gee whiz...
 

Although I don't have "many" icons on my desk top...

When I decide to clean them up, I just right click on them and delete them.:confused:

Is this wrong? We just deleted 3 Earthlink ones for example, since we don't use Earthlink any more. I just have about two rows at the bottom of my wallpaper -- since I have a landscape on it---they are down there "on the ground" LOL
The picture I have is this: so I don't want icons in the sky etc ;)

If you click on the picture it will show larger... DocJohn has changed the graphics display here recently.

The problem with just deleting those old, unused icons is that when you next boot up, Windows may not know what has happened to them and will create an error message asking to find them. There is no real harm in this, however.

But much better than deleting an icon is to uninstall the entire program. This will not only delete the icon, but also create more free space on your hard drive, eliminate any processes which may have happened to run in the background, and generally erase from the Windows Registry any remnants of the program (some uninstall procedures are better than others in doing this, some still leave traces in the Registry).

You can do this very easily. You go to Control Panel and then to "Add or Remove Programs." Then a list of your installed programs will appear, find the one you want to delete, and have at it.

Even if you have already just deleted the icon for a program, it should still show up in the Add and Remove Programs - so you can go there and safely delete it.

Of course you should only use this procedure for programs that you are absolutely sure you will never, ever use again. If there is even a remote possibility that you will use it in the future, then don't use this procedure. Instead, you can just move the program icon to another folder to get it off the desktop - I think Brian posted about how to do that.

Also keep in mind that there will no bandwidth gain, no matter how many desktop icons you either move or delete. This is not the thing to do to increase internet speed, but it can make for a more organized and/or cleaner desktop. Actually removing the entire program could affect bandwidth, but if it is just one or two programs, not by very much unless it was a misbehaving program. So, even deleting programs is not recommended to increase internet speed.

There is a lot to say for doing some routine computer housekeeping. Brian mentioned about defragging. I have schedules that automatically defrag my hard drives on a regular basis. Also, the Desktop Cleanup can be useful, especially if you have let it become "overgrown." But also beware of overdoing things - for example, there are a lot of scam software programs out there that promise to do a lot of these housekeeping activities, and if you are not careful, they will definitely prune too much.

rfinney

No Mrs D, don't just delete any icons, i definatly agree with that, you have to remove them from control panel, by useing the add remove program.

Well i just phoned up a mate [pc pro] to get the right answers to our little discusion,
He said " cleaning down your desktop thats full of useless icons you will only find a minimal increase in performance in the PC's that are around these days, he said going back to the old win 95 days & 486 machines, it was pretty significent then, when the old 486 machines were battling to run Win 95.

Of course, i then asked about closing down some programs to improve bandwidth, he said no, its got nothing to do with bandwidth at all, closing down programs will increase boot up times only.

So cleaning up all your desktop icons, won't make much of a differance performance wise its only minimal ,other than keeping you desktop nice and tidy and more easier to work with thats all

So thats the finish from this end, i found it an interesting discussion, so
thanks Refinnery.
all the best
Brian :)

MrsD,

Forgot to mention that if you do boot up and get an error message asking to find a deleted link, there will be an option to either delete the link or just cancel out of the operation - forget which message you first get. But in any case, if you are given the option to delete, it is perfectly safe to do so.

rfinney

Brian,

Thanks for following through with a savvy friend. While it is certainly ok for us to disagree, this just wasn't really about opinions. Even with computers, there are plenty of legitimate differences, but there are certain basics about bandwidth where is not too much wiggle room.

We have known each other for quite awhile, and I have always been impressed with how you are willing to check get things out. You do not get so invested in your own opinions and beliefs that you get unwilling to look at them - and makes changes if necessary. And I am not just referring to computers!

Someone else just might come along any second and correct a few of my statements, beliefs, etc, etc. I was just reading a post of mine on this thread and realized that it wasn't quite accurate. Anyway, I can only hope that I will always have the kind of openness (without being wishy-washy, which you certainly are not) to look at things again, if necessary.

rfinney

Want to know why I like these boards??
 

