Nov 2010

Transcript

October-November 2010 Inside Space the Final Frontier ................3 ClearCloud ...................................3 Control All Functions in Windows 7 with “God Mode” .....................4 Free Online Scanners Detect and    Remove Malware .......................6 Crabby demystifies Excel terms ...9 Clean Your Hard Drive of Junk Files and Improve Performance .........12 LiberKey - Free Programs Run  From a Flash Drive ..................15 Technology – 2010 in Review ....17 Smart Computing Tips  Our Most Common Tech Calls ..19 What To Do When You Can’t  Access A Web Site ..................21 Word & Excel Tips .....................23 Computer Books .......................24 Discovering Windows 7 ............27 Stickies: Another Useful Utility ..30 Interesting Press Releases ........32 Website Discoveries ..................35 Control Panel ......................36 Managing web browser toolbars 38 2010 Newsletter Articles ...........39 Fountain Valley Branch Library 17635 Los Alamos, Fountain Valley 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Future Meeting Dates Back to 2nd Saturday January 8, 2011 February 12, 2011 March 12, 2011 Membership Annual membership is $20 for indivduals: $5 for each additional family members. Past meetings October I showed how I was converting my VCR tapes over to DVDs. Things to remember about doing this is that the tapes will not last forever. The quality of the tape (and thus your conversion) will depend on the: • Number of times you have played the tape (wearing it out so to speak). • Speed and amount of video you have on the tape. Even if you have not played that soccer tape from 15 years ago of little Johnny making the goal if you have it recorded on EP with 4 hours on it. Chances are your video may not be great, but I would still try. A couple of websites I found had some good advice, albeit things we probably won’t really do. • Try to give tapes 24 hours to adjust to extreme temperature and climate changes. • Fast-forward & rewind tapes every 2 years to prevent sticking. • If you play a tape and the heads get dirty after cleaning the heads and you reinsert that tape and the heads get dirty again is a sign that the tape is either damaged or has a substance on it. There are several units that will help you convert VCR tapes over to digital format. In fact there are direct to DVD units that can cost from $90-$2,000. Roxio, Honest Technology, Pinnacle Express, ULead all make unit that you just connect to the VCR out jacks and connect to the PC via USB. Key thing is what software comes with it for the capture. If one end of the tape becomes undone you can super glue it back onto the spindle. Take the screws out of the cassette and carefully put the bottom away from the top. Make note of where everything is and how they will go back together. Board of Directors President Terry Currier winnersug(at)aol.com Vice-President Steve Dela stevede(at)aol.com Secretary Gerry Bretts gbretts(at)juno.com Treasurer Max Lockie mlockie(at)pobox.com Board Members Ethel Kamber ethel(at)kamber.fastmail.fm Ken Kamber kenkamber(at)mail.com Louise McCain LMcEnterprises(at)ol.com Ed Koran edk246(at)aol.com Robin Theron rtheron(at)gmail.com Editor editor(at)windowsusers.org Take the super glue and apply a small amount to the spindle and press the tape leader back onto the glue – not with your fingers. For the November meeting We went on at field trip to the Microsoft Store 578 The Shops at Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo. They sell both hardware and software, and really emphasize service. They gave use a lesson on Windows 7 with tips and tricks. One of the best things about the Microsoft store is if you buy a computer from them, they will help you set it up and make sure everything is working fine before (if you want) you leave. Other services they have: Answer Desk They can answer technical questions, perform diagnostics and make repairs on-site. Personal Shopping Whether you’re researching PCs or shopping for a gift, our experts can WINNERS, contributors and help. They can answer questions, editors of Notepad do not assume offer advice and give hands-on liability for dameages arising from product demonstrations. the publication or non-publication Personal Training of any advertisement, article, edito- Get the most out of your PC and rial, or other item in this newsletter. learn at your own pace. From All opionions express are those of emailing photos and surfing the the individual authors only and do web to making movies and video not necessarily represent the opion- chatting, you’ll learn in a relaxed ions of the WINNERS, its Board of and informal setting. Directors, the WINNERS Notepad, Classes and Events or its editors. Learn the simple secrets to making WINNERS a computer association, magic happen on your PC, Xbox is a volunteer organization provid360 or Zune in one of our free ing a forum for sharing informaclasses. tion and experiences related to Featured Products Windows-based software, and Check out the latest technology hardware, encouraging ethical use innovations—from PCs and of computers and software, offering software to Xbox 360 and 3D. service to our communities. Results of the October Elections 2010 to 2012 Directors Gerald Bretts Terry Currier Steve Dela Rebecca Feinstein (1 year term) Max Lockie Louise McCain For 2011 Elections Ethel Kamber Ken Kamber Ed Koran Robin Theron Rebecca Feinstein Officers stay the same President: Terry Currier Vice President: Steve Dela Secretary: Gerry Bretts Treasurer: Max Lockie Making use of those email that get sent to me (my sisters) and they expect me to forward on - which I don’t. Space the Final Frontier By Terry Currier We’ve all heard, or said it – my hard drive is so big I’ll never run out of room. I had two 250GB drives in my main computer setup as RAID 0. I hated the RAID 0, but it came setup at that. It came with Windows XP with the promise of getting a Vista upgrade. I received the Vista, but never put it on. Eventually I did put Windows 7 on the computer using PC Mover. But, I was still not satisfied. If you take a lot of video with an HD video camera it can add up to a lot of space used. With our eight day vacation to Walt Disney World I came back with 24GB of video and pictures. The folder I kept all videos was over 200GB and that did not include many that I put onto an external drive. I brought a 1.5TB drive at the computer swap meet several months ago and finally got aground to installing it. I backed up the complete drive using Rebit to one drive, and made sure I backed up the data twice. First to one external drive I used the Seagate Manager, to a second I copied the data directly to another external drive. I put Windows 7 Ultimate on the new drive, and have been adding programs slowing making sure I want them rather than just putting everything back on. I even held up on installing my Adobe Premiere/ Photoshop Elements 7 figuring I would purchase version 9 when it went on sale. I brought it at a Black Friday (online) sale and got it two weeks later. Other software I put back on – VIPRE antivirus, Faststone graphics viewer, Total Recorder, Snagit, CyberLink’s my Microsoft Office 2003. I also updated my Applian Programs which was well worth it. As to my scanning old photos for restoring and backup – I just finished the first of 8 photo books of which most of them fit onto a CD for backup. My VCR tapes I am recording the last five of those and will then edit them for putting onto DVDs. I figure I should be done about 2013. ClearCloud From GFI the company that brought Sunbelt (VIPRE, Counterspy) ClearCloud is a free service that checks every website address your computer is trying to access, whether you’re browsing the internet, clicking a link in an email, or a program “under the hood” trying to communicate with servers for information or updates. ClearCloud prevents you from being able to access known bad websites, sites that will download malicious files to your computer. Even better, ClearCloud prevents you from being able to access malicious websites that you may not even know your computer is trying to access — and it prevents potentially nasty programs from “phoning home” and secretly communicating between your computer and cybercriminals. Many programs legitimately phone home to get software updates. Microsoft Windows and Adobe Reader are two common programs that will check for current updates. ClearCloud knows the websites accessed by over a million safe programs and provides free passage to these sites. How does ClearCloud know which websites are malicious? ClearCloud is part of the DNS network, and has access to every URL in the world. When you type in the URL in your browser and click “Go” or “Enter” your browser sends the URL to ClearCloud. ClearCloud looks it up in a table, checks it against the list of bad websites, and if it passes, sends back the numeric IP address so your browser knows where to go to get the web page. All in milliseconds. If ClearCloud discovers that it’s a bad URL, it sends back the IP address of our webpage that informs you about the malicious site. http://clearclouddns.com/Setup/ Control All Functions in Windows 7 with “God Mode” by Ira Wilsker WEBSITES: http://clubhouse.microsoft.com/Public/Post/16246d0fc698-4a64-9757-925cc166d393 http://scforum.info/index.php?topic=3544.0 http://www.thewindowsclub.com/get-the-power-tocreate-all-god-modes-with-a-click-in-windows-7-vista While Windows 7 generally works fine as they come from Microsoft with all of the default settings in place, many of us cannot resist tweaking our operating systems. In Windows 7 we can click on START (the orb) and CONTROL PANEL which will display the menu of most of the items that can be tweaked. Alternatively, the user can go directly to “SYSTEM” (START - CONTROL PANEL - SYSTEM) which will open the Control Panel Home where the basic customization functions can be located. For the past several months, geeks have been exchanging information about an undocumented Windows 7 feature. While this feature works very well on Windows 7, some published reports indicated that there have been problems using this feature with Vista. Based on published reports, I cannot recommend that users utilize this function on Vista. This undocumented function will display virtually all of the possible Windows 7 controls and tweaks in one place. Since this single command opens up so much of the innards of the operating system, and gives the user such great control, geekdom has given this control the moniker of “God Mode”. For those who would prefer not to refer to the deity in a Windows function, the user can easily change the name displayed to any name or title of his choosing. To setup God Mode on the computer, the procedure is very simple. First, right click on an empty spot on the desktop, and go to NEW and then FOLDER (click on FOLDER); this will create a new, empty, generic folder on the desktop. Second, right click on the newly created folder and click on RENAME; in the box displayed, enter the following exactly (it may be manually typed, or pasted): God-Mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C99712043E01C} It is here that the user can replace the name “GodMode” with any other name or title to the left of the “period” if he so chooses. If you prefer to copy-andpaste, all of the links above have the exact string that can be copied and pasted into the name box for the new folder. Once that large string is entered for the name, the generic folder icon will automatically be replaced by the default Windows control panel icon. Now is when the fun really starts. Clicking on the newly created icon will open up the “God Mode” (or whatever you chose for its name). God Mode offers easy access to 268 tweaks and controls, many of which most users are blissfully unaware that they exist. While none of the selected tweaks are terminal or irreversible, I strongly suggest that the user frequently create a system restore point in case the user wants to restore the computer to an earlier time. In Windows 7, click START - CONTROL PANEL - SYSTEM - SYSTEM PROTECTION CREATE. Enter a brief description, and the time and date will be automatically appended to the chosen name of the restore point. If the user wants to use God Mode to create a restore point, simply scroll down to SYSTEM and click on “Create a restore point” and click on CREATE. The process is the same as if the same selection was found manually. If the user wants to restore the computer and go back to an earlier point in time, open God Mode and under the “Action Center” heading simply click on “restore your computer to an earlier time”; that will start the system restore process, which will not harm or delete any data files. The God Mode display shows almost three dozen categories in its menu, each category having a selection of related tasks. Some of the categories include the Action Center, Administrative Tools, Backup and Restore, Date and Time, Default Programs, Device Manager, Devices and Printers, Display, Ease of Access, Fonts, Internet Options, Mouse, Network and Sharing, parental Controls, Personalization, Power Options, Programs and Features, Sound, System, Troubleshooting, Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, and Windows Update, among many others. Each of these categories contains a variety of tasks and tweaks, and by clicking on the task will open it and display whatever information and selections are available. One of the several critical security functions is the firewall, which controls access to the computer from online sources, and controls which programs can access the internet. To control or access the firewall from God Mode, scroll down to “Windows Firewall” and click on “Check firewall status”. That will open the firewall window, and display the results and userselectable settings. When finished the window can be closed, or by clicking on the back (left) arrow returns the user to God Mode. In God Mode under the “System” heading there are 20 selections, including several that allow the user to control system performance, check the RAM in the computer, open the device manager, control the virtual memory, and access other performance related functions. It is much faster to access these System utilities with God Mode than it is to get to the same place manually, plus since all of the functions are laid out in plain sight, other tweaks can be quickly and easily identified. Many users never change the default Windows sounds, even though they are totally customizable. From God Mode, scroll to Sound, and select “Change system sounds”. When the “sounds” window opens, clicking on the “Sound Scheme” will show the selection of sound themes available, and give the user the opportunity to select sounds for any Windows function. Under the heading “Personalization” are 12 tweaks that can be used to manipulate the desktop, change the color scheme or theme, get more free themes online, control the screen saver, and perform several other tasks. Without using God Mode, each of these functions would have to be found and accessed individually, but with God Mode, they all are in one place. “Mouse” allows the user to control all aspects of the mouse. The user can easily select the mouse pointer, change other mouse settings, select mouse buttons, and control the appearance of the mouse cursor on screen. Free Online Scanners Detect and Remove Malware by Ira Wilsker WEBSITES: http://housecall.trendmicro.com http://quickscan.bitdefender.com http://www.eset.com/online-scanner http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/howsafe.htm In recent weeks I have written about a variety of utilities that can detect and remove malware from The “Internet Options” heading in God Mode offers an infected computer. Some of the utilities can be the user 14 sets of internet tweaks and controls. Since downloaded and installed, and run as necessary many of us spend significant time online, some of to detect and remove any malware that may have these tweaks may increase our online satisfaction. It penetrated the primary security software that was should be noted that the tweaks selected in this installed on that computer. Other utilities discussed category only change Internet Explorer settings, and previously in this column are portable and could be do not impact other browsers such as Firefox. The user run from a flash drive to detect and remove malware, can control pop-ups, cookies, security settings, select while still others are intended to remove stubborn search providers, set a homepage (website shown malware by utilizing a bootable CD that has the antiwhen Internet Explorer is opened), manage browser malware software installed on it. One of the simplest add-ons, and other browser tasks. and most popular ways to detect any malware that There are about two dozen other categories may have infected a computer is the free online scan, available in God Mode, and anyone interested in provided by several of the security companies. tweaking his computer would find this undocumented feature very valuable. I now use God Mode exclusively to access Windows 7 functions, and have found it very fast, and an easy way to locate whatever tasks I am seeking. It takes almost nothing to set it up, and users will find it very simple to work with. Remember to create frequent restore points (accessible from God Mode), just in case something done is not as expected, so the computer can be restored to an earlier time. With that proviso in mind, enjoy the power (and responsibility) that God Mode For many years I have been using provides the user. TrendMicro’s Housecall (housecall.trendmicro. com) as a tool to check if a computer is infected, but like all other online scanners, Housecall requires a functional internet connection. TrendMicro recently released Housecall version 7.1, which will run on most browsers, including Internet Explorer and Firefox, and on any Windows system with at least Windows XP installed. While 32 bit versions of Housecall have been available for years, Housecall now has versions explicitly for 64 bit systems running Windows 7-64 or Vista-64. When using Housecall, the user needs to select a build by clicking on “Download HouseCall 7.1 (32-bit)” or “ Download HouseCall 7.1 (64-bit)”. Housecall will download and install a small web based launcher (1.4 mb) that is a “Stand-alone, browserindependent implementation (which) eliminates compatibility issues associated with browser-activated scanners.” The user can select a quick scan which utilizes a “targeted scanning of critical system areas and active threats, reducing scan times to within a few minutes.” I typically do a quick scan as one of my first tasks when cleaning a computer. A full scan will be much more comprehensive, but take much longer; a recent scan I performed on a Vista laptop took over an hour, but most recent full scans I performed were completed in as little as 15 minutes. The new version 7.1 of Housecall also allows the user to selectively scan chosen folders (Custom Scan), which may be a time saver, but will only check the selected folders, possibly missing some malware; this is precisely why I prefer the slower full scan. As is the current technological rage, Housecall uses cloud computing as the source of malware signatures, greatly improving download times and processing speed, while always using the absolute latest malware information. In addition to detecting and removing viruses, Trojans, keyloggers, and other common threats, Housecall can even detect and remove the difficult to find rootkits, as well as other sophisticated threats. The well respected security vendor BitDefender offers one of the fastest online scanners, that will detect, but not remove active malware. It is often important to quickly know if a computer is infected or not, and that is precisely the service offered by BitDefender. The scanner offered is BitDefender Quick Scan which runs from the browser, and is compatible with most major browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Quick Scan will run on Microsoft Windows 2000, XP SP2, Vista, and Windows 7. This Quick Scan is very fast, often completing a scan in about one minute. One major advantage of BitDefender Quick Scan is that you can use it without having to uninstall your existing data security product.” The online scan engine is always up to date, as it is updated automatically each time it is run. The BitDefender Quick Scan is invoked simply by clicking on the “Start Scan” button, which connects the computer to the “cloud” where other very fast computers do much of the work. There are no malware signatures to download, as they are maintained and constantly updated in the cloud, and all actual scanning is done by the remote servers in the cloud; this is why BitDefender Quick Scan does not drain system resources on the computer, and can run so quickly. One other reason for the speed is that, “QuickScan only detects viruses which are active in memory or present in files that are run at system startup. Inactive virus bodies are not scanned for and therefore not detected.” To perform a thorough scan, and remove both the active and inactive malware components will require a scan with another scanner. I use the Quick Scan as a very fast check to determine if a computer is infected, and if so, then I determine the subsequent action. ESET has a complete free online scanner and malware remover “ ESET Online Scanner” at www.eset.com/online-scanner. It is browser based, and will run on Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, and Safari, and is implemented with a single mouse click. Only requiring a paltry 32mb of memory, ESET Online Scanner will run on Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, and NT, and supports both 32 bit and 64 bit platforms. ESET Online Scanner uses a graphical user interface (GUI) that is intuitive and easy to use, and detects both known and unknown forms of malware, viruses, worms, Trojans, phishing and spyware. ESET performs a deep scan which also looks inside archived and packed files for malware. The user can select a full scan, or only selected files or folders. This scanner can detect and neutralize hidden rootkits, one of the latest and most difficult to detect types of threats. Rather than deleting infected files, all compromised files are moved to a quarantine folder where they no longer can threaten the security of the computer, but can be later repaired, restored, or deleted permanently. For those concerned with privacy, the scanner is used anonymously, and does not require any registration in order to use the free service. I have used the ESET Online Scanner several times, and found it to be a capable and effective free online scanner; it would be a good choice for anyone who wants to check his computer for all forms of malware, and remove anything that may have penetrated his existing security. Microsoft also offers a free online scanner, and being a Microsoft product, has a large and loyal following. Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner is available at onecare.live. com/site/en-us/ default.htm. This online scanner uses many features that are in common with Microsoft’s free full time security product, Microsoft Security Essentials. Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner is a multifunction utility that can detect and remove malware, but also clean junk files on the hard drive, and tune up the computer, improving PC performance. Initiated by clicking on the “Full Service Scan” button, this utility it designed to “... help ensure the health of your PC.” While intended to be used with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft has posted special instructions for using it with Firefox. Users of Firefox must install the free Firefox add-on “ IETAB add-on” (link provided by Microsoft) which adds an Internet Explorer tab to Firefox that allows utilities designed explicitly for Internet Explorer to run on Firefox. There are also special versions of the Safety Scanner that are required for Vista and Windows 7, which are also linked from the Safety Scanner website. For those who do not want to clean their hard drive, or tune up their computer, the Safety Scanner can selectively perform scans, including the “Protection Scan”. To scan the computer for malware using the Safety Scanner, the user should go to onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/howsafe.htm and click on “Protection Scan”. The other scanners can also be individually selected from the menu on the left margin of the page. While not as sophisticated or as fast as some of the competing online scanners, Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner is capable of detecting and removing most malware, and is a useful utility to check a computer for infection and clean whatever malware is detected. Other free online scanners are available from Kaspersky, F-Secure, Panda Software, a-squared (Emsisoft), SUPERAntispyware, McAfee, Computer Associates (CA), and Comodo. While free, the Kaspersky and McAfee online scanners do not remove malware, only detect it, and require their respective paid versions to remove the malware so detected. The other products listed will all do a credible job of detecting and removing malware, and are viable alternatives to those discussed here. An online scan is by no means a substitute for having a comprehensive, full-time, on demand security utility installed and frequently updated, which provides continuous security. The online scanners should be used to frequently check to see if security has been breached by malware, which is a good practice since the installed utilities can only detect about one-half of the total threats in circulation, but are typically quite good at protecting from the most common threats. Still, many of the contemporary threats are designed to penetrate traditional security defenses, or are so called “zero-day” threats that spread faster than the security companies can update their software. Since most online scanners utilize always updated cloud systems, they can provide a level of detection lacking in the installed scanners, and are a valuable adjunct to any security system. Personally, I perform an online security scan with a variety of online scanners from providers other than the publisher of my installed security suite on a regular basis. I do this just to provide that little bit of an edge searching for threats that may have penetrated my layered and redundant security system. It would be a good idea for you to do the same. A little time invested now may save a lot of grief later. Crabby demystifies Excel terms Applies to: Excel 2010, Microsoft Office Access 2007, Excel 2007, Access 2003, Excel 2003 Crabby Office Lady Welcome to installment number two of my “demystifying” series, where I’ll cover 10 commonly used terms in 10 widely used Office programs. Today, Microsoft Office Excel is the subject, and although many of you use Office Excel, some of the terms are still a mystery to you. ________________________________________ Read all the Crabby Office Lady columns Get the Crabby Office Lady’s book Crabby’s blog Crabby’s podcasts ________________________________________ Excel is up to bat this week. I like Excel. It’s a versatile program — straightforward, no-nonsense, and linear — and one that many people use. With Excel you know what you’re getting (whereas in Visio or in Publisher, you sometimes feel like you’re in a large hardware or fabric store with all those patterns and widgets to choose from). But don’t get me wrong: Excel is as versatile as the next Office program. In fact it’s a pretty powerful tool for a variety of tasks, from coming up with charts and graphs, to keeping track of lots … and lots … of numbers. And since Excel is just about the most widely used spreadsheet software around, it’s a good idea to know some of its basic terms, because just like with any other product or topic matter, it’s not a good idea to assume that everyone around us understands the jargon and vocabulary that we use when talking about Excel. In other words, I don’t want you feeling lonely and isolated, standing there with a smile pasted on your face, when your coworkers start talking about formulas and PivotTable reports. There’s only so much faking you can do before everyone is on to you. In fact, I believe that one of the reasons people often hesitate to start learning a new program or dig deeper into one they know a little bit about is they’re afraid to admit that they don’t understand some of these so-called “basic” terms. And what happens? These folks remain forever stuck at their current level of competence when just a little understanding could make all the difference. So, without further ado (and I do tend to overdo the ado — I know I do) ... let’s demystify some Excel terms. Ready, set … define those terms! I know; this seems like pretty basic stuff. But if you’re new to Excel, perhaps it isn’t. So once again, let’s begin at the beguine. NOTE For more information about the terms and topics mentioned here, take a look at the See Also box at the top of this column. Rows Rows are numbered and run horizontally. In Excel 2007, you can have up to 1,048,576 rows. In Excel 2003, it’s 65,536 rows. That is a whole lot more space for your data. (Although why these numbers aren’t rounded off, I cannot tell you. I just explain the programs, folks; I don’t create them.) Columns Columns run vertically down a worksheet and are lettered: A through Z, then AA through AZ, BA through BZ, and so on and so forth until you have way too much data anyway. In fact, in Excel 2007, you can have up to 16,384 columns. (Why 16,384? Why indeed. Perhaps, Gentle Reader, you know?) Two members of the “Red Sox Nation” (as they call themselves) told me that the 16,384th column would be: XFD. This is a big jump from the number of columns you can have in Excel 2003: 256. (I believe we added so many more because YOU asked for them.) Cells Cells are the basic building blocks for anything in an Excel workbook: They are the little rectangular boxes where you enter your data. In Excel 2007, you can have 32,767 characters in a single cell. (You certainly have a lot to say, now don’t you?) In Excel 2003, it’s 255 characters. I’m telling you, those Excel creators went totally overboard. Formula bar I mentioned my Uncle Phil in last week’s column, and here he is again. (He calls me from time to time because he thinks I’m a computer geek and know it all. I know Office, and that is about as far as it goes. Don’t tell anyone.) So Uncle Phil called, not to tell me that I was to be the designated driver from the Formula Bar, but that the place that shows what is in his spreadsheet cells … disappeared. It took me a moment to figure out what he meant, and then I realized he meant the formula bar went missing. The formula bar is that little box above all your rows and columns that displays what’s in an active cell (and I know you know what an active cell is). The formula bar looks like this: In Excel, you can edit directly in a cell, or you can do it in the formula bar. In Uncle Phil’s case (he was using Excel 2003), all he needed to do was go to the View menu and click Formula Bar. If you’re working in Excel 2007 and your formula bar disappears, on the View tab of the Ribbon (which is part of the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface), in the Show/Hide group, select the Formula Bar check box. Sorting Sorting in Excel is the same as sorting anything else: laundry, books on your shelves, or folders on your computer. In Excel, you might want to put a list of names in alphabetical order, compile a list of the number of hits your column is getting each month (from highest to lowest), or order rows by colors or icons. Sorting data helps you to visualize and understand your information better and, thus, helps you to organize. You can sort by text, by dates and times — really by anything at all. You can even sort by a custom list that you create (such as the good, the bad, the ugly), or by format (such as cell color, font size, whatever). Sorting just helps you to see what you want to see in the order you want to see it. Excel makes it very easy — it’s basically the click of a button, and you get the information you want. In Excel 2007, on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Sort A to Z or click Sort Z to A. And of course, you can click Custom Sort, too (which is a tad more complicated, but Excel will walk you through it). In Excel 2003, on the Data menu, click Sort. (There will be some choices you’ll have to make from there, but again, Excel will help out.) So, as you can see, sorting is the sort of feature that every sort of person can use. It’s sort of an organization method of sorts — sort of. Filtering When you filter something, you take (or take out) what you need and hide the rest. Think the pool filter: It keeps the water flowing but traps the stuff you don’t want floating in your pool. Or think Jolly Rancher hard candy (my personal favorite): Filter out the orange and grape ones, keep the cherry, apple, and watermelon ones. Same goes with filtering data: You see what you want to see, and you hide the rest. Here’s an example: Let’s say I have a worksheet that lists 3,000 rows of customer comments gathered from all my articles from every day in which they’ve been on the Web site (so that’s three columns: A: The comments column; B: The Crabby article the comment came from; and C: The date it was offered so sweetly to me). In Excel, the best way to filter is to use the AutoFilter feature. For example, I just want to find the comments for a particular column, say, this one. I select column B (the one that lists all my published columns). In Excel 2007, on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Filter. A