Thanks, Don

Dear Don,

Microsoft no longer includes Windows Mail with Windows, however, you can still download and install the newer version, Windows Live Mail from their website at:

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows-live/essentials-other-programs

There are also a couple of other free email programs that you can install on your computer and use in the same way you used to use Windows Mail.

I like (and use) Eudora at: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Eudora_OSE

Another email program is Thunderbird at: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Hopefully one of these programs will meet your needs.

Elizabeth

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Debbie

Dear Debbie,

It sounds like you have been infected with a form of malware that is redirecting you to these other websites.

Hopefully, you have a good antivirus program installed, and you can just update it and run a full scan to get rid of the malware, but it is not always that simple.

Once the malware has gotten into your system, it is harder to get it out than it is to prevent it from getting into your system in the first place.

The best tool I have found for getting malware out of a computer is Malwarebytes at:

Once you have downloaded and installed the program, update it, then run a full scan. It should find and help you get rid of the malware. I keep running scans until I get two clean scans in a row.

If that doesn’t fix the problem, you might have to get a clean install of Windows where your hard drive is erased and Windows is re-installed. This is something that I do in my shop for customers quite frequently.

Elizabeth

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Thank You, Gary

Dear Gary,

Most computers these days don’t come with CDs or DVDs that you can use to install Windows and all your programs in the event of a crash, virus infection, or even hard drive failure.

They do, however come with a recovery partition on the hard drive (a partition is just a section of the hard drive that shows up as a separate drive letter in the computer) Some companies even hide the recovery partition so that it doesn’t show up in Windows.

That recover partition will work great if you get infected with a virus, or Windows crashes, but what can you do if your hard drive fails, or you want to replace your old hard drive with a new, larger one?

Fortunately, the answer is already built into your computer.

All the major computer manufacturers ship their computers with both a recovery partition and a program that you can use ONE TIME to create your own set of recovery disks.

While each manufacturer does this a little differently, it should be fairly easy to find the program by clicking on the Start Orb and typing the word, “Recovery” in the search box.

You should see an item in the start menu that says something like “Recovery Disk creation”. The wording will be different for some computers.

To create the disks, you will usually need anywhere from three to six blank DVD-R disks, or a flash drive large enough to hold all your files.

I would suggest using disks, since they have a much longer shelf life than a flash drive.

Elizabeth

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Thank you, Prem

Dear Prem,

Page Plus is a desktop publishing program that I have been using for the past 10 years or so. I have used it to create everything from business cards, to post cards, flyers, papers for classes, and even my recent ebook, 7 Things was created in Page Plus.

Page Plus is the product of a company named, Serif Software.

You can find Page Plus using this link:

Click Here for PagePlus

Elizabeth

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Thanks, Gail 

Dear Gail,

What you want to do is use the “Blind Carbon Copy” or BCC feature in your email program. This will allow you to send your email message to several recipients at once, but each recipient will see only his or her email address.

You didn’t mention what email program you are using, so I will give you some examples using the programs that I have set up. If you are using a different program, it should be similar to one of these.

In Gmail:

1. Click on the “Compose” button to start a new email message.
2. Click “Add Bcc” just under the To: line.
3. Enter your email addresses in the new, “BCC” line instead of the “To” line.

In Outlook 2010:

1. Open a new email window.
2. In the new email window, click on the “Options” tab.
3. In the “Show Fields” section, click on “Bcc”.
4. Now, fill in your recipients email addresses in the “Bcc” line.
(you only have to do steps 2 and 3 the first time)

In Windows Live Mail:

1.Open a new email message.
2. Click on the “To” button.
3. In the dialog box that opens, enter your recipients in the “Bcc” line.
4. Click the “OK” button at the bottom of the dialog box to go back to your email message.

In Eudora,

1. Click the “New Message” button to start a new email message.
2. Click on the “To:” button to display the drop down list.
3. Click on “Bcc” to select it.
4. Repeat for each line you enter a recipient in.

Now, when you send your email message, each person will only see whatever address you put in the To: field (If any) plus their email address, in the message they receive.

Elizabeth

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Many thanks!! Laurie

Dear Laurie,

In a way, what you are asking is not possible. There are so many things that can be done on a computer, that it will never be possible for one person to master them all.

Instead, what you need to do, is learn about the things that you want to use your computer for.

Amazon is a great place to look for books, so I found a few for you to consider.

PCs All-in-One For Dummies is a compilation of 8 smaller books that will give you a good overview of using your computer.

You mentioned that you put your daily life and affairs online, so I am guessing that you might be using Facebook. If that is the case, you might be interested in, “Facebook, The missing manual”. While I have not read this particular book, I am a big fan of the “Missing Manual” series and always learn a lot from their books.

Finally, if Internet Safety is a concern, Leo Notenboom has written a Kindle book titled, “Internet Safety”.

Leo also writes a newsletter called, Ask Leo. You can subscribe to his newsletter on his website at: http://ask-leo.com

My last suggestion is actually the place where I started out learning about computers, a website named www.freepctech.com.

FreePCtech.com has two email lists that have ongoing conversations about computers. One is for software discussions, and the other is for hardware. The wonderful people on both of these lists were able to help me with my computer many times. I spent many years subscribed to both these lists, and was even a moderator for a while (until I was overwhelmed by the volume of email questions sent in by my readers). These lists are a great place to learn. Not only can you ask any questions that you have, but you will also learn from reading questions and answers from other list members.

I hope this gives you a few places to start learning about computers.

Elizabeth

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I was wondering if there is an easy way of clearing the email trash folder on an iPad.

Thanks, Judy

Dear Judy,

There is an easy way to empty the trash folder on your iPad email app. Here is how:

1. Open the “Mail” app on your iPad.

2. Tap on the upper-left icon in the Mail app. It might say, “Mailboxes” or in my case, it says “Gmail”.

3. Tap on the email account you are using. Mine says, “Gmail”, yours might say, “Yahoo” or whatever program you are using.

4. Tap on the “Trash” folder for your email account.

5. Now that you are looking at the items in the trash folder, tap on the “Edit” button located just to the right of the word, “Trash”.

6. Tap on the “Delete All” icon at the bottom of the screen.

7. A larger “Delete All” button will appear. Tap on that as well.

8. In a few seconds (or longer if you have lots of messages in the deleted folder) all your messages will be gone and the “Trash” folder will be empty.

Elizabeth

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Thank you so much. Jan

Dear Jan,

Unless you have a compelling reason to install Internet Explorer 8 or 9, I would not upgrade.

The reason is fairly simple, your computer was built with less RAM and processing speed than today’s computers have. Current versions of software like Internet Explorer are written for the computer of today that has dual and quad core processors and 4 to 8 Gigs of RAM.

Often what happens when you upgrade an older computer, is that the computer will run slower as it struggles to keep up with the demand of software written for more powerful machines.

My best advice is that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

Elizabeth

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Thanks, Joyce

Dear Joyce,

If you are anything like me, you probably have a bookshelf of recipe books that have a few favorite recipes in each book, and a drawer full of papers with recipes on them. I even have a photo album that I store recipes that I cut out of magazines!

Cook’n is a great program for storing all those favorite recipes. Not only can you store them, but you can also organize them, and quickly make shoppinng lists, and calculate the nutritional value of each recipe.

Let me help you get started.

First, open Cook’n.

On the Welcome screen, click on the words, “Cookbook Library” or click on the “Library” link at the top of the window.

The left side of the Cook’n window will show you your library with the cookbooks you currently have, any categories that you have created, any menus you have created and a search tool.

Right click on the words, “Cookbook Library” and click on “New Cookbook”. The right side of your Cook’n window will change so that you can set up the details of your new cookbook.

Type a name for your cookbook in the “Book Name” section. I simply put my name in that section. Below the “Book Name” section there is a place to type a description of your cookbook.

Once you have named and described your cookbook, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the window. Don’t skip this step since you can’t create chapters or recipes unless you have saved the cookbook first.

Find the first recipe that you want to enter and decide what chapter you want it to go in. Create a new chapter for your cookbook by clicking the “New Chapter” button, type a name and description, then click the “Save” button.

Now, you are ready to enter your first recipe.

Click the “New Recipe” button.

Type a name and description for your recipe.

Type your ingredients in the “Ingredient Listing” section of the window. This is very easy because Cook’n fills in the word for you once you type just a few letters.

Type or paste the recipe directions in the “Directions” section of the window, and click the “Save” button.

Now, if you look at the left side of your Cook’n window, you will see your new cookbook, with the first chapter and recipe.

Repeat to add more chapters and recipes.

For those of you who don’t yet have Cook’n, you can still use the special coupon code for readers of “Ask The Comptuer Lady”. Just go to: http://www.dvo.com/recipe-organizer.php and use the coupon code:

computerlady

and you will automatically get 20% off. The coupon is only good
for a limited time, so be sure to head over to their website today!

Elizabeth

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I use my computer for work, and I love it when I find a tool that
helps me be more productive! Say The Time is a very helpful program
that I use on my computer every day!

For starters, Say The Time does just what the name says, it tells me
what time it is. I have it set to chime and speak the time every hour
between the hours of 7am and 7pm. I could have chozen any time for it
to chime, but these are the hours when I am usually working. I don’t
really need reminders of how much the time is passing in the evening.

The second most useful aspect of Say The Time is the timer feature. I
have to be honest, if it wasn’t for timers in my house, I wouldn’t get
anything done, my tea would always be oversteeped and the bread would
always be burned. I also use timers when I am writing. I will often
set a timer for 15 minutes and just type that entire time. It is a good
way to get past writers block, and a great way to not feel overwhelmed
when working on a big project.

Say The Time has a great timer that I can set, and it runs while I work.
I can pause the timer if I am interrupted. It also has a stopwatch feature
that I can use when doing hourly work for a customer like designing websites.

Say The Time has many other features like stick notes, a calendar, reminders,
a world time clock and internet time synchronization.

For More information, and a free trial version of Say The Time, just use
this link:

Get Say the Time 11

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