The Doctor’s Bag

Office 2007 Tips

Today I wanted to share some tips for using Microsoft Office 2007.  Let me know if you find these useful and please check out our website at www.sacdr.com.

1.       Learn office shortcuts quickly by pressing the ALT key in any office application.  This will bring up the letters that are associated with the ALT key and place them over the locations for which they are used.  Try it!

2.       Customize the Quick Access Bar by right clicking on any icon and choosing Add to Quick Access Toolbar.  I added the printer icon as soon as I installed Office 2007 and discovered that there is no easily available print icon by default.

3.       Hide the ribbon bar by hitting CTRL-F1.  This will toggle on and off the ribbon bar.

4.       Change the default save location by clicking on the round Office button and choose Options/Save.

5.       Read office documents without purchasing the product.  If you need to read an office document but don’t have office or if you need to send someone an office document that does not have office there is hope.  You can download a free reader for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint from www.microsoft.com/downloads.

6.       Compare documents in Word by clicking on Review/Compare and then choosing Compare… to bring up the Compare Documents window.  This is useful to compare any changes in documents and has lots of options.

Doc

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Tips for Windows Vista

Here are some tips that I found interesting when reading about and using Windows Vista.   

1.       You can turn off Windows’ annoying prompts by going to User Account Control and deactivating in the User Accounts Control Panel.

2.       To add options to the right click menu hold down the SHIFT key as you right click on any item.  From there you can add it to the start menu or Quick Launch toolbar.

3.       Get a Health report on your Vista PC by going to Control Panel, click on System and Maintenance | Performance Information & Tools then Advanced Tools and finally Generate Health Report.  This will show you a very good and detailed overall system report for hardware and software.  It takes about 2 minutes to run.

4.       Remove personal data from pictures by right clicking on the file and selecting Properties.  Then on the Details tab click Remove Properties and Personal Information.

5.       Create an icon on your desktop that will allow you to lock it immediately instead of going through so many steps when you are ready to leave your desk.  Simply right click on the desktop and select New Shortcut, type the location of the item, type rundll32.exe user32.dll , LockWorkStation.  Spacing and case matter here.  Then name the icon appropriately and you have a quick way to lock your PC.

6.       If your laptop keyboard is broken but you have to do something on your laptop Windows Vista gives you some hope. 

They have integrated a virtual keyboard so that you can type on an on-screen keyboard with your mouse.  To get there go to Start/All Programs/Accessories/Ease of Access/On-Screen Keyboard.  The keyboard will stay on the desktop for you to use to type.  I did the text for this tip using the virtual keyboard.

7.       Bypass the startup password by typing netplwiz in the start menu search box. This will bring up the Advanced User Accounts Control.   From there you can check or uncheck the box that says: user Must enter a password.

8.       Capture part of your screen only and not the entire desktop or current open window.  This tool has been very useful to me for the times when I want to show something in a window but not spend time capturing the entire screen and editing out what I don’t want shown.  With this new Snipping tool you don’t have to rely on Alt-PrtScr anymore.  Simply click on Snipping tool in the Accessories folder.  I love this little tool and I think you will like it too.  It will let you annotate the snip also.

For more information see our website at www.sacdr.com.

Posted in Computing Tips, Vista | No Comments »

What is Computer Forensics?

Computer forensics is the forensic analysis of data done in a manner in which the resulting evidence can be used in court if necessary.  Some examples of this type of investigation is with the Scott Peterson case, in which he was suspected of having something to do with the disappearance of his wife Laci.  His computer was taken and a forensic search was initiated.  They found, among other things, that Scott had been seeing another woman (Amber) and had been planning a fishing trip on the day Laci disappeared.  This information led to finding the body of Laci and her unborn child in the area where Scott went fishing as well as the arrest and conviction of a murderer.

In most cases a forensic investigation is not so dramatic but the information is still valuable if needed.  Most cases involve theft of business or business services, pornography, online affairs, etc.

Any PC can be investigated.  An image of the drive can be made in 1-2 hours and the PC can be returned as the investigation is done on the copied hard drive.  This can be done on-site or here in our lab and allows for the ability to do an investigation without the suspect being aware.

Next time we will talk about the details of an investigation after the forensic copy has been made.  If you have any questions at all contact Doc for a free consulation.  All information is confidential and the customer’s identity is never revealed.

doc@sacdr.com
210-491-2710

Posted in Computer Forensics | 1 Comment »

What to do if Your PC is Running Too Slow Part II

Yesterday we discussed adding more memory to your PC to speed it up.  But what if your PC already has plenty of memory and it is STILL too slow?  Before I answer that lets go over what can cause a PC to run slowly.

1. Spyware
The most common culprit is spyware.  Almost every PC has spyware if it has been on the internet for any length of time at all.  You may not even realize that you have spyware or it may show itself in very obvious ways.  Every time you download something from the net and install it there are peices of that application in your registry and in your startup that load every time you start your PC.  Just think how many times you click on something on the internet and then multiply that by 5 times and that is how much junk is being put inside your PC.

2. AntiVirus Programs
Most people don’t thik about this but a lot of antivirus and antispyware programs can cause your system to run slowly.  The worst offender in this category is Norton Security Suite.  Just look at all the hundreds of files that get installed, not to mention the hundreds of registry entries.  I have seen this application bring a brand new out of the box PC to its knees.

3. Bad Hard Drive
This one is hard for the average person to detect but this does still happen frequently.  Hard drives start to go bad and they can get bad secotrs, which cause delays in reading and writing, this having a big impact upon performance.

Now that we know what the possible problems are how do we resolve the issue?  If it is spyware I highly recommend to have your PC professionally cleaned at least once.  Most of the do-it-yourself software out there will simply not be adequate.  It may even cause more harm! Take the PC in to have it cleaned the right way.  Then ask which antivirus and spyware is recommended.

If you have on of the Norton products, try uninstalling it.  Watch how long it takes and how many files are being removed from your PC.  If this doesn’t help then you probably have spyware infestation of a bad hard drive.

The final option that we discussed is the bad hard drive.  If you suspect this may be the case then backup all your important files IMMEDIATELY.  When a drive is in this state it could totally go out at any moment.  Don’t take chances with this.  Data recovery is possible but it is not cheap.  If you are not sure about how to backup your data then take your PC to have it backed up and get the hard drive tested.

There are other possible issues that may impact your performance but these are the ones we see the most.  If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Doc at 210-491-2710 or toll free at 877-445-5362 and by email at doc@sacdr.com.

Posted in Computer Maintenance | 1 Comment »

What to do if Your PC is Running Too Slow

Upgrade the memory!  This is the easiest and most affordable way to get a significant performance increase.  Every application, service, driver as well as the operating system is competing for memory and the more you have the better your PC will perform.

Ok now you know what to do but how do you do it?  The PC has a main board called a motherboard that holds the memory.  There are different types of memory that the boards support.  Older boards support older memory such as PC100, PC133, and PC800.  If you have this memory it might just be time to get a new PC.  The more popular memory types are DDR, DDR2 and DDR3.  Each of these memory types also have speeds from 2100 on up.  Why the lesson in memory type and speed?  Because if you purchase the wrong memory type or speed for your motherboard the PC will not boot up.  To find out what type of memory your PC needs you can look at the guide that came with your motherboard or PC.  If this is not handy you can turn off the PC, open the case and look at label on the memory itself.

Alternatively you can call your local computer shop (preferrably San Antonio Computer Doctor 210-491-2710) and they can tell you what type of memory you PC needs and get you a price.

What if you upgrade the memory and the PC is STILL slow?  That is the subject of tomorrow’s entry. 

If you have a story to share add it here or email us at doc@sacdr.com.  And remember to call the Computer Doctor for all your computing needs at 877-445-5362.

Posted in Computer Maintenance, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »