When do I right click?

Wow, I get that question so many times that I decided we should put up an explanation on the site. All computer mice have at least two buttons. The primary button is usually the left one and does the vast majority of the work. Follow these rules when thinking about your mouse buttons: Left Mouse Button It is your primary work horse AND the only button used for double-clicking. Double-clicking is NEVER required…it is...

HP printer jam recovery

Overall, HP printers are my favorite. They are dependable, they do a great job and they are fairly economical on a price per page basis. I have seen some good things from Canon printers lately, but HPs have a much longer track record. Every brand of printer has its problems and HPs are no exception. One of the biggest problems with HP printers is that they get caught in a loop. If you turn the printer off in the middle of...

How much computer can $40,000 get you?

Over the past few weeks, I have been working with a local business (that I will not name) to help them change their computer setup. The business is of the type that they need to worry about security, privacy and large-scale record keeping. When I help out with this sort of job, I have no problem admitting where my limits of expertise are and I help the client find another business that has the book learning to do the job they...

Wow, what a computer!

With the upcoming Windows Vista (which I don't like, but need to learn for my business), I knew that my almost five year old computer wasn't going to cut the mustard. So, tonight, with the help of our very own computer bargain guru Tedd and some feedback from Adam, I purchased a new system. $669 after rebates for a beast of a machine was too good to pass up. It is an HP with 2 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drive, DVD Burner,...

A word for our Dial-up readers (and our high speed...

Lately, I have helped many dial-up computer users get their email unclogged. It became clogged because their friends and family who have high speed Internet sent them messages that were way too big for email. Usually these messages contained either large digital photos or video jokes or messages that bring dial-up users email to screeching halt.  DIAL-UP USERS: You absolutely need to know how to check your email using your...

How to buy a computer book

When teaching my basic computer classes, I often get the question, "What is a good computer book?" This is also followed or preceded by the complaint that the individual's computer did not come with a manual. As strange as it may seem, there is a very good reason why the average computer doesn't come will a full instruction book. The reason is that there is too much to know about a computer to fit in a...

What IS a blog?

Over the past few weeks I have been asked this question several times. For some reason people always place the emphasis on the word is in this question. "So, what is a blog?" is a different question than "What is a blog? By placing the emphasis on the word is, I read this question to be rephrased as, "I keep hearing about blogs and they sound interesting, but no one can really define it for me, can you...

Palm handhelds still rock

Palm has shifted focus the last few years to smartphones (like the Treo I'm writing on right now), but they still manufacture and sell PDA's (portable digital assistants). I helped a customer setup a new Palm Tungsten E2 today. I set it up so that she could sync (transfer data from computer to PDA and vice versa) between both her Windows desktop and her Mac laptop…very slick. Now she has the option of...

These computer oldies are OUT!

I've kept this bottled up for at least two years, and now I'm going to let it out and would love to hear your comments. Computers have been in the home on a large scale for about twelve years now and certain aspects of computing just don't work in today's' tech world. Here is my list of what no longer works: Anything less than 1024 X 768 resolution. Even many productivity programs require this minimum...

Internet Explorer 7 Keyboard shortcuts

General shortcuts table with 2 columns and 9 rows Turn Full Screen Mode on or off  F11  Cycle through the Address Bar, Refresh button, Search Box, and items on a web page   TAB   Find a word or phrase on a page  CTRL+F  Open the current webpage in a new window   CTRL+N   Print the page   CTRL+P   Select all items on the page   CTRL+A   Zoom in   CTRL+PLUS   Zoom out   CTRL+MINUS   Zoom to 100%...

55 Minute Uninstall

Wow, it would have almost been faster to backup the data, reformat the hard drive, and reinstall everything from scratch. The long install was of the grossly over programmed Norton Internet Security Suite. Here's the breakdown of my appointment: 8:26am Arrive at customer's house. He tells me that his computer is running extremely slow. 8:32am I sit down and hit the power button on the computer. 8:36am Still...

Why no one is holding their breath for Windows Vis...

Just to give you an idea about what to expect with Windows Vista, here is a cool sign I saw next to all of the computers at Office Depot. Rather than call the latest version of Windows by its proper name Windows Vista, I prefer to call it Windows XP ME. Windows ME was a product that was rushed to market before it was perfected. Come to think of it, so was Windows 98. It seems with each new version of Windows, Microsoft is...

Using your solitaire skills (Drag & Drop) R...

Believe it or not, Microsoft put Solitaire in Windows to help new computer users get comfortable with the mouse and its functions. After years of playing solitaire, this tip will help you put the skills to use. I like to call this technique the "ol' 8 or hearts on the 9 of clubs trick." In computer talk, what you are doing when you move one card to another in solitaire is the "drag & drop." ...

Block Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 7 finally became final last week and is starting to be deployed as a Windows Update. While I believe that IE 7 is a huge step in the right direction, the changes in the look and feel of the browser will throw many for a loop. Even after working with IE 7 for the past five or so months as it made its way through the beta stages of development, I don't think it holds a candle next to the Firefox browser ....

Catching up after vacation

I took a short two-day vacation with my family. When I got back I had 31 calls to return. I was able to get back to almost all of them but I still have a few to call back tomorrow. I am about ready to declare that computers are not yet perfect. With all of the windows fixes, anti-virus programs and teenagers out there to fix and prevent computer problems, we have made little progress in perfecting today's machines. Some...