little arrow appears at the top of column B; when I click it, it lists all the articles that are on that worksheet. I select today’s article about Excel terms from the list and read your comments (which yes, I do — I read ALL your comments). In Excel 2003, on the Data menu, point to Filter, and then click AutoFilter. AutoFilter is a great example of how Excel works hard so you don’t have to. Fill handle No, this is not what men develop around their middles when they grow older, don’t exercise, and make special trips to the doughnut shop. The fill handle in Excel is the small black square in the lower-right corner of a selection (whether your selection be one cell or a collection of cells). It looks like this: This handy fellow is one of the many different ways to fill data — quickly — into worksheet cells. For example, if you a have a number, word, or phrase in a cell that you’d like to have in one or more cells below or to either side of it, you don’t have to copy and paste. Nope. You just select the cell and drag the fill handle. Even better, the fill handle can automatically continue a series of numbers, number and text combinations, dates, or time periods, based on a pattern that you establish. You drag the fill handle to all the cells where you want to continue your series, and after you drag it, the Auto Fill Options button appears so that you can choose how the selection is filled. This is where you tell it if you want to just copy the original cell, continue with the series, and also choose your formatting options. The Auto Fill Options button looks like this: Formula In a nutshell, formulas in Excel are equations that perform calculations and values on your worksheet. In other words, formulas do the math — or other sorts of calculations — for you. (And even on the fly — more on this in a minute.) A formula starts with an equal sign (=) and then is followed by numbers, cell references, or operators. Some of the most common operators are add (+), subtract (-), multiply (*), and divide (/), but they can get much more complex. There are logical, engineering, and Cube formulas, as well as financial, math, and trigonometry formulas. I know it seems complicated — and it would be if you had to figure this all out for yourself — but if you have the data, Excel does the work. Here’s an example of a very simple formula: In cell A1, if you type =7*6, after you press ENTER, Excel will put the number 42 in the cell. You can take that a step further and do a cell reference: You can go to cell A2, refer to the cell for which you’ve already done the calculation, A1, and do another. It would look like this: =A1*6. After you press ENTER, cell A2 will show what 42 times 6 is (252). The beauty is this: Any time you update cell A1, cell A2 will update accordingly — on the fly. (This is one time when flies are not pesky.) The examples above are very simplistic formulas. And note that you don’t have to know how to write a formula; Excel will help you figure out what you want to do. In fact, if you want the entire column A to have that same formula (the previous cell’s sum multiplied by 6), you can use that handy dandy fill handle we already talked about to accomplish that: Just drag the fill handle down the column and your mission is accomplished: A3 will show as 1512 (=A2*6), A4 will show as 9072 (=A3*6), and so on. Formulas are beautiful things, I tell you, even if math isn’t your strong point. Merged cells When you have the urge to merge (in Excel, of course) this means that two or more cells become one. They make a family, they grow exponentially, they work as a unit. And when would you merge two or more cells (besides for love — or money, I suppose)? Well, if you have several columns of information over which you’d like to spread one title, you can merge the cells that the title takes up to get that effect. But of course, people grow apart, communication breaks down, and merging doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore. In that case, you can unmerge, or split your merged cells just as easily (and be free to merge with other cells at another time). To merge and unmerge cells in Excel 2007: Select the cells you want to merge, and on the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click Merge & Center. (Or, for more options than just Merge & Center, click the little arrow next to Merge & Center.) To continue with divorce proceedings, do the same thing but click the little arrow next to the Merge & Center button, and then click Unmerge Cells instead. To merge and unmerge cells in Excel 2003: 1. To merge the cells into one happy unit, select the cells, and on the Formatting toolbar, click Merge & Center. To change the text alignment in the merged cell, select the cell, and then click Align Left or Align Right on the Formatting toolbar. 2. To split up those cells, select the cell. (When you select a merged cell, the Merge and Center button also appears selected on the Formatting toolbar.) Then click Merge and Center. PivotTable reports and PivotChart reports I once wrote an entire column about PivotTable reports — I believe it was my fifth column — and I didn’t know a thing about PivotTable reports until I started researching. Since then I’ve learned to love them. (Okay, well, maybe not love them, but at least understand them.) A PivotTable report is simple, a way to summarize, analyze, and present a bunch of data. It’s like a chart only a lot more interactive. You can gather a lot of data very quickly, you can expand or collapse your data to focus on what you want (a sort of filtering method), and you can move rows to columns and columns to rows (that’s the “pivoting” part of this). A PivotTable report is great for comparing several types of facts about a long list of figures and data. You can get your data for your PivotTable report from a variety of sources: An Excel worksheet, external sources (such as databases and text files), and even another PivotTable report. (And although this last one is not called a Cannibalistic report, I think it should be.) A PivotChart report gives you a graphical representation of the data you came up with in the PivotTable report. If you want to change the layout and data in the PivotChart report, you change it in the PivotTable report. As you may have already guessed, these guys are linked — kind of like my twin nephews: They depend on one another (although a PivotTable report sometimes goes off on his own and doesn’t stick with his brother). A PivotChart report has series, categories, data markers, and axes — just like standard charts. Last words This column got a little more complicated than I’d hoped for. Some of these Excel terms can seem quite daunting, so I wanted to be sure I covered my bases. If you like columns like this, let me know, and I’ll write more of them. See you next week when I’ll be covering Outlook terms (signatures, rules, and the like). “I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Annik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Therefore, she graciously asks that you let her know whether this column was useful to you — or not — by entering your feedback using the Was this information helpful? tool below. And remember: If you don’t vote, you can’t complain. Reprinted with permission from Annik Stahl End of Article - End of Article - End of Article - End of Article End of Article - End of Article Clean Your Hard Drive of Junk Files and Improve Performance by Ira Wilsker WEBSITES: http://www.piriform.com (CCleaner) http://thewebatom.net (System Ninja and CCEnhancer) http://thewebatom.net/programs/ccleaner-enhancer http://thewebatom.net/programs/system-ninja/ In what has become a common task for me, earlier this afternoon I was called to a co-workers home to repair his computer. He called me this morning, and using a desperate voice, told me that his computer had crashed and his wife had a lot of computer work to do. I agreed to go over there after lunch. Upon arriving at his home, I was ushered into his dining room, which as in many homes has evolved into the computer room. There, sitting in the corner by the window, was his computer and printer. The computer was just a few years old, name brand box, dual-core processor, adequate RAM (2 gigs), Vista Home Premium (32bit) with service packs and updates installed, and a 100 gig hard drive. It was protected by the premium name-brand security suite that I had installed earlier this year. The first thing I checked was to see if the security suite was updated and active, or if it had been neutralized by malware; it appeared to be live, well, and up to date, with about six months remaining on the subscription. I did a quick scan with one of the updated security utilities that I carry on my keychain flash drive, and other than some tracking cookies, it was clean of malware, but was extremely slow in responding to commands, opening windows, and running software. I checked the startup list using MSCONFIG, and there was no evidence of malware, but there were a few unnecessary items in the startup that I unchecked, but none of which would account for the poor performance. I performed the other routine checks and found that the hard drive was cluttered and nearly full, a factor that could possibly compromise the ability of the system to utilize virtual memory because it could not quickly read and write the swap files. I decided to clean the hard drive. My primary software of choice to clean a cluttered hard drive is the wildly popular CCleaner (www.piriform.com), an excellent free utility that has been downloaded over 500 million times. I downloaded and installed the latest version of CCleaner, but rather than use the default settings, which would heavily and thoroughly clean the hard drive, I choose not to delete browser history, cookies, auto-complete data, and other relatively small items, but instead chose to clean large items such as the Recycle Bin, temporary files, browser cache, clipboard, memory dumps, old prefetch data, and other useless files. I have written in the past several times about CCleaner, and its other features, including a registry cleaner, so there is not much else to say about it, other than it is a great and most useful utility. Several months ago a programmer named Shane Gowland released an add-on for CCleaner that greatly enhances its capabilities by adding over 250 additional programs to those scanned by CCleaner for obsolete, out of date, and other useless junk files. He aptly named his plug-in CCEnhancer (thewebatom.net/programs/ccleaner-enhancer). This listing, which is periodically updated, only adds to the CCleaner list of programs to be cleaned those programs found on the computer by CCEnhancer. On my computer, CCEnhancer added about 50 programs to the list to be cleaned, but apparently only increased the time to scan for junk files by a few seconds. It would be a good practice to run a hard drive cleaning utility prior to performing a security scan, as there may be thousands of fewer files to scan for malware, which may save the user a lot of time. Using the CCleaner with the CCEnhancer on my coworker’s computer found almost two gigs of junk files on his hard drive. When cleaned of the junk files, there was a noticeable improvement in the performance of his computer. I just ran it on my computer, which I try to keep clean, and it found 829.8 megs of junk files which I removed. The number of junk files found and removed would have been higher, perhaps a full gig total, but I had Firefox open when I ran CCleaner such that it could not clean my Firefox files. Not to sit on his laurels, Shane Gowland recently released a new comprehensive hard drive cleaner that is a free-standing product, and does not require CCleaner. This product is aptly named “System Ninja” and is a super disk cleaner which will heavily compete against CCleaner. According to its website (thewebatom.net/programs/systemninja), “System Ninja is a program for cleaning your computer of unwanted junk that constantly slows your entire system down. System Ninja features a fast and powerful file cleaner, Startup Manager, Process Manager and Startup Log Generator, plus several useful tools such as CCEnhancer, FileAnalyzr and MalRunDestroyer.” The System Ninja file cleaner uses a tab a comprehensive startup manager that allows the user to control what programs load at boot, a known factor that can significantly improve performance and reduce conflicts and crashes. While many other startup managers only mimic what MSCONFIG shows, System Ninja shows additional items that start when booted, including those listed as Run, RunOnce and Scheduled Tasks files and registry keys. For those who are curious and would like to control any processes that are running while the computer is running, this software offers a Process Manager that allows the user to control what is running. An adjunct to the Process Manager is “MalRun Destroyer”, and integral utility that will scan the running processes for malware, viruses, Trojans, and other threats, and immediately terminate the threats using an updated database of threats and other malware. labeled “Junk Files” which will selectively remove Windows temporary files, other .tmp files, thumbnail caches, some game caches, obsolete Windows log files, memory dumps, and other useless and obsolete files. Using a checklist on the right side of the window, the user can select which files to remove. Personally, I choose not to delete cookies and history files, so I uncheck those boxes. I ran the System Ninja File Cleaner immediately after running CCleaner (with CCEnhancer) and it found 5553 junk files that were previously missed. While the classical way of cleaning the Windows startup is to use the integral MSCONFIG command, System Ninja incorporates Under the tab “More Tools” are a Folder Junk Cleaner, Boot Log Generator, File Analyzr, and CCEnhancer. The File Analyzr generates detailed information about any selected files, creates hashes (unique digital fingerprints), and checks online to determine if a file is infected. These products, CCleaner, CCEnhancer, and System Ninja should be used by most computer users to clean their hard drives, and improve performance. Piriform and Shane Gowland should be commended for releasing these excellent freeware products. I now use all of these programs regularly, and can highly recommend them. LiberKey - Hundreds of Free Programs Run From a Flash Drive by Ira Wilsker WEBSITES: http://www.liberkey.com http://www.liberkey.com/en/suites/liberkey-ultimate.html http://www.liberkey.com/en/catalog/browse.html I had previously written about the USB flash drive that I always carry with me as it is attached to my car keychain. That 2 GB flash drive contains my frequently updated, malware scanners (Malwarebytes, SUPERAntispyware, and others), as well as my emergency contact and medical information. I have also used it many times when I had the need to save or transport files. Now, I may be copying all of those files to a new, much smaller size but higher capacity 8 GB flash drive, as I now have a lot more files to carry with me. That is because I recently found out about a new free flash drive utility LiberKey (www.liberkey.com) that is a freeware competitor to U3 and other flash drive utilities that acts as a graphical front end and manager for portable utilities. Not being sure how much space I would eventually need on a USB flash drive to install all of my present files and the LiberKey files, I decided to use a newly purchased, small sized, 8 GB flash drive. Now that the price of flash drives has come down significantly over the past year, many local and online sellers are offering larger capacity, name brand flash drives at reasonable prices; I paid under $15 for this 8 GB drive (recently on sale again for $11), as well as purchased several 16 GB drives for less than $25. That is quite a plunge in price as I paid over $40 for a 256 MB USB flash drive just a few years ago. With prices like these, more people will be carrying flash drives with them on a regular basis, and LiberKey would be a wise choice to enable the use of programs on the flash drive, rather than just using the drive for pure storage. I started this process by downloading the LiberKey installer, a 3.82 MB executable, and installing it to the root of the flash drive. This utility provides the front end, or graphical user interface (GUI), and other functions that enables the LiberKey to function. The GUI can display a menu of the installed applications sorted by type either in a tabular format or as large icons, the choice being selected by clicking on the tiny icon in the top right corner of the menu window. Once the front end has been installed on the flash drive, the user can either download manually any or all of the 302 free portable programs currently listed on the LiberKey website, or he can download one of the integrated bundles. The three bundles available, all of which contain a wide variety of programs which will automatically be catalogued and indexed by the LiberKey software are the Basic bundle, the Standard bundle, or the Ultimate bundle. The Basic bundle consists of a dozen free programs, which are a 37 MB download, and uses 113 MB of space when installed. The Basic bundle includes an audio player, CD burner, compression utility, photo editor, browser (Firefox portable), several office utilities, a password manager, and a video player. For those who want more than the Basic bundle, LiberKey offers a Standard bundle, which is much larger than the Basic, and includes 89 applications, which is a 176 MB download, and uses 468 MB of flash drive space when all are installed. The Standard bundle has everything the Basic bundle has, as well as dozens of additional applications that can provide much increased functionality, all of which can be run from the USB flash drive. Being one who typically wants everything, I downloaded the Ultimate bundle, a comprehensive collection of 164 free portable utilities. This was a large download of 233 MB, and occupied 619 MB of space on the flash drive. These 164 applications can be used for almost all tasks for which someone would use a computer. With a fast internet connection, and a fast computer, it took about 30 minutes to download the Ultimate bundle and install all of the applications to the flash drive. While the Ultimate bundle is very comprehensive, the bundle only comprises slightly more than half of the free applications available on the LiberKey website. Some of the additional portable applications that can be downloaded and installed on a flash drive with LiberKey include several of my desktop favorites, including IrfanView, VLC media player, OpenOffice, FoxIt PDF reader, Opera browser, Google’s Chrome browser, some educational software, CCleaner, and many others. To download these portable versions, and automatically install them to the flash drive, open LiberKey from the flash drive, and then click on “LiberKey Tools” at the bottom right of the window. Choose “Browse the Applications Catalog”, and a browser window will open that is synchronized with the utilities that are already installed on the flash drive while displaying a menu of all of the currently available applications, sorted by genre’. To make this quick and easy for the user, the synchronized web page uses a series of icons to guide the user. A “red +” indicates a category that includes new applications, while a “yellow up-arrow” indicates that within a category, there are updates available for programs already installed on the flash drive. Once a category is open, a “green check” indicates that an installed program is up-to-date, a “yellow up-arrow” indicates a program that has an available update newer than what is installed on the flash drive, and a “white +” in a red circle indicates a program not currently installed on the flash drive that is available for download and installation. Upon selecting a new or updated application by clicking on it, a window opens with a detailed description of the program with an install link near the bottom of the window. That opens a “Launch Application” window where “LiberKey Creator” should be selected. This then opens “LiberKey Creator” which will automatically download and install the application to the flash drive, and update the LiberKey interface and directory. Multiple programs can be selected for installation before clicking “Install Selected Applications”, which will also display the download and install process, as well as available space on the flash drive. One cute feature of this install utility is that if it displays a “green asterisk”, the installer will check for an update before the download and installation. By my choice, between the installer, the Ultimate bundle, and the few dozen additional programs that I selected for LiberKey to download and install, I still have over 5 GB free on my drive. With over 200 applications now installed on my flash drive, it is inevitable that many of them will frequently have updates available. Rather than having to manually check for updates, clicking on “LiberKey Tools” and then “Check Updates” will do just that, and display if any updates are available for the LiberKeys software or any of the installed software titles; if any are available, one click will automatically download and install the updates. Another button on the update window displays the number of additional applications that are available, and can directly open the LiberKey applications’ web page where additional applications can be selected. Now that I have about 200 applications installed on my new 8 GB flash drive, and I will always have that drive with me, it is unlikely that I will come across a computer where I cannot do whatever I would want to do. I can now open, play, repair, convert, edit, or other wise use or manipulate any type of file with only what is on my flash drive, with no need to install anything on the computer. This is the epitome of convenience in that it would be unnecessary to install any software on any computer that I use, because I have it all. That is an enormous convenience. In the short time that I have used it, LiberKeys is a most convenient and comprehensive free utility that everyone should use. Technology – 2010 Year in Review By Ira Wilsker As usual, the state of computing technology has been very dynamic, and what was state of the art in much of 2010 will be archaic by this time in 2011. This week I am going to do a quick review of what I wrote about in 2010, and what has changed since my original column. In my column dated January 1, 2010 I wrote about “What You Need for that New Christmas Computer”. While most of the recommendations made in that column hold true, today I would revise a few of those recommendations. While some things did not dramatically change, such as the need for a good surge suppressor with a UL1449 rating (not just a simple power strip), or a good protective case for that new laptop or notebook computer, some things did change, such as the necessity for comprehensive security software. In that January 2010 column I wrote about some free antivirus software from AVG, AVAST, Panda’s then new CloudAntivirus, and the free version of Zone Alarm firewall. I also suggested that users consider Microsoft’s free “Security Essentials” as a combination antivirus and antispyware product. Since that column a year ago, all five of these popular products have come out with new versions of their software, generally increasing speed, performance, and protection. While all of those products are still available as free versions, all but the Microsoft Security Essentials are also available as paid commercial versions with additional benefits and enhancements. If I were to write that same column today, I would make a different security recommendation, as the threat landscape has changed dramatically over the past year. Computer viruses, while still present and posing serious threats, are not the primary security threat as they had been in the past; now the most common threats are Trojans, spyware, keyloggers, hijackers, and other such non-virus threats. At this time last year, there were about 10 million known malware threats, but as I type this, one of the leading cyber security services now lists almost 19 million malware threats, about double the number this time last year. An analysis of those threats indicates that while thousands of new viruses and variants have appeared in 2010, millions of other new threats have evolved, mostly in the realm of spyware, keyloggers, and hijackers. Much of the newer malware in circulation is intended to steal the user’s identity such as user names, passwords, banking information, credit card numbers, and other sensitive personal information that has significant financial value to a criminal. To a lesser extent, but still very common today, is malware that hijacks and turns your computer into a zombie, sending out countless spam emails, or even engaging in cyber terrorism where your computer, along with thousands of other computers, simultaneously attack a specific server on remote command, crippling it or shutting it down. Also in the past year, another type of security threat has become endemic, and that is extortion ware, a type of rogue software that high jacks your computer and by way of a popup, (falsely) informs you that your computer is infected with hundreds of viruses and other types of malware, and that you must pay the scammer to register your rogue software to remove the malware. If you consent, you are sending your credit card information to a cyber criminal, probably in Russia. Since the security threat has changed, so has the need for more comprehensive security software than the simple antivirus software that had been adequate in the past. Since the simple antivirus software by itself is no longer adequate to provide comprehensive security protection, it is now more appropriate to install a complete security suite rather than just one of the popular antivirus programs. In my December 17, 2010 column I wrote about Agnitum’s new free security suite, Outpost Security Suite Free (free.agnitum.com). This integrated free security suite (paid commercial version also available) has everything that the typical user would need to protect his computer. Outpost Security Suite Free has excellent antivirus protection, antispyware protection, a world class firewall, and other protection modules that can provide reasonable security, and protect the user from most forms of malware. On October 8, 2010, I wrote about Trend Micro’s new comprehensive commercial security suite, TrendMicro Titanium Maximum Security. This suite contains extremely comprehensive modes of protection, but is unusual in that it does not significantly degrade performance, and what is most unusual is that there is no “update” button, in that it is continuously updated using the new cloud computing technology. Simply, TrendMicro Titanium Maximum Security is always up to date in terms of malware protection, and there are no signature updates to schedule or manually download, because the protection is transparently and silently kept up to date. If I had a new Christmas computer, and I wanted to use a security suite, I would choose either Outpost Security Suite Free, or the commercial TrendMicro Titanium Maximum Security for my protection from cyber threats. Much has happened in terms of computing over the past year; faster new processors are still frequently being introduced and put into production, pushing yesterday’s new “gee whiz” processors into bargain priced computers, or into the discontinued clearance bargain bin. Hard drives have become larger in capacity, faster, and cheaper. A year ago a terabyte (1T) hard drive (1024 gigabytes) was uncommon and expensive, but today they are available for as little as $50, with 1.5T and 2T drives becoming readily available, and priced in the $100 range. Newly released video cards are becoming faster and more powerful, with many supporting HD video, and capable of simultaneously running a monitor and an HDTV. This has expanded the demand for streaming media, including on demand HD movies from Netflix, Amazon, and other providers, negating the need to order and return DVD discs via the mail. On a recent trip to visit my daughter’s family, I watched videos on my computer streaming from Netflix, connected to her 802.11N wireless router. She watches streaming Netflix videos directly on her HDTV, which is connected to her broadband internet. The distinctions between computers and home entertainment are blurring, as systems become integrated, bring both computing and entertainment together on a big screen TV. If this is just a microcosm of what has happened to home technology in 2010, I eagerly await what we will see in 2011. Smart Computing Tips Windows 7 Shortcuts: In Windows 7, if you have several open windows, grab the top of the frame of one window and shake it back and forth. The rest of the open windows will minimize. The keyboard shortcut for the same function is WIN (the Windows logo key)-Home. Now press WIN-Down arrow to minimize the current window and WIN-Up arrow to maximize it. Pressing WIN-Right arrow or -Left arrow will dock the current window to the right or left edge of your Desktop. Going The Distance: If your current router has trouble distributing Wi-Fi (or Wi-Fi at an adequate speed) to every room in your house, look for a model that has two or three antennas and MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) technology. These features can increase the range and reliability of your Wi-Fi signal. A Handy Keyboard Shortcut: For many computer users, multitasking is a must. Between that Web browser, word processing document, and photoediting program, your screen can fill up pretty quickly. Sometimes you need to clear the clutter and get straight to the Windows Desktop. To quickly minimize all open windows on-screen, press WIN (the Windows Logo key)-D. Press the combination again to bring the windows back up. Snip It Good: When you want to clip out a piece of your Desktop and send it to someone, forget the hassle of Print Screen and cropping in an image editor. The Snipping Tool built into Window 7 and Windows Vista offers this time-saving functionality straight from the OS (operating system). Click Start, select All Programs, Accessories, and Snipping Tool. The Snipping Tool comes up as a small window you can just drop into a corner of your screen. The pulldown menu alongside the New button lets you pick from creating snips from a free-form pen, rectangular mouse drag, the active window, or the entire screen. Once you make the snip, the graphic comes up in the Snipping Tool editor, where you can add pen and highlighter markups. Finally, you can save snips in JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), PNG (Portable Network Graphics), or HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) formats, or copy and paste them out of the editor into whatever application you like. Stickier Notes: In Windows 7, you’ll find Sticky Notes, a revamped version of the old Notes gadget now built into the operating system. (Open the Start menu, click All Programs, and select Accessories to find Sticky Notes.) Sticky Notes lets you place virtual Post-Its anywhere on your Desktop. You can also stack notes. Right-clicking a note brings up a menu that will let you pick from any of six note colors. There’s seemingly no way to change the font or format a note, but this is less of a concern than the fact that there’s no “always on top” option for notes so you can’t bury them out of sight. Still, Sticky Notes can definitely help with productivity and are less likely to get swept up by housekeeping than their paper counterparts. News From The Help Desk: Our Most Common Tech Calls Q. I have trouble seeing while using the computer and would like to increase the size of the mouse pointer. I can’t seem to find a way to do this, if it’s even possible. Is there indeed a way to enlarge the pointer arrow? A. Changing the size of your mouse’s arrow pointer only takes a few clicks. In Windows XP and Vista, go to the Control Panel. Click Classic View or Switch To Classic View on the left side of the window to make it easier to browse the list of Control Panel options. In Windows 7, choose Large Icons from the View By drop-down menu. Next, choose the Mouse icon to display the Mouse Properties window. Under the Pointers tab, locate the Scheme section, which offers several different pointer types and sizes. Windows displays a fairly small mouse pointer by default. For a larger pointer, choose Windows Standard (Extra Large) (System Scheme) from the drop-down menu. Click Apply and move your mouse around. If you are satisfied with the pointer, click OK. If not, browse through the other available pointers in the Scheme list, such as Magnified (System Scheme), which enlarges the pointer arrow and outlines it in black to make it more visible. Q. When I put a CD or DVD in the CD/DVD drive of my WinXP computer, nothing happens. Why won’t the computer recognize that I put in a disc? A. Sometimes it can take your computer a few moments to recognize a disc before it takes action. But if after a few minutes nothing happens, you should try the following suggestions. First, try manually opening the disc’s content. Go to My Computer, locate your disc drive, and doubleclick it to open. If the disc does not open, eject it and examine its surface for damage, such as scratches or dents. If damage is present, insert a different disc into your drive and see if the computer recognizes it. If the new disc works, the original disc may be too damaged to play. If the original disc appears to be free of damage, try cleaning it. To clean your disc, use a cleaning kit or a dry cotton cloth