11/6/08

Windows 2008 Complimentary Study Guide

Hurry up, no telling how long this link will be active. But learning Windows 2008 it a must for the corporate environment.


11/5/08

Bring back Dead Torrents

It is possible with the help of a software called btReAnnounceR. So just because your torrent file looks dead. Does not mean that it's the end.


11/4/08

Gimp

Here's another free open source photo retouching software similar to Adobe photoshop. Photo editing made easier.


11/3/08

Text Guard

Here is another text monitoring software to monitor all text and incoming calls for your family members.


11/2/08

McAfee Headache

Antivirus software's now make it very difficult for you to say good bye even when you uninstall them.
I recently was working on a computer that at one time had installed McAfee antivirus and firewall, but now no longer has it. To my surprise when the computer will told me that the McAfee firewall or Shield stopped a suspicious file. It was nice that I was informed by McAfee, but when the software was uninstalled. That should have been the end. McAfee should know better to understand when someone removes it's software. It's usually permanent. So take control of your computer and say goodbye to McAfee.


11/1/08

Nationwide Free Broadband Update

Regardless of the complaints from several carries on Free broadband throughout the United States. It looks pretty good in our favor. Hopefully the FCC will stick to it's decision and make it possible. Stay tuned.



10/31/08

1 Year Free McAfee

Now it's the time to get a year free of McAfee antivirus software. Secure your computers for free.


10/30/08

How to download music from Myspace

It's an easy way to get your favorite music from Myspace. Just go to MySpace and find a web page with music you enjoy. Copy the site address and go to file2hd past the site address in the URL and check the agreement of the terms and the Audio file. You then click Get Files. This will give you all the music on that page on a link and just find the music you want to download and right click the mouse as a save as file and save.


10/29/08

Record Cell Phone Calls & Text Messages

I just hope this software doesn't go into the wrong hands, but if you want to monitor your loved ones. Then this is a great way to start.


10/28/08

Pakt

Learn and share your experience through tutorials. This site is a great e-learning tool that monitors your progress. Reading is fundamental.


10/27/08

Your Magic Photo

Have photo's and want to make a montage effect. This site helps you do that and it's even hooked up with Flickr. Take your photo's to the next level.


10/26/08

Quicken for Free

If you enjoy Quicken you just might love Quicken Online. It's free for a few months and then you pay $2.99 a month. You'll love the text messages alert. So try it out and see if you might just want to go the Quicken way.


10/25/08

Free Web Hosting

Don't expect miracles but if you already have a domain name and don't care on the hosting. This free hosting start is a must, if you want to save money.

10/24/08

Adobe Crashing

I love Adobe but not when the software keeps on crashing, enough is enough.
This is where Foxit comes in. I figure if Adobe really cared, they would have already fixed the problem. Instead they are just going to be replaced, until they get their act together.

10/23/08

Office Word Crashes

I've tried several different places to try to resolve my Microsoft Word crashing and this site was the most resourceful.

Known problems Link


The Fix with help from tech support forum

What to do when Word crashes?
Such is the nature of the beast that sooner or later Word will crash. When you restart, Word may try and recover the document you were working on, but this is a bit hit and miss, so don't rely on it. Configure Word to create a backup file - and save often. It is good practice to drill CTRL+S into your brain and apply it every time you pause for thought. Then when the wheel comes off, you don't lose too much work.




While in the above dialog box - make sure that Allow fast saves is unchecked, as this is a major source of document bloat and corruption. As a bloated document will actually take longer to save, the function is effectively useless.

Word 2007




Fast saves has been dropped, but check the following



If even this is too much like hard work, there is a utility supplied with Word, or available for download from http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/supmacros.aspx in the shape of the Save Reminder add-in. This is configurable not only to remind you to save, but you can set it to perform the save at predetermined intervals.



Temporary files
When Word is opened, Word creates an assortment of hidden temporary files, in various locations on the hard drive. Open a document and more are created. Edit the document and there are even more. In the normal course of events, these files are closed when they are no longer required, but if Word crashes and is unable to recover, they may be left behind, where they can cause havoc, and in a worse case, prevent you from re-opening your document - even from re-starting Word.

Much of this heartache can be avoided, if, following such a crash, measures are taken to put things right.

Before restarting Word!
Using Windows Explorer, the first place to look is the Windows temp folder, the location of which will be determined by the operating system, but is likely to be either C:\Windows\Temp or Drive:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp.