You guys are not only Neuropathy experts. Now you are computer experts!!!!

Can't ask for more than that.

Oh, by the way, NOT THAT THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH COMPUTERS. But I went to Cornell yesterday for my two month checkup. I'm in the ACCORD program, Action to Control heart Disease in Diabetic woman.

Well, since September 20 of this year, it seems I've lost over 11 lbs. You should have seen the expressions on the nurse practicitioners and the main doc, my lovely Dr. Ganz (the endocrinologist who is in charge of the whole magilla).

I get on the scale backwards. I still do not know what I weigh and I don't want to be told until I hit my goal of 150.

As I get on the scale backwards, she says to me "Melody, you are getting narrower". I looked at her and burst out laughing and said "in all my 59years on this planet, believe me, NO ONE HAS EVER SAID "MELODY YOU ARE GETTING NARROWER".

So there you have MY update. I'm still alive and kicking and Rocky just put his arm in my face and said 'FEEL THIS".

sigh!!!!!!

mel

Your new narrowness
 

Hi Melody:

Have Alan put his arm around your waist and tell him to "Feel this" meaning the narrower size! So there, Alan!

Shirley H.

DO NOT REMOVE PROGRAMS SIMPLY IN ORDER TO REMOVE AN ICON FROM THE DESKTOP!!!!! :eek:

THIS IS BAD ADVICE!

Fair enough if you don't use the programs but if it's only to tidy up the desktop of icons, all you need to do is create a folder on the desktop:
Right-click > New > Folder

then DRAG your unwanted icons and drop them in the folder. Voila! Tidy desktop and if you want to use the program, it's still there! Just open the folder and click on the icon to launch the application or launch it from the Start Menu.

:)

Thanks mate for your kind words, and one back to you :) over the time [ geez it is a long time too] anyway i have always found your posts to be very interesting & very informative, and i am 100% positive that knowbody else here would disagree with me on that.
all the best
Brian :)

Mel,

Congrats. It seems like a bit of a waste to have this "update" buried in a post on computers. I sure hope you plan on posting this elsewhere - and hopefully with some info about the program.

rfinney

rfinney:

Are you talking about the Cornell Program?
mel

Mel,

Yep. I think you have posted about it, but I didn't see a thread with that subject in the first few pages of the board.

rfinney

I really didn't think anyone would want me to post about my experiences at Cornell on a separate thread. Because this is the neuropathy board (and yeah, I do have the beginning of neuropathy), I really didn't think it would be appropriate for me to do a separate thread or update about me at cornell.

If you think I should, please say yes and I'll be happy to do an update.

be well.
Melody

P.S. oh by the way, I was organizing my favorite places (I have Verizon DSL and internet explorer. And my favorite places used to pop up on the left side of my screen whenever I logged on. they are not there any more. I have to go up to the top of my toolbar and click on favorites.

ANYBODY KNOW HOW I CAN GET MY FAVORITES BACK ON THE LEFT SIDE OF MY SCREEN WHEN I GO ONLINE? THANKS. mel

If you use Internet Explorer, you click on the yellow star that says "favorites" - the yellow star is in the same row of icons that the "back" button the "refresh" button and "home" button are.

Clicking on the yellow "favorites" star will open your favorites folder on the left hand side of your internet explorer window.

Hope that helps,
Liz

Oh my god, I feel like such a stupid jerk.

This is not the first time I lost my favorites on the screen. You would think I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED THE YELLOW STAR THING!!!! BUT NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Just did it. It worked.

Thank you, thank you.

Melody

Melody,

No reason to feel stupid.

My husband is an IT tech, he is a computer nerd - and because we have been together for so long I have absorbed a lot of the information. Plus, everytime he fixes a computer for someone in his family or my family, he can't explain the problem in English, he speaks in "computer nerd" language, so I end up being the one to explain the problem in English.

Anyway, I know all this computer stuff, I have been around it, seen it, done it, helped him with countless things...

And when I saw your question about the favorites being on the left side I forgot how to do it. I called him at work to ask him - and he couldn't remember either!!

Then after a few minutes he remembered it and reminded me about the yellow star thing - and I felt like hitting myself in the forehead and saying "duh" because it was staring me in the face the whole time -- and we both laughed because we both couldn't find it or remember it :)

So, no one is allowed to feel stupid or forgetful today because even the IT tech couldn't remember the yellow star thing and had to think about it for a few minutes :D

Liz.

I wish I could take you and gift wrap you and put YOU in my favorite place. Do you realize how valuable you are? A computer person WHO CAN SPEAK REAL ENGLISH.

Thanks much.

Melody

just checking . . .
 

Mel,

Were you able to access all of your email on Verizon?

rfinney

yes indeedy!!!! I found that whatever outlook express did not come up with (there is no spam folder in my outlook express thing), I simply went to Verizon online, typed in my password AND THERE WAS MY MISSING E-MAIL FROM THE BANK!!!

Gotta love technology.

thanks much.
Mel

Mel,

Glad to hear you found your email. I periodically check my provider's online site to see what email they have decided is spam and thus has not been marked for retrieval by my email client (the software program on my computer that handles email - OE is your client).

BTW, you should be able to move any such Verizon email from the spam folder (or whatever name Verizon uses) to your Verizon inbox. Then, OE will download it from Verizon and it will be available in OE for all normal email functions.

rfinney

Why doesn't Outlook Express give me ALL my e-mails. Why do they classify e-mail from a bank AS SPAM?

And since I have no spam folder in Outlook Express, I can't even check to see that they put it in a spam folder. My hotmail account has spam folders And verizon has spam folders. But NOT my OE.

Is there a way to make Outlook Express give me ALL my e-mails?
And is there a way to make a spam folder so I DON'T MISS ANY MORE E-MAILS IN OE?

Thanks,
Melody

Hi Melody, i would just phone Verison and tell them whats been happening to your valid emails, i suspect that your firewall is Verison as well, so being on the phone and sitting in front of your PC so they can guide you through, it may be just a simple as a setting change.

You want me to call up Verizon HAHAHAHAHAH.
Do you know what happens requently when you call up Verizon about anything to do with Outlook express or your emails from Verizon?? I did this a long time ago. First, you rarely get anyboy who speaks english. I ususally get an Indian who is sitting in front of a computer in India who is reading from a script. Then when she hears your question she goes: hm, this might be a tier 2 question, hm, you have to ask the Tier 2 people!!!

I finally figured out how to get some answers about anything to do with Verizon. I go on computer chat boards and they helped me.

Oh, and you'll find this very interesting. Want to know how I got my dsl line up and running? I signed up for the special over one year ago. It was $14.99a month for dsl service. Practically everybody in booklyn signed up. Well, I would get service ready date and then I would get a call and it would be pushed back to different date. This kept up until November. I signed up in September of 05. My friend who lives two blocks away signed up in August.
She kept getting the same run around also. I would call up Verizon and forget it. They would tell me. "oh we have too many people signed up and we don't have enough bandwish to accomodate all of you. It seems that there are things called central offices (which are boxes on top of poles located all around us) and they have so many lines that can be switched on to give a new customer dsl services. Well when I heard that I yelled at the guy "then why did you accept my account" and he said "well, someone always cancels or their accounts are expired and when a line is available, we give it to the person next in line and there are TOO MANY PEOPLE WAITING FOR DSL SERVICE IN BROOKLYN!!

So what did Melody do?? I went on a broadband message board and told my story. Some guy (could have been a verizon tech guy who was helping people), he wrote to me privately and said "give me your phone number and I'll have you switched, I'll speak to the guy who does the central office). Now I had no idea who this guy was and who he spoke to but the next day, my green ready line came on and I had service.

My friend who lives two blocks away, well they called her and cancelled her. They told her it would be two months before she got service. She said "forget it and so she was cancelled.

Of course I told her what happened and how I got it and she wasn't mad but I did feel bad because I know that if I had not gone on those broadband message board and met up with that tech guy who "knew somebody", I would never have gotten my dsl service.

It's amazing that it's "who you know" in the world who gets the job done.

mel

Yep, i know excactly were you are comming from, i had an argument with one of my ISP workers [indian too] i am sure there is plenty of good english speaking Indians around but this guy was unbeleivable, i repeated the same question 6 times and he had the cheek to get angry with me, getting louder and louder, because his answer sounded like he had a mouth full of apples and i couldn't understand a word he was saying, i finished up asking and getting to speak to an English speaking person which spoke as good as me or you., and i told the other one to go to the nearest......, and learn some English.[ he understood a couple of my insults though :D :D :D ] it seems this type of thing is getting very popular with a lot of companies world wide, probably to get cheap labor.
Most ISP 's have an option to disable the spam filter, somehow [ through the message board might be the go] you will have to check the account settings online just to see if you can disable it there.
There should be a setting to allow you to specify " safe senders ' and that should fix your problem, but not being able to contact anyone that can speak English, is making it very hard for you.
I would ask the message board then, how to specify " safe senders ".
good luck,
Brian :)

regarding outsourcing..
 

My physical therapist and I discussed this when I was having my
treatments last fall/winter. The outsourcing was newer then. (there was alot of time to talk, during ultrasound treatments)

She was newly from India...and said that, many of the people hired
by companies (her husband worked for IBM) in India were very young...
and have not even completed their schooling. She said sadly many were lured by
$$ to work --a good pay scale--- and hence did not complete school. This worries the indigenous Indians, since the youngsters do not complete school and therefore, when and if this job ends, have little future.:(

So if you encounter this situation, keep in mind they may be very young and immature, and unable to respond to difficult situations just because of AGE and experience. (not to mention cultural differences)

My son is 25 now, and works a help desk for his company and says it is really really difficult, if you are not patient. Just in the last 2 years he has learned, reams in how to handle frustrating problems/questions.

Not only is it bad for the young Indians, it takes the jobs off our own people that are looking for work, its all about the almighty dollar with some companies, they get the job done for a lot less expense in India, than if they were to hire their own.

I don't know what its like in the US, but over here we are flooded with phone calls [indian call centre's] working on behalf of Australian companies trying to sell whatever and i seen it on TV were these Indian people are actually taught to speak Australian slang words, so it sounds like they are in Australia and also taught not to take no for an answer when their trying to sell something, it can really get annoying at times.

That particular incident i had with my ISP, the fellow sounded very mature in age, he was very rood, he couldn't speak English properly, eg - how am i suppose to know what he called a " mundun " was really reffering to a modem, and when i said excuse me, what was that you just said ? he replied in a much louder voice every time as if i had a hearing problem, MUNDUN, MUNDUN and as if it was me that couldn't speak English properly,:rolleyes:

Unfortunatly this is becomming more and more popular with companies looking for scab labor.

I got a phone call recently - someone in India trying to sell me the DirectTV satellite system.

Now, usually when any satelliteTV providers call to sell me something all I have to say is 'I live in an apartment" and they understand that you can't have a satellite at an apartment and they say "sorry about that, have a good day".

Well when I got this sales call from India the person on the phone did not understand what an apartment was. I was trying to be nice and explain that I lived in a building and I was not allowed to put anything outside, but the young man kept trying with his sales pitch of how small the dish is and that it's Ok because it is small and it will fit anywhere.

He didn't know what an apartment was. I tried using the word condominium since technically I live in a condo not an apartment, but he didn't know that word either and was still trying to tell me that it was small so it will fit outside and I didn't need a lot of room.

I tried my best to explain, but I finally gave up and said "no thank you I do not want a sattelite TV system".

I feel bad, because when you are trying to sell a DirectTv system, you need to know what an apartment is and you need to know that apartment means satellite systems are not allowed... unfortunately this type of misunderstanding must happen often because my grandma lives in an assisted living apartment and her neighbors have accepted the phone sales and bought the DirectTv and then gotten upset when the installer comes and can't install it.

It must be frustrating to the residents of the apartment who think they are getting a better TV, and to the installers who show up but can't install it.... and to the apartment managers who have to explain to my gram's neighbors why they couldn't get the better TV system thing they tried to buy over the phone.

Mel,

Regarding your emails, I think it is not likely that you will be able to do too much other than what I have already said. My broadband provider is Comcast, and it is not possible to mess with their spam settings.

Verizon and Comcast are two of the largest providers. They use preset filters to screen out spam and Comcast, probably Verizon too, does not allow any individual customization of those filters. They handle just a huge amount of email, which means they are very, very vulnerable to their servers becoming overloaded with spam, thus threatening delivery of legitimate email to customers.

I am not defending these companies but just pointing out that they all have become aggressive in trying to turn back spam. And there are lots of factors causing us customers this kind of problem. I think I just heard that spam finally cracked the 50% barrier - that is, the majority of emails sent over the internet are now spam.

Comcast does have a way to check each non-spam to show that it is not spam. However, that does not mean that the next email from that sender will be marked correctly. Verizon may have some such system and it might help, the key word being MIGHT.

As for getting all of your email into OE, the only thing you can do is what I previously recommended. This is not a limitation of OE - I use a different email client, and I have the same problem. Email clients can only retrieve those emails that are in the provider's (Comcast, Verizon, etc.) inbox. If Verizon does not place them there, then they just can't be downloaded by any mail client until they are put there.

So, the answer, at least for now, is to periodically go to the Verizon site and check the spam folder. If you find any legitimate email, then move it into the inbox. Then have OE check for email and it will be downloaded into your computer.

rfinney

Just out of of curiosty I went to Verizon site and found these instructions to recieve emails, apparently they are held there at their site for 30 days, then deleted.
To move your emails to Outlook express. [ i don't know why, but i had to try 3 times before the right page comes up ]
http://netservices.verizon.net/porta...tem&case=26126
Verizon Online - Help & Support - How do I save emails to my computer?

It reads that once you have set Outlook Express as per above instructions, then all you have to do is press "send/recieve" button and your emails should come through. :confused: :confused: :confused: looks easy, but not always is unfortunatly, but its worth looking at your OE settings at least, of course thats if you haven't already.
good luck
Brian

Ah my two gentlemen, Rfinney and Brian.

you have helped me tremendously. No coal in your stockings on December 25th.

I shall go over and look at my verizon mail box.

Thanks much.

melody-bells (jingle jingle)

Mel,

Hopefully, it will all work out. It is too bad that these big companies make it so difficult to get all of your email.

The procedure outlined in the Help section Brian posted about is probably what you are already doing to get your email using OE - but it would be good to double check. Once you check out the folder structure on the Verizon site, it should be clear. Just remember that the Help procedure will only transfer email that is already in your Verizon inbox. All you will need to do is to make sure that there is a way to transfer email that has been wrongly marked as spam into that inbox, then OE will get it all.

Good luck!

rfinney

Thanks my dear.

melody

Mel, If there is one thing i have learn't in the very short time i have been using Pc's, is that you never take anything for granted, i don't know how many times i have lost my email settings, and still don't know why it happens, i do all the right things but i have had to reset them on many occasions to get any mail through.

Perhaps its just XP, i don't really know, i run two OS's, win 2000 pro and XP Home edition, windows 2000 is rock solid compared to XP, so i backup everything thats important to win 2000, and disc's of course but have never had any problems with the email setup or anything else with Win 2000 at all, i think its a much more reliable operating system , it may be that microsoft has just had more time to fix their mistakes with win 2k.:confused:

Rfinnery is right on the ball as always :) ,the reason i posted that was to double check the your email settings, as you never know.

Geez i didn't realize i was rambling on so much :) anyway the main thing is that you know how to get your important emails now.
all the best
Brian :)

You will not believe what he just did on the computer!!!
 

