SIG meeting October 13 at 1:00 to 3:00 PM Passwords, how do we

Hendersonville Area Computer Society Newsletter
http://hacs.org
Volume 5 No. 10
October 2011
Meetings are held twice a month, January through November. We meet
at the Opportunity House on the third Monday of the month with an
educational meeting at 6:30 pm followed by a featured speaker
presentation at 7:30 pm. Our SIG group normally meets the second
Thursday of each month from 1-3 PM at Opportunity House.
SIG meeting October 13th at 1:00 to 3:00 PM
At Opportunity House
Let’s Look Into ALL those Google Aps!
Moderator will be our own Jerry Liedl.
OUR NEXT REGULAR MEETING WILL BE ON
Monday October 17th
At Opportunity House
Education program 6:30 to 7:30 PM
Passwords, how do we remember them – storage??
By our own Brian Fifield
Main program 7:30 60 8:30 PM
How many ways can I use those flash drives?
By our own Joy Capps
Web site of the Month
Shoppers bite back!
http://consumerist.com/
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Family Tree Maker 2011 (Part 1)
Review by Mary Phillips, Secretary, Icon Users Group, MO
February 2011 issue, The ICON-Newsletter of the Interactive Computer Owners Network
www.iconusersgroup.com
mphillip1.mary (at) gmail.com
Family Tree Maker 2011 has the same seven tabs as 2010 and the family sheets look and
work the same. However, a number of updates have been added.
Tab 1 Plan -- Let‘s you start a new tree in the program by any of three ways:
1) Entering what you know —begin with yourself),
2) Importing a tree from an existing file — Family Tree Maker (version 5 or newer); a
GEDCOM file (GEnealogical Data COMmunication, a standard proposed by the LDS that
can be exported from most if not all genealogy programs), Personal Ancestral File (free
program that can be downloaded from the LDS website at www.familysearch.org); Legacy
Family Tree; or The Master Genealogist.
3) Downloading a tree you‘ve created on Ancestry.com.
One addition that I feel is especially important is that when a file is imported, FTM 2011
makes a copy and leaves the original file as it was so it can still be opened in the other
program.
The program installs in its own folder and doesn‘t remove earlier versions of FTM.
When a tree has been created, a second tab is shown called Current Tree. It shows the
person designated as Home Person (usually the person with whom you start, but it can be
changed as desired by clicking on the Home Person button and in the Index of Individuals
window selecting a different person.
Tab 2 People — two tabs (Family
and Person.
The Family tab consists of four panels
that can be adjusted by either clicking to
open or close a panel, or clicking &
dragging to make a panel smaller or
larger. The ―buttons‖ to do this are
actually series of dots to adjust sizes or
eight dots with an arrow in the middle to
open or close the left panel or the lower
panel. (Note Red Arrows in the picture
below.)
Another feature I especially like is in
the upper right corner of the Family tab;
the relationship between the person
selected and the Home Person is
stated. Example: The selected person in
the above picture is James Jones and
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he is the Great Grandfather of La... Jones, the Home Person.
Notice that there are open triangles at the right ends of grandparents of James S Jones
(one in circle); open triangles indicate that no additional persons are added on the pedigree
chart or that the person had no children. James Jones had children, 12 in fact, so there is a
solid triangle to the right of his name (in circle). In the lower panel there is a solid arrow to the
right of Frankey Jane showing that she had children. The arrow beside James Pollard has a
tail indicating that he is in the direct lineage of La… Jones.
Editing can be done in the right panel fields (boxes) of the Family tab and additional editing
in the Person tab. Just below the relationship area are four small icons to enter information for
categories: Facts, Media, Notes, and Tasks. Facts are events supported by documents such
as Marriage or census records; Media includes photos, videos, audio tapes, scanned letters,
etc.; Notes are the family stories, obituaries, newspaper clipping info; and Tasks are a To Do
List of items or information needed.
Review: RoboForm
Program stores websites, login information
By Jim Thornton, Member, Channel Islands PCUG, CA
August 2011 issue, The Outer Edge
www.cipcug.org
Jasthorn (at) gmail.com
RoboForm is one of my favorite software programs as it helps me very quickly log into
secured websites. My listings of these websites include airlines, email, financial, medical,
stores, travel, etc., and I currently have more than 50 of these secured websites listed.
