CADDO-BOSSIER
WINDOWS
USER GROUP
Shreveport – Bossier City
Louisiana
www.shreve.net/~cbwug
Volume 6 No 9 Caddo-Bossier Windows User Group Newsletter September 2004
August Meeting
By Glenda Conradi *MEETINGS *
Thursday Sept. 9, 2004
Thursday Oct.. 14, 2004
Podnuh’s Bar-B-Q
1146 Shreveport-Barksdale Hwy
Shreveport, Louisiana
Meetings 2nd Thursday of each month
7 p.m.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Newsletter Reproduction
Compliments of Office Depot
East 70th-Shreveport
Ark-La-Tex Computer Sheaux
~Sheaux Dates~
Bernie Conradi gives a demonstration to answer a question. ~2004 Dates~
February 21, 2004
At the August meeting Bernie experiences that the whole group May 8, 2004
Conradi conducted one of our very benefited from. August 14, 2004
popular question and answer ses- It was mentioned that Microsoft November 13, 2004
sions. There was a large group and Service Pack 2 would soon be re-
they came well prepared with a lot of leased and how it would be distrib- www.computersheaux.org
good questions and also, some tips, uted. Please join us in September to
suggestions, and personal computing find out more about SP 2. ~Contents~
August Meeting .................................1
September Program .........................1
September Program Sheaux Dates ......................................1
By Glenda Conradi Club Information ..............................2
Thank You ..........................................2
The new Microsoft Service Pack 2 patch has been released and many Quick Tip ............................................2
people have put, or will be putting, it on their computers. There may be President’s Page ................................2
more to the new SP 2 patch than you realize. Some of our m embers have I E changes by SP2 ...........................3
been doing some research on things you may want to look for when you add Getting Started With XP ................3
Door Prize Winners ..........................3
the patch to your computer. There are some changes it makes to Internet Ex-
Service Pack 2 Tips ..........................4
plorer and Windows security that will be discussed at the meeting on Sep- Web Sites .............................................4
tember nine. Please come and bring your questions or comments on Micro- Did You Know? .................................4
soft’s Service Pack 2 patch or other Windows subjects.
THE WINDOW September 2004 Page 2
THE WINDOW ~A QUICK TIP~
Published by
Caddo-Bossier Windows User Group
Member of APCUG
Using Disk Cleanup
Editor
Glenda Conradi (glenda@conradi.com) If you have a lot of unnecessary Select Disk Cleanup.
files cluttering up your system it can The Disk Cleanup applet will cal-
Co-Editor make important files much more dif- culate how much space you can save
Jay Graff (jay@jayGraff.com)
ficult to locate and can slow down by emptying the Recycle Bin, dele t-
Submit articles for newsletter, in RTF your system. ing temporary Internet files, and (for
file format, by last day of month to
Glenda and Jay. There is a way you can help clean NTFS drives) compressing old files.
up the clutter. Look at the options. Decide which
The opinions expressed in the articles in Open the Start menu ones make sense to delete and check
this newsletter are not necessarily those
of the editors or publisher. Mention of Select Programs them.
products by their trade name does not in Select Accessories Click on OK to regain the specified
any way constitute endorsement by the
editor or publisher. Select System Tools amount of hard drive space.
The Caddo-Bossier Windows User
Group is a tax exempt, non-profit club.
President’s Page
Membership Dues.
Full: $12.00 a year
Spouse: $6.00 a year
Student: $6.00 a year.
C-B WUG’s Web Address
www.shreve.net/~cbwug
Club Officers
President Bernie Conradi
(bernie@conradi.com)
Caddo-Bossier Windows Users Group August Meeting
Vice-President Wayne Ebert
(CBWUG@shreve.net) Our guests this month were Kathy & Anita Widener. They accompanied
their father to the meeting this evening. The meeting was started with the an-
Secretary Glenda Conradi
(glenda@conradi.com) nouncement of the ComputerSheaux coming on Saturday August 14. Gordon
Ward brought his laptop computer stand, which he has mounted in his truck, to
Treasurer Charlie Byrd show the group. This was a follow-up to last months meeting about the GPS
(cbyrd2@cox-internet.com) and using it in your automobile. We had a long discussion about what to do
Board Members at Large for the upcoming release of Windows XP SP2. The release date to the Win-
David Huckabee dows update will be August 16, 2004. The recommendation is that you wait
(dhuckabee@msn.com) until the update appears on your Windows update and it will download and
Mark Reeves you can install it when you are ready. David Huckabee also said that it will be
(markcr@msn.com) available on CD from Microsoft in the near future. Those of us that have
dialup should probably get the update this way, because the download is going
~Thank You~ to be very large. The meeting this month was an entire evening devoted to
questions and answers and we had more than enough to fill the evening. There
Podnuh’s Bar-B-Q 1146 Shreve- were questions about the use of the “msconfig”, the Control Alt Delete to bring
port-Barksdale Hwy for letting our
group hold our monthly meetings in a up the Task Manager to see what programs are running in the background.
private dining room in their restau- Also, what programs appear in the Startup program group and how to remove
rant them. Bob Franklin asked about how to get rid of the splash screens in Win-
dows XP. A question was also asked about deleting the viruses in the virus
ShreveNet, Inc. for generously pro- vault in AVG, and there was a question as to what is a good free web page
viding an email account and internet
access for C-BWUG and for providing building program.
web space for our club. The door prizes this month were: a box of floppy disks won by Wayne
Ebert; a ream of paper won by Julious Windham; and a computer tool kit won
BancorpSouth on Youree Drive for by Bob Franklin.
providing us with a checking account
at no charge. Look forward to seeing you at the next meeting on September 9, 2004.
Office Depot 70th Street for making Bernie Conradi, President Caddo-Bossier Windows Users Group
copies of the newsletter.
THE WINDOW September 2004 Page 3
Internet Explorer changes by SP2 GETTING STARTED WITH XP
By Wayne Ebert
Run Old Programs in XP
Some major changes to Internet sumed to be. All content already on If you have some old programs
Explorer are installed when Windows your computer is presumed to be that you do not want to give up you
XP Service Patch 2 is installed. Some safe. As hackers can exploit this may still be able to run them in the XP
are transparent to the end user and are presumption, SP2 locks down the operating system.
of interest to Web developers. Others local machine zone. The informa- When you install some of your old
may frustrate users at first, as some tion bar should provide a notific a- software that came out before XP you
Web sites may not function properly tion that the file has been restricted may find that it will not work and you
for example. However, SP2 adds and you can click it to remove the may also find that there is not an up-
some new features that when under- lockdown. The change to date available for the program.
stood will be welcomed by most u s- download, attachment, and Authen- You may be able to get the pro-
ers. The pop-up blocker, the Add-on ticode handling now include addi- gram to run in XP by taking the fol-
Manager, Object caching, locking of tional information when you lowing steps.
the local security zones, and changes download files and attachments. Right-click the program's shortcut.
to download, attachment, and Au- The Authenticode dialog box now Choose Properties.
Select Compatibility.
thenticode handling improve the s e- gives you information about the
Click "Run this program in compati-
curity of you computer. publisher of a signed file before
bility mode for," (choose the appropri-
The pop-up blocker displays an opening the file. ate Windows version).
information bar under the address bar These are not the only changes Click OK.
when a pop-up is blocked. If you that have been made to Internet Ex-
want to see the pop-up, all you have plorer by SP2, but they are the ones Important: Never run an antivirus
to do is click on the information bar that will have the most impact on program, a defragger, or any other
and select to temporarily allow pop- end users. Other changes make system utility under a version of Win-
ups, always allow pop-ups from this browsing safer and more secure. dows it isn't intended for. Doing so
site, or change the pop-up blocker could damage your system.
settings. You can turn off the notif i-
cation bar by deselecting the Show Door Prizes Winners for August 2004 Meeting
Information Bar For Pop-Ups option.
If you turn off the information bar,
the pop-up blocker will display an
icon in the status bar to notify you of
a blocked pop-up. Turning off the in-
formation bar for pop-ups does not
turn it off for other notifications. The
Add-on Manager displays a list of
add-ones that are installed, whether
currently loaded or not or just those
that are currently loaded. You open
the Add-on Manager by clicking
Tools > Manage Add-ons to select
from the Show drop-down list. Ob-
ject caching for Web object [HTML
pages, graphics files, sound files,
script, etc] are cached on the hard
drive for better performance by Bob Franklin, Wayne Ebert and Julious Windham
speeding up access. Web sites are as- The August door prizes were won by Bob Franklin, a PC tool kit; Wayne
signed to different security zones Ebert, a box of floppy disks & Julious Windham, a ream of paper.
with different levels of restrictions All Caddo-Bossier Windows User Group club members in attendance are
based on how safe the sites are a s- eligible to win door prizes at the monthly meetings.
