FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  501 21/02/06)

Q

Having upgraded to XP I now find that when I click on Send, in Send & Receive on the Tools menu, the progress box that used to stay open, showing the number of messages being sent, progress, and also importantly any errors, does not come up any more.  I have to rely on clicking on computer icon on bottom right bar, which only shows how many bytes are being sent and received, an absolute waste of time!

Also, messages go into the Sent folder when they have not been sent, which never happened on the older program. Is there anything I can do to get that old progress box back?

Janet Wakely, via email

A. I am not aware of any user ‘switches’ or Registry hacks that can disable the Outlook Express Send/Receive status box so my guess is that there’s a fault with the program or the box has somehow been shifted off the screen. You can restore it to its default position by temporarily changing your monitor resolution to 800 x 600. Right click onto an empty area of the desktop, select Properties then Settings and move the Screen Resolution slider to the far left (after making a note of its current setting), open OE then click the Send/Receive icon. When you are finished return the Resolution slider to its previous setting.

If that doesn’t work I would try re-installing OE and the easiest way to do that is to go the Microsoft Internet Explorer Home Page (OE and IE are a package) and update to the latest version (Popular downloads > Internet Explorer Service Pack 1).

I suspect messages stored in the Outbox are being sent automatically by OE as soon as it is opened. You can stop this happening by going to Tools > Options, select the General tab and under Send/Receive Messages deselect ‘Send and receive messages at startup’.

Q

I have completely erased my laptop and Fdisked it to have one partition instead of two. I then reinstall Windows XP Home using the manufacturer's recovery disc, but it always re-installs with two partitions! I have done this numerous times but always arrive at two partitions after re-installing Windows.

Stan Dobson, Carlisle

A

This is by design on and meant to protect essential Windows files by storing them on the second partition. Unless you have a compelling reason for wanting to have a single partition on your machine, and thus increase the chance of loosing both your operating system and data should the drive fail, then I would leave well alone. If you must change the configuration then you will need to purchase a utility like Partition Magic or Partition Manager .

Q

I am sure this is a very basic problem but can you tell me why, when printing out a web page the coloured parts will not print?

Pamela Carr, via email

A

In fact printing web pages is a surprisingly convoluted business for the simple reason that they are designed to be viewed on screen, rather than printed out on sheets of paper. Some web sites helpfully provide ‘Printer Friendly’ versions of their pages. Otherwise the printer utility in browsers like Internet Explorer do their best to capture what they considers to be the important elements of the page, namely text, links and graphics and avoid things that can make the page harder to read and take longer to print, like backgrounds and blocks of colour.

You can make some change by going to Print on the File menu. This opens the Print dialogue box and if you click the Options tab you can control which parts of the page are printed. If you go back to the General tab and click the printer’s Preferences button you can switch between colour and black or white printing and make changes to print quality, layout and paper type/size. Finally if you go to Page Setup on the browser’s file menu you can change margins and paper orientation (many pages print better in Landscape mode) and Print Preview, also on the File menu, will show you what the page will look like when it is printed out.

Q

I have a MicroTek ScanMaker II. It was bought in the UK ten or more years ago but still works perfectly with its original SCSI connection. I would like to convert it to USB 2.0 so that can connect it to my other computer. Is this possible and, if so, what do I need to do?

Alan Dauncey, via email

A

I’m afraid not, few scanners of that era had a USB port and a conversion, whilst technically possible, would probably cost many times what it is worth. Although it’s going to be a wrench to give it up you will find that modern scanners are cheaper, faster and capable of even better results than your old model.

Q

I have been using the Jazzercise web site for year for years but for over a month now I have had to access this site from a friend’s computer. Every time I try to get onto this site from my own computer using Internet explorer I get “This page cannot be displayed”. I am a dance instructor and need the site to do my job. I am at a loss and don’t know what to do. Explorer will take me anywhere else but this site it doesn’t want to know.

Jackie Young, via email

A. Normally when you see the ‘Page cannot be displayed’ message the first place to look is IE’s security settings but it is odd that you haven’t noticed the problem on any other web sites. As far as I can see there is nothing unusual about the site, no pop-ups, hidden code or unusual media. You can check if it is a Security issue by going to Tools > Internet Options, select the Security tab then click the Custom Level button on the ‘Reset Custom Settings’ drop down menu change it to Medium or Medium-low, click OK and try again. Failing that the only thing I can suggest is to switch to Mozilla Firefox browser, it’s faster and more secure than IE, very easy to use and it’s free!

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© R. Maybury 2006, 1402