of FCUG - Fairfield County Computer User Group
Contents
1. Bill s Bumblings No 43 Pascal Bill Hart Three pages on Chaos including program listing Your CONFIG SYS and AUTOEXEC BAT Barry Simon From Compuserve s IBM Forum with permission Eight plus pages Using a Menu Shell Aaron Bisberg One plus pages FCUG August 1 1989 Program Building Your Own Computer Spencer Heath Shareware Topic Family Edge Ed Neyland Q amp A Director Tony DiMeglio aonen o0oO000 Because your Reporter was unable to attend the July meeting there will only be a description of the proceedings if YOU can email something to the Editor Thanks in advance Gluestions and Answers From the January 2009 issue of Bits PCs and Macs the journal of the Sun City Anthem Computer Club of Henderson NV The first question being concerned with the organization of the Sun City Anthem club itself has been omitted here Question For several years now my Windows XP Professional system has had a Show Desktop icon in the QuickLaunch area of the toolbar Recently I have noticed that it is missing Now that I am aware I miss it dearly How can I recover this little gem Answer I have found that it is faster for me to simply press and hold the Windows logo key and press the letter D on the keyboard If you still would like to have the icon on the quick launch area follow the instructions on this page http support microsoft com kb 190355 If yo2. Question Last week at the Club s Question amp Answer session someone asked about Revo Uninstaller As I wasn t paying attention what is it or was it Answer It is a program that is presumably capable of uninstalling programs that the operating system s Uninstall function cannot This is usually caused by corrupted installation files You may experience this when trying to install an updated version and the installation comes to a grinding halt due to the corrupted file The situation is that you can t install it so that you can uninstall it I normally use the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility to address this problem don t use it for Microsoft Office 2007 http support microsoft com kb 290301 However when using the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility be careful only to process the program against the specific program that is causing the problem Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer However it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation upgrade or uninstall over Microsoft KB Article 290301 With all of that stated the description of the Revo Uninstaller certainly makes one believe that it may be just the ticket You may download it here http www revouninstaller com I haven t used it so I can t say how easy it is to use nor can I attest to its reliability and safety Question I have just begun using Microsoft O
3. Y all reboot now y hear Engineers in Alabama develop the BUI Bubba User Interface etl nme ECU Journal of the Fairfield County Computer Users Group BOARD MEMBERS Ed Fitzgerald Lenny Bloom Bea Mull Ed Congleton Charles Bryk Dick Booth Art Bettauer Lynn Bloom Jane Wiese John Sponza J im Sullivan Bill Hart Ed Fitzgerald 280 Main Street Westport CT 06880 First Class Mail To The VOICE OF FCUG is a publication of the Fairfield County Computer Users Group Inc Permission to reprint is granted for non commercial and non profit users Credit is appreciated Newsletter prepared using OpenOffice 3 1 0 under SuSE Linux 10 3 on an eMachines et1161 03 64 bit computer and printed by Paul s Prosperous Printing Wilton CT 06897 Telephone 203 834 1962
4. essence He will also discuss the benefits of electronic medical records vs hand written charts In addition we will get a tour and briefing of the server facilities in the IT Dept The meeting will begin at 7 PM in the Richard Perkin Auditorium near the Hospital entrance Use the visitor parking lot for easy access Please join us for this presentation by a very dynamic enthusiastic member of the Norwalk Hospital team At the end of the meeting those who wish can join us at Uncle Joe s in Broad River Route 123 for Pizza and refreshments Meet at the auditorium inside the front door of Norwalk Hospital on the left as you enter LOOKIN FOR A RIDE If anybody who wants to attend meetings has a transport problem please mention it and together we will look for a solution You can also _ contact Membership Chairman Lynn Bloom 203 380 9306 or lennyb2 optonline net She can tell you who lives near you or might pass by on their way THE WAY WE WERE AUGUST 1989 President Aaron Bisberg et Vice President Herman Parks z Secretary Taylor Vincent Treasurer Ed Congleton Editor Alan Abrahamson TBBS System Operator John Krause Printed by Technical Reproductions Inc a R TAHT CCCCUOCO CU Gia Something for Everyone Roger Giler Two pages on Backup Compression and Other Goodies Ethics Morality Pride are these lost George Saladino Two pages on paying for shareware
5. friend s XP computer refused to open Firefox It had also become very slow Registry cleaning and deletion of unnecessary temporary files found no solution to either problem Then it was noticed on opening the Task Manager Ctrl Alt Del on the desktop that Firefox had opened not among the Applications but with the system processes In fact it was running more than once there and hogging all the facilities The speed problem was solved by closing all the hidden Firefoxes This also explained why on closing the system one on occasion saw a message that Firefox was still busy although it was not on the desktop Several attempts were made to get it to open properly and a Web exploration was made for solutions It seemed nobody had noticed Firefox running as a process Finally the entire folder at Documents and Settings username Application Data Mozilla was replaced with that from another user who had not had trouble problem solved though not properly diagnosed If you know the proper solution please let me know 0 000 0 PROGRAM FOR 28TH JULY 2009 Joint Meeting with the Connecticut PC Users Group CTPC at Norwalk Hospital David Casceillo Director Client Support in the IT Dept will review steps being taken to implement electronic record keeping systems in order to improve patient care He will show how physicians and other Hospital personnel use computers for instant access to patient records when time is of the
6. Volume 30 No 3 Contents The Editor s Desk e e Program The Way We Were August 1989 Questions and Answers Chuck Davis What shall I do with my old computer Bill Hart Word Processing Choices John White 14 Meeting 7 30 pm 28th July at Norwalk Hospital BOILERPLATE The Voice of FCUG is the monthly newsletter of the Fairfield County Computer Users Group Inc a registered non profit organization dedicated to helping members use their PC computers Non commercial and non profit users are free to copy or quote material herein proper credit and sending a copy of the publication to the Editor would be appreciated Members can exchange ideas and opinions through this newsletter at a monthly meeting held the first Tuesday of most months at occasional SIG programs and on a bulletin board reached from the Club Internet Web site at www fcug org Meetings and SIG groups are open to the public Membership costs 30 Yr prorated For information and payment contact Ed Congleton Treasurer 203 966 4854 251 Weed Street New Canaan CT 06840 To submit articles or letters for The Voice send an e mail message to wdhart attglobal net hopefully with article attached or mail paper or even a diskette in ASCII Word or WordPerfect format to The Voice 280 Main Street Westport CT 06880 THE EDITOR S DESK Had an interesting problem the other day and devised a dangerously simple solution A
7. aonen o0oO000 Big error Youreally screwed up this time What else is new It s my first day idbytes INUX continues to improve If you want X to try it one version to aim for might be N Mandriva 2009 Spring at www Mandriva com en download free You have an immediate decision to make KDE4 or Gnome Choose KDE4 for a GUI display not unlike Wndows which should make you feel more at home Or be more adventurous and choose Gnome Either way you will download a CD size ISO file Burn it to a CD then boot from that and you can test Mandriva Linux without affecting your hard drive It won t be the fastest system on the block run this way because everything has to found on the CD but it will be able to do everything the installed version does AND it can be installed via an icon on the desktop if you want to but be prepared to release some disk space for this of course ne reason I mention this version run it on your laptop and you should be able to use WiFi to connect to your router as you can with Windows these days I have it on mine and it is a lot safer on the Internet than any version of Windows Have fun Or I forgot Linux will set up a dual boot multi loader for you if you do install it Here s a picture of my laptop initial screen for example mandriva My HP laptop runs Vista Home Premium and Vista has a built in program to release disk space and create more partitions I wen
8. by Greg Shultz writing on the TechRepublic blog site http tinyurl com 7fpjlh Question I have just set up my Windows Vista computer to use Dragon Naturally Speaking I m having a problem setting the microphone volume to a level that the computer can recognize my dictation How can I adjust the setting Answer Go to the Control Panel and click on the Sound applet When the dialog J Sound Playback Recording Sounds Select a recording device below to modify its settings Microphone ek High ra Line In z Hid Digitalin Aicropha E f Change Icon Controller information Realtek High Definition Audio Properties Jack Information Configure LR Rear Panel 3 5 mm lack box opens click on the Recording tab Click on Microphone and click on Properties Now in the dialog box that opens click on the Levels tab Adjust the levels to suit your situation Click OK OK OK Make sure that your voice is recorded in a manner that is satisfactory If not repeat the process Since I don t use a microphone I can t suggest settings for the levels Question I have a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium How can I use TweakUI Answer Bluntly you can t It isn t compatible with Vista Even though I haven t used it you can try the new TweakVI You can download it here http Ainyurl com 3hmz81 A suggestion for you If you use it please write a review for publication in this newsletter
9. e numbers Oddly enough the insertable Asian character set includes angle brackets printer dingbats Western math symbols plus cm kg km and copyright c You may still have to wangle an invitation to Gmail if Google is still playing hard to get with this powerful email storage service Free http docs google com Microsoft Works Older versions required hop skip and jump trips through menus to reach an otherwise inviting word processor with usable templates for home and school use Works 8 5 came on my laptop a year ago but some Vista machines reportedly include version 9 of Works employing a full version of MSWord although the MS Web site was somewhat vague about this Version 8 5 s word processor looks like Word Lite It includes the ability to open its own wps format and its wpt templates nice as well as Word and other formats such as rtf txt csv and html Forget about xml odf or MS Office 2007 s own docx Works offers a friendly and capable database a spreadsheet calendar and dictionary as well Version 8 5 is under 10 at http store purplus net miwo85 html Mindomo As a preliminary for individual or group writing this program calling itself an Online Mind Mapping Process offers a free visual organizer to clarify and plan the writing process Your turn http www mindomo com Notepad The built in Windows plain text editor makes a type minimalist HTML editor with clean unformatted code Not a
10. ee download to install http www openoffice org Thinkfree Online To me it s ThinkLoser and forget the free part This is was supposedly a free online suite with an optional Premium version Reputable media mentioned its limited beta offering was as early as December 2006 with cost estimates of 5 to 10 a month Earlier this week April 15 a Web search at Avant listed Broderbund as 1 among many download sources but that link seized up both times I tried it Reaching Broderbund by a different route I found the installable not online Windows only version for 44 95 After 20 minutes or more trying to download register and fire it up the free one elsewhere on the Web after email verifications etc plus two more crashes amid various notices about what to do if downloading and installing failed in a variety of ways I admitted failure and uninstalled it Just before giving up I had semi installed and managed to find a Thinkfree screen claiming this to be the best office suite on earth If so earth is in trouble besides just growing warmer Other screens apparently accessed their word processing spreadsheet and presentation software but never revealed any way to actually create a file using any of those choices Two teases seemed promising at first Search and collaboration Since I had not yet created a document it was no surprise that searching for one proved to be a dead end With nothing yet in prod
11. ffice Outlook 2007 I have entered all of my contacts and want to start a group listing my contractor contacts I can t seem to create a group Can you answer in blonde language please Answer Lets start by calling the groups by their correct name Distribution Lists Open Outlook choose New gt Distribution List from the File drop down menu Then place the name of your distribution list in the Name field Then click on the Select Members icon on the task bar Enter the name of a contractor in the Search box When the contractor that you want appears and is selected press Enter on the keyboard Without doing anything else start typing the name of the second contractor that you wish to place in the list When the contractor appears again press Enter on the keyboard Repeat as desired When finished click OK Now click on the Save and Close icon on the taskbar Outlook will allow hundreds or even thousands I really don t know the max of contacts in a single distribution list However your ISP check with your ISP or the receiving server owners i e AOL and Yahoo might shut you down for spamming Question Do you recommend a program to optimize PC operations I saw one yesterday RegCure that found a bunch of so called errors when I ran step one Before I pay money and have it auto fix these I thought I would get an opinion on the program I presume that you have one can you let me know Answer The majority of M
12. g to deal with it please try it and give us your reaction to Buzzword Free download required http Avwww buzzword com Flysuite This one promotes itself as an online alternative to Word and Excel that focuses on document collaboration When I went to their Web site my Comodo firewall filled the lower right quarter of the screen with warnings about blocked URLS an all time record That sounded too much an attack of potential bad guys and I stopped right there Any braver soul care to report on Flysuite Free http www flysuite com Google Docs beta A new offline version exists but in an even earlier beta stage Despite my awe for the quality and variety of many offerings from Google Docs beta online doesn t make the list It seems to drive a middle lane between lightweight and lame I see no reason to use it yet instead of Abiword or even Wordpad to create a new file Any other users care to point out advantages too subtle for me to spot To get there enter your Gmail account name and password Click on NEW gt Document or spreadsheet presentation or folder and go to work Don t look for rulers tabs or even clues about WordArt mail merge or even clues how to send the document as an email or attachment A limited selection of insertable special characters offers barebones Wingdings but not Monotype Sorts or any other favorite character sources You can insert other special characters if you know their Unicod
