Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house,

lights flashed on the tower and even the mouse.

The Webcams were ready, installed with great care.
In hopes that grandkids would be virtually there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of computer games danced in their heads;
Mamma in her rocker, a tablet on her lap.

To check Santa’s route on Norads’ tracking map.
Last minute shopping, I knew it would matter,

Receipts from the printer were spit with a clatter.

The e-mails and texts began to beep and flash,
Away to the laptop I flew in a dash,
An e-mail from Santa, I pulled from the cache.

The sleigh was loaded, the springs sitting low
Boxes of computer games, only kids know.

Zombie Tycoon 2 for Tommy, Angry Birds for Sue,

Xbox, Wii, Playstation and Nintendo too.

Neither Mamma nor I had Santa forgot,

A wireless keyboard and mouse in the lot.

From a webcam mounted some far away place

An image so small, across the screen it did race.

What could it be I wondered, what would appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
I toggled the volume and turned it up loud

As his digital facade flew over the clouds

At the speed of Moore’s law his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, Dell! Now, Gates! Now, Jobs and Wosniak!
On, Bezos! On Ellison! On, Hewlett and Packard!
To the top of the toolbar! The top of the screen!

Now pixels are changing, amazed by it all!

The picture expanded as closer he drew

His exact location surely only he knew.

But Google Street view offered a hopeful clue.

Just a click of the mouse, our house was in view.

With the sleigh full of downloads, upgrades and such

St. Nicholas too, might it be just too much?
The broadband was humming the router secure

A shiny new computer I’m sure will allure

Firewalls open for the jolly red elf.

Presents are coming, surely some for myself.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
A mystery for sure I pondered aloud.

Could Santa be real an answer I vowed.

An Internet search for the jolly St. Nick

“Santa Claus: could he be real” should turn the trick

Pages and pages of results did appear

To read them all might take ‘til Christmas next year.

My eyelids grew heavy then started to droop,

A short nap was needed so I could regroup.

Foggy and confused from my slumber I stirred,

“You’ve got mail,” from the speakers I heard.

An e-mail from Santa’s own smartphone it said,

A tight schedule barred his waking me he pled.

Presents for all under the tree he had spread.

Click here for a live video feed of the sled.

The digital image danced and sparkled bright.

Santa driving his sleigh on its magical flight.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

 

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

From the Horse’s Mouth!

Straight from the horse’s mouth. Go to the source. From the highest authority. We’ve all heard these sayings and know what they mean. Still we often rely on information that has no basis from which to draw valid decisions from. A good example is a client that wanted to open some Microsoft documents. Here is the result they achieved, “tried to install a program called Freely that was supposed to let me open any Microsoft Word or Works document. In doing so I have now installed a whole bunch of crap, among which was the Yahoo Toolbar and the Weather Channel. I have tried to uninstall them but to no avail. They are now not among the things I can uninstall but they still appear at start-up. How can I get rid of them now?

There is no requirement that a software company provide an uninstaller for their software. Legitimate companies do and the uninstaller module appears in Programs and Features, Windows Vista, 7 and 8, Add and Remove Programs in Windows XP. Semi legitimate programs often put the uninstaller module in the program folder in all programs and less legitimate programs will either provide no uninstaller module or provide what looks like an uninstaller module but when run it goes through some uninstaller like actions but leaves the crapware in place. Other sneaky programs will offer an uninstaller but the steps to uninstall the components are reversed from the normal process so the user takes actions to remove software but is in fact asking to keep the software in place.

When looking for software that does a specific function go to the source. For example, don’t have Microsoft Office or Works installed on our binary buddy? Surf over to Microsoft.com and search for a means of reading Word, Excel or PowerPoint files. In this case Microsoft provides file viewers, free of charge, for each of these types of files without crapware attached to it. Should we need to open and edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint files we can purchase Microsoft Office or download OpenOffice, a full office suite of programs, free of charge from openoffice.org or any number of open source productivity suites. Alternately, we can upload word documents to Google Docs, docs.google.com, and edit them online. This service requires we sign up for a Google account also free of charge. (Martha, he said my favorite word, three times!)

If however, we download and install a piece of software that we immediately realize was a mistake and it doesn’t offer an uninstaller module, we can perform a System Restore. This allows us to move the computer back in time to a date before the software was installed and it will be as if it never existed. Please note: System RESTORE not System Recovery. The former goes back to a date in time, the later puts the computer back to its factory condition and all is lost. Remember, the further back in time we try to go, more problems will surface with other programs requiring our attention.

Don’t forget this Gift Giving season to send a copy of Grumbles from the Keyboard to that computer challenged friend or family member. Hundreds of topics for the average  computer user.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

And don’t forget that titillating read, Epicuria: Adventures that really Cook! Something different for the gourmand in the house. Makes a great Christmas gift.

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Letters, we got letters!

That ripping sound is the old e-mail bag bursting at the seams. Let’s offer some solutions to various problems folks are having with their binary buddies.

Reader and Grumbles from the Keyboard owner Sue asks, “Is there a simple way to get Windows 7 to remember passwords and user ids?” To clarify, Windows 7 doesn’t remember usernames and passwords. Sue is referring to Internet Explorer remembering usernames and passwords to things like Facebook and other sites that require we log in. There are two areas to check if IE isn’t remembering usernames and passwords. Open Control Panel – Internet Options and under the General tab, verify that the box under Browsing History labeled Delete Browsing History on Exit isn’t checked. Then go to the tab labeled Content and under the section called AutoComplete click on the Settings Button. If we wish to use AutoComplete check the boxes for Address Bar, Usernames and Passwords on Forms and Ask me before saving passwords. Under these boxes is a button, Manage Passwords, where we can see the passwords that Internet Explorer has saved. We can also remove any passwords remembered here or click a button to remove all remembered passwords and usernames. These instructions are for IE9 – 10. IE8 for those still using Windows XP is very similar.

Column maven Dan scribes, “I notice on your website that you have written the book – Grumbles From The Keyboard. Rather than purchase it over the internet and mail it all the way to Canada, (Martha, it’s international!) would it be possible to pick up a copy locally in Punta Gorda?” There is a coffee shop in Punta Gorda called "The Bean on 41" that carries my book. They also have great coffee, sandwiches and pastries. 2705 Tamiami Trl, Punta Gorda, FL 33950 (941) 575-1212.

