Windows Tips

Infopackets Reader Darren F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I was watching Tech TV recently, and there was reference made to a program that is capable of making a 'preinstalled environment' bootable Windows XP CD-ROM. I decided to do some research on the ... topic, and kept coming across discussion boards where people constantly made reference to something called 'Windows Embedded'. I don't quite understand what this is and was wondering if you could explain it the term? " My response: From what I understand, the Windows Embedded technology automates the installation of Windows. Basically, this ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John B. writes: " Dear Dennis, In Windows XP, right-clicking on a photograph used to give me the option to send the image via email, or allow me to retain its original size using an image resizer button. For some reason, this ... dialogue box no longer appears when I place my mouse over top of images. I have not downloaded any other photograph programs so it is a mystery why this function no longer works. I have searched for a solution on Google without success, and would be very grateful for your expert advice in resolving this issue. " My response: What you are ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Beverley P. writes: " Dear Dennis, When I right click a folder, there are a number of options under the Send To heading. I would like to add some other applications into the Send To area, but am not sure how to do this? PS: I love ... your news letter! " My response: If you own Windows ME, 2000, or XP, the absolute easiest way to access the SendTo folder for the current user logged in is to: Click Start -> Run. Type in "sendto" (no quotes) and press Enter. An Explorer window will appear; simply drag and drop shortcut icons over and they will appear in the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ric J. writes: " Hi Dennis, I recently tried to install a new PCI modem card in my system. The modem is Plug and Play (PNP) and should automatically configure itself once the drivers are installed. Unfortunately, the modem won't ... properly install on my machine. I went into Device Manager and found that the modem assigned itself to COM1, which was already in use. So my question is: how do I change the COM port so that the modem won't conflict with COM1? " Side note: PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect, or 'personal computer bus'. A COM port is short ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Brandon 'SpongeBoob' writes: " Dear Dennis, Much thanks for your article on changing paths to the My Documents / Pictures folder -- however, this time I have a new question! Do you have any idea on how to change a login user name ... for Windows XP? For example: I want to modify my user account name in the Documents and Settings folder, as well as the Start menu and logon / log off screen names. Any ideas? " My response: You can change your login screen name, as well as password, picture, account type, and .NET passport options though the Control Panel. To do this: ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Brandon 'SpongeBoob' writes: " Dear Dennis, I have 2 hard drive partitions: the C drive, and the D drive. I always keep my data stuff like music, photos, and other downloaded files onto the D drive. I recently decided to format ... and reinstall Windows on my computer. When I click on start menu, is there a way to link the My Music and My Pictures folders to d:\my music and d:\my pictures (respectively)? I don't seem to be given the choice on whether I can change the targets. Any ideas? " My response: The folders you are referring to are called Shell Folders. ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Russell F. writes: " Hi Dennis! I have two questions that I'm hoping you can help me with. First: I do not have Internet Explorer set as my default web browser, yet any link I click outside of Internet Explorer always launch in ... IE. How can I get the default changed to Mozilla Firefox? And, secondly: about two weeks ago all the links in Internet Explorer quit working. I looked everywhere, but could not find an answer. Can you help? " Side note: Mozilla Firefox is a new streamlined web browser which features tabbed browsing, a built in PopUp blocker, and a google ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Serge R. writes: " Hi Dennis! A few questions: How can I stop program entries from being created in my Start menu? ... Also, I'm not very computer savvy and do not understand all the abbreviations that are used all the time -- do ... you know of a web site that explains frequently used abbreviations? " My Response: Some program installations will ask if you want to place their icons in your start menu, while some installers simply do not. What you often end up with is a mess of entries in your Start menu. But fear not, the contents of the Start menu can be edited. For ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jon M. writes: "Hi Dennis! I recently uninstalled a program called 'RoboPDF' (not related to RoboForm ). Now, I receive an error message that "C:\ Program files \ Microsoft Office \ Office \ Startup \ roboPDF.xlt could not be ... found' every time I launch Excel. I was wondering how to get rid of this from appearing? " My response: I researched some topics in the MS Excel Help File, and found info relating to how Excel starts. Basically, the XLStart folder typically contains a bunch of mini-programs (called macro files) which execute every time Excel starts. A ... (view more)