PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition By Steve Bass Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2005 ISBN: 0-596-00882-1 Pages: 256 Table of Contents | Index | Errata In every PC user's life, there's a point when desperate measures must be taken Some push their PC off a pier or chuck it into a landfill Others turn their former computing ally into a planter box But don't give up on your PC yet help is at hand This easy to read, accessible book from PC World expert Steve Bass covers the waterfront of PC gripes and gremlins, with fixes for everything from Windows glitches to browsers that won't browse Each fix is served up in bite-sized portions for quick reading and even quicker fixing A revised version of its best-selling predecessor, the 2nd edition offers 50 additional pages and over 120 new fixed annoyances This reader-friendly book tackles problems related to a wide-ranging number of topics: Windows King of Annoyances! learn how to kick Windows in the rear, overcome glitches, take charge of the interface, live with the dreaded Service Pack 2 Hardware wake up your DSL, tame your notebook, silence your PC's fan, work wonders with your scanner, and save paper Email from Outlook to Eudora! Defeat spam, avoid mailing list hassles, send big files, manage folders Microsoft Office learn workarounds for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that help you back up the unbackable and automate data entry Internet shake up IE, stop Flash, outsmart defaults, control Favorites, add the Google toolbar to Netscape Plus, you get access to more than one hundred utilities that will help you squash bugs, enhance your email, untangle a system snarl, and much more If your PC has ever annoyed you (do we see several billion raised hands?), PC Annoyances is for you With the flip of a page or two, you can fix that faux pas and have your PC purring again PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition By Steve Bass Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2005 ISBN: 0-596-00882-1 Pages: 256 Table of Contents | Index | Errata Copyright Praise for PC Annoyances Dedication Introduction WHY WRITE PC ANNOYANCES? WHY THE BOOK'S ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW IS PC ANNOYANCES RIGHT FOR YOU? HAVE AN ANNOYANCE? HOW TO USE THIS BOOK CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK THE NONEXISTENT CD (OR "SWING BY THE WEB SITE!") HAVE A COUPLE OF LAUGHS USING THE SNIPURL LINKS ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS ABOUT THE TECHNICAL TEAM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Chapter 1 Email Annoyances GENERAL EMAIL ANNOYANCES OUTLOOK AND OUTLOOK EXPRESS 5 AND 6 AOL ANNOYANCES EUDORA ANNOYANCES HOTMAIL ANNOYANCES GMAIL ANNOYANCES Chapter 2 Windows Annoyances GENERAL WINDOWS ANNOYANCES SERVICE PACK 2 ANNOYANCES Chapter 3 Internet Annoyances BROWSING ANNOYANCES GOOGLE ANNOYANCES INSTANT MESSAGING ANNOYANCES Chapter 4 Microsoft Office Annoyances WORD ANNOYANCES EXCEL ANNOYANCES POWERPOINT ANNOYANCES OUTLOOK AND OUTLOOK EXPRESS ANNOYANCES Chapter 5 Windows Explorer Annoyances SEARCH ANIMATIONS BEGONE A SHORTCUT TO MORE RECENT DOCUMENTS QUICK ACCESS TO MY COMPUTER ONE FOLDER, MANY PLACES WHEN ONE EXPLORER SHORTCUT IS NOT ENOUGH DISCONNECT YOUR SAVED WEB PAGES A BETTER WAY TO NAVIGATE WHEN YOU CAN'T DELETE A FILE MAKE EXPLORER CRASH-PROOF LOOK WHAT I FOUND! BUT DON'T TOUCH COPYING FILE PATHS BROADEN WINDOWS' SEARCH HORIZONS SEARCH FASTER BY EXCLUDING ZIPPED FILES MANAGE ZIPPED FILES BEYOND WINZIP SELF-EXTRACTOR RENAME MULTIPLE FILES GIMME BACK MY FILE ASSOCIATIONS RIGHT-CLICK FOR QUICK PRINTS QUICK NOTES IN WINDOWS ENCRYPT FILES FOR SECURITY SHARE BIG FILES THE EASY WAY A THUMBNAIL VIEW FOR FILE ATTACHMENTS ALL THUMBS.DB Chapter 6 Browser Annoyances MUSIC AND VIDEO ANNOYANCES iTUNES ANNOYANCES WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER ANNOYANCES QUICKTIME ANNOYANCES CD AND DVD ANNOYANCES Chapter 7 Hardware Annoyances THE WONDERS OF A MODEM RESET BRING THE ZING BACK TO DSL UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER TO THE PC MANAGE MULTIPLE BULKY AC ADAPTERS LIGHTEN YOUR POWER LOAD CLEAR AND SHARP LCD FONTS TUNE UP YOUR MONITOR HUSH HUSH, SWEET MONITOR STRAIGHTEN UP AND DISPLAY RIGHT SIMPLE WAYS TO REDUCE PC NOISE LOST SCREW, BIG PROBLEMS EXTRA POWER FOR DIGITAL CAMERAS WINDOWS SETTING BLOCKS DVD UPGRADE CHECK FOR LOOSE CABLES 5 CABLES IN 1 SAFELY REMOVE A USB FLASH DRIVE LOCK DOWN YOUR USB FLASH DRIVE USB-TO-PS/2 MOUSE ADAPTER GIVE YOUR LASER PRINTER A MEMORY BOOST SAVE BIG WITH LOW-RESOLUTION PRINTS PAPER-SAVING PRINT UTILITY KEEP THE PAPER FLOWING MOVE YOUR SOUND CONNECTORS TO THE FRONT DOCK YOUR NOTEBOOK USE YOUR NOTEBOOK AT HOME CONNECT YOUR FLASH MEMORY DRIVE WITH A USB CABLE NO-FUSS NETWORK BACKUPS BIG HARD DRIVE CORRUPTION UNWIRE YOUR PRINTER GO WIRELESS WITH A WALL SOCKET STIFLE AMBITIOUS WIFI POP-UPS EMERGENCY POWER FOR PALMS POCKET PC FILE AND BATTERY WOES BOOST YOUR CELL'S BATTERY RED SKIES AND BLUE ROSES FRAMED DIGITAL PHOTOS CURLING PICTURES REMOVE SHADOWS FROM THE OTHER SIDE GRINDING, NOT SCANNING SKEWED SCANS MAKE SCANNERS READ BETTER TRANSFER PHONE NUMBERS TO YOUR DIGITAL PHONE Colophon Index PC Annoyances,™ Second Edition How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer, Windows, and more by Steve Bass Copyright © 2005, 2003 O'Reilly Media, Inc All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Illustrations © 2004 and 2005 Hal Mayforth c/o theispot.com Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472 O'Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use Online editions are also available for most titles (safari.oreilly.com) For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com Print History: October 2003: First Edition March 2005: Second Edition Editor: Robert Luhn Production Editor: Genevieve d'Entremont Art Director: Michele Wetherbee Cover Design: Ellie Volckhausen Interior Designer: Patti Capaldi The O'Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc The Annoyances series designations, PC Annoyances, and related trade dress are trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly Media, Inc was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein Praise for PC Annoyances "Annoyed with your PC? Fight back with this smart, funny, indispensable survival guide." Ed Bott, author, Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out and Special Edition Using Office 2003 "PC Annoyances is packed with amazingly useful tips and tricks Every flip through the book brings me to something useful that I'm glad to know and didn't before." Steve Gibson, security expert and author, ShieldsUP! and SpinRite "Bass is the smartest and most entertaining technology writer covering personal computers today This book is a guaranteed cure for whatever ails your PC, from the big errors that can bring a computer to its knees to the glitches that are more trivial but no less maddening." Kevin McKean, CEO and Editorial Director, InfoWorld magazine "One of my current favorites Bass delivers on the book's title by zeroing in on a handful of the most common and most aggravating problem areas in personal computing Using clear language and everyday examples, Bass systematically tackles such knotty subjects as email, Windows, wfseb surfing, Windows Explorer, digital music and video, and more." John Moran, The Hartford Courant "By concentrating on the annoyances-and the fixes-Steve Bass cleverly exposes the underlying richness of Windows and your everyday applications Beyond boosting your own productivity and reducing your blood pressure, you'll be a hero to everyone around you!" Bill Machrone, Columnist and Contributing Editor, PC Magazine "Steve Bass's book is nothing less than a goldmine It's a