Here are questions from some of my clients and TBCS members, along with the best answers I could give them; most of my answers were arrived at by searching the Internet using Google.   In those cases where I say things nice or otherwise about a particular program, please note that I'm expressing only my opinion, and not necessarily that of TBCS, its members, or its board of directors.

I use Outlook Express for my email, but I do not have any task buttons above my messages: Delete, Forward, Reply, etc.  I have to use the menus.  Help.

Right-click a blank spot to the right of the menu, then left-click Toolbar.

Periodically, my computer gives off kind-of a ding-dong sound.  Avon?

The ding-dong sound you describe is Windows telling you it has found or lost a USB device; if the 2nd note rises in pitch from the first, that means found — a falling tone means you just un-plugged (or turned off) something connected to a USB port.

There's a setting to turn off the sounds.  Go to Control Panel  »  Sounds and Audio Devices  »  Sounds tab.  In the Program Events window, find Windows  »  Device Connect.  In the Sounds window, click the down arrow, and scroll up to the top of the list; highlight None.  Do the same for Device Disconnect.  Click OK to close the Sounds applet, then 'X' out of Control Panel.

My husband is a member of an Internet travel business that sends a lot of e-mails.  Juno has stopped them from coming, as they say it looked like spam and surpasses their limit (or something like that).  We emailed Juno concerning this; they said they fixed it, but the messages are still blocked.  One of the other members (of the travel business) said they got an AOL account just for their YTB (Your Travel Business) e-mails, because AOL doesn't block anything.  We are going to try emailing Juno again, but if that doesn't work, can you think of any other solution besides going with AOL? That pains me — I don't care if it is only for that one account.

AOL also has a spam policy; they were blocking my outgoing emails for a while, so I couldn't write to any of my clients who had AOL.

Check and see if Juno has a 'whitelist' you can add your travel service to.  Any email from a whitelisted sender is allowed to pass, even if your service knows for an absolute fact it is spam.  You could also try adding the address your YTB emails come from to your Juno address book; most services automatically whitelist any address in your address book.  If neither of these suggestions help, you may have no choice but to use AOL (and add YTB to your AOL contacts).

I have forgoton how to prevent programs from opening when the PC starts up; can you walk me through this?

Click on Start  »  Run  »  type in MSCONFIG and click OK.  Click the Startup tab.  Everything with a check mark next to it starts every time you boot the computer or log off and back on again.  Removing the check mark will prevent the program from starting, but it won't uninstall it — meaning, you can always go back and put the check mark back if you decide you needed or wanted that program after all.

If you're running Win XP (and maybe in Win Me), you'll get a warning the next time you boot that says you have used the System Configuration Utility to change the way Windows starts.  Just click on Don't Show Me This Message Again, then click OK.  Windows Vista will give you a warning that it has stopped certain programs from starting automatically; it isn't talking about the programs you turned off, it's talking about MSCONFIG! If you get this warning the first time you boot after making changes in MSCONFIG, click on it and give permission for MSCONFIG to run.

There's no sound coming out of my speakers.

First, make sure the volume control on your sound unit or powered speaker is set halfway up.  Then check the software volume control: Start  »  Run  »  SoundVol  »  OK.  Make sure the main fader and the WAV fader are set at least halfway up, and there are no Mute boxes checked.  Close the volume control software applet.

Now turn on computer sounds: Start  »  Control Panel  »  Multimedia.  Set the Sound Scheme to Windows Standard (it's probably set to No Sounds currently).  That should be all it takes.

Got a pop-up reminder from my HP Pavilion, asking if I wanted to create a set of recovery discs.  Do I?

Yes.  That's HP asking if you'd like to create the stack of installation CDs that should have come with the computer, but didn't.  Get a stock of CD-Rs, and set aside an afternoon when you won't be disturbed or interrupted — you're only allowed to make one set of Recovery Disks, so it's important it's a good set.  Label them with a soft felt-tip pen.

And, since CD-Rs aren't forever, store the recovery CDs you create in a cool, dry place, and plan on copying them every 12 to 18 months, discarding the older set and storing the newer ones.

In general, it's better to make the recov ery set on DVDs, but I remember you have a DVD reader, not a writer; luckily, you get a choice.

How do I get rid of the email messages that appear immediately?  I thought I would like this feature, but I really don't.  It seems dangerous to me, because I can't control which emails get opened.

In Outlook Express, click on View  »  Layout  »  remove the check mark next to Show Preview Pane  »  OK.  If you're running a decent, recent anti-virus, and have turned off display of remote images in emails, there's really no risk in just leaving the Preview Pane enabled.

For the past several weeks, I've been having a problem with my Favorites in MSN.  Every time I shut down or go on stand by and return all of my Favorites are a jumble; that is, the folders are out of alphabetical order, Favorites I deleted have returned, and there are double entries in some of the folders.  How do I correct this problem?

I decided against adding MSN to my computer to check.  Just like I won't install AOL, Compuserve, Netzero, Earthlink, Juno, or PeoplePC to check a problem with one of those programs — a man's got to have some standards.  (This isn't necessarily a condemnation of all those programs, I just won't run any add-on 'front-end' programs to get to the Internet — Windows doesn't need help doing that.)

But maybe I can help you anyway...

Here's an image of what your Windows Explorer settings should look like.  Open My Computer  »  click on Tools  »  Folder Options  »  View.  Scroll down the page till the settings visible in my image are displayed on your screen, then make sure you've checked "Remember Each Folder's View Settings" and "Restore Previous Explorer Windows at Logon."  Click OK, then reboot.

At startup I get a warning about VOS.  I've never heard of it; what should I do?

As near as I can tell from a quick Google search, it's part of Verizon Online Support.  I recommend to my clients that they not use VOS — it's just another program running in the background, slowing you down, that you'll probably never need.  If you have Verizon DSL, VOS installed automatically when you ran the Verizon CD (which you didn't really need to do).

Do this:  uninstall Verizon Online Support.  Reboot.

If the message comes up again, plug in the CD, reinstall VOS, then immediately uninstall it again.  Reboot.

If the problem is still there, open My Computer  »  C: drive  »  Program Files, and delete all folders whose names begin with the word "Verizon".  Next, download and install EasyCleaner 2.0 from  personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/files/EClea2_0.exe , run it, and do a Registry check to remove all references to programs that no longer exist on your computer.  Reboot one last time, and you should see no more error messages.

Okay, I'm trying to run an online virus scan at Housecall.AntiVirus.com.  It just sits there, doing nothing; it said to please wait, and I did.  Still waiting...

When you've waited at least twenty minutes and the screen hasn't changed, you might have a problem.  Until then, assume it's downloading the virus scan engine and just wait it out.  ...and be glad you don't still use dial-up — I've seen it take 90 minutes to download the ActiveX and virus definition file using dial-up!

And be forewarned:  TrandMicro will ask permission to install an ActiveX control to your PC.  ActiveX controls can be good or bad:  this particular program works by installing an ActiveX scan engine, so accept the control, let it install, and you'll get your scan.  (The warning is from Microsoft, about the 'third-party' ActiveX control from TrendMicro.)  Expect another long wait.