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Quote of the day:
Nothing will work unless you do. - Maya Angelou (www.brainyquote.com)
The meeting opened at 10:00 AM with 17 members in attendance.
John Barker opened the meeting and showed a video of the “Lawn
Chair Drill Team”, then a video of motorcycle stunt riding called “Street
fighter Day 2003”.
Announcements:
He said he got his Internet phone service (VoIP) working, after ironing
out a few glitches, and is saving tons of money over Bell.
John Barker then opened the floor to Questions:
Name |
Q&A |
Details |
OS |
| M.I.G.S. |
Q |
How do I prevent new contacts from going into only one group? |
All |
| Bob |
A |
To add a contact to a group folder, open the appropriate group
folder first, then click on the “Add contact” button.
To move a contact from one group folder to another, find the contact
and drag & drop to the correct folder on the side bar. |
|
| M.I.G.S. |
Q |
I'm getting a printer driver error message every time I boot. Any
suggestions? |
XP |
| Bob |
A |
Go to the Control Panel, and open Administrative Tools > Event
Viewer. In the Event Viewer, look for “Warning” or “Error”,
double click on each entry for more info. This should give
you a hint of what might be happening. In general, these
kinds of errors indicate that there is something wrong with the “device
driver”.
Some peripherals periodically phone home for driver updates automatically. You
can also get them from Windows updates using the “Custom” button
instead of the “Express” button. Like any application,
these may not be error free.
Try installing the latest drivers from the Manufacturer's website,
usually in Support or Downloads. |
|
| Stan |
Q |
My McAfee is expiring, and I plan to switch to AVG. Do
I have to configure it to look for updates automatically? |
All |
| Bob |
A |
The free download automatically searches for the latest “virus
definition updates” before it does it's scheduled daily virus
scan.
To customize AVG, open the AVG Control Panel and review
Scheduled Tasks.
Note: Remove McAfee completely first, then install AVG. You
can only run ONE anti-virus program on your PC at a time. |
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| M.I.G.S. |
Q |
Is an AVG scan the same as ScanDisk? |
All |
| Bob |
A |
AVG only scans your computer for known viruses, worms and Trojans. The
Windows ScanDisk utility scans your hard disk looking for bad sectors,
broken data links and many other hard drive specific anomalies. |
|
| M.I.G.S. |
Q |
My anti-virus, Nod 32, gives me an error message, with a (4) at
the end, every time I boot my PC. |
All |
| Brian G. |
A |
I called NOD32, and they said it means that a system file was in
use by another program. They said to ignore the message. |
|
| Marion |
Q |
I use PhotoShop Elements to edit and save photos in jpg format,
but I prefer to print using a program called Film Factory. When
I double-click on the jpg, it always open in Elements. How
do I open it with Film Factory? |
All |
| Sturg |
A |
Right-click on the jpg and choose Open with... If Film
Factory is listed, select it.
If not, open Film Factory, then go to the File Tab > Open and
browse to the folder that contains your jpg file and select it. It
should open the file without a problem. |
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11:00 AM: Coffee Break
Re-convened at 11:15AM.
John Barker described a problem he had when he took delivery of the
new projector bulb. The box rattled sickeningly when shaken. It
turned out that the noise was a screwdriver included with bulb.
Sturg demonstrated how to use LogMeIn (free from www.logmein.com)
to access your computer from anywhere in the world. Imagine easily
checking your Email when you're in Toronto or emailing a file from your
PC, you forgot to bring, to your host's Email. Now, think blizzard! Imagine
having your tech person troubleshoot and repair your PC, remotely AND
securely, without having to be in the same place.
He then used played a video on the remote PC called “mudslinger”.
We also viewed a video of a dog doing tricks for a man dressed as Charlie
Chaplin.
Name |
Q&A |
Details |
OS |
| Stan |
Q |
Microsoft is discontinuing all support for Windows 98, 98SE and
ME on July 11th, 2006. How do we get all the final updates
before they shut the web site down? |
95,98.ME |
| Sturg |
A |
I found an article on The Langa List Standard Edition's June
15, 2006 newsletter at www.langalist.com that
answers that.
For official, geeky instructions, go here: v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/catalog
Remember to burn all 77 (+/-) updates to CD and you can re-install
your original Windows CD anytime and then do the updates from this
CD.
Tip: As of today, www.bestbuy.ca has
XP Home Upgrade/SP2 on sale for $99 and free shipping. And www.staples.ca had
a new PC with XP Home, but no monitor on sale for $299 and free
shipping last week.
In my expert opinion, trying to continue to use Windows 98/ME
isn't worth the effort, XP or 2000 is recommended. |
|
| M.I.G.S. |
Q |
Using Outlook Express, I sometimes get attachments that have “disabled” added
to the end of the file name like this: filename.eml.disabled,
and I can't open it. What is this? |
|
| Bob |
A |
OE has many new security features to protect users from malware. This
is one example. Save the attachment to your hard drive,
scan with AVG (or your anti-virus), then rename the file without
the “.disabled” extension like this:
filename.eml
and it should open normally. If the file was forwarded to
you, other OE users may have had the file disabled by their OE
before you got it.
Tip: If you don't see the file extension (the “.eml” part),
you are at risk. Please read the previous month's Minutes. |
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