Computer Corner #1033 – 02/21/08<br />

Printed From Acorn-Online.com

Computer Corner
Computer Corner #1033 – 02/21/08

Feb 21, 2008

Computing development has reached a stage where hardware is going into two main directions: desktops and minuscule handheld devices.

Those small computers are of great interest to people who travel a lot and have noted that their bone structure showed a noticeable stooping of the shoulder that carries their laptop. It would appear that the display would not be adequate, but somehow, by judicious use of color, it is quite readable.

Recently I wrote about a miniature hand-held, the ASUS eeePC, which has become a best-selling item to the point that now there is a waiting list as demand exceeds supply.

It is almost the convergence of cell phones and computers. There is one device where you can slide a small keyboard from under the display of the cell phone, which also includes a camera.

Our local Fairfield County computer user’s group will have various members showing their own choice at their next meeting. It is held at the Historical Society of New Canaan at 7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month. Look it up at FCUG.org.
Attendance is free and after the first part of the meeting, they will try to increase your waistline with various edible goodies.

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There are several computer user groups in the area, not sponsored by vendors. It is a great place to get one-on-one help from other users who can express their experiences freely.

There is a “picks and pans” discussion as well a “random access” session where users express their needs and problems to all members. Usually a solution is found and discussed.

To many, it is the part of the meeting of most interest.

Yahoo browser

How can I get rid of Yahoo as my home page in Internet Explorer? It got there when I changed computers and provider to a Vista. It came with something called Firefox. What other options do I have without lots of obnoxious commercials? Thanks for any help. Maurice J.

Dear Maurice: The question that you have to answer is what you want as a home page. By definition, the home page is the site that you see when you start a browser. After you have started Internet Explorer, change the address to the site that you want to see each time that you start that browser.

From the menu bar, click on Tools | Internet Options. The address of your chosen site will appear in the text box. Now click on the “Use current” button, then OK. From now on, your selected site will always appear as you start your Internet Explorer browser. The Yahoo browser is really a slight modification of Internet Explorer, licensed to them.

You may also add other site addresses in the text box and they will appear on the screen as additional tabs on the address toolbar.

Normally, if you have Vista, the Explorer is version 7, which also applies to the XP versions with the latest updates. You may still use other browsers, as they are not tied in with the operating system. This was a result of a European lawsuit that forced Microsoft to make the browser independent of the operating system.

As for the pop-ups and ads, there is a way to almost eliminate them with the various options under Tools.

Slow computer

I am a safety freak and depend on my computer for freelance work, which I do for several companies. I cannot afford downtime. I have three different virus protection programs and never had a problem, but my computer is running very slowly. Would a newer and faster computer work for me? I use the Internet only for e-mailing with my clients. I work with text and some graphics. Any advice is appreciated. Frank C.

Dear Frank: With the type of work that you do, there is very little risk of virus attacks. While virus protection is wise, using more than one is really overkill. Think about it. It takes time to check each document and file for viruses, even if none are present. Everything is being processed three times. This is unnecessary.

Getting a new computer is a good idea if you want to get higher speed. Prices have tumbled and you would be able to get a high power desktop, which is desirable if you use it for business. If your office space is large enough, you should consider keeping your present hardware as a backup.

Since you seem uncomfortable with computer technology, you might consider hiring a reputable consultant and avoid using the vendor’s free experts whose interest is different from yours. The consultant will be able to straighten out your computer and provide good advice for the future. Considering the straightforward way in which you handle your business, a one-shot consultation should be adequate.

Busy hard disk

When my computer starts, there is much hard drive activity going on in the background. Sometimes it grinds on for 10 minutes. How can I find out what is going on? I don’t want to break anything. Thanks. Frank C.

Dear Frank: There is a great deal of activity needed to boot a computer, involving many dozens of utilities. Most of them run in the background, completely unseen by the operator. And much of it may not be needed for what you plan to do with the computer.

However, not knowing what you need, the system gets ready to provide you with all possibilities. Contrary to what you might think, your computer does not have a perverse mind of its own. You can probe everything that is going on, but you may find it a bit confusing to decipher. Nevertheless, you can stop any particular activity from starting without losing its code. This is done with a utility called MSCONFIG (Microsoft System CONFIGuration utility.)

I stumbled on a site on the Net that shows graphically the steps to take to reach that utility for different versions of Windows. It is netsquirrel.com/msconfig/index.html.

For most recent versions of Windows you may reach from Start | Run, and typing MSCONFIG. The tab called Startup allows you to decide which programs you want to start each time Windows boots. Removing a checkmark allows you to disable a particular program from starting up. It will not delete software, only prevent it from starting. If you should find that something does not work anymore, use the same steps and restore the check mark.

Another frequently encountered problem is that the antivirus program has been set to do a virus check on each file of your computer every time it starts. This should be changed to run a virus check only on demand, limiting checking to new and incoming files.