The program is very easy to use. For example, first open Internet Explorer, and then click
on one of its little toolbars titled RoboForm and a list of several choices appear titled Logins,
Identities, and Soft Notes. While I mentioned Internet Explorer, RoboForm also works equally
as well with Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and many more browsers. Next,
I click on Logins and then click again on the listed secured website that I want to enter.
Next, RoboForm automatically redirects Internet Explorer to the website that I selected and
when the login website appears, RoboForm automatically fills in my name and password, and
I‘m immediately logged into the secured website with unrestricted abilities.
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Once you have the program installed, when you go to a new secured website and fill in
your user name and password and click on Enter, RoboForm will automatically add the
information. Including the website address, to your list of Logins.
If you need a new password, RoboForm will generate a highly secure password. On
the Login list in RoboForm, the secured websites are listed alphabetically and you can
easily rename any listing.
Other RoboForm features include SafeNotes, which securely stores other information of
your choice. For example, some banks will frequently ask you for your wife‘s favorite color,
your first dog‘s name, etc., to ensure that you are the secured party attempting to access your
bank account, etc. You can securely store this information in SafeNotes.
RoboForm‘s options under Logins include Edit, New, and Print List. Under Identities are
Edit, New, and Fill Empty Fields Only. SafeNotes includes Edit, New, Print to New, and Print
Last. Numerous other choices include Fill Forms, Save Forms, Fields — Reset, Sat, and
Clear, Profiles — Default, New, Date, Name, Refresh Fields, Explorer, Tools — Edit Identify,
Edit Password, Edit SafeNotes, Search Fields, Taskbar Icon, Generate Password, and Sign
RoboForm data, and Options — Help.
I‘ve used RoboForm for numerous years in Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000,
Windows Vista, and now Windows 7. RoboForm‘s website is www.roboform.com, and there
are three versions of RoboForm available: Desktop, Everywhere, and 2Go.
Desktop provides high security and restricts the access to RoboForm from only one
computer.
Everywhere allows you to access RoboForm from numerous computers.
2Go works using a portable USB drive, so that you can take your RoboForm information
and use it on many computers while traveling on business or on vacation.
RoboForm runs in numerous versions of Internet Explorer, including versions 6, 7, 8, and 9
but only on 32-bit versions and not the 64-bit versions. There is a free version of RoboForm
that is limited to only 10 logins. For more than 10 logins, the Everywhere version is available
for $20 per year, and the Desktop version is $30. The current version, which is version
6.10.2.0, was introduced earlier this year.
When you install RoboForm for the first time, you will be asked to create a master
password, which protects all of your secured data in your Logins, Identities, and SafeNotes.
This prevents anyone else who has access to your computer from seeing or copying this
information. If you prefer, you can eliminate this protection and allow anyone to access all of
your important information.
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TrueCrypt
Free open-source data encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
By John Langill, Newsletter Co-editor, Southern Tier Personal Computing Club, NY
August 2011 issue, Rare Bits, STPCC Newsletter
jlangil1 (at) stny.rr.com
The May 2011 issue of Rare Bits contained an article by Dick Maybach titled ―Cloud
Computing‖ in which he pointed out the necessity of securing your data via encryption when it
―...is stored on the same disks, uses the same memory, and passes through the same
processors as everybody else‘s.‖ And I recall Dave Bilcik voicing a similar warning at the May
meeting and also mentioning the program TrueCrypt. It just so happens that I am currently
using TrueCrypt and I believe it to be very satisfactory solution whether you need relatively
modest security or very tight and sophisticated protection.
TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted
volume (data storage device). ―On-the-fly‖ encryption means that data is automatically
encrypted or decrypted right before it is loaded or saved, without any user intervention. The
entire file system is encrypted; e.g., filenames, folder-names, contents of every file, free
space, meta-data, etc. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted)
without using the correct password and/or key file(s), or correct encryption keys.
I‘m not sure how unique TrueCrypt‘s approach is but I was nevertheless intrigued by it. The
first step is to create a ―container;‖ otherwise known as a TrueCrypt ―encrypted volume.‖ To
my mind, this is somewhat like obtaining a safety-deposit box at a bank.
TrueCrypt provides a ―wizard‖ to assist with the task. As at a bank where safety-deposit
boxes of various sizes can be rented, the encrypted
volume can be created to have as much capacity as
you
need. For example, it can be a specific portion of a
hard-disk, or an entire flash drive or other storage
device. Unlike a safety-deposit box, however, you
hold the only key... so you need to remember and
protect it. And, into the container (the volume) you
can
store any number of files. If the capacity of the
volume is exceeded, you simply create
a bigger container.
One of the interesting facets of a TrueCrypt volume is that it has most of the characteristics
of an ordinary file. That is, the volume can be moved or copied within the storage areas of a
given PC, or to a different PC. The name of the volume can be changed; and the volume can
be included in routine backups. It can be transmitted across the Internet; and even into the
wild-blue yonder, if you‘re so inclined. And, even if you have no intention of salting ―the cloud‖
with your personal data, what about that minuscule 8- or 32GB flash-drive you carry around in
your pocket. The smaller they get, the easier they are to lose. Wouldn‘t it be reassuring to
have made it an encrypted volume so that whoever finds it won‘t have an easy time of it when
they try to discover the contents of your personal data?
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The downside of the file-like characteristics is that, like
any file, an encrypted volume can also be deleted and all
its content lost (...thank goodness for the Recycle Bin).
That would be very bad if done unwittingly. But that‘s why
we do back-ups! Yes? Once a TrueCrypt volume is
mounted, the data files it contains can be copied to and
from the volume just like they are copied to or from any
normal disk; for example, by simple drag-and-drop
operations.
Files are automatically decrypted on-the-fly in RAM
(Random Access Memory) while they are being read or
copied from an encrypted TrueCrypt volume. Similarly, files that are being written or copied to
a TrueCrypt volume are automatically encrypted on-the-fly in RAM right before they are
written to the volume. Note, however, this does not mean the whole file that is to be
encrypted/decrypted must reside in RAM before it can be encrypted/decrypted. That is, there
are no extra RAM requirements for TrueCrypt. The following paragraph explains how this is
accomplished.
Let‘s suppose that there is an .avi video file stored on a TrueCrypt volume; that is, the
entire video file is encrypted. The user provides the correct password and/or key file and
mounts (opens) the TrueCrypt volume. When the user double-clicks the icon of the video file,
the operating system launches the application associated with the file type — typically a
media player. The media player then begins loading a small initial portion of the video file
from the TrueCrypt-encrypted volume to RAM in order to play it. While the portion is being
loaded, TrueCrypt is automatically decrypting it in RAM. The decrypted portion of the video in
RAM is then played by the media player. While this portion is being played, the media player
begins loading next small portion of the video file from the TrueCrypt-encrypted volume to
RAM and the process repeats. This process is called ―on-the-fly‖ encryption/decryption and it
works for all file types, not just for video files. The process also ensures minimal impact on
processing performance.
Note that TrueCrypt never saves any decrypted data to a disk – it only stores it temporarily
in RAM. Even when the volume is mounted, data stored in the volume remains encrypted.
When you restart Windows or turn off your computer, the volume will be automatically
dismounted and files stored in it will be inaccessible and encrypted. Even when power is
suddenly interrupted (i.e., without a proper system shut-down), files stored in the volume are
inaccessible and encrypted. To make them accessible again, you have to mount the volume
by providing the correct password and/or key file.
Of course, as with any unintended power interruption or shut-down, unsaved changes to
files are lost because re-encryption of changes occurs only when files are saved to the
volume in a normal fashion.
I‘ve only touched on a few of the main facets of TrueCrypt. In addition, TrueCrypt offers a
choice of encryption algorithms from which you can select one that will give the degree of
security you feel you need. This and other aspects of TrueCrypt are fully documented in an
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excellent User Guide. The latest version of the free software, Release 7.0a, can be
downloaded from the product‘s home Website at http://www.truecrypt.org,
as well as from CNET‘s http://www.download.com, and other sites on the Web.
The User Guide PDF and a more detailed description of TrueCrypt can be found at the
product‘s home web-site.
TrueCrypt is one free program that is, in my opinion, an exception to my general perception
of the breed. Of course, the developers gratefully accept donations. In this case, I think they
are well deserved.
Mac Users Get a Taste of Windows‘ World
First Mac Malware Program May Have Affected Up to 120,000 Machines
By Linda Gonse, Editor / Webmaster, Orange County PC Users‘ Group, CA
June 2011 issue, Nibbles ‗n Bits
www.orcopug.org
editor (at) orcopug.org
Macintosh has reached new heights of popularity which has been confirmed by the recent
success of malware called Mac Defender.
In April, unsuspecting Mac users, confident in their platform‘s supposed invulnerability to
viruses, were jarred from their complacency by a pop-up alert that declared their Mac was
infected! And, it wasn‘t infected by one virus, but several. If they would click on a link, Mac
Defender would clean out the machine.
Of course, there was a charge for this cleanup, so users were told to insert their credit card
information before Mac Defender went to work.
Windows users will surely nod their heads at this point with a now familiar scenario and agree
that the Mac user is in trouble; albeit, not the trouble represented by the non-existent viruses
the malware pointed out. Windows users have been scammed by several types of malware,
just like Mac Defender.
When a user is in a state of panic and confusion, getting quick action to help is foremost in
the user‘s mind. Inputting credit card information seems secondary to the important task of
clearing viruses.
Unfortunately, the so-called virus detector the user buys isn‘t really a working program. The
entire goal of the malware was to separate users from their credit card information.
Mercury news, http://bit.ly/lcZ1El, has reported that ―the program, according to security firm
Intego, is very well designed, and looks professional.‖ In addition, more variants of the initial
malware program are showing up now. ―The most recent one doesn‘t even require the user to
enter a password, as is typically the case when installing Macintosh software.‖
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Mashable.com, http://on.mash.to/k8KYtq, reported that ―calls to AppleCare about the malware
appear to be high. ZDNet estimates that anywhere between 60,000 and 120,000 Mac OS X
users could have been affected by the Mac Defender attack.
―Apple has finally acknowledged the recent rise of a fake antivirus program for Mac OS X and
has promised to deliver a software update to remove the malware.‖
Jon Jones, editor of the North Coast Mac Users Group newsletter in Santa Rosa, California,
said of the attack, ―Well…it‘s about time. It almost feels (in a sick, twisted way) as some sort
of validation for Mac users, that they‘ve finally found themselves in the crosshairs of malicious
code villains, after having been kept out of the fray for so long on the premise that their
numbers were so small, they just didn‘t matter.
―Someone finally figured out that with a simple twist on the methods of attack, targeting Mac
users (in general) could be like shooting fish in a barrel. I suspect that since Macs are, in
some respects, targeted towards a market that embraces its approachability, ease of use,
and highly touted technical security, there is a fairly large chunk of Mac faithful who tend to
lack technological ‗smarts,‘ and are likely a bit too naively trusting of content that comes
through their devices, especially when it comes on the form of alerts, or deals with sensitive
data. (―Oh, I‘ll just do what it says, because I don‘t understand it, but it knows better what I
need to do than I do.‖)
―These attacks operate on less of a technical foundation, and more on a social engineering
ruse, and it is the above noted users who are the prime target—and access to their credit
card information the end reward. As these attacks continue to become more and more
sophisticated, it is certainly even more of an imperative that Mac users who have enjoyed a
false sense of security for too long, start to become a bit more savvy about how to manage
their online activity and personal information.
―I know of one Mac tech who, over the last few weeks, has had at least one client for whom
he has had to clean up this sort of malware three times, because even though he has
explained the process and the danger each time, the client continues to find the false urgency
of the attack just too compelling…and because the method clearly lays out to the victim how
best to set themselves up for attack— it frankly comes across as just too ‗Mac-like.‘ The
attack ‗just works.‘
―Thusly, every time the client sees a dialogue box instructing him follow the steps to surrender
access of the machine to an unknown entity and then submit personal information and credit
card numbers to same, he does it without questioning it because…well, as it has often been
said, you just can‘t fix stupid.‖
Some people think that Apple has been so innovative and cutting edge that it will develop a
defense that kills future armies of malware and viruses that attempt to access Macs. No
nonsense, to the point, and certain.
