Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
October 7, 2007

Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

Volume 3, Number 17 — Sunday, October 7, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2

1. Speeding Up the Windows Boot Process

I recently made some boot changes to a notebook computer that resulted in a remarkable decrease in the boot speed. The notebook was running Windows XP Home.

It was a small, light Sony — one of the 12-inch monitor models.

Tech Humor
With notebooks, you can get small, light, fast and cheap.
Pick any two...

In this particular case, the notebook took 4.5 minutes to boot, and it's owner wanted it to be much faster.

I referred to my favorite tool to get his boot process under control — Winpatrol Plus.

First stop was the Winpatrol web site to see if there was a new version. I found that the current version was 12.1.2007.5 (I haven't quite figured out BillP's new version number system), so I updated the computer to that.

As of version 12 (the 2007 version) of WinPatrol, it has included the ability to use Windows XP's Windows Vista's "Delayed Start" capabilities. WinPatrol has had a Startup Programs tab for a long time. Now, it also has a separate tab for Delayed Start programs.

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Of course, having a Delayed Start tab doesn't help much if you can't move Starup Programs to Delayed Start. That's easy. Just right-click and select

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Once you have moved the auto-starting program to the Delayed Start tab, it has a default delay of 30 seconds. Fortunately, you can change this to be something less intrusive.

If the program is something like Karen's Replicator, which I use for routine file backup on a daily basis, I don't need it to run for a while. At this point, I right-click on the program and select "Delay Start Options.." from the pop-up context menu.

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This displays the Program Delay Starup Options. I can change the title that is shown in WinPatrol's Delayed Start tab. More importantly,I can also use the pull-down menus to select the delay in minutes and seconds. The maximum delay that can be set is 60 minutes and 50 seconds — plenty of time to make the bootup and early computer use easier.

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So, back to the Sony notebook with the 4.5 minute boot process, what kind of difference did we make by using WinPatrol Plus?

By choosing to disable a number of auto-starting programs and by delaying the start of even more, we reduced the boot process to 2 minutes — not much longer than a desktop.

How did we know what to disable and what to delay? That's where the paid version of WinPatrol comes in — it's called WinPatrol Plus. While WinPatrol Plus adds some features to the free WinPatrol program, the most important thing it adds is access to their database of programs.

This database tells us what a program is, whether it is safe or not, and recommends whether to remove it or let it run. Choosing whether to delay a program startup was pretty easy — once we know what a program is, the answer is pretty obvious. If you don't need it immediately, delay it.

What programs do you need to start immediately? Your antivirus, your antispyware, your firewall and WinPatrol. You may have a couple more that are unique to your system or your particular desires.

2. Updates Last Week

Microsoft (operating systems, email, web browser, office suites):
Microsoft releases almost all updates once per month, on the second Tuesday. This week did not include Patch Tuesday.

Firefox (web browser, http://www.mozilla.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 2.0.0.7 was released on September 18, 2007. This was a security update.

Opera (web browser, http://www.opera.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 9.23 was released on August 15th. This release of a recommended security upgrade, in addition to having several other changes and bug fixes.

Netscape (web browser, http://browser.netscape.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 9.0rc1 (release candidate #1 - still not a final version) was released during the week ending October 6, 2007.

SeaMonkey (web browser, email, HTML editor, newsreader; http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey; free): No new version this week. Version 1.1.4 was released on August 3, 2007. This was primarily a security update.

Eudora (email, http://www.eudora.com):
No update last week. Version 7.1.0.9 was released October 11, 2006. Eudora is now free, with no ads and no "paid mode" option.

The first beta version of v8 (v8.0.0.b1) was released several weeks ago and is available from http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope_Releases .

Mozilla Thunderbird (email, http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird, free):
No new version this week. Thunderbird version 2.0.0.6 was released on August 1, 2007. This is primarily a security update.

OpenOffice (office suite — spreadsheet, word processor, presentations, graphics, web design; http://www.openoffice.org; free): Version 2.3 was released during the week ending September 22nd. This includes new feature as well as bug fixes.

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3. HOWTO: Using Excel — How To Use Absolute Addressing

Microsoft Excel, like most spreadsheets, has a really convenient feature. When you copy any given cell into another cell, Excel will automatically adjust the formula references to other cells so refer to cells in the same relative position.

First, a look at Relative Addressing

In the example below, I copied thte formula in cell C2 into cells C3 through C8.

Excel automatically adjusted the formulas so that each formula referenced cells in the corresponding locations (columns a and b — it changed the row numbers) to the cells referenced by the cell that I was copying.

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Let's look at another example of relative addressing. In this case, I'm creating a running subtotal of the values in columns a and b.

(click on the image for a larger version)

Absolute Addressing

Absolute addressing is very different than relative addressing. In some cases, relative addressing makes creating our spreadsheets much easier. In others, though, relative addressing changes cell references that we want to be constant. For example, if we had a string of related numbers and wanted to find out the percentage each is of the total, we'd need to divide them by the sum. Rather than typing each formula manually, we can use absolute addressing for the cell that has the sum. Instead of automatically changing the formula to point to a different cell, when we copy a cell whose formula uses absolute addressing to refer to a cell, the new copies still point to the same cell.

Excel and OpenOffice (and Lotus 1-2-3 and probably others, too) use the dollar sign ($) to indicate an absolute reference.

We can referencce the column absolutely, the row absolutely or both the column and the row. The possibilities are:

C2 — normal, relative addressing
$C2 — absolute addressing of column C (new copies of the formula still refer to column C
C$2 — absolute addressing of row 2 (new copies of the formula still refer to row 2, and
$C$2— absolute addressing of column C and row 2 (new copies of the formula still refer to cell C2

Absolute Addressing Example

Continuing with the same example, let's take the first running subtotal (cell G2) and calculate its percentage of the total. Our Relative Addressing formula to do this would be =+E2/E10.

That will calculate answer 13.48% correctly. However, when we copy the formula to rows 3 through 8, both the E2 and the E10 would change, resulting in wrong answers.

So, in cell G2, we want to reference cell E10 absolutely. We will refer to it as $E$10. (Remember, the dollar sign says "hold this constant," so we're holding both the column number and the row number constant).

Tech Tip
The F4 key is an easy way to trigger absolute referencing. Select the cell you want to copy, click your mouse in the formula bar on the part of the formula you want to change, and then press the F4 key. The F4 key will apply the dollar sign to both column and row. Continue hitting the F4 key and it will cycle through the other referencing options (absolute row, absolute column and no absolute referencing).

Now, I can copy cell G2 into cells G3 through G8.

(click on the image for a larger version)

By using the dollar sign ($) in the formula, the copied formula will correctly reference the relatively addressed cell in each row and the absolutely referenced total cell E10.

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Part 1 | Part 2

Volume 3, Number 17 — Sunday, October 7, 2007

Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
October 7, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2

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1. Speeding Up the Windows Boot Process

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2. Updates Last Week