He spilled a whole cup of tea and didn't tell me. He goes and hides in the living room and I walk into the computer room and not knowing what happened, I look at the computer and it's flashing something on the screen and when I try to type anything, wrong letters are coming out.

I did not know what was happening so I shout out, Alan, what happened to the computer? and he goes "I have no idea". I said "what do you mean, you have no idea, I can't type anything on the keyboard and he goes "well, I spilled a cup of tea, it's only a keyboard, it can be replaced".

I then pick up the keyboard and find that it has been sitting in a floot of orange pekoe tea for 30 minutes. I pick up the keyboard and turn it over and all liquid comes flying out of the keyboard.

Let's just say I am not a happy camper. Thankfully, I went up into my closet and found an old microsoft split keyboard and replaced the keyboard.

Now my question is this. Is the other keyboard ruined for good? It's an HP Pavillion keyboard that plays dvd's and volume and does stuff. I have no idea if this keyboard will play dvds and whatever.

If the other keyboard eventually dries out, do you think it will work again?

AND WHAT DO I DO TO THE GUY WHO SPILLED THE TEA???

http://bestsmileys.com/computer1/2.gif http://bestsmileys.com/dead/2.gif

I had pop spilled in mine and just rinsed it out and let it dry a few days or use blow dryer then try it {make sure it's all dry}

but I think you need to rinse it out.

How the heck do you rinse out a keyboard. I never thought of such a thing in all my life.

Melody

LOL- well make sure it is unplugged from the computer first-LOL:D

Just run it under the tap, warm water not hot - upside down, sideways etc.
then give it a good shake and /or let it drain upside down on a towel
over nite or so
then finish drying it with a blow dryer on medium, if needed

when you are sure it's all dry plug it in and test it.

what have you got to lose ?
either it will work or not.

we have even taken some of ours apart carefully and fixed minor problems inside of them.

some have a rubbery soft pad inside and some have more of a click mechanism- the rubber pad I think will take longer to dry all the way compared to the click mechanism ones.

TALKING ABOUT KEYBOARDS :eek:
My keyboard was really nice and clean after given it a real good clean a few days back [ which doesn't happen often ] i turned on my pc in the morning and left it going whilst i went to make some breakfast, i come back to the computor with a bowl of porridge and just before i got to the PC my cat run in front of my feet and tripped me up, well, porridge went everywere, all over the place, keyboard, over discs, over my new monitor everywere, i just sat down looked at all the mess and just started laughing :D
I turned the PC off and cleaned up [ what a job ] the keys on the keyboard were drying and sticking like glue to each other, so i just chucked it under my house and luckily had a spare one to use which i am still using now, it will probably clean up but for about $20 i can replace it, so it will go in the bin i think.

I think I would just throw these dirty keyboards in the washing machine . . . add lots of detergent. You should be good to go.

I simply cannot believe you can wash a keyboard
 

In all my life if someone would tell me that you can put a keyboard in the kitchen sink, give it a good wash, let it dry, plug it in and it will be good to go, well, I would never believe this in a million years.

I was reading on a chat board that you can "pop out" the keys and use a cotton swab with alcohol and clean under where the keys are. Then pop the keys back in. Can a person do this?

It doesn't really matter because the microsoft split keyboard that I am using is my preferred keyboard anyway so I don't really care.
I have always typed over 145 words a minute on a keyboard so this one should be a breeze for me. It's easier for carpal tunnel, or so they say.

This website was down today, did anyone notice that?

Alan went for all the blood tests (they took 5 vials of blood), then they sent him for a glucose tolerance test. Should have all results back in 10 days so Ill update you on that. Till then, I shall be surfing this wonderful site and if I see a post of interest, I shall respond, of course with my lovely graphics.

Don't you just love these?

http://bestsmileys.com/unicorns/2.gif http://bestsmileys.com/unicorns/1.gif http://bestsmileys.com/flowers/12.gif