Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Help Line: Reinstalling old system not difficult

By JAY LEE

Q: I recently lost my hard drive. If I install a new one, will I be able to install Windows XP using the restore CD that came with my computer or will I have to purchase a new retail version?

A: You should have no problem using your restore CD to reinstall the operating system and other programs that came with your PC when you bought it.

On rare occasions, especially with the older computers, I have encountered situations where you are required to replace the hard drive with a part from the manufacturer of the computer.

The last time I encountered this was when working on a Presario. The restore software would only restore a 10 gigabyte hard drive, and we had replaced the failed 10 GB with a 20 GB hard drive. We worked around the problem by creating a 10 GB partition and did not have to acquire a replacement part from Compaq.

It is totally worth a shot. Hard drives are cheap when bought at your local retailer. If you can avoid buying parts from the computer manufacturer, you will be saving yourself some money.

Q: Since I upgraded my XP system to Service Pack 2, my Hotmail account is not remembering my user name and password. How can I re-enable this?

A: Service Pack 2 makes some assumptions about security on your computer. When you upgraded to SP2, this feature was likely disabled or simply needs to be reset.

To do this, click on "tools" then "Internet options." Under the content tab you will see a section called "personal information." Here, you want to click "autocomplete."

In the settings dialogue box, select the "user names and passwords on forms" check box and select the "prompt me to save passwords" check box and then click OK and then OK again to close.

If these options are already enabled, then disable them, choose the option to clear forms and clear passwords, and then re-enable them.

Q: I play World of Warcraft with many of my friends. I am having trouble connecting on Teamspeak/Ventrilo. When I hook up, I hear them just fine, but every time I talk, they complain they hear an echo. How do I eliminate the echo so I can communicate with my friends in the game?

A: This is likely the same problem I experience on my radio show with certain callers who forget to turn down their radio when they are on the air. The sound from the speakers is picked up by the phone and broadcast back over the radio, causing an echo.

The same thing happens with the game you are playing. The speakers are feeding back into the microphone and creating an echo. The simplest solution would be to get a headset microphone and disconnect any external speakers or turn them all the way down.

Shortcuts: Last week I answered a question about creating a Show Desktop shortcut on Windows XP computers. Several readers wrote to let me know about one of the features of XP or Windows 2000 with a Windows keyboard.

A key on the lower left side of the keyboard has a Windows logo on it. If you press it and hit the D key at the same time, this will show the desktop just like clicking the icon. For more shortcuts, go to support.microsoft.com and search for Knowledge Base article q126449.
HoustonChronicle.com - Help Line: Reinstalling old system not difficult

At Home: Game-browsing site needs work

With a few tweaks, Windows Game Advisor could still shine
By ANNE REEKS
For The Chronicle

At the start of a party, there's always an awkward interlude when all is in readiness, but few guests have arrived and they're not saying much.

Both hosts and early birds can't help wondering and worrying about where everyone else is. No doubt my imagination is overactive, but party paranoia came to mind when I visited Microsoft's updated Windows Game Advisor (www.windowsgaming.com), a nifty software-selection site, and found it un-
comfortably underpopulated.

So I just want to reassure Bill Gates: Don't panic. The crowd will surely show up soon. After all, Game Advisor 3.0, designed to draw players into the game-rating process, launched only last week.

Few have taken advantage of its new community-oriented features. They allow Windows users to give games a 1-to-5 score, write reviews and post comments to a discussion board. User feedback will liven up the party. It's interesting, informative and democratic.

Game Advisor's basics haven't changed. It's a one-stop shop that provides recommen-
dations based on five age ranges, 10 genres and four ESRB ratings. It also tells you if a game will work on your computer and offers demos and trailers, checks prices, and provides links to sellers.

Over 300 titles are currently in Game Advisor's searchable database. They are more plentiful in the Action and Action/Adventure categories, with 71 and 60 titles, respectively, than in Kids (40) and Family Entertainment (12). Publishers use a free tool to add their games to Game Advisor.

The home page is utilitarian, with no banners, pop-ups or animated eye candy. While Microsoft isn't charging for ads or product placement, according to a spokesman, "partners" such as HP and Alienware get plugs from a compare-computers feature.

Other Web sites have many of Game Advisor's capabilities but not the system scan, used to determine whether certain games will run on specific computers, i.e., yours. Microsoft pledges it's anonymous and protects privacy.

The process is quick and generates a detailed specs list — a handy item to keep around. System performance is shown on a color-spectrum bar graph. My Compaq Presario made it two-thirds of the way toward the fast/green end. Not bad for a nearly two-year-old machine.

However, Game Advisor was unimpressed, noting that "38 percent of the systems scanned by Game Advisor ranked higher in performance." How rude. I think I'll boycott the seven-layer dip.

But seriously, the revamped Game Advisor has much to offer and a ways to go. Besides needing to attract a critical mass of users, it could better serve children and families by having an education category and refining the overly broad, 6-12 age range.

