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