name (CUSTOM.DIC). |
If the problem still exists, or you cannot open the file in Works for Windows, then the file itself is corrupted. The only solution is to delete the file CUSTOM.DIC. In this case, the custom dictionary will need to be re-created by adding a list of words to a document and spell checking it.
My best guess is that the recovery disk is going to have the file if the dictionary itself is corrupted.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I print large documents and the pages print in reverse order so that I have to manually put them in the right order. Is this a setting I can change?
Bob
Dear Bob:
Try this – go to the Start button, Control Panel, Printers and other hardware, View installed printers. Find your printer on the list and then right click on it. Select Printing Preferences and click the Features tab. Put a check next to the box for ‘start printing from last page’. Click Apply, click OK. When you print next, your pages should be in the correct order.
PC Doctor
Dear Readers- I’ve had a lot of requests to repeat the following information regarding backups, so here it is by popular demand!
Dear PC Doctor:
I’m wondering how many times a week I should be backing up my information?
Allen
Dear Allen:
Well, the first thing you should consider is how valuable and irreplaceable the information you have stored on your computer is. For example, if you only have games loaded and you have all the original CDs in their boxes, then backups won’t be that important to you. Should you (god forbid) have a crash, you can simply fix or replace the computer and then reload the games.
On the other hand if you are using your computer for work or you are a budding author or you have lots of data like a genealogy file, then you should seriously consider frequent backups. The more irreplaceable or time consuming to recreate your data should something go wrong, the more frequent the backups. Predicting when your computer might decide to call it quits is nearly impossible (although sometimes there are telltale signs) so my rule of thumb is a daily backup of at least the most important files. Then if you have a catastrophe, at least you will only have to recreate that day’s work.
While we’re on the subject, you should also be rotating your disks or tapes (whichever you are backing up onto). What do I mean by that? Well, suppose you use the same single disk every day and just write over the backup each day. Then suppose you spill coffee on that disk and ruin it and your hard drive crashes that day. Hmmmm, guess you wish you had another backup, huh? There are many combinations of backups, but my computer is all important to me as it houses my life’s work on it so my preference is to have a different CD for each day of the week. I label them Monday, Tuesday and so on. After I use the Monday disk on Monday, I label the outside with that day’s date so I’ll know that I actually remembered to do the backup. It also lets me know which is the most current backup should a disaster occur. Then the next week I overwrite the Monday disk on Monday and so on. If you use your computer infrequently, then maybe a weekly backup is okay, again using more than one disk and rotating them.
PC Doctor
Addendum to this is that now we have many other options available such as USB thumb drives and external hard drives. Now I do my daily backup to the external hard drive and only do weekly CDs. But external hard drives can be expensive so the CD route may still be the way to go for you.
Quick tip: If you have a certain program that you use a lot (say Microsoft Word) and also have a lot of programs in your Start Menu, one thing I have found handy is this: Go to the Start button, click on All Programs and find your favorite program (as I said earlier, for example, Microsoft Word), right click on it and from the drop down menu choose ‘pin to start menu’. Now if you click the Start button, you will see it listed in the menu. It’s easier than looking through all the programs on the menu.
Dear PC Doctor:
Would you please explain the labeling of the DVD's & CD's?
Example DVD + R or DVD -RW and CD's RW and R. Thank You.
Roland
Dear Roland:
First the difference between a DVD and a CD. CD stands for Compact Disc while DVD originally stood for Digital Video Disc and now means Digital Versatile Disc (because it is not only video but audio and data as well). When these are followed by an R and/or a W, those stand for Read and Write. Simply put, if your disc only has an R then it can only be written to once or until it is full. Meaning that you can fill it up but you can’t erase it and use it again as a blank disc. The discs with W’s can be erased and rewritten to..
While both look the same in appearance, the primary difference is in how much they can hold. A DVD can hold upwards of 13 times more than a CD and can often be written on both sides which adds to the capacity. Now add on the –R and +R and there are slight differences.
DVD –R (sometimes called ‘dash R’) is the older and first format and often recommended for video and photos while DVD+R (sometimes called ‘plus R’) is newer and most used for data storage. When you are purchasing a DVD machine (or if you already own one) check to see what format is compatible with your machine. This will dictate what disks you will be buying at the store. Note these are both onetime write only (because there is no W after the R). As a general rule DVD –R is compatible with more machines.
