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Have It Your Way
 by Cate Eales
Appeared January 30, 2012 on castanet.net


Make things bigger or smaller in Windows. Get your Google back!


I can see clearly now
You can easily change the screen resolution so that you can see things more clearly. A higher resolution results in sharper-looking icons on your desktop, and you can fit more icons on there. Why? Because the higher your screen resolution, the smaller each item will be. If you have trouble seeing icons or the little text under them, you can change the screen resolution.

In Windows 7 or Vista:

bulletClick on Start | Control Panel | Appearance and Personalization | Adjust screen resolution
bulletMove the slider down in Windows 7 to decrease the resolution/increase the size of each item. Move it to the left in Vista for the same effect.
bulletClick on Apply
bulletClick on Keep to save the changes or Revert to cancel the changes

The screen resolution will be the same for all users of that computer.

If you want to leave the resolution alone but just make everything big all the time, you can change the size of text in all your applications.

In Windows 7:

bulletClick on Start | Control Panel | Appearance and Personalization | Adjust screen resolution
Choose Smaller, Medium, or Larger
Click Apply

You’ll need to log off and log on to Windows for the change to take effect.

In Vista:

bulletRight-click on an empty spot on the desktop
bulletClick on Personalize | Adjust font size (DPI)
bulletChoose Larger Scale
bulletClick OK

You’ll need to restart Windows for the change to take effect.


Just plain stupid with a stubborn streak

Bing is a search engine like Google and Yahoo!, except it comes from Microsoft. Several customers and readers mentioned lately that Bing crept in somehow, and now has become the default search in Internet Explorer 9. And it doesn’t want to go gracefully. (http://youtu.be/iTUKHMlbYGA)

You can uninstall the Bing toolbar as you would any other program.  Go to your Control Panel, then Uninstall a program, and uninstall Bing Toolbar.

That will take care of the toolbar, but your IE9 might be set to use Bing as the default search engine.  In that case you have to get a different search engine (for instance, Google) and make that the default search engine.  To do that:

bulletOpen Internet Explorer
bulletClick on the Tools icon at the far right side of the browser window (looks like a gear)
bulletClick on Internet Options | General
bulletIn the Search section, click on Settings
bulletIf you see Google there, click on Google | Set as default | Close
bulletIf you don't see Google there, click on Find more search providers... in the lower left corner of the window
bulletThat takes you to the Internet Explorer Gallery
bulletClick on the orange word search and scroll way over to the right until you find Google Search (you have to scroll a long way)
bulletClick on Google Search
bulletSelect the default choice
bulletClick on Add to Internet Explorer
bulletClick on Add
bulletOK your way out

That should set Google as your default search engine.  Now if you want to remove Bing completely:

bulletOpen Internet Explorer
bulletClick on the Tools icon at the far right side of the browser window (looks like a gear)
bulletClick on Internet Options | General
bulletIn the Search section, click on Settings
bulletSelect Bing
bulletClick on Remove
bulletOK your way out

That actually takes more time to write than it does to show. Here’s a screencast that might help:



 

Links
Windows Update (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Update
Secunia Online Software Inspector http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/
Secunia Reminder Service http://secunia.com/products/consumer/osi/reminder/
Computer Care Kelowna http://computercarekelowna.com/
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

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Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or business computer get along!

Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna, a mobile service helping home users and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send email to help@computercarekelowna.com.

You can read previous columns here. 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.

© Cate Eales 2012 – All Rights Reserved

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