dacs.doc electric

Random Access
April 2003

Jim Scheef, moderator

 

Members who are unable to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to "askdacs@dacs.org" by the day prior to the meeting. We will attempt to get an answer for you. Please provide enough detail, as we will not be able to ask for additional information.

Q. Mouse control - “I have Parkinson’s disease, normally no tremor. With the right hand over the mouse my ring finger is not always under my control and hits the right mouse button - quite a nuisance. Is there a program to change this to a double click requirement? The control panel mouse does not show a way.

A. Suggestions include: (a) Increase the resistance of the right mouse button by placing something between the button and body of the mouse - a piece of a rubber band might work.; (b) Look at the Logitech web site to see if they offer any mouse control software. These would probably be found with program updates. It might be necessary to buy a Logitech mouse to gain any features offered.;
(c) Prior to the meeting I did a search on Google and found nothing that offered this specific feature. I did find some hardware, like a “head mouse” that is intended for people who cannot use a mouse at all; (d) During the break, some one from the Voice for Joanie group offered personal assistance and I will but both parties in contact.

Q. After installing an application, [Windows] creates a group in the programs folder. When you click on Start and then Programs it lists them in order of when they were installed. Is there any way they can be put into alphabetical order? And is it the same for Windows 95/98, ME, 2000 and XP?

A. Response summary: Click on the Start button and open the menu to the list you want to sort and right click anywhere on the list. Click “Order by name” on the context menu. This works on Win2k and XP. People in the audience said it works in Win98. It does not work with Win95, at least not on any Win95 I have ever used. Later Internet Explorer updates could possibly add this behavior to Win9x machines.

Questions from the floor (paraphrased and summarized):

Q. What problems might ensue when using Epson printer paper in a Canon printer?

A. It should work, but give less than optimal results, particularly over long time periods.

Q. Is there a keyboard shortcut to start the windows screen saver?

A. Suggestions: Lock the computer from the Ctrl-Alt-Del menu (NT, W2k, XP Pro), create shortcut to screen saver on the desktop (various opinions on whether/how this would work). Use a screen saver shortcut provided with Microsoft Office (impromptu testing found the feature was not installed on the test machine).

Q. I have two compact flash cards that no longer work after being formatted using various format utilities (Windows, Canon, and a card reader). Each card was usable in its original device only (camera or card reader). When formatted in the card reader, the camera could not read the card and vice versa. After both cards had been formatted using both format programs, neither card works in either device.

A. Discussion: Several people recounted similar experiences (for sympathy only). One suggestion was to take the cards to a camera store to see if they can read either card. Windows seems to recognize the cards when they are inserted in the reader (a drive letter is assigned) but then Windows says that the format is not correct. The audience consensus was that the cards have been permanently damaged by one format program or the other. Another possibility is that one reader device or the other has a bent pin which caused that format program to damage the cards so they now fail in both devices.

Q. How can XP Home be set to display directories with the file details by default?

A. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer and make the listing appear the way you want it. On the View tab of the Tools/Folder Options menu, click the “Apply to all Folders” button. These settings are stored separately for Windows Explorer, My Computer, and My Network Places.

Q. I purchased an external hard drive to use as a backup device for my notebook. How do I copy everything on the notebook to the external drive? Also, I was told that I must delete my virus checker in other to do this. Is this correct?

A. Discussion (condensed from many responses): Two programs came up immediately: Norton Ghost and PowerQuest Drive Image. Both programs will make a copy of the notebook on the external drive. Both compress the notebook files into what looks like a single file. The person who said to “delete the virus checker” probably meant that the antivirus program should be disabled during the copy process. Some virus programs look for unusual activities and flag them as viruses. Such a large copy operation might fall into the virus software’s definition of unusual.


Jim Scheef is DACS president..

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