Replies

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to post regarding the questions surrounding 8, 8.1, and 9. Outstanding answers and right to the point. Don’t know anything about this Gordon Kelly’s writing in Forbes, but I’ll certainly take the answers/responses here in the Lounge vs. some guy who obviously has an ax to grind. Interested in Prescott’s comment about experience with Univac. I did about the same in the early 1970s when I believe around 1970 GE sold its 600 series computer division to Honeywell and it became the Honeywell 6000 series. The ol’ IBM-029 keypunches were hard to maintain we were lucky to find one where the drum actually worked. We punched holes in cards (Hollerith code), submitted the deck to be compiled, if you didn’t drop it first, then got a binary deck which a card reader input to the boxcar sized computer. Don’t recall that I was ever lucky enough to get output in one hour–usually the next day. Then one typo and you corrected and resubmitted. Goodness, times have changed and I think you folks have convinced me to stay with Windows 7 for the time being. Sorry if I have strayed from the thread a bit, but history is interesting. Hey Fred, how about one of your excellent pieces on this exact topic? Thanks.

molly_dog, you are right on target, let’s hear more from you as you seem to have excellent perspectives on this situation. I love to watch sports on TV, and appreciate cable phone and Internet from Time Warner. However they keep changing options to the point that I can hardly keep up with their continual variations and price fluctuations (certainly not the TV channel number changes;-). I recently quit HBO and a couple of other choices (don’t miss a thing) and, when approaching TW, they seem more than willing to cooperate like a panting dog wanting affection. This obviously is because they are rapidly losing customers and are doing everything possible to keep their business afloat. Then, I wonder, what will happen to their business should Charter Communications, rebuffed last year, when it proposed a merger with Time Warner Cable, then lost out to Comcast, should reenter the picture. With direct TV entering the competition, I’m convinced that this entire media scene is due for a vast overhaul. Note: Has anyone ever been credited or reimbursed from Time Warner when their service is disrupted for a day or several days? Nope, I pay my bills on time and never receive any interest in or offer for compensating their customers. Let’s hear more!

Thank you Woody for a great piece–let’s have more! I’ve been with Time Warner for umpteen years and waffle from hot to cold with their service or lack of service (sort of like the faucets in my bathroom sink–hot/cold;=). TW’s reliability in delivery is grossly undependable and, of course, they never offer to give me credit for the time when I can’t gain access because of their “technical problems” sometimes for several days. I have to recycle my cable box far too often–why should I need to do this at all? Further frustrations include their frequency in changing channel numbers and offerings for TV. I have eliminated several of TW’s packages (including HBO) and don’t miss them one bit. My Internet service has been moderately reliable although slow, but I have to admit that I have appreciated their phone cable service with unlimited long distance calls. I have to admit that I don’t fully understand this Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, but please keep us informed. Fortunately, I live in the “land of Google super fast fiber service” which seems to be expanding rapidly in the Kansas City area. However, I don’t know how this is going to affect my TV and phone service. Actually, I’m finished with TV for the season since all of my favorite “big” basketball teams have been eliminated–one of my major objections to the way the NCAA runs the tournament. Oh well so much for TV, nothing much worthwhile there anyway except sports, but I am concerned about the future of Internet access and cable phone service. Please keep us informed. Thanks.

Paul T is correct when stating “It isn’t much use blocking spammers as they change the sender address at random.” However, I use ESET Smart Security 7 and add everyone of these spammers’ addresses to their “Black List” which seems to provide some blocking. This spamming trend (mostly consisting of ridiculous messages and wording) seems to be accelerating at an alarming rate. Just be careful about what links you click on even though they appear legitimate–especially those promotional sites. For example, I’m convinced that Publishers Clearing House has a mole (spy) that directly connects your address and phone number to spammers. I quit that gig about one year ago and suddenly the spam frequency dropped off (a strong correlation). Now, I must have encountered another mole from some so-called legitimate company because the junk from someone who wants to send my inheritance of a million dollars has suddenly picked up again. Isn’t there some technology out there that can do a reverse tracing/tracking of these crooks?

