Woo Hoo…new feature in Microsoft Office 2007...

I ran into a strange problem today with a client using Windows XP and Outlook Express. They had to install a new copy of Office 2007 because they lost their certificate of authenticity for their old copy (don't lose those folks). Subsequently, their spell checker in Outlook Express now only uses the French dictionary. Thanks Microsoft!! Once again, fabulous upgrade to the "new" Office 2007. After some...

Mozilla Firefox Revisited

By Rick Castellini 2002. Revised by Adam Cochran 2007 Earlier this summer, my co-host, Adam, decided to do an 'on air' review of a product. The product he chose is Mozilla Firefox, an alternative web browser. Being on the radio and downloading, installing and reviewing software was a new experience for us, but the impression was instant and impressive for both of us. Mozilla loads most web pages much faster...

Spyblocker: My first nasty Vista spyware and repai...

I am writing this from a client's house. Typically I wouldn't work on the site while I am on the clock but since I have to sit and wait for they repair scan to finish, I might as well tell you why I'm here. It all began with a call this morning. My client said that she could move her mouse but it wouldn't let her click on anything. Luckily I had time available to see her in the afternoon. When I got here I...

Another post from Ubuntu

I have been so busy lately, that I haven't had much of a chance to play around with my Ubuntu Linux (alternative to Windows) machine. Last night, I updated to the latest version of Ubuntu Linux 7.04 for free. Compare that to the minimum of $179 you would pay for the basic version of Vista. I was motivated to do the update not only because I promised I would learn more about Linux, but also because Dell released a story...

Properly Uninstall Norton Products

How to get rid of Norton Antivirus: 1. Go to Start – Control Panel (Start – Settings – Control Panel)2. Open Add/Remove Programs3. Now you will want to remove the following items: Anything that says "Norton" or "Symantec" in the title. LiveUpdate LiveReg 4. Restart your computer when prompted to do so Install AVG,...

512mb is not enough

512mb of RAM is not enough for Windows Vista…any flavor. Vista has been out almost three months now, and I have setup almost a dozen Vista machines. Thankfully, they are rolling out slowly. All the machines I setup, until today, came with 1 GB (1024mb) or 2GB of RAM. And although not blazing, the computer's ran at an acceptable speed. I just finished spending nearly 2.5 hours setting up a laptop with Vista Basic and...

Is this a test?

Today I had an appointment that spanned almost every area of what I do on a daily basis. The appointment lasted roughly three hours. In that time I… Helped setup a new iMac. She is making the switch from Windows and wanted some of the features that she was used to in her PC. I set her computer to ask for her password whenever it was turned on or came out of sleep mode so her kids couldn't get online without her...

AOL and Vista

Two of my favorite whipping horses, but today I want to provide some information to help AOL users who might be moving to Windows Vista. I discovered today that a standard AOL disk will NOT work in Windows Vista. Most disks available at your local retailers or that you may have received via US Mail were minted in 2005 or earlier. That was the last time a major revision of AOL was released. Unfortunately, this version is not...

Stick with HelpMeRick’s trusted security sof...

Some days I seem to face recurring themes. Today's was extortionware. Extortion is when someone forces you into paying money to solve a problem that the person or institution requiring payment caused. If that doesn't make a lot of sense, ask Rick to explain how his "If you want to keep your kneecaps – go get nachos for us," program works during the show on Saturday. We have spelled out our proven...

Ubuntu Linux!!!

Last week I installed Windows Vista on my fine running XP machine (less than six months old) and have been tolerating it since then and learning about its quirks and features. I have actually been using Vista since September and besides the integrated search (which can be added to XP through multiple channels for free), I honestly do not understand what the heck Microsoft did for nearly six years between operating systems....

Bad tech support: When in doubt, blame a virus

We talk a lot about viruses on the show and here on the site, but in reality, viruses make up a very small portion of day-to-day computer problems. In fact, many (if not most) problems that people blame on viruses are not actually viruses at all. Many of today's computers contain at least 100,000 smaller files. These thousands of little files work together by linking and sharing jobs with each other. Viruses work by...

Norton 360 verdict not in yet – don’t ...

Norton has recently released a new version called Norton 360. Symantec claims that they have scrapped 80+ percent of their old code and the 360 version is a totally new program. I have only seen it installed on one computer so far and I couldn't really see if it was any faster or slower than previous versions. Since the system I saw it on was also running Windows Vista, I couldn't tell if the sluggishness of the...

I finally did it

I purchased Windows Vista Ultimate (OEM version) and Microsoft Office 2007 in January. Yesterday, I finally installed them both on my HP computer I bought in December for the purpose of eventually installing Vista and the new Office. The installation was the easiest of any Windows I have ever installed and only took about thirty-five minutes, but the first boot took around 12 minutes. I backed up my data and used the Vista...

McAffee Uninstaller Removal Tool

Use this tool to completely remove McAffee Security 2005, 2006, or 2007. Here is another McAfee Uninstaller that you can try from Tucows.

Getting Better Prints from Digital Photos

One of the disadvantages to digital photography (if you can call it that) is that you don't get prints as often. Photos tend to sit on disk or on your computer's hard drive and never get shared. The photo album is sadly becoming extinct. If you would like to start printing out some of those digital photos, here are some pointers. Install Picasa: We talk about it a lot, but not often enough. Picasa will make selecting,...