System Control

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

HowTo: Change Windows Default Font Size

By terry Leave a Comment

I received an email recently from someone who was having problems with a Windows dialog box. In this particular case, she was trying to put a registration code into software, but the field for the code extended outside the box � and she couldn’t input the whole code.

It really sounds to me like a font-size settings problem in your copy of Windows. Programmers almost often specify the size fo a Windows dialog boxes — but Windows itself lets YOU change the default font size that you use.

As a result, when users make their default Windows fonts larger (their Windows font, not their default web browser font), they can end up moving stuff from the dialog box into the invisible, unusable portion of the dialog box.

Continue Reading HowTo: Change Windows Default Font Size

Filed Under: Software, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Web Browsers, Windows Repair, Windows XP

Setting the Default Web Browser

By terry Leave a Comment

In last week’s first article More Internet Explorer 7 Problems Reported, subscriber Valerie Mitchell was having problems with IE7 and one of its setup pages � a page that should only have appeared one time.

This week, she wrote back to say:

I ended up uninstalling IE7 and went back to IE6. But now I keep getting this problem on FireFox and IE6…Everytime I open these browsers or if I click on something in my favorites, I get this message: “This file does not have a program associated with it for perfoming this action. Create an association in Folder Options” It also keeps popping up even as I’m typing this email.
I tried following the instructions to fix this on the MS website, but I just don’t get it. Could you explain it in simpler terms please or your own method of fixing this please. Also, I don’t know how to enable ActiveX. Could you tell me how please?
Many thanx again.
v.mitchell

It sounds like IE7 was your default browser, but that when it uninstalled itself, it didn’t turn IE6 back into the default (perhaps you had Firefox as the default before).

Continue reading Setting the Default Web Browser

Filed Under: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Software, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Web Browsers, Windows XP

HowTo: Email a Web Site Address

By terry Leave a Comment

Have you ever received an email that had a broken link?

Sometimes, the length of a URL is so long, or it’s at the “wrong point” in a sentence such that the email program breaks the URL — and wraps part of it onto the next line of the email.

If we’re sending the email to a mailing list, our email program may not break the link, but the mailing list program might do that.

We can solve the problem sometimes by making sure that we paste the URL into the first column of a line of the email.

Other times, that’s not enough.

Fortunately, there is a free fix…

Continue reading HowTo: Email a Web Site Address

Filed Under: Email, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability

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

To Active-X or Not to Active-X

By terry Leave a Comment

I received a question from subscriber and friend Ralph Campbell, who asked:

A number of times I have seen you refer disparagingly of “Active-x controls”.
I have seen downloads that require Active X to run properly. I have read the definition of the program, but, I guess I am just dense. What is this thing, and why do you consider it so insidious?
Admittedly, I’m technical-challenged, but can this program be explained?
What does one do as an alternative, if the program you want to download, requires Active-X to run?
Ralph Campbell

Active-X controls are downloadable programs that have full capabilities to do anything on your computer.

I’m not sure why Microsoft chose such the innocuous word “control” for a program that had no security constraints imposed upon it.

Read the rest of the article in ActiveX or No ActiveX

Filed Under: Anti-Spyware, Internet Explorer, Internet Privacy, Security, Stability, System Control, Windows Updates, Windows XP

Slow-loading Web Browser Links

By terry 1 Comment

One of my forum readers in my Windows XP /2000/etc forum (which are now shut down thanks to too many spam posts) wrote about a problem he was having.

He wrote:

IE6 SP1 browser..links take long time to download

My computer contains: Athlon 3200gb, 1 gig Ram, I have WinXP SP2 Home, and IE 6 SP1. When I click on a link in my OE e-mail, I am immediately taken to the web-site. When on a web-site, and I click on a link within the site, it takes “forever” to download the page….I watch the green progress bar, not much happens. It says “done”, but I still have to wait a long time for the page to download. I click the F5 key to refresh and still it takes a long time for the page to download.

I’ve checked for malware (AdAware, SpyBot, MS anti spyware, CCleaner….none), I ran a system scan for viruses (AVG and then TrendMicro Housecall….no viruses), I cleaned out cache, Temp files and cookies. Nothing helps.

I also ran Start/Run/ sfc /scannow with my original Win XP CD and this didn’t help. I also ran IE Fix…didn’t help.

This problem occurs on e-mails with Links from e.g. PCMag.com; Lockergnome.com; AllExperts.com, etc.

What suggestions can U offer??

I would hate to format/reinstall.

_________________

Irving S.

I wrote back to Irving with a list of suggestions — and his problem was solved.

Read how in Slow-loading Web Browser Links

Filed Under: Firefox, Firewalls, Internet Explorer, Opera, Registry Repair, Speed-up, Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web Browsers, Windows Repair, Windows XP

Wireless Security

By terry Leave a Comment

First, be sure to connect to the router using an Ethernet cable for your configuration work � otherwise, with the first change, you�ll get locked out. If you are using wireless to login to the router, if you get locked out, you�ll have to wait for the router to time out and close that login.

Know these definitions,

* SSID = Server Set ID � basically, this is the network name
* MAC Address = a unique code for every networking device
* WEP = “Wired Equivalent Privacy” (don�t you believe it!)
* WPA = newer technology “Wi-Fi Protected Access”

First, I recommend that you secure your network.

Many people believe in having their network open — available to anyone who might want to use it. Without considering whether such sharing this may or may not be in compliance with your ISP’s terms and conditions of your service, you should consider the impact on the individual computers of your network.

Read more in my Wireless Security article.

Filed Under: Firewalls, Internet Privacy, Other, Security, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Wireless

WinClear – Clean Your Windows & Internet History

By terry Leave a Comment

WinClear is a computer history cleaner program designed to delete or erase the history of your activity on your computer. Obviously, it can’t dig into the guts of every program to find and delete the history each might retain (and you probably would not want that).

WinClear targets general Windows items, recent document lists in many programs, chat history, and all sorts of data that Internet Explorer records on your use of IE.

I wrote several weeks ago in my email newsletter that I had been trying out WinClear. I was impressed with it from the start.

On my notebook, after I had deleted my temporary files (I thought) and the Temporary Internet Files, I was surprised that WinClear found over 800 MB of temporary files for me. Since I was down to only 2 GB free on my notebook, getting 800 MB more was a significant find.

Read more in my WinClear Review — or download the trial scanner

Filed Under: History Cleaner, Internet Privacy, Software, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web Browsers, Windows XP

Back-to-School – Turn Off File & Printer Sharing

By terry Leave a Comment

Those of us with home networks usually share files, or at least printers, across our network.

This nice feature allows several computers to share and use one or more printers. At my house, we share an HP Laserjet 1200 and an HP ColorJet printer. That way, any printer can print color pages when we need them or print black and white laser quality pages (which also happen to be cheaper!).

But, as we send our children off to college, there’s a step that they need to take.

Windows allows us to easily turn OFF the “Windows File and Printer Sharing” in one place, rather than having to go and block each shared folder, drive or printer.

Filed Under: Anti-virus, Firewalls, Internet Privacy, Intrusion Detection, Security, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips