LEGAL STUFF

I do not claim to be a computer expert (and some of the ones I do know shouldn't be claiming it either)! There is no guarantee that any of these sites, programs, or suggested solutions will work on your machine. You assume all risks for trying them.

1. Housekeeping.

Before you do anything to your computer there are several important, easy to do housekeeping items to do that will save you hours of frustration, and possibly thousands of dollars.

• Make a backup disk. It's not hard, and it saves important information in case you make a big mistake. A start-up disk is a floppy that can get you into your computer if the hard disk fails or is damaged. Your computer looks for certain key files and information on the hard disk when starting up. If the hard disk is faulty, your computer can't go through its routine launch procedures. If those files are on a floppy disk, you can just insert that start-up disk and go from there.
  
  In Windows 95/98/Me/XP, make a start-up disk by opening the Add/Remove Programs control panel and clicking on the Start-up Disk tab. (Macintoshes can use the installation CD to start the system, so Mac users don't need to make a start-up floppy.) You may never need an emergency start-up disk, but it's important to have one just in case.
  
  
• Now that you have conquered that major feat, you need to make a list of your hardware. Don't worry, Windows actually does this for you. In Windows, open the System control panel, click the Device Manager tab, press the Print button and select the "All devices and system summary" radio button. Then press OK. On a Mac, open the Apple System Profiler from the Apple menu. Select New Report from the File menu and make sure all the boxes are checked. Print the resulting report. Store this system inventory somewhere safe, and update it whenever you change your system. You will thank me for this somewhere down the line.
  
  
• Backup your data! I mean it. Back it up. It takes two minutes on a daily basis and if something goes wrong you will at least have the files from the previous day. You don't have to back up everything, just your data. Things that are not already on a CD or disk. You don't have to buy expensive backup software either. It's easy to copy your files by dragging them to your 3 1/2" floppy, or your Zip disk. I do this because I can verify that the files copied by clicking on the floppy and verifying that the files did copy. I *always* use a Zip disk to make daily backup copies of the things I'm working on. You are asking for major headaches if you don't. With the advent of CD Burners it is just as easy to make a backup disk to a CD. I don't personally like the rewritables because they have a higher fail ration that regular CD's. You can buy regular CD-R disks for $1.00 or less. The difference between a CD-R & a CD-RW is that a CD-R is recordable only once. A CD-RW (Read & Write) is, in theory able to overwrite existing data. Unfortunately it doesn't work well, and there is a high failure rate that you won't know about until you go to use the data. Buy the CD-R's and be safe.
  
  
• Get a decent backup power supply! At a very minimum get rid of that power strip and get a surge protection strip like APC's Surge Arrest or Cyber Power's Surge Protector. For much more protection get a battery backup. If you have a lot of surges, brownouts, or blackouts this $70 - $100 investment will protect you long enough for you to save your data, BACK IT UP, and shut down your computer. You spent big bucks getting this system. Don't nickel and dime your backup protection.
  
  
• Keep the Barbarians from the gates! Protect your computer from outside attack from outside Barbarians and malicious code from inside your computer. I use (http://www.zonelabs.com/), a free firewall that has stopped numerous attacks from hackers who want to steal my bandwidth to launch attacks on other servers and sites. This may be the next best thing to a personal armed bodyguard for your system.
  
  
• Check for updates. Especially from Microsoft. Windows users can go to Start, Windows Updates. Macintosh users with OS 9 will find Software Update in the Control Panels folder under the Apple menu. Just a note. Windows XP is capable of automatically downloading Windows updates. Here's the catch. You must configure it to do so. It's easy! Click on Start|Control Panel|Performance and Maintenance|System. Then, in the System properties dialog, click the Automatic Updates tab, click on "Download the update automatically and notify me when they are ready to be installed" and Apply.
  
