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THE ICON APRIL 2005 EDITION
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WINDOWS SIG - APRIL, 2O05
by Mary Phillips
E-mail
Mary
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Q.
I have received an email warning me not to open a PowerPoint presentation called Life is beautiful. pps, but to delete it immediately because it would cause me to lose everything on my computer. I was also asked to notify all my friends. What should I do?
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A.
First, relax, t’ain’t so. When you get a message—usually a forwarded one—that tells you to delete a file should you receive it or have it on your computer, get the facts before doing anything. Type the name of the file in question in the address bar of your web browser (Internet Explorer, Yahoo, Firefox or whatever) and press the Enter key on your keyboard or click Go at the right end of the address bar and wait for the search results. Whether it’s a hoax--urban legend, or a real threat you’ll get results. Click on the Symantec, McAfee, or other security sites and see what they have to say about the suspect file.
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Q. How do I get a clear and readable view of original census records?
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A. What works for me on Ancestry.com is to click on the Save button and wait for the enlarged view to come up—you can then use the scroll bars on the side and bottom of the screen to move quickly all over the page. To get a good print copy, right click on the picture and select Save picture as:, give it a place and name on your computer or email it to yourself and save it as a .gif image. It should open with Windows Picture and Fax viewer where you can print also by clicking on the printer icon at the bottom of the window. Printed this way, it comes out as a full-page landscape document and is very readable.
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Q.
I tried to download a screen saver from the web and then changed my mind but my computer is messed up now. What can I do?
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| A. Probably the easiest correction you can make is to use the System Restore feature listed in Windows’ System Tools to put your computer back the way it was on an earlier date. Follow the path Start à All Programs à Accessories à System Tools à System Restore. Click on the radio button beside Restore my computer to an earlier time. Look at the calendar on the left, find a date in bold characters that is prior to the date you tried to install the screen saver, click on that date and windows will try to reset the computer to the settings of that date. This resetting does not remove any data files you have created in the meantime.
If this doesn’t fix the problem, go to www.iconusersgroup.org, register if you haven’t already done so, sign in, click on Forums on the left side of the page, Post a new topic and ask for suggestions from the group. ICON’s best techs check the forum regularly to offer help.
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