Jon‘s answer to that is ―It is very difficult to sense quite where Apple will go with this in the
future, at least in terms of defensibility. It has long been considered among the more secure
‗out of the box‘ OS environments — (some individual components and applications are
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another thing). Which is why the most successful malware attacks on the Mac are the ones
that convince the users to dismantle their own defenses and install the malicious code
themselves, while unaware of what they are actually doing. So in a sense, I think we are
seeing some results of a cooperative bi-polarity. An abundance of built-in security has helped
to foster an abundance of built-in corresponding abdication of personal responsibility for one‘s
own computing and surfing habits. it is very possible that the tighter Apple reins in OS
security, the greater the lethargy for a significant portion of the user base regarding computer
security.
―Balancing this against the ongoing necessity for Apple (all OS developers, really) to
implement more dynamic cutting edge technologies and more robust feature sets into their
systems to retain relevance in an increasingly competitive field often involves inclusion of
technologies for which corresponding safeguards may yet still be in their infancy.
―If the last several years of Apple‘s predominant efforts are any sign, I suspect the answer lies
in diminishing development in desktop systems, and greater development in iOS across a
wider range of devices.
―What was initially heralded as Dashboard Widgets on the Mac OS (and later Gadgets on
Windows) seems to have been an early stepping stone in what later evolved into the more
fully featured mobile app platform we see today—namely a diverse range of mini-applications
of very specific and limited utility residing in a dedicated sub-system,‖ said Jon.
―With this new trend gaining such widespread and intense popularity, it seems to foster some
type of resolution for security issues that afflict the desktop OS (but not entirely) while keeping
consumers satisfied with simplicity of use because functionality is generally spread around
across a wide range of dedicated apps, giving most consumers the functionality they seek at
a reasonable price, but Apple gets to impose a greater degree of security by locking down the
OS, and providing a single portal through which vetted applications are made available.
―Is this a perfect or even marginally ―open‖ and freely configurable solution that will work for
everyone? Certainly not. But with increasingly productive development in this arena, and its
rapid embrace by a consuming public, I suspect that expanded iOS development will be
Apple‘s next major step in helping mitigate user victimization against increasingly
sophisticated malware attacks,‖ Jon said.
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eBay Adventures - ―So what gives?‖
By Rick Eblaw, Vice President, Southern Tier Personal Computing Club, NY
August 2011 issue, Rare Bits
www.stpcc.org
ekblaw (at) juno.com
If you spend some time on eBay, you'll find all kinds of interesting stuff offered for sale.
There‘s lots of collectibles, some of which would be hard to locate unless you were willing to
travel the country going to flea markets. There are items that you can find in stores that are
sometimes offered at a substantial discount. And then are some items that are hard to
explain...
Here‘s a recent example. There‘s a fellow in China who is currently selling a lot of ―Mini
USB 2.0 Wireless Bluetooth Adapter Dongle‖ items, which you can readily find by searching
eBay for ―usb wireless‖ and sorting by ―Price + Shipping: lowest first.‖ That in itself isn‘t
interesting, there‘s no shortage of sellers offering USB Bluetooth adapters. What‘s interesting
about this one is that the minimum bid is $0.01 (one penny) and free shipping is offered. You
don‘t have to be a financial genius to see that if only one person bids on one of these
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auctions, the seller is going to lose money. Since the seller is in China and presumably has
direct access to the manufacturer of these devices, he‘s probably paying just a few pennies
for each one. But he still needs to pay the international postage, and if you check the
feedback you‘ll see a number of folks who did get their device for just $0.01. So what gives?
I had $1.08 in eBay Bucks ―burning a hole in my pocket,‖ so I figured I‘d give this a shot.
On my first attempt I set my maximum bid to $0.99, and a couple of people tried to outbid me
in the last few seconds of the auction, but the highest attempt was a $0.50 bid, so I won with
an automatic $0.55 bid. I then tried to bid on another, but I was only allowed to bid on one of
these items from the seller in a 10-day period — so the seller was not going to allow someone
to buy a whole bunch of these for $0.01 each in a short period of time. So I found another
seller of the same item for the same price and put in a maxi mum bid of $0.53, figuring that
at worst I‘d use up my eBay Bucks (which is ―bonus money‖ based on how much you bought
on eBay in the previous month). Again, I had someone else bid, but they only tried up to
$0.36, so I won my second dongle for $0.41. When I paid the sellers using my eBay Bucks, I
discovered that both ―sellers‖ had the same PayPal account, so there was really just one
seller using multiple eBay accounts.
Back to the ―So what gives?‖ question. I see at least 3 possible ways to explain this:
1. The seller is hoping that the $0.01 price will bring in bidders, but there will be enough
people bidding on these so that the final bid will be high enough to make a profit, on average,
over a large number of sales. This doesn‘t seem to be happening, I see lots of people getting
these for $0.01, and even my two quick attempts on this didn‘t raise the price to a point where
the seller could break even.
2. The seller is offering these dongles as a ―loss leader,‖ just like a retail store, in hopes
that you will buy from the seller again when you want something that is being sold at a
reasonable profit. While the ―loss leader‖ concept has shown some success in the retail store
market, on eBay and the Internet you have many choices available instantly so I don‘t think
this concept is going to work.
3. This is my best guess to explain these auctions: The seller is trying to quickly raise his
total number of feedbacks, his positive feedback percentage, his detailed feedback ratings,
and to be a ―Top-rated seller.‖ To understand why these measures are important, you have to
be familiar with the eBay rating system and the preferences of most eBay buyers. I‘m not
going to go into the details here, but it‘s clear that the majority of eBay buyers want to buy
from the ―Top-rated sellers,‖ they like seeing big feedback numbers, and they want to see
positive feedback near 100%. Normally, to achieve these sorts of numbers you have to sell a
lot of items over a fairly long period of time, which is why most buyers feel that they can trust‖
a ―Top-rated seller‖ -- they‘ve got a ―proven track record.‖ This seller is effectively trying to
―buy‖ a solid reputation in a short period of time at a relatively low cost -- the loss on each
individual sale of these dongles is the business cost of building his reputation -he‘s basically
giving away USB Bluetooth dongles to get a large number of positive feedback ratings.
You might wonder why a seller would use multiple eBay accounts. If a seller gets too many
negative feedbacks in a short period of time, eBay may ban the account, or require the seller
to take specific actions to ―repair their reputation.‖ Even a handful of negative feedbacks in a
week will turn off buyers even if eBay doesn‘t take any action, so many of the ―big sellers‖
have multiple accounts so that they can ―throw away‖ an account that has been ―poisoned‖ by
negative feedback ratings.
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Gmail Not Displaying Correctly In IE
Jerry Liedl, HACS
Recently a friend called with a problem he has been encountering using Gmail via his ISP,
Morris Broad Band. Following some recent updates he shared the following:
My screen view is all messed up. Everything is kind of vertical and flowing offscreen. All of the items that are usually in a bar across the top such as 'move to,' or
'labels' are now reading vertically down the page. On top of that, everything on the left
- my inbox, labels, etc. - is now off the page and barely visible.
After some soul searching and, of course, web browsing one finds the problem is relatively
common and has a simple solution. Internet Explorer has a Compatibility View, a feature that
affects how some websites are displayed. If Compatibility View is enabled for google.com, it
may cause some Gmail features to display incorrectly. So, the solution is to remove
google.com from the list of sites that have Compatibility View enabled to ensure that Gmail
displays correctly. To do this, follow the steps below:
For IE8
1. Open the Tools menu at the top of your browser1 and select Compatibility View
Settings.
2. Select 'google.com' under 'Websites you've added to Compatibility View'.
3. Click Remove.
For IE9
1. Right-click on the gear icon
in the upper right hand corner. (if you do not have the
Command bar visible you need to select it)
2. Select Command bar.
3. Open the Tools menu near the top of your browser and select Compatibility View
Settings.
4. Select 'google.com' under 'Websites you've added to Compatibility View'.
5. Click Remove
The Tip Corner
By Bill Sheff, Novice SIG Coordinator, Lehigh Valley Computer Group, PA
August 2011 issue, The LVCG Journal
www.lvcg.org
nsheff (at) aol.com
Windows 7
Just got Windows 7? Notice something missing? Well if you want to see a list of what
happened to those programs you liked in XP or Vista here is a simple way to find out. Open
Help and Support then type "What happened" in the search box. Windows will give you lots of
results for the query, such as: What happened to the NetBEUIprotocol?, What happened to
ActiveSync?, What happened to Sticky Notes?, What happened to Windows Calendar?, What
happened to the Run as command?, What happened to the Quick Launch toolbar?‖ and
many more.
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Say you picked the ―What happened to the Run command?‖ This is what you get: ―The
Run command no longer appears on the Start menu in this version of Windows. The
search box that appears on the Start menu provides much of the same functionality as the
Run command. However, the Run command is still available if you prefer to use it. You can
even add it to the Start menu for easier access.
To add the Run command to the Start menu Click to open Taskbar and Start Menu
Properties. Click the Start Menu tab, and then click Customize. In the list of Start menu
options, select the Run command check box, and then click OK. The Run command will be
displayed on the right side of the Start menu.
Tip: You can also access the Run command by pressing the Windows logo key +R. Check
it out.‖
Google Images
A while ago Google switched over to a different display method for their images. If you
want to turn it off and go back to the original, here‘s what you do: Scroll to the very bottom of
your Google image search and click on Switch to basic version. If you want to go back to the
regular way, simply scroll back to the bottom and click Switch to standard version.
System Tools
Just for a little review, there are a bunch of very useful programs in the System Tools
folder. To get to them you access the System Tools by going to All Programs | Tools. When
you open the folder in XP you can find the following programs:
►CHARACTER MAP, which allows you to copy and paste letters and symbols from other
fonts into your document without switching fonts.
►DISK CLEANUP, which frees up space on your hard drive by eliminating unused and
temporary files.
►DISK DEFRAGMENTER (Defrag), which speeds up your computer by reassigning or
eliminating stray bits of data.
►FILES AND SETTINGS TRANSFER WIZARD, for transferring files and data from one
drive to another.
►INTERNET EXPLORER (NO ADD-ONS), which allows you to access the internet
without any Explorer addons interfering with it.
►SCHEDULED TASKS, which allows you to schedule a specific time to run updater,
defrag, and other system programs.
►SYSTEM INFORMATION, which tells you the basic ram, processor, etc., of your system.
►SYSTEM RESTORE, which will restore your Windows system to an earlier time.
In Vista and Win 7 you can find all of the above and more. Check it out.
Templates
A template is a prepared form or pattern within various programs such as document and
spreadsheet programs. They allow a user to develop a form that allows for easy entry and
automatically formats and calculates data.
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If you are a user of the Microsoft Office suite you are probably aware of them as Microsoft
makes mention of templates and even has a folder of them within their suite.
But are you aware that there are literally hundreds located on the internet? But that is not
all. There are even templates designed for the free suite put out by Open Office. Just Google
open office templates and find body mass calculators, ovulation schedules time cards, shift
scheduling and so much more.
You do not have to reinvent the wheel every time you sit at your computer. One little
caveat though, these are usually presented by users and sometimes do not cover
all you would like to find in a template. But do not lose heart, once downloaded you can
continue to tweak the form until it does what you want the way you want it.
Computer Humor
Newest add-on to keyboard
Send the information regarding what software for which you would be willing
to be a resource person. Send it to [email protected] and we will publish it for
members to reference.
HACS Officers/Executive Committee
President - Jerry Liedl - [email protected]
Past President – Joy Capps - [email protected]
Vice-president – Bob Cannon – [email protected]
Secretary – Ken Granzin - [email protected]
Treasurer – Jim Bailes - [email protected]
Public Relations – Fred Haddad - [email protected]
Program Committee – Interim chair is the Vice President
Membership – Interim chair is the Treasurer
Door Prizes – Joy Capps
THE END
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