  
• Learn how to PANIC! There are going to be times that you hit the wrong button or delete something you should not have. If you do one thing, learn how to properly panic! Every application has an UNDO button (usually found under Edit / Undo, or look for the curved arrow  on your toolbar. Here is the trick. As soon as you realize that you have done something wrong, throw your hands up in the air and shout out, 'Oh my god what have I done!' This will give your brain a chance to catch up with your panicked fingers. So long as you have not punched another single button you can UNDO your last command.Ask my students, or their spouses if this works. I even have letters of thanks from people who swear that this trick has saved their marriages.
  
  

2. Anti-virus software packages.

Expect to get hit by a virus! Forewarned is forearmed, and yes Virginia, they ARE out to get you! Get a good virus protection package. Yearly fees are around $30. Do you know how these new viruses work? If your computer is infected with one of these newer viruses, the virus will redistribute itself to everyone in your address book. Here's the catch. The From: line won't be your email address. Instead, the virus will scan the all of the emails in your email package and use one of THOSE addresses as the From: line. Pretty scary yes?At the bottom of this page (CTRL + END) is a link to a free online virus checker. Good for a quick check, but it cannot, and should not, replace a good onboard package. You can buy a package off the shelf and download the upgrade patches (usually good for one year), or download from a number of sites including:

•   (http://www.mcafee.com/). McAfee also has an excellent free online scan.
  
  
•  Computer Associate's Inoculate (http://antivirus.cai.com/)
  
  
• And the one I use, Trend Micro's PC-cillian
  
  

These are general tools and guidelines. Following these guidelines will make your computer and online experiences much more enjoyable. If you have a general question please feel free to email me. I do not do free consultations. Below you will find links to places that will help you at no charge, or for a nominal fee.

3. How to put all the fonts you want on your computer without having them load at startup!

1. Open up Windows Explorer and create a folder for your fonts. If you only have one hard drive you should be on Drive C, and you should call the folder FontsII.
2. Put all the fonts you want to add in this folder.
3. Once you have added your fonts you are going to show the computer where they are located. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel. In Win95/98 open the Fonts folder. In XP click on Appearance and Themes. Over the the far left under See Also, click on Fonts. Your font folder will show up.
4. Click on File, Install New Font.
5. You will need to tell it where the new folder is. Yours will be C:\FontsII. You want to UNCHECK the Copy Fonts to Fonts Folder. This keeps the fonts right where they are and they won't all load at startup. Don't worry, you will see them all!
6. Double click on your FontsII folder. A list of available fonts will show up under List of Fonts.
7. If this is the first time you have added to the list you can Select All. I add fonts as I find them so you will have to remember the name of any font you add after the original selection. For example. I am going to load the Amazone font which is tt1040m.ttf, but in the font list shows up as Amazone BT (True Type). Don't forget to UNCHECK the Copy Fonts to Fonts Folder every time!
8. Click on OK. It will take a few seconds if you selected Select All for the shortcut to be created. What you will see is that all of the fonts that are in your FontII folder show up with a little arrow. This is a shortcut that tells the system to look elsewhere for the font. This frees up valuable system resources by not loading the entire font, just the shortcut that tells the system where to find the font.