13. gletons to install on the hard disk Some serve in a suite of apps including a spreadsheet to run live via the Internet Most online versions I viewed still manifest hurdles to leap before they reach maturity Two installable versions of MS Office alternatives however rival the Gates products in impressive ways Abiword Although Microsoft s Wordpad performs at least half of the writing tasks most of us do Abiword is installed on my four Windows computers It will do 98 of what I ask of a word wrangler Placing a tiny icon on the Quick Launch menu just to the right of the Start button provides this fast loading capable program in easy reach The native file format abw works equally in Abi s versions for Linux and Mac OS X but there is also an easy drop down option to save in doc rtf txt html xhtml and other formats Abi is a favorite alternate of some of ICON s leaders Free download http www abiword com The latest version is 2 6 2 Buzzword Adobe s offering self described as The First Real Word Processor for the Web even though it s not requires 1 a sign up and password 2 and says We re sorry JavaScript must be enabled in order to use Buzzword I m sorry too If a program requires JavaScript ActiveX Flash or Internet Explorer I can live without it The world is dangerous enough without them and my life is already too exciting Ah so little time and so many other choices If someone is willin
14. has been declared a basket case and must have the operating system restored to Factory shipped condition CCleaner is intended to clean off left over fragments of unused programs that didn t uninstall correctly clean up accumulated temporary files etc It was not intended to clean up a clean as shipped computer A new computer will have none of that Some things that I usually do for a new computer setup as a House Call volunteer I do this at home when the member will allow his her new toy to be taken away 1 Uninstall Adobe reader versions older than Version 9 2 Install Adobe Reader Version 9 3 If the user has no intention of paying for the 60 day trial version of Microsoft Office I recommend that it be uninstalled I will suggest that OpenOffice org be installed as it has virtually the same function with no cost 4 If the user wants to continue using Microsoft Office I set up Windows Update to include other Microsoft updates 5 If the user agrees to the installation of OpenOffice org then I also uninstall Microsoft Works if present 6 With the user s permission I uninstall the Internet Security program that is included whether it is Norton McAfee Trend Micro or what and install a AVG Anti Virus Anti Spyware http free avg com there will be many attempts to get you to buy the priced version but don t fall for it b With Windows Vista and a router firewall no other security software is needed in a ho
15. icrosoft MVP Most Valuable Persons recommend using no Registry programs I haven t heard of RegCure but if it found a slew of errors and you must buy it to remove them it is not a valid product in my mind and I would avoid it like a plague This quote is typical of posts on the various newsgroups and forums 1 got Reg Cure and all it did was take my money No difference in the performance of my machine at all My wallet is emptier by 29 00 and geting sic ahold of the company that makes it is impossible unless you want to snail mail them in Canada Included in the list of don t install are RegSeeker Registry Mechanic WiseCleaner I generally will run CCleaner only when all other methods of fixing a computer has brought me to the point of reinstalling the Operating System a basket case a very long and tedious project On some computers CCleaner worked However from the computers that I have worked on during the past few months I would guess that your computer is suffering from lack of adequate RAM memory With Windows XP and Service Pack 3 the minimum recommended RAM is 512MB If you have less than that I suggest installing additional memory sticks Question I have a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium I would like to clean up the crap that is installed I wonder if CCleaner is the correct program for this Answer As stated above the only time I use CCleaner is on a computer that
16. le menu Export as PDF as one choice at file saving time A menu button also offers the same feature It rapidly creates and saves the file directly instead of sending it to a printer menu as Adobe s expensive version requires Logically enough page formatting choices are found in the TA DA Format drop down menu instead of the File menu I especially like the E mail as Microsoft Word button on my customized toolbar I ll use that one in a few minutes to send this file to Ira Although a paid for version with telephone help is available as StarOffice from Sun Microsystems for under 70 this free version is supported by a worldwide community of volunteer programmers and forumdwellers The suite includes equivalent programs for Excel and PowerPoint a capable database and a drawing program all accessible from the File gt New menu in OpenOffice Writer In place of Microsoft Publisher in the premium priced MS Office suite the free open source Scribus may be satisfactory http Avww scribus net The native OOW file format odt is widely employed around the world conforming to the standard used in Europe and other ISO countries This file type crosses platforms to work in Windows Linux and Mac OS X OOW also opens and saves in doc txt rtf xml html plus several more formats including Microsoft s psw for Pocket Word I have had better success with OOW opening and editing older Word documents than with MS Office 2007 Fr
