FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  311 (30/04/02)

Q
I see that the staff at the Air Traffic Control Centre are complaining about the small font size on their screens. I too have problems, notably with the help program on Word 2000 and the Encyclopaedia Britannica DeLuxe CD2000. In both these some of the text is almost too small to read. Or is it my setup?

Richard Jones

A

Check first that your PC display is set to the correct resolution. It’s usually 1024 x 768 on a 15 to 17-inch monitor screen (see Display in Control Panel). If you’re otherwise happy with the resolution you can change the font size of Help in any Microsoft application. It’s done in Internet Explorer of all places. go to Text Size on the View menu and select Larger or Largest. Of course it also makes the text bigger in Internet Explorer but you can easily change it back. Changing font size in Encyclopaedia Britannica is a little more involved, you have to download a modified ‘code sheet’. It’s in the form of a Zip file, so you will need WinZip (www.winzip.com) on your PC to decompress it. Download the file from:

http://tsupport.britannica.co.uk/

Solutions/Downloads/2000%20range/  

All/Font/Styles.ZIP. When download is complete unzip it and it will create a folder called Styles. Copy this to the C:\Program Files\Britannica\BCD\ folder replacing the existing Styles folder, close down and reboot

Q

I have recently been victim of a hack via the net that has changed my home page to the sort you definitely don't want your children seeing. Although I can change it back to my preferred option, it has installed something, so that every time I boot up my system, it changes the homepage back. The site itself have blocked the page so it no longer appears and printed instructions on how to remove the program permanently, but I think it involves changing the Registry.

Gordon Raybould

A

Home page hijacking is becoming a real nuisance, it can be caused by viruses, adware programs and security loopholes in Internet Explorer and there are several different methods of attack, so before you do anything you had better take a look at the following web sites:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/hijacked.html

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/

treeview/default.asp?url=/ technet/security/bulletin/fq99-032.asp

Q

Following a power cut when the monitor was in standby mode, the desktop and all the applications have a black edge around them. Is there an easy way of putting this right?
Brigid P Owen

A

It’s possible that the monitor’s display settings were lost or corrupted when the power went off and it has returned to its default condition. There should be a set of controls, usually accessed from buttons or rotary controls on the front of the monitor, which can be used to adjust the shape and size of the display. The controls may be hidden behind a flap, or buried deep on an on-screen menu, in either case if you are not familiar with your monitor’s controls you should consult the instruction book. 

Q

I've bought a new PC a year or so ago. It came fully loaded with Windows ME, which is slow, unreliable and unstable. I would like to replace it with Windows 98 SE. How do I remove ME so that I can install Windows 98?

John. M. Nunn

A

Windows ME is not to everyone’s taste but before you give up on it make sure you have enough memory, anything less than 128Mb and it can be a bit cranky. There’s no easy way to uninstall ME. The quickest and easiest method is to backup all of your irreplaceable data reformat the hard drive and start over with a clean installation of Windows 98 SE. It is theoretically possible to set up a dual-boot system but this desperate procedure is only for patient masochists with a lot of time on their hands…

Q
I have bought a second hand hard drive to install as a second drive for backups, etc.  However it seems to have a Linux partition that I cannot remove.  How do I remove this partition so that I can format the drive and use all of it? 

Tony Hall

A

Obstinate partitions and those created using the NT file system (NTFS) may not be recognised by the normal Windows disc partitioning and reformatting tools (fdisk and format) on your Startup disc. The solution is to use a disc partitioning tool like ‘Delpart.exe, which used to be included in the old NT 3.1 Resource Pack and available from the Microsoft web site. It seems to have disappeared but you can still get it from sites such as: http://hercules.lss.ksu.edu/download/MSSTUFF/

and

http://radified.com/Files/

Q

In your column on 13th Sept 2001 you gave a method of putting a short cut into the "send to" menu to expand the number of locations to which files might be transferred. I found this most useful but now that I am using Windows 2000 I am unable to carry out this modification because the system cannot find a "send to" file. Does it only work with W9x and ME?

Neal Baldwick

A

The method outlined in F!F!F! was for Windows 9x but you can still add to the SendTo menu in Windows 2000 and XP. The folder in question is located at: C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\SendTo, simply drag and drop any folders, programs, or drive icons into this folder. Alternatively, there’s a simple freeware utility called SendTo Toys, that does all the hard work for you, it can be found at: http://www.gabrieleponti.com/software/

Q

How can I get rid of the entries in the drop-down box on Google Search? I have tried to right-click but get no menu. The small search box at the top left of the window has a dropdown menu with a Clear Search Facility but nothing for the main search box. Please help, I've got loads in there!

David  Phillips

A

I presume you’re referring to the Search field on the Google Toolbar, in which case click onto the Google button to the left of it and select Toolbar options, there you will find a check box for: ‘Keep a search history in a drop-down list under the search box’, uncheck it and the drop-down list will be cleared and eradicated.

Q

I've just downloaded Windows Media Player 7.1 and have the relevant icon on my desktop. On clicking on it I am told the facility will now be opened and added to my PC, and the installing wizard commences.  After the first few parts of this, I get the message "The Windows Media Update Notifier is currently unable to detect available updates. Please try later." I click the OK button, and the attempt to open it finishes.  I have tried this on half a dozen occasions since I downloaded.  What am I missing or not doing correctly?

Alan C. Billinghurst

A

This is a known problem with WIMP 7 and is usually caused by a file called Msxml.dll, which is either missing or corrupt. The solution is to reinstall a new copy of the file, which lives on your Windows CD-ROM. Simple to follow instruction can be found on the Microsoft web site at: http://support.microsoft.com/ default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q272633