4. Places That Help - Online Resources In somewhat alphabetical order.
Ok, here it is, the *best* site I have found (courtesy of Bob Rankin and The Internet Tourbus, a FREE e-zine that is chock full of hints and tips for everybody! Stop by, tell them that the Web Goddess sent you!). Introducing ANNOYANCES.ORG It takes a little while to figure out how to get around this site, but I am here to tell you that this place is the single most amazing site on the internet. In less than five minutes I found out how to get around one of the MOST annoying things that the Internet Explores does. Every time I opened up my IE I had to turn the status bar (that wonderful little creature that should be on the bottom of your screen). This place showed me how, in ten simple steps, to stop that from happening! Yahoo! I have also downloaded a little gem that puts the date to the right of the time in the system tray. I must go now because there is a lot more information, tips, and techniques that I am dying to try. ASK BOB RANKIN Need tech support? Go ahead... Ask Bob Rankin about computers, viruses, spyware, search engines or almost anything about the Internet.
High-Tech Dictionary Computer User http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/noframes/index.html Just plug in a computer term and it tells you what you need to know. The Internet's Domain Name Service http://www.DNSstuff.com Have you ever wanted to see who owned a website? What about finding out who really sent you that email? What if you want to figure out what IP address the computer you are at is using? Everything you need to find this out, and more is there. Including a suite of must have DNS tools. FOLDOC http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html A Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing Terms Pretty self explanatory yes?	http://www.howstuffworks.com/category.htm?cat=Comp I have no idea how they do this, but you will want to go back to this site over and over again! Webopedia http://www.webopedia.com/ Billed as the only online dictionary and search engine you need for computer and Internet technology.
Web Sites That Shorten Long URLs http://notlong.com/links/ A great site that lists places you can go to if you need to shorten a long URL. I like tinyurl.com.	Urban Legends/Myth Busters. Check out that email BEFORE you foward it on! Scam Busters Tired of trying to figure out what is a hoax and what is for real on the Net? Snopes can help. The Snopes.com service was created to help you identify hoaxes and to actively combat them. To find out if a message is a hoax, you can look for it on this website. If it's not there, you can send them information for verification. I did because I kept getting emails about termite infested mulch. Check it out! Truth or Fiction
http://www.TheNakedPC.com All sorts of great geeky looking guys trying their best to help you while they make a couple of bucks.	Have you ever wished that you had somewhere to go that would help you with your computer's problems without costing you a fortune? You have to see this site. It's free, it is easy to use, and it's from Microsoft ©. Yes, that's what I said. Microsoft ©. The same people who brought us the free AntiSpyware are now offering a Beta site where you can check for all sorts of computer woes, download software that might actually help you keep what sanity you have left. One word of advise - you have to use Internet Explorer to visit the site. Windows Live Safety Center - Beta
http://www.pcshowandtell.com PC Show & Tell - Answers On The Fly! Hundreds of short videos tutorials show how to solve computer problems, set up hardware, work software, and get to other Web sites. You have to register to download the free movie player, then browse the list of available videos. Some are free, but you will have to pay $30 a year to access the complete library Windows users only.	http://www.tech24.com 24 Hour Tech Support! It doesn't matter what type of computer or operating system you use, this site divides help in easy to navigate zones. You can chat with a technician or email a Tech24 technician for help. There is a fee though. Not too bad, but not free.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/ Definitions for thousands of the most current IT-related words.	XP Resources http://www.winxpfix.com/
5. SPAM! What you can do to combat it.
I don't know about the rest of you, but my SPAM quota has reached critical mass. Yesterday I received over 100 spams at ONE email address alone. I'm tired of it. I don't want to see nekid people, I don't care who or WHAT they are 'doing' it to. Don't want their prescriptions, holidays or ink refills. There is no way that I am going to give that idiot in Nigeria, or wherever they are now, my bank info. Don't even get me started on the ones who want to sell me magazines & real estate or make me rich. There are several ways we can cut down on the amount of SPAM we receive. Blind carbon copy email that is going out to more than one person. Instead of addressing an email to everybody, put the names of the people you want to send to in the BCC field of your email. Address the mail TO yourself. That way nobody can see the email addresses when it gets forwarded a gabillion times. DON'T FORWARD EMAIL! I have my machine set up to filter