FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
In this section,
we will try to answer some of the Frequently Asked
Questions that come to us from our clients, and solutions
to issues from some of our own technicians and other
resources. Our goal here is to make your computing
adventure an enjoyable and trouble-free experience.
We will be adding a vast number "how to's"
here, along with our "Tips and Tricks" found
here.
Please
let us know here
if there is anything specific that you would like for
us to answer in regard to these or other topics:
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Windows
XP Operating System
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Outlook: How to:
How
to View Hidden Devices
Device
Manager, by default, hides two types of devices:
non-Plug and Play printers and drivers, and devices
that were previously attached to the computer but
have been disconnected (non-present devices). Here's
how to view these:
-
To
view non-PnP devices, open Device Manager, click
the View menu and select Show hidden devices.
-
To
see a list of previously attached devices, click
Start | Run, type cmd to open the command windows,
and type Devmgmtmsc set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1,
then select Show Hidden Devices in Device Manager.
If you want to always view non-present devices every
time Device Manager is opened, do the following:
-
Click Control Panel | Performance and Maintenance
| System
-
Click
the Advanced tab.
-
Click
Environment Variables.
-
In
the User Variables box (if you want the change
to only apply to the logged on user account)
or the System Variables box (if you want the
change to apply to all users), click New.
-
In
the New User Variable or New System Variable
dialog box, in the Variable Name field, type
DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES
In the Variable Value box, enter 1.
-
Click
OK, and then OK again to apply the change and
close the dialog boxes.
How
to optimize disk space for recording to CD
For
best performance when burning data to a CD or DVD,
you should configure your computer to use a drive
other than the one on which Windows is installed
for temporary storage of the files during the write
process. This requires that you have multiple disks
or partitions available on the computer. Here's
how to select a different drive or partition on
which to store the temp files:
-
Click
Start | My Computer.
-
Right click the drive icon that represents the
CD recording device.
-
Click Properties.
-
Click
the Recording tab.
-
In
the drop down box, select a drive that has at
least 700 MB of free space.
-
Click
Apply and OK.
How
to Get Back the Ability to Make Pictures Smaller
in Email
Windows
XP, by default, gives you an option to reduce the
size of photos that you attach to email messages
in Outlook or Outlook Express, in order to decrease
the file size. This is a handy feature if you send
pictures from or to a computer that uses a slow
dialup connection. Sometimes, however, you may find
that the option no longer appears. You can usually
fix this by registering a DLL file. Here's how:
-
Click
Start | Run
-
Type cmd to open a command window.
-
At
the command prompt, type regsvr32 shimgvw.dll.
-
Press
[Enter].
-
Close
the command window.
How
to Stop the Windows Messenger Service
Windows
Messenger is used by systems administrators to send
messages to computers on their local networks (for
example, a message that the network is going to
be down at a certain time). However, the service
can be used by hackers to pop up messages such as
ads on your computer. If you don't operate in a
computing environment where you need to receive
Windows Messenger messages, you can disable the
service. Here's how:
-
Click
Start | Control Panel
-
Click Performance and Maintenance.
-
Click
Administrative Tools.
-
Double
click Services.
-
Scroll
down the list of services and highlight Messenger.
-
Right
click it and select Properties.
-
Click
STOP.
-
In
the Startup Type, select Disable.
-
Click
OK. Note that Windows Messenger
is not the same thing as MSN Instant Messenger.
Disabling Windows Messenger will not affect
your ability to send instant messages over the
Internet.
How
to Automatically Reopen Windows When You Log On
By default,
when you log off Windows, the programs and documents
that you had open are closed and they don't reopen
when you log back on. Did you know you can change
this behavior? Here's how:
-
Click
Start | Control Panel | Appearances and Themes |
Folder Options (in Control Panel default XP view)
or right click Start, click Explore, then click
the Tools menu and the Folder Options selection.
-
Click
the View tab.
-
Scroll
down in the Advanced Settings list and check the
box that says "Restore previous folder windows
at logon."
-
Click
OK.
-
Now
when you log back on, whatever windows you had open
at logoff will reappear.
How
to Disable Browser Add-ons in XP SP2
Service Pack
2 adds several functions to Internet Explorer; one
of these is the Add-on Manager. You can use it to
disable add-on programs that may be causing problems,
or just to view the add-ons that are installed. Here's
how:
-
In
Internet Explorer with XP SP2 installed, click Tools
| Add-on Manager.
-
In
the Add-on Manager dialog box, you can view the
names, publishers, status (enabled or disabled),
add-on type and file name for any browser add-ons
that are installed.
-
How
to Restore a Missing Menu Bar or Toolbar
If you find
that the toolbar or menu bar in Windows Explorer or
Internet Explorer is missing, this may be caused by
corrupt files in the Windows Registry. Here's how to
fix the problem (caution: always back up the Registry
before making changes to it):
- First make
sure all IE and Explorer windows are closed.
