Tips & Tricks-October 2001

Have you ever spent a lot of time writing things down when you change some configuration on your system? For example, when you change a network card in your computer, you want to be sure that you have all the settings for your ISP (if you have a cable modem) and any IP addresses, DNS servers, etc. You can go the several screens, writing everything down, but there is an easier way.

As you go through each of the screens, press the Alt key and the Print Scrn key (it's up on the top row near the functions keys) at the same time. The window you have open and selected will be copied to the clipboard. Open a word processing document and press Ctrl-C. The screen will appear in the document. Then add any notes to help you remember what you were doing. Do this for each screen in the configuration and paste it into the same file. Save the document with an appropriate title and print it. You will have the information you want when you need it. If you print it, you will have it in case your system fails and you need to reconstruct it. It beats using pen and paper to do it, especially if your handwriting is as bad as mine.

Windows that Stay Open and the Users that Loathe Them

When you browse the Internet, have you noticed how often extra windows are popping up in the most obnoxious and annoying way. Sometimes there is no little X up in the right hand corner to click to get rid of them or to minimize them so you can read what you went to the site to see. To get rid of the annoying Window, click in the window, hit Alt and spacebar at the same time and you should see a menu drop down, including Close. Click on close and the Window will disappear.

Yet Another Virus Reminder

Check those attachments you receive very carefully before opening them. Several viruses (actually worms) are loose right now. As I mentioned at the last meeting, one of the most recent is exceptionally devious. In an infected system, it grabs a piece of text from a document on your system. It could be anything, including saved emails or word processing files. It then puts the text in an email message, deriving the subject and the name of an attachment from words in the text, so it looks like something you might have sent. Then it mails itself to people in your email address book. When the attachment arrives, it will have an extension of .com, .exe, .pif or .bat. When the recipient clicks on it, it infects the computer.

In addition to doing the mailing, it damages files on the system, eventually rendering the system useless. Fortunately, it does not appear to affect data files so it is possible to save them. It will be necessary to find the infected files with virus scan software and either replace the damaged files or reinstall Windows. The only loss will be your time!

So it is no longer necessary to simply know who is sending the message before you open an attachment, but to check carefully to see what the extension is.