Computer Repairs, Computer Servicing - Computer Support in Devonport, Auckland, North Shore

Q: My Outlook Express seems to be running quite slowly - it takes ages to start up, for instance. Is there anything I can do about it?
A: The usual cause of this is simply too many emails within Outlook Express itself. Here are some tips for keeping Outlook Express tidy and keeping it trim & nimble:
- are there less than 10 emails in your inbox?
If not, delete the ones you don't need and sort the others into new folders. Right click on 'local folders' in the left hand column and click on 'New Folder', give it a name and drag all the emails (eg from any one given person) into that folder. Repeat ad infinitum. Better to have LOTS of folders with a few emails in than one great big huge folder with everything in it. Also makes specific emails easier to find.

- for all emails that have attachments, save the attachments (eg into My Documents) and then delete the email
- make sure you empty out the 'Sent Items' folder. Any important emails that need to be kept can be dragged into the folder you created for that person in the first step mentioned here, and then the rest can be deleted
- click File > Folders > Compact all folders and do this regularly
- delete all emails older than 12 mths old
- make sure the 'Deleted Items' folder is emptied each time you close Outlook Express. Click Tools > options > maintenance tab and put a tick in the relevant box (if it is not there already).

Q: When I enter Outlook Express the screen does not show the Inbox, Outbox, Sent mail , Deleted Items, Drafts etc How can I reinstate this???

A: In the top row of Outlook Express, it says ' File, Edit, View, Tools.... ' etc
Click on the word 'View' and a menu drops down.
Click on the word 'Layout' and on the next little screen, put ticks in the boxes next to 'Folder List' and 'Contacts'. And then press Apply & OK - and all will be returned!

Q: I have received several emails with Powerpoint attachments that I can't open as I don't have Microsoft Office installed on my computer. Is there any way I can view these without having to pay $100's to Microsoft?

A: If you want only to read/view Powerpoint presentations, and not actually create any, then all you need is Microsoft's 'Powerpoint Viewer'. You can download this from www.microsoft.com/office/000/viewers.asp - where you will also viewers for Word, Excel and Access Database files, should you need them. Best of all - they are free!

Q: Could you please tell me how to permanently dispose of the hundreds of e-mail messages in my "Deleted Items" box?
.
A: In Outlook Express, at the top of the screen, click on 'Tools' and a drop-down menu appears. Click on 'Options'. This opens a new set of boxes. One of the tabs is called 'Maintenance'. Click on this.
The first option is a tick box saying 'Empty messages from the deleted items folder on exit'. Click in this box to put a tick in it. Click 'OK' and then close Outlook Express. Start Outlook Express again and all the messages in the Deleted Items folder will be gone!

Also make sure you clear out the emails in the 'Sent Items' folder that you no longer need. Very often, there are more emails here than in the Deleted Items folder. Its good to have a regular clear out now and then.

Q: I'm having difficulty sending picture attachments in emails - I get this error message saying that my connection has 'timed out'. Is there anything I can do about this?

A: Large email attachments can cause problems - mailservers usually have limits on the size of email /attachment you can send. Obviously, it also takes a long time to send a large attachment also. But you can increase the timeout settings by going to:

Tools > Accounts, highlight your account and click 'Properties' and go to the Advanced tab and slide the 'Server Timeouts' slider to the right

Good also to stick to non-busy times of the day to send large emails (8-11am, 5-7pm) - stay out of the rush hour! Otherwise, the way to go would be to get Jetstream - fast internet access with no email delays!

Q: My Outlook Express seems to be taking a long time to load - probably because I have too many emails in there. How do I find out how much space my emails are taking up?

A: Click on Start > Find > files or folders and search for *.dbx (star-dot-dbx) (.dbx files are your email folders). When you have found them all, add up the total number of megabytes and compare this to the amount of RAM that you have. If the total is greater than your RAM, then you are in trouble!

It's not the number of emails that it is important - it is the number of emails with attachments. Always ensure that attachments are removed from an email and saved in "My Documents' (or wherever) and that the email is itself deleted (which deletes the attachment embedded in the email) and you will reduced the size of your emails and the slowness of Outlook Express. Don't forget to compress your email folders too. From within Outlook Express, click on File > Folder > Compact all folders to reduce the actual size of the .dbx files.

Q: I have two computers - a desktop and a laptop and want to get my emails on my laptop, but still be able to receive them on my desktop when I get back home. Can I do this? I am using Outlook Express.

A: Of course! Launch Outlook Express on your laptop. Click on Tools > Accounts. Click the 'Mail' tab and highlight your email account. From the right hand column, click the 'Properties' button
When the properties dialogue box comes up, the last tab is called 'Advanced'. Click on that tab and on that page is a tick box saying 'Leave a copy of messages on the server' - tick this. That way, when you collect your emails on your laptop, they will still be there for you to collect on your desktop computer when you get home.

Q: My email is on that setting where it disconnects from the internet after sending/receiving mail. Where is that setting to turn it off?

A: Within Outlook Express, pretty much all settings can be found by clicking on 'Tools' in the menu bar and then selecting 'Options'. On the 'Options' screen, there is a tab called 'Connections' and here you will find a tick box to enable or disable the auto-disconnect function within Outlook Express. Set it as you wish!

Q: Could you please tell me how to ensure that new e-mails I receive always appear at the top of the Inbox list? I use both Incredimail and Outlook Express and have to scroll down the Inbox list to find any new messages.

A: At the top of the Inbox in Outlook Express, there are usually three column titles: From, Subject, Received If you click on each of these title bars near the word, it will re-arrange the emails in the folder according to each of those titles, eg:
- alphabetically, by first letter of the sender's name (A-Z)
- alphabetically, by the first letter of the message subject (A-Z)
- chronologically, in order of date
If you click on each of these again, it will reverse the order - eg alphabetically Z-A.
If you click on the 'Received' title, it will reverse the order by date, from most recent to earliest, or earliest to most recent. That's the one you want! It should be the same in Incredimail.

Q: How can I improve security within Outlook Express?

A: Outlook Express is the most widely used e-mail application, which also makes it the primary target for many virus writers. A typical OE default installation will do the following: It will start in 'Internet zone', automatically send and receive messages at startup, open the inbox with the preview pane enabled, and execute executable code that might be concealed in the e-mail message. To improve security levels within OE:

- click on View > Layout and untick the 'show preview pane'
- then go to Tools > Options and under the 'Security' tab, set the security zone to 'restricted sites'
- Under the 'General' tab, untick 'send and receive messages at startup'. Whilst here, untick 'automatically log on to MSN Messenger'
- Under the 'Read' tab, untick 'automatically download message when viewing in the preview pane'.
For higher security, on the 'Read' tab, tick the box which says: 'Read all messages in plain text'

Q: I am having difficulty opening attachments - it is as if I am not allowed to do this. I am using Windows XP Home.

A: As you are using Windows XP, I suspect you are using Outlook Express 6. By default, OE6 has security settings that will not open attachments deemed 'unsafe'. You need to disable this 'feature'.
- In Outlook Express, click on Tools > Options and then the 'Security' tab.
- When you are there, Untick the box which says: "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened which could potentially be a virus"
Click Apply and OK and all should be well.

Q: You don't have any tricks to storing email messages in to other files in a text format without going through each individually do you?

A: Yes, you can save them more than one at a time
1) open the My Documents folder
2) create a new folder in there, say called: Saved Emails
3) open your email program
4) resize the windows so you can see both Outlook and your Saved Emails folder at the same time (ie resize them so they are placed side by side)
5) then, highlight all the emails you want to save and drag 'n' drop them into the folder
And then you will find that they all save as individual email files.

Q: Is it possible to have a different default setting for the font & size when creating a new email? At the moment, it defaults to the font on the top of the list of fonts which is Arial & size 10. Can I change this default to Comic Sans MS & size 14? If so, can you please tell me how to do it.

A: In Outlook Express, click on Tools > Options and in the options, click on the 'Compose' tab and select the font/size that you want to use as default. Click OK etc to get out of there and you are done.

Q: I can't open photos sent as an attachment to emails. When I click on the attachments part the titles come up very faint which traditionally has told me I can't open them - have tried again and I can't - tried double clicking and all that.

A: This can be caused by a security setting within Outlook Express. If so, click on Tools > Options and then go to the Security tab. Untick 'Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened....' , then click Apply & OK. However, sometimes this problem is also caused by a lack of association of a file type with a program.
- go to My Documents/My Pictures and find a jpg file
- click on it once, just so that it is highlighted (don't actually open the file)
- press the SHIFT key on the keyboard, and as you are holding this down, right-click on the file
This will bring up the right-click menu with an additional option: Open With....
- click on 'Open With' and a little box will come up with a range of programs
-scroll down through this list until you find Internet Explorer (maybe there as iexplore) and highlight this
- put a tick in the box that says 'always use this program to open this kind of file' and then click apply/OK. And that should do it.

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	Help with Outlook Express Q: My name is spelt wrong in my emails - not my email address as such, but the name that appears in the 'From' field. How can I change this? I am using Outlook Express. A: This is easy to solve. In Outlook Express: - click on Tools > Accounts - in the Accounts window, double-click your email account name - a new window pops up and on the first tab, which is the General tab, in the row that says 'Name', change the name to what you want it to be. Click apply & OK. And you are done. Q: How can I save copies of the emails that I send? My computer used to do this but now has stopped doing it. I am using Outlook Express 6. A: Open Outlook Express. In the very top row, click on the word 'Tools' and in the menu that drops down, click on the word 'Options' and a new dialogue box pops up, with many tabs. Click on the 'Send' tab. On this page, click in the box next to: 'Save copy of sent messages in the sent items folder' to put a tick in it. Then click 'Apply' and 'OK' . And then all emails that you sent will be saved in the Sent Items folder. Q: I have got more than one email account that I use in Outlook Express. How do I change the default address or switch between the two addresses so I can use different ones according to who I am sending an email to? A: Launch Outlook Express and click on Tools > Accounts. In the accounts box, highlight the email account you want to use as default and click 'set as default'. As you have more than one email address, when you compose a new email, at the end of the 'From' field you will see a drop-down arrow; click on this and choose which email account to send the email from. Q: I have just changed my ISP and have a new email address. How can I tell everyone in my address book my new email address without having to send them all an email individually? A: To do mass emailing, you need to add people to the CC or BCC fields when you are creating a new email. So, start by creating a new email. You see the three rows: To: Cc: Bcc: and to the left of this, you see a little book icon. Click on this and this will open your address book. Add whoever you want to the email this way by highlighting their name in the left hand column and then clicking on the CC or BCC button on the right hand side - so that their name appears in the box you have clicked on the right. (NB if you want to add more than one person at a time, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard as you click on each name to select the people you want) CC means 'copy' - which means all recipients will see all the email addresses you have sent the email to BCC means 'blind copy' - which means the recipient will see only their email address when they receive the email and NOT anyone elses. BCC is the preferred option for sending emails to large numbers of people, so I would recommend you do this. Then type out your email in the usual way and press 'Send/Receive' and you are done! Q: When you forward an email (but would rather make it appear like a new one!) is there any way of removing all the little > signs? A: Try this: In Outlook Express, click on Tools > Options go to the Send tab and check the options in the Mail Sending button for HTML and plain text. Looks to me like you must be sending messages in plain text - its only plain text which does the > indentation Q: When I receive emails I often get the message "Some pictures have been blocked to help prevent the sender from identifying your