Screen Resolution
on August 6th, 2009Screen, or display resolution is a term used to describe a setting in Windows that specifies how things will be displayed on your computer screen. It specifies the size and quality of what is displayed on the screen. It is specified in two numbers. Height and width. These numbers are each in pixels.
A common screen resolution for a screen that is not a wide screen monitor is 1024 x 768. 1024 is the width while 768 is the height. Widescreen monitors are wider, so the first number is even bigger in comparison to a non-widescreen monitor. 1440 x 900 is a typical screen resolution for a widescreen monitor.
When it comes to display resolution, the higher the numbers, the smaller things will be, but the more stuff will fit on the screen at one time. And the lower the numbers, the bigger things will be and the less stuff will fit on the screen and you will find yourself scrolling left and right and up and down a lot.
If your eyesight isn’t too good, or you find yourself straining to read what’s on your computer screen, try lowering your screen resolution. For example, if your screen resolution is 1024×768, try lowering it to 800×600. You can always change it back if you don’t like it.
Something else to be aware of is that just because Windows will let you change your screen resolution to a really high number, doesn’t mean your monitor can handle that resolution. If you change the resolution to something and your monitor goes black, that means your monitor can’t handle that resolution. But don’t worry. Just wait 15 seconds and it will revert back and you can try another resolution.
The flat screen monitors we have today usually have what is called a native resolution. This is the recommended resolution. It doesn’t mean you have to use that resolution. It just means that what the monitor was designed for. It will still work at other resolutions.
If you select the wrong resolution it can make things look distorted. Words and pictures might look stretched or squeezed. Or you may not be able to see everything on the screen.
To change the screen resolution on your computer, use the following steps:
XP
o Click on Start and then Control Panel
o Double-click on Display.
o Click on the settings tab
o Move the slider to the desired screen resolution and click apply.
o Windows will change the resolution and ask you to confirm you want to keep it. If you want to keep it, click yes. If the screen went black or is too distorted to read, just wait and Windows will set it back to what it was before if you do not confirm.
Vista
o Click on the button formally known as start and then click on Control Panel
o Type the word: display
o Now click on “Change display settings”
o Move the slider to the desired screen resolution and click apply.
o Windows will change the resolution and ask you to confirm you want to keep it. If you want to keep it, click yes. If the screen went black or is too distorted to read, just wait and Windows will set it back to what it was before if you do not confirm.
It is possible to change a setting called Font Size. For example, if you have trouble reading what’s on the screen, you can keep the same screen resolution and make your font size bigger. However, we do not recommend using this setting because it totally messes up the formatting of most websites and computer applications. The best way is to just change your screen resolution.
Vista Service Pack 2
on June 12th, 2009We mentioned in a previous newsletter that Microsoft was working on Service Pack 2 for Vista. Last week Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2).
SP2 includes all of the fixes released since service pack 1 plus a few improvements. Many of the improvements are only for the Enterprise version of Vista, so they wouldn’t affect Home users or small businesses.
The most notable improvements for home and small business users include:
· Improved searching
· Application compatibility improvements (Improvements to make certain software run better on Vista)
· Improved hardware support (Some hardware that previously did not work on Vista, will now work. Some problems and quirks related to hardware support were also fixed.)
· Miscellaneous performance improvements.
(they say that every time)
· Enhancements and improvements to wireless support
You can download and install SP2 from Windows Update. If you have automatic updates turned on, as we recommend, then your computer should get SP2 soon, if it hasn’t already.
Where’s My Desktop
on May 22nd, 2009The Windows desktop is the main screen in Windows that has all of your icons on it. At times, you may have several programs open on the screen, but you want to get to your desktop. You can minimize each program one at a time. But there is an easier way.
Both Windows XP and Vista have a feature called “Show Desktop”. It’s a quick way to minimize all of your running programs so you can see the icons on your desktop. There are two ways to engage the show desktop function.
