Notes of C&C Meeting 19 October 1999 Coordinator Ted welcomed 45 attendees, and Wolf reported that funds are adequate. The Group lunch will be on 30 November: the menu will be circulated at the next meeting. Allan announced that the PCUG Bulletin Board will probably cease on 31 December due to Y2K incompatibility. If you would like to comment or suggest another service, please contact Allan at amikkels@pcug.org.au. HARDWARE BETTER SERVICE FROM TELSTRA: John reported that Telstra responded the same day to his recent complaint about "spiders in the junction box", and replaced the line (damaged by acrobatic birds) immediately. 10/99 CLEANING UP THE HARD DRIVE: Peter wants to reduce hard drive clutter. He has found over 100MB of unwanted files in C:/Windows/Temp and in C:/Windows/Temporary Internet Files. Chess said that the best way to delete these files is to run 'Disk Cleanup' by opening My Computer. Right click on the drive you want to clean up then click on Properties. Click on the Disk Cleanup button which appears in the Properties window. Peter can also change the cache settings to reduce the future volume of temporary Internet files. 10/99 FORMAT C: PROCEDURE: Peter also asked for advice about the Format C: procedure. Merv said that it is necessary to have a Win98 start up disk for booting the system. The Win98 start up disk includes files for the CD-ROM. The DOS FDISK program was mentioned. FDISK can be run from the DOS prompt after booting from the Win98 start up disk. The DOS command 'format c: /s' should be used to copy the system files to the formatted disk. John said that he would give Peter advice on the Format C: procedure. . Chess advised not to bother with Norton Zip maintenance software; as Windows 98 maintenance offers all the facilities you need. 10/99 MOUSE SPEED: Ken has solved his "slow mouse" problem by having a close look at the mouse programs that load on booting (28 in all). He deleted 14 which he thought might be less useful than others, then rebooted. Result: no further problems. 10/99 PRINTER CABLE: Elizabeth's connection to her computer was suddenly severed. Before trying to reinstall the printer from a floppy, she should check whether the parallel printer cable may be loose. 10/99 LAPTOP SCAM: Charlie related his recent experience with a Canberra retailer, where he bought a keenly priced new laptop, only to discover its warranty documents were already filled out with the name of the previous owner! He contacted this person, who told Charlie he had returned the laptop because the power kept failing. Other Group members confirmed that if you see a new, surprisingly cheap laptop for sale, it is almost certainly a dud which has been returned to the retailer, so beware. 10/99 OPERATING SYSTEMS WINDOWS HELP FILES VERSUS BOOKS: Jeff is not a fan of Windows help files, and he has edited and printed several versions of the help files using Agent RTF software (cost $US44). Jeff was particularly impressed with the fact that, despite his having heavily edited the text, the numbers given in the index automatically changed to give correct references. 10/99 SPELLCHECKER INSTALLATION IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES: Adele wants to be able to use both the Australian English and the Spanish spellchecker. Merv advised she should first install the two languages required, as follows: uninstall Word 97 via Control Panel then add/remove software; install keyboards, choosing the two languages required from the menu as defaults; clean registry; reboot; install Word 97. When the procedure is complete, a symbol should appear in the system tray so Adele can click on whichever language she requires. Merv cautioned that Adele may have to try a few times to get the system to agree to choose Australian English. 10/99 INTERNET TIP "STILL TOPS": John arranged for Maestro to test their Woomera modem on TIP. The modem connected at 49333 bps – as good as, or better than, any ISP in Canberra. 10/99 PRINTING WEB PAGES: To print web pages without their backgrounds, make sure this option is turned off. Gloria advised to go to tools, options, advanced, and check that background printing is unticked. 10/99 SOFTWARE BABELFISH TRANSLATOR: John praised Babelfish, which translates any language into other languages in written form; and provides short cuts (via your toolbar) to such useful sites as "link" pages and the Altavista translation service. 10/99 UNINSTALLING INTERNET EXPLORER 5: It turns out that if you try to uninstall IE5, the program will resist. As soon as you give the command to delete, IE5 offers to "fix all your problems". Ken accepted this offer, and his problem (getting a blank Microsoft Update page) disappeared. 10/99 OUTLOOK EXPRESS HICCUP: Kryn's screen went blank just as he received the last of seven emails. He managed to restart the computer, but how should he recover the messages? They will be found safely stored in the deleted folder. 10/99 WORD DRAW: Jeff praised Draw, which can be used, for example, to trace maps from an atlas copied and pasted from a CD. He passed around maps showing various holiday itineraries, which we found very impressive. 10/99 JL 20/10/99 ****************************************************** Recent Coffee & Chat pages are available on the internet news group tip.coffee-chat. Archives of past meetings are available at the web site: http://www.pcug.org.au/pcug/candc/c&c.htm These Archives are searchable, and also include some minutes of the Internet SIG, run on alternate Mondays *******************************************************
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