1.) Stop other applications from sending e-mail using Outlook Express.

Most viruses spread by sending e-mail. The first e-mail program a virus will look for is Outlook Express and if the virus can access Outlook Express and replicate itself, you could end up sending the virus to all of your friends. You can stop this from happening by not allowing your other programs to send e-mail using OE. To prevent this kind of problem, open Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu and click on Options. Select the Security tab and check the box that says “Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me.” That will ensure that you will be told if another program (or a virus) tries to send an e-mail from your computer.

2.) Disable the preview pane.

Most people like having the preview pane open in OE. If you’re not sure, it’s the bottom screen that shows you your e-mail as you click on each one above it. The preview pane is useful, but it also automatically opens every e-mail you click on. If you accidentally click on an e-mail you don’t want to open, it’s already too late. To save yourself from this kind of trouble, you can turn the preview pane off. To do that, go to the View menu and click on Layout. Uncheck the box that says “Show preview pane.” From now on, the preview pane will be gone and you can open your e-mails by simply double clicking on them.

Those are just a couple simple steps that will help you when it comes to OE’s security. Making these changes can be the difference between a normal e-mail experience and a huge headache. Until next time, stay safe out there, my friends!

The main question for this article is, “What if I can’t get my burner to do anything?” And by anything, I basically mean recording material from your burner to a CD or DVD. Yes, that definitely can be a problem, especially since you can’t really do anything if that capability isn’t working right. So, let’s troubleshoot this problem and see what we can come up with. Note: This tip is only for Windows XP users.

1.) First, you need to make sure you have the recording feature enabled. If you have Windows XP, you really don’t have to do much to get the burner to work, but without the recording feature, you can’t do a whole lot. To check this, double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Find whichever drive handles your CDs (generally drive D: or F:), right click on it and choose Properties. Next, click on the Recording tab and make sure the “Enable CD recording on this drive” option is checked.

Note: If you don’t have a Recording tab, that means XP is not recognizing your burner’s recording capabilities. If that’s the case, you may need to consult with your CD burner manual to find out how to configure everything correctly. Depending on your situation, you may even need to change some things in your Registry Editor. If you have serious problems with this, you may want to contact your computer/burner manufacturer for additional help.

On the other hand, if you do have the Recording tab, keep going with me! When you turn on the recording feature, it starts the built-in CD recording in Windows XP. Now, if you use a different burning utility (other than the one that came with XP), you can disable this and just use the other program like you normally do.

2.) Another thing you may want to do is lower your burning speed. You more than likely have the software set to the fastest possible speed, but you might want to try setting it back to something like 18X or maybe even 8X. If you do that, you may see better results from your drive.

3.) Check on your system and make sure you have at least Windows XP Service Pack 1. For everything to run smoothly during the burning process, that has to be in place.

4.) And last (and the most obvious) is to check and make sure you have a blank CD in your CD ROM drive. You have to have one in there for the burning to start. Otherwise, the files will have no place to go and you will end up with nothing.

Hopefully with these troubleshooting techniques, you’ll have a better burning experience from now on!

Well, I asked that very same thing myself. At work, I often project my computer screen as part of my teaching and I certainly don’t need an alert to pop up in the middle of a lesson so that all of my students can see who’s sending what. That’s not a good idea at all!

Yet, I like the ability to just glance at my desktop and know there’s new e-mail, so it’s worth my time to switch over to Outlook.

So, here’s my suggestion for anyone who agrees with me. I like to have Outlook put a small, subtle hint on my taskbar that has obvious meaning. I use this little envelope as my notification:

Within that section, you need to select the “Show an envelope icon in the notification area” choice.

Three clicks of the OK button and you’re back to work with a more subtle notice of new messages.

Also, just in case you’re wondering, Outlook will remove the envelope icon notification when it detects that the new message has been read!

In most e-mail programs, you can type out a URL (for example, www.Tips Trick & Tutorial .com) and it will automatically hyperlink for you as soon as you hit the space bar. But if it doesn’t, you can do it manually as well. To do that, start a new e-mail and when you’re ready for the hyperlink, click on the icon that looks like a globe with a chainlink around it.

It looks like this:

A box will then appear and you just have to type in the URL yourself. If it’s a Web site, make sure you have http:// selected and if it’s an e-mail address, have mailto: chosen. Click OK when you’re done and the link will then show up in your e-mail. It will then be transferred to your recipient for easy opening.

One more thing: If for some reason you can’t click on the hyperlink icon, you can always go to the Insert menu, Hyperlink choice. That will bring up the same dialogue box for you and you will be able to get the link in place.

Now, while I was researching this tip, I found one other thing that you might be interested in. Gmail does have the hyperlink option, but the icon is just a chainlink. It doesn’t have the globe, so if you use Gmail, keep an eye out for that. Like I said, most e-mail programs will hyperlink automatically for you, so you usually don’t have to worry about it. But if the situation does arise, you now know how to complete the task yourself!

I’ve heard so many varying views about the Vista operating system, it’s not even funny anymore. Some people hate it, some people love it and others just ride along in the middle. Yes, Vista comes with a lot of brand new features and while it would be in Microsoft’s best interest if everyone fell head over heels in love with them, that’s just not very realistic.

So, if you want to change your Vista computer around a little, have at it! Now, as the person who asked today’s question stated, one of the new features in Vista is the 3D desktop. And while it’s cool to look at sometimes, it can also be a little too much. The 3D desktop has to do with Vista’s appearance and performance and all the other Windows versions allowed you to make some changes within those realms, so why would Vista be any different? Come along with me as we make your Vista desktop all that you want it to be!

First, right click on the Computer icon on your desktop and choose Properties. From there, click on the Advanced System Settings link that is located off to the left side of the dialogue box. Once you click that, you will be asked if you’re sure you want to continue on (since they’re advanced settings and all). Just click Continue and go on. Next, choose the Advanced tab and then hit the Settings button. From there, you want to be under the Visual Effects tab.

Once you’re there, you will see four options at the top of the window: “Let Windows choose,” “Adjust for best appearance,” “Adjust for best performance” and “Custom.” Below those options, you will see a list of settings. The list is pretty long, so it may take you awhile to scroll through them all. As you look through them, you may want to start picking and choosing the ones you want to keep on your computer. Think about each one and picture in your mind what it would do to your PC. Here are some of the settings you have to choose from:

• Animate controls and elements inside windows
• Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
• Enable desktop composition
• Fade or slide menus into view
• Fade out menu items after clicking
• Show shadows under menus
• Show shadows under mouse pointer
• Slide taskbar buttons
• Smooth scroll list boxes

Okay, I think you get the picture. There’s so much to choose from! Now, let’s go over a couple of the options I mentioned above again. If you click on the first one (Let Windows choose), the Windows operating system will choose what it thinks are the best choices for your computer. Now, this may be a good choice, but it still may leave you wanting more (or less) from your desktop experience.

On the other hand, if you click on the Custom choice, you can make your own decisions. You can just check or uncheck certain settings and everything will come out just the way you want it. I think this is the best option for anyone who likes to do things on their own. That’s why I told you to really pay attention to the options in the list as you’re reading through them. If you picture in your mind what a certain setting will do to your computer, you’ll have a better reason for choosing what you choose.

When you’re all done customizing your 3D desktop, just click the OK button and all will be saved. You can then go and test your new settings out. See how everything changed? Do you like it? Not so sure? Either way, you now know how easy it is to change those settings and you can go back time and time again until you have everything set perfectly for your Vista experience. Have fun!

If so, what did you do?

Did you set up the row by hand and then create the needed formula? Then did you have to fill the formula in across your whole row?

What if you could get Excel to add the row for you automatically and then you could just select the type of information you want calculated in each column?

Sounds like a good plan to me too, so here’s what you can do!

Start by selecting a cell in the table. (It would have to be a table you’ve formatted as one using the Format As Table button found under the Home tab on the ribbon).

Next, you need the Table Tools Design tab that opens when the table is selected.

Under the Design tab, you’re looking for the Table Style Options section.

Select the Total Row checkbox.

That will turn your table from this:

From that list, you can choose what type of information you want calculated. As you can see, there are quite a few choices right there along with a quick link to other functions.

Excel automatically uses all the data in the column above the total row. It sets up the formula and you just tell it which one to use.

With it, you can choose whatever data calculation you need. In addition, you might want to note that you can choose different data calculations for different columns. So, if it makes sense to have an average of one column, but a sum of another, you’re free to set it that way.

You can also leave a cell in the total row blank for situations when it’s not needed at all.

Voila. Quick, versatile and convenient functions for your table totals!

To do this in Outlook Express, go to Tools and open your Address Book. Now, click on the New icon and choose New Group. Make a name for your particular group and type it in. Next, click on the Select Members button. This will bring up all the names you have stored in your address book. You can then highlight each name you want to be placed in the group. For example, you have a card club and you want Mary, Betty, Judy, Ann, Nadene and Lisa in that group. Find their e-mail addresses and hit the Select button after each one. (You can also use Shift + a mouse click to highlight them all at the same time). Either way, click on the Select button to get all the names in the group.

After you’re done, their names will appear under the Members panel. Click OK twice and your group’s name will show up in the left Contacts pane.

When you want to e-mail that group, open up a new message like normal, go to Tools, Select Recipients. That will bring up a list of all your contacts and you can scroll through them to find your group’s name. Highlight the group name, hit the To: button and OK. This will then bring your group’s name into the To: section of your e-mail. It won’t show everyone’s e-mail address in a line like usual, but all the addresses are embedded within the group name.

You can then type out your e-mail and send it off. All your group members will receive it and it will save you a ton of time. Give it a try today!

You can then just go through the steps and see if the program will actually work with Vista. Now, most of the programs that worked with XP also work with Vista, but you may have some trouble with a lot of the older programs. Also, you shouldn’t use the wizard with any older antivirus programs, disk utilities or other system programs. Doing that could cause some security holes or even data loss. So, if you feel like you’re in a rut with getting your programs to work with your new Vista computer, give this wizard a try!

Oh my, what an unpleasant surprise! I can only imagine how lost you must feel. I mean, we all depend on our desktop icons to get us through the day, so it just seems impossible to live without them. And I’m talking about major icons like My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places and so on. Those are a few of the icons you probably use on a regular basis, so if they’re not there, what are you supposed to do? Well, the best answer is, “Get them back!”

Now, there are a couple of different ways you may have lost your icons. They could have disappeared when you installed a certain program or even when you upgraded to a new operating system. Either way, you need them, so let’s find them again! To enable those icons and more, right click on your desktop and choose Properties. Click on the Desktop tab and hit the Customize Desktop button. Next, under the General tab, check off any of the icons you want to appear on your desktop.

Once you do that, they will all be returned to your desktop in full view. You can choose from the icons of My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places and Internet Explorer. Now, on the other hand, you may want to take some of those icons off your desktop. If that’s the case, just uncheck them and they will be out of your way. Easy enough, don’t you think?!

If that sounds like you, here are a few ideas for printing only what you need, quickly and without the mouse!

First, I’m sure you all know that Ctrl + P will open the print dialogue window.

But once you’re in there, if you want to make adjustments, do you automatically reach for the mouse?

If so, take a careful look at these options first: