Bing Forbinger called asking where to find out how much RAM (random access memory) his computer has.
Click Start>Control Panel>System to see this information. Better yet, Belarc Advisor (free from Belarc.com) will give you lots more important information about your PC's guts.
Al Roller called to say when he double-clicked the icon of a PowerPoint presentation e-mailed to him it wouldn't play, even though he has PowerPoint on his computer.
This is a quirk peculiar to PowerPoint that's come up before. A work-around is to right-click the icon and choose Open With>PowerPoint.
Alternatively, launch PowerPoint, click File>Open, browse to the target PPS or PPT file, and double-click it.
A number of readers have asked how to move their Outlook Express or Windows Mail Address Books to a new computer. The easiest way is to send them to an e-mail address on the new PC. Open OE or WM on the old PC, click Create Mail and then click CC to display your contact list. Clicking on a contact and clicking CC will place it in the "carbon copy" field ---- or you can mouse-select all the contacts before clicking CC.
Next, click inside the CC field and do Ctrl+A to Select All, followed by Ctrl+X to Cut All. Now click into the message area and do Ctrl+V to paste in all the contacts. (Do NOT leave any addresses in the CC field.)
Finally, mail the message to yourself at the e-mail account on the new PC, from where the addresses can be copied and pasted into your new Address Book or Contact List. Or you can do what I do and paste them into a Word document, from where they can be copied as needed into an outgoing e-mail.
The above procedure works with all e-mail programs, although the steps for copying addresses into the CC field may vary.
I'm often asked which anti-virus program is best. Well, the only way to know for sure is to have one of them installed on a computer onto which you introduce one or more viruses. Repeat the process for each anti-virus program you want to test and see which does the best job. However, this is an elaborate, expensive process for which most of us have neither time nor the resources.
So which AV program do I prefer? Well, since Microsoft Security Essentials was recently introduced, it's the one I use. Because MSE was created by the same people who created Windows, it seems reasonable that they would supply a program to protect Windows PCs. And since the program is totally free, it's a no-brainer. Get MSE at Microsoft.com.
Furthermore, I haven't gotten a virus since installing MSE. But I likewise never got viruses with other AV programs. Does this mean Symantec, McAfee, and the others are all perfect programs? Not necessarily ---- my main defense against viruses has always been to avoid getting them in the first place ---- by being careful about what I click on. No AV program is guaranteed perfect.
Contact Don Edrington at (949) 891-1731 or DonEdrington@gmail.com.
