Thanks, Mike

Dear Mike,

I think it is a great idea to back up your files and do a clean install of Windows. HP makes this fairly easy to do, especially if you created the recovery disks when the computer was new.

Saving your favorites is easy, and saving the email is not much harder. Lets start with the favorites.

1. Insert your flash drive into a USB port, and click on “Open folder to view files” in the menu that appears.

2. Click on Start, then click on your username at the top of the right column in the start menu.

3. Arrange the two folders so that you can see both of them at the same time.

4. Drag the “Favorites” folder from your user folder, to the flash drive folder.

Once you have reformated the computer, just repeat the steps above, only drag the favorites folder from the flash drive to your user folder.

Now for the Live Mail messages.

1. Again, insert the flash drive into a USB port and click “Open Folder to View Files” in the menu that appears. Drag that window to one side of your desktop.

2. To figure out where Windows Live Mail stores the messages, open the program, and click on the tab to the left of the “Home” tab.

3. Point to “Options” in the drop down menu, then click on “Mail” in the sub menu.

4. Click on the “Advanced” tab in the Options window, then click on the “Maintenance…” button, and finally the “Store Folder…” button.

5. Highlight and copy the location of your mail files in the “Store Location” dialog box, and click the “Cancel” button to close the window. Close all of the Windows Live Mail windows.

6. Click on the “start” button and paste the location in the search box and tap the “enter” key. A window will open with all your mail files.

7. Drag the mail files and folders into the flash drive window.

Elizabeth

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Is there a way to set this preference? Amy

Dear Amy,

Yes, there is a way to set the default view to “Details” or any of the other viewing options. Here is how to do that in Windows 7.

1. Open any folder on your computer, and make sure the view is set the way you want it. In this case, we are using “Details”, which is my favorite view as well.

2. Click on the “Organize” tab in the command bar, and click on “Folder and Search Options” in the drop down menu.

3. Click on the “View” tab in the folder options dialog box.

4. Click on the “Apply to Folders” button in the “Folder views” section.

5. Click the “OK” button at the bottom of the dialog box to save your changes and close the window.

The same directions should work for Windows Vista.
Windows XP is similar, just click on “Tools” in the menu bar, then click on “Folder Options”.

Elizabeth

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pat

Dear Pat,

There is a way to backup Outlook express files and folders, it is just not easy to do.

Here are the directions to make a backup copy of your Outlook
Express e-mail files:

1. First, you need to find the location of the files. To do this, open Outlook Express, click on “Tools” in the menu bar, then click Options.

2. In the Options window, click on the Maintenance tab, then click on the button that says “Store Folder”.

3. A small window will appear with the location of your e-mail files. Highlight the folder location, and then press CTRL+C to copy the location.

4. Click Cancel, and then click Cancel again to close the dialog box. Close Outlook Express.

5. Now, you want to open the folder that contains your mail files. An easy way to do this is to click Start, and then click Run.

6. In the Run window, click in the box that says “Open” and press CTRL+V to paste in the location, and then click OK. The window containing your files will now open.

7. In the window containing your mail files, go to the Edit menu, click Select All. This will highlight all the files in the window.

8. Again, click on Edit, then click Copy to copy the files, and then close the window.

9. To create a folder to store your saved files, right-click any empty space on your desktop, click New, and then click Folder.

10. Type mail backup for the folder name, and then press ENTER.

11. Double-click the Mail Backup folder to open it.

12. In the open mail backup folder, click on Edit, then click Paste. The e-mail files will appear in the window.

13. Close the Mail Backup window, and burn the whole folder to a CD, or save to a thumb drive or some other type of external media.

The next step is to save the address book. We do this by exporting it.

1. Click on “Start” then point to “All Programs”, point to Accessories, and click on the “Address Book” icon.

2. In the open address book, click on File in the menu bar, point to Export, and then click Other Address Book.

3. Click Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Export.

4. In the Export window, Click Browse.

5. Locate the Mail Backup folder that you created.

6. In the File Name box, type address book backup, and then click Save and then click “Next”.

7. Click to select the check boxes for the fields that you want to export, and then click Finish.

8. Click OK and then click Close. You can now backup the file, or it will open in Word or excel and you can print it.

If the Address Book is shared with Microsoft Outlook, you are not able to export from within the Address Book on the File menu. This option is dimmed or not available.

Elizabeth

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Thanks, Johny

Dear Johny,

This is actually a fairly common occurrence. First, I will explain what happens to cause it, then we will discuss how to put the shortcut back where it belongs.

Often, I have seen people go to click on a program in their start menu, and instead of clicking, they accidentally move the mouse, which drags the icon out of the start menu and onto the desktop. It might be that they clicked too slowly and the mouse moved while they were holding the button down, or perhaps the sneezed while they were clicking (that has happened to me before).

Once the shortcut has been dragged onto the desktop, it is a little bit harder to get it back into the programs menu where it belongs, but you can do it. In fact, there is more than one way to do it.

First, lets try dragging the shortcut back where it belongs.

