Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:54:10 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/ PCGURU :: Computer People who speak Plain English en-us http://www.pcguru.com.au/images/logo.gif http://www.pcguru.com.au/ webmaster@pcguru.com.au http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=307 It doesn't happen very often (ho ho!) but yes, even Gurus sometimes make mistakes!Thankfully we know how to undo them so quickly that no one would ever notice.The Ctrl+Z shortcut is a wonderful, wonderful friend of mine.  I love my keyboard shortcuts - but this one where we hold down the Ctrl key (bottom left of keyboard) and tap the Z key at the same time can be an absolute life-saver.Have you ever accidentally deleted the wrong file - or chopped out a whole bunch of text without meaning too?  Have you ever duplicated files while trying to select them with your mouse?Fear not!Do the Ctrl+Z manouvre and it'll undo it!How cool is that?Try it out in Windows Explorer as well as virtually any well-written application. Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:54:10 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=306 Sooner or later an absolutely critical hardware or software system will go kaput, leaving you & your business to try and muddle through on the old manual systems (if you have them).  It's inevitable.  computer parts - like car parts - will eventually fail.When you operate a small/medium business, you usually don’t have the luxury of a dedicated, full-time IT Person to help you recover from problems quickly.  That’s why, I strongly recommend thinking about how to deal with a computing catastrophe before it happens. (And trust me... it will) Here's 3 simple guidelines you should think about, while all of your PCs and applications are running smoothly and your stress levels are still (relatively) low. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:05:00 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=305 We've seen a huge demand for tutoring - and it's a very different thing to tech support.Surprisingly, we've seen demand from both domestic users and business users - although what the users want from tutoring is quite different. Are you interested?  Would you like a TutorGuru to visit your home or business and spend some time with you walking you through the basics?It really does take a special kind of person to be a teacher.  They need to be patient and trustworthy.  It's a different skill-set to your standard Guru who is usually more knowledgable and well... sometimes less patient!We're investigating whether we should provide tutoring services for basic computer skills, basic internet and entry-level Microsoft Office.Please click one of the below and let me know if you'd be interested for yourself or your staff.  Setting this up will depend on the demand!I'm interested in home user tutoringI'm interested in business user tutoring for myself I'm interested in business user tutoring for my staff. Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:21:52 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=304 When the "Check Engine" light comes on in your car - what do you do?  Do you take it to the Mechanic or at the very least - get someone knowledgable to take a look it?Well there's something siilar that happens on a Windows XP/Vista PC - and I'm amazed at the amount of people who just flat out ignore it!In the bottom right hand corner of your screen - down near the clock - you will sometimes see a little yellow shield with an exclamation mark in it.  This is letting you know that there are Windows Updates waiting to be installed.Now some of these aren't all that important - but many are.  In fact, many of them are actually security updates which means if you continue to read email and surf the web without applying these patches - you're probably going to end up with a slow or non-functional PC.So what to do?  Well if you're using Internet Explorer as your web browser, go up to the TOOLS menu and select "Windows Update".  Visit the site, follow the prompts and install all of the outstanding patches.  If you haven't done it for a while (or ever) this may take a long time and it may also involved some reboots.But it's worth it.The alternative is an expensive visit to the PCGURU Workshop - so please do your preventative maintenance and save us all the headache! Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:31:27 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=303 Concerned about the kids usage of the home PC? Go to the Control Panel and select "User Accounts and Family Safety". Next, click on the link that says "Set up parental controls for any user." From there, you can block inappropriate Web sites, set up a time schedule for playing games, limit use of instant-messaging software, and create boundaries for browsing the Internet. You can even print out an activity report for your child!Maybe you could do the same for staff members who do the wrong thing! Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:27:41 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=302 If you've bought yourself a lovely new Vista PC but it just doesn't feel quick enough, Microsoft have released a 14 Page downloadable PDF Document on how to go from Vista Slooow to Vista Go Go Go.THe suggestions vary from disabling visual effects through to customising the power saver settings and even how to use "ReadyBoost" to take advantage of the extra memory available on a USB Flash Stick.The bulk of the ideas are standard to anyone with a history of tweaking Windows settings - but the document is a great way to learn how to trick-out the innards of Vista and get an idea of how things work.But as always - take care!http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=ab377598-a637-432c-a3c8-1607ab629201  Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:32:20 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=301 Phishing (pronounced Fishing) is the high-tech equivalent of a shyster lookings for victims to scam.  The Shysters craft cunningly disguised emails pretending to be from organisations that you may do business with.  It's common to see these fake emails purporting to be from places like eBay, PayPal and various Australian Banks.  Sometimes - through clever guesswork - they appear to know stuff about you.But don't fall victim!If you do get an email like this - do NOT click on the links.  Just for emphasis.... DO NOT click on the links.  They are most likely disguised links to a site that LOOKS like eBay or PayPal - but it's a fake and they'll steal your password. If you do want to check the veracity of the email - manually fire up your web browser and visit the site yourself.  That way you can be confident you're really at the site you think you are.Always be suspicious on the net.  It's getting scarier.Also - take a look at http://www.iconix.com/index.php - it's a little program that can tell you if the email you have received is really from the purported sender.  It's free too.Do not fall for scams.  You have not won the UK Lottery. You have not been personally selected by the Crown Prince of Nigeria to help him $22 Billion out of the Country.  Microsoft is not giving away a free copy of Vista if you forward this email to 10 friends.Treat every email with suspicion.  Always, Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:31:37 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=300 Ever typed your own name into Google?Well I just tried it and apart from the many, many references to PCGURU and youcallme.com, it seems that there's quite a few people in the USA who share my name!My namesakes are everything from a fallen American Soldier through to a Trombone Player, a Convicted Felon, a Police Officer, a Scientist, a Teacher, a Software Coder and some guy who chases Tornados in the US Midwest.Jason Jordan's lead a very exciting lifestyle!One link I did find - that brings back quite a few memories is this youtube link to the first six minutes of an episode of e-life I hosted on Channel 10.  Have a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFYtpkzcu9ADo a search on your name.  Let me know if you find anything funny by posting it in the comments or send me an email! Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:45:51 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=299 Have you ever used 2 monitors or a Projector and then found you couldn't get your application back onto the main window?  Well it's easier than you think to get them back! First thing to try is to do an ALT+SPACE and then press M.  This will let you use the arrow keys to move the Window back to where you can see it.If that doesn't do it, try right clicking on the taskbar at the bottom of your screen and select "Cascade Windows".Easy when you know how! Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:49:36 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=297 I mentioned a few topics on 6PR on Sunday that have web links you can connect through to:CensorshipIf you have Children who use the Internet and you want to be more confident that they're not going to accidentally come across adult-oriented material, click through to http://www.netalert.gov.au/filters.html where you have a choice of Internet Filters you can install yourself - completely free of charge. Remember that Filters are not a panacea and they're every bit as fallible as a Human- sometimes they'll let bad stuff through - and sometimes they'll block stuff that shouldn't be blocked.  A Better Outlook ExpressMany of you use Outlook Express for your email.  At best it's kludgy and bug-ridden - and difficult to backup without (often) expensive pieces of theird-party software. A much more compelling alternative is Thunderbird from Mozilla.  It's free & robust.  It's fast & reliable.  I love it.  It's available for free download from here: http://www.getthunderbird.com - don't hesitate.  Just do it.Best part is that there's a free backup tool for your email here: http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ Free AntivirusWhilst it's no match for my favourite product Trend Internet Security 2008, Grisoft's AVG is a wonderful free Antivirus tool that stomps all over many of the commercial alternatives.Rather than sucking up all your system resources, AVG behaves nicely and provides a reasonable amount of protection for a price you just can't beat.Get your free copy of AVG 8.0 here: http://free.grisoft.comBut also consider Trend if you need spam filtering and anti-spyware. Have you got any alternatives or software you prefer?  Let us know! Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:24:53 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=296 The number of newsletter subscribers is climbing like crazy - but that means we have a lot of Readers who are new and don't know why they see some strange behaviour when they click on the links in the newsletter to get to the cool websites or the software I talk about.The way to make it work is this:Visit the PCGURU Website and sign up as a Member - it's free.  Being a Member is different to being a Newsletter Subscriber.If you're not logged into the website as a Member - you won't be able to click on the links successfully.Having you sign in as a Member gives me a much better indication of who is clicking through and actually getting value from the weekly missive.  Being a Member also entitles you to use the forum which I encourage all of you to do - it's a great place to chat and help each other out.  Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:44:05 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=295 I know a lot of you have already done this - but I was surprised to discover 2 people this week that had no idea it was even possible!Many of you have to wait an eternity everytime you launch your web browser (usually Internet Explorer) because you have a home (or start) page that is complex and takes a while to download.This is easy to fix!You can pick ANY page you like as the initial page that loads when you start your web browser.  I personally use Google as it loads almost instantly.  Google also makes it easy to do.  Visit http://www.google.com.au and you will (likely) see an option and the bottom of the page to "Set this as your homepage".Alternatively, load your preferred start page and then go to TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS.  The first option is to set your home page.  You can choose what you're currently on - or simply set it to blank.You'd be very surprised how much quicker your browser will start by using something less complex than NineMSN!! Feel free to add comments to this DIY if you've got a cool start page!  Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:11:13 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=294 In Edition #241 of the PCGURU Newsletter, I asked " When it comes to Customer Support & Service, whether it be from PCGURU or some other professional, what are the things they do that ensure you come back next time?"We had a lot of responses.  Enough that I needed to create a dedicated page on this site to list them all.Feel free to go and have a look at what people thought!I'd be interested in your comments. Click here to read:  "What makes me go back for more?" Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:01:03 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=293 We get regular enquiries from parents wanting to know how to safe-guard their children against inappropriate usage of the home PC.  Well Vista actually steps up a bit here and offers some assistance.Just go to the Control Panel and select "User Accounts and Family Safety". Click on the link that says "Set up parental controls for any user." You can then block inappropriate Web sites, set up a time schedule for playing computer games, limit the use of instant-messaging software, and create your own boundaries for browsing the Internet.  You can even print out an activity report for your child!  Oooh!  Big Brother! Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:27:46 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=292 Running two screens used to be seen as something only a geek would do.  Or someone with too much money to spend.  But these days - it's a must-have!The productivity gains can be enormous!  Even our Accounts people here at PCGURU run 2 screens - it allows them to keep the Accounting Package full-screen on one side and Excel or Outlook on the other.Many of you would find value in simply being able to keep Outlook - with it's email, calendar, contacts and tasks open all the time very useful.  Especially because you could run Internet Explorer on the other and gather information from web sites while keeping your to-do list right there.  Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:29:12 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=291 So you've got this recurring problem in that when someone sends you a picture in email you get a box with a red x in it. But when you reply to the e-mail, the sender says the graphics are there. You won't be able to solve the problem because it's caused by an incorrect setting in the sender's e-mail client, probably Outlook Express. This erroneous setting causes OE to include a link to the picture in the message rather than actually sending the picture itself. A link is OK when the picture resides on a Web Site, but a link to a file on the sender's PC can't ordinarily be viewed from your computer. Of course, when you return the message, the sender can see the picture just fine, because the link is again valid. It's hard to imagine why this would ever be useful, but Microsoft makes it an available option. Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:38:51 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=290 Here's the shortest Guru Tip ever.Want to use an on screen keyboard? Well it is this simple - Click on the start button and select run. Then type in osk in the box and click OK. Handy if you've got a dodgy keyboard or you'd rather use your mouse than type...  Wed, 28 May 2008 16:04:46 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=289 Long time Aficiandoes of the PCGURU Newsletter will know I'm no fan of censorship and that the current Government's plans to censor the Net are ill-considered and will effectively turn us into a Global Village Idiot.  