To confuse things further there are DVD –R/W and DVD +R/W and DVD –RAM formats. Be a little careful purchasing DVD –RAM’s because while they have incredible storage capacity, the best recording features and can be used as a hard drive they have limited compatibility in terms of players that can use them. They usually need a DVD Recorder.
Basically DVD –RW is the write ‘more than one time’ version of DVD –R and likewise DVD +RW is the writable version of DVD +R.
DVD –R and DVD –RW are supported by DVDForum and DVD +R and DVD +RW are supported by DVD+RW Alliance. What does this mean? Well, they are competing international organizations to license, manufacture and exchange information regarding their particular format. They each have websites listing their views which you can visit at www.dvdrw.com and www.dvdforum.com if you would like to read about this in more depth.
The safest thing to do is check your particular machine to see what you should be buying or if you are burning discs to give to others or need to read them on a different machine, the greatest likelihood for compatibility is DVD –R/W.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I upgraded to the new version of Internet Explorer and I’m missing the upper menu bar (you know the one that says File, Tools and so on). It means I can’t make changes to things or find the Save As or other stuff that I use a lot. Is it no longer included or did I download something wrong?
Rosemary
Dear Rosemary:
No you didn’t do anything wrong. The default to display that bar is off. Which seems strange to me but there is a way to get it back. If you just want it to show temporarily so you can use it once in awhile, just hit the ALT key (on the bottom of your keyboard near the space bar) when you want it and it will appear.
If you want it back permanently you’ll need to open up Internet Explorer and then go to the bar on the upper portion of your screen that shows the tabs. It’s the last bar before the actual website screen. Follow that over to the right and you should see the word ‘Tools’. Click on that and from the drop down menu choose ‘Menu Bar’. There will now be a check mark beside it and your old favorite menu bar should reappear and stay there.
PC Doctor
Computer Doctor,
Every once in a while when I shut down my printer it causes my computer to crash and shut. Then my computer will restart and it will want to send a report to MS. I do send the report and almost immediately the reply is as follows: Problem caused by HP Printer driver (HPZid412/HPZius12). This problem was caused by HP printer driver (HPZid412/HPZius12) HP printer driver was created by HP company. HP company is aware of this problem and working as quickly as possible to make a solution available.
I am referred to HP web site and I go there but when I have HP check my printer they tell me it is up to date. I guess I am wondering if the problem is still not fixed or am I just not experienced enough to see it and download and install it. This problem has happened about four times over the last few months.
Appreciate any help you can give me.
Marcia
Dear Marcia:
This issue shows up in a variety of languages going back to about 2004. It does not seem to be specific to a particular model of printer, but it seems to be related to the program: hpcmpmgr.exe. There is a fix and patch available for download. It is called hpcmpmgrfix.exe and can be downloaded from hp.com. Go to their address (
www.hp.com) and search for “hpcmpmgrfix.exe” and the results list will show a link “Update Resolving the ‘hpcmpmgr.exe’ shut down error.” I would recommend going to this link and then printing the instructions using the printable version. That will allow you to print out the step by step instructions.
Although it might help to know the model you are using, if this is the issue, it doesn’t really matter which printer you are using. Also, this should have updated automatically unless you told your computer not to install HP updates.
I hope this helps.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have a new Vista computer and am using the new Windows Mail. For some reason when I reply to an email I get these marks > before every line. I am not putting them there and don’t know how they are showing up. Is it something I am doing or how do I stop them from showing up?
Colin
Dear Colin:
It is a setting in your options that you can change. Open up Windows Mail and from the upper blue menu bar select Tools and from the drop down list Options. On the Send tab, under ‘mail sending format’ click on the ‘plain text settings’ button. A new window will open and if you look at the very bottom you will see ‘indent the original text with ‘>’ when replying or forwarding’. Uncheck in front of the box, click the OK button to return to the main Options window and click the OK button again. This should take care of the problem.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I recently bought a new computer and want to give my old one to a charity. Someone told me that can be a bad idea because my data might still be on the hard drive. Is that true?
Cheryl
Dear Cheryl:
Certainly if you are just handing it to them, that’s true. You’ll need to do more than delete your files by sending them to the recycle bin. One thing you can do is to reformat the hard drive. Not knowing which operating system you have, it would take too long to describe all the various methods. The easiest thing to do is look at your manual or go to Google and type ‘reformat + the operating system you use’. It should tell you how to create a boot disk and then re-install the operating system from your disks. This should keep most people from recovering anything on your computer.
