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What is that man doing at midnight in the back yard?

I don't often accept trades as pay for my services, but one of my clients that I have had for a very long time offered me a nice GPS device as a trade for a couple of appointments.

I have wanted a GPS system for quite a while and this one is perfect for my needs.

After teaching computer classes for the Parks and Rec. departments all day, I finally returned home around 9pm. Although I knew I still had a list of things to accomplish before bed, I had to play with my new toy before my mind could think about anything else.

I visited the Garmin website and learned all about the device then I reset it to remove all of the previous owner's information.

Using “Run” to get places

If you have listened to the show much, you have probably heard us tell people to go into "msconfig." This tip works in Windows XP for sure, but some commands may not work in other versions of Windows.

msconfig is one run command that takes you into the Microsoft Configuration Utility, but there are other handy run commands, here are most of them.

To use any of these click on START -> RUN and type the word or phrase in the box provided.

Add Hardware Wizard
hdwwiz.cpl

Add/Remove Programs
appwiz.cpl

Automatic Updates
wuaucpl.cpl

Bluetooth Transfer Wizard
fsquirt

Removing one of the built-in search engines in Firefox

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 that:

  1. Close Mozilla Firefox
  2. Navigate to your Firefox Profiles directory (usually C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR USERNAME>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\)
  3. There should be a folder that ends in ".default"; inside it you should open the searchplugins folder (if there are multiple ".default" folders, you may have to look in more than one. These represent different user profiles you have created in Firefox)
  4. In the 'searchplugins' folder, you'll see two files for each Firefox Search Engine you've added. (an image and a .src file). Be sure to get rid of both of them for each of the Search Engines you want to remove

 

E2Give Spyware removal

I forgot to post this earlier in the week. One of my customer's had a particularly nasty spyware infection that needed a specialized tool to remove it. The spyware is called e2give. If one of your spyware programs detects it, use this tip to get rid of it:

Download the removal tool here.

Then follow these instructions:

– Extract the file you downloaded to your Desktop
– Double click E2TakeOut.exe
– Click the Begin Removal button
– Wait until the program is finished scanning
– Once done, it will produce a popup stating that the infection has been found and you need to reboot you computer to complete the removal
– Reboot your computer
– Once your computer has rebooted E2TakeOut will open and produce a report

Another hobby horse: Don’t let your kids fix your computer

Yesterday I wrote about how much I dislike poorly custom built computers. Today I saw a similar situation – computers custom built by kids.

By kids I don't mean children or young goats, I mean offspring.

While at home this family's two sons had built and maintainted the two family computers. Now those two sons have moved away from home and married.

I was called to fix things up and the call went something like this, "Hi, we need your help. My two sons usually fix the computers but now they both live out of town and they don't have the time when they come to visit to fix the computers."

Fix those LSP problems with Winsock repair tool

I searched all over our site for this tool and I couldn’t find it, so I decided to do a Shotgun on it so that it would show up in a search on our page.

Some spyware is nastier than others. Some of my least favorite spyware goes in and corrupts the way your computer connects to the Internet. Essentially it routes your Internect connection through a special path so that the creator of the spyware can watch what you are doing online.

It does then by changing a feature of Windows called Winsock. Winsock is the method that your computer uses to talk to other computers on the Internet and elsewhere. If Winsock gets corrupted, you lose your Internet connection.

A good mechanic always has parts left over

It is time that I come clean and confess that I steal screws. I don’t intend to steal them, but while I am working on a computer, I tend to put the screws in my pockets so that I don’t lose them.

When I get home at the end of the day, I always find a computer screw or two. To my defense, I always put the computer completely back together.

I place the blame on the computer manufacturer. Today’s computers have way too many screws. Some computers have two thumb screws to hold the side on and two screws in each side of the CD-ROM drive to hold it in place. These screws are in addition to other types of securing mechanisms like clips and grooves.

Norton may slow computers down

ALERT!!

Today I saw a client with a slow computer. I removed Norton Antivirus and the computer instantly regained the speed of its youth.

Later in the day I saw another client with a slow computer. I removed Norton Antivirus and the computer instantly regained the speed of its youth.

There seems to be a trend here because over the past two years I have seen dozens of computers with slowness problems. After removing Norton Antivirus the computer instantly regained the speed of its youth.

Resolving problems with PayPal

Once in a great while a person on eBay will take your money but never send you the item. This is one of the advantages to using PayPal. If the seller has a PayPal account you can file a complaint with PayPal.

To start the complaint process go to www.PayPal.com, log into your account and click on the Resolution Center.

If the person does not work with PayPal to resolve the problem then PayPal will remove the funds from the seller’s account and refund it to you. 

The nuts and bolts of setting up a computer

It seems that we are in a computer buying season. I have several appointments this week to setup new computers. While we have a number of tips on the site about how to setup a new computer for safety, we don’t have much written about the physical setup of the system. Here are a few tips to get things setup quickly and efficiently.

1. Start with the big parts – Don’t take every cable and disk out of the box, just remove the big pieces and set them in their place. The trick to getting large pieces out of the box is to open the box then turn it over. You can then pull the box off the top leaving a neat pile of components.