lighthearted, easy read that is also jam-packed with serious tips and tricks PC Annoyances won't be gathering any dust on my living room bookshelf; it already has a handy home-right next to my PC!" Linda Webb, Greater Cleveland PC Users Group "Jammed into 200 pages are tips, tricks, and tirades that cover everything from codecs to crashes, Acrobat Reader to ZoneAlarm, with humor and the kind of advice that will keep you running to the keyboard to try out each new pointer." James Coates, Chicago Tribune "One of the best darned all-around PC books I've seen in a long time." Linda Gonse, reader review Dedication May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the RealPlayer developer who decided to stick icons in my System Tray, Startup menu, and desktop, and may his arms be too short to scratch Snarfed from Internet, author unknown I want to thank Bill Gates, his Microsofties, and the entire Redmond Empire Without them, this book wouldn't be possible (or even necessary) Kvetch: Verb Pronounced KVETCH, to rhyme with "fetch"; To fret, complain, grunt, sigh Kvetcher: Noun Pronounced KVETCHER, to rhyme with "stretcher"; One who complains, often Steve Bass, and always about computers From The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten (1968) Index [SYMBOL] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] undecipherable backing up Bounce Spam Mail broken links clicking links in email messages copies, keeping editing in Word embedding images etiquette fake bounced messages forwarded messages, cleaning up full mailbox headers hiding recipients list hiding return addresses IE "Email Page" option long messages managing large amounts of message view messaging acronyms POP3 pre-addressing preventing mailbox from filling up replies including previous message text return receipt shortcuts signatures 2nd spam two email clients, one contact list URLs, sending shorter underscores (_) in Word Undisker uninstall files, removing uninterruptible power supply universal AC adapter UrlRun URLs embedded in Word sending shorter USB cables USB Flash drives locking down removing USB-to-PS/2 mouse adapter Index [SYMBOL] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] V Communications' CD Anywhere V Communications' PowerDesk vertical scrollbar in Word VideoCap's Easy Video Capture videos capturing and saving streams 2nd converting missing codec error not playing playing without browser sharing files splitting and joining streamed music or video files, locating on hard drive virus antivirus programs filtering out in Eudora online virus scanner restoring accidently Visual Thesaurus volume adding volume control to desktop missing icon in System Tray Nir Sofer's Volumouse smart keyboards and ToggleVOLUME too much/not enough Index [SYMBOL] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] WAV-to-MP3 conversions WavPlay web accelerator program Web Economy BS Generator web pages Acrobat Reader, opening outside ad-blockers cookies entering bogus registration information Flash Player, removing form-filling tool images not showing in keeping font size uniform losing form data online shopping printing multipage articles spyware browser hijackers viewing PDF files when last updated web-filtering Webopedia WebWasher WiFi Speed Spray Williams, Cecil WinAmp Windows arranging icons on desktop calendar, resetting system clock, synchronizing Disk Cleanup process, automating Eudora minimizes Taskbar identifying programs in System Tray and Startup group Installer Clean-Up Utility Picture and Fax Viewer Quick Launch toolbars, fixing Registry Scheduled Tasks starting closed Startup programs System Restore points System Tray protecting System Tray, fixing Task Manager getting after a crash Task Manager toolbar Taskbar, fixing updates that can be shared Windows 2000 adding service packs to CD compressed files desktop icons Windows 95 menus, speeding up upgrading to Windows XP Windows 98 desktop icons menus, speeding up upgrading to Windows XP Windows Address Book (WAB) Windows Explorer accessing folders alternatives deleting files file-annotation function making crash-proof manipulating files in Search Results window My Computer navigating with pop-ups quick way to print renaming multiple files searching for files 2nd Windows key Windows Me desktop icons menus, speeding up System Restore upgrading to Windows XP Windows Media Player looking like earlier version MP3 ripping playing videos without web browser showing menu bar skin customization feature SuperCookies turning off Media Guide unable to copy music to MP3 player unable to play some videos vanishing toolbar Version 9 unable to rip MP3s ZoneAlarm Windows Messenger disabling file transfer Windows Update Catalog Windows Update, personalizing Windows XP adding service packs to CD automatic update error messages automatic updates dumbness backup CD bringing back Task Pane clock compressed files Control Panel, faster access to desktop icons Help and Support Center help system installing files, problems with menus, speeding up Network Diagnostics window one-click shutdowns printing faxes Product Activation screen resolution Security Center alerts shutdown options hidden Start menu stopping crash report messages System Restore System Tray icons Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box Taskbar button commands Taskbar grouping Upgrade Advisor upgrading to zoom trick in Windows-based games Windows-Help.NET WinImage WinISO WinKey utility WinMessControl WinPatrol 2nd 3rd 4th 5th WinZip 2nd 3rd Self-Extractor wire, copper wireless print servers WiFi pop-ups with wall socket Wizmo Woody's Office POWER Pack (WOPR) WOPR Places Bar Customizer Word all-caps shortcut arranging open files AutoCorrect 2nd fixing numbered lists outfoxing AutoFormat backing up AutoCorrect entries bookmarks Browse by Comment Browse by Heading icon deleting tables deleting text without confirmation dictionary alternative DocuBar documents, making private dummy text editing email in embedded garbage Favorites menu Find function formatting multiple items Full Screen mode hidden information hyperlinks automatic getting rid of keyboard shortcuts macros Paste Special printing navigation secrets normal.dot Page Layout view Paste Special pasting email text without extra whitespace Print Layout view problems with numbered lists red spelling squiggles in "Save changes?" dialog box after printing setting viewing preference "Sounds like (English)" feature spellchecking one word underscores (_) in URLs, embedded in vertical scrollbar viewing documents without Word Work menu Zoom WordPerfect's Reveal Codes WordStar WordWeb Work menu (Word) Index [SYMBOL] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] XDude's Knowledge Emporioum XPlay Index [SYMBOL] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] Yahoo! email checking using third-party email clients SpamGuard Yahoo! Messenger blocking chat invitations Freddy's No Ads unwanted extras YPOPs!, automating Yahoo! login Index [SYMBOL] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] zipped files 2nd Gmail and managing Outlook/Outlook Express ZoneAlarm (Windows Media Player) ZoneAlarm Pro zoom trick in Windows XP Word and Excel ... GENERAL WINDOWS ANNOYANCES SERVICE PACK 2 ANNOYANCES Chapter 3 Internet Annoyances BROWSING ANNOYANCES GOOGLE ANNOYANCES INSTANT MESSAGING ANNOYANCES Chapter 4 Microsoft Office Annoyances WORD ANNOYANCES. .. Chapter 1 Email Annoyances GENERAL EMAIL ANNOYANCES OUTLOOK AND OUTLOOK EXPRESS 5 AND 6 AOL ANNOYANCES EUDORA ANNOYANCES HOTMAIL ANNOYANCES GMAIL ANNOYANCES Chapter 2 Windows Annoyances .. .PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition By Steve Bass Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2005 ISBN: 0-596-00882-1 Pages: 256 Table of Contents | Index