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Riding Shotgun with Rick

Are you missing the Menu bar in Internet Explorer 7?

IE 7 Menu BarActually, Microsoft designed the new browser that way so that there is more room for browsing. However, if you want the menu bar (the one with File, Edit, View, Favorites, etc) back, follow these steps:

 

  1. Start Internet Explorer
  2. Press and release the Alt key on your keyboard
  3. The menu bar will be visible, Click the View menu option
  4. Click Toolbars
  5. Click Menu Bar

That will do it. You can't move the menu bar above the new address bar, but at least it will be visible and usable from now forward. For those of you who just want quick access to the menu bar, but don't mind that it is missing, remember the Alt key trick to get the menu bar to appear when you need it.

No, we don’t get paid

If I had a nickel for every time someone tells me, "Gee, I didn't know you still ran your computer help business. Since you syndicated your show, I thought you quit doing your business."

The truth: Adam and I don't get paid a single dime to do our show. We are in about 11 medium size radio markets and none of those are live for the entire three hours. In order to make money from a radio gig, we need to have a minimum of 75 radio stations with at least five being large market stations.

We hope to make 2007 a big year for the show, but in order to feed and clothe our families, we continue doing what we love to do and that's provide the best computer help and training that can be found anywhere on the planet for half the price of what the flashy computer geeks charge.

Save yourself two or three steps

Too often I see computer users of all experiences taking too many steps to visit a web site. If they know a web site address, they first go to a search engine like Yahoo! or Google and type the address there. Then they click Search, wait for the results and click the site they want to visit.

Instead of going through all those steps, type known addresses in the long white address bar at the top of the screen and press the Enter (return) key on your keyboard. And don't forget to use favorite for frequently visited sites so you don't have to type at all. Search engines are for research not browsing.

HP Director won’t open

Yesterday, I ran across a customer with an HP All-in-one printer that would not pull up the HP Director software that controls the copy, scan and fax processes. Turns out that the problem occurred shortly after his system updated to the new Internet Explorer 7. Because so much software uses Internet Explorer in some fashion, the update causes problems for some of them and this was the case with HP Director. HP has come out with a fix, but you have to be able to HP Director up and running in order to click on it's update feature.

Here's how to get HP Director up and running:

  1. Double-click the HP Director icon. Do not click anything else on your screen until Step 2 is completed.
  2. Press the Alt key and the Space bar together on your keyboard and Click Minimize from the menu that displays in the upper left corner of the window. If necessary, click it again until HP Director minimizes.
    The HP Director software should now appear as an item on the Task Bar.
  3. Click HP Director on the Task Bar. The software opens and displays normally.
  4. Repeat the steps above each time the HP Director software is used.

This is a workaround posted on HP's web site. Once you do get the HP Director running, click the "Check for updates" icon on it and download the available updates. It will take a few moments and then ask you to restart your computer, but when it does, all will be well again with HP Director.

 

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.Left Mouse button
  • Double-clicking is NEVER required…it is always an option.
  • The only places you need to double-click (and I'll show you how to avoid it altogether at the end of this tip) are the Desktop and any Windows Explorer window where you want to open a file.
  • When clicking links and menu options on the Internet, Click just ONE TIME with the left mouse button
  • If you are moving Solitaire cards from one stack to another or files from one folder to another, you click ONE time with the Left mouse button and hold it down while moving the object. When you let go of the button, the item will stay where you put it.
  • This is the only button you will use to make selections from menus.

Right Mouse Button

Make a deep Favorite or Bookmark

This tip arose earlier today when I told a customer that he could make a favorite or bookmark to any part of a web site. He frequently needed to access one portion of a web site, but always started at the home page and then clicked two to four pages deep to get to his destination. He and many more like him never realized that a bookmark could be set at any point in the browsing process…not just the home page. He was amazed and delighted that he could save all this time for many of his sites. Browse to the portion of the site that you need to access, and then set your bookmark or favorite.

I realize many people already understand this concept, but unfortunately many do not. Share this information with them and their friends so that everyone can save a little time on the Internet. 

Setup ZoneAlarm Firewall to not interfere with your home network

We had a call a couple of weeks ago about configuring ZoneAlarm , a software firewall, to allow for a home network to be setup. Often times, after setting up ZoneAlarm, network communication like sharing printers and files is blocked unless ZoneAlarm is shutdown…defeating the purpose of the firewall. Here's how to add your home network to the "Trusted Zone" in ZoneAlarm so that file and printer sharing will work with ZoneAlarm enabled:

  1. Double-click the ZoneAlarm icon by the clock in the system tray
  2. Click the Firewall optionZone Alarm Settings (see #1 in the illustration)
  3. Click the Zones tab (see #2 in the illustration)
  4. Click Add (see #3 in the illustration)
  5. Click IP Range
  6. Make sure the Zone says "Trusted"
  7. Type in the lowest IP address on your network (like 192.168.0.100). You can find this out by RIGHT Clicking on your Wireless or LAN connection in the Network Connections found in the Control Panel)
  8. Type in the highest IP address on your network. Make this number about 15-20 points higher than the fourth digit of the previous number. If our example as above, then use 192.168.0.120 for this number.
  9. Type "Home Network" or something similar in the Description box
  10. Click OK
  11. Click Apply on the Zones screen
  12. Close ZoneAlarm

Shopping story

By popular demand (thanks Jack), here’s the shopping store. A customer of
mine took advantage of the amazing computer deals at a local big box store
with matching initials. It was one of those computer, monitor, printer
packages. Turns out they sold her an ‘open box’ printer and though
apprehensive the manager assured her everything would be fine.

I show up to set everything up and take one look at the box and asked to
see her receipt. They charged her full price for the printer (three-in-one
HP) and gave her a gift certificate for $8.50. There was no packing
material around the printer, the cartridges were already installed and dry,

Know how much you are paying for high tech

I was going to write about a tremendously awful transaction with a local big box and one of my customers, but I decided I will save it for another day…unless you the web visitors demand the story. It's a doozey, but unfortunately not unique.

Instead, I want to write about the financial consulting side of my business. I know very little about stock trading, CD's, bonds, gold, and mutual funds, but I do know what technology and telecommunication services cost and how to save money on monthly bills. I still get surprised to find out how many people don't really know how much money they spend a month on phone and Internet service. Often times, I can save people almost $30 per month (that's nearly a new computer a year) and get them better services. At the very least, I can usually keep expenses about the same, but still increase services. Let me illustrate how to approach your tech bills and see if you can benefit from a change.

Captcha?

Captcha1Technology has spawned many strange new words from blog to podcast to spyware. Captcha is a new term that you will be seeing more of in the coming months. In fact, chances are good that you have already dealt with captchas. A captcha is a scrambled mess of characters (like the ones pictured in this article) that we have to reproduce in a box before submitting a web form.

The purpose of captchas is to thwart bad guys from releasing programs (web bots) that can automatically fill out forms all over the web. They do this to leave spam on sites that allow comments or to send bogus orders to e-commerce sites. Captchas work well at stopping these hacker bots because they can't 'read' and verify these characters.