Tech Tips Weekly [ When Flash Drives Go Bad - What's The Problem? + Yet Another Facebook Change? What Is It? + One Reminder You Won't Soon Forget ] 04/13/2012

WorldStart Tech Tips 2012-04-13 Full-Screen Facebook Picture Viewer Are you ready for another Facebook change? This one isn't as wide-reaching as the much complained about "Timeline" feature, but I'm sure it'll still ruffle a few feathers. It has to do with the Facebook picture viewer, which we've covered before. This addition, called the "full-screen" option, allows you to view your friend's pictures at their maximum size. Now when you view a picture on Facebook, look the upper right-hand corner – you'll see a dual arrow icon. Simply click it, and you'll enter a full-screen version of the picture viewer. To exit, hit ESC, click the X in the upper-right corner, or (in the meantime, at least) click the "Exit full screen" option. Even more ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! ~Andrew Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version --- Douglas in WA wants to know how access the Sticky Notes feature in Windows 7 Here's the tip, Douglas! Enjoy! Do you have something you need to be reminded of? What about your grocery list? Do you like to keep adding items to it throughout the week? Sounds like you need sticky notes! Just type "Sticky Notes" into your Windows 7 Search Box (Located above your Start button) and hit Enter. The Sticky Notes gadget will open up. Now just type your list, note, message or limerick in and you've got yourself an instant desktop resident reminder! You can even change the color by Right-Clicking! To add another Sticky Note, just click the plus sign! ~Andrew Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version YOUR MOUSE IS THE WORST! Tons of Wires, Tons of Clutter, Zero Accuracy, Uncomfortable... HOW DO YOU EVEN USE IT? You Need to Toss the Old one and Check This Out: Wireless Rechargeable OPTICAL Mouse with 5 Buttons! 800 dpi Resolution for Maximum Accuracy & Performance THIS THING WILL TRACK ON ANY SURFACE! USB Powered Charger AND Rechargeable Batteries INCLUDED! Putting Inferior Mice to Absolute Shame! Everyone knows that optical mice are the way to go - hopefully no one is still surfin' along with a ball mouse! This is the newest, smoothest technology out there, and it's going to put EVERY other mouse you've ever used to shame! No jumpy, shifty, jerky scrolling. No lagging or skipping - just pure, smooth tracking and unbelievable comfort! Cutting Edge Optical Technology... Trust me, once you go optical, you'll NEVER go back to anything else. This is superior tracking at it's finest! How Fast? Oh...Just 800 DPI...about double the speed and smoothness of standard optical mice! You've NEVER experienced something like this until you've owned one! There's a fine line between "excellent" and "unbelievable," and this mouse crosses that line into a territory all it's own. And while the main difference is in it's accuracy and smoothness, there's also a ton of features that make this mouse superior in EVERY way to what you currently have. USB Charging Dock & Cable INCLUDED! This mouse is wireless. It runs on two rechargable batteries (Included!) and it comes with a USB powered charging dock. When you're ready to recharge, simply attach your mouse to the INCLUDED charging dock and that's all you have to do! The charger is a USB interface, so you hook it up to your computer and connect it with the included cable. This makes charging a breeze, and ensures that you NEVER run out of power! LED Indicator Lights - this is awesome! When you have your mouse on charge, you'll always know that it's charging up because of the LED indicator light! It's lit up when it's connected, and when it's charging! No more guessing and hoping, the light lets you know that it's powering up! And speaking of power... Power Saving Mode! It's all about the details that make this the BEST mouse ever...and this is one detail that you're gonna love! When not in use, this mouse goes to "sleep..." conserving your battery power for long-lasting convenience! Wireless & Ergonomic - Comfort & Convenience! Wow, imagine that...you're about to be using a mouse that doesn't chain you to one spot on the desk with it's stupid cord! Not only that, but the included batteries are rechargeable and this guy has some range! Since it's optical, you'll immediately experience smooth tracking at a powerful distance! And speaking of comfort - your hand won't believe this! Something about this Mouse just feels right. You can tell immediately upon using it that a lot of time was spent on the design. Whether you're left or right handed, one thing's for certain: you can comfortably use this mouse for HOURS on end! 5 Button Design! This is great for cruising the web, creating documents, using for work - you name it! You have your typical left and right click buttons, and the scroll wheel acts as a third push-down button. Then you have two buttons on the side for even quicker navigation! Get ready to use the fastest, smoothest, most comfortable mouse EVER! You've GOTTA HAVE IT... And You Can For Cheap! Your cost, for a VERY short time, is just $18.97 and US Shipping is FREE! That's an unbelievable deal - try finding that at ANY of your big box stores - you'll NEVER be able to! http://store.worldstart.com/product/7792 PS: limited quantity deal - we don't know how long these are gonna stick around, so get yours now before the price jumps up to $24.97 Monday! George from IN writes: Something has caused our desktop computer to stop "reading" jump drives inserted into the two frontal USB drives. It isn't a problem with the jump