THE WINDOW September 2004 Page 4
Service Pack 2 Tips
By David M Huckabee
Now that you have installed Service puter, including requests to pro- 2. Click on Tools.
Pack 2 (SP -2) on your Windows XP, grams or services selected on the 3. Click Options.
there are a few things that you can do Exceptions tab. Use this setting 4. Click the Security tab.
to adjust it to your liking. when you need maximum protec- 5. other external content in
Change Internet Explorer Pop-up tion for your computer. HTML e-mail check box.
Blocker Settings to let in some pop- Tip - There is no need to keep 6. Click Apply.
ups: Don’t allow exceptions selected 7. Click OK.
1. Open Internet Explorer. all the time, because when it is, I hope these tips help you to get
2. On the Tools menu, point to some of your programs might not familiar with some of the new fea-
Pop-up Blocker. work correctly, and the following tures of Service Pack 2.
3. Click Pop-up Blocker Settings. services are blocked from accept-
4. If you want to see pop-up win- ing unsolicited requests:
~Web Sites~
dows from a specific Web site, • File and Printer Sharing
type the address (or URL) of the • Remote Assistance and Remote Windows XP Support Center
site in the Address of Web site to Desktop http://support.microsoft.com/default.
allow box. aspx?pr=winxp
• Discovery of network devices (Windows XP Service Pack 2, Top issues,
5. Click Add.
• Preconfigured programs and ser- Step-by-Step Instructions & How To A r-
Adjust Windows Firewall settings: vices on the exceptions list
If you’re running SP-2, the new ticles, Downloads, Updates & more)
Windows Firewall is turned on • Additional items that you’ve
by default. To help protect your added to the exceptions list Yahoo! Search Shortcuts
Note - When you select Don’t allow http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/
computer against viruses or se- tips/tips-01.html
curity threats, it is recom- exceptions, you can still send and
receive e-mail, use an instant mes- (Links to all sorts of information such as
mended that you keep Windows dictionaries, encyclopedias, airport info,
Firewall on. However, you saging program, or view most Web
pages. zip codes, maps and much more)
might need to adjust settings for
some programs that prefer an Off: This setting turns Windows CopyKat Recipes
open connection. Firewall off. This setting should www.copykat.com/asp/recipes.asp
1. Click Start. only be used if your computer is (CopyKat Recipes reveals secrets of gi-
protected by another firewall ants like Olive Garden and Bennigan's!)
2. Click Control Panel.
Outlook Express:
3. Click Windows Security Cen- When you open an e-mail message Webstrider
ter. in Microsoft Outlook Express, the http://www.webstrider.com/
4. Click Windows Firewall. areas in the e-mail message that are (This site is loaded with links to some
very impressive sites such as lists of ma-
5. In the General Tab make your supposed to contain images are
jor network news sites, weather sites, fun
selection. blocked. These areas display a red sites, entertainment sites, homework help,
6. Windows Firewall has three X placeholder. Additiona lly, you public safety… the list goes on & on!)
settings: On, On with no ex- are prompted with the following
ceptions, and Off. just above the content window of
the e-mail message: DID YOU KNOW?
On: Windows Firewall is turned Some pictures have been blocked
on by default, and normally you You should not plug your printer
to help prevent the sender from into a surge suppresser or power
should leave it that way. When identifying your computer. Click
you choose this setting, Win- strip that you turn off at the end of
here to download pictures. your computing session. Plug it into
dows Firewall blocks all unsolic- Warning:
ited requests to connect to your a source of power that is never
The Block images and other exter- turned off, such as a wall outlet.
computer, except for requests to nal content in HTML e-mail option
programs or services selected on Some recommend a printer be le ft
is a security feature that has been on all the time, but if you need to
the Exceptions tab included in Windows XP SP-2 to
On with no exceptions: When turn your printer off use its power
protect your computer against junk switch. The printer needs to go
you select the Don’t allow ex- e-mail (spam). I recommend that
ceptions check box, Windows through a shut down procedure, e s-
you do not turn this option off. pecially an ink jet. It needs to park
Firewall blocks all unsolicited If you must turn this off :
requests to connect to your com- the print cartridges so they won’t
1. While in Outlook Express. dry out.