May 2009

Transcript

vol. 27  no. 5 / may 2009 award winning monthly newsletter for orcopug members skype may program skype program 2 feedback 3 your favorite shot 4 ask computer tutor 5 keyword explained 9 linkscanner review 10 ted’s world blog 13 clean your desktop 15 vista upgrade glitch 18 solutions from users 19 member information  20 user group deals   21 orcopug information  22 for windows fill your screen with the faces you love Program presented by Mike Lyons and Ted Wirtz Make your weekly call to your mom and this time, remember to ask for her knockout cheesecake recipe. skype: built for conversations that make a difference! A t the May 12 meeting (starting at 6 p.m.), Mike Lyons and Ted Wirtz will demonstrate the latest version of Skype. This new Skype was built so you can have the conversations that make a difference to you, every day. Give your partner a goodnight kiss when they’re working away from home. Check in with your family wherever you’re travelling to let them know you’re safe and well. Among some of the latest features in version 4.0 are: bigger video Feel like you’re talking face-to-face with great sound and picture. Fill your screen with the faces you love. best-ever sound Calls are crystal clear and even more reliable. Plus ‘smart help’ picks up any sound issues and helps you fix them during a call. 2 juggle conversations Pick up and switch between conversations. Organize everything in one main screen or choose separate windows for each conversation. Skype-to-Skype calls, video calls and instant messaging are free, any time of the day or night, anywhere in the world. Call phones and mobiles and send SMS messages at great value Pay As You Go rates, or call unlimited to certain countries with a subscriptions. getting started Step-by-step guides online will help you get started. Skype is not for computers only – the ASUS AiGuru SV1 Internet Videophone is the first videophone fully integrated with Skype – no computer required. Make free Skype-to-Skype video and voice calls. Call landlines and mobiles at low rates with Skype Credit or monthly subscription. http:// tinyurl.com/ose7j4 and http://tinyurl.com/oce9fm. (Not to be demonstrated at meeting.) ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 feedback Pamela Tabak Computertutorinc.net Y our readers are welcome to contact me anytime and I look forward to hearing from them. As you know, the questions I forward for your publication are chosen from the numerous questions that I receive daily from computer users worldwide who take advantage of my FREE Q & A service. http://tinyurl.com/ask-pamela The questions are problems that computer users face on a daily basis and come from computer users with a range of skill levels; novice to advanced. I have also made available FREE Web Q & A Sessions for computer groups which have proved really successful. http://tinyurl.com/ web-pres I try to include questions from all levels for your publication each month to keep the interest of all your readers. My new book will also contain questions with the answers from all skill levels. Hopefully my book will be ready for publication before Christmas; a great gift for someone who has everything! Thank you so much for allowing me to share my knowledge with your readers and for making your publication available to computer users who benefit from the information. Ted Wirtz ORCOPUG A s I shared with you recently, I was reluctant to install Quicktime on my Vista computer. However, my digital camera when used in video mode produces Quicktime videos, so I really need it to view those videos. I also have an iPod, which Hilton Head via Island Computer I’ve been updating my XP computer. Resource Center So,Club’s I decided to bite the bullet and proceed. The latest incarnation of iTunes installs a bunch of additional software for the iPhone (which I don’t have), and also for the newest iPod “Touch” (I don’t have that either). Ed Bott from ZDNet published a recent blog about how to install only the components you want, leaving out the rest of the bloat. http:// blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=554 FYI, I had already downloaded IZArc as my archiver and I really like it. Price is right too. The method shown in the blog requires an archiver capable of reading many different schemes, and IZArc fits the bill. I followed Ed’s procedure, and installed just Quicktime and iTunes without the rest of the software that I wouldn’t be using. Judy Taylour Co-Chair SCC T he Southwest Computer Conference is coming this month! It is scheduled for May 29–31 at the Town and County Resort and Convention Center in San Diego. The conference includes vendorsponsored meals and presentations, t-shirt and Welcome bag full of goodies and 20 workshops and vendor tech sessions. Enjoy up-close and personal time with vendors at the Expo, interact with officers and members from over 60 computer clubs! Visit the conference website at www. theswcc.org for more information about the conference and registration. ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 3 SO YOU LIKE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY shot your favorite This is a picture taken at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach (2008). photo by Frank Bollinger, ORCOPUG E verybody has a photo that they like a lot. Won’t you please send us your favorite photo for our next “Your Favorite Shot” page? Email your photo as a low resolution 3” x 4” or 4” x 3” JPG to editor@ orcopug.org. Please provide a short description of the photo or photo trick that you used to get it. Photo subjects can be whatever you choose. 4 ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009   ask computer tutor by Pamela Tabak Q UESTION: I just bought a laptop with Vista and I have a problem I can’t figure out. Example: I get an email with a YouTube link. I click on the link and when I have finished looking at the link I click on the red X in the upper right corner of the browser and get a message “Close tabs or Cancel.” If I close the tabs the link goes away and so does everything else including my email program. If I click “cancel” nothing happens.  