out ALL forwarded emails. All of them. Every last one. If you can't take the time to copy and paste, then I don't have the time to waste reading it. Don't send email FROM a site that gives something away for 'free.' They are SPAM gathering sites that now KNOW that they have a good, verified email address. A good example is BirthdayAlarm dot com or ANY of the 'free' card sites. Anytime YOU send a e-card to somebody that info is *automatically* sold to a spam list. Don't bother REPLYING to email that says that they will take you OFF the list if you hit reply. They won't. It just verifies your email address and then the fun really begins. WARNING WILL ROBINSON, WARNING! There is a NEW bread of SPAM BUGS out there! Here is a real killer. There is now a way for spammers to insert a tiny, unseen graphic into the spam email that let's them know that you have opened the email AND seen it. How much does that bite! All you have to do is open your HTML enabled email and this invisible picture is downloaded from the spammer's site. This tells them that your email address is VALID, and that you receive HTML email!! Horrors! That's right. All you have to do is open the email now and your email address is verified. Fortunately there are ways to stop this from happening. First, don't accept email in HTML format. I know, that's not always what you want, but if it is not in HTML format then you don't see the picture, and THEY don't get verification of your address. Make your default email client read in Plain Text (vs. HTML) only. Plain text will not show pictures, fancy fonts, or any other embedded item. I know, it's not pretty, but it works! Second, use a program to prescreen your email. I use McAfee's SpamKiller. It let's you see your email in plain text format BEFORE it is downloaded to your computer. All SPAM is filtered out to the "Killed" file and you can either manually delete it, or have it just go away ~POOF~ all gone! It comes with a set of predefined filters, but you teach it who your friends are, or what you want to be considered SPAM, and it zaps it right off the server. You can customize it not to delete unless you tell it to. That way if an email you need gets pegged as spam, you can recover it. Yes, there are some free ones out there, but they (IMHO) treat you like an idiot and make all your decisions for you. If I wanted to be treated like a twelve year old I would call my ex-husband. OPT out of anything that you have to give your email address for. I have to register certain things at work. The legit places always have a box that allows you to check, or uncheck, the function that gives them permission to SPAM you! USE IT! You DON'T want to give your email address to their 'affiliates.' OPT OUT! Don't give anybody, for any reason, my email address, or that of anybody you love as much as you do me WITHOUT their permission. You wouldn't give out my phone number or address to a complete stranger would you? Then don't give them my email address. It helps if people like you and me are aware of how these spammers work. They get you coming and going these days. Hey AOL users! Don't participate in public forums with your primary address. There is software that constantly watches these chat rooms, mailing lists and newsgroups, and harvests the email addresses. This is so prevalent on AOL that you can get spammed within MINUTES of entering a chat room. Use an alternate address provided by your ISP or get a free account at Hotmail, Yahoo or another web-based email site. Better yet, stay out of the public chat rooms. Get rid of that profile too! Only idiots leave a profile up on AOL. Don't post your email address (in plain text) on your website. Use a disposable address instead. Spiders (webbots) sort through all of your pages to find good email addresses. Do NOT register at sites where you can list yourself as a "no spam" address. Please. These are just a gathering house for spammers. It's akin to putting a sign on your back that says "Kick Me." Do NOT buy anything from a spammer EVER! Don't go to their websites. No matter how tempting the offer, they are spammers, and have a confirmed reservation in hell. Don't patronize any business that contacts you with unsolicited bulk email. Only idiots buy from these low lifes. Are you an idiot? Don't worry. If you have done this you can become a recovering spam-an-idiot by swearing never to do this again, AND by showing others how to avoid YOUR mistakes! The best way is to use a third party software (like SpamKiller) to preview your emails and filter out spam. Oh, there is one other program out there that is somewhat free. MailWasher is a basic free program, but I don't really like it. They have a Pro version you can purchase that works much better (Duh!), but I think I will stick w/SpamKiller.
6. Useful FREE Programs This group of links takes you to another web page to download the program and get more information.