Fred, you are incredible with your pieces when explaining details in a clear, semi-novice and understandable manner. Your Part 1 of this series hit the nail on the head; however, I’m still in the dark on a few things. Your advice on backup procedures is extremely valuable. However, after starting my computer work in the late 1960s laboring at an IBM 029 keypunch and, as long as I could protect my deck of punched cards, my data/programs were safe. Today, with all of the threats, hardware failures, and technical problems, I do regular backups. However, my typical backup procedures are in the form of selecting my most recent and changed data files and copying them to my 600-GB external hard drive by overwriting the older files on the external drive which always include Outlook pst, Excel, document files, calendar, and other changed files. Now with my recently purchased WD My Book® desktop storage external hard drive, USB 3.0, 4 TB capacity, I am wondering if routinely creating a “disk image” is the best way to backup because I often change settings in my programs. I know that my new external HD does automatic backups with appropriate settings; however, I don’t know what these backups entail or include. The thoughts of reformatting my internal 1-TB HD and reinstalling everything are terrifying, I don’t have that kind of time. Therefore, with my lack of total understanding of exactly what a “disk image” is, would you do one of your classic detailed pieces on disk images, i.e., exactly what they are, how to put them on my external HD then, considering the worst, reformatting my internal HD and putting the image back on my computer’s HD exactly as I backed it up without needing to reinstall any programs or settings? I may be old fashioned but I don’t yet trust cloud backups or the permanency of CDs and DVDs as viable backups. My OS is Windows 7 Pro, SP 1. Thanks for you great work.

I greatly appreciate Windows Secrets for many reasons. I am confident that the philosophy upon which your publication is founded (including the Lounge) is solid and sincere. The columnists are extremely knowledgeable and thorough while not going so far off the deep end that the average middle-level computer user doesn’t get lost in highly technical jargon and inflated “computerese.” I always look forward to Fred’s contributions as he has a marvelous and intuitive manner of explaining relevant technical and appropriate details in a way that is fitting and understandable. Staying with this thread, I want to express my appreciation for Tracey Capen’s piece on “The 2013 ultimate Windows Secrets utilities list” (Issue 414, 2013-12-19). His list of utilities is the kind of material and represents a manner of presentation that I appreciate–a very helpful and practical approach to this topic. I especially recognize some of my “favorites” in his list, namely ESET Online Virus Scanner, Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, TechSmith Snagit (a utility that I’m literally in love with), and Piriform CCleaner. I would only add jv16 PowerTools, now in version 2014, 3.2.0.1354, to his list. The latter providing me with very effective modules that keep my computer clean, although one must have some computer savvy to avoid extending the program’s power to a point of disaster. To all of you folks at Windows Secrets, I extend my appreciation for the understanding of your readers’ needs and most often “hitting the nail on the head.” Best wishes.

Running Win 7 Pro on 64-bit, SP 1. Gosh, I at least feel better to know that I’m not the only person that System Mechanic has screwed up;). I bought SM from a reputable web site in good faith, left it on my desk for a couple of wks. before installing. I finally installed it, checked all settings which seemed normal, and ran it–most everything went bonkers. Desktop icons disappeared, all Taskbar icons were gone, no programs would load (Word, Excel, or WE). However, the machine would boot up normally, Firefox showed my homepage, nothing else, and the Recycle Bin constantly emptied. I quickly uninstalled SM, ran CCleaner, TuneUp Utilities 2013, and jv16 PowerTools 2012–now, no sign of SM anywhere on my computer. However, the Recycle Bin continues to empty automatically (this is my problem). In addition to the above, I’m running MS Malicious Software Removal Tool V4.14, and ESET Smart Security 6. I know some of these empty the Recycle Bin when set to do so, but I’ve checked everything and cannot find a reason for the RB to automatically empty. Incidentally, SM will not refund because I’m over their 30 day limit. The RB is a great safety tool for me and I’ll appreciate any advice or help with keeping it full. Thanks to System Restore, I’m up and running again. Best regards.

BruceR — You are a genius! ! ! I followed your suggestion to “Uncheck Show picture placeholders,” that fixed everything. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This can be a big problem in Word and your solution should be widely publicized. Best regards.

Sorry to be a pest but the Snipping Tool doesn’t work either. Word behaves like there is a hidden setting I’ve missed somewhere or Word is corrupted. I’ve tried everything I can find in order to place a picture/image in Document1 (or any Word document) and nothing works except to place a blank box in the document. Even tried a capture from SnagIt with no luck. Extremely puzzling because when doing email via Outlook with Word as the editor, pictures/images/ClipArt paste easily as they should. I appreciate your help, but I’ll not clutter this thread anymore unless someone can nail this problem. Thanks, and best regards.

By suggesting using “Insert > Picture” I assume you intend the following: (1) I have a blank Document1 open in Word, (2) I click on the “Insert” tab at the top, (3) I click on “Picture” in the ribbon which takes me to the “Insert Picture” window showing Windows Explorer & my list of folders, (4) I find the pic file & click on it which places the file name in the window at the bottom, (5) I click on the “Insert” button which places an empty box in Document1 where the picture should show. I can size this box and do everything I should be able to do with the picture, e.g., right click on it and select from the drop down menu, etc. But nothing happens–the white empty box remains. Word simply won’t open the picture on the page as WordPerfect does. Sorry to be so wordy, but I’m trying to fill in all gaps that I obviously have overlooked (no pun intended). I said before that Clip Art does insert a pic, but now I see that it also just places an empty box in Document1. Thanks.

Goodness, this thing rambles and rambles. Suggest that you go to any office supply store, purchase a package of “Post-it” notes, use a pencil/pen & write your notes, then paste them on the outside frame of your monitor. Forget about the desktop. Seems pretty simple to me–and the notes are always visible. This works even when the computer is powered down. :mellow:

Whoa! If Ted is confused, there is no hope for the rest of us with grey/white/no hair. FB is best left to the youngsters who post things that will screwup their futures if they are not careful. My perennial soapbox with my DGSs.

Barbara

I agree with Barbara 100%. I recently closed my Facebook and Twitter accounts and couldn’t be happier. Let the kids make fools out of themselves.

As I wrote earlier, even though adjustment choices are available, the Ribbon causes a lot of frustration and waste of time. There is just too much redundancy, duplication, and confusion between the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar, the latter with something like 1,600 choices I think. The Ribbon and Toolbar are handy and convenient if you can find what you need, but there must be a better way to open, compose, edit, and close messages other than click on the File tab and close the folder, etc. The Toolbar offers options of Close, Close, Close All, Save, Save As, etc. As for opening a file we’ve got choices such as Open, Open Recent File, Opening, Open Existing, etc. The last mind boggling command is “Edit” where 28 versions of this command appear. After all, how many icons can the Toolbar hold and where is the best place for them to reside–Ribbon or Tool Bar? Another annoying quirk, at least on my 2010 version of Word’s Ribbon, is an inconsistency presented when writing an Outlook email using Word as an editor. Here, the check boxes that allow “Hide Grammar Errors” and Hide Spelling Errors” seem to disappear. There are options in the separate Quick Access Toolbar under normal Word document conditions, but when writing an email, they disappear. Regardless of excellent suggestions by you kind Lounge readers, I’m still searching for how to quickly and easily turn off the squiggly underlines under words when composing email.

Woody started an excellent topic–let’s not let this drop and maybe Microsoft will listen. Thanks to you great readers/responders because these topics and comments provide practical and high octane fuel that will lead to improvement and benefits to all. Incidentally, I’m using Office Professional 2010 on Windows 7 Pro.

Best regards — Remember to “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.”

Hey Woody, thanks for your excellent piece on the %$#@! Microsoft Ribbon. Yeah, I use it and mostly like it, if I can memorize the functions between the hundreds of options on the Quick Access Toolbar vs. the Ribbon. The frustrating thing for me–and a huge waste of time–is searching through the often mislabeled and ambiguous functions listed in the Tool Bar options, e.g., I just finished wasting about 20 minutes trying to find the old familiar icon that will set the distance between lines from the standard “1” (single space) to other options such as “1.5” or “2” (standard double space) when using OneNote. Come on, Microsoft, provide a search option and/or clarify and expand your terminology such as “File” or “Instant Search.” Good gosh, the choices are great, but help us find them.

Ted,
I have tried PDF-XChange Viewer and am pleased with the results. However, there are lots of options and I wouldn’t be sure but what there may be a few bugs. Nevertheless, this program has done a good job with pdf files for me and I would recommend giving it a try. Thanks.