But first it will be necessary to configure Explorer to display hidden files and the extensions of know file types (Tools > Folder Options) The illustrations below are from Windows 2000, but Windows XP is similar:



You can safely delete everything in this folder. Windows will not allow you to delete anything actually in use; however if Windows has locked the files, and certainly with Windows 95/98, you must reboot first to free the locked files. Given that the crash may have left the machine in an unstable condition, this is not a bad plan in any case.



Next step is to find the remaining problem files and delete them. To this end Explorer's search function will locate them all.




The files (including those for Word 2007) all fall in the pattern ~$*.do* so these are the strings to search for.





Temporary files are usually hidden so click the Advanced options and select the option to search hidden files.





Run the search and delete any files found.



Repeat the search limiting it to the locations where you store your Word documents, by default the My Documents folder, and any sub folders that you may have created, for files named *.tmp. It is possible to search for both types of file in a single search, by searching for "~$*.do*" OR "*.tmp" but this extends the search to files that have nothing to do with Word, so while ultimately all temporary files are as their name implies - temporary - we can leave the others for the purpose of this exercise.

Use a DOS batch file to collate the above actions to a single keystroke

DOS commands have largely been lost to folklore, but you can eliminate the temporary files by means of a simple DOS batch file called from a Windows shortcut.

Identify the user template, add-in, user temp and document folder locations:

In the following example from my own PC these are:

D:\Templates
D:\Word Startup
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Startup
C:\Program Files\TechSmith\SnagIt 8
D:\My Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\Graham Mayor\Local Settings\Temp

Warning: Your folder locations will certainly be different - SO CHECK - as DOS commands have none of the safety checks available in Windows!!!


The first two are configured from Word > Tools > Options > File Locations. The third is dependent on the version of Office - here Office 2003. The fourth is configured in the Windows registry at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

and is normally the Word default document folder. The last is dependent on Windows version.

The batch file opens each folder in turn, sets the file attributes to unhidden, where required, and deletes the orphaned temporary files.

Long folder names will not work in all versions of Windows, but the following batch commands will work in Windows XP.

Using Notepad or a preferred text editor, enter the following - changing the drive letters and folder paths to match the locations of the template and add-in folders. The REM lines are only descriptive and are ignored when the batch file is run.

REM Select the D: drive
D:
REM Select My Documents as the active folder
CD \My Documents
REM Delete orphaned hidden temporary files from My Documents and its sub folders
DEL /S /A:h ~$*.do*
DEL /S /A:h *.tmp

REM Select User Templates folder
CD \Templates
REM Delete orphaned hidden temporary files
DEL /A:h ~$*.do*

REM Select Word startup folder
CD \Word Startup
REM Delete orphaned hidden temporary files
DEL /A:h ~$*.do*

REM Select the C: drive
C:
REM Select Office startup folder
CD \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Startup
REM Delete orphaned hidden temporary files
DEL /A:h ~$*.do*

REM If there are any third party add-ins that use a different folder
REM add those folders e.g.
REM Select SnagIt add-in folder
CD \Program Files\TechSmith\SnagIt 8
DEL /A:h ~$*.do*

REM Select the user temp folder
CD \Documents and Settings\Graham Mayor\Local Settings\Temp
REM Delete all temp files in the folder (its sub folders will not contain Word temp files).
DEL /Q *.*

Save in the Windows folder as WordFix.bat Create a shortcut to this file on the desktop and when the wheel comes off and Word crashes, click to delete the all the orphaned temp files.

10/22/08

Shazam

Hear a song but don't know who sings it and it's driving you crazy trying to figure it out. Well Shazam, I got the answer for you. This web site helps you find your favorite song by save a clip and sending it to the Shazam data banks. It searches among a list of 6 million tracks. And in no time you have your favorite artist and song arrives in minutes.


10/21/08

Mail Google

Ever sent an email to later regret that it was sent. The makers of Google have now created an email service for Gmail called Mail Google in which if you send an email that you shouldn't have sent. It helps to prevent you from further embarrassment. I just hope this software can be useful.


10/20/08

NetWorx Web Monitor

Just when you thought you've seen the last web monitor. Here comes another one for free to help you monitor you web activities.


10/19/08

Web Wallpaper

If you enjoy the web wallpapers you going to like this. It's a live Web Wallpaper that changes on schedule. Now you can live in reality every day.


10/18/08

Remove the Pesky Norton Software

If you haven't discovered the Norton headache yet. Try to remove the software and you'll see what I mean. It's impossible to just go to the Control Panel and Uninstall the software. Your best bet is to go to the Symantec web site above and use the Symantec Norton Uninstaller software to remove it successfully. I can't see why Norton makes this task such a headache.