computer. Click here to download pictures." Help !! A: In outlook express, look at the very top row of the screen, Click on Tools>Options When the options screen comes up, click on the Security tab Untick the box that says 'Block images and other external content...' Click apply / ok until you get back to Outlook Express and then you should be fine Q: My e-mail address is with clear.net.nz. I have a few e-mails to view but one very long e-mail is causing the connection to disconnect before it is completed and therefore I cannot download my mail. How do I get around this?!! A: What you need to do is to go to the Clear Net webmail site at https://webmail.clear.net.nz and log in with your username & password. Once in, then you can find - and delete - the emails that are causing you the problem. Very often you find it is some one who has sent you a 'silly' movie or large quantities of photos - or worse still, some very silly chain email that they have just forwarded on. When you have found out who the culprit is, then you might like to phone them and have a word with them about the effects of what they have done… that should stop them! Q: My Paradise contract is finished. Please, how do I get rid of it from my machine. Each time I go into Outlook Express, a pop up about dialling Paradise appears. A: In Outlook Express: - click on Tools and then in the drop down menu, click on 'Accounts'. In the new window, you will see two email accounts listed - highlight the Paradise one and click 'remove', and then you are done. Q: How do I stop emails from being deleted from the Deleted Items folder all the time? A: In Outlook Express, look at the very top row: - click on Tools - from the menu that appears, click on 'Options' - from the window that appears, click on 'Maintenance' and in there, untick the box which says 'empty the deleted items folder on exit' And that will sort it. Q: I can no longer see all my emails inbox and sent items etc - all I get when I start Outlook Express is the emails themselves. Help! A: You need to reconfigure your Outlook Express Layout. In Outlook Express, look at the very top row Click on VIEW In the drop down menu, click on LAYOUT. In the layout options, put a tick in 'Folder List' click apply & OK - and then they will all come back Q: I have been finding recently that some emails that I know have been sent to me are taking a long time to arrive - and some emails that I am sending are not arriving for some hours to the people I send them to. How do I find out when an email was sent and what time it was received? A: To check when emails were sent or received, in Outlook Express: - in the inbox, right click on the email in question and choose 'properties' - on the box that comes up, it will say when the email was sent and when it was received eg on the one you just sent me it says sent: 21/2/2006 11.01 received: 21/2/2006 11.01 So in this way, you can find out exactly when you actually received it Delays can occur - it depends on the ISP's or email servers involved (and it all seems pretty random...) Q: Outlook Express keeps suggesting that it compact my emails, does this make them difficult to read? A: No, compacting the email folders does not make the emails difficult to read. When you delete a lot of emails, the folder they were in does not automatically re-shrink itself in size, and this is what the compacting does. In Outlook Express, click File > Folder > Compact All Folders. You can do this manually but it will probably take 15-20mins to do it if you have a lot of emails! Q: I have a big problem you may be able to help me with (no-one else I haved asked has been able to). When I print from emails the font size in the text of the letter comes out about twice as large as I need/want it to. How can I change this back! A: In Outlook express, on the very top row, it says 'File Edit View Tools Message Help' Click on 'View'. On the drop down menu, click on 'Text Size' and make sure it is ticked next to 'medium' - if not, click on the word medium to reset it to the default size. Then, launch Internet Explorer and in the top row you see "file, edit, view....' Click on 'View' and in the drop-down menu go to 'Text Size' and confirm it is set to medium also. If not, put a tick next to 'medium' and all will be well. Q: Is there are way I can transfer the email addresses in my address book quickly and simply into a word document so I can print it out for reference? A: Yes it can be done easily - into an Excel spreadsheet: 1) open Outlook Express 2) open the address book 3) click File > Export > Other address book 4) of the two options you get, highlight 'Text File (Comma separated values') & click the 'Export' button 5) on the next screen, click the 'Browse' button to choose the location of where you want to store the file, and give it a name (eg: addresses) and click the 'Save' button 6) this returns you back to the previous screen, where you should