17. ll users know there are font and word wrap options available To check it those capabilities go to Start Accessories Notepad Format OpenOffice Writer This article is being written with version 2 4 It retains a few minor quirks and inconveniences compared with MS Word 2000 XP or 2003 plus some decided advantages For example if the squiggly red line under correctly spelled terms missing from its dictionaries bothers you UNclick the ABC button on the top of the screen the one with a wavy red line At any point click its mate ABC above a blue check mark and manually check spelling However there is not button for the thesaurus Call it up instead with Control F7 You can also check in Czech or Nepali as well as more common tongues The default language list supplies three flavors of English and three of German but none of French or Spanish More 79 other language dictionaries are downloadable or under development I switch between OpenOffice Writer or switer exe and Word depending on the task OOW saves keystrokes by remembering recently typed words and inserting them in white letters amid blue bands after one types just a few of the word s letters To accept its suggestion after starting a word tap ENTER and keep typing To ignore it instead just type on Users of Excel will recognize and appreciate this option OpenOffice outdoes Word in WYSIWYG cropping of inserted pictures For a long time OO has offered in the Fi
18. mail protocols Outlook Express supports Microsoft s proprietary HTTP WebDAV protocol However that is being phased out and replaced with Microsoft s Proprietary HTTP Deltasync mail protocol Outlook Express has been unsupported as a dead product for the past six years That is why it is no longer bundled with Internet Explorer 7 Question I use Windows Vista Ultimate I have never turned off the User Access Control feature However I have noticed recently that I have a Yahoo Tool Bar on my Internet Explorer browser I have never clicked Continue to allow its installation How did that resource hog get installed Answer The human engineering folks have been at it again You among hundreds of thousands of others didn t notice the little check box that said to install it on installing an update to Java Even if you don t notice it the Yahoo Tool Bar is installed with your OK When making house calls for your Computer Club I have found that most member s have never used the Yahoo Tool Bar or the Google Tool Bar for that matter If you don t use them their overhead when opening your browser is wasted To remove them in Windows XP go to the Control Panel click on the Add or Remove Programs applet scroll down to either program select it and click on the Change Remove button On Windows Vista go to the Control Panel click on Programs and Features apple and scroll to the program click on it and then click on the word Unins
19. me environment Windows Defender is included c Note If Norton has been uninstalled I always run the Norton Removal Tool http tinyurl com czn3ww d If McAfee has been uninstalled I always run the McAfee Removal Tool MCPR exe http Atinyurl com mzk9 7 There is a program called PC Decrapifier that will quickly list items that could should be removed and will do so without further work on your part AOL Games Yahoo Toolbar Google Tool bar etc http www pcdecrapifier com node 159 You will want to check the list to make sure that you want all of the items offered to be removed 8 Ialso download and install the latest iTunes and QuickTime from Apple http www apple com downloads Question A couple of months ago you suggested that I use Windows Mail for my news reader Now when I open Window Mail I get my e mail messages I would rather that they are downloaded from the server into Microsoft Office Outlook How can I change this undesirable action Answer Open Window Mail choose Accounts from the Tools drop down menu Click on the e mail account and choose Remove Click Close Question On my Windows XP computer with all updates applied Outlook Express doesn t work with AOL and Hotmail What e mail programs does Outlook Express work with Answer First AOL and Hotmail are not e mail programs They are more appropriately called e mail services Outlook Express works with any e mail service that supports POP IMAP and SMTP
20. n to saving the environment is something that is of utmost importance to National Computer Liquidators While our main focus is purchasing used equipment from large companies what happens to the unusable equipment is critical as well All equipment we receive is resold donated or recycled When we say computer recycling we mean it Equipment that has no value is actually shredded and then separated into its most basic component materials that will then be refined and reused to make new products Nothing is sent to landfills or put back into the environment in a hazardous way So if you want to be sure your equipment will be properly recycled you could do worse than see if they are interested in your small offering Computers With Causes www computerswithcauses org will accept donations over the Internet Exactly how that works I leave you to discover Check it out The EPA has information on proper disposal and facilities at each state Look at www epa gov waste conserve materials ecycling index htm for more than you ever wanted to know And they have a page specifically designed to answer the question emblazoned across its top Where Can I Donate or Recycle My Old Computer and Other Electronic Products It is at www epa gov waste conserve materials ecycling donate htm Since this has more information than I could ever get into a single article in the Voice I suspect this is as good a point as any to stop and let you browse on
21. ng somebody also said that the Danbury Club performs a similar service I asked anyone with ideas or information to send it to the Voice so that we could write this article I got a few responses but nothing on Danbury And my attempts to learn more by visiting the Danbury website www dacs org have so far proved fruitless So I cannot confirm this story Dick Booth read a story in the Norwalk Citizen and sent the following quotation from their issue of 22 May If you have computers and or peripherals outdated due to upgrading that you wish to donate contact Computers for Guatemala that provides computers for the education of Maya Children Call Donald Livingston at 202 655 2362 or visit this website www computersforguatemala org or email livy5300 aol com The Make a Wish Foundation will also accept computers though a quick reading seems to show that they are only interested in new ones which may not answer your needs Anyway there is only one location for this organization in Connecticut website www ct wish org Make a Wish Foundation of Connecticut 126 Monroe Turnpike Trumbull CT 06611 Phone 203 261 9044 Fax 203 268 2168 Toll Free 877 203 9474 E Mail conn ct wish org and to donate a computer the site is http donate wish org donate computer With a leaning to the business disposer National Computer Liquidators www nationalcomputerliquidators com can be reached at 877 625 4872 They say Our contributio
22. our Windows installation It opens and saves in Unicode rtf and the older MS DOS txt format but not Word s doc It comes with bolding italics and underlining of installed Windows fonts in colors a horizontal ruler with adjustable margins and tabs and a single bullet style but no numbering button or mail merge It is a good emergency word processor if the missing features aren t needed for the project at hand Start gt Accessories gt Wordpad WordPerfect X3 One can pay the full retail price of several hundred dollars but at http www royaldiscount com corel html it is 82 94 I prefer the OEM version for 18 46 with free shipping for either version The current X3 suite contains a powerful customizable word processor compatible with MSOffice Its Quattro Pro spreadsheet matches Excel quite nicely A graphics drawing application and Presentations either its native mode or in PowerPoint mode The word processor offers to work in MS Word style native WP X3 style or older versions back to 5 1 All these apps play nicely with MS formats Zoho I admit to saving the best for the last Zoho wins my prize as winner among online word processors All the integrated application elements of Zoho s suite employ similar enough interfaces and working styles so that users of Office version through 2003 will either recognize or master them quickly I wish Microsoft Office 2007 had been designed by Zoho This suite connects many well presen
23. t auctions How about donating your old machine The Westchester PC Club has very commendably a group of volunteers who will accept unwanted fairly recent computers check them out refurbish where necessary and give them to charities and other deserving souls The box below contains part of the announcement on their website visit it at http wpcug org index html PC Renew Westchester PC Renew IA project of WPCUG we rebuild used computers and provide them free to groups in the community who can t afford to purchase new ones HOW CAN YOU HELP 1 Donate Your Old Equipment We need donations of used computers with at least a 1GHz Pentium III or equivalent AMD processor We provide an IRS tax letter for your contribution Call to learn if we can take your computer and arrange for a drop off 2 Donate Your Time You can also donate time You don t have to be a computer expert but you must be a member of WPCUG Come to Stepinac High School 950 Mamaroneck Avenue White Plains in the basement Electronics Lab Learn how to rebuild computers We ll teach you The times and dates are in the calendar section and you can find a map here HOW CAN WE HELP YOU Get a Refurbished Computer If you are a Public or not for profit organization you should use this application to let us know how we can help you NEED TO CONTACT PC RENEW Call 914 946 5511 ext 2 or e mail wpcrenew optonline net for more information At the meeti