drives themselves, because they function fine in a different computer. Is it likely that the problem is anything other than physical damage to the USB drives? Hi, George. I'm a little confused by your question. At the end when you said "physical damage to the USB DRIVES" did you actually mean "physical damage to the USB PORT"? I ask this because your jump drives ARE your USB drives. At a guess, I would say that there are two possibilities. There would have been three, but you're already well on your way to troubleshooting this by checking the jump drives themselves. If they're working, as they seem to be, then you've eliminated that problem. My next guess would be that your USB ports have failed. I don't know how old your computer is, but this happens with time. The way to troubleshoot the ports is to try plugging another USB device into each of the ports. Something simple like a USB-powered light would be best, because that gives you immediate feedback. Plug it in, give it thirty seconds or so for the computer to recognize it, and see if turns on. If the light works in both ports, then I'd say that it's time to take your machine and your jump drives into your friendly neighborhood computer repair center and let them have a go at it. If your computer doesn't recognize it, or the light won't come on, then you've probably got a failed USB port. If the light works in one, but not the other, then plug your jump drive into the one that the light worked in, and see if it works. Once you've determined that it's your USB port, the next thing that you have to do is determine if it's a hardware failure or a software problem, which would probably just be some kind of junk (that's a technical term) in the driver for the USB port. The first step in troubleshooting this is to open your device manager. There is a way to do this through the control panel, but for my money, it's much easier just to open it through the search. The way to do this is to click Start then, in the search box, start entering "device manager" without the quotation marks. It will probably populate before you even have "device" entered. Click on Device Manager, and that will open the manager for you. At or near the bottom, you should have an entry that says "Universal Serial Bus controllers". Click on the arrow to the left of this to expand your USB devices. What you're looking for are your USB hubs. Count the number of entries here and see if they match up to the number of USB ports on your computer. In the example, I know that I have four USB ports on my computer, so there's no hardware failure on my machine. If you have four USB ports, but only two are showing up in your device manager, then two have failed. If the USB ports are not hardwired into your motherboard, and you're comfortable doing it, then just open your machine and reseat the USB port cord onto your mother board. IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE OPENING YOUR MACHINE AND DOING THIS, THEN HAVE A PROFESSIONAL DO IT. When I was doing computer repair, a lot of hardware errors were attributable to people messing around with the hardware who didn't know what they were doing. You can do a lot of damage here fairly easily. If reseating them doesn't work, replace them. If they show up in your device manager, but still don't function, it could still be a hardware problem. The USB port will still register correctly, but the surface inside the port may have become damaged, rendering it impossible to read the devices. The final option, if they are showing up in your device manager but not functioning, is that the driver may have become corrupted. The best way to take care of this is to uninstall and reinstall the driver. The way to do that is to right-click on all of your USB controllers and then click "uninstall". Once you've done that, reboot your computer so that it can install new driver software software. Vista and 7 will do this automatically, while XP will require you to follow a series of on-screen prompts. Hope that this helps. ~Randal Schaffer Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version --- Joyce from MO writes: I have lost the heading in my browser that has the file, edit, view, etc. How can I get it back? I know there is a shortcut, but can't remember what it is. Thank you for any help. The familiar "File" menu bar is quickly becoming a thing of the past with the latest version of each of the most popular web browsers, and is being replaced by different menu layouts and cleaner interfaces with less clutter. If you still want to use the standard menu bar, there are options available for switching back to this older style layout – although the exact method for bringing up the menu varies between browsers. In the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the traditional menu bar has been replaced by the "Firefox" button, which brings up all the various options for changing browser settings or printing text on websites. If you want to go back to the original menu layout, click the orange "Firefox" button located in the top-left corner of the window. Scroll down to the lower-right corner of the drop-down menu and click the "Options" button to bring up an extra set of options. Switch over to the menu layout that features the standard "File," "Edit," and "View" buttons by clicking the option named "Menu Bar." If you ever want to remove the menu bar and return to the simpler "Firefox" button layout, click the "View" button in the menu bar, select "Toolbars," and then remove the check mark from the "Menu Bar" option. Unfortunately the Google Chrome web browser does not currently have a setting to use the traditional menu bar layout, although it does feature an option to show the "Bookmarks" toolbar in the menu bar's place. This toolbar lets you easily navigate to your favorite websites as you could through the menu bar in other browsers. To add the toolbar at the top of the browser, first click the "Wrench" icon located at the top-right corner of the screen just below the red "X" button. Open the sub-menu labeled "Bookmarks." Click the "Show Bookmarks Bar" option to make the bookmarks menu appear at the top of the screen. Return to the "Bookmarks" menu and click "Show Bookmarks Bar" again if you want to turn off the feature. Version 9 of the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser has removed all the standard "toolbar" options for changing which menus and toolbars are visible. While it might seem at first like there's no way to use the old menu bar, Microsoft has left in a very simple shortcut to load the old menu layout in Internet Explorer. Simply press the "Alt" button on your keyboard while Internet Explorer is loaded to bring up the menu bar. You can then tap "Alt" again to hide the menu bar when it is no longer needed. ~ Ty Arthur Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a question for us? Ask it here! Cool Windows Mobile Apps - Part 1 Agreed, the Apples and Androids have cornered the app world, but the Windows Marketplace is catching up with over 60,000 apps up for sampling. These apps range from games and productivity to social networking, communication, and music & video, among others. Without further ado, we will pick a few of the most useful apps in a three-part series. 1. CleanRAM: To stop your phone from slowing down due to memory issues, just run this app – there are four levels (Basic purge, Quality purge, Fundamental purge & custom purge). It will clean up the RAM and give you the much needed memory to stop your phone from slowing down. You can also schedule the clean-up by day or date. Check out the rest by clicking here! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) --- Android Automatic App Updates Part 2 The article, Android Automatic App Updates, brought the following response from Murray. I do not have an option for settings in Google Play. There is only a search option. My phone is currently running Android version 2.3.6 under Bell Canada. How would I make this change under this operating system? Murray, while this may be related to Bell Canada service, I suspect that the issue is the location of the menu button on your phone. My phone (version 4.0) has an onscreen menu button, which was pictured in the original article, but the one for the version 2.3.6 phone displayed here is located at the left, below the screen. View the rest of this tip at Worldstart! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) Darla from Boston, Massachusetts asks: I have a couple of programs that I use a lot. I also like using keyboard shortcuts. Is there any way that I can make my own shortcuts for the ones I use the most? Hi, Darla. Yes, there most certainly is a way to make keyboard shortcuts for any application that you would like to make one for. And it's easy to do! Okay, I use WinRAR a lot, so let's make a shortcut for that. First, go to your Start Button and left-click. Then left-click on All Programs. There's more here! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) --- Keyboard Shortcuts to Underlining in MS Word Quick… in MS Word, what's the difference between Ctrl + U and Ctrl + Shift + W? Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock… Give up? The answer is one little word: spaces. Let me explain. I'm sure you all know that Ctrl + U will underline text, spaces and all like this: Check out the rest by clicking here! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) NIH Senior Health Welcome to the National Institute of Health's site for Senior Health information. I love that this site was designed with seniors in mind; the font is easily changed between three sizes and you can even change the contrast colors of the site so it is easier to read. You'll find two important menus – the one at the very top of the page (containing the categories Health Topics A-Z and Video A-Z), and the menu right on the main page that lists health topics by their first letter from A to Z. I love that they've made the Health Topics doubly accessible. You'll also find a lot of great information featured on the main page like exercise stories, health video, and the link to sign up for e-mail updates. To begin navigating I'd suggest either clicking the letter of a health topic you are curious about or checking out the video topics. When you explore a topic you'll find lots of information, images, and links to more information – or even quizzes to help you fully understand the topic. If there is a video for that topic then you will find that too! This site is a great place to look into health topics that affect seniors. Check it out today! http://nihseniorhealth.gov/ ~Amanda Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version --- What You Own Welcome to What You Own, a site that offers free software that will help you inventory what you own. There are a lot of practical reasons to create an inventory of what you own. What if your house burned down? What if you were robbed? What if you're moving and need a better way to know what you have, so that you can pare down or store correctly? What if you need to do an inventory so you can insure your household goods? I suggest that before you download the software and go to town making an inventory, that you read the FAQ section. This will answer a lot of the questions you may