Fig 1. Reboot

Fig2. Shutdown

Save each with appropriate names – like “reboot.cmd” or “shutdown.cmd”, remembering to change the change the Save As dialogue, Save as type field, to “All files”.

Once you have done this, you will have two icons like those below wherever you saved the files.

Just drag and drop these on to the Quick Launch Toolbar and select to Move, Copy or Shortcut to here – it doesn’t matter which.

Finally right click and go to Properties | Summary and give the file a name like “shutdown” or “reboot”.

Then, if you hover the mouse cursor over the icon, it will tell you which one it is.

There are three main backup systems that have served the IT community for decades. These are:

FIFO – first in first out.

The FIFO system keeps a backup that is as old as the number of tapes you have. So, if you want a 14 day backup you start with a backup of all your files on tape 1, then you add the changed and new files to tape 2, and carry on doing this until you reach tape 14, then you backup all your files again and the next day put all your changed or new files on tape 1, overwriting the original full backup.

With this system you have a full 14 days worth of files all the time. There is a problem though. If you make an error and don’t discover it until say 15 days later, you will have erased the correct file. Even worse, if you corrupt a file and it is unusable, but you only discover this after the original has been erased, you have a problem. That’s why IT people looked at more comprehensive systems – our favourite is the Grandfather-Father-Son backup method

Grandfather-Father-Son

This is the most widely used backup system and it works well for nearly all hierarchical backup systems. Essentially, you have to define three backup “sets” such as

• Daily – “son”
• Weekly – “father”
• Monthly – “grandfather”

On Monday the first backup is done – this is a full backup.

On Tuesday to Friday you backup the changed or new files.

On Friday, you put the Monday tape to one side and mark it as a weekly backup, replacing it with a new Monday tape. When you have five weekly or “father” tapes, the first one becomes the first monthly tape or “grandfather”, when there are twelve of these, you archive the first.

In effect you are increasing your tape pool by one every week and eventually you will have an archive of a whole year of tapes.

Special offer

The key to this is removing the weekly tapes from the site and placing them out of harm’s way. For as little as £5 a month iXus can store your tapes indefinitely in our fire safe. If you’re local, we will even pick them up from you.

Alternatively, we can supply an online backup of up to 20 gig for £5 per month (setup fee £24.99). With this we recommend doing your own daily incremental backups, because changed files over-write the old file, so you just have the latest data set and no history.

How to email a document straight from Word 2007

Let’s say you have a document and you want to email it. In the normal course of events you would save the document, then open your email client, create an email and attach the document.

You can skip a few of these steps by using the Send facility in Word 2007. Click on the button in the top left hand corner and the fly-out menu will appear. Click on Send, then select from the options. You can send as a Word document, although I prefer to send as a PDF attachment, because not everyone has Word 2007, but anyone can download Adobe Reader or Sumatra – I use the latter because it is both lightweight and quick compared to Adobe Reader X.

XPS documents are Microsoft’s attempt at emulating Adobe’s portable document format and while they have some advantages over the Adobe format, they are not as universal, so Linux and OSX users will not be able to open an XPS document.

If you click on any of the first three options, you will be presented with an email form like the one below and here you can fill in the details your correspondent needs. As a matter of etiquette, is always advisable to create a subject line in the email. In this instance, Word will attempt to do this for you. If you have already saved the document, it will offer the title of the saved document, if it hasn’t been saved; it will put the first few words of the first sentence in the subject line.

Then it’s simply a matter of filling in the email address and a note to tell the recipient what the email is all about and you’re done. Just click send and the email client will take of the rest.

Word 2007 + offers you lots of hidden facilities – one of them is to create horizontal lines across the page with just a few key strokes.

A simple line can be made by typing three dashes — on a new line and then pressing enter. You will get this line:

If you want a dotted line, all you need do is type three asterisks *** on a new line and press enter, like this:

To get a heavier line use the underscore key, just type ___ on a new line, then press enter and you will get a line like this:

A double line can be created by typing three equals === signs and pressing enter – you will get a line like this:

Three hash or pound signs will give you a heavy double line. So type ### on a new line and press enter, then you will get this:

Three tilde signs ~~~ and enter will give you a wavy single line. Like this:

Microsoft now has a FIXIT website, where you can solve some common problems by clicking on a button on the page.

The website is here: http://fixitcenter.support.microsoft.com/Portal/

But if you want to try out Fixit, just click on the Fixit image above. This will download an application FixitCenter_Run.exe – now we all know that you shouldn’t run executables from websites with which you are not familiar, so if you want to try it out and you don’t know us – then go to the Microsoft site. If you do know us, then give it a try.

When you run the application, you will get the usual MICROSOFT SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS. If you agree with them, then click on the accept the terms box and click on Next.

This will then download the Microsoft Fix it Centre and install it:

It will then ask you to Set up and personalize Microsoft Fix it Centre for your PC – you have the choice of doing it now or later. We recommend doing it now… and so do Microsoft…

The application will then select the Trouble-shooters it thinks you need and then ask you if you want an account at the Microsoft Fix it Centre Online.

If you answer Yes, then it will ask you to sign in with a Windows Live ID

You can then go through the online setup – click NEXT

Microsoft ask you if you want to allow Microsoft Fix it centre to send information about this computer. I don’t mind, so I said “Yes”, but it’s up to you.

You then get this screen:

These are the most common problems you will face with MS Windows. If the problem you have isn’t there, then you can always contact us – our charges are very reasonable.

If it is, just click on the RUN button. Then follow the bouncing ball.

Thumbs up Microsoft.

It looks a bit like this:

You notice that I typed the letter “S” and a whole load of suggestions have popped up in the drop down menu. (I’ve blurred the actual addresses for security reasons).  These are addresses that I have previously sent emails to, so they get recorded by Outlook.

These addresses are recorded in a small file called OUTLOOK.nk2 – this can be transferred to a new computer by following this method:

1. Close Outlook
2. Turn on Viewing Hidden Files (click on the View Tab in Explorer and select SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS under the HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS option.
3. In the same dialogue uncheck the HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES.
   • 
4. You have two choices now – you can either search for the file (search for *.NK2) and copy the file stored under your profile to the new computer, or you can browse to it.
   • In Windows XP the file is located under c:\Documents and Settings\your-user-profile-name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
   • 
   • In this case there are two files
     • OUTLOOK.NK2 and MARTYN.NK2
     • Copy both these files to the new computer
   • In Vista or Windows 7 this file is located in C:\Users\your-user-profile-name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook
5. Just copy the file to the location appropriate to the Operating System, open Outlook and your previous Autocomplete addresses will be there.

This one:

Me too. I’ve also carried on typing while looking at my second screen, only to find that nothing has happened because the focus has moved to the reboot dialogue window. Worse still, I’ve found everything closing down because I’ve typed the letter “n” and it has caused the “Restart now” button to be pressed. Grrrrr doesn’t do it justice.

Well you don’t have to put up with it anymore. Throw those curtains wide, open the windows and shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Or…

You can fire up regedit.exe

Browse to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

If the keys do not exist, create them – see example:

To create the new key, right click on higher level key – in this case Windows, select New, then Key

Type WindowsUpdate (no spaces) and press enter:

Then create the AU key in the same fashion.

Create a new 32-bit DWORD value named NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and give it a value of 1

This will prevent an automatic reboot while users are logged on. If you want to return things to the way they were, just delete the value.

Simple.

The Start menu is great for finding programs, but its multiple levels of folders can be time consuming to navigate. If there is a program you start frequently, you should set a keyboard shortcut for it so that you can start the program without taking your hands off the keyboard.

To set a keyboard shortcut to start a program

1.

Click the Start menu, and then click All Programs. Right-click the program that you want to start with a keyboard shortcut, and then click Properties.

2.

Click in the Shortcut key box. Now press the letter on your keyboard that you want to use to start the program. Make it easy to remember—for example, press I for Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Note: You can use either uppercase or lowercase letters when creating your keyboard shortcuts—and when accessing them later. In the Shortcut key box, Microsoft Windows XP automatically adds Ctrl + Alt + before the key you pressed. When you want to start the program, hold down both the CTRL and ALT keys simultaneously, while also pressing the letter you chose. This way, your program won’t start every time you type that letter.

3.

Click OK.

4.

Now test your shortcut. Hold down the CTRL and ALT keys, and then press the letter you chose. If you find it difficult to hold down two keys at once, read Turn on the Sticky Keys feature. Your program should start.

When your friends see you start up programs without touching your mouse, they just might think you have a psychic connection with your computer!

Navigate menus using the keyboard

You can speed up tasks in almost any program by choosing menu items using your keyboard instead of your mouse. This operation is particularly handy when you’re performing repetitive tasks.

To control menus using your keyboard

1.

With your program open, press the ALT key. Notice that one letter on each menu name is now underlined. To open the menu, press the underlined key. For example, in Internet Explorer, the View menu name shows the V underlined after you press the ALT key. To open the View menu, press the ALT key, and then press V.

2.

Now, each menu item will show one letter underlined. To access or activate the menu item you want, simply press the underlined key. For example, in Internet Explorer, after you open the View menu, the Privacy Report menu item shows the V underlined. Instead of clicking Privacy Report with your mouse, you can just press the V key.

3.

You can also choose menu commands by pressing key sequences quickly, without waiting for the menus to open. For example, to quickly view a Web page’s privacy report in Internet Explorer, press ALT, V, V. Similarly, to save a Web page in Internet Explorer, you would normally click the File menu, and then click Save As. To choose the same commands using your keyboard, press ALT, F, A.

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Control windows using your keyboard

If you like to keep four or five windows open while you work (or play) on your computer, you’ll appreciate knowing these keyboard shortcuts. You can quickly switch between your Web browser, e-mail, instant message windows, and other programs without taking your hands off the keyboard.

Action
Shortcut

Minimize a window to your taskbar

ALT, SPACEBAR, N

Maximize a window so it takes up your whole desktop

ALT, SPACEBAR, X

Restore a window so it’s visible but doesn’t take up your whole desktop

ALT, SPACEBAR, R

Close a window

ALT+F4

Switch to the last window you had open

ALT+TAB

Switch to any window

Hold down the ALT key, and press TAB until the window you want is active

Programs often start up in a "restored" state, where the window takes up only part of the screen. To maximize the window so that it takes up the entire screen, press the ALT key, press the SPACEBAR, and then press X. This will feel natural after you do it a few times, and you will feel much more efficient while using your computer.

There is an increasing number of what are known as Rogue Anti-Spyware attacks. The source of these is varied, but in the main they come from three sources:

1)      Emails and personal messages on social networking sites such as Facebook with clickable links. These links lead to infected attack websites where the rogue software is downloaded and installed on your PC

2)      Instant messenger applications such as Yahoo Chat and MSN chat – in these cases, a new “friend” invites you to view pictures of them, or visit a funny site and send you a link. Again the link leads to an attack site.

3)      Browsing sites that have been compromised. There are thousands of these sites and they attempt to infect you by getting you to download an application or javascript that loads the rogue.

The first sign of an infection is a popup saying that you are infected with a virus or a Trojan – something like this:

The big problem is that they are the infection themselves. They invite you to buy a cure for the Trojans they have found. NEVER give you credit card details to one of these rogues. That way lies the road to hell.

Getting rid of them is relatively simple for most Windows users. Follow these steps:

1)      Boot into Safe Mode with Networking by pressing F8 at Windows startup.

1. Or better still boot from a Windows PXE boot disk.

2)      Download either Malwarebytes Anti-Malware or Super AntiSpyware from these sites:

1. Superantispyware
2. MalwareBytes
3. Or if you have booted from a PXE Boot – download the SuperAntiSpyware portable version: Superantispyware Portable

3)      Install either of the first two, or run the last of the three.

4)      Do the updates – VERY IMPORTANT

5)      The scan for malware.

In most cases, this will get rid of your infection. If it does not, you may need additional help from an expert. We are skilled in ridding PCs of these types of infections – give us a call on 0870-458-1818.