That said, opt-in filtering technicques have their place!The Internet has lots of adults-oriented Web sites. For parents, blocking these sites is usually a priority. Employers often block pornography on their networks as well. There are many ways to do it. But what about other potentially offensive sites? Porn isn’t the only objectionable content out there on the Web. There are sites full of hate and racism. Many sites feature drugs, alcohol and gambling. This is content that children don’t really need to be viewing. And employers usually want to block these sites too. They probably don't have much to do with work - unless you work in the Federal Parliament!  Thu, 22 May 2008 00:40:55 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=288 There's a huge variety of AntiVirus/AntiSpyware tools on the market.  They vary in quality, capability and cost - but the bottom line is that you need one.If you're a Guru - you can probably make do with a free tool like AVG or Defender - but most of you don't want the headache of dealing with free tools and their limited feature-sets of nagging reminders.So what to do?  Tue, 13 May 2008 14:57:42 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=287 How often has an Outlook Meeting reminder popped up on your screen only for you to hit the Snooze button to be reminded again in 5 minutes?  How can you possibly be at your most productive while hitting the snooze button repeatedly throughout the day? Well this isn't exactly an earth-shattering Guru tip, in fact most of you likely already know how to change the default reminder time. It's just that I'm really tired of getting this popup dialog on my screen, telling me that I have a meeting in 15 minutes… so it occurred to me that I'd be a lot more productive without this nuisance. (of course, I'd be even more productive if I didn't have to waste my time at the boring meeting) Wed, 07 May 2008 17:29:13 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=286 After watching a Client scroll painfully through 20,000 messages in his inbox trying to find one from the right sender, it occurred to me that a lot of people don't realise how easily you can use the keyboard to find a message in a sorted list. Almost any list control in Windows will let you type the first couple of letters in order to focus the selection on the item that matches in the current sorted column. It's not exactly a new technique, but judging from today's experience I felt it was worth sharing. Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:40:08 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=285 I need to find the guy who's out there selling everyone a Blackberry!  I don't know how he's doing it - but he's clearly a damn good salesman as frankly - the Blackberry is a waste of money.You can spend LESS money and get something HEAPS better.Any phone running Windows Mobile can do everything a Blackberry can do - and MORE.  Any phone running Windows Mobile can surf the web and let you access your email.In fact, if you have a Small Business Server, Windows Mobile Phones stomp all over the Blackberry because they can do live push email, live calendar and live contacts.  Push email means that your emails generally land on the Phone before they land in your PC mailbox.  Live Calendar & Contacts means that you never have to sync your phone with your computer as it does this LIVE over the Internet.You can update a contact while you're having coffee with them and the new details are instantly available for everyone else in your business.  If your office updates an appointment for you while you're on the road - it's instantly in your phone.Let's see a Blackberry do that.My other major criticism of the Blackberry is that all email is routed via Canada.  Yep.  If you email the person next to you who also has a Blackberry - it goes via Canada.  Not very clever.  And if the internet link between Australia and the US is down or congested.... email delays!So please don't do it!  If you want email, calendar and contacts - do the smart thing and get a Windows Mobile.  Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:55:14 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=284 This is going to seem like a very simply little tip - but now that I've mentioned it to a few people I've come to understand that even though it's simple - it's not obvious!Have you ever wanted to know how to do something... say poach an egg or build a shelf?  Ever tried doing a search on the net and only come across sites wanting you to pay for instructions?There's a better way! Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:44:24 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=283 Managing your daily inbox can be more than a daunting task, but thankfully Outlook provides a terrific feature called Custom Search Folders that can save you time if you are regularly searching for the same thing, or just as a way to organise your email into "virtual folders".Outlook already has three search folders created from the default install which you can rename, modify, or delete - but lets create a new search folder to walk you through the process. Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:24:41 +1000 http://www.pcguru.com.au/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=282 Lots of people have lots of ideas about the best way to manage the inbox.  I've seen some people who have thousands of unread email in there - and others who keep it empty.Either way - you can automate some of the management with a simple thing called "rules".Most email clients have rules - and they're usually pretty easy to implement.  Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:14:20 +1000