Bush PC Help

If we're too far away to help immediately, there may be a solution available here.

A common problem rural Internet users face is slow Internet connections, or connection drop outs. If you're having problems, try the ideas on our modems page.

Another major problem is viruses. If you think you have a virus, visit housecall.trendmicro.com. There are limits to what this browser based scan can do, but at least you will know if you have a problem. Visit our viruses page for ideas on how to prevent viruses damaging your computer.

Email attachments are another difficult problem, and also a major source of viruses. (Always scan email attachments with an up to date virus program BEFORE you open them.) If you can't open an attachment, check this list of extensions to find out what program made it. If you are unable to open a MS Office 2000 file, download and install 602 PC Suite.

Your computer will only work properly if the right drivers are installed. Unless something changes after you buy it, you should not need to change the drivers that came with your machine. If you can't find your original install disks/CDs and you do need to reinstall them, try and locate the right ones at one of these sites: PC Drivers - Win Drivers - Drivers HQ - Totally Drivers - Driver Zone - Mr Driver .

Windows XP Performance

• Make sure you don't have viruses or spyware on your computer.
  
• Get rid of unnecessary startup items.
  Click Start, All Programs, and hold the mouse over Startup.
  Almost everything that occurs here can be deleted.
  Right click on any item in the Startup, and select delete from the menu.
  Remember that you can recover these items from the Recycle bin should you need to.
  
• Eliminate unnecessary visual effects.
  Click on Start, right click on My Computer, and select Properties from the menu.
  Click on the Advanced tab, then in the Performance section, click on Settings.
  Click on the "Adjust for best performance" radio button, then click ok.
  If you want to keep the XP look, leave "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" turned on.
• Right click on the desktop, and select Properties from the menu.
  Select the Appearance tab, and click on Effects.
  Turn off the effects, and click ok twice.
  Most of the effects are turned off by the previous step.
• Get rid of Windows Messenger.
  Click Start, Run, type in gpedit.msc, and click Ok.
  Expand Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, then select Windows Messenger.
  Double click on "Do not allow Windows Messenger to run", and select Enable.
  You can disable it just for a single user by selecting User Configuration instead.
  

Windows Annoyances

In the later versions of Windows a number of things have changed, with remarkably little benefit. And yet, other things that should have changed, haven't. For example:

• Find is now Search (but the hotkey is still Windows+F!).
• Despite over ten years of development, there is still no way to shift the start button to the other end of the taskbar.
• Every time Windows has a timezone change, the date/time on backup files appears to change.
• Windows Explorer (arguably one of the most useful tools in Windows) is now buried deeper in the Start menu, under Accessories.
• The accessibility features kick in when the Shift key is used to inhibit Autorun (one of many unhelpful help features).
• Windows Explorer has adopted a "My Documents" centric view.
  This "improvement" can be undone by changing the shortcut to:

  C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /e,/root,Desktop,c:\

  or, for a slightly different view try:

  %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, /select, c:\

Back - Home - Next - - Comments