Faithful column follower Jake pens, “I was trying to find a presentation on the city’s website. I was told it had been added, so I looked for it. I have the site saved as a favorite. I hit the favorite and the site came up, but no presentation. I told them about it and they said it was there. I pulled up the site and again, still no presentation. Then I refreshed the page and the presentation appeared. Interesting that my favorite pulled up an old version each time.” Internet Explorer and other browsers presume that we visit the same websites over and over. In order to make the page appear quickly, they store or “cache” a copy of the page on the hard drive which they display if we return to a particular webpage. Browsers then attempt to download any new content to the page. Sometimes it doesn’t get new content. Using “Refresh” (or pressing the F5 key) forces the browser to download all content from the website as if we had never been there before.

Christmas is just around the corner and what better way to say, “Why don’t you learn how to use a computer?” than to give a copy of Grumbles From the Keyboard. Filled with tidbits, tips and tricks to make computer life easier.  Also available for your Kindle.  And don’t forget, with nothing but food on the tables for the next few months, try my cookbook for some old fashioned home cooking and one exciting story!

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

“He’s dead, Jim” (McCoy to Capt. Kirk)

There are inviolable laws in nature. Bad things happen to good computers. Bad things happen at the worst possible time. Recently I have seen an unusual flurry of dead hard drives, (Martha, that’s where all our pictures and stuff are stored.) Five dead drives and only one person had backed up their drive. Four of the  drives were unreadable and the data gone. We’ve all seen on TV how computer drives are recovered in minutes so how is that done?

There are many companies that offer data recovery services. All of them start out with a diagnostic of the drive to determine if any chance exists of recovering data. If they believe they can recover data, then a quote is given for the service. Because each drive condition, number of files to recover, difficulty of getting the drive to a readable condition is different, the cost will vary in every case. For example, using one of the drives I saw recently, I emailed a leading data recovery company to inquire about recovering several hundred photos and twenty documents. The company responded with an explanation and approximate cost to attempt recovery. They wrote:

“The first step is to get it in so we can run diagnostic tests on your drive to determine what is wrong and what we have to do to recover your data. There is no charge for the diagnostics. Once we complete the diagnostics tests we will be able to provide you with a firm price for recovery. You are looking at between $499 and $1899 if it is recoverable.” They also provided an outline of the steps they will take. “Our engineers will evaluate the precise condition of your media. Once the diagnostics is complete, we will provide you with an exact price to recover your data. We will request specific files from you to verify the integrity of the data. You will receive a final price for recovery and return media options.”

Reviewing several company’s offerings for data recovery the prices started around $300 and went up from there. That doesn’t mean a drive’s data can be recovered for $300, it means that the minimum charge will be $300 and we all known what minimum means.

Now that we have established that non-functioning drives MIGHT be recoverable at a price. Doesn’t it make sense to copy over critical pictures and documents to a flash drive, external drive, DVD or even use some of the FREE cloud services such as seven gigabytes of storage from Skydrive or five gigs from Google Cloud, Amazon Cloud or if using a MAC, iCloud? Need more space, online storage is cheap, not so recovery. Even more important, BACKUP means there are two copies, the original and the copy. A client called me to ask how to get his files back from his backup on an external drive. The drive wasn’t functioning so I suggested he just use the original files on the computer. He had erased them because he made a backup on the external drive. Confusing? He made backups of the original, then erased the original which made his backup files the originals without a backup.

Make a backup of this column and tape it to the monitor as a reminder.

This week for just for fun and giggles I have a special offer. Anyone purchasing my book Grumbles from the Keyboard (or how I learned to stop worrying and love my computer) during the week of 10/24/13 to 10/31/13 from this site www.grumblesfromthekeyboard.com ONLY, will receive in addition to an autographed copy of the book, a coffee mug randomly selected from a stock of mugs collected from various sources that currently sit in my closet. These mugs have no connection to anything, not specially made, but they do hold coffee or other beverages. Of course if the mug and the autograph have no interest, the book may be purchased from Amazon.com.

Grumbles From The Keyboard

And while you’re there, pick up a copy of Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks! Find out how a geek, ties cooking and storytelling together in what may very well be a new genre.

Epicuria: An Adventure that Really Cooks!

 

Amazon Prime Trial Offer

Make My PC Faster! Go Baby Go…

Previously we discussed slow Internet connection speeds and how to troubleshoot before calling in a tech. This week we’ll attack a slow computer. Remember, there is no connection between the speed with which web pages load, (Internet connection) and the speed with which our computer starts up, programs open and our ability to navigate around the computer. Thinking that if we subscribe to the fastest Internet service available it will somehow speed up our computer’s functioning is doomed to failure. An easy way to prove this is to turn off the computer and disconnect the modem. Restart the computer and time it. Now shut off the computer and reconnect the modem, start the computer and time it again. No difference.

What makes our computers run slow? Hardware and software are the two culprits. Many name brand computers have a hardware diagnostic feature built in. Some are accessed before the computer starts by pressing a function key as soon as their logo appears on the screen. Others have a folder in All Programs that may have diagnostic programs in them. For example my HP machine has something called HP Support Assistant. This HP program helps you maintain peak computer performance and resolve problems through automatic updates and tune-ups, built-in diagnostics, and a variety of assistance options. HP machines shipped 2012 and later already have HP Support Assistant, and older machines may download it from http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/hpsupport.html?jumpid=reg_r1002_usen_c-001_title_r0001#.UlrTopDD-1s.  Check the website for the computer’s manufacturer for a diagnostic download if there isn’t one already on the machine.

If the hardware checks out, we can take a look at software. An easy way to determine if a specific program is causing the problem is to open system configuration. Go to Start and type in MSCONFIG. This will open a window with tabs across the top. Click on the tab labeled Startup. Windows 8 users will find this in Task Manager. By un-checking the boxes to the left (Windows 7 and older) or highlighting and clicking disable (Windows 8) we can tell that program not to start when we boot up the computer. Use a process of elimination. Uncheck half of the items and restart the computer. If nothing changes, uncheck half of the remaining items until we find the one that causes the problem.

