Skip to content

Riding Shotgun with Rick

What version do I have?

One of the first questions tech support people will ask you if you have problems that need solved is what version of Windows you are using and what version of the program you have a question about you are using. Fortunately, finding out the answer takes just a few steps:

Locating your Windows version

  1. Click Start
  2. RIGHT Click the My Computer icon (or Computer icon)
  3. Click Properties
  4. The System Properties screen appears telling you not only what version of Windows you are using, but also how much RAM (temporary memory) you have and how fast your computer’s processor is. 

or, you can push the Windows key + the Pause/Break key on your keyboard to get the same screen  

Locating the name and version of any program

  1. Start any program
  2. Click Help from the menus in that program
  3. Click About
  4. The program’s information screen will appear telling you the official name of the program, its version number, and sometimes the programs support web site address and/or phone number.

Use this handy tip to gather important information about your computer before calling for help to save yourself and your computer helper time.

 

Living online with your applications and data

Here I go again talking about online applications and data storage. I keep bringing it up because the idea makes more sense to me everyday.

In just my first two days of work this week, I found multiple examples of how computing online instead of on your desktop makes sense for so many people. It will be a long time before serious photographers, movie makers, engineers, and graphic designers can make do with online applications because their programs require a great deal of computer speed, power, and storage. However, for the bulk of computer users at home and many in small businesses, migrating data online and utilizing online applications can save a great deal of time and money.

Take control of the AVG Scans – Video Tips

As you know, we whole heartedly recommend and use AVG Antivirus. It is unobtrusive, fast, and most importantly effective. However, one irritating function it has is the default full system scan at 8:00am. Many people are working on their computers at 8:00am and full system scan slows down the system enough to be highly annoying if not unusable in some cases.

You don’t have to wait for the scan to finish. Just RIGHT click on the AVG scanning icon in your system tray (by the clock). It looks just like the AVG icon, but has a little white triangle in the middle of it. After you right click, click “Cancel or Stop Scan”. You will get a confirmation box asking if you are sure, Click Yes, then OK.

One other tidbit to remember about AVG is that it is OK to click the OK button after it completes the daily update. Many computer users wait politely for

2 fantastic alternatives to Mapquest maps

Mapquest.com used to be synonymous with online maps. They offered online maps when few others did and did a good job. Unfortunately, Mapquest hasn’t changed much since the late 90’s except get more and more advertisements hovering around their slow and out-dated system. Their innovation and improvements seemed to stop around the same time AOL bought them.

For faster, easier, and better online mapping, I like two products; Google Maps and Microsoft’s Live Search Maps.

Save pictures from email – Video Tip

It’s been almost one year since I first posted this tip. We have many new visitors this year, and not enough of you are heading my advice yet on this subject, so I’m posting it again. Please believe me when I tell you that this tip alone can save you countless dollars, time, and tears!

Through my travels, I have noticed that many computer users save emails with pictures because they are unsure of how to save those pictures. Saving lots of pictures in your email program can drastically slow down the performance of the email program over time. Email programs typically can handle thousands of messages, but if something happens to the email database, and you haven't backed up those databases, the pictures will be gone for good. Your best insurance for saving pictures is to save them to a folder on your computer (like My Pictures or a subfolder of My Pictures) then back them up on a regular basis.

To save pictures from your email to a folder on your hard drive, do the following:

Outlook Express

1. Click the paper clip icon in the preview pane*
2. Click Save Attachments
3. In the "Save To" box at the bottom of the dialog box that pops up, click Browse and choose where YOU want to save the pictures and click OK
4. Click Save

* If you read your Outlook Express email in its own window, then RIGHT Click on the

Gmail convertee

Three weeks ago, I switched from using Microsoft Outlook (which I had used since 1998) to Gmail.

What is Gmail?

Gmail is the fast, free web based email from search giant Google. Gmail offers free POP3 access (if you want to download your email into Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc), 6.5 GB of storage (and the number continually grows), and the best web based spam filter I’ve seen so far.

Yet another feature yanked from the NEW Microsoft Office 2007

While working with a small business client today, they asked how to insert a picture into a Word document from their scanner. “Oh, that’s an easy one”, I said to myself. Then I realized they were using the new Office 2007.

In all previous versions of Microsoft Word and other word processor worth their weight, you follow these steps to insert a picture from

AVG Antivirus 8.0 Upgrade Advice

The past few days calls and emails started filtering in about the new AVG 8.0 version folks have seen appear on their free versions of AVG Antivirus. The common query is, “Should I upgrade?” No, home users of AVG Antvirus do not need to upgrade at all. The current free version of AVG will continue to be updated and as… Read More »AVG Antivirus 8.0 Upgrade Advice

WiFi is truly becoming ubiquitous

I’ve mentioned before that I think that laptops make a lot of sense for computer users who travel. With a great deal of our communication and information gathering tied up in the computer world, not having this tool when traveling is a definite minus. My family and I just returned from a short trip where having our laptop with us saved us a lot of time and aggravation.

While traveling, we used the computer and a wi-fi connection (which was easy to find) to :

  • Email relatives
  • Access maps 
  • Compare shopping centers we were thinking of visiting
  • Keep an eye on the weather
  • Check road reports
  • Find our favorite eateries
  • Find independent coffee shops (we like them better than Starbucks) 
  • Download and look at pictures we took
  • Stay current with news without having to wait for a newspaper or the evening news

I’m curious what other travelers use their laptops for on the road. Leave a comment and tell me your traveling laptop story or tip!

Can I ask a dumb question?

“The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask.”

That’s my pat answer when approached with the question…and I hear that question a lot. I believe that by not asking questions you eventually end up costing yourself time, money, and/or knowledge.

When it comes to computers, it behooves you to ask as many questions as possible so that you can learn. Too often, I hear this phrase; “I don’t take your classes because I need to learn more first.”

Re-read that last sentence. If that phrase makes sense to you, re-read it again! If it still makes sense to you, don’t come to my classes.