Out of
curiosity, we set up a webcam pointing out our north window.
Interested in seeing parking lots and an alley in Annandale?
Click
here. We are considering other camera locations in
Annandale...
Webcams can
easily be used in your business or home allowing you to remotely
monitor rooms, driveways, etc. You will need a high speed
connection with a static IP. You can optionally
password the connection and/or make it available to the public.
You can also capture and save snapshots manually, every xx seconds
or by motion detection.
Webcams are
available to view all around the country. A few of our
favorites are:
Various Yellowstone areas, Las
Vegas,
Old Faithful and
Various Montana passes. Want more sites? Click
here and
here.
Mostly done as an exercise in programming, we
have gathered the drawn numbers for the last four years or so and
placed them in a database. From there, we have pulled the
count each number was drawn. If you play the Lotto, it may be
of some interest.
Click here.
External hard drives are great
for storing data and as backup devices. They are reasonably
quick and are easy to access as they are simply another drive on the
computer.
But be aware, these devices are
no more than a laptop hard drive inside of a case and for that
reason, do not rely on them completely! All hard drives
fail...
If you are using them as data
storage, be sure to have a secondary backup device such as CDs.
If it is used simply as a (secondary) backup device, great...
Last month
we discussed the Character Map applet included with Windows. A
customer pointed out there is the same feature in Microsoft
Word (and other applications) via Insert menu > Symbol where you
change the font to Wingdings, System or others.
Thanks, Cindy, we forgot about
that...
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Did you know Microsoft Word
offers page borders?
From the File menu, select Page Setup.
Click to the Layout tab then click the Borders button.
Here you can set a variety of page border
styles and even some clipart...
You can set the page border for all pages
(default) or for individual sections.
More on sections.
Have fun... |
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Walt Mossberg writes for the Wall Street
Journal covering a wide variety of subjects, not just computers but
other consumer products as well...
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive.html
Thanks, Jill
Recently an exploit
was discovered for those using Broadcom WIFI, which includes most major
computer manufacturers. This exploit affects Windows 2000 and XP
and it also would be undetected by antivirus applications and firewalls,
i.e., even though you are behind a good firewall and have an up to date
antivirus, you could be hacked.
To find out if your computer may be
affected, from the Control Panel open the System icon. Click to
the Hardware tab then click the Device Manager button. Click the
Plus sign next to network adapters or if listed separately, Wireless, and
look for the name Broadcom.
Not all Broadcom devices are affected
so check with the computer manufacturer via its support site!
The article.
MRU From
the archives... --top
Did you know most applications offer
a "Most Recently Used" file list? This is the quickest way to reopen a
file. Just look under the File menu.
Click here for an
example.
Also, many applications allow you to
adjust the MRU count. Microsoft Word's setting is under the Tools
menu > Options > General tab.
We see this problem a lot.
While the Internet Explorer will allow you to set and lock
toolbars so they do not accidentally get moved, most programs do not.
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If you are missing a toolbar,
right click the toolbar/menubar area or from the View menu
> Toolbars.
Select the toolbar that
is missing. (Those with checkmarks or a depressed looking
icon are turned on already.)
|
 |
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If they are already turned on,
do not click them again, but rather look and see if they are
stacked behind another toolbar. Here we have the menubar
and linksbar stacked as indicated by a dotted (or solid)
vertical line.
Hovering the mouse over that line changes the
cursor to this (or a double arrow). You can then click, hold and drag
the toolbar (down) to a different position. Careful now,
it moves very easily... |
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If you have not seen recent updates
or have not forced an update lately, there
may be security updates available! We have
seen a few machines that although automatic updates was turned on,
available updates were not yet installed. If you are not sure, go to
http://update.microsoft.com and check!
Be Aware
Internet Explorer version 7 may now list as a
security update.
If you have proprietary software installed, check
with the manufacturer before allowing IE7 to load! Software
manufacturers may not be ready for Microsoft's IE7 and loading it may
cause problems...
In this article links labeled
MS
on subject opens a new window to Microsoft.
More on subject opens a new
window to pages outside of our site.
All other links are simply a continuation of our article within our
site.
Marks any issues or problems we have/had with Vista.
 Indicates
things we like.
Last month we
discussed the Vista upgrade and installation. In
October we
discussed the different Vista versions and Vista's requirements. This month we
are taking
an
in-depth look at Vista operation, features and options. Some of
the images shown are thumbnails that you can
click on to view a larger image if desired. It is not your eyes... After resizing
the screenshots, some of the images became skewed or slightly fuzzy. Sorry.
Behind the scenes there are a lot
of additions, security and other changes. (MS
on security.)
One change we hoped to
see but will not be included in the first release is "WinFS."
WinFS is unlike any other operating system and is more a database than
the traditional file system. WinFS would potentially speed up many
file related operations. On the other hand, it would be
interesting to see if data files could be recovered if (when) WinFS becomes
corrupt.
More on
WinFS.
We have only played with Vista for a couple of weeks
and although we are a little lost finding some things, overall we have
few complaints. But is it worth the upgrade price? Maybe...
There are (apparently) considerable improvements in security and that
alone may be worth the price, especially for laptops that travel the
country. There are also some nice, new features and applets. But
is it worthwhile upgrading just for the
sake of upgrading? No.
Be aware, we have a trial version. The
final retail release may be different than what we show here. One other note about this
trial version: this is
the high-end version named "Ultimate." Some features
shown here may not be available in the lesser versions.
See
October's newsletter
about the different versions.
Do you suppose Microsoft sends out "Ultimate" as the
trial version to try and guarantee sales (of this most expensive
version) next spring?
While many of the windows and applets are similar
to Windows XP, some are drastically different. So, in no particular order, here are some of
Vista's
new windows and features...
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After a "clean" installation (see
Nov '06) and initial setup
of the computer name, username, etc., Vista opened to the desktop along with this
Welcome Center screen.
If you click to the "Show all 14 items"
link, you will see Vista Demos and other icons. The demos are
short movies telling you about various things in Vista. Notice the top
address bar indicates the current item, e.g.,
Welcome Center.
More on the
address bar. |
Note: After the second boot, the Welcome
screen offers you the option to not show that screen anymore. |
|
This is the Start menu, but no longer labeled
"Start." You can easily
customize the
Start menu.
Similar to XP's Start menu, the wider panel on the left
is the All Programs (link) and recently used applications.
On the right are the common and personal folders.
At the bottom is a "search" option and next to
the Start button, the quick launch toolbar.
If you click All Programs, the menu "shifts" to
reveal the program folders. Example
of the shifted menu here.
What is very different is shutting down the
computer. |
Sorry: Our images
are skewed slightly... |
|
Vista's Save As window is quite different,
however more a product of the application and not Vista i.e., Word's Save
As window did not change.
We are unsure exactly when you will see this new window.
This "Save As" is intuitive, e.g., if you are saving a
WordPad document it will default to the (My) Documents
folder. A download from the Internet will default to the
Downloads folder, etc. |
However, like previous versions, Save As remembers the
last location you saved something to, so pay attention when
saving things... Also notice the Browse Folders option. Here you can
locate the specific target folder if it is not listed in the top pulldown. |
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This is the Control Panel (after switching to the
classic view top left link).
There are many familiar icons but also some new
ones.
Some of the changed, more interesting and/or
useful items:
(these are links)
Auto Play,
Backup/Restore,
Bitlocker Drive Encryption,
Mobility Center,
Network and Sharing,
Performance
Information,
Personalize (below),
Power Options,
Printers,
Programs and Features
(formerly Add/Remove Programs),
Speech Recognition
and
Windows Sidebar (below). |
For the original
Control Panel screenshot
click here. |
|
If you right click a blank area of the Desktop
then Personalize --or-- select
"Personalize" from the Control Panel, you see
what was formerly the "Display Properties."
Here you can change
colors,
appearance and Aero, fonts, sizes, themes,
backgrounds, adjust the resolution; change sound events, screen
saver;
control multiple monitors, etc.
Vista, like XP, still offers the My Slide Show
(Screen Saver), but the name has been changed to simply "Photos."
Vista does not (yet?) offer
a background image changer.
|
Not a thumbnail, no larger image... |
|
Once again, Windows by default does not show the
(My) Computer, (My) Documents, Network or Internet icons.
Fortunately they are easy to turn on. Almost identical to
XP, right click a blank area of the Desktop then "Personalize"
(Properties under XP). Click the Desktop
Icons link and then place a check mark next to the desired
items... Notice the icon name changes.
No longer is "My" used. It was after all, a bit too much:
My Computer, My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My goodness... |
Not a thumbnail, no larger image... |
|
If you right click the Computer icon and
select Explore, you will see the folder tree is slightly
different. Rather than plus and minus signs to expand and
collapse the tree structure you now double click the item to
expand, e.g., double click "Computer" to see the hard drive's
structure.
Screenshot here.
The disk used/free
bar chart is a very nice feature... |
Notice at the top are buttons to: View system
properties, uninstall a program, map a network drive and
others... |
|
An interesting new (Mac like) feature is the
Windows Sidebar or "gadgets." You can position this on
the left rather than the default right side and really nice, you can
even send it to a
second
monitor!
You can add various gadgets
that come with Vista or download even more from the Microsoft
site. (MS
on the Sidebar.)
Shown here are a dictionary, the CPU/RAM meters
showing how hard the computer is working, a calendar, a clock,
our screen savers which constantly changes the images, and local
weather. Goodbye WeatherBug!!!