Using your mouse, point to the shortcut on your desktop, and drag it to the start button. DON’T RELEASE THE MOUSE BUTTON YET.

Hover over the start button until the menu expands, and then point to the “Programs” or “All Programs” part of the start menu. DON’T RELEASE THE MOUSE BUTTON YET.

When the programs menu expands, drag your mouse to the spot where you want the shortcut to go, and then release the mouse button. Your shortctu will be moved back into the start menu.

If that doesn’t work, (I find it is very easy to accidentally release the mouse button and “drop” the shortcut in the wrong place) here is another method.

Click on the “Start” button and right-click on “Programs” or “All Programs” depending on what version of Windows you are using.

In the context menu that appears, click on “Open” or “Explore”.

This will open a window with the start menu folders inside. Now, just drag the shortcut from your desktop into the folder you want it to be in.

Elizabeth

Pete

Dear Pete,

I am glad to hear that you have been backing up the files! So many people mean to backup, but never get around to it.

You will have to reinstall all her programs. The only way a backup would save you from having to reinstall programs would be if it was a full hard drive image, and you were putting the image back on the exact same computer.

Since you are transferring her files to a new computer, you will need to install the programs. While most of your programs should work in the new Windows 7 computer, some of them might need an upgraded version, and if your printer is as old as the XP computer, you might have to get yourself a new printer.

Once you have installed your programs, just access your backup files (you didn’t mention what kind of backup it is, so I can’t tell you how to access them) and copy the documents, pictures, music and other data folders to the new computer.

Elizabeth

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As you know, I have been telling you about my new recipe program, Cook’n from DVO software, and how great it works. I have begun the process of gathering the recipes that I use the most, and putting them in my Cook’n program. I even have a few cookbooks that contain just a handful of recipes that I use, so I have been putting those recipes in Cook’n as well.

Last week, I received an email that the latest version of Cook’n was ready to be installed. I had been waiting for this version because it will, eventually be able to sync with my iPad which will make things even easier.

I downloaded and installed the new version, and when I went to run it, the program would not work. I was not too troubled, sometimes that happens, I just downloaded and installed it again. Well by the time I gave up, I had installed the program several times, and restarted it a half dozen times.

Here is the problem. Every time you close the Cook’n program, it makes a backup of all your recipe files, and saves the 4 most recent backups in a folder on your computer. Before I knew it, I had saved 4 corrupt backups, and lost the recipe book that I had been working on over the pasts few weeks!

I did not work at my computer over the weekend, but I found myself wondering if I still had all the recipes that I had put in the program, some, I had thrown away the paper copy after putting them in the computer!

Monday morning, I searched my whole computer looking for some place where those recipes might have been stored, but could not find them anywhere. Then, I remembered my automatic backup software, Mozy. I remembered reading somewhere that they save older copies of your files for 30 days in case you need to go back to an older version. With this in mind, I logged into my Mozy account and sure enough, they still had my backups from last week. I downloaded the files and was thrilled to find that all my hard work was restored!

I also heard back from the folks at DVO software that they are aware of this error in Cook’n and their development team is working on solving this right now. For now, I am content to have all my recipes back on the old version of Cook’n.

Elizabeth

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Thank you for your reply, Tony

Dear Tony,

I do recommend installing the Windows 7 service pack. Here is why.

All Windows service packs are just collections of updates that have been released over time. Since the updates have been available, they are already known to be stable. You want to make sure you have all the updates because many of them were released to make your computer more secure. If you missed an update or two along the way, you might be vulnerable to malware.

Before you do the update, be sure to create a restore point. That way, if your computer has any problems, you can restore it to the time just before the update.

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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Best Regards KAY

Dear Kay,

When Microsoft releases a service pack, it is a collection of updates in one file. A service pack makes it easier to get the updates all at once instead of one at a time.

In most cases, each service pack is an addition to the one before and does not include previous updates. For this reason, you need to have each service pack installed.

I have not tried it, but I suspect that if you installed service pack 3, and then un-installed service pack 2, you would have a very unstable computer.

Elizabeth

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HOW DO I RUN THIS?  THANK YOU, Dpaul

Dear Dpaul,

I can give you directions for running scandisk, but before I do, I want to warn you. On an older computer (or any computer for that matter) that is prompting you to run a disk scan, it is an indication that there are problems with your hard drive.

Since the hard drive is where all your information (documents, pictures, music, etc…) is stored, you need to make sure you have your information backed up! Even before you scan your hard drive, you should back up. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing all information on the drive.

Now, for directions on running the scan in Windows XP:

1. Double click on “My Computer” on the desktop.

2. Right click on your hard drive icon in the “My Computer” window.

3. Click “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. Click on “Tools”.

5. Under “Error Checking” click “Check Now” then click “Start”.

Your computer will probably need to restart and run the check before it goes back into windows. It will prompt you for this with a small dialog box. Just click “Yes” and then restart your computer.

I hope the scan finds and is able to fix any problems you are having with your disk.

Elizabeth

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