have or that may spring up before you get started. It also provides you food for thought. For example, do you want to take pictures of your items? What I love about this software is its functionality. Sure you could keep a folder in your file cabinet with receipts, pictures, and a list of what you own – but isn't that kind of a pain to keep updated? With this software, you can add recent purchases as well as, delete items that you have given away or trashed. Because you make the inventories room by room, this would also be great software to have to set your house back up after a move! You would know exactly what went there. You never know when you're going to need an inventory of your home, so get started today! http://www.whatyouown.org/ ~Amanda Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version For stories, jokes, quotes and cartoons every day, sign up for our Just for Grins newsletter. It's Spring - Ready to Start Those Home Repairs? Whether You're a DIY Home Worker or a Full-Time Contractor... YOU CAN'T WORK WITH STRIPPED SCREWS! Carpentry 101: If a Screw is Stripped, It's Not Going Anywhere - Until Now! YOU NEED THE DAMAGED SCREW REMOVER! Easily Removes Stripped Screws With a Special, Hardened Tip! Two Pack - One for Stripped Flat Heads, One for Stripped Phillips Heads... WATCH THE VIDEO - THIS THING IS AMAZING! You're Trying to Work... Key word "Trying." See, you have what should be a fairly simple project in front of you, but you can't even get started because the screws are stripped! You know what that means? It means you're screwed - pun absolutely intended. Maybe you're trying to replace a board that runs along the side of your home. Maybe you're trying to take apart a desk or chair to add reinforcements, or even just to screw it down tighter. So you stick the screwdriver in and...NOTHING. It just spins without catching on anything. The bit won't bite. The screw is stripped, and you're stuck in a dillemma. Don't panic! We've got something that'll make quick work of those stripped, damaged screws - check it out! It's Not Magic - It's the BRILLIANT Damaged Screw Remover! There's no screw too stripped, no head too damaged...this can unscrew ANYTHING! See, the tips have a special shape to them that allows them to bite onto anything - even if it's so stripped that it just looks like a rivet. The heads on each of the two screw removers are made of a specially formulated, extra hardened steel that's simply stronger and more resistant than the metal that screws are made of. Couple this with an ergonomically designed handle that provides PLENTY of torquing power, and you've got yourself the PERFECT screw remover! Comes in a Two Pack - Flat AND Phillips Head! No matter what type of screw you have in front of you, you can rest assured that you can get it unscrewed. This package comes with a phillips head and a flat head, so no matter what type of stripped screw is in your way, you'll have it out in no time! And remember, these tips are specially designed and have gone through a hardening process that will NOT strip your driver while you're working stripped bits. It's the PERFECT TOOL! You Don't Have Many Options... Generally, when you have a stripped screw that you need to remove, you're faced with a few options - and all of them are ugly and don't even end up working! You can dig it out, which will result in destroyed wood. I mean, if you dig enough to be able to pull that screw out (and good luck with that!), you're going to be left staring at a big, gaping hole! You can beat it out - but only IF you can get to the other side, which is generally not very likely. And even if you could, do you think forcefully pounding a screw out the opposite direction it went in is a good idea? Nope, this can and will split the wood! The bottom line is this: Without a proper damaged screw remover, your work will be at a stand-still! This Thing Flat out WORKS - Check The Video Out Now! Watch Tim as he works some magic! Just to prove to you how well these things work, we went ahead and straight DESTROYED a screw. Then Tim came in with the Remover and blew us away! Amazing Tool - Outstanding Price! We scored a SWEET deal on these from our vendor, and we're passing the savings directly on to you! Just in time for the Spring/Summer season, too! So for today only, get your two pack of Damaged Screw Removers for just $16.97 with FREE US SHIPPING! http://store.worldstart.com/product/7807 PS: We have a limited supply of these on hand - don't miss your chance, order now! April Wallpaper! Hey, no foolin' - April's wallpaper is ready to go! All the desktop wallpaper below is 100% free. Devil's Bathtub Had to get a little wet for this one. Waded out into the (surprisingly cold) water and setup a tripod to capture the shot. This was the morning after a rainy day and there was... (more) Bison Calf And Flower I found this little guy roaming along the roadside with his mom (and about 300 other bison) in Custer State Park, SD. He was pretty playful and cooperative, so I stuck with him for a bit just to see what would happen. Glad I did! He discovered this thistle and flower and just couldn't stop messing with it. At first, he was... (more) Apple Tree Flower This one is pretty simple. I don't do a ton of macro shots, but in the spring, I just can't seem to resist dragging out the 200mm macro lens and hitting the blossoms a bit. The tree I found was just full of new flowers, but I wanted something special. I noticed as the sun rose, the light spilled... (more) It can all be found here: http://www.backcountrygallery.com/wallpaper/ Enjoy! ~Steve

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