- Open your
favorite Registry Editor.
- Navigate
to this Registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar
- If the problem
is with Windows Explorer, double click the Explorer
sub key in the right Registry Editor pane. Right click
the value labeled ITBarLayout and click Delete.
- If the problem
is with Internet Explorer, double click the WebBrowser
subkey in the right Registry Editor pane. Right click
ITBarLayout and click Delete.
- Close the
Registry Editor.
- If this doesn't
restore the toolbar or menu bar, navigate back to
the same key, doubleclick the ShellBrowser subkey,
right click ITBarLayout and click Delete.
Note that if you've customized your toolbar, the customization
will be removed and the toolbar will go back to its
default configuration when you delete these values.
How
to publish pictures directly to the Web from a scanner
Windows XP
makes it easy to publish photos or other graphic images
to a Web site from a scanner, digital camera or folder
on your computer. Here's how to publish from a scanner:
-
Click
Start | My Pictures.
-
Ensure
that the Folders button on the toolbar is not selected
(you should see "Picture Tasks" in the
left pane of Explorer. If you see a list of folders
instead, click the Folders button to deselect it).
-
In
the left pane, click Get Picture From Camera or
Scanner. This starts the Scanner and Camera wizard.
-
Click
Next on the first page of the wizard.
-
On
the Choose Scanning Preferences page, selecdt the
picture type (color, grayscale, black and white
or custom). You can click Preview to see how the
scanned photo will look.
-
Click
Next.
-
On
the Picture Name and Destination page, type a name
for the picture(s), choose the file format (.BMP,
.JPG, .TIF or .PNG), and type the location to save
the picture. Click Next and the picture will be
scanned.
-
On
the Other Options page, click "Publish these
pictures to a Web site" and then click Next.
-
On
the Change your File Selection page, select the
pictures you want to publish and click Next.
-
On
the Where Do You Want to Publish These Files? page,
select the service provider that hosts your Web
site.
-
When
the pictures have been published, you see the Completing
Scanner and Camera Wizard page, showing the location
from which the pictures were uploaded. Click Finish.
The Wizard will put a link to the site where the pictures
were published in My Network Places.
Microsoft
Office How-to: Suppress Page Numbering on the First
Page
If you've
included the page number in the header or footer of
your document, you can suppress the header/footer
from printing on the first page by using the Page
Setup feature.
-
Move
to the top of your document.
-
Use
the File/Page Setup command from the main menu.
-
Choose
the Layout tab.
-
In
the Headers and Footers section, check the "Different
first page" box.
Outlook
How-to: Use the Future Delivery Feature to Send Mail
Later
Sometimes you
may want to compose or respond to an email message now,
but you'd like to wait a while before sending it. Maybe
you don't want it to reach the recipient until he/she
is at a certain location, or maybe you don't want the
recipient to get it until you're out of the office.
Maybe you just don't want the recipient to know that
you're answering his mail five seconds after getting
it - he might start expecting such quick responses all
the time. Maybe
you belong to a discussion list that only allow each
member to post once a day and you've already used up
your daily allotment, so you need to delay sending your
new post until after midnight. Whatever the reason,
you can use Outlook's future delivery feature to send
the message when you want it sent, without having to
save it and then remember to send it later. Here's how:
- Compose your
message and then click the Options button on the toolbar.
- Under Delivery
Options, check the box that says "Do not deliver
before."
- Enter a date
and time in the drop-down boxes to the right.
- Click Close.
- Now click
the Send button as usual.
- Your mail
will be sent on the day and time you specified. Note
that the time stamp information will be the compose
time rather than the actual sent time.
How
to Defer Sending of Outlook Email
Have you
ever clicked the Send button in Outlook and then thought,
"Oh, no! I forgot to say x" or "Yikes
- I forgot to change the email address to send this
privately instead of to the whole mailing list"
or even "Oops - maybe I shouldn't have sent that
rant to my boss at all"? Probably most of us have
had a similar experience. What if you could tell your
computer to just wait a minute before sending, giving
you a chance to have those second thoughts and rescue
your mail (and in some cases, yourself)? Well, if you
use Outlook as your mail client, you can. Here's how:
- In
Outlook, click the Tools menu and select Rules and
Alerts.
- Click
the New Rule ... button.
- In
the Rules Wizard dialog box, click Start From a Blank
Rule.
- Under
Step 1, select Check Messages After Sending.
- Click
Next.
- Don't
select any conditions so the rule will apply to all
messages, and click Next again.
- Click
Yes when asked if you want the rule to apply to all
messages.
- Under
"Step 1: What do you want to do with the message?",
select Defer Delivery by a Number of Minutes.
- Under
"Step 2: Edit the Rule Description," click
"a number of" and set the Deferred Delivery
setting to 1 minute. Click OK.
- Click
Finish.
- Now
when you hit Send, the message will remain in your
Inbox for a minute, giving you a chance to recall
it or change it.
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