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Archive for the 'Stump the PC Club' Tag

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How to add a shortcut back into Windows Start menu

June 2nd, 2009, 7:15 pm by

Stump the PC ClubStump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: Thank you for providing a forum for this question. My wife’s PC is an older Dell Dimension 2350 running Windows XP Home Edition (Version 2002, Service Pack 2). This fine machine has somehow magically “lost” the Start -> Programs -> Games link. I placed shortcuts on her desktop for some of her favorite games, but she would very much like to have the entire link back in the familiar Start -> Programs ->Games location. Is there something I can do to recover this link (or recreate it)?  – Tony

PC Club: Since the Start menu is one of the most frequently visited places by PC users, it can also be one of the most frequently jumbled up places. The Start menu is actually controlled by a folder located on the hard drive in several places because there is a folder named “Start Menu” for every user on a PC.

Let’s assume that there are two users on a PC named Jim and Sue. The Start Menu for Sue is located at “C:\Documents and Settings\Sue” while Jim’s is located at” C:\Documents and Settings\Jim.” What’s more, there is a Start Menu folder located at “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.” The theory behind this is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: How to save a copy of every e-mail

February 3rd, 2009, 2:44 pm by


North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.  

QUESTION: I have a dilemma. I use MS Windows XP with AT&T Yahoo. In my profession as a publisher of in-house newspapers, I continually utilize the “Save As a Draft” email feature. I use this as deadline reminders for the Marketing Departments and/or Outside Advertising agencies. Normally there are three reminders per advertising month. Until recently, the drafts remained in the folder – all of a sudden, as I emailed from the draft folder – the emails were sent, but the drafts disappeared. This is causing me to rewrite the emails and dispensing valuable time. What happened? I received absolutely no help when calling AT&T. If this dilemma is no longer workable at AT&T, is the solution available elsewhere? Tony

PC Club: Using the Drafts folder can come in handy in either Web Mail programs such as Yahoo Mail or in Internet e-mail programs such as Outlook Express. Regarding your dilemma, it looks like a simple change to the Yahoo Mail options will eliminate your frustrations. Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: Limit spam by creating a whitelist

January 20th, 2009, 2:18 pm by

**UPDATE, Feb. 17, 2009:** Added instructions for creating a whitelist in Microsoft Outlook. See below. 

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

QUESTION: I am using Outlook Express for my e-mails. Is there a way to receive e-mails “ONLY” from people that are in your address book?

PC Club: Many of us are getting frustrated with spammers and are resorting to various measures including the use of Anti-Spam software which isn’t always free or unobtrusive. Another way to prevent unwanted or unsolicited email is to set up a Whitelist, which is what you want to do.

A Whitelist is just the opposite of a Blacklist and will only allow senders on the list to reach your Inbox while the rest will be deleted. It is quite easy to set up a Whitelist in Outlook Express by performing the following steps: Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: Making web sites fit PC screen by fixing resolution

January 14th, 2009, 1:49 pm by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. 

QUESTION: When I open the Internet, the picture is larger than my screen and I have to use scroll bars at the bottom and side to navigate the page. Is there some way to have the picture fit my screen?

PC Club: The usual cause is that your screen resolution is set too low. The screen resolution defines several things including the size of objects that are shown on your screen.

Technically, the screen resolution is the number of pixels along one of the dimensions of your screen. A popular screen resolution is 1024 by 768 which means that the screen can display 1024 pixels in the horizontal direction and 768 vertically. You can check the resolution of your screen by going to WhatIsMyScreenResolution.com.

Most Web pages are optimized around 1024 by 768 and if your screen resolution is lower than this, there is a good chance that you will have to use scroll bars to see the entire page. Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: Creating slideshows on CD

January 6th, 2009, 3:07 pm by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

QUESTION: I have Windows XP and I have photos on my computer that came from a digital camera. These photos are in a folder. What is the best way to put them on a CD? When I put them on a CD, they come out as icons and not the actual photo. Also when you put them on a CD, can you make the CD do a slideshow? Thanks for your help.

PC CLUB: It sounds like you already have been successful at placing photos on a CD since you are able to view the icons. Double-clicking an icon should open the photo in the software program that is currently your default for viewing photos on your PC. This varies with each PC depending on the software currently installed (to set the default program, right click the photo, select “Open With,” and then “Choose Program” and when the options window opens, check the box that says “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.”).

If you have not installed any software for viewing or editing photos, then the default application, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, should open and display your photo. The program has ‘Forward’ and ‘Backward’ buttons at the bottom for navigating through your photos. You will have to open each folder individually when viewing photos in this manner. Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: Convert hundreds of color slides to digital

December 31st, 2008, 9:55 am by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

QUESTION: I am an old artist trying my best to keep up; any help you can give me will be, of course, much appreciated. I have hundreds of 35 mm slides that I need to transfer to digital format for printing to at least 8 1/2 x 11 inches – please give me any information necessary to this end. 

PC Club: This reminds me of when I scanned 14 carousels of slides to free up some closet space that my wife had her eye on. There were a total of 1,200 slides and I spent an average of 5 minutes per slide for a total of 100 hours to perform some color correction and scratch removal on each slide. The amount of time can vary depending on the quality of the slides and how decent you want your prints to be. At the time, it would have cost me roughly $1 per slide or $1,200. It was an easy decision for me to spend $200 for a scanner and do it myself. Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: Tips on removing ‘Antivirus 2009′ malware

December 17th, 2008, 4:15 pm by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

QUESTION: I received a spyware warning and lost the screensaver, but not the desktop icons. I purchased Mcafee complete edition and installed it. But when it comes to updating it, I got a message “no internet connection” even though I was on Yahoo. The Windows Messenger kept telling me to install “Windows virus 2009″ and that my computer was infected.
How come Mcafee did not help? What can I do now? 

PC Club: Sounds like you inadvertently installed Windows Anti Virus 2009, a known rogue anti-spyware program. It is installed through the use of misleading Web sites that attempt to make you buy even more software to cure the problem. Do not give in!

I’ve seen several computers that have been rendered almost useless by Anti Virus 2009 but don’t despair yet. I would start by backing up all of my data by any means available to you such as an external hard drive, a flash drive or even CDs. Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: How to put captions on photos

December 9th, 2008, 12:01 am by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

Today, this column welcomes a new PC Club member, Ed Schwartz, who also teaches people about computers in his real job. For more tips from Ed, visit his Web site.

Question: Are there any free download programs that will allow me to put captions on photos off my SD memory card, that will have the caption printed on each photo when I have them printed out. I have tried Picassa II and HP Photo Gallery. But neither allows the caption on the photo when printed out on the printer. Any help greatly appreciated. Thank You. ~ Al Gattanella

PC CLUB:  Typically Al, captions are defined as text appearing under or outside of a picture as you discovered with Picasa. What you want to do is to add text to your actual pictures and there are a number of free programs that allow you to do this.

Starting with the easiest to use first, PhotoFiltre, a French program, is available in English at photofiltre.free.fr/download_en.htm. Using PhotoFiltre, you can reposition the text with your mouse or with the arrow keys on the keyboard. When you’re finished adjusting the text, hit the Enter key on the keyboard to “cement” the text in place. Read the rest of this entry »

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