Ventura County's PC Whisperer

Hate following rules? Rules can be used to automatically sort incoming e-mail into folders based on, for example, who the sender is, who the message was sent to, or the importance of a message. For example, you can create a rule to automatically move all mail sent to a group you're a member of to a specific folder. How do I manage rules? To manage rules, click Options> Create an Inbox Rule. You can use the Inbox Rules tab to create new rules, or to edit or delete existing rules. What else do I need to know? To create a new blank rule using the Inbox Rules tab, click New. You don't have to use the Inbox Rules tab to create a rule. You can also create rules directly from messages. To create a rule directly from a message: Right-click the message in the message list pane. Click Create Rule, or open the message and then click Create Rule on the toolbar. Rules are run from top to bottom in the order in which they appear in the Rules window. To change the order of rules,

This time I would like to share some registry tweaks that might come in handy if you are planning to use or already using the Customer Preview version of Office 2013. Disable template chooser screen  You have probably noticed that a template chooser screen is opened by default when launching an Office application: Personally, I find this feature really annoying. I have used other than blank Word/Excel template only very few times. 99% of the times I am launching Word, I am either starting with a completely blank document or opening the existing one. So, I do not really need the template selection screen before I can start. Luckily, this screen can be disabled using this registry modification: Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General Value: DisableBootToOfficeStart Type: REG_DWORD Data: 1 The value created above disables the template screen on all applications of Office 2013. If you find the screen useful on some specifi

The  Action Center  will inform you when the following problems occur: Windows Update (Important)  - warns you that Windows Update is set to never check for updates, leaving your computer exposed to all sorts of risks. The recommended setting is to automatically download and install updates. To review the available options click the 'Change settings...'  button and then select the appropriate update option; Spyware and unwanted software protection (Important)  - warns you that Windows Defender and/or your other installed antispyware solution is turned off. To see a list of available options, click  'View antispyware programs' ; Virus protection (Important)  - occurs when your antivirus is not installed, disabled or has outdated definitions. It is strongly recommended to either install an antivirus, turn on your antivirus, if you already got one, or update your antivirus definitions; User Account Control (Important)  - warns you that the User Account Control is disa

If you lose your data, be sure to check the recycle bin first. If there are no files in the recycle bin, there is still hope. Even though your files are deleted, the data may still be recoverable because the reference to the file has simply been deleted and not the data itself. As long as your file has not been overwritten, you have a chance at recovery

Our friends at IBM have been pre-loading Superfish, a "visual search" tool that includes ad ware that fakes the encryption certificates for every HTTPS-protected site you visit, on its PCs since at least the middle of 2014. ------------List of infected machines at bottom of page!-------------- Essentially, the software conducts a man-in-the-middle attack to fill the websites you visit with ads, and leaves you vulnerable to hackers in its wake. The ad ware intrinsic to Superfish is designed to inject visual price-comparison ads into the web pages you visit, in a “Visual Search results” section “powered by Visual Discovery.” If you see that, you’re affected (though maybe “infected” is the better word to use). How do you get ride of it? Doing so is easy: Just head to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a Program and look for Visual Discovery. If you see it, uninstall it! Ditch that troublesome root certificate The biggest problem with

Google Search Tricks & Tips   1. Use the minus sign to eliminate results containing certain words. You'll want to eliminate results with certain words if you're trying to search for a term that's generating a lot of results that aren't of interest to you. Figure out what terms you're not interested in (e.g. jaguar -car) and re-run the search. 2. Search websites for keywords. Think of the "site:" function as a Google search that searches only a particular website. If you want to see every Microsoft.com mentioned Google, use the search "Google site:Microsoft.com". 3. Search news archives going back to the mid-1880s. Google News has an option  to search over 100 years' worth of archived news  from newspapers around the world. 4. Compare foods using "vs." Can't decide between a burger or pizza for dinner? Type in "rice vs. quinoa," for example, and you'll receive side-by-side comparisons of the nut

Google Chrome Lag and Slow Performance Fix I am not gonna sit here and tell you why this does that, or that does this. What I will tell ya is that one of the reasons   is linked to Google Chrome itself,  The other is within Internet Explorer. I know what works, So let do this We’ll start with Chrome, Pop open the Settings menu (click the icon in the top right that looks like three horizontal bars, and select ‘settings’ in the drop down menu. Once you’re there, click on “Show Advanced Settings” towards the bottom of the page. At that point, you’ll be presented with a long list of options. One of those options is titled     “predict network actions to improve page load performance.”   This is a feature known as DNS Prefetching. While it certainly does improve the load time of pages, it’s also known to cause a bit of intermittent input lag every now and then, in addition to sending Chrome’s memory footprint straight through the roof.  You can live without it. So Uncheck th

As of a few days ago, Microsoft One Note  is now freeware. The full version of OneNote 2013, which runs on Windows 7 and 8, is down loadable Here The download file itself is tiny, but this is merely an installer which will grab many additional files from the Internet.                                Capture thoughts, ideas, and to-dos and sync them to all your device Store and share your notebooks on  Overdrive  with your free Microsoft account Doesn't expire - use OneNote for as long as you like      

How to Troubleshoot and fix some common Errors in Office 2013 Older versions of add-ins might cause this type of problem. You might also see one of these errors when you try to start one of these Office 2013 applications: Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, or Visio. Microsoft Excel has stopped working. Microsoft Word has stopped working. Microsoft Outlook has stopped working. Microsoft PowerPoint has stopped working. Microsoft Publisher has stopped working. Microsoft Visio has stopped working. It's important to make sure that Windows is fully up-to-date. A recent update could correct the start up issue you are experiencing with your Office 2013 application: Install the latest Windows updates to your computer. Restart your computer. Try to launch your Office 2013 application. If after installing Windows updates you are still receiving a "stopped working" error, continue to the next section and follow the instructions. Sta

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Working with the Windows 8 Sharing Tool Windows 8 includes a new sharing tool that can be selected at any time from the Charms Menu. If you are looking at a picture, file, video, or other type of content that you want to share with other people, click/touch Share and you will be shown a list of apps that you can share this content with instantly. This list will vary depending on what apps you have installed. This is where the real power of social apps comes into play and where apps that you can download from the Windows 8, Store can be much better and easier to use than visiting websites in Internet Explorer. Let's say, for example, that you have photos that you want to share on Face- book or a video you want to upload to YouTube. In earlier versions of Windows, you would open Internet Explorer or another web browser, go to the website, log in, and upload them. However, if you have a compatible app installed in Windows 8 for these websites, let's say a You- Tube app, yo

Quick tips for Outlook.com Spell check Spell check for Outlook.com is provided by your browser. With most newer browsers , spelling is checked continuously as you write. Words not found in the spell-check dictionary are underlined in red. To take action, right-click the word. With older browsers like Internet Explorer 7 or 8 , you’ll need to run spell check . Click Spell check in the Outlook.com menu bar. When spell check is complete, a message will appear at the bottom of the browser. In the message, words that need your attention are underlined in red. To take action, click the word. Your choices during spell check If the correct spelling appears in the list of words, click it. To have spell check ignore a word it doesn’t recognize in this and all future emails, click Add to dictionary . To have spell check disregard all instances of the word for this email only click Ignore or Ignore all . If spell check isn't working, try updating you