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HOME TOPICS ABOUT ME The latest version of the Microsoft Windows Media Player allows viruses to enter your computer when you change the "skin" (the way it looks). I like the older Media Player and suggest you stick with it. |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 5 things you need to know about Windows and Windows softwareJan. 3 , 2001 By Al Fasoldt Copyright ©2001 Al Fasoldt Copyright ©2001, The Syracuse Newspapers I once joked to an editor at the newspaper that I could write a computer column every day and still not get a chance to write about most of the subjects that interest me. I realized right away that I was wrong. I could write a computer column every hour and not run out of ideas. I doubt there is any other field of endeavor with so many interesting angles and so many people eager to know about them. So this week I'm compressing a bunch of column ideas into one article. I hope you don't mind the brevity. PowerPro, the best Windows all-in-one utility, is now free: I've raved before about PowerPro and use it on every Windows PC in our home computing center. Trying to tell you everything PowerPro does would take two hours, so here's the 10-second version: PowerPro does macros (so that you can launch and program or open any folder with a key press, or so you can insert text of any length by pressing a key), launches or kills off programs based on what else is running or not running, schedules programs to run based on the time or any other situation, puts windows in specific locations, saves and restores icon positions, creates launch bars and pop-up menus of programs and folders, shows hidden programs, alphabetizes the Taskbar, pops up or sounds alarms when specific events occur (such as a low resource number) and does dozens and dozens of other things. PowerPro is not simple and not easy to learn, and, unfortunately, the author seems stuck on the idea that PowerPro is a launch-button program. (That's the least impressive thing it does.) So try it out and give it a chance. http://www.inforamp.net/~crs2086/index.htm. Media Player 7 is bad news: The latest version of the Microsoft Windows Media Player allows viruses to enter your computer when you change the "skin" (the way it looks). This is part of an exceptionally poor design. I like the older Media Player and suggest you stick with it. Windows 2000 memory trick: I like Windows 2000 a lot. It needs a lot of memory, but here's one way to save RAM when you're doing many things at the same time. When you are not actively using a program, minimize it. This cuts down that program's memory usage by a huge amount. (No, I don't know if this works the same way under Windows 95, 98 or Me.) Get that window back on screen: If you have a Windows PC and get frustrated because program windows sometimes go partly off the screen, just press and hold the Alt key while you press the spacebar. Then let both go and press the M key and let it go. Press the appropriate arrow key (down or up, usually) to move the window where you want it. Press the Enter key when you want it to stick to the new position. "Open With" sanity restored: Downloading and trying out programs can wreck the method Windows uses to know which program is supposed to handle particular files. You see this when Windows asks which program the file should be opened with. If you make a bad choice, you seem to be doomed forever. But you're not. Just hold down the shift key and click the right mouse button on the file you want to open. Windows will ask what program you want to open the file with. It will let you change the default program in the dialog window that opens up. Regedit is a disaster waiting to strike: Don't use the Windows Registry Editor (called Regedit) unless you really, truly, positively, absolutely, without question know what you are doing. Here's two good reasons why: Regedit makes changes immediately, as soon as you type them, and it has no "undo." |