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A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

By terry Leave a Comment

Recently, one of my subscribers wanted to know about a free program to let him fill in PDF forms.

I made a quick check and realized that the free PDF reader Foxit Reader would do this. While Foxit Reader also has a Pro Pack available to add additional functions, the free version does almost everything that most users need.

More importantly, it does it without the baggage of Adobe Reader and its huge memory requirement, the huge delays in starting up (unless you let Adobe Reader preload and take up a bunch of your memory all the time, and its automatic updating, which caused me problems.

I’ve been using Foxit Reader for a couple years, off and on, but now it’s my main program for reading PDF files.

Before responding to the subscriber, I checked the Foxit website and found that I was using a version that was several iterations old. I had v2.0 installed, while the current version is v2.3. Needless to say, I downloaded Foxit Reader 2.3 and installed it. I also realized this was a good time to write about Foxit Reader.

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Filed Under: Free, Other, Software, Specials, Storage, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Vista, Windows XP

Which Program Has Locked My File?

By terry 1 Comment

Optimize 2.0 Review – Five Months Later Review

By terry Leave a Comment

Optimize 2.0 Review Number 2

Back in February, 2008, I bought a license for Optimize 2.0 and was very impressed with its cleanup and speedup changes it made on my computer.

Now, five months later, is it still a worthwhile tool?

As I ran the program on Friday night, it had been several weeks since I had used it to check the optimization and for cleanup.

Continue reading Optimize 2.0 Review – Five Months Later Review or get more information

Filed Under: Free Trials, Optimize, Other, PC Repairs, Registry Repair, Software, Speed-up, Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Vista, Windows XP

HOWTO: Change File-type Program Associations

By terry Leave a Comment

I’ve done it. I’m sure you have, too.

We’ve all installed a program that arbitrarily grabbed certain file extensions (such as .doc, .jpg, .mp3) and changed Windows’ settings. Now, the new program is the default for opening that file type.

Sometimes, it’s our fault — many programs that can handle multiple file types will give us an option during the program’s installation. We’ll get the chance to select (or deselect) which program types will default to the new program. If we pick wrong, or decide later that this wasn’t really what we wanted to do, it seems like we’re stuck with the new program.

Fortunately, Windows has a couple easy ways for us to change the default program that is opened when you double-click on a file or an attachment.

For this example, let’s assume that we installed the graphics program Irfanview, which gives us the option to make it the default for a lot of different types of images. Without thinking, and forgetting that we really like Windows XP’s Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, we set IrfanView to be the default for JPG images.

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Filed Under: HowTo, Other, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Uncategorized, Vista, Windows Repair, Windows XP

Wikipedia – the Free Online Encyclopedia Edited by You

By terry Leave a Comment

What is Wikipedia? It’s the free encyclopedia. More interestingly, it’s a free online encyclopedia that is edited by its readers.

You may have already heard the name “wiki”, which is the name for a type of web site that is created by its visitors. Many wikis allow anonymous editing, at least to some extent.

More wiki’s require users to create accounts before giving them creation or editing permissions. Others restrict editing capabilities to authorized users, but use wiki software because of its ease of content creation and handling.

Continue reading Wikipedia – the Free Online Encyclopedia Edited by You

Filed Under: Free, Other, Terry's Computer Tips, Web Sites

Number 1 Step in Computer Troubleshooting

By terry Leave a Comment

You’ve seen the problem. The program you use every day, or maybe one you use occasionally, isn’t doing what it should.

Perhaps the program can’t load one of its data files, so it doesn’t actually start. Perhaps it won’t do the task you told it to do – even if it worked yesterday. Perhaps the program crashes when you run it.

There is one often-forgotten cure for Windows.

In today’s world of Windows, fast computers, fast Internet connections using cable modems, DSL modems or even Ethernet connection to the ISP, many of us leave our computers turned on all the time.

We take the prudent and necessary steps of running a two-way firewall (like Sunbelt Personal Firewall), we run an anti-virus program that auto-updates, we run an anti-spyware/anti-adware program (like CounterSpy v2), and maybe even run an anti-spam program.