Additional resources for picking games are the Review Corner (www.reviewcorner.com) and SuperKids (www.superkids.com), which do an excellent job of homing in on educational and children's titles, and GameSpot (www.gamespot.com), a gamer's paradise of reviews, ratings and industry news.
HoustonChronicle.com - At Home: Game-browsing site needs work
Insource Technology - Bellard's new place of employment
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Friday, June 24, 2005

Office Shortcut Bar is not included in Office 2003

Dice - Position 112886PCRefresh :-D

Dice - Position 112886PCRefresh: ". Lotus Notes setup transfer skills (at least know it's a mail system)"

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Free Online Games

AnandTech: Guides Section

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Help Line: Simple way to work with commands

By JAY LEE

Q: In your column last week you offered a solution that included the instruction to open a command prompt. Can you please explain what this is and how to do it?

A: Many computer users don't realize thata PC with a graphical user interface is simply substituting the typing of a command line with the click of an icon.

To access a command prompt on a Windows-based computer, you simply click Start, then Run and type CMD and click OK. This will bring up a window with a command-line prompt similar to the old DOS prompts found on older computers.

At this prompt, you can execute any application on the computer as well as perform tasks not immediately available in the standard icon-based menu system. You can delete, copy, rename and move files as well as numerous other tasks.

Those who have been using computers for a long time find the command line to be a very useful and comfortable way to perform certain operations on a PC. This prompt is most useful for system diagnostic and maintenance oriented tasks.

For a list of command-line tools available in Windows XP visit www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx

Q: Upon starting up my computer the following message appears: "Cannot find C\Windows\sychost.exe." I then click OK and all is fine. Is this a problem I need to repair?

A: Sychost.exe is part of the LEOX.B virus. The fact that your computer reports that the file cannot be found indicates that the virus file is missing but the computer is trying to start it anyway.

I would suggest updating your anti-virus program and performing a full system scan to make sure you are not infected. After that you may need to go into the registry and find the entry that is calling to this missing file and delete it.

Instructions on reversing the changes made by this virus can be found at securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.hllw.leox.b.html

Q: In Windows 98, there was a little button on the task bar that you could click and it would minimize all of your open windows and take you to the desktop. I can't find anything comparable in Windows XP. Does it even exist?

A: The show desktop feature is available in Windows XP. You can access it by right-clicking on the taskbar. When you do, a menu will pop up with the option displayed.

If you would like to create a shortcut for your Quick Launch taskbar follow these steps:

Create a text file using notepad and enter the following text:

[Shell]

Command=2

IconFile=explorer.exe,3

[Taskbar]

Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the document to your desktop as Show Desktop.scf and then drag the file to your Quick Launch bar and you're all set.
HoustonChronicle.com - Help Line: Simple way to work with commands

Thursday, June 16, 2005

2004 100 Top Websites You Didn't Know You Couldn't Live Without

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Help Line: You'll want to click it and clear it

Q: My operating system is Windows XP Professional (SP2). As you know, when you click on the Start button, a number of items come up, such as My Documents, My Recent Documents, etc. I would like to periodically clear all items from the My Recent Documents section. At the moment, I can only do it one item at a time, is there a way to clear them all at once?

A: The solution to your problem, while not obvious, is rather simple. Just right-click the Start button and a menu will appear. Select "Properties" and then click "Customize." Under the Advanced tab you will find a section called "Recent Documents." Click "Clear List" and then "OK" and "OK" again.

This will remove all the recently used documents from the My Recent Documents folder.

Don't worry. This does not actually delete the documents themselves.

Q: The first time I open Outlook Express after I boot my PC, my incoming mail server is set to an IP address I don't recognize and not to the host name of my mail server. This causes an error to occur when Outlook Express looks for my e-mail. Can you help?

A: It sounds like you may have installed some kind of anti-spam software. There are programs that act as a go-between on your computer to filter out unwanted e-mail before you view it.

When you install them they are configured with information for your e-mail account, specifically your incoming mail server and your e-mail account name and password.

Once they are configured, your e-mail client is set to connect to what is called the local host or your computer for the incoming e-mail.

The software responds as the incoming mail server and filters the mail before you download it.

If you removed this software or if it is malfunctioning, it could cause this problem.

Q: I am trying to reach a specific Web site, but I keep getting a "page not found" error. In my research I did an nslookup on the host and found that I am not getting the correct IP address. My second computer has the same TCP/IP settings and it can reach this site without a problem. Do you have any suggestions?

A: Whenever you type in a Web site, your computer queries a Domain Name Service server to acquire or resolve the IP address of the site.

Windows XP and Windows 2000 both use what is known as a DNS resolver cache for domain names. When your system succeeds or fails to get an IP address for a domain or host, it is stored in this cache. This cache also stores any information in your host's file.

This cache reduces the number of times your computer needs to query a remote DNS server to resolve a domain name and speeds up access.

Sometimes this cache gets corrupted and needs to be manually cleared. Open a command prompt and type "ipconfig /displaydns" and you will see all the domain and host names your cache has stored. To clear the cache type "ipconfig /flushdns." Once you flush the DNS cache, your system will query the DNS server and get the correct IP address.
HoustonChronicle.com - Help Line: You'll want to click it and clear it

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Out of the Box Solutions - Downloads

All toolbars and the menu bar are missing when you start Excel 2000

Who links to me?