and gently wipe the disc from the center outward. Avoid wiping the disc in a circular motion, as this could cause scratching. You can also use water or a disc cleaning solution to remove stuck-on debris. Once the disc is clean, try it in the drive again. If your computer still does not recognize the disc, move on to the suggestion below. It’s possible that your drive’s AutoPlay function is not set correctly. Go to My Computer, right-click your disc drive, and choose Properties. Under the AutoPlay tab, choose what type of content is on your disc (such as music, pictures, etc.) from the drop-down menu. Next, locate the Actions section. If you want Windows to play your disc automatically, select the radio button next to Select An Action To Perform, then choose Play, Open Folder To View Files, etc. (Options will differ depending on your selection in the drop-down menu.) If you want Windows to ask which action you want to take each time you insert a disc, select the radio button next to Prompt Me Each Time To Choose An Action. Click OK. Reinsert your disc and wait for Windows to recognize it. If your disc still won’t play, your disc drive may be damaged or may not have the proper updates or drivers. If you’re using a writable disc, it could be that it is simply that one faulty disc out of the whole pack. For more troubleshooting tips, point your browser to the following Microsoft Support page: tinyurl.com/ ya2vq7l. Q. I need to know if my version of Windows is 32-bit or 64-bit. Where in Windows can I find this information? A. Many software programs that you might purchase are compatible with either a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows, so it’s important to know which OS (operating system) version your computer is running. If you have WinXP, you likely have a 32-bit version, but to be sure, go to My Computer and click View System Information on the left side of the window. When the System Properties window appears, click the General tab and look for your OS version under the System section. A 64-bit version will list x64 in this area, and a 32-bit version won’t. In Vista and Win7, navigate to Computer and click System Properties at the top of the window. On the resulting screen, locate System Type under the System section and note which version you have. Q. I recently bought a new computer and want to transfer all of my Google Chrome favorites from my old computer to my new computer. How does this process work? A. The process for exporting and transferring your bookmarks from Google Chrome is much the same as in other Web browsers. When you open Chrome, click the wrench icon in the upper right, which lets you customize and control Chrome. Choose Bookmark Manager from the options, and in the Bookmark Manager window, click Tools in the upper left and then Export Bookmarks. When the Save As window appears, browse to a location, such as your hard drive or a USB flash drive, to save your bookmarks. Click Save. Use your USB flash drive or email account to transport your saved bookmark file to your new computer. To import your bookmarks on your new computer, follow the directions above, but choose Import Bookmarks instead of Export. Locate the file on your hard drive or flash drive and then click Open. Your bookmarks will automatically import and be available to you while you browse with Chrome. Q. I have a number of pictures on my computer that are saved as BMP (bitmap) files. I would like to convert these images to JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files so that they do not take up as much space on my hard drive. Is it possible to do this, and if so, do I need a special program? A. Converting a BMP file to a JPEG file is simple and does not necessarily require any exclusive software. In fact, you can use Paint, the image-viewing/editing application that’s built into every version of Windows. Go to Start and choose All Programs. Under the Accessories section, choose Paint. When Paint opens, click Edit and choose Paste From. (In Win7, click the Paste arrow and choose Paste From.) Locate the file you would like to convert and click Open. Once the picture loads, click File (or the Paint button at the top left in Win7) and choose Save As. Type in a name for your image, then choose JPEG from the Save As Type list. When finished, click Save. possible that the problem is limited to the single URL (uniform resource locator) you’re accessing. If you can get around normally elsewhere on the Web, check your source for the “broken” link. You may have mistyped the URL or clicked a bad hyperlink. A close reading of the address will usually reveal typos or malformed addresses. If you’re clicking through from an email, look for line breaks or otherwise incomplete links. Many email clients automatically turn text that looks like a URL into a link, but can misread unusual addresses or cut URLs short when the address contains unexpected characters or crosses more than one line. If everything looks all right with the address, try searching the Web for the site you’re seeking. Web sites move occasionally, forwarding isn’t perfect, and it isn’t in effect forever. And, just as with people, eventually someone else moves in. If everything still checks out, consider the possibility that the site is simply down temporarily. Wait and try again later, but, if it doesn’t work after awhile, go back to your original source and check to make sure you have the correct URL. You’re eager to update Facebook or check out that funny new video your sister recommended. You open a browser or click a link and . . . nothing. After an interminable wait while Internet Explorer churns away, nothing loads except an error message or, worse, an entirely different site. What do you do? We’ll help you figure out what’s wrong and get back to where you were going. If, on the other hand, you can’t get to any other sites either, the problem goes beyond a single bad address. In that case, start your troubleshooting with the browser and local machine. First, see whether other Web-enabled applications can access the Internet. If you use an email client such as Outlook or Windows Mail, see if it can send and receive. You can also try searching the iTunes Store or using a different browser (such as Google Chrome or Firefox) to see if they can connect. Alternatively, open up Windows’ command line interface and see if you can ping a common Internet address such as www.yahoo.com. See the “Take Command” sidebar for more details on simple command line options. If other applications can access the Web, you have a problem with your browser—not with your connection. Check the browser’s settings (click Tools and Internet Options in Internet Explorer 8) to see if a privacy, security, or other setting is preventing you from connecting to a given site. Simply closing and reopening the browser may also do the trick. If you’re fine after the restart, there was probably just something corrupted in the browser session and you can move merrily along. Bad Address First, figure out the source of the problem. If nothing but an error loads, try a different site. It’s entirely Bad Connection When no programs can get online, you have a larger connectivity problem. In that case, the single most You can also download a free conversion program such as IrfanView, which will let you convert multiple files at the same time. To download IrfanView, point your browser to www.irfanview.com and click the IrfanView button under Download on the right side of the page. Click the green Download Now square on the resulting page. Save the file to your hard drive. When the download is complete, double-click the .EXE file to begin the download. Compiled by Kris Glaser Brambila What To Do When You Can’t Access A Web Site likely solution is a simple reboot. There are all sorts of ways that a network connection can go bad, and restarting the machine resolves most of them. If a reboot fails to get you back online, dig deeper into your PC’s settings. Check your firewall and security software. Is there an emergency lockdown, parental control, or some other setting preventing you from getting online? Check your hardware. Open Device Manager by right-clicking Computer (My Computer in Windows XP), choosing Manage, and clicking Device Manager. Here, make sure Windows recognizes your network adapter by right-clicking it in the Device Manager list and choosing Properties. Look for any alerts or errors. Also, check the back of your PC. Is the network cable plugged in? Is the wireless antenna correctly positioned? If you’re connecting wirelessly, open the Windows wireless connection status screen (or your wireless adapter’s custom software, if you use that instead) by double-clicking/clicking the Wireless Network Connection icon in Windows XP, Vista, or 7. Make sure you can see your wireless network and that you’re connected. You may need to disconnect and reconnect if your settings have changed or your wireless access point has been updated recently. After running out of local machine options, expand your focus outward. Check the physical connection to your router, modem, and/or wall jack. See if you can access other computers or printers on your local network. Back in the browser, enter the IP address of your Internet gateway or network router (see the manufacturer’s documentation for default settings). If you can access the router’s admin console but not public Internet sites, the problem lies with your external connection or modem instead of your machine or network. Look at the lights on all your networking devices. Is everything blinking (or not) as it should, in the appropriate colors? Most routers and modems are well-labeled, and the color codes are pretty intuitive. Solid green is always good. Anything red is almost always bad. Blinking can go either way. Again, check the users guide if you’re not sure what you should be looking for. Whether or not anything appears awry, cut the power to the modem and the router and restore power in that order. Just as with rebooting the PC, restarting network hardware will often resolve whatever problem they’re having. If you can’t bring the connection back online, and you’ve confirmed that your internal network is working, call your ISP’s (Internet service provider’s) help desk. There may be a service outage in your area or they may be able to diagnose a problem specific to your line. by Gregory Anderson Take Command The Windows Command Prompt offers quick and easy connection troubleshooting options. Command line interfaces have an imposing aura. For old timers, they evoke BBS networks and Unix programming. For those who came to computing in the Windows era, they’re a bewildering mix of arcane syntax and obscure keyboard shortcuts. But Windows’ Command Prompt (formerly called the DOS Prompt) is a powerful network troubleshooting tool. To launch, just type cmd in the Start search menu in Vista or Win7. In WinXP, open the Run option from the Window’s Start menu, type cmd, and click OK. PING. The PING command tells you whether a given site is accessible. This is useful for confirming whether the site is up and whether you have a connection at all. The syntax is simple: type ping www.yahoo.com and press ENTER to see if your machine can find Yahoo’s server. IPCONFIG. Getting your machine’s network details (IP Address, Internet Gateway) from Windows’ networking properties box can be laborious. Entering ipconfig into the command line, on the other hand, provides info in an instant. To reset the connection without restarting your machine, try typing ipconfig / release, pressing ENTER, and then entering ipconfig /renew and see if that resolves your connectivity problems. TRACERT. Short for Traceroute, the TRACERT command will document each step in the route from your machine to the specified destination. TRACERT is helpful for pinpointing exactly where a request goes, how long it takes at each step, and, if it stops short somewhere, the source of a connection problem. Try tracert www.google.com as an example. Reprinted with permission from Smart Computing. Visit www.SmartComputing.com/groups to learn what Smart Computing can do for you and your user group. Excel and Word Tips =SUM(Inv01001:InvTemplate!F15) Totaling Across Worksheets Whenever you need to add a new invoice, simply make Referring to ranges of cells is one of the very basic sure it is added immediately before the invoice template. skills necessary to effectively use Excel. As you start to Your invoices remain in order, and your formula always create ever-more-complex formulas, you may wonder if returns the correct total. there is a way to refer, in a range reference, to a “stack” of cells on multiple worksheets, the same as you can refer to rows or columns on the current worksheet. For Using the CONCATENATE Worksheet instance, the following formula is a way to refer to all Function cells in column B: Excel provides a function called CONCATENATE which can be used to combine the contents of several =SUM(B:B) cells, or even to combine cell contents with other text. Note that you don’t have to provide a starting or ending For instance, let’s say you wanted to add together the row; you just have to provide the column name. You contents of cells A3 and B3, separate them by a space, can likewise do the same thing for row references. The and have the result appear in cell C3. All you need to do following refers to the range of all cells in row 3: is put the following formula in cell C3: =SUM(3:3) The problem with referencing all the cells in a set position across a range of worksheets is that there is no unique “collection name” to apply to cells in that position. For instance, rows have numbers and columns have letters. “Stacks” of cells across worksheets don’t have a comparable name. =CONCATENATE(A3,” “,B3) Primarily, the CONCATENATE function is used for compatibility with other spreadsheet programs. You can just as easily use the ampersand (&) operator to combine text values using a formula. For instance, the following is equivalent to the example of CONCATENATE shown above: The only way, then, that you can refer to the same cell =A3 & “ “ & B3 across a range of worksheets is the rather explicit way that Microsoft dictates. For instance, the following Copyright © 2010 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Thousands of free Microsoft refers to the range at cell D5 across three sheets: Excel tips can be found online at http://excel.tips.net. =SUM(Sheet1:Sheet3!D5) Understanding that sheets must be named in the range, Replacing Text with a Graphic you can include an ever-expanding range by simply There may be times when you have a need to replace making sure that you only add new worksheets between text in your document with a graphic. For instance, you the beginning and ending sheets specified in your might be working on a marketing document and need formula. to replace all instances of your company name with the As an example, let’s assume that you have a template company logo. This is simple enough to do in Word by for an invoice, and that your workbook contains all following these steps: the invoices you have created this year. Further, each invoice has a total at cell F15. If you want a summary worksheet that shows a total for all invoices, all you need to do is make sure that your first invoice is the first worksheet in your workbook, that your invoice template is the second to last, and that your summary worksheet is the last one in the workbook. In this way, your formula could be something like: 1. Place the graphic in your document; it doesn’t matter where. 2. Select the graphic. 3. Press Ctrl+X. This removes the graphic, placing it in the Clipboard. 4. Press Ctrl+H. This displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. Text group. If you are using an older version of Word, choose Field from the Insert menu.) The Field dialog box. 3. In the Categories list, choose Document Information. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. 5. In the Find What field, enter the text you want replaced with the graphic. 6. In the Replace With field, enter ^c, or click on Special and choose Clipboard Contents. 4. In the Field Names list choose Template. 5. Click on OK to close the dialog box and insert your field. Copyright © 2010 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Thousands of free Microsoft Word tips can be found online at http://word.tips.net. 7. Set any other searching criteria, as desired. 8. Click on Find Next or Replace All, depending on how you want to make your replacements. Inserting the Template Name in Your Document Computer Books Oreilly Books http://www.oreilly.com Get 35% off from O’Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Rocky Nook, SitePoint, or YoungJin books and ebooks you purchase directly from O’Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938. Save 40% on All Microsoft Press Books and 50% on Ebooks New Releases: iPod: The Missing Manual, Ninth Edition By J.D. Biersdorfer Learning ActionScript 3.0, Second Edition By Rich Shupe Every Word document has a template attached to it. 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(In Word 2007 or By Johnathan Lightfoot, Chris Beckett Word 2010 display the Insert tab of the ribbon and then choose Quick Parts | Fields from the Pragmatic Guide to Git QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual By Bonnie Biafore R Cookbook: Rough Cuts Version By Paul Teetor Peachpit Books USER GROUP COUPON CODE We provide your group members with a 35% discount off the list price of any of our books. At checkout, right before entering their credit card information, they must enter the user group coupon code UE23AA-PEUF (case-sensitive). This coupon code is an exclusive offer that may not be used in conjunction with any other coupon codes. Peachpit Photo Club Peachpit announces the Peachpit Photo Club. On the third Tuesday of every month, at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST, join us for a webcast featuring your favorite digital photographers! The photographer will present some of their work, provide you with some insight and inspiration, and answer your burning questions. To keep the creative juices flowing, Photo Club members will receive a fun assignment at the end of the session. Members can complete the assignment on their own, or team up with others in their area. Either way, once the assignment is completed, Photo Club members can upload their work to the Peachpit Photo Club Flickr Group where your friends at Peachpit, and some of our photography authors, will help critique your work. And of course, there will be a chance for prizes! FRIDAY FREEBIES We’re doing weekly #FridayFreebies giveaways on Twitter. To participate, just follow @Peachpit & look for the weekly #FridayFreebies blog post at peachpit.com/blogs. We’ll be giving away some great prizes—from books and videos to T-shirts and pieces of memorabilia. You can also partake in more fun over at the Peachpit Facebook fan page, at facebook.com/ peachpitpress. 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By John Romano and Evan Carrol List Price: $24.99 DEEP INTO THE WILDERNESS Join legendary wilderness photographer Moose Peterson, as he offers you inspiring and riveting stories in his newly released book, Captured: Lessons from Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer. You’ll learn the basics of animal behavior and biology so that you’re ready to capture wildlife at the peak of action! Apress Books When you’re exploring the .NET universe, it pays to have an expert leading the way. Author Matthew MacDonald’s knowledge spans across the entire .NET framework, and in Pro Silverlight 4 in C# he provides readers with an invaluable reference on what’s new, written by a developer for developers. While Silverlight and Flash currently dominate rich user experiences on the web, HTML5 is creating space for applications and games to be created directly within HTML. There is a lot of new ground to cover—including the Canvas and Audio tags and several new APIs—all of which are explained through game development in The Essential Guide to HTML5 by Jeanine Meyer. Whether you’re creating a mobile application for a consumer or a business audience, Windows Phone 7 and the free development tools available for the Microsoft mobile platform have changed the phone application landscape. Beginning Windows Phone 7 Development, by Henry Lee and Eugene Chuvyrov serves as your companion as you begin your journey to creating applications on this brand-new platform. Discovering Windows 7 Part 4 & 5 If you’re trying to stay on the cutting-edge of web development and design, November is a good month to follow Apress’ release of titles. HTML5 is a huge step forward for web design, and The Essential Guide to HTML5 by Jeanine Meyer uses traditional games, such as hangman, craps, and blackjack to introduce new HTML5 concepts, including the canvas, video, and audio elements. If you’re a Web professional looking to tap the full potential of modern browsers, read Pro HTML5 Programming by Peter Lubbers who has been working with, developing, and teaching HTML5 technologies for more than two years. We’re also releasing the long awaited sequel The Game Maker’s Companion by Jacob Habgood, which picks up where the best-selling The Game Maker’s Apprentice left off. Advance your game development journey with some seriously impressive gaming projects, culminating in the creation of an original atmospheric platform-adventure, which will take your GML programming skills to new heights. This month we’re going to look at my favorite new Windows 7 features, file search and libraries. I confess, I used Windows 7 like Windows Vista for almost two months before I became aware of these features. If you’ve used previous versions of Windows, one the first things you will notice in Windows 7 is that there is no “Search” function listed on the Start menu. Instead, when you click on the Start button, a search box appears directly above the Start button, the normal Start Menu items above it. In addition, any time you open an Explorer window, a search box appears in the upper right-hand corner. Latest Books By Neil Stahfest, Vice President, Tacoma Area PC User Group, Washington April / May 2010 Issue of the Data Line NCStahfest (at) msn.com www.tapcug.org Libraries are a new Windows 7 feature. They make it easier to find things by keeping track of similar files, no matter where you store them. By default, Windows 7 has four libraries: Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music (the Videos library doesn’t appear on the Start Menu but we’ll address that at another time). To find a document, I can click on the “Start” button and then “Documents.” This opens a window which shows my Documents library as shown below. • Multimobile Development: Building Applications for the iPhone and Android Platforms • Silverlight 4 Business Intelligence Software • Foundation Expression Blend 4 with Silverlight • Pro Smartphone Cross-Platform Development • DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model • Beginning Windows Phone 7 Development • Taking Your iPod touch to the Max • PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy, Second Edition • Pro Drupal 7 Development, Third Edition I could look for the document I want by opening folders but Windows 7 gives us an easier way. In the upper right corner of the library window is a search box. As I start to type the name of the document I’m looking for in the box, the list in the main window changes to reflect names that contain the letters or words that I have typed. click on “Computer” and go to the icon for my external hard drive. After I click to open the hard drive, I select the folder containing my pictures and right-click. In the window that appears I select “Include in library.” Among the library choices that appear I select the “Pictures.” Now the pictures on my external hard drive are included in my “Pictures” library and any search of the Pictures library will include them. As I type more letters, the search is refined and fewer names appear as the search criteria is refined. Note that the letter or word that I have typed appears highlighted in the list of files. I also have the option of adding search filters to restrict my search a range of dates, file size, etc. In my example we see that a number of files match my brief search criteria, “win.” I could click on each of these files to see which one I want but Windows 7 gives us an easier way. I can point and click once on a file to highlight it, and then click on the “Preview” button in the upper right corner of the search window to see what’s inside of the file without actually opening it. By now I think you’re starting to see the value of libraries to find files. But suppose you have folders that are not in one of your libraries? For instance, I have folders of pictures stored on an external hard drive. All I have to do is click on the “Start” button, You can change where a library saves files and the order that it searches them. Just click the “Start” button and then one of the library names, such as “Pictures.” In the library window, above the file list and next to “Includes,” click on “Locations.” A new window will open, in this example called “Picture Library Locations.” From here you can select click on buttons to add or remove folders. Digital cameras often include image editing and storing software when you purchase them. Many times create new folders to store the pictures from your camera. This “Add” button allows you to include your camera’s pictures folder in the Windows 7 library so that they are easily searchable. In addition, if you right-click on a library folder, you can set it as the default folder, where all new related files will be added. You can also change the order in which the listed folders are searched. You may have noticed in the step above, in addition to selecting one of my default libraries, one of the options was to create a new library. Can you see how you might use this? Suppose you had a folder for Genealogy records. You could select that folder and create a Genealogy library. Similarly, you could select a folder which appears in your Pictures library that contains Genealogy related pictures add it to your Genealogy library. Now you can access the Genealogy pictures through either your Pictures or Genealogy library. As you can see, libraries are a very powerful and useful tool. They provide an easy way to find the files you use most frequently without imposing a rigid organization structure. Next time we’ll look at more ways you can find files and how to create new libraries. But what do you do if the file you are looking for is not in one of Windows 7’s libraries? It’s very simple. To begin, click on the “Start” button and type the name of the file you are looking for in the “Search” box. I have “Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004” installed on my laptop PC. “FS9.CFG” is a general configuration file for this program that I occasionally want to modify. If I type “fs9.cfg” (note letters can be upper or lower case) in the Search box above the Start button there is no match. The next step is to click on the magnifying glass where it says “See more results.” A green bar will extend across the top of the search window as the search progresses (just to let you know something is happening I suppose). Files containing “fs9.cfg” were located and eventually the file itself (see below). Note that the file name is highlighted and the file location and size is shown. I could click on the highlighted file name to edit it or might want to write down the location so I can find it more quickly in the future. This opens up a new window, as shown below. As you can see, we have a lot more options here. In the left pane is some “standard” area to search‟, including the libraries. We don’t know where fs9.cfg is located except that it is on “Drive C.” I clicked on “Drive C” which revealed the folders on “Drive C” in the large pane to the right. Assuming that I don’t know which folder it is located in, I’ll just leave “Drive C” highlighted and type “fs9.cfg” in the Search box in the upper right corner of the window and press Enter. Depending upon how many files you have on your computer and its speed this search could take a long time. I have over 500,000 files that had to be checked. My search took over 10 minutes. Your search might take less time. This is a very thorough search utility which can be refined in a number of ways including searching the date the file was last modified, or a range of dates or by file size. Obviously, the fastest way to find a file is if it is located in a library. By default, Windows 7 has four libraries; Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos. You’ve probably noticed that the Videos library does not appear in the Start menu. So how can you add it? Easy! Right-click on the “Start” button and selected “Properties.” When the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” windows appear, click on “Customize.” In the “Customize Start Menu” window, scroll down to the bottom where you see “Videos.” Under” Videos” click on “Display as link” and then click on “OK.” The Videos library will now appear in the “Start” menu. You can also create additional libraries. Suppose you have a program on your computer for creating and storing genealogy records. After navigating to the main folder of your genealogy program (which probably contains sub folders), just right-click on the folder. In the window that opens, select “Include in library.” In the new window that opens, select “Create new library.” That’s all there is to it! Now you have a genealogy library named whatever the folder was named. Now when you search, you can search all files (including Genealogy) or just the Genealogy library. Since libraries don’t actually contain any data, if you change your mind about wanting one, you can delete it without losing any information. As you can see, Windows 7 Libraries are a very powerful tool. They provide quick links to frequently used files without forcing you to store information in a manner predetermined by someone else. To put it another way, you’re no longer forced to keep all your socks in the upper right drawer where your mother told you to put them. You can use the lower left drawer or several drawers. Windows 7 Libraries will quickly find your “socks” no matter where you want to store them. Stickies: Another Useful Utility By Phil Sorrentino, President, Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. June 2010 Issue, SPCUG Monitor www.spcug.org president (at) spcug.org Here is another great free utility, especially for those of you who have a lot of little yellow “Post-it” notes stuck all over the edge of your monitor. The utility is called “Stickies” and it is exactly what it sounds like it is. Stickies lets you put little yellow “Post-itlike” notes any place on the monitor. Not just stuck to the frame, but an actual area on the monitor screen. The Stickies notes look like this, on my blue desktop background: As I’ve said in the past, utilities are usually small programs that are intended to do a specific task or a small range of tasks. These tasks are usually designed to help manage and/or tune the computer hardware, Operating System (OS), or a particular software application. This utility is intended to help the users of the computer. There are many times that you need to remember something for a short time and you want to keep it right up front so it doesn’t get lost. This is where Stickies can help. Stickies are small note like areas you create, on the desktop, that can be brought to the front of any application just by clicking the Stickies icon in the Notification Area on the Taskbar. They are dismissed from being on the application just by clicking anywhere on the screen that isn’t in one of the Stickies. (Clicking inside a Stickie allows you to add text to that note.) You can put the notes in one corner of the screen or you can spread them around to call attention to different things. You can even place them on top of each other in an overlapped fashion. This would allow you to use the least amount of screen space. This would be a good way, for those of you who have “too many” icons on the desktop, to store your Stickies. This way the Stickies would take up only a small portion of the screen. Stickies can be downloaded from the developer’s site at: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies. This home page has a detailed description of Stickies and a list of its features. (Choose Download to get to the download page.) A few of the outstanding features are as follows. Stickies works with XP and Vista. (No need for Stickies if you use Windows 7 because Windows 7 comes with its own “Stickie-Note-like” gadget.) Stickies appearance (fonts, colors, styles) can be customized. Stickies can be easily resized. The Stickies program is small, writes only to a single text file, and does not alter the registry. Stickies can even be set up so that they are not seen until a specific date and time, so they can be used as a reminder. Stickies has a comprehensive list of features, but it basically provides a very good computerized version of “Post-it Notes”. Once Stickies is downloaded and installed, a yellow note-like Icon will be present in the Notification Area of the Taskbar. Double-clicking this icon will put a new Stickie note on the desktop. A single click of this icon will bring all of the stickies to the front, meaning they will be displayed on top of any application that is being shown. The Stickies can be moved around the monitor by dragging the top of the Stickie. Text can be inserted into a new Stickie just by clicking, in the Stickie, where you want to enter text. The size of the Stickie is dependent on the text in the Stickie. As you add text the Stickie will be lengthened to show all of the text. If you remove text, the Stickie will be shortened, so that only the text is displayed (and not just empty space). At any time, you can make the Stickie wider by moving either of the vertical edges by hovering over the edge until a double arrow is displayed and then left-clicking and dragging the vertical side outward (or inward to make the Stickie narrower). As the vertical sides are moved, the text moves around so it just fits into the Stickie. A Stickie has a yellow note icon in the upper left corner and a trash can icon in the upper right corner. Clicking on the yellow note icon toggles between “always on top” and “remain on bottom”. Clicking on the trash can closes or deletes the Stickie. All of the controls for each Stickie are displayed by rightclicking the title bar (the space between the yellow note icon and the trash can icon) of the Stickie, as shown here: If Border is checked, as it is here, the Stickie will have a dark-line border around a yellow background. If it is not checked, the border will be missing. To give the Stickie a title, select Set title and a Title box will be displayed for you to enter the title text. Font and Color can be changed by selecting Set Font or Set Color, similar to those controls in word processing applications. Transparency can be set from 0% to 90 % so that things below the Stickie can be seen (the higher the percentage, the lighter the Stickie color is and the easier it is to see through the Stickie). Select “Always on top” for a constant reminder, where by the Stickie is made to stay on top of applications that are in use. Select “Sleep for” to use the Stickie to become active some time in the future to remind you of some event. Stickies is a great way to organize some of the things around your computer screen. I have found Stickies to be a great help in simplifying this area. I am now down to one notebook, a few pens and pencils and only a few Post-it Notes around the monitor frame. Now, I am using Stickies to store most of my temporary notes to myself and to other computer users. Interesting Press Releases Computer Outlook Talk Show Announces Foundation to Repurpose Computers to UnderResourced Children and Families of Deployed Service Personnel Computer Outlook Talk Show announced today the launch of the Outlook Foundation, a non-profit organization created to refurbish and repurpose computers; providing them to children whose economic background prevents them from having equal educational opportunities, as well as to deployed US service personnel and their stateside families in an effort to help maintain communication with loved ones. Among the population of deployed service personnel and their stateside families, communication is a priceless commodity. However, with the high cost of International phone service, many military families cannot communicate with loved ones deployed overseas unless they have access to a computer. By collecting obsolete computers, refurbishing and repurposing them to needy children and deployed service personnel and their stateside families Outlook Foundation will reduce technology’s negative impact on the environment. In the event a computer cannot be refurbished, the foundation is prepared to recycle the technology through certified organizations so they will be kept out of landfills. The Outlook Foundation has submitted for its 501(C)(3) status as a non-profit organization created to refurbish and repurpose computers. www.outlookfoundation.org or call 888782-3610 iHome Utilizes Latest in Bluetooth Technology to Deliver Wireless Audio System for iPad Owners (BUSINESS WIRE)-- iHome, announced the availability of the iA100 Bluetooth Stereo System for iPad, iPhone and iPod w/ App Enhancement. The iA100 is an app-enhanced, Bluetooth-enabled, FM radio alarm clock for iPad, iPhone and docking iPod models. By connecting your preferred device via Bluetooth secure simple pairing, the iA100 transforms into a wireless entertainment multitasker with a variety of great features, including a stand-alone speakerphone with echo cancellation, turning all Bluetooth enabled phones into a robust speakerphone for the home or office; streaming audio of your favorite music and movies, and customized connections with iHome’s free iHome+Sleep and iHome+Radio apps. Available for $199 at retail outlets throughout North America, as well as http://www. ihomeaudio.com/iA100. Smith Micro Launches Vidio to Deliver High Quality Video Content to Any Mobile Device, Anytime (BUSINESS WIRE)--Smith Micro Software, Inc., launched Vidio™, a carrier-grade software platform for delivering high-quality video content to consumers, regardless of their mobile device. The platform’s RF-based, adaptive streaming capability empowers carriers and content owners to easily reach Apple, Android, Symbian, RIM and Windows Mobile users, and enhances the end-user experience by providing on-the-fly access to the latest online content in high-quality formats. Vidio supports all industrystandard video file formats. For cable providers it extends service reach beyond the TV, DVR and computer to the mobile device, enabling delivery to a variety of tablets and phones, such as Androids, iPhones, iPads and the latest tablets being introduced in the market. www.smithmicro.com/products/vidio. aspx. Illume Software to Partner with In Control Crash Prevention Training to Bring iZUP to the Classroom (BUSINESS WIRE)-- Illume offers iZUP, a GPSenabled app that effectively eliminates all cell phonerelated driving distractions. It effectively eliminates all cell phone-related distractions for drivers: incoming and outgoing calls, emails and text messages, as well as internet browsing and social media interaction. iZUP also offers tamper alert notification to account holders should anyone attempt to tamper with or remove the application. The app works by using a cell phone’s GPS signal to calculate speed and other critical conditions to determine if someone is driving. iZUP also prevents outgoing communication and applications yet always allows emergency calls to 911 and communication between authorized numbers (e.g. parent or employer). iZUP provides real-time notification to parents or account holders of a 911 event. www.getizup.com. The Dictionary Revolution: SnapTranslate, The First App That Can Read (BUSINESS WIRE)--You’re on business trip in Mexico and are unable to read the memo in Spanish? Or the menu while on vacation in France? With “SnapTranslate” all that is a thing of the past. At the AppStore simply load it to your iPhone, photograph the foreign language text with your iPhone camera and in just a few seconds SnapTranslate translates the text and even reads it aloud. Entirely without typing. The translation is available after only a few seconds. It can then be viewed as text or read aloud using the sound output of the device. Available at iTunes for two different language packages: Starter ($11.99, EnglishSpanish) and Premium ($24.99, English, French, Spanish, German, Polish). http://itunes.apple.com/us/ artist/beyo-gmbh/id389980129?uo=4 Barnes & Noble Introduces NOOKcolor™, The Ultimate Reading Experience (BUSINESS WIRE)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. announced the launch of NOOKcolor by– the first full-color touch Reader’s Tablet that delivers digital books, magazines, newspapers and children’s books in color, available for $249 at www.NOOKcolor.com. Downloads in seconds over Wi-Fi®. Comes with Barnes & Noble’s new NOOKfriends™ technology, you’re only touches away from sharing with friends via Facebook®, Twitter® and email. For the first time ever, enjoy the largest collection of popular children’s picture and chapter books in an engaging digital form through the new NOOK kids offering. Through exclusive AliveTouch™ technology, your child can interact with words and pictures, easily find a favorite story, and even have some read aloud to them. www.NOOKkids.com. Isabella Products Announces Partnership with Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to launch the World’s First Children’s Tablet (BUSINESS WIRE)--Isabella Products, announced Fable™, the first fully interactive, portable tablet that enables children to read, draw, game and share over the mobile broadband network. Fable boasts an intuitive user interface with a 7” high-resolution, full-touch LCD screen that utilizes Isabella’s patent-pending carousel navigation interface. Expected to be available in mid 2011 through VizitMe.com and select retailers. Fable’s settings can be adjusted on the device by parents through a pin code or can be remotely managed through a password-protected account at VizitMe.com. www.isabellaproducts.com Pocket eDGe, Enables Mobile Lifestyles with Multimedia Tablet, Netbook and E-Reader Functionalities (BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Pocket eDGe is a compact, multi-purpose, WiFi-enabled device, weighing just 24 ounces as the smallest dualbook available on the market. The 7” LCD screen is ideal for Web browsing or viewing videos. Users can take advantage of useful applications that are already incorporated into the software, such as the built-in calendar app which makes it easy for users to keep track of appointments. The Pocket eDGe also operates on the Google Android operating system, providing access to numerous helpful Android applications. It has built-in speakers, a microphone and a camera – letting users record lectures and meetings, or capture images, listen to music and watch videos. The mobile professional or student can also project presentations through a USB-Video adapter. Available for $399. www. entourageedge.com Intel Expands Customer Choice with First Configurable Intel® Atom™-based Processor (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Intel Corporation announced the configurable Intel® AtomTM processor E600C series, which features an Intel® AtomTM E600 processor paired with an Altera Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) in a single package. Based on Intel® architecture, the Intel Atom E600C processor series provides original equipment manufacturers with the flexibility to incorporate a wide range of standard and user-defined I/O interfaces, highspeed connectivity, memory interfaces and process acceleration to meet the evolving needs of embedded device market segments. Available in the first quarter of 2011. 2010 Top Ten List of Data Disasters Compiled by Kroll Ontrack 10. A square peg in a round hole – When a computer novice’s laptop battery died, he reached behind his desk, grabbed what he thought was the laptop charger and shoved the power cable into his laptop. Unfortunately, it was a power cord for a different device, and he fried his machine. 9. Double data recovery – A customer required the restoration of several archived tapes, and the Kroll Ontrack Tape Services team promptly restored the data and returned it on six external HDDs. The customer’s company tried to make a backup of the data on six more HDDs and stored these HDDs in a fireproof safe. They started to use the data they needed from the backup HDDs, but unfortunately, somebody had accidentally overwritten some of the data. “Not to worry!” they thought. “We can simply use the Kroll Ontrack HDDs!” However, when these HDDs were connected, they discovered that rather than copying the data, they had actually moved the data, and there was nothing on the HDDs. Thankfully, Kroll Ontrack still had the original tapes and recovered all of the data for a second time. 8. Keeping a family member’s memory alive – A woman visiting her father to assist with his medical treatments became the victim of a thief, who entered the hospital room where the visitor had her belongings and stole a laptop that once belonged to the woman’s daughter. Sadly, the woman visitor had recently lost her daughter to a battle with cancer. News of the crime hit the airwaves immediately, which led to a speedy arrest and the recovery of the stolen laptop. However, the hard disk had been wiped. Kroll Ontrack contacted the family to assist and was able to recover 90 percent of the family’s only photos of their deceased daughter. 7. Meat the experts – A hard drive recently arrived at the Ontrack Data Recovery lab from a butcher shop, packed in Styrofoam, with the remnants of a delicious cured ham. After a thorough degreasing of the case, the hard drive was sent to the cleanroom with suspected mechanical failure. Luckily, all the data was recovered. 6. Up in the air – A frequent traveler was enjoying an espresso while waiting for a plane home. He put his laptop case on the floor at the espresso bar and forgot to collect it. The airport police were notified of the unattended luggage, and while the traveler was on his plane, the laptop was detonated to ensure it was not a security threat. 5. Buckle up – A business woman, late for work, placed her briefcase on her car roof while she secured her coffee in her cup holder and her child in his car seat. Anxious to get on the road, the woman buckled up and quickly backed out of her garage, sending her briefcase, with laptop in tow, soaring off the roof just in time for the front wheels to crush it. 4. Laptop litter box – A woman left her Mac charging on the floor of her house for a few hours. She returned to discover a liquid on the keyboard and a sheepish kitten playing in the corner. Upon further investigation, the laptop had been soiled in cat urine! 3. Advocate for Africa – A man quit his job to fulfill his lifelong dream of traveling to Africa to photograph the poverty. After spending several months taking pictures, he moved back home to develop and sell the photos to businesses, bringing focus to the need for human aid in Africa. An unfortunate apartment fire erupted, but luckily the fireman managed to grab the computer before it was charred. While rushing down the fire ladder, the computer was dropped. Still Ontrack Data Recovery engineers were able to recover 100 percent of the pictures. 2. The ants go marching in – A flood in Europe resulted in a computer being submerged in river and rain water for more than two days. The flood water was not the drive’s only problem. When the drive arrived at the Ontrack Data Recovery cleanroom, an ant, who tried to escape drowning in the flood, was found hanging from the head of the drive. Rigorous cleanroom techniques resulted in a recovery of most of the drive’s data; however, the ant could not be saved. 1. Laptops are not waterproof – When the midday temperatures started to soar, a man decided to go for a swim. A little bit wary of leaving his laptop unattended, he popped it into a plastic bag so it would not get wet and went for a dip -- laptop and all. The bag did not prove as durable as he hoped, and the laptop got soaked and he lost his data. For the complete Top Ten Data Disasters list and to see videos of the top five disasters, please visit http:// www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/data-disaster-2010. Website Discoveries By Steve Bass, Publisher and Self-appointed Chief Content Officer, TechBite www.techbite.com / stevebass (at) techbite.com I spend lots of time patrolling the Internet, looking for sites that can help me with my life. Some are pinpointed to something I might need right away, like Contact Help, a way to get the phone number of a company. Others are spots I know I’ll need someday, such as instructions for recovering a ring from a drainpipe or how to wrap an extension cord like a pro. I’ve got a stack of these places for you; some may hit your nail on the head, so to speak; others won’t do a thing for you. Get Me Some Help I used to rely solely on GetHuman to find a company phone number and get the skinny on the menu prompts for quick navigation. Now GetHuman has an ally: Contact Help , a relatively new site with contacts GetHuman doesn’t list. www.gethuman.com www.contacthelp.com Image you’re trying to choose between two companies, say, satellite TV services, or maybe banks. Consult with CustomerService Scoreboard and get some background before you sign up. www.customerservicescoreboard.com Photo Retouching You Won’t Believe This video of the upcoming Adobe Photoshop upgrade’s Content Aware Fill feature is something you have to watch. Even if you don’t use Photoshop, you’ll be blown away by what it does. It’s a long video -- but stay until the end when you’ll see a spectacular modification of a panoramic image. http://tinyurl.com/ydoa2od You might never ever consider buying Photoshop. Even though it can work miracles on photos, it’s a PITA to learn. Instead you might want to send some of your photos to Master Photo Repair and let my buddy Chuck Hazendl, a professional, have a go at them. For instance, he can remove people from photos -- or seamlessly add them. www.masterphotorepair.com/ Feed Me! I love to cook. It lets the creative part of me play around in the kitchen. Carving a turkey has nothing to do with technology. Yet, here’s something I found incredibly useful: A video with a professional showing the right way to carve a turkey. http://tinyurl. com/383kujy With the turkey in the fridge, there’s one question that always seems to come up: How long we can keep things in the fridge before they go bad. As a confirmed cheapskate, I often argue with my wife about whether something’s still edible if there’s fur growing on it. StillTasty has the answer. (That ground turkey? You have two days, pal.) www.stilltasty.com If you’re traveling and need restaurant advice, or need a second opinion on a recipe, log on to Chowhound. Select a location on the forum board and browse around -- or fire off a question. Who knows, you may bump into me (I use my real name) or Judy (as Judybird). http://chowhound.chow.com/boards Take Charge of Your Household Besides cooking, I enjoy my role as Bass International handyman. (Since graduate school, I’ve also been the Laundry Queen, finding ways to remove spots and stains like you’ll never believe.) I was looking for some I’m-going-to-save-thousandsand-paint-the-house-myself advice when I ran across the household section of Family Hack . Oh, is it cool. The first video I spotted was Something Down The Drain? Retrieve it Without a Wrench. Absolutely brilliant for retrieving a ring, but a contact lens? I dunno... http://www.familyhack.com/category/ household/ http://www.familyhack.com/2007/08/29/drain-tip/ Just as valuable is WonderHowTo. I built a clay pot fountain (and found a bigger project: an outdoor fountain) and learned how to adjust the sprinklers. www.wonderhowto.com/ http://tinyurl.com/y8cfvaw http://tinyurl.com/35hvlqd http://tinyurl.com/ye2rj9t One big thrill was discovering how to wrap a power extension cord without it getting tangled or squirrelly. (I’ve got to get a life, I know.) I watched what felt like hundreds of videos. This first video -- No Tangle Extension Cord Storage -- is the best of the bunch. This next technique is a favorite of roadies, people who handle sound equipment and cables for performers on the road. Here’s another roadie technique. http://tinyurl.com/lz8q7y http://tinyurl.com/34ftzjs http://tinyurl.com/2v8wh7j He asked his readers to send him Web sites that give a boost to the quality of your life. Here are some that he forgot to put in his column and a few that readers sent in. One site I forgot to mention was Appliance Junk , a site that doles out repair advice. The forum members -- most of them repair people -- helped me resurrect my 23-year-old dishwasher and fix an icemaker. (It doesn’t help the economy, sure, but I’ll still try to get another 20 years out of them...) http://appliancejunk.com/forums/ Another favorite is Ask the Builder , with a slew of videos. One of the many I found useful was a house gutter issue -- whether to protect gutters or clean them. (I’m the guy on the ladder -- still cleaning.) www.askthebuilder.com One more site: The Power Wash Network lets you eavesdrop (okay, lurk ) on professional cleaners -- window washers and wooden deck restorers, for instance -- and get their insider tips. (I got a terrific formula for a window washing solution.) www.powerwashnetwork.com   After reading last week’s TechBite, subscriber Rob Carpenter said, “I didn’t realize you were a do-ityourself fan. If you haven’t been there before, I think you’ll find Instructables useful.” Not everything on the site’s a fit for me, but some of the instructions were useful, like working with PVC pipe, for instance (I’m designing a hothouse), and building a chicken coop (stop laughing). http://www.instructables.com/ David S. reminded me of a technique for adjusting your side-view car mirrors. We’ve been using it for years because it can actually let you see cars in your “blind spots.” This video explains how to do it. http://tinyurl.com/2bm9en3 One surprise is that lots of you spend time in the kitchen, carving turkeys, I think. Here’s another tip: How to cook the perfect poached egg (I tried it and this is a keeper). BTW, if you’ve never done this at a party, here’s how to peel a hard boiled egg and amaze everyone. Finally, Phil Davis told me he’s learned how to pack a suitcase from YouTube vids. (I just wear T-shirts and short pants. Here’s where I learned my folding technique .) For wrinkle-free packing, try the slow and studious butler’s method . If you’re just overnighting it, here are written instrux , or if you prefer a video, a moribund butler shows how to cram everything you can into a suitcase. Steve Bass is the publisher and self-appointed Chief Content Officer at TechBite; he continues to experience the cool feeling of having his own newsletter. Send him your feedback at TechBite. To sign up for TechBite’s free Steve Bass Technology newsletter, head for our signup page. www.techbyte.com Steve’s also the author of “PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer,” available on Amazon. It covers XP, but not Vista. If you haven’t purchased your copy today, don’t wait, supplies always seem to be limited. www.amazon.com The Control Panel By Sandy Berger, CompuKISS www.compukiss.com sandy(at)compukiss.com Just as you can use a car without manipulating anything under the hood, you can also use a computer without changing any settings. However, at a certain point you will want to correct a setting, uninstall a program, change the way your mouse works, or add another user to your computer. All of these functions and many more are found in the Windows Control Panel. Don’t worry though; the Control Panel is much easier to navigate than the cables, wires, and mechanisms that you find under the hood of a car.... and you can use the tools in the Control Panel without getting your hands dirty. In geek-speak, the Control Panel is the central location for all of the Windows operating system configuration needs. In everyday terms, it the place where you can work with the many tools that Windows offers to change and customize all of the settings. The Control Panel is part of the Window’s operating system’s graphical interface. As such, you will find that it consists of easy-to-understand icons that are each labeled as to their function. The Control Panel has been around since the first version of Windows. Over the years, it has morphed into a very useful set of management tools for your computer. In a car you need to know where the hood release lever is, in Windows, you need to know how to access the Control Panel. Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can access the Control Panel by clicking on the Start button and choosing Control Panel from the right column of choices. In Windows XP, you will click Start, then choose Control Panel from the left column. If you don’t see the Control Panel listed, click on Settings from the left column and then click on Control Panel. The Control Panel is a little different in Windows XP than it is in Vista and Windows 7. So let’s talk about XP first. By default, the Windows XP Control Panel appears in what is called “Category View”. This means that various functions have been put into Categories. Previous versions of Windows showed a list of icons, one for each function, in Windows XP, this is called the “Classic View”. When you open the Control Panel in Windows XP if you see several categories listed you are in “Category View”. If you see a window full of individual icons, you are in “Classic View”. You can change the view by clicking on the words “Switch to Classic View” or “Switch to Category View” which is on the left side of the screen. Check out these two options and see which one you like. You can switch between them quite easily at any time. In Windows Vista, you have the same choices, but you may have to click on “Control Panel Home” on the left side of the screen before you can click on “Classic View” or “Category View”. Microsoft made some changes in the Control Panel in Windows 7. They have eliminated the name Classic View. In Windows 7 you will see the words “View by” on the upper right side of the screen. Click on the down arrow next to those words and you will have three views to choose from: Category, Large Icons, or Small Icons. This Icon view is really the same as the Classic View. I prefer to use the Classic or Icon view, but again, you can check out all the views and see which one you like best. There are 45 icons in the icon view in Windows 7 and about the same number in previous versions. If you look at the Classic or Icon view, you will see that the icons have labels, like Display, Sound, Power Options, Mouse, Keyboard, User Accounts, Folder Options, and Devices and Printers. You can click on any of these icons to open a window that will allow you to adjust, correct, and/or customize the settings of these areas. Take a look around. Check out Mouse area first. When you click on the mouse icon a windows with options will appear. It will have tabs at the top. You can click on each tab to see even more options. If you have never looked at these before you will be amazed at the number of things that you can do to customize your mouse. You can switch the buttons if you are left-handed. You can speed up and/or slow down the double-click speed. You can change the looks of the pointer. If you are using a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can even change how the wheel behaves. Try a few things. The only caveat here is to document the changes that you are making so you can change them back if you want to. Each of the items in the Control Panel allows you to change the settings in your computer. Look through and open up a few of them. There are hundreds of things that you can change and/or customize in the Windows operating system. Some of the Control Panel items are very useful for everyday tasks in Windows. Be sure to take a look. Managing [and deleting] all those web browser toolbars By Sandy Rand, President, Brookdale Computer Users Group, New Jersey June 2010 Issue, BUG Bytes www.bcug.com srand98 (at) comcast.net Did you ever notice that your Internet Explorer has toolbars from such companies as Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, WebSearch, MSN, The Weather Channel, etc? The list of these toolbars goes on and on. When I work on my client’s computers, sometimes I see five or six toolbars on the same browser window. The toolbars are actually taking up a third of the space. Most of the time, the client doesn’t use them and has no idea how they got there. Once in a great while, I find someone who actually uses one of these bars. The annoying part of it is that most of the time, they sneak on. These toolbars are mostly marketing. Somebody is getting paid to get you to use them. So, how do they get on your computer? The usual scenario is that you have downloaded a free program and done a Standard Install. The way to control what’s happening is to do a Custom Install. With the Custom Install you step through several screens that give you choices. With free software, most of the time one of these screens will ask for permission to install a toolbar, change your home page or change your default browser. All you have to do is remove the checkmarks or choose no. Sometimes when downloading programs, you’ll get a choice between running the installation from the web site and saving the installation file to your hard drive. You should always choose to save the file and do the install from your PC. Otherwise, you may not have an opportunity to choose the Custom Install. Also, it’s good to have the install file just in case you have to run the installation twice. If you’re actually using one of these toolbars, you should still get rid of the ones you don’t use. There are two approaches. In Internet Explorer, just right click in the menu area. The menu that comes up will list all toolbars installed on your PC. The active ones will have a checkmark in the menu. Just click on the check marked item and the toolbar will close. Use this method if you might want to use the bar later. If you’re sure you’ll never use it (which is most of the time), go to Control Panel, Add Remove Programs and uninstall the toolbar program. It’s that simple. There are quite a few free programs that are worthwhile and the software companies can’t stay in business if they can’t monetize it somehow. The toolbars are one way they do it. Still, for the future, you’ll have better control if you always do Custom Installs. 2010 Newsletter Articles January CES 2010 Medical CES 2010 Power (green, chargers) CES 2010 E-Book Readers Crabby Office Lady - All Versions Of MS Office Can Play Nice BlueAnt BlueTooth Q1 Wireless Review Word - Understanding Smart Cut & Paste Excel - Relative Worksheet References when Copying Computer Outlook Talk Show Business, Skills Training Is a Never Ending Process Smart Computing - magicJack review Find It Online Targus Chill Hub XC Review Southwest Computer Conference 2009 February March CES Projectors CES Accessories Audio Networking Printers TV Extensions Smart Computing: What to do when you can’t uninstall a program Crabby Office Lady’s Favorite Office Quizzes Daniusoft Media Converter Ultimate Review Kidz Gear - Headphones Review Diskeeper 2010 Professional Review Verbatim PhotoSave BackUp Review O’Reilly Books Are Best Review Corel Photo & Video Bundle Review Word Tips - Using Shading to Highlight Information and Inserting The Number of Pages in Your Document Excel Tips - Using the IF Worksheet Function and Quickly Updating Values April File Recovery Programs Daniusoft Video Converter Free Shopping Sites Right job, wrong program? Crabby helps out Smart Computing - Transfer Your Outlook Express Address Book Microsoft Word - Mixing Column Formats On a Page Microsoft Excel - Deleting a Hyperlink Boomers Plus Free PC Utilities from Piriform Software Things That You Can Do With That Flash Drive May Southwest Computer Conference 2010 The Social Media Marketing Book The Crabby Office Lady - Outlook and Outlook Express Google Books Remove Resistant Malware Free With Bootable CDs Soluto Anti-Frustration Software Improves Boot Time Rebit SaveMe Backup Review Computer Speed, RAM and Virtual Memory Smart Computing Tips and Their Most Common Tech Calls Excel Tip - Counting Unique Values Microsoft Word Tip - Finding Related Words Free Programs Hang Ten - Search Engines Speed Demons June PCMover Essentials Review Crabby’s guide to Outlook profiles versus e-mail accounts MS Word Tip: Printing More Than One Copy MS Excel tip: Counting Cells with Specific Characters Smart Computing Browse Your Way To Better Health Microsoft Offers Free Online Version of Office Music-- Capture it, Organize it and Enjoy it Hard Drives, Connectors, Performance and You Genealogy Online Two views of Microsoft Security Essentials Hints for the Wannabe Blogger . What are RSS Feeds? July Be a top chef with Office templates from the Crabby Office Lady MS Word Tip - Inserting a Non-Breaking Hyphen Excel Tip - Indenting Cell Contents USB Graphics Adapter Review Wolfram AlphaKnowledge Free Utilities from CPUID Hints for the Wannabe Blogger A Tale of Two Printers, a Scanner and a CD Drive Smart Computing Mag Tips and Online Calendars Make Firefox Even Better The Slickdeals Approach to Cable Company Negotiations Converting Slides to Digital August Tips for Managing Stress at Work Slowing Down Mouse Selection Defining Shortcut Keys For Symbols Watch Free TV on Your PC? Another “Free TV” Utility Smart Computing - What’s On(line)? Stretch Printer Cartridges Best Windows Shortcuts Virtual Magnifying Glass Snagit 10 review Zen & the Magic of Photography September October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month Save $$$ on College Textbooks. Dealing with jokes, rumors, and spam Smart Computing Article - Creating PDFs and tips Interesting Press Releases Housewide Storage (NAS) Charge Anywhere & Power Smart Wall Magic Wand Scanner Controlling the Display of Page Breaks In Excel Searching for Paragraph Formatting in Word Windows 7 Live Photo Gallery October - November Space the Final Frontier ClearCloud Control All Functions in Windows 7 with “God Mode” Free Online Scanners Detect and Remove Malware Crabby demystifies Excel terms Clean Your Hard Drive of Junk Files and Improve Performance LiberKey - Free Programs Run From a Flash Drive Technology – 2010 in Review Smart Computing Tips   Our Most Common Tech Calls What To Do When You Can’t  Access A Web Site Word Tips - Replacing Text with a Graphic and Inserting the Template Name in Your Document Excel Tips - Totaling Across Worksheets and Using the CONCATENATE Worksheet Function Discoverying Windows 7 Stickies: Another Useful Utility Interesting Press Releases Website Discoveries Control Panel Managing (and Deleting) web browser toolbars Membership application or renewal Form Annual membership is only $20.00. 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