But, we forget to reboot our computers occasionally. We joke about calling technical support at a software company and being told to reboot.

Continue reading Number 1 Step in Computer Troubleshooting

Filed Under: Anti-Adware, Anti-Spyware, HowTo, Other, Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Vista, Windows XP

The Windows Right-Click Send-To Menu

By terry Leave a Comment

One of the neat features of Windows is the drag-and-drop system, where you can use the mouse to drag an icon (or a file name in Windows Explorer), over a target icon � and drop the dragged icon on target icon.

When you do that, many Windows programs will start and do whatever they do to that file.

Drag an icon onto the Recycle Bin, let go, and the icon will go into the Recycle Bin.

Drag a document icon over the icon for Microsoft Word, Word will start and open the icon.

Drag an image icon into Internet Exporer when it’s open, or drag and drop it on the IE icon if IE’s not open, and IE will display the image.

Many programs work that way and it’s a big convenience.

But, there are times where you don’t have an icon…

Continue reading The Windows Right-Click Send-To Menu

Filed Under: HowTo, Other, Speed-up, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Windows XP

Google Earth – A View from Space

By terry 1 Comment

In the Using Google Maps article, we saw how we could find a location on the maps. Then, we saw that we could see a satellite view and even a hybrid view with the map superimposed over the satellite view. We could zoom, too.

Google has another neat satellite-view program. This one is Google Earth, which is free and is part of the free Google Pack software package.

There’s not much I can say about Google Earth. That’s because I don’t know where to start…

Let’s try some bullet points:

* You start in space, looking at the Earth. You can turn the Earth with the pointers, or by dragging it, or by double-clicking on a spot.
* Double-clicking on a spot on the globe makes you fly to it — the globe turns, smoothly scrolling the display. Your double-clicked spot is now in the center.
* Double-clicking on the spot again zooms closer. But, it’s easier to control zooming with the scroll button on the mouse.

Continue reading Google Earth – A View from Space

Filed Under: Free, Other, Software, Terry's Computer Tips

HOWTO: Changing Program Icons

By terry Leave a Comment

Almost all purchased programs come with their own unique icons. Some are pretty or cute, while others are ugly.

If you create your own programs or Command files (.cmd) to run several commands, you’ll end up with a plain, unattractive default Windows icon for that file type.

However, you can change the icon to any other icon that you can find on your computer.

Most icons are actually encoded into the program files themselves, but Windows knows how to find them. Windows also has a set of generic icons that you can choose to use.

Let’s create a Windows shortcut to immediately shut down your computer, without getting the Stand By, Turn Off, Restart or Cancel.

1. Right-click on a blank part of the Windows Desktop, and select New, Shortcut.
2. In the “Type the location of the item:” box, enter the following:
shutdown.exe -s -t 0
(don’t miss the “-s -t 0″ part — they mean shutdown, time delay, 0 seconds)

Continue reading the full HOWTO: Changing Program Icons article with images…

Filed Under: HowTo, Other, Software, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Windows XP

GoToMyPC – Remote Access to Your PC – Review

By terry Leave a Comment

As I wrote in one of my weekly newsletters, I’de been trying the 30-day free trial of GoToMyPC. I’m very impressed with this service and its capabilities.

GoToMyPC is designed to allow a PC user to access his computer remotely. This user might be a salesman, a tech support person, a business man who left some files at the office (or at home), a traveler for business or pleasure. Access could be from across town or across the country.

Getting Started With GoToMyPC – 30-day free trial

On the remote PC, the PC that you’re actually using, you use a Java-capable web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc) to access your host computer (your office or home PC). Any web browsers that supports Sun Microsystems’ Java (free, www.java.com) will work, although not all features may be available on some browsers. You can even access and control your Windows PC from a Mac.

Filed Under: Firefox, Free Trials, Internet Explorer, Networking, Opera, Other, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web Browsers