However if you have super secret data or are really worried, then purchase a third party program such as Drivescrubber, PC Inspector or Wipe Drive. You can check out reviews online for each (and also find others) by typing in the name of the program. These should permanently get rid of data for you.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Please help me I did something wrong with my computer because my Start button and that whole bar which was at the bottom is now on the right hand side of my screen. I think all the normal things are on there but I find it hard to use there. Is there any way I can move it back to where it was?
Jim
Dear Jim:
Yes, you can actually move it to any of the four sides of your screen and quite easily at that. Just left click with your mouse on any blank area of your toolbar, hold the button down and drag the toolbar over to whichever side you want. Let go of the button and it will snap to the side. Now that you have it where you want it, you can lock it there so it won’t happen again. Just right click on the task bar in an empty area and from the drop down list, chose ‘lock task bar’.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
My new computer has sound but it’s too soft. I can’t barely hear it. Is there a way to change that?
Erin
Dear Erin:
Some computers have external controls so check around on your computer to see if maybe it is just a little hidden. Otherwise if you look in the bottom system tray on the right hand side you should notice a little icon or picture that looks like a horn. If you right click on it and choose Open Volume Mixer or Open Volume Control (depending on which version of Windows you have). There you will see several bars with sliders that you can click on with your mouse, hold down and slide the handles up and down to change the volume and other things like synthesizer and wave. Just fool around with them to get the most pleasing sound for your ears!
PC Doctor
Dear Readers:
I just wanted to alert people to make sure to do their Windows updates this month. There have been some critical updates that can protect your precious computer. Of course I hope that you have automatic updates set up so this warning is a mote point as you will be getting your updates as they are released. But if you want to be double sure, just open up Internet Explorer, go to the upper menu bar and select Tools. From the drop down menu choose Windows Update and follow the onscreen directions. Since there are several security issues that this clears up, you want to be sure to do it promptly.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Please help me I did something wrong with my computer because my Start button and that whole bar which was at the bottom is now on the right hand side of my screen. I think all the normal things are on there but I find it hard to use there. Is there any way I can move it back to where it was?
Jim
Dear Jim:
Yes, you can actually move it to any of the four sides of your screen and quite easily at that. Just left click with your mouse on any blank area of your toolbar, hold the button down and drag the toolbar over to whichever side you want. Let go of the button and it will snap to the side. Now that you have it where you want it, you can lock it there so it won’t happen again. Just right click on the task bar in an empty area and from the drop down list, chose ‘lock task bar’.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
My new computer has sound but it’s too soft. I can’t barely hear it. Is there a way to change that?
Erin
Dear Erin:
Some computers have external controls so check around on your computer to see if maybe it is just a little hidden. Otherwise if you look in the bottom system tray on the right hand side you should notice a little icon or picture that looks like a horn. If you right click on it and choose Open Volume Mixer or Open Volume Control (depending on which version of Windows you have). There you will see several bars with sliders that you can click on with your mouse, hold down and slide the handles up and down to change the volume and other things like synthesizer and wave. Just fool around with them to get the most pleasing sound for your ears!
PC Doctor
Dear Readers:
I just wanted to alert people to make sure to do their Windows updates this month. There have been some critical updates that can protect your precious computer. Of course I hope that you have automatic updates set up so this warning is a mote point as you will be getting your updates as they are released. But if you want to be double sure, just open up Internet Explorer, go to the upper menu bar and select Tools. From the drop down menu choose Windows Update and follow the onscreen directions. Since there are several security issues that this clears up, you want to be sure to do it promptly.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I am a big fan of You Tube and am slightly addicted to checking in everyday to find out what’s new. Of course that’s not a problem you can help me with (ha-ha) but I would like to add some of the funnier ones onto my website. How can I add those so people can just click on them without having to search You Tube?
Thanks Jack
Dear Jack:
You can use the following instructions to add them to your website and also to My Space and Facebook. (And you’re right, YouTube can be addicting!)
Open up Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, go to YouTube and find the video clip you’d like to attach to your website. Look to the right of the video display and you will see a field called ‘embed’. In the box next to it is what can appear to be a lengthy line of gibberish, but it is actually an HTML code. Highlight and hit the Control key (CTRL) along with the C key to copy it and then go to your website, MySpace, etc. and look for the option to copy which may say ‘video code’, ‘embed’ or ‘put this video on your page’ and paste it (hit the CTRL key together with the V key to paste).
Now when your users click on that link, they should be redirected to YouTube and the video you selected.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have a USB drive that you plug into your computer and I used it for backup purposes. I needed something larger so I got an external hard drive and wondered if I can format the USB drive to give to my daughter to use.
Erin
Dear Erin:
Yes you can reformat it as long as you understand that it will delete all information on that drive. If that is your aim, then plunge forward!
Plug the USB drive into your computer. Double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop or go to the Start button and choose My Computer. You should see all your various drives listed there and one of them should be your USB drive. Right click on that and choose Format from the drop down menu (Caution: be sure it is your USB drive and not your hard drive which is normally C). When it asks you questions such as naming the drive, etc. answer them how you wish to and then click the Start button (not the one at the bottom on your taskbar, but the one on your open window). It will complete the process, click OK and remove the drive. It should be all set to pass along to your daughter.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Someone sent me a file with a .pla extension on it. I found out from the guy what it is but I was wondering if there is a list somewhere where you can find out what different extensions mean?
Karry
Dear Karry:
A very complete website at www.file-extensions.org has an extensive array of file extensions. It gives associated applications, how to open them, how to convert them and how to back them up among other things. Very helpful!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I just bought a new computer and it has Vista. There is sure a lot to learn but right now I would like to know how to change the picture on my desktop to be a picture of my grandchildren. Is there a way to do that?
Granny
Dear Granny:
First off you have to have the photo you want to use loaded into your computer. You can do this either by having someone email you a picture, getting it from a disk (for example if you process your pictures at a commercial store you can ask to have it put on a disk) or through your digital camera. Make a note of where you saved the picture. Sometimes it’s easier to save it onto your desktop, and perform the sequence I’m about to describe. But however you decide to do it, you will need to know where it is saved.
To begin, with your computer running, make sure you are at your desktop. Right click anywhere there are no icons. From the drop down menu choose Personalize. In XP it used to be called Properties. From the list that appears, select Desktop Background. Under ‘choose a desktop background’, find the picture location section and click the Browse button. This is where you are going to look for that picture you want to use and why you needed to make a note as to where it is saved. Click on the picture you want and you should see it replace the picture currently on your desktop. This way you can try out several photos to get a preview and then choose the best one. Once you have decided then you can click the OK button.
This brings you back to the Personalize Appearance and Sounds window where you might note that you can change all kinds of things to customize your computer like: screen saver, sounds, mouse pointer, theme and display settings. Have some fun and play around with changing various things to see if you like something other than the default that comes with the computer!
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have been trying to backup my files as you have suggested repeatedly over the years <smile> and thought I was really doing a bang up job of it. Then my sister who uses my computer sometimes wondered about the numerous bookmarks that I have in Internet Explorer and wondered if they were supposed to be backed up. Let me tell you I panicked! I have spent a great deal of time searching out topics for the book I am writing in addition to my many interests and I would be lost if they disappeared. Please tell me there is a way to back them up!
Freaked out
Dear Freaked Out:
Now, now, no reason to get upset. Of course you can back them up and I’m sure many of our other readers out there will be happy to find out they can do this too!
First you need some kind of back up media such as a floppy disk, external hard drive or USB flash drive or memory stick. Put it into the appropriate port on your computer. Now open up Internet Explorer. Go up to the upper blue menu bar, select File and then Import/Export. The Import/Export Wizard will open up, click the Next button and from the list choose Export Favorites. Click the Next button. Make sure that the Favorites folder is highlighted and click the Next button (are you getting the hang of clicking the Next button!). On the destination screen, click the button in front of ‘export to a file or address’. Underneath that you want to click the Browse button and find your external media (that you are going to save to). Click on it from the list and it should appear in the window. Click the Next button. Click the Finish button and you are all done!
See – safe and sound! If you ever need to get them back onto a new computer, just Import instead of Export.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I was
talking to someone at lunch the other day who overhead someone
talking about the Social Media Four. Both of us are clueless about
trends on the Internet so we were curious what this about. Do you
have any idea?
Amber
Dear Amber:
The Social
Media Four are the top four sites on the Internet for social
interaction among Internet users. The two you’ve probably heard of
are YouTube and Facebook. The other two are Flickr and Digg. They
are just various ways that you can share information and find out
stuff from users all over the world.
YouTube
(at www.youtube.com) has
video clips posted by users like yourself who either make their own
videos or capture clips off the television or some media source.
The array of videos available is mind boggling and you can find just
about anything on there. There is a subject search so you can type
in cats, for example, and get a list of all the videos posted on
cats be they funny or serious. You can sign up for a free account
if you want to upload some of your own videos. Many vocal artists
have actually made a name for themselves by posting themselves
singing. It’s kind of an addicting site.
Facebook
is similar to MySpace and can be found at
www.facebook.com. It offers some different alternatives
and options than MySpace and many people actually have webpages on
both. Again accounts are free to sign up. You can create a
website featuring you and your interests or your business or rock
band, whatever you want. An important thing to remember (as with
all public information) is that ANYONE can view these sites unless
you make them private. In this day and age many employers will
Google a potential employee. Just think about the image that you
are sending from a Facebook or MySpace webpage.
Flickr is
a website devoted to uploading, storing and sharing pictures. It
has lots of cool ways to manipulate your pictures online and the
basic account is free at
www.flickr.com. When you sign up you have to have a
YahooID which means that you will also end up with a Yahoo email
account but you don’t need to use it if you already have other
email. Just use the ID for your Flickr account.
Finally
Digg is something I was not too familiar with so I went online at
www.digg.com to see what the hype is all about. If you
enjoy reading articles on the hottest topics in the news and then
commenting (or giving a ‘digg’) or reading what others have to say,
then you will enjoy Digg. The articles are then placed on the home
page according to how many ‘diggs’ it has gotten. There were some
pretty interesting articles listed when I checked it out.
So there
you have it. Now of course with the speed that things change
nowadays, by the time this is in print there may be all new social
media fours!
PC
Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
I have a
Vista computer and am still learning all the various new things
about it. One thing that is bugging me at the moment is that I have
a Kodak Easy Share disk with some of my pictures on it and I loaded
them onto my computer and now every time I turn my computer on, the
stupid Easy Share opens up asking me a bunch of questions. I can’t
figure out how to not make that come up every single time. I would
sure like some help with this.
Steve
Dear Steve:
If you do
not want to uninstall the program rather just have it not start up,
then click on the Start button, choose Control Panel and then double
click the Administrative Tools icon (first click on Classic View if
you are not seeing Administrative Tools in the list). Double-click
on System Configuration from the right hand column and when the
window opens up, click on the Startup tab. Scroll down the list
until you see KODAK Easyshare and KODAK software. Uncheck the boxes
in front of them; click the Apply button and then the OK button. It
may ask you to reboot your computer. From there you should be all
set.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doc....
When I receive an email with images in the field, I cannot forward the images so that they arrive at the sent location in the email field. What happens is....when I hit forward, the jpg's or gif's or whatever is in the mail become just rectangle outlines with a tiny square in the top left corner that has a red square, a green circle and a blue triangle in it. Sometimes the images change to this. I use both MSN Hotmail and Yahoo for my email service. I have Windows XP with a Dell PC. Any ideas as to why this happens? BTW..The last time that I wrote to you, your answer was extremely helpful. Thanks so much.
Ralph
Dear Ralph:
It sounds like either your email program or your recipient’s email program is blocking graphics. Emails can be sent as plain text or HTML. Many web based email programs (which Hotmail and Yahoo are) block graphics by default. This is because some spammers send out mass emails with a graphic in the email. However those graphics are not embedded into the email but are hosted at their website. When you click on the graphic it links you to their site thereby verifying your email address as one that can be sent more junk mail. That is why many people use plain text only and that setting is the default.
Depending on your particular circumstance and email carrier, sometimes you will see a message at the top of an individual email message telling you that graphics were blocked and allowing you to click on a bar at the top of your email message to allow the graphic to display. Some people feel this is the safest way since you can choose manually whether to display a graphic or not. You can ask your receiver to see if they are getting this message and all they have to do is click on it.
However you can change the settings and as long as you are running your antivirus regularly, you will probably be okay.
To check this in Yahoo, open up your mail, click the Options button and then under Management (around the middle of the page) click on General Preferences. Scroll down to Messages and under Security, uncheck the box that says ‘block HTML graphics in email messages from being downloaded’.
In Hotmail, also click on the Options line on the right hand side of the Inbox screen and click on Mail from the list of folders on the left hand side. Choose Mail Display Settings under Mail Options and make sure the box for Display Internet Content is selected. Click the OK button.
