Getting  Along With Your Computer Column Archive

Three Quick Fixes

By Cate Eales
Appeared July 3, 2008 on castanet.net

Sometimes the same issues come up for my clients and readers. Once in awhile there's something unique. Here are two common issues and one that I'd not seen before. I hope something here helps someone out there.
 

I want my old start page back!
I've seen a lot of clients lately who have purchased new computers with Vista. A common refrain is, "I want my old start page back!" New computers often have the vendor's website set as the first page you see when you open up Internet Explorer. Or, they will have AOL or Yahoo! or Google set as their home page.

Naturally, we hope you'll use --- ahem --- castanet.net as your home page! But you can set any page at all as the first thing you see.

In Internet Explorer 7:

To check that you've got it right, click on the house icon in Internet Explorer, or close and reopen the browser. Either way, you should see your start page.

If this doesn't work, check that you've followed the directions exactly. If you have and it STILL doesn't work, then you probably have some security software running that prevents you from making the change. Check your Shaw Secure, Norton, Symantec, or whatever you have installed. Set it to let you change your home page, and if you want to prevent anyone else from changing it, turn that setting back on when you're through.


My font is too small!
Several clients don't like how small the fonts are on Vista's desktop and in the application windows. One way to change the font size in Vista, or even XP, is by adjusting the DPI (dots per inch).

In Vista:

In XP

Windows Mail won't send!
This one was new to me. Windows Mail is the Vista version of Outlook Express. Sometimes a message in the Outbox becomes corrupted, and you can't send any messages at all.

The fix for this is to delete the corrupted message (or messages. There could be more than one!), but sometimes you can't even do that.

Good news. Microsoft released a hotfix for this problem. More about the problem and a link to the hot fix are here.



Thank you to everyone who emailed (or scheduled an appointment!) with questions and comments. You can email me questions about your computer at cate@rlis.com. You can always look through any of the past columns. Point your browser here to go there.  If you'd like to subscribe to this column by email, please visit this link.  It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the RSS Feed, click here.

Happy Fourth of July to our American readers and friends.



Links
Messages may be stuck in the Outbox when you use Windows Mail on a computer that is running Windows Vista http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/941090
Independence Day Quiz http://games.toast.net/independence/
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
RSS Feed: http://rlis.com/rlis.xml

---
Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric, and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions, helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management. Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit the Real Life Internet Solutions website at www.rlis.com.

© Cate Eales 2008 – All Rights Reserved
-30-