Computer Quandaries
by Dale Atchison
Tampa Bay Computer Society


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.

Can you recommend a good cheap dial-up Internet service?

Sure, I recommend  www.copper.net .  They cost $9.95 a month, paid monthly, or $99 a year, paid in advance (that's $8.33 a month).  Their only drawback is the 200 hours a month limit on Internet use (that's roughly 6.5 hours a day, every day).  If you hit that limit before your billing month is over, your Internet connection simply won't work until the next billing month starts.  They have free access numbers all over the US and Canada, which is great if you're a 'snowbird'.

There's also  IJ.net .  They're only available in Florida, and you can only use them from the phone number you give them a sign-up (or the price goes up to $15 a month), but their tech support is unsurpassed.

I have to throw in here, why not go to Verizon DSL instead?  They're only $15 a month if you sign up for a year.  Their customer service is usually deplorable, but luckily their equipment is good enough that you won't need their help often.  ...and, to be fair, they've gotten much better in recent years.

If you go with Copper.Net despite the 200 hour limit, please use this number:  5009387.  It won't save you any money, but if you sign up and stay with them for 90 days, they'll send me $15.  [Thank you.]

I'm trying to set up my Outlook Express account on my laptop computer.  But I can't remember my password.  I can only see a series of asterisks when I look at the account settings on my desktop computer.  Is there a way to see what's under the asterisks?

Download and install  Snadboy's Revelation V2 .  Once the program is installed, start it fom your Start Menu, open your Outlook Express account settings window, and click-and-drag the Revelation 'cross-hairs' over your password; your password will appear in Revelation's  "Text of Window Under Circled + Cursor (if available)"  box.

Several things are worth noting here:

  • This program will work in lots of programs, but not all.  Sorry about that.

  • Some anti-virus programs won't let you download or install this program; it is, in effect a 'cracker tool'.  I believe this a shortcoming of the anti-virus programs; both AVG and avast! allow it without a hiccup.

  • Be warned:  The garish bright-red install screen is the ugliest I've seen on any program anywhere.

  • The author is European, and doesn't realize how much his 'cross-hairs' look like a KKK symbol; try and cut him some slack, as he wrote a nice free tool.

The taskbar on the bottom of my screen is now 2 inches high.  How do I narrow it?

Roll the mouse cursur slowly down the desktop till it touches the top of the taskbar; it will change shape, becoming a short vertical line with an arrow head on each end.  While the cursor is this shape, press and hold the left mouse button, and drag the top of the taskbar down to the size you want it to be.  Let go, and the taskbar should stay that size until the next time you accidentally drag it upward.

For the last four or five months I've been unable to send emails; I get a warning that says"unable to send this message because of an incorrect address".  I've done all I know to do and can not get rid if this window.  Can you help?

Sure thing.  Open Outlook Express, look in your Outbox folder.  Left-click the oldest message in the folder, and drag it into your Drafts folder.  Now click on Send/Receive.  If you don't get the error message, the moved message was indeed your bad boy.  Open it by double-clicking, and read very carefully the email addresses in the To: , Cc: , and Bcc: boxes; one or more of them should have an obvious problem (like the number 2 where OE expected to see the @ symbol, or a space between the domain name and .com, silly stuff like that).  Edit the addresses and click Send.

If the messages still won't go out, try moving the next-oldest message to rafts, and so on.  Try sending after you move each message --- when the remaining messages go without a problem, the last message moved to Drafts was your bad boy; drag the rest back to your Outbox and send them, then check the culprit as suggested above.

There is an "AOL Search" toolbar thingie always displayed in my taskbar.  I need it gone, as I need the entire toolbar when I am working.  How do I remove it, preferably permanently?

Right-click it, and tell it to go away.  If it asks if you want to see it the next time Windows starts, just say "NO!"

If it doesn't ask, click on Start  »  Run  »  MSCONFIG  »  OK  »  Startup tab  »  uncheck AOL Searchbar  »  OK  »  Restart.  After Windows restarts, you'll get a warning about having used the System Configuration tool; just check "Don't Show Me This Message Again" and click OK.

Someone installed Print Shop 15 on one of the computers in our lab.  Apparently the installation didn't finish, and the program is locking up.  We have tried to uninstall it from Control Panel  »  Add/Remove Programs, but it will not uninstall.  We have XP.  Is there another way to do this so we can try and install it again?

Hopefully, the software was installed very recently.  You can use System Restore to put the computer back to the state it was in the day before Print Shop was installed.  While no data is ever lost using System Restore, the longer it's been since the installation, the more likely you'll lose other changes you've made to the system that you'll now have to re-do manually.

Click Start  »  Help and Support  »  Undo Changes to Your Computer With System Restore  »  pick the most recent Restore Point before the unwanted installation  »  follow the prompts.

If for some reason you have trouble getting into System Restore (and a large percentage of XP users have trouble), reboot the computer, press F8 as soon as you see the black and white (DOS) screen, and start in Safe Mode.  When Windows finishes loading and shows the warning that you're running in Safe Mode, instead of clicking Yes to run Windows, click No to go directly to the Safe Mode version of System Restore.

I recently installed Verizon DSL and numerous problems have developed.  Some I have been able to take care of, some I cannot.  Currently, when I attempt to download from the Internet when Adobe is required, all I get is a small box in the upper left hand corner which contains a small red square, green circle, and a blue triangle.  I have Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 installed.  I have also attempted to download the latest version without success.  I am running Windows 98 SE with Internet Explorer 6.

There's so many things we could check here, but I'm going to concentrate on your first comment:  you just installed Verizon DSL.  If you're like most folks, you inserted the CD Verizon sent with the install package --- you didn't need to.  All it does is talk you thru adding the hardware, which anyone can do after reading the Quick Start Guide that was packed with the modem and filters.  If you run any of the software on the CD, it just screws with Internet Explorer.  If you're using an ethernet cable to connect the modem to your computer, you don't even need drivers for the modem.  If everything was working just before you installed DSL, the install CD is your most likely culprit.

Click on Start  »  Control Panel  »  Add/Remove Programs.  Uninstall everthing you find that starts with the word Verizon.

After Windows restarts, go into Control Panel  »  Internet Options  »  click the Connections tab  »  click on Never Dial a Connection  »  LAN Settings  »  Automatically Detect Settings  »  OK  »  OK.

If you're sticking with Windows 98 for a little while longer, you should download and install  Mozilla Firefox V2 .  (Sadly, version 3 doesn't work with Windows 98.)  And do it soon; Mozilla only promised to keep version 2 availabe for download till mid-December 2008!  If it's gone by the time you read this, drop me a 'feedback form' from the Editor's Notes page, and I'll post a copy for download on this site.

You should also download and install  Foxit PDF Reader 2.3 , then uninstall Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Thanks for Asking!

That's all for this month.  I welcome questions on any computer-related problems you might have.  Please email your questions to:

Dale@ComputerRepairShop.biz



I send these guys a few dollars every month... sure wish you would join me.
And 100% of your labor charges go to this rescue, too.