Number 278 - July 2006

Lessons To Be Learned
The Surf Guru, Thousand Oaks PC Club I read, hear or see these tips and put them here to teach you something or just to refresh your memory. If you try something that does not seem to work let me know and I will try to find an answer for you.
Stop Spyware From Automatically Installing    Windows and its browser program, Internet Explorer, works behind the scenes to make things as easy as possible for you. The theory? The less you have to do, the easier it is to use Windows and the more likely it is you won't get into trouble. Most of what goes on behind your monitor is set up to work by default. But some of the default settings can get you into trouble. For Example, the Automatic Install can let a spyware install itself without you even knowing it. Here's how to prevent this from happening. From within Internet Explorer, click on Tools and then on Internet Options. Now click on the Advanced tab, and under the Browser section, remove the checkmarks from the boxes next to Enable Install On Demand (Internet Explorer) and enable Install On Demand (other) to prevent malicious spyware programs from automatically installing themselves without your knowledge. Now your computer is that much safer on the Internet. Grab More Task Bar Space    That little bit of Taskbar real estate that we once called the System Tray and that we now call the Notification Area, shows us what Windows is running at any given time. The more things your Computer loads at startup, the longer the list and the wider that part of the Taskbar becomes. It can get to the point where you'll have to click on an arrow on the left side of that area to expand it and make it all visible, and even then you may not have enough Taskbar space. The good news is that you can gain some of that territory back. That is, if you don't use the clock that always displays the time of day in the lower right comer of your screen. You can eliminate the clock by right clicking on any blank section of the Task bar, and then clicking on Properties. On the Taskbar tab, click on the checkmark next to "Show the clock" and fmally click OK. Now you have no Desktop click, but you do have more space where you need it.	Turn "My Computer" Into a Menu    One of the things I open frequently as I use Windows is My Computer, which shows me all of the drives on my computer, like the floppy drive (A:), the Hard Drive (C:), and others that include DVD and CD drives and removable drives. I found a way to change the display that you see when you click on Start and then on My Computer so that a menu of My Computer items appears as your mouse pointer touches your My Computer link. For me, it's certainly quicker and easier. Here's how. Right-click on the Start button, and then click on Properties. Click on the Customize button and then open the Advanced tab. In the Start menu items window, scroll down to My Computer, and click next to Display as a menu. Now click on OK, and again on OK. That's it--you're finished. Now, when you click on Start and then move your mouse pointer over My Computer, a menu of the My Computer contents appears. View File Paths In The Title Bar    Today's computers hold and store information as files. The trouble is, your computer can hold tens-of-thousands of files at any given time. Finding the path where a given file is stored can really present a challenge, unless you know how to call for a file's path location on the Title bar at the top of a window. Here's how it's done. Click on Start and open the My Computer link. From within My Computer, click on Tools and then on Folder Options. Click the View tab in the dialog box, and in the Advanced settings window, locate Display the full path in the Title Bar (it's in the Files and Folders section) and then click in the box on the left to place a check mark in it. Next, click OK. Now you'll be able to see the full path of any file or folder right there in the Title Bar.
Number 278 - July 2006