Tech Tips

This one comes up a lot.  Many people do not know how to make their fonts larger or icons bigger and then end up with eye strain at the end of the work day or when they are finished surfing the net at home.

The size of your screen is almost irrelevant (I say almost because a 17″ monitor is sufficient for most people but a 15″ will definitely cause some strain regardless of the changes you make to it).  The size of the icons and windows and fonts can make a huge difference to whether or not you end up with tired eyes at the end of the day.  It’s not all about the size of the screen.  I know many people that use a 19″ flat panel but use 1280 x 1024 as their display setting and complain that everything on the screen is too small.

To change the display size (this is everything on the screen) , Right click on your desktop (applies to all MS operating systems) to bring up your secondary menu – select Properties – Settings – and in the area that shows Screen Resolution – slide the bar to the left to make your screen larger. 640 x 480 is likely the largest size you can select but depending on your monitor type, you may only be able to increase the size to 800 x 600.  This will help reduce eye strain but wait, there’s another thing to do before you really appreciate the difference.  Once you select the display size you want – go back to the Settings tab and click on Advanced – select the Monitor Tab.  Change the refresh rate from the default setting (likely reads 60Hertz) to a higher number like 75 or 85.  This will keep you from seeing what is known as “screen jitter” –> If you look closely you can see the screen refreshing and sometimes it looks like it’s shaking.  Changing the hertz refresh rate will stop the shaking.  Don’t worry about selecting one that is too high for your display because you will get a message right away if the screen can’t handle the resolution.  Personally I like to use 1024 x 768 with 75Hertz as my refresh rate.  Different people will prefer different settings depending on what you use the computer for.

1. Quickly get to the top of your messages in your mailbox by pressing T
2. To get to the bottom of your messages, press B
3. Insert your phone number into a message quickly and easily by typing mynumber. You can put it in the subject or body of the message.  If this doesn’t work right away, you may need to modify your phone settings so that your number is displayed.
4. Send your PIN to a friend by typing mypin and pressing space.  You can put it in the subject or the body of the message. As long as you press space after typing mypin..they will see it.  Then you can send pin messages to your friends for free!  and delivery receipts are shown beside the pin message as soon as the message gets to the receiving device. Pin messages are much like text messages only they only work if you and your friend both have a Blackberry with a valid data plan.
5. Perform a quick search if you are looking for a specific name or subject within your messages without scrolling through all of them.  When inside your mailbox, press S and a search screen will open. Enter your search criteria and press enter. 

There are so many ways to keep your PC clean.

Here are some of my favourite techniques:

Internet Explorer PC Cleaning Tips

Open Internet Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options, delete all temporary internet files, cookies and your internet browsing history. To keep these files from wasting space and filling up your hard drive (which, if not addressed, will slow down your computer), click Tools / Options / Internet Options / under browsing history, click Settings – change the number of days to keep pages in history to 1 or 2.

Nobody needs to keep a history of their visited web pages for 20 days really, do they?

Next, change the disk space used to the minimum required (which, for IE8 is 8mbs). The default setting is something ridiculous like 10% of the hard drive.
Another way to save space is to change the size of the recycle bin. Right click on your recycle bin, select properties and change size to 1% of your drive. I don’t recommend changing the options to permanently delete items instead of moving them to the recycle bin because let’s face it, we all make mistakes sometimes and click too fast for our own good. To be safe, make sure you keep it at 1% and always prompt to delete.

Lastly, do a search on your computer for all files ending with *.tmp.  (Click Start / Search for files – enter *.tmp in the search box) These are temporary files created by applications for a variety of purposes;  initially when a program cannot allocate enough memory for its tasks, when the program is working on data bigger than available address space, or as a primitive form of inter-process communication. Usually the program will release the temporary space in use when the application is closed but not all the time so it’s important to clean up these files at least once per month.  If however, when you are deleting temp (*.tmp) files you notice a filename that you created and want to keep, be sure to de-select it from the group of files to be deleted so you don’t accidentally delete something important.

A Clean PC = A Faster PC

Regular maintenance on your PC can keep it running faster— saving you time and sparing you considerable frustration. Stop by Tech Tips from Liddell Executive IT Services often and you’ll have a pc running like the well-oiled machine it should be!

Do you need help getting spyware off your computer? Everyone has experienced trouble with spyware at one time or another.  To be more specific, if you aren’t sure what spyware is, keep reading.

There are many web sites out there with pop-up windows that show up right in the middle of your display; forcing you to click on the ad and in the background they are silently and discreetly installing applications on your computer (the nerve!!).

