Best of Software Tips

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These are the best of the Software Tips articles from previous issues of Ray's Computer Tips. The articles below are the full articles.

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Word Processors

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        When I was in college, typing a paper was a tough, hand-wringing experience. Not only did you have to know exactly what you were going to say before you typed it, but you also had to line up the paper just right in the typewriter, avoid making any typing mistakes, correct any mistakes with white-out, decide where to end each line (this included knowing how to hypenate words), and calculate the right amount of space at the end of each page for footnotes. If you were not perfect, you pulled out the page, crumbled it into a ball, practiced your backhand shot, got out a clean sheet, and started all over. What fun! Those days are gone, thanks to word processing programs.
        A word processing program allows you to compose a document, develop what you want it to say, and see how it will look, before you print it. It even lets you add pictures, provide a variety of type fonts and styles, and check your spelling and grammar. The features of a word processor are so many that you will probably never learn all of them.
        Word processing programs were one of the first types of programs to exist and are one of the most numerous. Microsoft Word is the most widely used (used by over five million people). Word used to come free on new computers, but now new computers only have a crippled version of Word preinstalled on them. If you want it to work, you have to purchase it. Microsoft Word can be found on your computer by clicking on the Start button, going to All Programs, then to the Microsoft Office folder to Microsoft Office Word. WordPerfect is another commercial word processing program.
        If you want a free replacement for Word, just do a search for word processors on the internet and you will find many, but most do not stack up to Word. OpenOffice comes the closest. Get their whole assortment of Office replacement tools for free at http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
        Word processors are not the only type of program that works with text. Flanking word processors are text editors and desktop publishers. Text editors are simple programs that let you compose and edit text but does not determine how the text looks (font, size, style). Notepad in Windows is a text editor. To open Notepad click on the Start button, go to All Programs, then to the Accessories folder to Notepad. Some free text editors that improve on Notepad are NoteTab Light - http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php and EditPad Lite - http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html.
        Word processors started out being little more than souped up text editors. Wordpad which also comes with Windows (also in the above mentioned Accessories folder) falls halfway in between a text editor and word processor and is what word processors used to be like.
        On the other end of the spectrum are desktop publishers. Desktop publishers are used to make posters, calendars, cards, and just about any other print media. A desktop publisher allows you to put text and pictures anywhere on the page that you want to and to modify them greatly. A word processor, on the other hand, usually limits placement of text in horizontal rows as in a letter. But that is slowly changing since the advent of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). In the olden days, you typed in the text and specified how it should look, but you didn't see how it actually looked until you printed it out or displayed it in print mode. With WYSIWYG what you type and how it looks on the screen is how it will look on paper. When you change the format of the text, it actually changes on the screen to the way it will look. At one time this was only done by desktop publishers. Add to that, that some word processors now allow you to position the text wherever you want it (even though it does not always work well), and it seems that word processors are getting very close to desktop publishers. Some popular desktop publishers are PageMaker (the first program to use the term, desktop publisher), QuarkPress, Microsoft Publisher, Corel Draw, and the free Scribus.
        No matter how old your computer is, it is sure to have a word processor. If you haven't done so yet, find it and learn how to use it. If you want something better, look on the internet or buy something at your local software store. It will open a whole new world of communication to you. Then hopefully, you can finally throw that old typewriter away. You will never regret it.

Move Files the Correct Way

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        If you know how to move files on your hard drive, there is a fact that you need to know: moving files can break system links.
        This seems to be more of a problem today than it used to be because newer versions of Windows are obsessed with making links. It also seems that more programs today make links to themselves so that if you move them, their links break and you usually end up having to reinstall the entire program.
        Broken links can cause errors, disable programs, or do nothing but clutter up your hard drive.
        I have written a program, EZ File Transplanter, to help you with this problem. It moves files and changes the links so that the links are updated to the new location of the file.
        You can download a 30 day trial of EZ File Transplanter from our website at http://regvac.com/ezxplanz.exe or you can get more information from http://regvac.com/ezxplant.htm.

The Earth at your Fingertips

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        How would you like to go anywhere you want on earth? Now with Google Earth you can do exactly that without leaving your computer.
        See instructions at the end of this article for downloading Google Earth.
        Google Earth is a program which shows satellite images of the world and information to go with it on your computer. It starts out with a picture of the Earth. Drag it around until the location you want is in the middle of the screen. Right click and drag down or push up on the zoom switch (on the lower panel) to zoom in closer. As you move and zoom, the program will automatically get the images that you need from the internet (so if the image is blurry, wait and it may clear up when the image is loaded). In some locations you can see houses in others you can just see burry spots (half of my block is one blurry spot). These are not necessarily up-to-date images.
        The bottom panel gives you quick access. Click on any of the checkboxes on the lower panel to add in places of lodging, roads, terrain, dining locations, borders, and buildings. It also has navigation controls, like rotate left and move up, down, left, or right.
        An impressive tool, unless you are somewhere flat like Kansas, is the tilt control. This turns the picture on its side so that you no longer are looking at it from straight overhead but instead from an angle or from the ground. You can actually see the individual mountains and valleys of an area.
        As you delve further into its features, you find out that it is much more than a play toy. On the Fly To tab of the left panel, you can enter longitudinal and latitudinal settings and it will take you to that part of the world. Under this is a Places list where you can save your favorite places and later go to them with a click of the mouse and a Layers list which allows you to add items like, map features, popular places, and statistics to the image.
        On the Local Search tab you can enter a word that you want to search for in the area shown, like pizza, and it will show those items. Yes, I did enter pizza and found that it listed everywhere where pizza is sold in our small town, including the local convenience store.
        On the Directions tab you can enter where you want to start and where you want to end, and Google Earth will give you directions on how to get there.
        Google Earth is free. To get it, go to http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html and click on the Download Google Earth button. When you run out of places to visit in Google Earth, go to their website (at http://earth.google.com) and you can download lists of places to go.
        Have fun traveling the world!

XP Recovery CD Maker

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        Many people have requested me to write a recovery tool for BartPE. BartPE is a free program that makes a Boot CD with a skeleton installation of WinXP by using the WinXP files on your computer. One of the advantages of BartPE is that it can access an NTFS drive (which is the type of drive that most people with WinXP have) whereas most other operating systems, like MS-DOS, and boot disks cannot. It sure beats buying NTFSDOS for over $1000.
        The disadvantage of BartPE is that it does not have any recovery tools on it. Because of this I have developed several tools and put them together in a program called XP Recovery CD specifically designed to work in BartPE. The tools include a Crash Troubleshooter, a Windows Explorer type utility, WinRescue's Crash Fixer for restoring WinRescue backups, a tool to find and recover registry backups in WinXP Restore Points, and an Extractor for unzipping zip files and WinRescue backups.
        This is a great companion to have with WinRescue XP.
        XP Recovery CD Maker will help you download and use BartPE to make an XP Recovery CD. Because BartPE uses files in your Windows directory and not all installations of WinXP have those files, I suggest that you use the free trial version of XP Recovery CD Maker to make up a CD first, just to make sure that you will not have problems doing so. The trial version disables the Crash Fixer, Restore Points Restorer, and Extractor. Everything else works without limits. You can purchase the full version and a key which will unlock the trial version for $29.95.
        The XP Recovery CD is great to have around when WinXP or Win2000 won't start. Just pop the CD in the CD drive and start the computer. The tools on the CD will help you get things back up and running.
        Find out more about XP Recovery CD Maker at http://www.xp-recovery-cd.com.

Instant Messaging

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        My wife introduced me to instant messaging when I was on one of my trips to Russia because she didn't want to put up with the slowness of sending emails back and forth. With Instant Messaging we could see when each other was on the internet and could communicate back and forth in real time. It was like talking on the telephone except that instead of talking we typed and instead of using telephones we used our computers connected to the internet. As talking on a telephone happens in real time, so Instant Messaging happens in real time. As soon as the person you are messaging with types a message and sends it, you see it and can respond to it by sending a message back which that person sees at that time. This is called instant messaging (IM).
        IM allows you to maintain a list of people with which you wish to interact. This list is often called a buddy list or contact list. You can send messages to any of the people in your list as long as that person is online (or most messengers allow you to leave a message for them if they are not online). Sending a message opens up a small window where you and your friend can type in messages that both of you can see.
        The big advantage of IM is that communicating (whether locally or across the world) is free. The disadvantage is that typing takes longer than talking and is devoid of expression.
        Instant messaging became popular in 1996 when Mirablis, a company founded by four Israeli programmers, introduced ICQ, a free instant messaging utility that anyone could use. Soon AOL entered IM with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). Later, Microsoft and Yahoo also produced their own Messengers. Most of these are free and can communicate with members from other messengers. Of the ones I have tried, I prefer Yahoo Messenger.
        You can use the links below to download and learn more about the more popular messengers.

• ICQ (http://www.icq.com)
• AIM (http://www.aim.com)
• MSN Messenger (http://messenger.msn.com)
• Yahoo! Messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com)

        With instant messaging software being free and frequently updated with new features, the future of instant messaging is very bright. If you have not tried instant messaging, you are missing out on a whole new world of communcation.