Vista and XP, by default, have an icon next to the start button that you can click that will execute the show desktop function. The picture to the left shows the default location of the Show Desktop
icon and what it looks like in Windows XP. In Windows Vista, the position of the icon is the same, but the icon itself looks different. The icon pictured to the right is what it looks like in Windows Vista.
Be aware, however, that this icon can be turned off or moved, so it’s possible you may not have that icon turned on, or it may be hidden. Do you have any icons next to your start button? If you don’t, then you’ll need to turn Quick Launch on. To do that, right click on a blank area of the task bar (that bar at the bottom of the screen) and choose properties from the pop-up menu. Then place a checkmark next to “Show Quick Launch”.
Once Quick Launch is turned on, you should have some icons next to the start menu, but you still might not see the Show Desktop icon. If you see icons, but you don’t see the Show Desktop icon, click on the double greater than sign to the right of the icons near the start menu. You should see it in the pop-up list. If it’s in the pop-up list, click on it and drag it and drop it where you want it.
Having said all of that, there is actually a better way to execute the Show Desktop function. On your keyboard, look for the Windows button (looks like a flag and is usually located one or two keys to the left of the space bar. Press the Windows button and hold it down. Now press the D key on the keyboard. Viola!
Internet Explorer 8 Automatic Update
on May 12th, 2009As you know, Internet Explorer is the program you use to view websites. Most people should have version 7 of Internet Explorer. You can find out what version you have by clicking on Help (might be a circle with a question mark in it) and then clicking on “About Internet Explorer”
If you have Automatic Updates turned on (which we recommend) you will soon get Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) if you haven’t already gotten it. IE8 is faster and has better security. However, with any new version of software, there can be problems when it’s first installed. Just like we had with version 7, some computers have problems after installing IE8.
We recommend allowing the install of IE8 because it’s only a few PC’s that will have a problem with it. And any PC that has a problem installing IE8 has some other underlying problem that needs to be addressed anyway.
If you want more information about Internet Explorer 8, click here.
Don’t Switch Users
on February 28th, 2009You may know that you can have multipe users set up in Windows. For example, if there are 4 people in your family and you all share one computer, you may each have your own windows user so that each person can customize Windows the way they want, and also to keep their data seperate. When you have more than one user, you typically get the Welcome Screen which shows you a list of users. You can then click on yours to login to Windows. Some versions of Windows require you to press Control-Alt-Delete and then enter the name you want to login to.
Many computers only have only one Windows user with no password. In that case, you never see the Welcome screen. It will just automatically login as that user and go right to the desktop.
For those who have multiple Windows users, I wanted to alert you to something. When a windows user is done, don’t switch users. Instead, log off. The reason is that when you switch users, it leaves the user you are switching from logged in and taking up resources. This slows the computer down. I’ve seen computers where they had four Windows users and every one of them was logged in.
I recommend turning off fast user switching. This will prevent people from switching users. User will then logoff and it will go back to the welcome screen. Then the next user can login. To turn off fast user switching in XP, click on Start and then click on Contorol Panel. In the Control Panel, double-click on “User Accounts”. Now click on “Change the way users log on or off” Click on the box next to “Use Fast User Switching” to remove the checkmark and turn off fast user switching.
In Vista, for some strange reason, Microsoft made it difficult to disable fast user switching. Because of that, I don’t think it’s something that the average user should attempt, so I’m not going to include instructions for disabling it here. But never fear. Click here. Save this file to your hard drive. Then find the file, right-click on it, choose rename. Now change the word “download” in the filename to “reg”. The file should now be named “Remove_All_Switch_user.reg” Now right-click on the file and choose merge.
Is Your Hard Drive Disorganized?
on February 11th, 2009You may have heard that you can do a defrag on your computer’s hard drive. Or maybe you have actually defragged your hard drive.