How do I close out the link without closing out everything else? Turn to next page ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 5 COMPUTER HELP ANSWER: The feature that you are seeing is on the new Internet Explorer 7 browser. It has “tabs” at the top instead of having the WebPages stack up on your taskbar. Therefore this wonderful new system allows you to open as many tabs or WebPages as you wish and have them all available, like folders, at the top of the browser. You can have them all available and click back and forth to have them open without having to go to the address bar or your favorites again. Now, to close just one tab, although you really don’t to need to do so if you wish to return to that webpage during this session, you can just click on the small X on the particular tab, shown in the picture above with the black arrow. You can close each browser window this way and also you can click on the empty tab to the right of the last tab, to open a new webpage. You will see that I have 4 windows open, represented by the 4 named tabs, in the picture above and a new empty tab ready at the right end. This is a great feature that you will grow to enjoy; it is really convenient and saves time. When you elect to close the whole browser by clicking on the red X at the right top corner, a message will appear, “Do you want to close all tabs?” If you click on “Show Options” it will expand allowing you to choose to open the same pages next time you open Internet 6 Explorer. This way you can have the same WebPages available next time you open your browser. You can even program your browser to open more than one HOME page if you wish. QUESTION: I received an e-mail with an attached PowerPoint show that I wanted to save. When I clicked on the attachment icon I got the following message “This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Associations control panel.” I searched the control panel but could find no mention of the word “associations” anywhere. How do I copy the attachment? Thanks very much for your help. ANSWER: When you get this message when trying to open an attachment you will need to create ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 an association in the Folder Options control panel if you have the software installed on your computer. If you do not have the software installed on your computer you can either purchase the program or for some programs FREE VIEWERS or FREE SOFTWARE are available at the following links. Microsoft WORD – http:// tinyurl.com/newmswordviewer Microsoft EXCEL – http:// tinyurl.com/freemsexcelviewer Microsoft POWERPOINT – http:// tinyurl.com/ms-powerpoint-viewer Adobe Acrobat Reader – http:// tinyurl.com/adobe-reader-all If you do have the software installed you will need to follow the steps below for Windows XP: Click on START Click on MY DOCUMENTS Click on TOOLS then FOLDER OPTIONS Click on the FILES TYPE tab at the top of the open box and wait a while until the list appears. Turn to next page COMPUTER HELP 6. WMA - Windows media Audio File 7. PDF - Adobe Acrobat Reader 8. PPT – PowerPoint Presentation 9. PPS – PowerPoint Show QUESTION: My Outlook Express toolbar is missing and I do not have the options to send etc. Where so I find it? Scroll down the list and see if the file extension that you need is listed. If it is not listed click the NEW button. When you click on the NEW button the box pictured below will appear: Enter the extension that you require i.e. PPT for a PowerPoint Presentation or PPS for a PowerPoint show. The Most commonly Used File Extensions are: 1. DOC - Microsoft Word Document 2. XLS - Microsoft Excel File 3. JPG or JPEG - Picture File 4. GIF - Picture File 5. BMP - Picture File ANSWER: If your Outlook Express Toolbar disappears, follow the steps below and it will be recovered: • With outlook Express open click VIEW • Click on LAYOUT • Make sure that all the items required are checked • Click OK Your toolbars should be back in place. NOTE: If you have a DEFAULT” button in your version of OUTLOOK EXPRESS you could click this button to restore Microsoft Defaults. QUESTION: My hard drive is configured for two users, “His” and “Hers.” Each of the two users have created their own Microsoft Office files in Excel. Is it possible to create a shortcut for one of “His” files and place the shortcut in user “Hers” portion of the pc? At times, I wish to toggle back and forth between different files, one file in “His”, with another file in “Hers.” Switching users is cumbersome. I’ve tried, what I think, is a copy and paste approach of a shortcut between users, but no luck! ANSWER: Follow these steps to share files from their current location without copying them to another location. Using this method, you can choose the people with whom you share files, regardless of whether they use this computer or another computer on the network. 1. Locate the folder with the files you want to share. 2. Click one or more files or folders that you want to share, and then, on the toolbar, click SHARE. 3. In the File Sharing dialog box, do one of the following: • Type the name of the person you want to share files with, and then click ADD. • If your computer is on a domain, click the arrow to the right of the text box, and then click FIND. Type the name of the person you want to share files with, click CHECK NAMES, and then click OK. • If your computer is on a domain, click the arrow to the right of the text box, click EVERYONE to share the files with everyone on your network, and then click ADD. • If your computer is on a workgroup, click the arrow to the right of the text box, click the person’s name in the list and then click ADD. • If your computer is on a workgroup and you don’t see the name of the person you want to share files with in the list, click the arrow to the right of the text box, and then click CREATE A NEW USER to create a new user account so that you can share files with the person using this account. The name of the person or group that you selected appears in the list of Turn to next page ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 7 COMPUTER HELP people you want to share files with. NOTE: If your computer is on a workgroup, you have the option of turning password protection on or off. If password protection is turned on, the person you are sharing with must have a user account and password on your computer in order to access the files and folders you are sharing. You can turn password protection on or off in the Network and Sharing Center. 4. Under Permission Level, click the arrow next to each person or group and select sharing permissions: • A Reader can view shared files, but not add, alter, or delete them. • A Contributor can view or add shared files, but can only alter or delete files he or she has contributed. • A Co-owner can view, add, alter or delete any shared file. NOTE: If you are sharing a file instead of a folder, there is no option to set the permission level to Contributor. 