Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
June 29, 2008
Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.
Volume 4, Number 3 — Sunday, June 29, 2008
IN THIS ON-LINE ISSUE:
1. Zoom Levels in Microsoft Word
2. Windows and the Infamous Three-Finger Salute
3. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
4. Unlocker - Solving the Locked File Problem
5. Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends
IN THIS WEEK'S EMAIL ISSUE:
"Article 0." JUST FOR EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS!
0.1. Problems Completely Uninstalling McAfee
0.2. Read the Articles in This Week's On-Line Issue
0.3. Feedback from the Last Issue
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Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.
1. Zoom Levels in Microsoft Word
Subscriber Geraldine Astbury wrote this week to ask for help with Microsoft Word.
Hi Terry, Please can you help me yet again? I have Office XP with Word. When I open a new document to write a letter, it always opens with the zoom set at 100%. This always looks too large for me so I always have to alter it to 75%. Is there any way of making it always open with the zoom at 75% so I don\'t have to alter it all the time? I\'ve changed it with all the options I can find but after closing it down and then using it say, a few days later, I open it up and low and behold it shows 100% again! It\'s getting to be a nuisance to say the least!! Thanks so much and thanks also for solving a couple of other problems I had.
Geraldine
Word 2003 allows you to set the default for new documents. Word 2003, however, seems to open existing documents at 100% regardless of that setting and regardless of the zoom level that was in effect the last time the file was saved.
Word 2003's "Help" function ("Type a question for help") gave this info, which I had to dig around a bit to find:
Note: To change the default zoom setting or choose a custom zoom setting for your Word documents, click Zoom on the View menu, and then under Zoom to, choose a setting or enter a percent in the Percent box.
Unlike Word 2003, Word XP remembers the last zoom level (zoom percentage) and opens new blank documents at that level. Existing documents, on the other hand and unlike Word 2003, seems to open documents at the zoom level in effect when they were created. I would have expected the zoom level when they were last saved.
So, what's the bottom line? Don't count on Word to set your zoom to a level you'll like.
2. Windows and the Infamous Three-Finger Salute
Long-time subscriber Randi Zaduk wrote me a question via my Contact Form, which is at the bottom of my website pages:
I play a lot of jigsaw puzzles on the computer and was wondering if that uses to much memory and is there a way to clean it up once in awhile. Thanks Randi
I wrote back to Randi to tell her that, for most programs, it should not be a problem.
She had not mentioned whether the programs were installed on her computer or running from a web site.
However, either way, poor programming can cause the program to grab memory and then to never release it, even when she exits the program.
Each version of Windows has gotten a little better at preventing this problem (which is called "memory leakage". However, it's still not perfect.
That's one of the reasons that Windows likes to be rebooted occasionally.
It's also one of the reasons that the first answer from anyone performing technical support will give. Rebooting Windows solves many problems. Read more in my article Computer Troubleshooting — The Number 1 Step.
Sometimes, Windows gets so confused, or a program gets in a loop, such that the program simply will not respond to input. That's when you have to give Windows the infamous Three Finger Salute (Control-Alt-Delete). Fortunately, most of the time, Windows will respond and let you close a malfunctioning program at that point.
Occasionally, you can not successfully shut down a program. At that point, you can try to reboot Windows via the Start menu, but you'll probably be unsuccessful. You will probably have to do a manual power-off by holding in the powerr button for 8-10 seconds.
If you do the manual power-off button, Windows is not able to shut down properly. When you turn onn your computer again, watch the hard drive. Windows will continue to do internal repairs even after it gives you the desktop and control of the mouse.
Be sure to let Windows finish its cleanup before trying to do anything — or you may have Windows crash and have to reboot all over again.
3. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
I review my security software recommendations and update them, for each weekly newsletter issue, if I think they need to change.
My Philosophy: Many people want to pick their most economical solution and prefer an all-in-one anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall solution. In concept, that's a great idea. In actual practice, this type of package is not likely to be the best in all the protection categories you need.
Other people want to pick the best of each type program. I'm one of the these folks. Read about my security software choices.
Anti-Virus
I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."
My personal choice is the ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 to be the cream of the crop in anti-virus protection. Unlike some of the others, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, including updates to the program in the multiple-year license.
Many antivirus programs will offer you an anti-virus signature subscription renewal when your subscription renews. I strongly recommend against this option — buy the full program or make sure you get program updates with the subscription renewal (like NOD32 does). Vendors routinely improve the capabilities and speed of the programs, too.
If you update only the signatures, you miss any program improvements. Fortunately, NOD32's subscriptions include both program updates and signature updates.
Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.
Related articles:
- Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
- Free Online Antivirus Scan
- NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32
Firewall Software
While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.
The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.
Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?
I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.
I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.
You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.
Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.
Related articles:
Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software
CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It is also my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.
Sunbelt released their CounterSpy v2 in February 2007 and I promptly updated my computers to it. Version 2 greatly improved CounterSpy's performance and reduced its load on the computer when it was scanning.
In July, 2007, Sunbelt released v2.5 of CounterSpy, which again both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.
Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions. Nicely, they do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed!
Related articles:
Anti-spam Software
In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"
I use and now I recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.
POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.
Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.
Mailwasher Pro is my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists.
Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.
Related articles:
Cable/DSL Router
If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.
Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.
A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.
For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I'm using the relatively new version 6 of this router.
If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41 wired router. Either way, based on my experience, I recommend Linksys routers for price, reliability and Linksys' habit of releasing updated firmware for their products..
Tech Tip
By the way, if you get tempted by the new "802.11n" routers, please pay close attention. So far, the 802.11n specification has not been approved and finalized.
If you buy one, you may be locked into a specific vendor's implementation of a draft of a standard that never got approved. I recommend choosing 802.11g for now.
See these related articles:
4. Unlocker - Solving the Locked File Problem
In my article "Which Program Has Locked My File?" , I wrote about a utility that I use to help identify and solve the problem when Windows refuses to let me change a file. Last week, the following week, I had feedback and alternatives from two readers.
Both Clif and Dan wrote to recommend a utility called Unlocker. I downloaded Unlocker and tried it. Here's what I found...
The installation process went smoothly, and Unlocker worked immediately without rebooting my computer.
For testing, first I copied a Word document to make sure I didn't damage my original. Then, I opened the copy in Microsoft Word.
Then, using Windows Explorer, I selected the Word document's file and tried to rename it. Windows advised me that it was in use and I needed to close the file in order to rename it.
I didn't even need to select Unlocker. As soon as I acknowledged the Windows warning message, the Unlocker window opened.
I unlocked the file and changed the file name successfully, even without closing Microsoft Word. But, that's where I ran into a problem!
Microsoft Word still retained the original file name for the file, as we would expect. However, if I clicked on the Save icon to save the file, it appeared that Word was saving it — but it did not.
I could successfully save the file by using the Save As icon or menu bar choice, just not by using the Save icon.
Tech Tip
Don't have a Save As icon in Microsoft Word (or Excel or Powerpoint)? Read how in my article HOWTO: Adding a SaveAs Button to Word, Excel and/or PowerPoint
(click on the image for a larger version)
Get Unlocker from the author's web site http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker .
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Volume 4, Number 3 — Sunday, June 29, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.
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