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Cleaning up

Domain name  --top

If you have a domain, this may be of interest...

Internic.net are the people that keep track of domain names and addresses.  When you register a domain, they track and store the information about the hosting provider, when the domain was created, when it expires, etc. 

You can check the status on any domain via this link: http://www.internic.net/whois.html

Last month we had a customer report - their customers were having erratic problems connecting.  Some people could connect, others could not.

Checking Whois revealed they still had one full year before expiration but interestingly, the assigned server was "pendingrenewaldeletion.com" rather than the normal server. 

Oddly NetworkSolutions indicates this is normal for a domain about to expire even though they were still a year out.  Once they renewed, Whois again listed the proper servers...

So keep an eye on your domain registration!

Document templates  --top

If you have spreadsheets, Word documents and even PowerPoint shows that you often change then "save as" something different, you should consider using templates.

Templates can have predetermined layouts, information, formulas, etc., but when opened* it is not the template you would be working in, rather a new copy.  The first time you click to save changes, you are prompted for a new file name and location just as if you had started with a blank document. 

To use a template, first create the document as desired then "save as" and change the file type to a template...
Note the default location for templates! You may want a different location...

*When you double click a template the application opens a copy of that file. To edit the template itself, do not double click the file, instead open the application first and then from within the application, open the desired template, edit and save.

Other helpful sites:

• Training video from Microsoft

• Where do I find templates?

• Excel: Create a template

• What to know before you create a template

• And a lot more about templates at Microsoft...

Thanks, Fay

Office support --top

Effective last month, Microsoft no longer offers free support for Office '03.  This however is fairly meaningless to most, as Microsoft will continue to offer updates via Windows Update service. 

The change simply means you can no longer call Microsoft for support...  The article.

Explorer.exe not found  --top

On occasion we will see a machine that boots and logs in, but does not show any items on the Desktop or the Start menu.  Sometimes this is fairly easy to resolve by opening the Taskmanager (Ctrl Alt Del) then from the File menu, "run" regedit.  Look for and delete the following entry, then reboot.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe

As always, back up the registry before making changes.

Office '07 documents --top

If you receive Microsoft office documents with a final "X" on the extension, e.g., Word Document.docx, that indicates the file was saved from Office 2007.  If you are using an earlier version, you may be unable to open it. 

There are two ways around this, well three actually...

1. Ask the person who created the document to save it "as" a previous version of Office: 
   

2. Go to office.microsoft.com and get the converter package.  Here is the link.

3. Purchase Office 2007

Microsoft XP retirement reprieve --top

According to this article, Windows XP will continue to be available on new computers until April of next year!  And according to this article, computers shipping with Windows 7 may have a downgrade (to XP) option!  

If this holds true, it will be the smartest thing Microsoft has done recently...

WGA  --top

New computer locking up after installing Microsoft's WGA? 

It may not necessarily be the WGA's fault.  Try booting to the safe mode and using the MSConfig utility, disable (uncheck) the ATI tray and/or Adobe from the Startup tab.

If that does not resolve the problem, go back to the system startup and try unchecking other items...

Norton (Symantec) Liveupdate --top

Some installs of Norton are not properly setting update to start automatically.  Be sure to check yours... If you are running Norton, check the Symantec LiveUpdate settings from the Start menu > Control Panel.  If it is Interactive, you should be ok.  If it is set to the Express Mode, make sure that the Automatically start option is checked. You can optionally check the Automatically exit option. Also look at the FTP, HTTP and ISP options and make sure they are all set to use the Internet options...

Internet Explorer 8  --top

We have been using IE8 on our machines for a while and have no problems, but we have seen a few customer computers with performance issues. On some XP and Vista machines IE8 may take minutes to open! 

Removing the toolbars and add-ons did not resolve the issues.  At this time we are unsure why this problem exists. 

The only recourse was to uninstall IE8 making IE7 the default browser.

If you are experiencing odd issues with IE8, simply uninstall it from the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs (Programs and Features under Vista).  Note, under Vista, you need to click the "View installed updates" link (top left).

Google Street view --top

Have you played with Google's Street view yet? 
This is just too cool, awesome (or whatever the word is these days)...

Go to Google Maps and enter an address.  Once found you would see this callout.  Clicking the Street view link opens the image shown below. Yes, even the little town of Annandale is pictured...

From there, you can scroll up and down the street to view other buildings. Once you get the hang of the navigation, you can visit much of the town... Based on the images, it appears these were taken about a year ago, perhaps a little longer. If you want to look around Annandale, here's a link to our address... 25 Chestnut St W Annandale MN Note: Entering a business name does not seem to bring up the Street view option.

Are you from the Annandale area?  Perhaps you'll find your car parked someplace...

Thanks, Doug
Doug's home page can be found here

Quick Links...  --top

Are you familiar with those irritating free credit reports on TV?  This may be of interest if you have thought about using their "free" service...

We will leave you with these

There are 10^{^11} stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. - Richard Feynman