5. When you are finished choosing the people or groups you want to share files with, click SHARE. If you are prompted for an 8 administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. 6. After you receive confirmation that your folder is shared, you should send a link to your shared files to the people you are sharing them with, so they know the files are shared and how to access them. Do one of the following: • Click EMAIL to automatically open a Windows Mail email message containing the link to your shared files. • Click COPY to automatically copy the link displayed on this screen to the Windows Clipboard. Then open a new email message and paste the link into the message. • Manually copy and paste the link displayed on this screen into an email message. Right-click the link and click COPY LINK. Then open a new email message and paste the link into the message. You might want to do this if you don’t use Windows Mail as your e‑mail program. NOTE: If you change the name of a file or folder after you have shared it with someone, the previous link you sent them will not work. You should send ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 Create a shortcut for one of “His” files and place the shortcut in “Her” user portion of the pc. them a link to the new location instead. An easy way to get this link is to share the file or folder by following the preceding steps. 7. If you don’t want to send an email message to the person you are sharing files with, click DONE. They won’t be able to find the shared files, however, until you give them the network location of the files. Pamela Tabak receives numerous computerrelated questions via e-mail and during classroom presentations. She selects those she feels are of common interest to most computer users and forwards them to us for publication in this newsletter. Pamela invites members to e-mail computer-based questions to pamela@ computertutorinc. net Questions are often answered within 24 hours. KEYWORD EXPLAINED april keyword explained xmarks.com Site Info built into your browser C lick on the Xmarks info icon in your location bar to see detailed information about the site you are on, and discover other great sites just like it. Smarter Search Xmarks will highlight the 3 top sites in your Google results based on how many people have bookmarked them. Simply move your mouse over the site info icon to learn more about that site. Sync and Backup Install Xmarks (formally foxmarks) on each computer you use, and it seamlessly integrates with your web browser and keeps your bookmarks safely backed up and in sync. You can view, edit, add and delete bookmarks from any browser by going to my.xmarks.com and logging in with your Xmarks username and password. Xmarks gives you full control over which bookmarks are synced to which computers. This allows you to: Keep your private bookmarks at home, but sync everything else with your work computer. Set up a different bookmark toolbar at home and at work, but sync everything else as you normally would. Create a shortlist of bookmarks for when you access My Xmarks from your mobile phone. Assign Bookmarks to Sync Profiles The feature works by allowing you to group your bookmarks into different Sync Profiles. You can name each Sync Profile whatever you like and pick which bookmarks belong to it. ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 9 INTERNET linkscanner free protection from web threats could you click unknowingly on a bad link that makes your computer vulnerable to attack? According to published reports, as many as 95% By Ira Wilsker of the new online threats any of us have felt secure while surfing the web, safe in the knowledge that our PC security software will protect us from all of the threats out there. Initially, in the early days of PCs, we came to understand that a good antivirus program would give us all of the protection that we needed. Later, we learned the hard way that antivirus software by itself would not protect us from the then-current threats, so we needed a firewall and anti-spyware software. The major publishers of security software obliged us by producing and selling us better, and more comprehensive protective software, culminating in today’s typical security suites. Sadly, the miscreants that create the threats to our computing safety are often a step ahead of the security software publishers, and manage to craft new categories of threats that are explicitly designed to penetrate our protective shields, or even bypass them altogether. This makes us vulnerable to attack, even though we blissfully surf the net, oblivious to these new threats, confident in the knowledge that our security software will forever protect us. Regrettably, many of us will find that our personal computing has been compromised by malware from which our security suites provide little or no protection, leaving us open and vulnerable to attack. According to published reports, as many as 95% of the new online threats are now coming from the websites that we visit, and are often undetected by our existing security software. This means that the blind trust that many of us have in our security software, regardless of the brand, may be unfounded, as our computers may be substantially unprotected from this new vector of attack. According to Turn to next page are now coming from the websites that we visit, and are often undetected by our existing security software. 10 M ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 INTERNET a recent article on the subject on ZDNET, “The most dangerous page on the web may be the one you are about to click on.” As many as 100,000 to 150,000 legitimate websites, often those of national brands and companies, are compromised every day, and are “poisoned” in such a way that innocent visitors to those web pages unknowingly load malware onto their computers, bypassing the antivirus and anti-spyware software installed on the computer to expressly protect against such malware. This malware, when loaded on the victim computer, can open the victim to identity theft or other damages to his privacy or the sanctity of his data. Traditional whitelists (directories of safe sites), and blacklists (directories of dangerous sites), while widely used by conventional protective products are ineffective, as 60% of the poisoned websites are dangerous for less than 24 hours, many of those malignant for only a few hours. This threat is real, and according to security vendor AVG, “One in eight web users will unknowingly come across a poisoned page at least once a month.” The European computer security company AVG (formerly