You also have the option of doing this manually as you are sending the individual email on which might actually be a safer way. In fact, I think I would try that first before making huge changes to my settings. Click the Forward button on the email you want to forward and notice that there is a Tools button directly above your message (not the one on the Internet Explorer window). When you click on that at the bottom of the list you should see ‘rich text editor OFF (or ON)’. Weirdly enough it should read ‘rich text editor OFF’ for it to actually be on. Or it could say ‘send rich text HMTL’ depending on your version. So click on it to make that change and then try sending, checking with your recipient to see if it got there okay.
It’s also very possible that the graphics in your emails are not embedded as I mentioned earlier and when you forward them along you are not actually forwarding a graphic but a link to one that is not on your computer. Also some email clients may change the name of a picture when sending so that it is not recognized on the other end as a jpeg. Apparently Outlook Express is one of these.
So if the receiver is using Outlook Express, it’s possible they have it set up to block images. For them to change this, they would have to go to Tools, Options, Privacy and uncheck ‘block loading of remote images’. They would just have to be aware that they may be opening themselves up to virus problems if they are not doing the routine antivirus scans.
This is kind of a long winded answer to your problem. Hopefully one of these will work or at least you will have an idea why it’s not working. Good luck.
PC Doctor
Quick tip of the week – if you’re looking to type something in another language and wondering how you can type various accent marks and diacritics, check out this cool site called Keyboard Help at www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm. It gives all the international signs with the keyboard combinations that will create them in your documents.
Dear Computer Doctor:
I am confused about ENCODING. What does it stand for? When do I use it? And what should be the proper link under the Encoding choices.
Thank you Arthur
Dear Arthur:
I’m confused too as I’m not sure what type of encoding you are talking about. One type of encoding involves URL (or uniform resource locators or the address you type to find a website). There are special rules for creating a URL and allowed characters that you can use. It’s much too complicated to list all the rules here so you can go to Google and type in ‘url encoding’ if that is what you are interested in finding out. There are a number of websites with good explanations.
There is also character or text encoding which pairs sequences of characters to help with the storage of text on a computer. It sort of translates what we see as letters and numbers into numeric values so that computers know what we’re talking about. Text encoding uses markup language such as HTML (hypertext markup language) or XML to control the display of a webpage. A good way to see what this looks like is to open your web browser, such as Internet Explorer, go to a web page and from the upper menu bar select View and then Page Source. A window will open that will show the HTML used to create the webpage. It really is like a foreign language. Again type ‘character encoding’ in Google to find out the special rules and explanations.
One problem with this type of encoding is that if you create a webpage or document using an incorrect character or non standard one is that the end user viewing your web page will see something bizarre when their browser attempts to translate what you’ve written. That’s why you should use one of the more widely accepted encoding systems, such as ASCII, Unicode, ISO 8859-1. UTF-8 is often used when you want to use words from other languages, particularly those with diacritical marks over certain letters used in languages such as Hebrew or Polish.
Most people who are not trained to use encoding find using a commercial package to create a website like Microsoft FrontPage or Dreamweaver which does the ‘translation’ or the encoding for you to be a simpler solution.
If you are wishing instead to learn the system to do the encoding yourself, there are courses available either online or at local colleges or from books available at the library.
I’m not sure I answered your question, but hopefully this will get you started.
PC Doctor
Dear PC Doctor:
Hi, when I get my Yahoo mail sometimes, the writing goes off the page to the right. I have tried to widen my page or change font size to no avail. How can I make my folder column smaller so then my mail will fit on the page?
WV
Dear WV:
You can change settings in Yahoo mail by clicking on Options on the right hand side of the screen above your inbox emails. Then choose General Preferences and under Messages you can change the font size and screen width. Change to see if either of those will help. I don’t believe that you can change the width of the folder column however.
If that doesn’t work and it’s not all of the mail just certain people’s then I would suspect that it’s the way they are sending it to you. If you look on the same screen in Yahoo that I just sent you to to change the text size, you’ll notice just above the Messages section is Composing Emails. If they can choose ‘compose messages as plain text’ and send to you again, see if that helps. Also some email programs don’t use word wrap so if you notice the offending emails are from the same program then that may be a problem you won’t be able to correct.
Finally I don’t know if you are using the Yahoo Mail Beta version but there have been complaints of bugs of which this is one so you could just go back to the classic version and wait it out until things are fixed.
PC Doctor
Dear PC
Doctor:
I usually use Google to find answers to
questions but someone was telling me the other day about
answer engines? Is that what Google is and if not, then
what is the difference?
&nb