How to Clean your PC

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        I am sure that everyone gets the Windex out and cleans their keyboard, monitor, and computer at least once a month, but do you clean the inside? I am not talking about the parts that are inside your computer. I am talking about the data on your hard drive. You would be amazed at the amount of trash that hides there.
        Windows is the biggest litter bug. Each new edition of Windows gets more careless. It is not unusual for Windows to pile several gigabytes of trash throughout your hard drive and leave it there. Other programs also make it a habit to use your hard drive as an open dumping ground. This trash can quickly comsume your free space and slow your computer down. If it gets bad enough, it can cause problems, errors, and even crashes.
        In order to hunt down the trash on my computer and eliminate it, I wrote a program called A1Click Ultra PC Cleaner. The main part of A1Click, Clean PC, uses 45 processes to safely find and remove clutter. The first time that most people use Clean PC, it finds over a gigabyte of trash.
        Since I released A1Click two years ago, it has received many top awards and high reveiws from satisfied users. Just today we received another 5 star award.
        And it keeps getting better. I frequently update A1Click so that it works more powerfully and safely. Those updates are free.
        Don't you hate it when you buy software and a year later it stops working until you purchase the update? What you thought to be a bargain ends up costing you a fortune. Not only is A1Click reasonably priced, all future updates are free. That means that it will outlast your computer. Now that's a bargain!
        I recommend that novice users only use the Clean PC part. It is extensive and safe. I use it everyday.
        But I added sections for experienced users, such as, Cleaner Settings, Remove Tracks, Duplicate File Finder, Font Remover, Recent List Cleaner, Uninstaller, Registry Cleaner (this only does a fraction of the cleaning that our program RegVac does), Favorite List Cleaner, and the PreFetch Cleaner. Please be aware that some of these sections may not have the expected results, so know what the section does before you use it.
        You can find out how much junk is on your computer today for free. Just download a demo of A1Click Ultra PC Cleaner from http://regvac.com/a1cleanz.exe. For more information and/or to purchase A1Click go to http://regvac.com/a1clean.htm.
        Have a clean PC today and everyday with A1Click Ultra PC Cleaner.

Web Browsers

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        A web browser is a utility that displays web pages and web sites on your screen. In other words, when you are looking at websites, that program that shows them is a web browser. The most popular web browser is Internet Explorer which comes with Windows.
        For those who, for whatever reason, want a different browser than Internet Explorer, there are at least three other good browsers that are free. They are:

• Netscape Browser - www.netscape.com
• Mozilla's Firefox - www.mozilla.com
• Opera - www.opera.com

        When installing these browsers, it is likely that they will put themselves in the default browser position of Windows which is fine unless you later decide that you don't like the new browser and uninstall it. Then you will have nothing in the default browser position and may have a hard time surfing the internet. If you have this problem, find Internet Explorer and run it. By default, when it is run, it checks to see if it is in the default browser position. This feature can be turned off, but I recommend that you don't and hopefully you didn't. If you didn't, Internet Explorer will tell you that it is not the default browser and will offer to reset itself into that position. Answer yes and everything will be fixed.
        Happy surfing!

Clean and Repair the Registry

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        When Windows 95 was being developed someone decided that it would be a good thing to have all settings for all programs in one place on your computer. So Microsoft programmers designed such a place and called it the Registry. To encourage involvement Microsoft required any software seeking Windows endorsement to keep their settings in the Registry. It finally caught on and today virtually all software keep their settings in the Registry.
        Although there are advantages to having a Registry, there are also some big disadvantages. I created RegVac Registry Cleaner to correct the following disadvantages.
        One disadvantage is that if you remove a program from your computer incorrectly, its entries will remain in the Registry forever. But with RegVac you can find whole sections of programless entries in the Registry and sweep them away using the Software Vac.
        Even when you remove software correctly, most uninstall programs leave entries behind. RegVac finds and removes these left behind entries.
        Another disadvantage is that some programs do not respect your space and stash all kinds of unimportant and unused data in the Registry. Microsoft programs, including Windows, are the worst at doing this. RegVac has a Stash Vac which lists hundreds of known and hidden storage locations. You can go through the Stash Vac list and remove the stashes that you do not want.
        A fourth disadvantage of the Registry is that some programs do not use the Registry correctly. They put entries in the Registry which can weaken Windows and even crash it. While no program can prevent a program from trashing your system, running RegVac regularly will clean up many of these mistakes.
        When you regularly clean up your bloated and cluttered Registry, your computer will run smoothly and error-free.
        If you are not an expert, RegVac has a novice mode which allows even beginners to keep the Registry sparkling clean. If, on the other hand, you know your way around the Registry, RegVac has some powerful tools to get you into nooks and crannies that no other registry cleaner can. Please be careful in the Expert mode because a wrong move can cause serious problems.
        RegVac cleans so well that it sometimes even repairs the Registry. Many people including myself have experienced this. In fact, a programmer for an international software retailer was so impressed with how RegVac repaired his Registry, that he talked his boss into hiring me to write a Registry cleaner for them to distribute in retail stores.

        Please note that while RegVac repairs the Registry in many situations, it may not be able to repair all registry problems. To guarentee that you can recover from registry problems, you should make a daily backup of the registry with WinRescue and restore it when you have problems.

        You can downloaded a free 30 day trial of RegVac at http://regvac.com/regvacz.exe. For more information about RegVac Registry Cleaner go to http://regvac.com/regvac.htm. If you like RegVac, you can purchase it for only $29.95. All future updates are free.
        Keep the Windows Registry clean and running smoothly with RegVac Registry Cleaner.

Backup, Backup, Backup

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        If the only thing you use your computer for is playing solitare, you don't need the information in this article. But if you use your computer for anything else, like sending and receiving emails, viewing pictures, or writing, then it is very important that you make regular backups. This article tells about the two basic types of backups and where to keep them.
        Image Backup - the first type of backup is an image backup (also called a ghost, mirror, or clone). It copies the entire drive as one image. Every bit on the drive is put in the backup. When the backup is restored every bit is put back where it originally was. While many people like this type of backup because restore quickly puts everything back on the drive exactly as it was, it does have its disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the backups are huge and so you need much more storage space to store fewer backups. Because they are huge, the backup process takes a long time and people tend to make fewer of them.
        A hidden disadvantage is that restoring an image gives you back all of the trash and hidden bits that were on the drive to begin with. Some people would rather start with a clean slate and reinstall everything after a crash giving them a nice, clean drive.
        There are many commercial programs that back up an image of the drive. The only freeware programs that I know of are CloneHD (the free version has limitations) and DriveImage XML. I have not used either one, so I cannot recommend or criticize them.
        File Backup - this other type of backup only backs up files. It does not back up anything that is not a file or directory. Any trash laying around in the empty spaces is not backed up.
        Most files on your computer are not at risk of being lost or can be replaced by reinstalling Windows and your other programs. It is only the files unique to you that are really valuable (your email messages, your pictures, your writings, and etc.). A file backup can limit the data that it backs up to these files and thus keep the backups small and quick.
        Our program, WinRescue, makes file backups. If you use it in its default settings, it will back up the registry and other important Windows files. In the Other Files section of Backup Properties you can tell it what other files you want it to back up. This is where you should specify your unique files. You could back up entire drives but we do not recommend it (if you want to do that, use an image backup program).
        I recommend that you use a combination of the two methods mentioned above. Keep a monthly or weekly image backup and then keep a weekly or daily backup with WinRescue.
        Where to Keep Backups - many people prefer to put backups on CDs and DVDs. The problem with this is that drives are getting so big that it takes many discs to hold a backup. Not only is it inconvenient to insert 10 or 20 discs during the backup process, but the more discs there are in a backup the greater the possibility will be that one of them will get scratched or corrupted in someway thus ruining the whole backup. For these reasons the device holding your backups should be big enough to hold at least one or two complete backups.
        Both internal and external hard drives are good for backup storage. If backing up to an internal hard drive, make sure that you are not backing up data onto the same drive that it comes from. So data on C should not be backed up to C. That way if the drive fails, you will always have a backup on another drive. It is highly unlikely that more than one hard drive will fail at the same time. About the only scenerio where that would happen is in a fire.
        External hard drives are safer than internal drives especially if you remove the drive and store it in a safe place separate from the computer. To a certain extent the farther away you keep the backups from your computer the safer they are. For this reason, some companies offer a service which backs up your computer over the internet and keeps it in their vaults. The value of your data will determine to what extents you will go to protect it.
        You may not have a million dollars worth of data on your computer but it is still valuable. Don't be one of those people who fail to realize how valuable it is until it is gone. Back it up and you will never have to worry about it.


Questions on our Discussion Board

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• Unknown Re-Boot
  
• understanding pc maintenance
  
• helpdir
  
• duplicate file finder
  
• WinRescue Vista Out of Memory
  
• I can't connect to the internet.
  
• Stupid local disc
  
• YouTube Software
  
• Program migration
  
• Failins IE links
  
• conficker worm removal
  
• Help, no way to boot up
  
• lost outlook express
  
• Previous 'Computer System Scan Article
  
• scrap
  
• USB 2.0 prob
  
• replacing hard drive
  
• A1Click
  
• setting up a DVD drive and HD on SATA
  
• how delete an .rtf or .eula folder
  
• windows cannot find file
  
• RAM
  
• .BAS extension
  
• Spilled juice on keyboard
  
• XP PRO WON'T POWER OFF AFTER SHUTDOWN
  
• SONIC RECORD NOW 7
  
• admin password for XP Pro
  
• install older version of windows
  
• Is it a virus
  
• XP Pro unable to log in after RegVac
  
• maintenance in safe mode ?
  
• xp install with raid
  
• mouse problem
  
• Security Center-Service
  
• Missing Volume and Safe to Remove icon
  
• Computer reboots during regvac scan
  

Thanks for reading,
Ray Geide