known as Grisoft), has an excellent reputation in the industry, and currently has over 80 million registered users of its software. While the AVG Antivirus software is among the most widely used free antivirus software in the world, AVG also publishes comprehensive commercial security suites that have a loyal following in the millions. AVG has always been considered as a leader in security technology, as demonstrated by a feature included in its top commercial security suite, Linkscanner. The Linkscanner technology has given AVG a strong competitive edge when compared against many of its commercial competitors, as it provides substantial protection from the web borne malware that would possibly slip by competitive products. Turn to next page ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 11 INTERNET website: http://linkscanner.avg.com Recently, AVG released a free version of its Linkscanner software which I immediately downloaded and installed on several computers. Linkscanner installed smoothly on each computer except one, that one computer having a security suite that was incompatible with Linkscanner (Trend Micro Internet Security Suite 2009 Pro). According to the AVG webpage, this conflict was unusual, as Linkscanner was tested and found to be compatible with almost all other security suites available. Linkscanner, available for free download at linkscanner.avg. com, scans each webpage as it is downloaded to your browser, looking for dangerous content, and blocking the loading of the webpage if malware is found. This prevents the web borne malware from being installed on the computer as it is stopped before it is effectively downloaded. Linkscanner does this so quickly, and utilizes minimal system resources, such that there is no noticeable effect on the speed of websites loading and being displayed in the browser. Linkscanner works well with Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, and will run on most current versions of Windows, including 32 and 64 bit operating systems. Except as mentioned above, Linkscanner will generally 12 not interfere with other security software and runs in addition to it. There are two components to Linkscanner, SearchShield and Active SurfShield. Search-Shield works with the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, and displays a safety rating for links displayed during a search. If a website is known as safe, and is free of malware, SearchShield will display a green star with a checkmark adjacent to the site name. Websites known to harbor malware will be displayed with a red “X”, warning the user not to go there. By knowing in advance which websites are safe to go to, or should be avoided, the user can search with a high degree of safety. While not a scientific study, I compared load times with and without Search-Shield running, and I could not notice any difference in the time to load and display Google and Yahoo search results. ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 The second key feature in Linkscanner is Active Surf-Shield, which scans the webpage behind any link click on, or web address typed into the browser. If Active SurfShield detects that the page has been “poisoned”, the continued loading of the page is stopped, and a large red warning window is displayed. Again, in my non-scientific tests, I did not notice any difference in the load times of web pages with and without Active Surf-Shield running, and it appeared that the results were displayed almost instantaneously. Linkscanner (linkscanner.avg. com) is listed as “free forever” when used on individual personal home computers, and provides a valuable and worthwhile adjunct to the security software that we already have on our computers. Since as much as 95% of the contemporary cyber threats are web borne, and Linkscanner explicitly protects against those threats that may slip through our antivirus and antispyware software, Linkscanner should be installed and used as appropriate. BLOG t ed’s world photo printer gift is just the beginning by Ted Wirtz I t’s pretty obvious; since I retired I have more time to play with my computers and software. This will stop pretty soon and the “honeydo” lists are going to take over. RATS! My son gave me an HP Photosmart A616 photo printer for Christmas and I decided it was time to get it connected up and working. It is designed to print photos in either 5X7 or 4X6 inch formats, depending on which photo paper you load. It appears to be really designed to operate in a standalone environment without connection to a computer. It has a 2X2 inch colored LCD screen on top with a number of menu items you can go through to select and touch up photos, using a special pad with arrows on all four quadrants and an “OK” button in the middle. It has multiple slots where you can insert a variety of digital camera cards, (SD, XD, Compact Flash and Memory Stick) and print selected images directly from the card. It also has a USB port on the front where you can plug in a thumb drive and print any photos stored there. There is another USB port on the rear so you can connect it to your computer. I wanted to connect it to my Vista Computer. The user guide laid out the steps. 1. Start the supplied install CD and follow the prompts to start installing the software. It warned to NOT connect the printer at this time to avoid confusing the computer about the device. 2. When the install is nearly complete, the screen prompts will instruct you to power on the printer and connect the USB port to your computer to finish the install. 3. After the install is complete, the program will connect to HP for registration, and will then print a test photo. Sounds pretty simple, so I started the CD. ERROR MESSAGE! This CD is intended only for Windows XP. Click EXIT. Okay, this is a new printer, so HP support should have a Vista driver available. Search the site. Yes there it is, a full install for this specific printer for Windows Vista. Download and save to a folder. Try again. Right click the install file and run as Administrator. UAC still asks for elevation of privilege. I already told you once! Install has finally started and seems to be going well. Install is at 94% and the prompts now instruct me to connect the printer. Connected. Install is proceeding. Error message! Install cannot complete because another install for the same device is conflicting. Click OK to abort install and remove already installed files. What? Another install? Could I have somehow started it twice? I had started the install with Administrator privilege. Could answering UAC have started a second execution? Let’s try it again. Reboot. This time I’ll just double click the exe and then let UAC elevate the install. Install is at 94% and prompts me to connect the printer. Connected. Turn to next page ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 13 BLOG Install is proceeding. Error message! Install cannot complete because another install for the same device is conflicting. Click OK to abort install and remove already installed files. Okay, something is really messed up here. Why does the install think there is another install going on at the same time? Time to search the HP Knowledge Base and also search the HP forums. After entering numerous search terms I finally get a hit in the knowledge base. This took a lot of time, but it sounds a lot like my problem. The solution? I’ll start quoting at Step 6 because I’ve already done the previous steps. 6. “When a screen that prompts for the printer to be plugged in appears, click the box next to ‘Check here if you would like to continue without plugging in the device,’ then press the ENTER key. 7. “After the installation has finished, plug in the printer to the wall AC outlet. Plug the printer USB cable into the REAR port on the printer and directly into a USB port on the computer. The printer will be added to the software already installed, and screens will appear that will offer to print a sample page and register the printer on-line.” I followed step 6, and after the install completed (going from 94% to 100% and then indicating completion), I performed step 7. As soon as the computer saw the new device, another install dialog opened, and started listing files that were being installed. I lost count of how many files there were, but as each was listed, shortly after it would show success 14 and then start the next file. Finally, a dialog box displayed, offering to test print and register the printer. I did both, and all was well. The test print came out beautifully with rich accurate colors. It appears that the act of plugging in the printer actually started a second install process to finally complete the overall install. My guess is that since the first install was at 94% it was obviously not complete, but that the act of connecting the USB port to the printer did indeed start another and different install. The result? The message I got about two different installs conflicting! This is purely a guess on my part, but I suspect the same install for WinXP was “tweaked” to make a Vista compatible version. WinXP may have allowed “two” installs to proceed where Vista raised a flag when it saw “two” installs. It would have been nice if HP had included a README file along with the install package that told you to ignore the prompts and just click the box without connecting the printer as noted in step 6 above. On the other hand, I’m glad HP chose to update the install files to provide a Vista compatible set of drivers. I know a lot of people were disappointed to find that when they switched to Vista, that some of their external devices would no longer function, and the vendor chose to not create updated drivers. So, in the end, I have a very nice photo printer sitting on my desk that is running just fine under Vista. All’s well that ends well. ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 pc world printer test results by Paul Jasper, PC World F or our testing we used HP Advanced Photo Paper, which is thin and glossy like photo lab paper. Some HP paper is marked on the back so that HP printers can automatically detect the paper type. Unfortunately, the marks showed through to the printed side on our lighter prints. Overall the A616 produced attractive prints, but each of our samples showed different flaws. We noticed overly bronzed skin tones, murky shadows, dull colors, and grainy dithering, depending on the subject. Print speeds were a little disappointing too: black-and-white images emerged at a sluggish 0.6 pages per minute, while color prints averaged an even slower 0.5 ppm. In two informal moisture tests, we looked for defects after sprinkling water on week-old (and therefore dry) snapshot prints. Then we dunked them in water for 30 seconds and wiped them dry. The A616’s prints didn’t show any obvious ill effects after either test. http:// www.pcworld.com/reviews/ product/29351/review/ photosmart_a616.html HOW TO   Part II clean up your room/desktop By Ron Hirsch Boca Raton Computer Society L ast month we started on managing your icons. In this issue, we’ll be continuing the saga of the icons. When have completed the exercises below, and learned the various activities involved, you will be on the road to becoming an “expert” to your friends. You can then play the role of teacher rather than student. There are many different versions of Windows currently in use. As such, the material which follows may bring up a slightly different listing of choices on your machine, when one rightclicks on the desktop. With all these varying situations, it is very difficult to present the many fine points exactly. In general, the “differences” will be obvious by simple inspection. When they are not, the most direct approach is just to experiment to see what is produced when a choice is made. Generally, all such choices are reversible. In the process, you will get to better understand what is happening. To me, the aspect of experimenting is usually the best approach to understanding and learning. In the latest Window’s XP and Vista, MS has made a lot of changes, including the default desktop which is displayed. I personally don’t like it, but that’s a matter of my taste. However, MS did leave the door open to go back to the older style of desktop, which you may prefer. If you right click on the desktop, there should be a choice to have a classic Windows desktop. Try selecting this and see which you’d rather have. You can always revert back to the new style if you choose. Turn to next page ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 15 HOW TO There are also a variety of simple programs available free, on the Internet to save and then restore your desktop layout. Remember what I have been preaching for years in my articles. As you become more conversant with using your computer, you will gain more confidence in expanding your horizons with the most amazing machine that mankind has produced. But, it is only a “machine,” and you should be in charge of it, even though Microsoft tends to try and make it in charge of you. You are the boss, and the sooner you let your computer know that, the sooner you will stop feeling