Microsoft's FREE Security Software http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/default.mspx Windows Defender (Beta 2) Free? Yes I did say that. Richmond has slowly been earning my respect. This product protect my computer from attacks from spyware better than anything I have seen out there. I should know, I have tried them all!	Firefox - The browser that I predict will unseat Microsoft's Explorer. http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ It took me a little while to get used to the features of this FREE browser, but wow! Tabbed browsing, a complete pop-up blocker, strong security features, live bookmarks, great search features, and much more. This is the browser I use for 95% of everything. Not everything works with this browser, but that is the fault of the person who built the site, not the browser. Did I tell you this is free?
The new Google Toolbar (TM) http://www.google.com/options/toolbar.html The new Google Toolbar (TM) increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install. The Google Toolbar is available free of charge and includes these great features: Google Search: Access Google's search technology from any web page. Site Search: Search only the pages of the site you're visiting. Word Find: Find your search terms wherever they appear on the page. Highlight: Highlight your search terms as they appear on the page, each word in its own color. PageRank: See Google's ranking of the current page. Page Info: Access more information about a page including similar pages, pages that link back to that page, as well as a cached snapshot.	Tech Tutorials Vivisimo's Listing of FREE technical tutorials! I use Vivisimo for my search engine. Yes, I go to Google sometimes, but I like the way Vivisimo lays things out. Everything from applications through Windows. This site has it all. Want to build your own website? Check out their tables and basic HTML tutor. Best of all, it's all FREE!
Vivisimo Speaking of Vivisimo, I figured I should give you the direct link! Watch how this search site finds information for you. So easy. Really.	WebTV Viewer http://developer.msntv.com/tools/viewer/instructions/Default.htm The WebTV® Viewer is a computer Web browser designed to display Web pages in much the same way that they'll appear when viewed on a WebTV browser.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com// Ad-Aware scans your system for the most common "ad spyware" programs such as Adware, Comet Cursor and Web3000 (among others). It's useful if you want to find and remove programs that might be tracking your online behavior. You didn't know that that cute cursor might be following you around? You will be surprised to see what information is tagging around with you. Get rid of them!	http://www.zonelabs.com. Stop the Barbarians! Did you know that you are vulnerable to attack whenever you're online? If you'd rather be safe than sorry, protect your computer with this free firewall program. A firewall is a software barrier that keeps others from entering your computer. I use it and you should too.
7. Free Programs You Can Download Here
Clip Path 96KB The simple way to copy any file or folder path from windows explorer.	Shred 435KB Make sure that when you delete a file that its contents are really gone for good. This free shredder takes care of everything you want gone from your system.
Wikberg's recycle bin changer 216KB Over 140 different recycling bins. Read the 'README.TXT' file before you install this program. It requires a reboot to make it work.	Rename It 69KB Rename-it is a Win95 File name manager. It allows the user to select multiple files and batch rename them. Files can easily be organized and grouped by renaming to a new common prefix and padded with a unique value for sorting purposes. Great for graphics collectors and webmasters. Updated with alphabetical counter.
A Good Notepad 1,234KB Tired of the lame notebook that comes with Windows? This is a very good substitute that has tons of features.	Coffee Cup Picture Viewer 3,544KB A free picture viewer that allows you to view directories and manipulate graphics.
Free Icons 546KB Want to replace those lame icons on your desktop? Here is a zip file (546KB) that contains hundreds for you to choose from. You will need an unzipping package like WinZip (which you can download here).
8. Need Help With Hardware?
http://www.pcguide.com/ This guide is the creation of Charles M. Kozierok, a premo Tech Geek if there ever was one. Information ranges from a Tip Of The Day to detailed explanations on how your hard drive works. Hardware Central! http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/tutorials/ http://pcsupport.about.com/compute/pcsupport/mbody.htm About.com's Focus on PC Support All three sites have a lot of information about configuring computers and installation in general. I really like The PC guide!
9. Brand Specific Assistance
Apple http://www.apple.com/support	Dell http://www.support.dell.com
Gateway http://www.gateway.com/support	Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com

10. I have included a FREE, on-line scanning program that will check your computer for virus's. This link will take you to the entrance page where you will need to select your country and then press the "GO". If you do NOT want to be added to their mailing list unclick the box. Be prepared to wait, it takes awhile to scan your drives AND you have to have Active-X (it will prompt you to download it if you don't). If you do not see anything after a few minutes, click in the blank space and see if a "picture" of your Window's Explorer shows up.

http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp