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Archive for ◊ June, 2009 ◊

Give Your Laptop Battery a Longer Lease on Life
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | Author: admin

Does your laptop spend more time on your desk than your lap? If so, you’re probably causing your battery to wear out much sooner than it needs to.

See, it’s a sad (and expensive) fact of life: You’re lucky to get 18-24 months from a battery before it loses a good chunk of its charge capacity (meaning it no longer powers your laptop for as long as it used to).

And you’re accelerating this unfortunate timeframe if you leave your laptop plugged in 24/7, which is common for most folks who work at a desk. Because the battery rarely (if ever) gets a chance to discharge, it loses its capacity to hold a charge.

The simple solution: Pull the battery out of the laptop and leave it out when you’re deskbound. Most laptops can run on straight AC power, so there’s no need for the battery. And it’s easy enough to pop back in when you hit the road (though obviously you’ll want to make sure it’s charged, so plan ahead a bit).

It’s a hassle, sure, but consider the price of a replacement battery: usually $100 or more. What’s more, old, discarded batteries wreak havoc on landfills. Sooner or later, they’ll leak acid into the ground. So it’s in your best interests to keep your battery as long as possible, and to keep it from dying a premature death.

Rick Broida, PCWorld

Category: Laptop, Mac, pc  | Tags: ,  | Leave a Comment
Make Outlook Automatically Spell-Check Your E-mail
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | Author: admin

I’m kind of a spelling snob. I take pains to make sure I spell everything correctly, so it bugs me a little bit when I receive mail that contains spelling mistakes.

Well, okay, I cheat a little: I use Outlook 2007’s spell-checker to give my outbound mail the once-over before sending. You can do likewise, without having to remember to click the Spelling button every time, by tweaking Outlook’s checker. Here’s how:

1. Click Tools, Options.

2. Click the Spelling tab.

3. Tick the box marked Always check spelling before sending.

4. Click OK.

That’s it! Now, when you click Send, Outlook’s spell-checker will immediately appear, giving you a chance to fix those “Hey, Rick, you are so stoopid” kinds of mistakes.

Of course, by default, Outlook uses squiggly red lines to indicate misspellings as you type, but I know many folks who prefer to just bang away at the keys and then fix the mistakes at the end. Me, I don’t make speling mistakes, so I don’t really need either feature.

Rick Broida, PCworld

Category: Internet, Vista, Windows, XP, email  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Windows Genuine Could be a Real Advantage
Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | Author: admin

No reader question, this time. Just a rant.

We all hate Windows Genuine Advantage. Not only is it a hassle that might accuse you of stealing something you legitimately bought, but its very name adds insult to annoyance. It’s obviously an advantage to no one but Microsoft.

But with a simple change in policy, the folks in Redmond could use it to eliminate a far more serious problem: The difficulty in obtaining an actual copy of Windows to go with your legally-purchased license.

If Windows came with your computer, you probably have no way to restore it beyond a complete reformat. If you lost the restore discs that came with your PC, or altered your partition table and thereby rendered your restore partition unbootable, you can’t even do that. And you almost certainly don’t have the options and utilities that come with a genuine Windows CD or DVD.

And why not? Because Microsoft acts as if giving away Windows discs is the same as giving away licenses to run Windows. And yet the company must know that’s not true. Otherwise, Microsoft wouldn’t make you go through the activation process, or keep hitting you with Windows Genuine Annoyances. It’s the product key–that long number you have to enter when you install Windows–that defines and proves your purchase of the operating system.

So why can’t Microsoft simply give the disc away. Make it downloadable as an .iso file. Charge $5 to mail a physical disc to those who don’t like long downloads. Make it known that anyone can give the disc to anyone else.

I’m not suggesting that Microsoft give away Windows. You’d still need a unique product key to activate it, and you would get that project key either by paying Microsoft or buying a PC with Windows pre-installed (all such computers already come with a product key sticker). Or you’d already have the product key, but still need a product to install.

This could work just fine with XP, Vista, and (when it ships) Windows 7. Microsoft doesn’t even have to keep selling XP to freely give away the discs; I know plenty of people who “own” XP but need a way to install it.

A great many commercial programs, perhaps a majority of them, are now sold this way. You download the program, install it, try a limited version, then pay for a key that will unlock the full version. They used to call this shareware or demoware. Now its just the way software is sold.

Microsoft: Are you listening?

Lincoln Spector, PCWorld

Category: 7, Internet, Vista, Windows, XP, web  | Tags: , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Hidden iTunes: The Five Best Keyboard Shortcuts
Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | Author: admin

Regular Hassle-Free PC (HFPC) readers know that I love keyboard shortcuts. Not, not love: lurve. (Quick trivia quiz: Name the movie in which that word was coined.) So today let’s talk about the five best ways to zip around iTunes without ever taking your hands off the ol’ QWERTY.

  • Ctrl-N: Create a new playlist
  • Ctrl-Up Arrow/Ctrl-Down Arrow: Raises and lowers the volume, respectively.
  • Ctrl-Left Arrow/Ctrl-Right Arrow: Skip back a song and skip ahead a song, respectively.
  • Ctrl-Shift-H: Takes you directly to the iTunes Store home page.
  • Space Bar: Play/pause the current song. (In other words, hit Space once to pause the song, again to resume, and so on.)

Rick Broida, PCWorld

Category: Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPod  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Find Duplicate Songs
Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | Author: admin

There are plenty of good programs for finding duplicate files–based on file name, size, and checksums–but finding duplicate songs can be trickier. After all, if you have the same recording in .mp3 and .m4a formats, you’ve got duplicate songs that are not duplicate files.

So you need to search by metadata–the extra information that defines the contents of a file. Specifically, you need a program that can matches songs with the same title and by the same artist (because Smash Mouth’s “I’m a Believer” is not a duplicate of the Monkees’ original.)

You’ll also have to remember that no list of duplicate songs generated by software will be perfect. A program may not realize that Beatles and The Beatles are the same group. Nor can it always differentiate between the original studio recording and the live concert version. (I’ve known Dead Heads with probably ten versions of “Brokedown Palace.”)

But the right program can give you reasonably accurate lists to work through. Here are three I can recommend:

iTunes: Well, no, I wouldn’t recommend you download and install iTunes just for this purpose, but if you’re already using it, you’ve got a pretty good search tool. Just select File • Show Duplicates. If you have the same song as an .mp3 and a .m4a, iTunes will list both, but it won’t find any .wma versions.

Lincoln Spector, PCWorld

Category: Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPod  | Tags: , , ,  | Leave a Comment
A Quick Fix for Slow Internet Access
Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | Author: admin

This morning a neighbor asked me if my Internet access was really, really slow the last couple days. (We subscribe to the same ISP.) I said no, it’s been just fine. Then I offered him the same suggestion I offer most folks who complain about connectivity problems: power-cycle your modem and router.

In other words, disconnect the power cords from both, wait about 10 seconds, and then plug them back in. In a minute or two, your network will be up and running again, and your Internet access might be its good old speedy self. I say “might be” because there are loads of other possible culprits for pokey Internet connections.

For example, you might have a spyware problem. Windows’ Internet settings might be FUBAR (or at least less than optimal). If you’re connecting via a wireless router, there could be range issues.

In most cases, however, it’s probably just a router and/or modem in need of rebooting. For the record, my neighbor told me the power-cycling trick worked like a charm. Hmm, maybe I should send him a bill? Nah, I’ll just give him a link to Hassle-Free PC. Feel free to do likewise for friends and relatives who need answers to common PC problems!

Rick Broida, PCWorld

Category: Internet, Mac, Windows, email, web  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Is the Problem With My Modem or My Router?
Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | Author: admin

You can isolate the problem by trying different configurations. Try these tests:

1) If you use WiFi, move your PC into the same room as your router and use an Ethernet connection. If the problem goes away, it’s a WiFi problem, although you still won’t know if it’s the router or the PC.

2) Try replacing one or more of the cables involved. If you replace an expensive router and then discover the problem is a $2 telephone cable, you’ll hate yourself in the morning.

3) Borrow another laptop or invite a friend to work at your home for a couple of days. If you have the problem and they don’t, the problem is with your PC.

4) Bypass the router and connect the modem directly to your PC. If the problem reoccurs, the problem is either with the modem or the connection. But remember, not using a router is inherently dangerous, so go back to the router as soon as you’ve identified the problem.

And if the problem doesn’t go away after all of these tests, it’s your ISP’s fault, even if they insist it isn’t.

Lincoln Spector, PCWorld

Category: Internet, web  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
My PC Keeps Freezing Up
Friday, June 12th, 2009 | Author: admin

The obvious quick fix is to not leave your computer on for two or three days at a time. In fact, I’d give you this advice even if you weren’t having this problem. Windows tends to get unstable over time, and a reboot refreshes it. Besides, leaving the computer on all the time wastes electricity.

You should either shut it down or hibernate it at the end of every workday. Hibernating the computer won’t refresh Windows the way a full boot does, but it’s faster and lets you start the day exactly where you left off. From the hardware’s point of view (and I suspect you’ve got a hardware problem), there’s no difference between shutting down and hibernating a PC.

 

Lincoln Spector, PCWorld

Category: Vista, Windows, XP  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Comments off