Entries Tagged 'Windows Software' ↓

Copyright 2005 Michael Murray

If you run any type of Internet business, Adware and Spyware can be a very serious issue. These programs hide themselves on your computer and do all sorts of annoying and potentially dangerous things.

Viruses spread on your PC. The good news is that Spyware applications usually stay put, much like a parasite. Spyware collects information about your messaging and browsing behavior and your online preferences with the intent to sell it to online advertisers.

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Originally posted 2005-07-06 09:35:16. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Back in the days of DOS most programs had their own special key combinations for accomplishing certain tasks. Many but not all would use the WordStar Ctrl key for moving the cursor. But you might need to remember a half dozen different ways to save the file you were working on.

There was something called CUA (I think) that specified certain keys for certain tasks. This is when F1 became the Help key. Though WordPerfect, then the ruling word processor, used F5.

Getting rid of oddball key combinations was I’ve thought the one good thing that came of Microsoft Windows dominance.

But too many of the programs – none to be named – don’t play the game. Variously they demand:

Ctrl-W to save and close all files.

Ctrl-H to search and replace.

Ctrl-P doesn’t print. And my text editor doesn’t bypass the print dialog when I click on the print icon.

F5 doesn’t refresh. Try Ctrl-R.

Ctrl-A doesn’t select all.

Some developers plead they are at the mercy of a library they are using. But you can then configure the software to use the standard key combinations. So the programmers could supply the Windows defaults with minimal effort.

I know, I know: Linux users expect as a matter of course to have emacs and vi bindings available.

Originally posted 2004-09-17 21:08:44. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Used to be I always looked forward to the latest PC Magazine utility. Now I rarely think to check.

The latest issue offers a tool to discover and modify Alternate Data Streams on Windows XP computers. Aside from being a possible vector of malware they can just load down your drive with unwanted junk.

Our latest utility, Stream Revealer allows you to find streams, attach a stream to a file, delete streams, launch streams, and extract streams. It’s a great tool for discovering hidden ADS (and a neat way to hide your own files).

Stream Revealer: Detect Potential Threats

Originally posted 2006-06-02 08:19:59. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Being lazy and careless I continue to forget my MS Office 2000 discs home (of course when I look for them at the shop I’ll find they are already home).

So I’m still using Star Office’s Writer.

I’m still not won over, which is a pity. I’ll never upgrade to Microsoft Word 2003 or above. I put up with the necessary registration with Windows XP. Hopefully Word 2000 will remain all I ever need.

I still miss Word’s dictionary. I use enough uncommon words to find many of Writer’s suggestions helpful. Sometimes a couple of dozen words will pop up none of them the correct word. Queerly Writer added the proper accent to naive naïve then marked it as wrong and suggested “naive.”

Several times Writer has tried to capitalize the “S” is a possessive. And it is determined to not accept that the last period in a.m. is not the end of a sentence.

For a couple of days Writer saw all spelling errors as URLs to a domain name I’d pasted into a document. Even after I shut down and restarted the program. Since rebooting the computer Writer’s behavior is back to normal.

I blush to admit it but I do miss Word’s grammar warnings. I ignore almost all of them but the few that I accept are appreciated.

Remembering how happy I was when I went from WordStar to WordPerfect I took a quick look at WordPerfect 12. I’m wary of Corel mostly because they seemed badly managed (years ago: I haven’t followed the company in years). I won’t quibble with Corel’s prices but I can’t imagine paying that much.

With luck the next time I look at Open Office Writer my cavils will have been dealt with.

While I’ve been using Writer a couple of computer mag articles caught my eye.

eweek offers: Office 2003 vs. OpenOffice.Org. Boring even for a publication unchallenging and bland as eWeek.

John Dvorak wants to Kill Microsoft Word. Pretty clear he has a corrupted installation of MS Word 2003. He probably even knows that but if you have that many deadlines you grab your topics where you can find them.

Originally posted 2004-08-17 21:42:48. Republished by Old Post Promoter

ClipMate is probably the software program that I use the most. I’m always glad to see a new release.

Version 7 will obviously be worth the upgrade cost:

ClipMate’s Text Editor features drag and drop capability. You can drag and drop text within the editor to re-arrange data, and you can drag ‘n’ drop other Clips into a Clip, providing an on-the-fly composition of Clips from other Clips. And you can even drag portions of clips into other programs such as FireFox, IE, or Word.

This is the big new feature for me:

Templates allow you to paste a clip along with other attributes of the clip such as the date/time that it was captured, the source of the data, URL, etc.. It works like a “mail merge”, where you have a layout file with “tags” that determine where the various fields of the clip will appear in the “output”, in this case, the text actually pasted into the target.

ClipMate

I’m used to software exhibiting odd, sometimes warped behavior. But today I had special surprise.

I was using MS Word today to create a shipping label when the program did something it hasn’t done in years: crashed.

Launching Word again I found it had saved a prior label. But had converted all the text to Greek.

Question : I am using Mozilla Firefox 1.0. How do I change the settings of the browser so it sends several requests instead of the default one, to transmit responses faster? Are there other ways to increase the download speed of the browser? Please help.

Answer : There are several ways to speed up Mozilla’s Firefox. But before that, let’s look at Firefox’s configuration screen. To do that, start Firefox, type “about:config” (without the quotes) into the address box, and press the Enter key. This will bring up a page with a list of settings that can be configured.

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Will You Be Able to Recover from CFS (Corrupted File Syndrome)?

Author: Cavyl Stewart

After you’ve finally recovered from the shock of your hard drive crash, you’ll have to begin the process of recovering your files. It’s not a fun task, but somebody has to do it. You can pay a lot of money to hire the expertise, or you can do it yourself using software made especially for this type of situation.

Take a bit of comfort knowing that if there’s software to handle this situation, you’re not alone in needing it! It’s important to understand that there are different levels of corruption that can occur on your computer.

You can have a complete hard drive failure which will disintegrate everything installed on your system. Then there is individual file corruption which can still ruin your day.

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Computers: You CAN Master Any Program

Author: Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com

There was a time when I didn’t think I’d ever be a “computer” person. I was in the seventh grade, taking a class in MS-DOS and learning some program called Turtle. (I know why they called it Turtle. It was pretty darned slow.) I had to key in about 50 commands just to draw a half-inch line. I wasn’t all that skilled at doing this. One little typo, and my line was going in the total wrong direction. I got a C+ in the class.

Today, I’m something of an unofficial computer geek. I can pretty much learn any graphics, word processing or utilities program on the fly, and I even surprise myself with html tricks from time to time. Now for the good news: so can you. “No, I can’t!” you say. YES, you CAN.

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Manipulate Windows files, folders, interface and more.

Creative Element Power Tools is a suite of tools and settings for Windows. Some of the tools are stand-alone programs, some run invisibly in the background, while others appear merely as extensions to Windows Explorer.

Creative Element Power Tools