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eGIX Lends Helping Hand in Crusade against Homelessness

Locally Owned eGIX, Inc. & DSLindiana Join Forces

For More eGIX in the News CLICK HERE

 

Kelly's Techie Tip of the Month

Disk Clean Up
Disk Clean up is designed to clear unnecessary files from your computers hard drive. To start disk clean up you can either go to Start, then Run and type in Cleanmgr.exe. You can also go to Start, All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click on Disk Cleanup.

Disk Defragmenter (XP and Win 2000)
Disk Defragmenter reorganizes files and pieces of files on a disk to optimize performance and reliability.

To open Disk Defragmenter go to Start, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then Disk Defragmenter. You can also go to Start, Run, type in dfrg.msc. Once it opens you will see on the top of the window a list of hard drives installed on your system. Just highlight a drive and click Defragment to begin the Defragmentation process. This can usually take up to an hour to be completely done.

Email without Starting Outlook
Sometimes you just want to send a quick email without opening your Outlook and waiting for the application to load. Well with this tip you can.

• First right-click on your desktop and select new, and then shortcut from the pop-up menu.
• A wizard launches, type mailto: in the location box (don't forget the colon at the end).
• Name your shortcut "new email" or something you can remember. You will then see the shortcut on your desktop.

So whenever you want to send off an email when Outlook isn't open, just double click this shortcut, compose your email and click send. This will also work for other email programs as well, as long as the application is the default mail program.

Does your computer start connecting right when you turn on your computer? (Windows XP)
Go to Control Panel, Switch to classic view (on the left hand side). Double click on Network Connections. Then you will want to click on Advanced from the menu and then click Dial up Preference. Under Enable redial by location, uncheck all locations and hit OK. That should take care of that problem.    

     
 

What is spyware and how can I protect my computer from it?
                                                                   — George, Danville, IN

What is spyware?

"Spyware" generally refers to computer programs that track your online activities. The activities that are tracked include, Web sites you visit, advertisement banners you click on, and search engines you tend to use. Spyware is generally used by Internet advertisers to collect data and statistics for online Web usage. You may unknowingly install spyware when you download programs from the Internet, install software from disks, or open suspicious email attachments.

Symptoms of spyware

The following symptoms may indicate that spyware exists on your computer.

• Your computer is acting slower than usual: One of the most commonly noticed symptoms of spyware is that your computer may responding much slower than usual.
• Your Internet connection appears slower than usual: Spyware can use significant computer memory resources. Multiple instances of spyware running at the same time can create "memory leaks," which can give you the impression that your Internet connection is much slower than normal.
• Advertisement pop-ups appear when you're not browsing the Web: Spyware can also serve you pop-up advertisements that appear while you are not surfing the Web--even if you don't have a Web browser open.
• Your homepage has changed, or keeps changing: Sometimes spyware will change your default homepage, or render your computer incapable of changing your homepage again.
• Redirecting Web sites: Spyware can cause your browser to automatically redirect to different Web sites. This symptom is especially common with Internet search engines.
• Search tool bars appear in your browser: You may notice that search bars appear directly in your browser. These bars, also known as plug-ins, can sometimes be installed by spyware programs.
• Spyware software appears in menus: Another indication that spyware has been installed on your computer is when suspicious programs and folders appear in your Start menu, startup menu, or system tray.

Removing spyware

Spyware is often very difficult to remove without the help of specialized anti-spyware programs (also known as spyware scanners). Spyware scanners identify and remove spyware from your computer. It is strongly recommended that you take advantage of these programs rather than attempting to remove spyware programs through conventional program un-install methods, like the "Add / Remove Programs" utility in Windows.

Spyware protection and prevention

Here are some basic guidelines to follow to help protect your computer from spyware in the future.

• Always be careful to fully understand what an application will be doing on your computer before you download it.
• Beware that sometimes spyware programs are bundled with other software applications (especially file sharing applications), and will automatically install.
• Be aware that spyware can be hidden in files shared through some popular file sharing applications, including KaZaA, LimeWire, BearShare, WinMX, iMesh, Morpheus, and XoloX.

Here are a few anti spyware programs you can download for free to help keep your computer clean.

AD-AWARE Personal Edition 1.06
download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=lst-0-2

Spybot Search And Destroy
download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1

Microsoft Anti Spyware (beta) microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Source: Yahoo Support

     

Office Tips for the Rest of Us

Put down that huge Microsoft Office how-to book. Our expert gives you 10 quick-and-easy pointers for getting the most from your programs.

Michael S. Lasky, special to PC World

Microsoft Office is like its namesake company: huge. It's so enormous, in fact, that Microsoft notes most Office users take advantage of less than 15 percent of the features packed into the 245MB of hard disk real estate that the program occupies. And even in the 15 percent that we do use, most of us don't know many of the great built-ins, short cuts, navigational speed tricks, and other documented and undocumented tips for getting the most out of Word, Excel, and Outlook.

You could, of course, buy one of the zillion books that cover every facet of the Office suite, but they too are overwhelming in size—some running up to nearly 1600 pages and weighing six and a half pounds. Or you can start with some of these handy, dandy tips I've discovered or been clued in to by other Office practitioners. All these speed-up tips and shortcuts work in Office 2003, XP, and 2000. They're certain to help you work more productively on Word documents, Excel worksheets, and Outlook e-mails and contact lists.

Zooming with Office: If you have a scroll wheel mouse, you can use the wheel to enlarge or shrink the screen size of your document or worksheet. Hold down the <Ctrl> key and spin the wheel toward yourself to zoom out or away from yourself (forward) to zoom back in. You may need to enable this feature to make it work properly; to do so, in Word or Excel, choose Tools, Options, click the General tab, and check the Zoom on Roll with Intellimouse box (a scroll mouse of any brand will work).

The shortcut to shortcuts: Not sure of a keyboard shortcut, or just want to learn more of them? Let Office help you by turning on the keyboard shortcut display. Select Tools, Customize, click the Options tab, and check the Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips box. Now when you hover the cursor over something like a toolbar icon, no only will a description of the icon function pop up, but so will its keyboard shortcut (if available).

A WORD for the Wise

Automate with AutoText: Word has a surfeit of built-in boilerplate phrases ready to be summoned with a mouse click instead of requiring you to manually type them. To access AutoText phrases instantly, right-click anywhere on the toolbar area and select AutoText. You'll find a menu of phrases (such as "To Whom it May Concern") as well as a button for adding your own AutoText entries.

Return to where you left off: Wouldn't it be nice to quickly return to the place in your document where you left off when you last saved? Press <Shift>-<F5> and you're there. In fact, you can repeat the key combo to go to the last three places you made changes.

Two windows, one screen: When you're editing a document or just want to compare parts of one, it's particular handy to have two independently scrollable window panes of the same document. Select Window, Split and a split bar will appear. Using your mouse, move the line to where you want the split to appear and then click the mouse. Any changes you make in one pane will be made in the other because only the number of viewing/editing panes has doubled-not the number of copies of the document. To return to a single-window view, double-click on the split bar.

Excelling With EXCEL

Changing directions: With so many places (or cells) to go to in Excel, navigation expertise is essential to productivity. One of the simplest–but often overlooked–forms of navigation is the Enter key. By default, when you press Enter, the cursor goes to the next cell down. But it doesn't have to be that way. To change the default direction to right, left, or up, select Tools, Options, click the Edit tab, check the Move selection after Enter box, and then select your direction choice from the pull down menu. Then click OK.

Moving from one worksheet to another is as simple as clicking the Sheet tabs at the bottom of the screen. But if you want to keep your hands on the keyboard, press <Ctrl>-<PageUp> and <Ctrl>-<Page Down> to toggle through each sheet.

Time for a page break: Unlike with dating, in Excel, breaking up is not hard to do–but clean page breaks are essential. Have you ever printed a worksheet only to find a few stray columns or rows orphaned on a separate page? To avoid this problem, preview where the page breaks are set to fall. Select View, Page Break Preview. The first time you visit, you will see a welcome screen that's not particularly helpful. Check the box offering not to show it again. Use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to view the breaks. Pages will be marked with large labels and page breaks with bold lines. You can then adjust the break lines with your mouse.

To manually set a page break, select the cell that will be the first one on the next page. Choose Insert, Page Break from the menu. To remove a page break, select Insert, Remove Page Break.

Fill 'er up with AutoFill: Excel can remove the drudgery of entering sequences of numbers, dates, days of the week, months, or years, among other boilerplate items. All you need to do is enter one or two items of a sequence in succeeding cells (rows or columns) and AutoFill can do the rest. Here are some examples:

• Fill in a series of numbers: To try this out, enter the number 1 in one cell and 2 in the next, then highlight both of those cells. Now hover your cursor over the small black square in the lower right of the selection until the cursor turns into a plus sign (not the plus sign with arrows). Next, drag the corner down or across and in each succeeding cell, Excel will fill the cells with increments of 1 (3, 4, 5, and so forth). If you originally entered 100 and 200, the cells would be AutoFilled with 300, 400, and so on.
• Fill in dates: Similarly, enter a single day of the week or month of the year, and Excel will AutoFill each succeeding day or month. When it reaches the end of a series of named days, it will repeat them again in order until the end of your selection. At the end of a month's worth of dates, it will automatically go into the next month. Excel will even fill in a sequence of years or quarters beginning with the one you start with such as 2004, 2005, 2006 or Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4.

By default, AutoFill copies both the formats and values of the cells you choose. To select one or the other, hold down the right mouse key while dragging. Upon release, choose Fill Formatting Only or Fill Without Formatting. If you don't like how AutoFill has filled cells, click AutoFill Smart Tag to display more options.

Looking Out With OUTLOOK

Faster contacts with nicknames: Every contact record in Outlook includes a field called Nickname. While you could actually enter a friend's nickname there (which is what most users think it is for and therefore don't use it), it is a great way to make name matching more precise when sending e-mails.

To use this field, go to a contact's record, click the Details tab, and enter a name that you'll use as a shortcut for calling up the person's info. It can also be useful for differentiating similar close names. For instance, if you have a series of Smiths–Anne, Barrett, Charles–you could enter a nickname for each, such as AS, BS, or Chuck. You don't have to type the full name, or choose the right Smith from a pop-up list, to pinpoint the Smith you're addressing: you simply type their nickname into the "To:" field of your e-mail message.

Find a contact's address on a map: If your PC is connected to the Internet, you can get a map and driving instructions of a contact's address. Click Contacts on the Outlook bar, then select the contact. From the File menu, select Open, Selected Items. Under the Address button, click the down arrow, then click the address you want mapped: Business, Home, or Other. Now go to the Actions menu and click Display Map of Address. Outlook now goes to the MSN Maps Web site to pinpoint the address on a map. Use the controls on that page to further customize your exact directional needs.

Source: MSN.com