When something is fragmented, it means it’s broken into pieces and disorganized. For example, let’s say you are cooking in the kitchen and you need to use the hand mixer to beat some egg whites. Let’s say that the main unit is stored in the garage, one of the beaters is stored in the laundry room and the second beater is stored in the attic. It would take you a long time to gather the pieces so that you could use that hand mixer. In this example, the hand mixer is fragmented. If the mixer and the 2 beaters were stored together, it would be a much more efficient use of your time to get the mixer, put the beaters on, and use it.
The same can be said about a file stored on a computer’s hard drive. If the pieces of the file are stored on different areas of the hard drive, that file is fragmented and it will take longer for the hard drive to get all of the pieces than if they were all stored in one spot in the right order.
Performing a defrag on your computer will take that file, pull all of its pieces together, put them in the right order, and store them on one spot on the hard drive so that when you go to access it, it’s much faster. It’s important to note that a file on a hard drive can be anything. Sure, it can be a picture, a document, or a song, but there are lots of other things stored in files on your hard drive like programs. Windows is stored on your hard drive. Windows will run slower if the files and programs it needs are all fragmented on the hard drive.
So we see how a file can be fragmented, but in the world of computers there are other kinds of fragmentation. Even if every file on your hard drive is not fragmented, your hard drive can be considered fragmented. Why? If some files are stored in one part of the hard drive while other files are stored in another area of the hard drive, your hard drive is considered fragmented. Why is this important? If your computer accesses a file on the hard drive, the hard drive moves to that area of the hard drive. Then after that, it accesses another file on the hard drive, it has to move to a different area of the hard drive to access the second file. It’s all about minimizing the amount of movement and work the hard drive has to do.
Yet another kind of fragmentation is inside a data file. A lot of data on computers is stored in databases. These are kind of like mini hard drives themselves. The data inside them can be fragmented. There can also be wasted space within a file. Defragmenting the internal workings of a data file must be done by a utility program that understands the structure of that particular data file. So the defag built-in to Windows doesn’t do this kind of fragmentation. The reason I mention it is because there is a file, or set of files, in Windows known as the registry. The Windows Registry is a set of files where Windows stores a lot of settings. Windows doesn’t do anything without first accessing the registry. If the Windows Registry becomes damaged or corrupted, your computer will not function. Because the Windows Registry is often large and is accessed so frequently by Windows, it is important to not only back it up, but to defrag the contents of the registry to keep your computer running as well as it can.
Windows does not include a utility for defragging the Windows Registry. There are a few programs that will do it, but they aren’t cheap. For your average computer user, it’s probably not worth it to purchase one of these programs. When Computer Troubleshooters performs a Deep Cleaning & Optimization service on your computer, we back up your registry and defrag it.
To run a defrag in Windows XP or in Windows Vista, click on Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Deframentor. In Windows XP you can click the analyze button to see how fragmented your hard drive is, or you can just go ahead and defrag it. You might as well just go ahead and defrag it. It will still show you a graphical representation of the fragmentation on your hard drive. The picture to the left shows to colorful bars. The top bar is before and the bottom bar is after. The red are the fragmented files. This fragmentation is still in process, so the bottom picture doesn’t represent the final result. The final result will show no red and all of the blue will be together in one area.
Vista allows you to set a schedule for automatic defrags and to select which drives will be defragmented, if you have more than one hard drive. You can also tell it to defrag now. But unlike XP, it doesn’t show you a graphical representation of the fragmentation of your hard drive and there is no option to just analyze.
It’s important to note that depending on the size of your hard drive, the amount of data stored on it, the amount of free space on the drive, and the number of fragmented files, a defrag can take anywhere from half an hour to several hours.
Vista Service Pack 2
on January 24th, 2009Vista Service Pack 2
Speaking of Vista, service pack 2 for Vista is on the way and is slated for release in April, but there are rumors it will be delayed to May or June. For the most part, service pack 2 is just a collection of fixes just like most service packs. But it does add some improvements. Improvements include improved searching capibility, upgraded bluetooth support, blue-ray DVD support, improved WIFI support, and several others that are too technical to try and explain here.