Untitled Document

This is a catch-all page, designed to accumulate tips that may only help a few people. Notes are generally added at the top. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! But if you have problems, let me know and I may get convinced to change this material for others.

Time of Day -- AM/PM vs. a.m./p.m.

DNS tends to get these times from the Windows regional settings -- as is appropriate. If you have a strong formatting preference, go to your Windows Control Panel, Regional Options, and change the format for your machine.

VNC/Microsoft Terminal Server Client

DNS works OK, but there is a single window and the Natural Language commands do not work.

For key commands, you can define global commands, or else put all these commands in an application-specific set for VNC or Terminal Server. But you generally can not get as sophisticated with your command usage as when the programs are run on your local system.

This is a good place for keystroke commands instead of commands using application objects, which aren't visible when running in this fashion. You can set up commands that put the (remote) application in the title bar, allowing commands access to this information.

Word "normal.dot" Template

If you use Word, it is likely that at some point you will hear about "normal.dot." It is technically important, and contains many settings, macros, etc.

You should almost never delete this file -- rename it so you have a chance at rescuing settings, macros, etc.

For detailed information about it see: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=151

Serious Tweaking

Some people don't know when to stop tweaking their machines. If you'd rather play with your machine than get your work done, there are lots of things that can be done that will take you 10 minutes so you will save 10 seconds later. That's important for some of you. Some resources include:

http://sohodojo.com/newsletters/rnr_newsletter_08_sup.html This is dated, but it is still useful for older systems.

http://xteq.com/products/xset/

Never "Upgrade" an Operating System

Don't believe the Microsoft hype that you can take your current OS, pop in an upgrade CD, and come out at the end with a nice system. That is fine to do in a hurry, but just doesn't work well. If you have upgraded your OS instead of starting from scratch, and are now having problems, then it is time to save all your data, gather your applications, start with a freshly-formatted disk (consider a new one, using your old disk as your backup), and install everything from scratch. This is not fun. Nor is it cheap if you pay someone to do this. But neither is dealing with the problems that result from upgrades.

Consider Multiple Partitions

Want to upgrade, like your PC, and have lots of extra disk space? In that case, instead of upgrading your OS (see above), use Partition Magic to create a new partition. Install the new OS on the new partition, and install applications on that partition as required. You can boot (using BootMagic) to whichever partition you need. Personally, I often set up a test partition for new software, not installing very much so I don't lose much when I need to reformat the logical drive and start over. But most of you don't test as much software as I do (though often it seems that we are all testing EVERY piece of software).

USB Microphone Problems

When your USB microphone acts strange, try the following IF the USB microphone is your only USB device and if you think the issue is with the drivers, not with the microphone itself:

1) unplug USB microphone from the computer.
2) Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager (or on Windows-XP, Start, Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager)
3) Remove everything under USB Controller.
4) Reboot the computer with USB adapter unplugged.
5) When system stabilizes, plug USB back in. This should load all drivers back in.

Updated March 2003