The issue may also be the number of programs starting up when our digital dynamo boots. Use a search engine to find out what each item is in the Startup and ask is it necessary. If it is not something we use continuously, preventing it from starting doesn’t remove it, just leaves it idle until we need it freeing up resources for other software to use.

Remember there is no free MakeMyPC faster program for $59 that will do any of this. “Cleaning the Registry” is pretty much like putting lipstick on a pig. Pretty, useless and a waste of money.

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my books, Grumbles from the Keyboard for computer users and Epicuria: An Adventure that Really Cooks! for the Gourmand in the house. Remember: Santa is only a few weeks from visiting and even he recommends Grumbles from the Keyboard! See what he has to say right here.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Fast and Furious, or Not

A common complaint heard from users is, “my computer started to run slow.” There is, despite TV ads, banner ads, advertisements on the Internet no way to magically make the computer run faster. There is always a cause and the key to speeding up the computer is to find the culprit. It could be hardware related, software related or intruder related. But a step by step process of elimination can often identify the cause and suggest solutions.

First we need to identify the area of our computer that is actually slowing down. Is it the computer itself or is it the Internet connection? How do we tell the difference? If our complaint is that it takes a long time for websites to load in our browser then the problem is related to either our browser, our Internet connection, or our Internet equipment i.e. the modem or router. Let’s test our equipment first. Open a browser and go to speedtest.net. Run the test and compare the results to the rates promised by our providers. For example, Comcast promises to deliver 16 mbps or better on my plan and my test came back at 26 mbps. If the test had come in at something less than 16 mbps it may require some other diagnostic investigation. Before calling the provider take a few further steps, start by powering off the modem and powering it back on. If using one of the modems that has phone and or TV on it as well, it will have a backup battery, so find the reset button and push it. After the modem powers up check the speed again. If the problem still exists, it’s time to check the router if we have one. Power it off and on again. Do not reset a router as this will remove all the settings that were created when the router was installed. Still no improvement? Connect a computer directly to the modem and test again. Still no improvement in the speed, it may be time to call the provider. They will have the ability to check the signal from their end and determine if there is a line problem. With DSL it could be a bad phone line, surge protector, filter or modem. With cable it might be bad coax cable, splitter, lose connection or modem.

If connected directly to the modem solves the speed issue then a router may be the problem. Before tossing the router, go to the router’s control panel to look for a firmware update that the company may have issued to resolve certain issues. We can also reset the router back to factory conditions by pressing the reset button. Test the speed again to see if the problem goes away and then re-enter the previous router settings such as network name and security password.

Remember these steps are to resolve slow Internet page display issues. None of this is related to the speed of our digital domestique.

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my books, Grumbles from the Keyboard for computer users and Epicuria: An Adventure that Really Cooks! for the Gourmand in the house.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Convert our Yugo to a Ferrari and give it away for free!

Faithful column reader Ben writes, “Can you recommend one of those free "Speed up / Clean up" software programs.” It is not uncommon to run into these types of programs as I visit with clients. There seems to be this fixation on a one button cure for slow from some company that wants to develop products that will convert our Yugo to a Ferrari and give it away for free. Users have sworn that a free $69 program made their computer run twice as fast as before. Asked how they benchmarked the computer before and after the fix, realization sets in that it was probably the placebo effect and their wallet was lighter.

Even worse, many of the tools that will help our digital domestique maintain its perky stature are already on our computers. Others are included with software we install such as anti virus/malware programs. The key is to benchmark our computer first and to do that we can download PC-Wizard free from this link, ftp://ftp.cpuid.com/pc-wizard/pc-wizard_2012.2.11-setup.exe. (Martha, he said FREE.) Be VERY cautious as the reason the program is free is the site is littered with download buttons that will install programs but not PC-Wizard. So if the download starts and it doesn’t say PC-Wizard cancel and try again. Install the program and there are lots of different ways to look at our binary buddy’s performance. Click on Benchmark and choose Windows Performance Rating. This is a general overall rating based on all the components of the PC. Now we have a starting point.

To speed up our calculating companion it is important to recognize that there is hardware speed, software speed and Internet speed. Hardware speed relates to spin rate of hard drives, processor speeds, RAM memory speeds and other resources. No software fix will alter these. Software speed pertains to how programs utilize ram memory and process tasks. No software fix will alter these either. Internet speed pertains to how fast our Internet provider provides data from the Internet to our PC.

What makes our PC seem to be slowing down? We tend to load them up with more programs that try to start when we turn on the PC including Fix it/Clean it programs. They compete for computer resources and everything seems to run slower. Examine what is starting up and ask is it running all the time or can it run only when needed? We need to remove temporary files that may be causing our antivirus to scan longer than necessary. And probably the greatest culprit to slow Internet performance is the installation of Toolbars. There are thousands of them, and not a single user has been able to tell me how they got installed. Rocketrebate, Ask, Community, Recipe and Babylon toolbars just to name a few. These toolbars tend to change our home page, alter our search engines and redirect our search results.

Stay tuned, next  some tools for tuning up our PC.

By now you know that there is a great companion piece to this blog. Order a copy today.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

 

Looking for something interesting to peruse that will tickle your gastric system? Pick up a copy today.

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

And for those that live in the northern states, winter isn’t to far away. What better way to spend those frozen days and nights with a month or more stay in Southwest Florida. Take a look at this seasonal rental and ask yourself, freezing cold, biting snow, black ice, snow blowers and worse OR, Sunny skies, warm temperatures, golf, biking, swimming, boating, fishing and on and on. In case you can’t remember last winter, here is a little video to refresh your memory. “Stop Your Bitchin bout the weather”  To view rental rates, pictures and contact information surf on over to Peg’s Hideaway

Email through the eyes of Windows 8

E-mail is a critical function of keeping in touch with friends, family, clubs, organizations, and bill paying. Not to mention advertisements and newsletters. Many of us have multiple e-mail addresses specifically for unique purposes. For example, I use Hotmail for business, Yahoo for family, AOL for junk mail, Gmail for clubs and organizations, NetZero for unknown reasons, and Comcast for (queue the scary music,) Quilting related stuff.  (and yes, according to my wife it is only spelled with a capital Q)

Windows 8 has a very interesting Mail function built into the Metro desktop. When setting up our new Windows 8 PC for the first time, one of the questions presented is to enter our e-mail address and password. From that point forward, when we click on the MAIL tile on the Metro desktop it will immediately open our e-mail for perusal. Another feature that we find in the MAIL function is to add additional e-mail addresses to the MAIL function that enables us to quickly review all our emails from one spot regardless of the source.

To enable multiple e-mail accounts within the MAIL function of Metro, click on the MAIL tile to open MAIL. Once it is open move the mouse pointer to the upper right corner of the screen to activate the CHARMS bar. The Charms bar can also be accessed by pressing the Windows key + C on the keyboard. Click on SETTINGS in the CHARMS bar and then click on add account. Now fill in the e-mail address of account we wish to add and the password and Windows will add that account to the display within MAIL. For example, when I click on the MAIL tile, the mail program opens and in the navigation bar it displays Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and others. To view the mail from a specific account I click on that account name and there is the mail addressed to that account.

The MAIL program keeps the e-mail segregated by account. Additionally, if we have set up folders or labels within each account, as we examine our mail the folders associated with that specific account are visible and ready to receive mail should we decide to move an e-mail to a specific folder.

Windows 8 also has on the Metro desktop a tile labeled Weather. During set up for the first time the computer will ask if it may use location based information. If we say yes then when clicking on the Weather tile, the screen will display the local weather, in significant depth. If we then right mouse click anywhere on the weather menus open and one is called Places. Click here to add to the Weather display the locations of kids, grandkids, friend and other places we might have an interest in. Don’t forget to move the mouse to the upper right corner for the Charms bar, type Snipping Tool in the Search field and grab a screen shot of the weather hear in SWFL and e-mail it to our friends up north. We know they will appreciate it.

Windows 8, interesting features.

For those that follow my column in the Sun-Herald newspaper,  I talked about a piece of software called Sandboxie (www.sandboxie.com) for preventing drive by download malware.  Listed below are three video tutorials by Matt from Remove-malware.com. If you decide to use Sandboxie these will help the setup and configuration.

Sandboxie Review Part 1

Sandboxie Review Part 2

Sandboxie Review Part 3

Now with all this information perculating in the brain cells, isn’t it time to get some light reading for the throne room? Pick up a copy of Grumbles from the Keyboard. Packed with tips and tricks to make using a computer fun and functional. You be so engrossed reading that you’ll forget to eat. But when you do, eat something from my cookbook/novel Epicuria: Adventures that really Cook!

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

One question, many answers.

Received an e-mail this week from long time column follower JTB. The question, “When I turn on the machine, an Easy Solve box appears saying that IE cannot display the webpage. When I X out the box, there seems to be no other effects. Occasionally and more frequently, the page freezes for 30-60 seconds. It responds to no keystrokes, commands, or to the mouse. IE stops working. A box appears saying that the Internet connection is lost. This happens more and more frequently. I have Norton and have done total system scans to no avail. If you have any ideas on how to remedy these problems, I would appreciate your response.”

When asking questions about a problem, always make sure all the facts are given. Let’s see if we can devise some ideas that might address these problems. “When I turn on the machine,” indicates the problem begins at start up. Easy Solve says that IE cannot display the webpage. What is Easy Solve? This is easily determined by using a search engine to find Easy Solve. We learn it is software installed on our computers by Comcast. One solution would be to go to Programs and Features and uninstall the offending program. It isn’t needed, obviously interferes with Internet Explorer and tries to display web pages on it’s own.

The next question pertains to “the page freezes.” Without clarification as to which program is not displaying a page, let’s assume it is a page being displayed by Internet Explorer. One likelihood is that Internet Explorer is loaded with toolbars, such as the translator toolbar, Google toolbar, Bing toolbar, recipe toolbar, Iwon toolbar and on and on. Each of these alters the response of Internet Explorer when we try to go to a website or search for something. After a while, Internet Explorer doesn’t know what to do and just quits. Go to Control Panel - Programs and Features to uninstall anything with the word toolbar in it. Then go to Control Panel – Internet Options. When the dialog box opens click on the tab labeled Advanced and towards the bottom is a button labeled Reset. This will remove temporary files, history, reset the homepage, set all the security levels to the default factory settings, remove all saved passwords, usernames and reset the default search engines to Bing. This usually solves most Internet Explorer problems.

A different alternative is to use another browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari. However, if we add toolbars and multiple search engines these will also have to be reset eventually.

Finally, the last part of the question was, “the Internet connection is lost.” Many possibilities here, the Comcast modem may be resetting itself; the router may reset itself, a bad cable or even a bad network adaptor or corrupt driver. Each needs to be tested and eliminated in order to zero in on the cause.

Keep pluggin’ away!

And don’t forget to pick up a copy of these two wonderful books.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Limit Exposure to Ripoffs

The article on computer repair scams must have hit a sore spot. Based on the number of emails I received from folks that had experienced the exact sequence of events, it wouldn’t surprise me if tens of thousands of Charlotte County, and possibly millions of citizen dollars are now doing great good in India, Pakistan or some other country not labeled U.S.A. For a great video of the exact science of ripping off computer users, surf over to Tag um and bag um! and watch another tech, tag, bag and record the rip off as it happens. Hopefully, seeing is believing. On a related note, the FBI/Reveton virus seems to be making another round, but this time harder to remove. If a screen appears to take over the computer displaying the FBI logo and stating that the computer has been locked due to attempted download of copyright movies, music or porn and to send $200 immediately via a prepaid MoneyPak card in order to unlock the computer, do NOT send money to unlock the computer. The money will be gone and the computer will still be locked. The real FBI has posted a warning here www.fbi.gov/news/podcasts/thisweek/reveton-ransomware/view that gives and overview of the virus.

Things we can do to limit our exposure to these types of rip offs are the basics. If we receive an unsolicited phone call warning us of dire consequences about to occur to our computer unless we let the caller takeover our beloved PC, hang up. Or if in a jolly mood, tell the caller our brother is a computer crime tech for the FBI and could we have their name and number so our brother can seek their input on cybercrime.