24. t to Control Panel System and Maintenance Administrative Tools Computer Management Disk Management and set up two new partitions one about 4GB and one about 17 GB With the HP Recovery partition that made four primary partitions which is the maximum The smaller one is used by Linux as Swap Space the larger contains the files It may seem small but remember that Linux can access all your Windows storage space as well even though Windows will not even be able to show you these partitions exist So you can save your word processor output with your other documents for example those created by a Redmond product ARNING Microsoft NEVER send you a patch message with a direct link to As the patch Instead they give you an address to what Susan Bradley of Windows Watch refers to as a bulletin landing page Recently hackers have been sending false messages about patches to Outlook and Outlook Express ostensibly from Redmond DO NOT TOUCH THEM If you do you will end up with some very nasty malware You have been warned http windowssecrets com comp 090702 aone ooO00 Word Processing Choices from A Z reatty John White From The November 2008 ICON Graphic Newsletter of ICON PC User Group Inc www iconpcug org editor at iconpcug org Besides the venerable Microsoft Word and WordPerfect an array of word processing applications both cheap and free is vast and growing rapidly Some are freestanding sin
25. tall Follow the dialog box prompts Question I have a friend with Windows Vista Home Premium She says that she can t find the Disk Defragmenter program I am still using Windows XP What can I tell her Answer Windows Vista defragments the disk whenever the system is idle Your friend doesn t need to do anything regarding disk fragmentation ever Question I have QuickBooks Pro 2007 on my Windows Vista Home Premium computer I have started to operate my company in a second country and of course have to deal with multiple currencies How can I handle this Answer First order or download QuickBooks Pro 2009 This is the first domestic release to enable multiple currencies Second because this feature will be absolutely new to QuickBooks users there is a QuickBooks Simple Start Wiki http tinyurl com b49c2u The site begins with a statement This wiki is your area to learn and share your knowledge with others Think of the wiki as a practical user manual one that is written by small business owners and people who use QuickBooks every day In other words write our manual for us Certainly a big difference from the days when the software manufacturer published large manuals that were shipped with the products that later found their way into the landfills around the world Initially the manuals were replaced by the Help functions included with the various software distributions In my opinion the Wiki will eventually find i
26. ted applications in a style that handles like a nimble sports car instead of a ponderous featuremobile It displays obvious buttons and tools export publish options including PDF offline options after one installs Google Gears a stunning array of accessible and complementary features spreadsheet blogger chat notebook The Voice of FCUG Page 18 August 2009 planner mail database creator and reporter conferencing wiki editor project manager CRM and contact manager plus others Even if Help seems a bit elusive the buttons and menus provide intuitive answers better than traditional encyclopedia type help I found no reference to mail merge but the other word processing feature set is both complete and readily at hand Spell check tables bulleted lists tags as folders comments and collaboration features seems to be exceptionally friendly I have just started using this impressive suite so an in depth evaluation will have to wait About John White John has taught word processing and spreadsheets for a dozen years at New Horizons Manhattan Dowling College NY Tech and BOCES This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups all other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above aone o0oO00 Durn It O x This Dog Won t Hunt Son you got more trouble than a squirrel on an eight lane highway
27. ts way into the Help functions but in the meantime the Wiki is the way to go Intuit has had great success with its QuickBooks forums by dumping its service work on the backs of volunteers that provide thousands of helpful answers to users questions annually Question My computer is beginning to slow down This happens only when opening Microsoft Office Word 2002 I write about 3 000 words a day At the present time I have over 1 000 documents which range in size from about 25 KB to over 20 000 KB 99 are not actively used Otherwise my computer is a whiz My question is this slowness caused by too many large files Answer No You didn t state the size of your hard drive and more importantly the amount of unused space on that drive The reason that I mention that is that I can think of only a few things that might be causing your problem 1 Installed RAM is less than 1GB 2 A lack of hard drive space may be limiting your Virtual memory and 3 you may need to defragment your hard drive If you haven t backed up your documents to an external hard drive do it as soon as you possibly can Happiness is a recent backup when your computer fails wonen o0oO00 What shall J do with mp old computer Bill Hart The question came up at a recent club meeting how should I best dispose of old computer equipment There are small quantities of valuable metals poisonous materials and other things in most of our machines If you still
28. u find that keyboard short cut to your liking there are many others that are applicable to Windows XP here quite frankly most apply to Windows Vista http support microsoft com kb 301583 Question Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been out for some time but I have delayed installing it due to the problems associated with it Has its quality improved to where I can now install it Answer Service Pack 3 SP3 is exactly the same today as when it was released The following two situations seem to be the major roadblocks to installing SP3 Neither point to errors in the Microsoft code 1 If you have a Compaq or HP desktop computer that also has an AMD processor Turn off Automatic updates If this is too late and your computer has gone bananas restart in Safe mode by repeatedly pressing the F8 key on start up Go to the Control Panel and double click Add or Remove Programs Select Service Pack and Remove The computer will be restored to the prior condition Then fix the problem before continuing A former Microsoft Manager offers a free fix for this problem see the eighth bullet item here http tinyurl com 6zs52d Please be aware there is free unlimited installation and compatibility support available for Windows XP but only for Service Pack 3 SP3 This support for SP3 is valid until April 14 2009 http tinyurl com 6cw2xk If you haven t installed SP3 I suggest that you do so soon or the support will expire I have successf
29. uction by me or anyone I know its collaboration had even less utility Next I searched in Templates achieving my only Thinkfree success sort of I typed letter in the template search box and got five letter templates or something The first didn t seem to be a letter template at all but was a document about how to use Haitian expressions The other four were in Asian languages using characters I cannot read To be fair to Thinkfree I ve copied and pasted below their exact message and boldfacing Since I never reached the Sync Cache folder they describe I wish you better luck than mine if you care to try it No date for the new version or demise of the older one was mentioned If you have purchased TF Premium store the receipt with your Enron stock certificates Microsoft needn t worry about this competitor We will be launching My Office and providing a new version of ThinkFree Office You will no longer be able to use the old version which is called ThinkFree Premium as of that time You will be using our new integrated ThinkFree Online service after installation Please remove Sync Cache folder before you proceed installing the new version of ThinkFree Office Location and Instructions for removing the sync folder For Windows C Documents and Settings account MyDocuments TFSync For Mac Users account Documents TFSync For Linux home account TFSync Wordpad This little brother of MS Word comes free with y
30. ully used the Individual chat support several times 2 Symantec users should switch off the SymProtect feature before trying to install XP SP3 http Ainyurl com Skqw5w Personally I would replace the Symantec software with either AVG or Avast Both have free versions AVG http tinyurl com 4mw3vt Scroll down and click on the Download button at the left bottom of the three columns Avast http tinyurl com 8z9h5 Question I spend a lot of time on the QuickBooks forums assisting others with problems using the product When I am using the Firefox browser and type the word QuickBooks it is always shown as misspelled How can I add it to the Firefox spellcheck dictionary Answer If you are certain that the word is spelled correctly right click on the word and choose Add to Dictionary Question I have recently added some new hardware and accompanying software to my Windows Vista computer Following their install I occasionally get strange lock up situations At first I blamed malware and ran scans with Spybot Search amp Destroy and Malware Bytes Anti Malware Nothing was reported by either What could be the problem Answer It could possibly be untested by Microsoft drivers causing the problem You could uninstall the products to see if the problem goes away or you could use Microsoft s Driver Verifier Manager that is included in Vista For a more through description and a detailed set of instructions see this article
31. use a cathode ray tube for your monitor it contains highly poisonous fluorescent materials inside which make it dangerous simply to smash it with a hammer and crush it into your garbage can Many towns now have special days set aside for collection of hazardous waste which can include our rejected equipment as well as old paints oils varnishes and the like So you could simply stack everything up until the next time your town has one of these days I have also been known to take old machines down to the town dump and leave them on one side where when I did this I found several others already present along with old television sets which The Voice of FCUG Page 11 August 2009 may well be clogging our facilities shortly now the transmission technique has been altered by law I assume these will be passed on to the right place for recycling not simply planted in some dumpsite in the forlorn hope that they will sprout But it can happen that what we no longer consider usable could with maybe a little tweaking make a wonderful present for somebody else At one time this club had an annual auction at which we could get rid of our junk but it turned out after a few years that we were all pretty well on the same wavelength as far as junk was concerned so there were many sellers and no buyers not a good prerequisite for an auction Also they were AUCTIONS which implied that what was on offer was worth something to other members So forge
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