Solution for computer that can’t change desk...

This solution WILL fix your problem, but don’t run away afterwards and forget about us. HelpMeRick.com contains hundreds of tips (and video tips) that YOU can use as a reference for yourself and especially as a reference to send links to your friends/family so you don’t have to write out or explain the steps yourself! I ran into this problem earlier this week and found the solution. The customer could not change...

Windows Vista – Day 1

I installed the Windows Vista Beta edition I downloaded yesterday and so far have no evidence to overturn my initial observations. The install took about 55 minutes and was entirely hands off…an improvement from previous Windows installations. The boot up process is slower than Windows XP and shutdown is really slow. And this is all without adding any software to the computer yet. Microsoft tells us that Vista will be...

Chatting can help you

Over the last couple of years, we have mentioned the benefit of chatting with customer support personnel. Chatting used to be reserved for AOL customers and teens. Recently, however, many companies of all types have  found that they can reduce costs and give better service with the power of Internet chat. Chat is a simple technology that allows two (or more) computer users to write messages back and forth to each other. It...

Removing one of the built-in search engines in Fir...

We love the Mozilla Firefox web browser because of its safety, speed, and customizability. One of my favorite customizations is the ability to add sites to the built in search engine that let me quickly search web sites I visit most often…weather, recipes, downloads, movies, etc. Occasionally, it is nice to be able to remove one that I'm not using any further or maybe isn't working at all. Here's how to do...

“I can’t find stuff on your web site&#...

We get this comment more often than we would like. I'm going to split the responsibility between our web site design and web surfing experience of the folks who tell us they have trouble navigating our site. Our site has gone immense changes in the past year…for the better. If you might be in the camp who thinks that our current site is tough to navigate, you may have never returned to our old site after an initial...

How to Email Your Digital Photos

Emailing Your Digital Photos A few things to remember: Always save a copy of the ORIGINAL photo You can always go down on resolution, but you can never go up. 72 dpi for email and web – 300 dpi for printing Never email more than 150k of attachments Black & White takes up less space How to do it:   Outlook Express Create a new email message. Click ...

Computer BIOS

Many times on the show we guide people to the computer BIOS for troubleshooting some problems. BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. The BIOS, speaking very simply, controls and monitors the hardware on our computers. Keyboards, mice, hard drives, CDROM drives, the date and time (from the CMOS chip), and more all get inventoried and controlled via the BIOS. Think of the BIOS as the parts manager of your computer. The...

Make Disk Cleanup Run Faster

WARNING:  This tip involves editing the Registry, so only perform these steps IF you feel comfortable making changes to a part of the computer where one wrong move can bring your whole system down. Performing these steps will disable the "compress files" part of the Windows Clean Up utility: Click Start –> Run Type:   regedit Navigate to and expand the following registry key: ...

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Every day I go out and make my rounds, I’m surprised at how many people have never visited our web site. We believe that we are building the best computer help web site on the planet. We cover all the basic and most frequently asked questions that computer users have and in the last two months have added many new features and made the site easier to navigate and search. Adam and I had lunch with a colleague today who...

For our Western Colorado Listeners….

COMPUTER LITERATE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR A SHORT TERM PROJECT The Benevolent Community Partnership Seniors Committee (in Grand Junction, CO) is looking for volunteers to help Medicare D eligible seniors enroll in the Medicare D Program. Training will be provided in a two day session March 13 & March 14 from 9:00am-3:00pm at the Department of Human Services; 510 –29 Road ½ Road, Room 1060 on the first...

Elements 3 Features

What’s New In Elements 3   Quirky Features: Not all of the new features in Elements 3 are extremely useful. Although many of the new features are designed to help the beginner, they are too complicated to be of any use. Some of theses new quirky features include: 1. Create - The most useful of the quirky new features, this feature allows you to make slideshows, greeting cards, photo album pages and more....

How to Format Your Hard Drive and Reinstall Window...

WARNING:  I have done my best to outline the steps in this somewhat arduous task, but undertake this procedure at your own risk. Because of the vast differences in hardware and software, I cannot possibly cover every nuance. Please use this Tip as a guide and not the end all. AND BE SURE TO BACKUP ANYTHING YOU DON"T WANT TO LOSE PRIOR TO UNDERTAKING THE TASK! Since many of the sites that I used to refer...

Resize an emailed photo for printing

Have you ever been frustrated when trying to view or print a picture that you received via email? Today’s tip will solve this annoying problem for you quickly and almost effortlessly. 1. When you receive one of these large pictures, save it to your hard drive (and remember where it is). 2. Start Microsoft Word (Word Perfect and newer versions of Works will work as well). 3. Click on Insert –> Picture...

AOL Users – Find your downloads

One common question I get from AOL users is locating files or email attachments they have downloaded. When an AOL user downloads email attachments, by default, they get buried in a sub-folder of the AOL folder. This tip will help AOL folks who have a hard time finding these files. One easy way to quickly navigate to your AOL download folder is by creating a desktop shortcut…here’s how: 1. Double-click My...

Windows XP User Picture

Windows XP reached its first birthday last month. Yet, as with all other versions of Windows, learning all the tricks takes a lot of time OR just listening to my show and reading the Tip of the Week! If you use Windows XP and use the default ‘two column’ Start menu, then you see your Windows user name and picture at the top of the menu. The stock pictures that come with Windows XP include a frog, cat eye,...