If looking for a support phone number, go to the company’s website to find a contact number if they offer one. DO NOT, Google (company) support phone numbers. Any number we find will not be the real number for the company, but will be the number of a bogus support rip off site.

The FBI virus, exploits older versions of Java and Adobe products so make sure these are the latest versions available. As of this date, Java 7 version 11 (available for free at www.java.com) and Adobe Flash version 11 (available for free at www.adobe.com) are current. Go to Control Panel, Programs and Features, scroll down the list of installed programs to find which versions of those programs we have. Consider PSI from Secunia, available at http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/, a free program that will scan our computer comparing the versions of software and updates we have against current ones available and update our computer for us.

While it is convenient to have our browser remember our passwords so we don’t have to enter them each time, remember that a password can’t be stolen by a virus if it isn’t on the PC.

Notice that neither of the two threats mentioned occur via e-mail.

Got a problem? Call a LOCAL tech. They need the money more than someone on the other side of the world.

Don’t forget to buy Grumbles From the Keyboard. Lots of stuff written about the computer for the layman.

And if you’re hungry, Epicuria will leave you entertained and enjoying a fine repast.

 

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!

But they said they were from ….

A worldwide epidemic is afoot. Charlotte County seems particularly vulnerable based on phone calls and emails I receive. Here are the source points, symptoms, results and methods to protect ourselves.

Contact points appear to be an unsolicited phone call from “windows” or “Microsoft” or some other Internet technology company or our attempt to find a phone number for support.

With unsolicited phone calls the caller informs us our computer is infected and may crash, infect our friend’s computers or is sending viruses infecting computers around the world. The caller offers to remove the virus and save our binary buddies. They then request that we visit a website that allows the caller to remotely control our computer. Sites like Logmein, or Teamviewer. Once in control, they go to Start – Control Panel – Administrative Tools – Event Viewer. Now they filter the events to show only the ERROR reports. Scrolling through recorded events they point out the red ERROR messages and tell us thousands of problems exist on our computer. Next they download a program that flashes a graphical scan screen that reports thousands of registry errors, and the caller states our computer is about to crash. While all this is occurring the caller may do one or all of the following: Infect our PC then request money to clean it up, steal our files / folders / e-mail address / passwords etc. use our computer to attack other systems. The caller may ask us to write down a series of numbers referring to them as support numbers, license keys, ticket control numbers to keep us distracted. The caller offers to resolve all the problems for some monetary sum, usually in the $199 range however the last few I have been called on have been in the $300 dollar ballpark. One client tried to pay with a credit card that was blocked from overseas transactions and the caller demanded that the client surrender the account and routing numbers to their checking account. When the user refused they hung up and sent an invoice via e-mail.

A recent twist to this scam is that now instead of taking a credit card payment for payment, they are using the credit card to fund a Western Union money transfer. One client had the money picked up in Singapore minutes after giving out the credit card and the scammers not only took $500 but charged the credit card for the Western Union fee. Once cash has left a bank, the bank will not give it back.

The same scam occurred when users, frustrated that they cannot find a phone number for Google, HP, Norton or Microsoft, type into a search engine “support phone numbers for” the company they are trying to reach. One client called a number they thought was the support line for Norton Antivirus and the person who answered the phone took over their computer and ran the same scan outlined above. Seems pretty strange that Norton would tell one of their customers that the Norton software didn’t protect them but for $179 they would remove what their software couldn’t.

Companies do not use phones. Online Chat, e-mail, and forums are the service de jour. Receive one of these calls or recognize the scam, hang up. For fun, see how long we can keep them on the phone without payment before they hang up.

Is it imperative that $169 be sent to someone? Please send it to me or a LOCAL tech of choice.

Here’s an interesting idea sent in by a loyal reader. They keep a copy of Grumbles From the Keyboard on the coffee table. Each day as they settle in for a little TV, they pick up the book and read another chapter during commercials. It’s quiet time, and they can concentrate on the subject matter without interruption. Get your copy today.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

And don’t forget, after absorbing all that knowledge, you’ll be hungry. Find out what a computer geek likes to eat from my cookbook, Epicuria: An Adventure that Really Cooks!

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

It’s a Brave New World!

Thinking about a new computer? Stores are filled with low priced towers and laptops. Why, because consumers have voted with their wallets. Tablets and smart phones are replacing conventional computers at a tremendous pace. Reports from NPD Online Research state that sales of new computers are down 11% from a year ago. Another report stated that tablets and smart phones made up 40% of all technology purchases in 2012. But some of us still enjoy sitting down at a desk with our work spread out in front of us and tapping out a column on a big old standard keyboard. For us a brand new tower or laptop with Windows 8 on it still suits us just fine. What impacts have tablets and smart phones had on new PCs?

For starters, Windows 8 no longer has support for playing DVD movies. (We can still use the DVD for reading and writing data.) Microsoft considered that tablets, smart phones and Internet TVs don’t even have DVD players as users increasingly stream movies directly from the web. Since MS pays license fees for each DVD movie playing computer, this was eliminated from Windows 8. Not to worry, many computer manufactures add DVD movie players to their products so the capability is still there. Just type DVD in the search field of the Windows 8 PC and look for any program that has DVD in it. If we have one of the truly bargain basement computers without a DVD movie player, download a free DVD player such as VLC from www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html.

Another impact on traditional computers directly linked to tablets and smart phones is the use of tiles (Martha, they used to be icons.) on the Start Screen. Tiles work like the icons on our older computers but now they preview changes to the programs they link to. For example: the mail tile will update regularly to notify us that new mail has arrived or a news tile will constantly display the latest headlines. We can modify the position and size of the tiles to meet our needs. Some tiles are rectangular while others are smaller and square. By using the right mouse button and clicking on a tile, we have the choice of using larger or smaller tiles and we can pin it to or remove it from the Start Screen if desired. To rearrange the position of the tiles simply grab one with the mouse and move it to a new position. Want a new tile on the desktop for our favorite website? Open the website and click on the site icon beside the web address. Now click on Pin to Start and a new tile appears on the Start Screen. The start screen may seem a bit awkward at first, but for folks that use the computer for basic functions every day it makes for easy access to those programs, I mean apps we use frequently.

