Changing file-program associations – Video T...

Have you ever wondered how to get your picture files to open directly in your image editing program? Or maybe correct a problem with PDF documents not opening in your PDF reader? Read on to learn how to get your files to open where you want them to when you double-click on them. For example, by default JPEG picture files open with Microsoft Windows Image & Fax Viewer. Maybe you want them to open with Adobe Photoshop...

9 Tweaks I perform for a new client’s comput...

When I meet a client’s computer for the first time, I go through a little routine to check for problems, improve performance, and speed up boot times. You can do it to your own computer too. Use Task Manager to see how many processes are running and determine how much tweaking I have to do to startup. Use msconfig to streamline the startup process Install CCleaner to cleanup temporary files Check on the amount of RAM...

Print Preview

Sometimes the most helpful computer utilities elude us and stay hidden for years. One such utility that I find very helpful (and have taken for granted) is the Print Preview function found in almost any program that allows printing. Because Windows and Macintosh made the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment available to the masses, what we see on our screens is pretty close to what we see on our print outs....

System Engineer fed up with Windows vulnerabilitie...

Interesting article from a ZDNet author, Christopher Dawson,  who also works full-time as a school district computer engineer. Despite locking down Windows computers with security software, tweaking firewalls, and making sure all Windows updates are up to snuff, threats still sneak into their computers. I understand the frustration he exhibits in the article regarding the time and effort spent fighting these...

Google News Alerts

Would you like to get targeted news/web searches delivered to your email? Google Alerts can do that for you. Google Alerts allow you to get automated, customized news and web searches delivered to your email daily, weekly, or as breaking news alerts based on the criteria you provide. The service can be used without a Google account, but if you start using the service more, and you will, having an account will allow you to...

Defrag, scan disk, and deleting cookies don’...

In the computer world, there are hot rodders – people who will tweak their computers to get every last bit of horse power out of their systems. Just as with automobiles, techniques used by hot rodders were once necessary in the early days when horse power was hard to come by. Today, most computers come with all the horsepower most people need. Important tasks like defragmenting the hard drive, running scan disk and...

Vista Service Pack 1 – Don’t do itR...

Microsoft released the first service pack (major upgrade) to the barely one year old Vista this week. In fact, the Service Pack has been in the works almost since Vista was released last year. You will see and read it being referred to as Vista SP1. Microsoft missed the mark so badly with Vista that the company had to immediately go back to work in trying to improve an already mediocre release. Should you upgrade to...

Online Photo Editors

Basic photo editing no longer takes special software. You can now do some wonderful things with photos from any computer on almost any browser from anywhere in the world. Online photo editors allow you to edit photos simply by going to a special website. Once fully loaded, these sites let you resize, adjust brightness and contrast, tweak color and even work with layers. While none of these editors are as robust as Photoshop...

Give Windows Vista a needed boost – Video Ti...

Windows Vista is going away or improving so I will do my best to help Vista users make the best of a marginal situation. Lack of speed and responsiveness remains one of the biggest detriments to Vista. I believe that one visiblible flaw with Vista’s speed is the over abundance of visual affects that require a great deal of resources. Disabling these unnecesary and sometimes irritating features will yield a little extra...

3 Reasons NOT to use Registry Cleaners

I know that downloading can be fun and pop-ups can be enticing. But when it comes to most system utilities (programs supposedly designed to help your computer), just say “NO!” One of the worst add-on utilities you can get is the so-called “registry cleaner”. First, let me try to define the registry. Starting with Windows 95 and all versions of Windows since then, Microsoft has employed a large and...

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scannin...

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scanning* *but weren’t sure who to ask. Every scanner works a little differently, but these terms and tips should help you through the process. TERMS YOU SHOULD KNOW Image Editor – This is any program that allows you to manipulate an image. Some titles include Adobe Photoshop and Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft ...

Mission Accomplished

As I wrote about on Friday, this was a busy work weekend for me. I think three of the computers I worked on offer an interesting comparison in operating systems. One laptop was a brand new HP with 2 GB of RAM and Windows Vista, but the owner wanted me to install Windows XP and take off Windows Vista. He uses it primarily for traveling and downloading his digital photos while traveling and just didn’t like the lack...

Better Internet Audio & Video for Slow Interne...

More and more, the Internet is all about streaming video and audio. Streaming means that the web site slowly feeds the audio or video content to your computer. With slow Internet connections (dial-up and basic DSL), the video might be choppy and audio may stutter. Unfortunately, there is no sure fire way to combat this with slower connections, but you can take steps to improve the performance of Internet audio and video. All...

Did you miss us last night?

Many thanks for everyone who attempted to tune in last night. It was a great trial run and we have most of the kinks worked out. We didn’t actually get the live video and chat up until around 10:45pm. Once everything was up and running it was pretty lively. By the time we got off at almost midnight we were getting computer questions right and left. We are very excited to get this going. One thing we can promise is that...

Ubuntu – Day 1

I haven’t touched my Windows’ machine all day and won’t for the next 14. However, one program I already miss from my Windows’ computer is my wonderful anti-spam software called Cloudmark Desktop. Adam and I talk almost weekly about Cloudmark Desktop. We have both used it since we discovered it at the old Comdex computer show five or six years ago. Currently, they don’t have a Linux version of the...