Have you ever tried to open the internet and notice that your  home page is not your home page anymore?  Instead, it reads some strange web page address that you’ve never visited and when you try to click away from it, all sorts of windows pop up on your screen.  Often, the windows that pop-up will be some sort of adult sites that some would be very embarrassed about having on the screen if someone were to walk up behind them.

When this happens, you’ve been “hi-jacked” . Changing the home page back to ”myhomepage.com” doesn’t always work.  As you will notice, when you close and reopen the internet, the page will be changed again forcing an endless loop of frustration for you as the computer user and eventually, you will not be able to get to the internet at all.

It’s not just frustrating to have spyware on your computer but it can also be dangerous.  For many people, our computer is our key to the world and we keep important information stored on it.  We use it for banking and tracking expenses and not to mention the thousands of pictures of loved ones we have saved.  Having said that, it’s important, especially after doing any sort of financial transaction on line to delete those temporary internet files and make sure your PC is running clean. Spy Bot is a great, FREE tool and I highly recommend it

Get IT Services in the Toronto Area

If you’re reading this  and thinking, that really sounds great but it’s a little too technical for me – “I’m more comfortable having a professional do this work for me” visit leitservices.com and send an email to support@leitservices.com.  You will get a quick response to your inquiry and an IT professional will come to your home and clean the PC for you for a reasonable rate.

An important application for all computers, and this one goes without saying is to make sure you have a valid and current Virus Software installed on all your computers.  Norton Anti Virus is a great tool to keep virus’ off your computer as well as SpyWare.  McAfee is another great tool.  Both have free trial downloads but will cost a few bucks to purchase but (about $40 - 75 CAD) but no computer is safe from virus attacks.

Avoid Virus Attacks

Viruses  get onto your computer in many different ways.   The most common method for delivery (a.k.a. attack) is through email.  A message comes in from an unknown (and sometimes ”known” friend or colleague) sender.

In the body of the message is a hyperlink to some allegedly great web site or maybe a picture of your favourite celebrity naked, or free stuff by clicking on the link.  Well let me tell you, if you click that link, you are more likely than not clicking on virus link that will manifest itself on your computer possibly sending spam to all your friends (this is a worm virus) and inevitably forcing you to make the call to your technie friend or local computer service company to have your computer rebuilt.   Worse than spamming your friends however is the virus’ that renders your PC useless.

All of a sudden, and this is after you’ve clicked on the link and thought to yourself,  “Hmmf..naked Brad Pitt”, you go to bed for the night and, being the energy conscious person that you are, you turn off the computer until the next day.  You wake up, ready to surf the net, check emails and maybe write a blog and your PC won’t start up.  Error messages like “boot sector not found” or “Stop:Error….” shows on screen instead.  The blue screen of death.  Now you need help!

To deal with these issues and more, visit www.leitservices.com for support when you run into a problem you can’t fix on your own.

Best Antivirus Protection

Virus Software Protection is a MUST HAVE!  It’s important to mention that you can only have ONE virus software installed on any one computer.  Otherwise conflicts will occur and you will have loads of new problems to deal with. There are lots of free applications available but my top recommendations are Norton and McAfee

Do you want to turn your Blackberry into a modem? This post was created to assist when it is necessary to create a network dial up connection using the Blackberry cell phone as your modem because an internet connection is otherwise not available.

• Contact cell phone provider (Rogers/Bell) to ensure the cell phone plan included this option

• Ensure Blackberry Desktop manager is installed on the computer prior to starting this process.

1. Connect the Blackberry to the computer (authenticate as needed **this applies only when a security password is set on the blackberry)
2. Click Start / My Network Places
3. Select View network connections
4. Click Create a new connection
5. Click Next
6. Click Next
7. Select Set up my connection manually –> click Next
8. Click Next
9. Select Modem – Standard Modem (COM 3) ONLY –> click Next
10. Name your new Connection Blackberry–> click Next
11. Enter “ *99# “ as the phone number–> Click Next
12. Select My use only –> click Next
13. Ensure nothing is selected on this screen –> click Next
14. Click to Add a shortcut on the desktop and click Finish
15. Click Dial at this screen (username/password not necessary)
16. Enter password to your BB device if application
17. Connection icon appears near your clock when connected.
18. To disconnect, right click your new connection and choose Disconnect

Get the most out of your Blackberry!

Most Blackberry owners aren’t aware of half the great features and functions of their BB.  Stop by Tech Tips often for helpful  Blackberry tips.

If you have questions about your Blackberry or pc, you’ve come to the right place.  I will answer all your questions and offer quick tips to help you understand and work with your technology. Check back often!