Windows 8 also comes with a built-in SkyDrive app. With it, we can view and browse the files we’ve saved to SkyDrive.com. By installing the free SkyDrive desktop app we can also automatically sync  files across our computers.

It’s a brave new world.

Here’s an interesting idea sent in by a loyal reader. They keep a copy of Grumbles From the Keyboard in the bathroom. Each morning when they begin their constitutional, they pick up the book and read another chapter. It’s quiet time, and they can concentrate on the subject matter without interruption. Get your copy today.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

And don’t forget, after absorbing all that knowledge, you’ll be hungry. Find out what a computer geek likes to eat from my cookbook, Epicuria: An Adventure that Really Cooks!

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

The New Computer?

News reports the hot item this year were tablets. Tablet devices such as Kindles, iPads, Galaxy Tabs, Nooks, and many more. General features are size, battery life, and wireless or cell connectivity to the Internet and touch screen input. Many have virtual keyboards or can attach QWERTY keyboards via either USB or Bluetooth connections. Tablet history goes back to 2000 when Microsoft unsuccessfully released the Tablet PC. 2007 saw Apple release the first iPad primarily as a media device for movies and music and the tablet form of computer became popular.

Today the tablet is still regarded as a media device but underneath all that flash and sound is a computer capable of performing the very tasks our desktops and laptops do now. Have tablets reached the level of our binary buddies? Not yet, but they are coming on strong. So strong that we may be watching the end of the desktop or laptop computer. Tablets available today are adding capabilities as fast as possible. Different tablets use competing operating systems, such as Android, iOS and Linux. The battle heats up with the Microsoft release of Windows 8 which will be a tablet oriented operating system allowing still another set of capabilities to tablets.

Let’s take a look at features to be found in some of the tablets available today. Standard in most tablets is wireless connectivity. This allows us to visit any place with a wireless Internet connection, such as the public libraries, McDonalds, Beef O’Bradys and thousands more including relatives and friends where we can connect to the Internet. Once connected, we can surf the web, purchase airline tickets, send e-mail and open and work on documents. Built in Web Cams can enable video calls via a variety of software packages such as Skype. Digital cameras, certainly, Tablets have a very limited amount of onboard storage space so much of what we do, such as writing a letter will be stored online. For example the tablet I use is connected to Google Docs. It looks like a word processor or spreadsheet, acts like it but the software is actually running on Google’s servers and my documents are stored there. There is even some capability to print from a tablet to a wireless network printer. Most tablets that have Internet and e-mail features will automatically back up the e-mail and contacts list to online servers. And yes they all download eBooks, pictures, movies and music.

There might be a tablet in your future.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Hey, I can read that!

Progress marches on. Many of us are purchasing new computers and new software to go with it. We like to keep on the leading edge rather than the bleeding edge. One software package that many users are adding to the arsenal of tools available to them is Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 with its Word, Excel and other components. These programs are useful, full of features and make our daily chores easier. We can send out that newsletter, weekly bulletin, letters and even holiday cards.

But across the land we hear from the recipients of our missives, “I can’t open the attachment.” Investigation reveals that there are many users still chugging away on Office 2000, XP or 2003. Starting with Office 2007 Microsoft changed the default file format for documents from .doc to .docx, spreadsheets from .xls to .xlsx and PowerPoint files from .pps to .ppsx which are not compatible with the older versions and hence cannot be opened. Do not despair; there are some options available to remedy this dilemma.

One alternative is to notify the sender that we cannot open the file in its current format and would they resave the document in an older format. Using a Word document as our example (the process is the same for Excel and PowerPoint) start Word 2007 or 2010, open the document to be converted from ".docx" to an earlier format. Click the "Office" button in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the pointer to "Save As" and a side menu will pop out. Select the option for "Word 97-2003." This will save the file in .doc format.

They can also have Word 2007 or 2010 save by default to ".doc" instead of ".docx." This is accomplished by opening Word, clicking on the "Office" button in the top left corner. Next click the "Word Options" button. Select "Save" from the options bar on the left, and select "Word 97-2003" from the "Save files in this format" drop down section. Click "OK." Now our files will save as ".doc" by default.

Perhaps a more efficient method for users still utilizing older versions of Office is to surf over to www.microsoft.com/download. In the search box labeled Search Download Center type in Office Compatibility Pack for Word. Download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats and follow the steps to install it on the computer. Remember this is for older versions of Office and is not needed if running Office 2007 or 2010. This download is a file converter that will allow older versions of Office to open, edit and save the .docx formats as if they were .doc files.

For those of us still using Microsoft Works Word Processor or Works Spreadsheet this converter also allows Works to open .docx files however some of the font, paragraph and other special formatting features may be lost or modified to allow the file to open in Works.

While the downloaded file converter is an easy way to extend the capabilities of our software, the software itself, old or new has many converters already built into it. Again using Word as the example, if we click on File then Open and browse through the folder where our documents reside we will see a list of all the files there that have the default format. Older versions will list document ending in .doc and new versions will display documents suffixed with .docx. But if we look at the bottom of the dialogue box we will see a dropdown box labeled Files of Type. If we click on the pull down arrow a list of formats that Word has the capability of opening. Even files created in other company’s formats such as WordPerfect can be converted and opened by Word. If the file we are looking for still doesn’t appear there, we can change the File of Type to (All Files.) This may let us see the file we want in the list but doesn’t guarantee it can be opened.

From this dropdown we also have the ability to take a document and convert it and save it to any of the formats listed there. So if we know that the person to which the document will be sent does not have Word, Wordperfect some other productivity suite, we can save it in .txt or .rtf which can be opened in Notepad if necessary.

And don’t forget, if we don’t have Office or WordPerfect and finances are an issue, surf over to www.openoffice.org and download the latest version of OpenOffice. This is a fully capable productivity suite that can open and edit .docx, .xlsx and .ppsx files and save as .doc, .xls and .pps files.

Nobody has to know we live on the bleeding edge.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Traveling? Read the Paper anyway!

An e-mail of great magnitude arrived this week from faithful reader Walt. “I am traveling up north and make sure I read your column each week in the electronic version of the Sun. I also like to send the column to some family members. The printed version I just cut out, copy and send, but this electronic version will not allow me to highlight the column and paste it into an e-mail. If I send a link from the page, my relatives are asked to subscribe before they can view the column. Is there any way to send the electronic version to my family?”

This question arises fairly often but Walt even followed up with a phone call so let’s examine the issue. The starting point is a subscription to the Sun. Fire up the computer and surf over to yoursun.com. Click on the copy of the paper of choice. Navigate to the Electronic Edition. The options available are a seven day trial or for just $3 a month, the paper and of course Bits and Bytes will be available anywhere we travel and can reach the Internet. If already a subscriber to the printed version, we automatically have a subscription to the electronic version as well.

The next step in sharing with family is to login to our Electronic Edition, use the navigation tools to find the Bits and Bytes column. Double click on the column to open it in a separate window. From the toolbar at the top click print. This opens a printable copy of the column. From here we have a few options. The column can now be highlighted, copied and pasted into an e-mail for that nephew in Michigan, or when the printer dialogue box appears, send the print job to the printer listed as Microsoft XPS Document Writer. The print job will ask us to give the job a name and save it on our computer. We can then e-mail that document to anyone and they can open it in Internet Explorer. Or the long way would be to print the column, put it in a scanner, and then e-mail it from the scanned copy. Note to those that want past columns, the Electronic Edition archives past copies of the paper. If searching for past Bits and Bytes columns simply search the Wednesday copy of the papers. (Martha, what date was that great column?) Don’t forget, additional columns appear at courtnederveld.blogspot.com.

Special alert: A new scam appears to be making the rounds. We have all gotten the e-mail from friends whose e-mail account has been hacked telling us to click a link because it is something neat. Spammers are trying to infect machines or get us to wire money to Elbonia. Now, the e-mails claim our friend is updating their phone book and please send them our phone number or have gotten robbed in some foreign country losing their passport/money and would we wire them a few thousand till they get home. Call and verify, don’t e-mail the phone number.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Is it Gerbil or is it …

I know, I know, how could anything about a computer be funny? Actually there is nothing funny about a computer. However, sometimes as a computer tech, there arrives a moment with a computer user that simply screams out for something truly silly. This is my story, and I am sticking to it.

Several years ago, visiting my wife’s sister and her family, they decided that since I was there, they would purchase their first computer. I went with them to a store selling computers and we picked out a very nice IBM model. This was a top of the line, 486 processor, (I always wondered 486 what?) We added a mammoth 14” monitor that took two men and a small pony to lift, and of course the flagship Microsoft Windows 95.

Once we got home, we opened the box and there it was in all its shiny glory. We carefully began to attach all the cables and surprise, surprise, didn’t end up with any extra cords. Now the moment of truth. I let my sister-in-law push the power button and viola, lights came on, the monitor glowed and there in front of us was the Windows 95 desktop. (OK, there might have been a three or four minute gap from pushing the button to seeing the desktop but you get the idea.) It was a glorious moment. In one $1700 movement of cash, my sister-in-law’s family had leaped into the high tech age. The world of surfing the net, email, blue screens, lockups, and an investment that in four years would be worth nothing, assuming it still worked. But then…..

My sister-in-law picked up the mouse and said, “What is this?” Now a sympathetic human would have begun the explanation of exactly how this human-machine interface device worked and why it was so important to the ease of using the computer. But a computer technician sees the world through wavy glass. “That is a gerbil,” I said.

My sister-in-law was born at night but she wasn’t born last night. Boring into my soul with her “You had better not be messing with me look.” She proceeded to tell me that the people at her work were referring to a “mouse” that they used to control the computer. What to do, she obviously had some points of reference that had her pointed in the right direction? So, I did the only thing a good husband could do, knowing full well that anything I said would be immediately reported to my wife. (I was treading on very, very thin ice.)

I then related how, Xerox had actually developed the mouse and given it to Microsoft, (She certainly wouldn’t know any better.) And that IBM used a proprietary device for moving the cursor and couldn’t legally call it a mouse. Consequently, since IBM was bigger than Microsoft, (at that time it was) they called it a gerbil.

Sometimes when you tell a story like this, the person listening looks around for confirmation. My sister-in-law looked around and saw my son who also dabbled with computers at the time and she asked him if it really was a gerbil. Usually at this point life ends and you go home. But, my son simply nodded his head and said it was true. So for the rest of the weekend, I helped my sister-in-law’s family learn how to use the computer, always referring to the gerbil.

Fortunately, we left that Sunday night and headed home. Monday my sister-in-law went to work and told all her coworkers about her new computer and the gerbil. Monday night our phone rang. It wasn’t pretty.

If you would like the true skinny on the evolution of the mouse, go to http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/. There are pictures of old gerbils; I mean mice, and their predecessors.

I wonder if she wants me to help with the next technological marvel?

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

No, not a wedding registry.

I was struck with an interesting phenomenon the other day. Riding my bicycle along a section of US41 and because of the amount of traffic, traffic lights and maybe some other issues I couldn’t see, I was actually traveling faster than the cars trying to get to their destinations. County and state spend millions of tax dollars on computer controlled lights, intersection control islands, stripes, arrows, signs and driver education only to watch traffic grind ever slower and slower. They even hire more consultants to suggest improvements that ultimately lead to… longer commute times.

Computers are similar to highways. It seems that the longer we have a computer the slower it gets. Like our roads, the obvious answer reminds me of the question about ducks flying south for the winter in the familiar V pattern. . Why is one side of the V longer than the other? Because there are more ducks on that side. Why does traffic move slower? More cars. Why do our computers run slower? More programs.

How can we improve performance? The answer seems self evident. For roads, remove cars. Computers, remove programs. But even this solution poses its own problems. There is an area just north of Veterans Blvd that was platted many years ago. Roads were put in, but nothing else. There is virtually no traffic but it is used to illegally dump, and off-road vehicles tear up the landscape. We could resolve some of the issues by tearing up the roads and returning the area to its natural state. The same plan can be used to clean up our computers by removing unused programs and files. But a magic bullet would be faster, so we hire more consultants for the roads and we download Registry cleaners that promise to speed up our computers after only a few minutes and $49.95.

What is the registry? The registry is a system-defined database used by the Windows operating system to store configuration information. More simply, it is a road system that the computer uses to find everything loaded on it and make use of it. It also stores the settings we tell a program to use when we install it. It makes sense that if parts of the road become unusable, or go to dead ends, our computer will slow down as it navigates through the maze.

Many folks have downloaded purported registry cleaning programs that promise to instantly remove dead registry entries and thereby speed up our computers. With flashing screens and impressive looking charts they boldly declare our computers are riddled with registry errors. Errors? What they are locating are leftover registry entries that are tied to nothing. Cleaning the unused entries from the registry would at best speed up any search for information within the registry which almost no one does. Oddly, if it were this simple, one wonders why Microsoft, the creators of Windows, does not provide a registry cleaner. They should know the ins and outs of the registry better than anyone. Perhaps a clue comes from Mark Russinovich, Ph.D. Computer Engineering, Microsoft Technical Fellow who states "A few hundred kilobytes of unused keys and values causes no noticeable performance impact on system operation. Even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches."

Registry cleaners, while apparently having no effect on performance, do allow us to perform registry hygiene by cleaning up dead entries. Generally these dead keys and values are created by the removal of programs via the Add/Remove feature in Windows. The problem with the $49 registry cleaners is that they have an automatic feature that most of us use. This automatic feature does not discriminate; it just removes keys and values. To demonstrate the danger of the automatic feature, I recently tested one of the “leading” registry cleaners on my test PC. It ran a scan, found over 400 registry “errors” and then removed them. I restarted the PC and it would not boot up. Apparently some of the registry “errors” were critical to the operation of Windows. The moral here is that if you must use a registry cleaner, find one that can be run in manual mode, has a backup feature that allows the restoration of entries removed from the registry, remove only those entries left from program removal and is FREE such as Piniforms CCleaner or included with a leading antivirus suite such as Norton’s PC Tuneup.

McAfee and Norton Security Suites along with most major antivirus programs provide a registry cleaner under the tools section. Another FREE cleaner can be found at www.ccleaner.com that has a backup mode just in case. Before taking any action regarding the registry be sure that you only change values in the registry that you understand or have been instructed to change by a trusted source. Be sure to back up the registry before making any changes.

Keep that traffic flowing.

Speaking of Bicycling, Check out www.peaceriverridersbicycleclub.com for the upcoming Wheels and Wings IV bicycle event. It’s a Bicycle Ride an event and a party!

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words.

The beauty of video is that it can, in ways that words can never convey, make very clear the workings of almost anything. Please take the time to watch this video. That’s all I have to say this week.
PC Tech Support Telephone Scam

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

Dude! What’s Your Function?

William Henry said, “All we know is still infinitely less than all that remains unknown.” Clients tell me they are afraid to try things with that shiny new computer because they don’t know what will happen. Others forge blindly forward punching buttons, clicking the mouse on this icon or that link all in the hope that the computer will sanguinely accept random actions and create a coherent result. Others race to the book stores to purchase books and DVD’s that portend to solve all computer problems in just a few minutes of our time. For those who will and those that won’t, perhaps some simple explanations will open the floodgates of knowledge.

It was only a couple of decades ago that all computer functions were initiated via the keyboard. Users would type in enigmatic lines of text to instruct the calculating connivance on the proper steps needed to reach a desired result. Some may remember CTRL – P or ALT – F, commonly used to print and to select the file menu. With the advent of the mouse many of these commands have faded from memory but they still lie buried in the operating systems code.

One overlooked area of our computer is the keyboard. We are familiar with the letters and numbers in the traditional QWERTY layout, letters below and numbers above. But what are those mysterious keys at the top of the keyboard labeled F1 through F12? What are they for, what do they do? These keys are called Function keys. They are and can be reserved to perform specific actions if pressed.

Our computers have layers of systems that run simultaneously each supporting the next. The next time we start our computer, look carefully at the screen that displays the manufacturer’s logo. The computer is starting up according to instructions held in the BIOS. (Basic Input Output System) This is a set of instructions that tells the computer how to start, initiate the mouse, keyboard, load the hard drive and find and load any peripheral hardware attached to the computer such as DVD drives, Floppy drives, and external drives. The BIOS also reserves several of the function keys. At the bottom of the Logo screen will be some statements such as F1 – Enter Setup, F10 – Boot from LAN or F11 – System Recovery. Another reserved function key is the F8 key which alters the start up of Windows to allow the user to start the machine in Safe Mode. This is a diagnostic mode used if the computer has some problem that prevents it from booting correctly.

Once the computer has booted up and the operating system is up and running, it takes over some of the function keys and gives us quick access to a variety of features. Let’s take a look at some of the common function keys and how they can save us time over using a mouse. One of the most useful keys is the F1 key. This will almost always open a Help screen. Holding down the ALT key and then pressing F1 will open the Windows Help and Support Center. Even within a program such as a word processor or even a browser window, F1 will open a help screen.

F3 will generally open a search feature for Windows and many other programs. For example, we open a large webpage and we want to quickly find the part about bicycles. Press the F3 key and a search field opens. Type in bicycle, click Find and we move directly to the part of the document we need.

Using the ALT key with a Function key adds another layer of direct actions. ALT – F4 will close the open window while F4 will repeat the last action. Example, we want to be emphatic about something by type “very” several times. We can type it once then tap the F4 key a few times and “very” repeats.

If we are surfing the web and typing in different addresses in the URL (Universal Resource Locater) address bar, just tap F6 to move the cursor to the address bar. F11 will change the browser to full screen mode. Tap the F11 key again and it reverts to the default size.

The function keys can perform different actions in different programs and some can even be programmed for user defined purposes. Using Excel, we can define specific formulas to function keys to avoid having to type out long formulas over and over. Don’t be afraid to try different keys and discover what they do. A key tap can be much faster than dragging a mouse.

Different (key) strokes for different folks.

Don’t forget, these and many other tips and tricks are in my book Grumbles From The Keyboard. Click on the links to get yours right away.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books ISBN: 1467985899 ISBN-13: 9781467985895

Start 2013 with some FUN and GOOD eats. Epicuria is a cookbook like none you ever read before. You’ll suffer confusion as you try to decide to shelve it with the cookbooks or the adventure novels. Get yours today!

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734