intimidated by it. In the window that pops up when you click on “Arrange Icons by,” you will see an entry named “Auto Arrange.” If you check this, your icons will always stay arranged, but not in any groups that you have established. They will all line up like soldiers, and stay that way even if you move them. They will jump right back into line. I personally don’t like using this. But, you can try it to see if you’d like it. “Auto arrange” is the equivalent of constantly invoking the “Arrange” command. I personally use the “Align to Grid,” which auto aligns all icons so arrange the icons that rows and columns are straight. With this checked, Right click on an empty space on the desktop, and sometimes when you move an icon, it snaps to a different a menu will come up. The first item on the XP listing point on the grid. It will always snap to the nearest point. is “Arrange Icons by.” Put the focus on “Arrange Icons When this happens, just click and drag it to where you by” and will get a listing lots of choices on how you want want. them arranged. If you have carefully positioned all your In the early days of XP when one had temporarily desktop icons in the various areas where you want them, booted into safe mode, and then returned to normal and you use the “Arrange” feature, they will all line up mode, the desktop layout was totally garbled up, But, like soldiers, starting at the upper left part of your screen. MS apparently improved things in recent times, as the Then you will have to manually reposition them to where original desktop layout does return now. they were before you started. Again, this is a good area in There are also a variety of simple programs available which to experiment. free, on the Internet to save and then restore your desktop layout. This can come in handy when something/ someone has messed up your desktop layout. The one I used is called “iconlayout.zip,” but the page for this appears to be gone now. This link appear to have a similar free program at ZDNet. http:// downloads.zdnet. com/abstract.aspx? Except for a few Icons that Windows is very possessive kw=Save+desktop of, the icon images that display for the shortcuts on +icon+layout&doc your desktop can be changed to suit your desires. id=185169 Turn to next page 16 ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 HOW TO You are the boss, and the sooner you let your computer know that, the sooner you will stop feeling intimidated by it. What these utilities generally do is add two items into the dropdown list when you right-click on your desktop — “Save desktop icon layout” and “Restore desktop icon layout.” Browse around for something similar, if you’d like to have this handy utility, or try this ZDNet link. changing icons Except for a few Icons that Windows is very possessive of, the icon images that display for the shortcuts on your desktop can be changed to suit your desires. When you right click on an icon, and select properties from the window which shows, a small window will come up. Near the bottom right of that window is a button marked “Change Icon.” If you click on it, another window will open, with other Windows’ supplied icons available. The selection is somewhat limited. But, there’s a “Browse” button. If you have any icon library files on your computer, click on the “browse,” and navigate around to find these libraries. When you find one, double click on it, and a whole bunch of icons will appear. Find one you like, double click on it and click OK, and when you exit the window, you’ll have a new icon for that shortcut. If you’d like to get some icon libraries, one of the best places to go is www.zdnet.com. Once you get there, navigate around to their download area, and then do a search for “icons.” You should get lots of results. These are generally free files, and there are lots of them available — so have fun. Google is also a good hunting ground for icons. Do a search for “icons for Windows XP.” You’ll get lots of hits, most of which are free downloads. The spacing of icons, and the color and many other properties of the desktop layout can also be changed. But, that’s outside of this area for now. In a future article, we’ll go over the ways to change your desktop colors, the sizes of things, the display resolution, and many other elements that can make your display “better,” and easier to use. starting programs Left click on the START button on the lower left of your desktop. On the menu which comes up, left click on “All Programs.” This should bring up a large window listing all the programs installed on your computer. This is probably where you have been to run a specific program. You would move the cursor over the desired program, and click, and the program would then run. Some of these items are links to start the program, and others are folders, which you must click to display the links that are within the folder. How about making copies of the startup links for the programs you use often. Doing this is simple. Put the cursor on a program shortcut, and then right click. There should be a listed item “create shortcut.” Clicking on this will create another shortcut, with a (2) showing that it is the a duplicate of the original shortcut. Then, drag this onto the desktop. You can now edit the name to remove the (2). Or make it any name you would like. At this point, take a break, and make sure that you are now well versed in the icon activities that are presented above. It would also be a good idea to play with the capabilities you have just learned, in preparation for the next venture. This will be a Turn to next page ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 17 HOW TO / UPGRADE PROBLEM major step for many of you, as we’ll be making new folders, adding icons to the desktop, and storing all the icons we don’t need in a folder which we’ll call “Icons in Storage.” Next month, we’ll pick up where we left off, and go through a variety of procedures that you should understand relative to controlling and manipulating Windows. We’ll also “play” with icons, setting up a storage folder for the excess icons that are presently on display. And, we’ll go through the process of getting some new icons on the desktop to save searching for them when we want to use them. Remember, if you learn a little bit each day, your new skills will make using your computer much easier. If you find this material useful, you may want to download this article in PDF format, from our web site www. brcs.org. This allows readers to keep the material either as a PDF file, and/or print it out, and place it