Right clicking the Sidebar allows you to add,
change, close and adjust the gadgets. |
Sidebar upon boot, robs the Desktop's focus, so if you
press F3 to search, nothing will happen. You need to first
click the Desktop to regain focus... |
|
System restore has a nice feature that may
allow you to restore a "previous version" of most any
individual file.
For example, we created a Word document named "Vista" then
saved it. We created a restore point, changed and saved
the document.
After saving the second
change, right clicking on the file gave us the common Properties popup, but now there is
a "restore a previous version" option which opens this screen.
Be sure to read the details in "How do I use
previous versions?" |
 |
|
The Documents icon opens
this window (same as
My Documents in XP). Under Vista, the icon is labeled
with the user's name, in this case "Laptop."
Fancy icons but no functionality improvement.
Hopefully Microsoft will now use this folder
for all data including Outlook's data folder, Outlook
Express messages, etc., but we are not holding our breath...
Notice the top bar has a Views button.
Click here
for more information. |
Also
notice the "Burn" button at the top. |
|
While exploring folders you can arrange the file listing in various ways.
Like other Windows versions, you can "group" files by Date, Type, etc.
You can also add all kinds of information about the file via columns.
For more information,
click here.
But before you can group the file listing, you need access to the View menu,
which by default is not turned on. |
To turn on the familiar (and
handy) File, Edit, View, etc., menus bar, click the Organize button then Layout
and then "Menu bar."
After all, the menu system with a keyboard is
much quicker than using the mouse. |
Notification Area
(System Tray) is largely unchanged... Right
click to open the options / menu items associated with the particular
icon.
As with XP, if you unlock the toolbar then expand it
(upward), the
clock expands to show the complete date... |
In this example (left to
right) are: Speech Recognition, Sidebar, Location Finder, Power,
Network, Volume and Date/time.
 |
Internet Explorer
Vista ships with IE 7 which allows you to start it
in the "Safe" mode.
Right click the icon and
select "Start Without
Add-ons" when you have Internet problems. |
More,
important information on IE7! |
Performance Adjustment
Vista's performance, startup and shutdown times
seem fairly comparable to Windows XP Pro, but the new user
interface does slow actual operation slightly.
More on Performance Information
here.
|
Searching
You may have noticed "Search" is at
the top of almost all windows. This search bar is very intuitive
in that when you begin typing, it starts looking before you are even
done typing.
If for example you are in the
Control Panel and type the word "power," Search automatically opens the
power savings window. If you are in Documents and type "power"
it automatically finds all documents related to your search word and all
items with the word "power" in the file name. (More
on searching.) |
System Icon
Under previous Windows versions,
right clicking the My Computer icon then Properties (or the System icon
from the Control Panel) showed basic hardware information.
In the
Vista Control Panel the icon name is the same, but the information and
options are a little more detailed.
Screenshot |
Miscellaneous Stuff
Last month we
mentioned a handful of "incompatible" applications, one of which was our
laptop's Intel Pro wireless drivers. Fortunately Vista included
the necessary drivers, so upon completion of the installation our
wireless worked again.
Vista has this somewhat irritating "Administrative
Permission" that opens a dialog box making you confirm certain operations.
Mostly appearing when you run applets that can change system
settings.
But while it is somewhat irritating, one quickly becomes accustom to the
security effort. However, on occasion the desired applet does
not appear, making you go through the security warning again.
For those interested, yes, Vista comes with some
games, click here. |
10 Tweaks for Vista Users
A ZDNet article. |
10 Tweaks for Vista Experts
A ZDNet article. More interesting/helpful ideas:
|
|
NOTE: Because there are so many related pages, for printing
purposes
the related page links (in our above articles) can be viewed on
this one single page.
Sorry, but this page has about a 5 minute load time for dialup
users. |
Just before the original release of Windows XP,
a new computer would have the previous operating system version, but most
came with a coupon to get the XP upgrade for free. That may
change... New computers now have Windows XP and most are "Vista
ready," but if you get a new computer with XP and want the Vista
upgrade, it might not be free.
The article.
More on the coupons.
More on Vista in future newsletters...
Getting Old?
-
Reporter interviewing a 104-year-old woman:
"And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?" the
reporter asked. She simply replied, "No peer pressure."
-
The nice thing about being senile is you can
hide your own Easter eggs .
-
I've sure gotten old! I've had two bypass
surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees. Fought prostate cancer and
diabetes. I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet
engine, take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded,
and subject to blackouts. Have bouts with dementia. Have poor
circulation; hardly feel my hands and feet anymore. Can't remember
if I'm 85 or 92. Have lost all my friends. But, thank God, I still
have my driver's license.
-
I feel like my body has gotten totally out of
shape, so I got my doctor's permission to join a fitness club and
start exercising. I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors. I
bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an
hour. But, by the time I got my leotards on, the class was over.
-
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
-
It's scary when you start making the same
noises as your coffeemaker.
-
Don't let aging get you down. It's too hard to
get back up!
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