in a looseleaf notebook for future reference. Ron Hirsch is a member of the Boca Raton Computer Society in Boca Raton Florida. You can contact Ron at: Ronhirsch1439@ comcast.net 18 florida user group member has a vista upgrade problem— got an answer? by Darry D Eggleston, GTBPCUG I ’m having a problem—and calls are beginning to come in from some of my clients—about a problem caused by the latest update to Vista. The upgrade was downloaded and installed last week. Once the Vista update is installed, when one tries to paste from WordPerfect into either Windows Mail or Internet Explorer (i.e., using blogs), Mail or IE will crash. Apparently, it is happening with other word processors, but WordPad works. (I’ve left voice mails with two clients that left voice mail saying their “word processor” causes the same problem; but, they did not identify which program they are using.) I have not tried MS Word yet because I wanted to alert you to the problem ASAP in case your friends and clients begin to inundate your emails with complaints. There is NOT a solution—or even recognition of a problem —at Microsoft or any other site that I could Google. I’ll let you know the minute I find a solution. Please, do likewise. update I’ve confirmed (personally) that the pasting problem only applies to pasting from WordPerfect and from Lotus (which two of my clients are still using) into Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Internet Explorer after updating Vista. By the by, I have one client using Ami Pro; but, I have not heard if this problem affects them—and I believe they are using that program on XP; not Vista. Both WordPad and MS Word can paste into those three programs without problems. (Don Miller confirmed the MS Word ability to paste, too.) update I’ve Googled until I’m blue, and visited every Microsoft-offered webpage; but, it’s as if the problem doesn’t exist. It is true that WordPerfect has lost a lot of market share over the years because of poor management, but it’s still the favorite among a number of my older clients—including myself. ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 USER TIPS   solutions from users…     that could save you a few headaches adobe upgrades for cs4 programs by Linda Gonse O nscreen announcements of recent updates waiting to be installed in my Adobe CS4 applications popped up on my monitor in recent weeks. Always interrupting me when I was attempting to complete a project, I would dismiss the announcements until later. But, one day I had free time and decided to let the first update installation go ahead. After my computer rebooted, I got back to work. Or, tried to get back to work. InDesign wouldn’t open. Not then and not after a couple of more tries. And, not after another reboot. I called Tech Support, but I didn’t have the installation disks or serial numbers with me at work, so they declined to help. Next day at work, I reinstalled the entire Design Premium CS4 suite. Everything worked okay again so I took a chance and reinstalled the update. Everything still worked! About a week or so later, another update requested installation—this time for Acrobat. I put it off for a few days and decided to get it over with. After installation, Acrobat Pro 9 was working, but now there were no icons to indicate it was on my computer. In their place was a generic Windows icon. I quickly reestablished the association for the PDF extension, but Acrobat files on my computer continued to display the generic icon. Checking around the web for an answer, I ran across several queries from other users about the same problem in addition to other problems they’d encountered with the latest two Adobe updates. An hour of searching passed before I found a solution posted in an Adobe forum http://forums.adobe.com/ thread/305816 that had worked for another Windows XP/Acrobat user in restoring the missing icon. This solution didn’t involve reinstalling the entire program. I’ll repeat it here in the hope that it might help another user somewhere. The user’s instructions said to open Acrobat, go to Help on the menu bar and select Repair Acrobat Installation. When it is completed, reboot your computer. Not expecting much, I did this. And, guess what? It worked! Everything is in good shape again, but I’m feeling anxious about the next Adobe update. I thank the user who posted this solution and all future users who share their experiences to help others fix problems and get back to doing useful work on their computers. quick test for confliker infection A ctivate the link below. If you can see all six icon images, you are NOT infected with Confliker. Images are downloaded directly from the indicated antivirus websites, and Confliker will block access to those sites thereby blocking the image — http://blogs.zdnet.com/ security/?p=3080&tag=nl.e589 submitted by Ted Wirtz university of phoenix tech support answer T here are some features of our web site, http://www.phoenix. edu, that Internet Explorer 8 is not yet compatible with for simulations or anything that has to do with Flash. IE8 is not compatible with Flash. Therefore (refer to the following Knowledge Base article) for removing IE8 untill microsoft gets all the bugs worked out of it. http:// support.microsoft.com/kb/957700/ submitted by Mary Burton ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 19 MEMBERS’ PAGE email addresses Bollinger, Frank   [email protected] Boutwell, Lloyd   [email protected] Covington III, Gary   [email protected] Gonse, Linda   [email protected] Gorham, Milton   [email protected] Jackson, Walter   [email protected] Kaump, LeRoy   [email protected] Klees, Larry   [email protected] Leese, Stan   [email protected] Loehr, Lothar   [email protected] Lyons, Mike   [email protected] Moore, Charlie   [email protected] Musser, Dave   [email protected] Wann, Harold   [email protected] New Member april raffle winners Language Arts Review Sports $20 Dan Gonse Not Present Ron Schultz Expired Charlie Moore Winner Cook‘n’ in Italy $29 Bob McDonald Winner NortonLive $49 Walter Jackson Winner Verbatim PhotoSaver $29 Bill McGraw Expired Hank Dart Not Present Carl Westberg Winner Sunbelt Software Viper $49 Ron Schultz Expired Bob McDonald Winner Beat Craft $49 Gary Covington III Not Present Leonard Prince Not Present Joe Gionet Winner Aquarium Screensaver $29 Lloyd Boutwell Not Present Stan Leese Winner Flags CD $20 Ted Wirtz Winner Westberg, Carl   [email protected] Wirtz, Ted   [email protected] time   for renewal? FEBRUARY 1– Pete Romeo, Ron Schultz, Darryl Swensen (3 months overdue) APRIL 1– Dave Musser, Bill McGraw MAY 1– Lloyd Boutwell, Terry Schiele JULY 1– Walter Jackson, Ralph Seymour AUGUST 1– Stan Leese, Sid Liptz SEPTEMBER 1– Louise Applequist, Don Ogden, Leonard Prince, Robert Schmal Liptz submitted by Charlie Moore submitted by Charlie Moore membership application     Renewal* Expired members are not eligible to win raffle prizes or to access the Members’ Only web page. Last Name First Name Mailing Address Nickname City Home Phone (     )    Work Phone (     )    Areas of Interest/Comments State    Zip E-mail Address Meetings are the second Tuesday of every month. See www.orcopug.org for more details. What A Bargain! For about $2 a month you can’t beat the benefits of belonging to our user group! Make checks payable to: ORCOPUG - Dues are $25 per year ORCOPUG, P.O. BOX 716, Brea, California 92822-0716 20 ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009   USER GROUP DEALS & ANNOUNCEMENTS thanks for your 2008 donations! secret keyword raffle S incere thanks to the following companies for prizes they donated to our 2008 fundraising raffle. We raised $475 and couldn’t have done it without the help of 2nd Story Software, Acoustica Software, Aviar, DVO Enterprizes, Electric Rain, Help Me 2 Learn, Iolo Technologies, Marken Communications, No Starch Press, O’Reilly, Otter Box, Photodex Corp., Prolific Publishing, Siber Systems, skype, Stardock Systems, Sunbelt Software, and User Group Relations (Gene Barlow). Some of these companies were right there with donations to help us last year, as well. Please support all of these generous vendors with your purchases during the coming year! members’ only web passwords are changed O RCOPUG membership entitles you to access the Members’ Only page at www.orcopug.org for special discounts. Your user name is your first initial+last name (lower case, no space). We have a new web host and your password is slightly changed. Use the capital letters OCR plus your member number. There is no space between the letters and number. discounts on magazines… only for user group members! T hese prices are for new subscriptions and renewals. All orders must be accompanied by a check, cash or money order. Make payable to Herb Goodman, and mail to: Herb Goodman, 8295 Sunlake Drive, Boca Raton, FL 33496. Call or write: 561-488-4465, [email protected] 1 2 3               Computer Games $15.95 — Computer Shopper $16.95 $32.95 Mac Life $10.97    —    — Maximum PC $  9.95 $18.95 Microsoft System Journal $21.95 $39.95    — PC Gamer $12.95 $23.95 $33.95 PC Magazine (now digital, 12 issues/year) $14.95 $24.95 $35.95 — $47.95 $27.95 PC World $16.95    —    — Videomaker $11.95 $21.95   — Wired $10.00 $18.00   — arry Klees won the keyword raffle in April and took home FIVE great prizes. There is a new keyword for May hidden somewhere in our newsletter or on our website. The May keyword prize is Totes Emergency Weather Radio. Find the keyword and be the next prize winner! favorite shot wanted E verybody has a photo they like a lot. Send your favorite photo as a low resolution 3” x  4” or 4” x  3” jpg to [email protected]. Provide a description of the photo or the camera that you used to get it. Photo subjects can be whatever you choose.  thank you newsletter contributors! Charlie Moore, Darry D Eggleston, Frank Bollinger, Herb Goodman, Ira Wilsker, Judy Taylour, Linda Gonse, Mary Burton, Mike Lyons, Pamela Tabak, Ron Hirsch, Ted Wirtz, Tim O’Reilly *Revised January 2009 Y E A R S L Please allow 10 to 12 weeks for your magazines to start. You must supply an address label from your present subscription when renewing. I carry over 300 titles at excellent prices. Just email me for a price. June Deadline may 16 please help! B ring used Hewlett Packard, Canon (BC-02, BC-05, BC-20 or BX-3), Lexmark, Dell, Compaq, Kodak, Samsung, or Sharp inkjet cartridges; or any laser cartridge to our next meeting for our fundraising project. ORANGE COUNTY IBM PC USERS’ GROUP — MAY 2009 21 GROUP INFORMATION computer users helping computer users member of the association of personal computer user groups ORCOPUG Post Office Box 716 Brea, California 92822-0716 714-990-0580 • www.orcopug.org President, Mike Lyons [email protected] Treasurer/Membership, Charlie Moore [email protected] Editor/Webmaster, Linda Gonse [email protected] Programs, Lothar Loehr [email protected] Reviews, Terry Schiele [email protected] Membership, Carl Westberg [email protected] Nibbles & Bits is electronically published and distributed by Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group to its members and vendors. Opinions expressed herein are the writers and are not reflective of the Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group position, nor endorsed by inclusion in this newsletter. Submit newsletter items to: [email protected]. Reprint Policy: PAGE LAYOUTS AND IMAGES MAY NOT BE USED. User groups MAY REPRINT UNALTERED, UNCOPYRIGHTED TEXT, WITH CREDIT TO THE AUTHOR AND NIBBLES & BITS. our website’s got it all! • Program of the month • newsletters • weather map • pdf & site search • personalized map • antivirus/antispyware links • help & tips • newsfeeds • contact information • membership application • Members’ Only! specials www.orcopug.org benefits of User Group Membership •  •  •  •  •  •  •  Product & “How To”demos Free raffles and magazines Help from other members Newsletter and web site Special offers & discounts Monthly meetings Affiliation with worldwide group User groups represent the spirit of the frontier, a community getting together to do things that no individual ought to have to do alone. The pioneers of the American west got together for barn raisings, cattle roundups, and the occasional party. The pioneers of new technology get together for installfests, new user training and support, and just plain fun. Being part of a user group is the best way to get more out of your computer, and lets you make friends while you’re at it. Tim O’Reilly President, O’Reilly & Associates where are the meetings and when are they held? R     egular meetings are held the second Tuesday     of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the Placentia     Library, 411 East Chapman Avenue. Placentia, California 92870, (714) 528-1906. Call (714) 990-0580, for information. Meetings are free and the public is welcome! Planning meetings are held the third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at Downey Savings & Loan, one block east of Harbor at Bastanchury in Fullerton. All members are welcome to attend planning meetings! next meeting: tuesday, may 12, 6:00 p.m. placentia library, placentia