then click 'Next' 7) put a tick next to the fields of information you want to export - if you only want their names & email address, just tick those two items, and untick all the rest 8) Click 'Finish' - then 'OK' and then close the remaining boxes 9) Find the file called addresses.csv in the location where you saved it (eg in My Documents) and double-click on it. This will open it in Excel - and then you can print it out from there. Q: My Outlook Express seems to be running quite slowly - it takes ages to start up, for instance. Is there anything I can do about it? A: The usual cause of this is simply too many emails within Outlook Express itself. Here are some tips for keeping Outlook Express tidy and keeping it trim & nimble: - are there less than 10 emails in your inbox? If not, delete the ones you don't need and sort the others into new folders. Right click on 'local folders' in the left hand column and click on 'New Folder', give it a name and drag all the emails (eg from any one given person) into that folder. Repeat ad infinitum. Better to have LOTS of folders with a few emails in than one great big huge folder with everything in it. Also makes specific emails easier to find. - for all emails that have attachments, save the attachments (eg into My Documents) and then delete the email - make sure you empty out the 'Sent Items' folder. Any important emails that need to be kept can be dragged into the folder you created for that person in the first step mentioned here, and then the rest can be deleted - click File > Folders > Compact all folders and do this regularly - delete all emails older than 12 mths old - make sure the 'Deleted Items' folder is emptied each time you close Outlook Express. Click Tools > options > maintenance tab and put a tick in the relevant box (if it is not there already). Q: When I enter Outlook Express the screen does not show the Inbox, Outbox, Sent mail , Deleted Items, Drafts etc How can I reinstate this??? A: In the top row of Outlook Express, it says ' File, Edit, View, Tools.... ' etc Click on the word 'View' and a menu drops down. Click on the word 'Layout' and on the next little screen, put ticks in the boxes next to 'Folder List' and 'Contacts'. And then press Apply & OK - and all will be returned! Q: I have received several emails with Powerpoint attachments that I can't open as I don't have Microsoft Office installed on my computer. Is there any way I can view these without having to pay $100's to Microsoft? A: If you want only to read/view Powerpoint presentations, and not actually create any, then all you need is Microsoft's 'Powerpoint Viewer'. You can download this from www.microsoft.com/office/000/viewers.asp - where you will also viewers for Word, Excel and Access Database files, should you need them. Best of all - they are free! Q: Could you please tell me how to permanently dispose of the hundreds of e-mail messages in my "Deleted Items" box? . A: In Outlook Express, at the top of the screen, click on 'Tools' and a drop-down menu appears. Click on 'Options'. This opens a new set of boxes. One of the tabs is called 'Maintenance'. Click on this. The first option is a tick box saying 'Empty messages from the deleted items folder on exit'. Click in this box to put a tick in it. Click 'OK' and then close Outlook Express. Start Outlook Express again and all the messages in the Deleted Items folder will be gone! Also make sure you clear out the emails in the 'Sent Items' folder that you no longer need. Very often, there are more emails here than in the Deleted Items folder. Its good to have a regular clear out now and then. Q: I'm having difficulty sending picture attachments in emails - I get this error message saying that my connection has 'timed out'. Is there anything I can do about this? A: Large email attachments can cause problems - mailservers usually have limits on the size of email /attachment you can send. Obviously, it also takes a long time to send a large attachment also. But you can increase the timeout settings by going to: Tools > Accounts, highlight your account and click 'Properties' and go to the Advanced tab and slide the 'Server Timeouts' slider to the right Good also to stick to non-busy times of the day to send large emails (8-11am, 5-7pm) - stay out of the rush hour! Otherwise, the way to go would be to get Jetstream - fast internet access with no email delays! Q: My Outlook Express seems to be taking a long time to load - probably because I have too many emails in there. How do I find out how much space my emails are taking up? A: Click on Start > Find > files or folders and search for *.dbx (star-dot-dbx) (.dbx files are your email folders). When you have found them all, add up the total number of megabytes and compare this to the amount of RAM that you have. If the total is greater than your RAM, then you are in trouble! It's not the number of emails that it is important - it is the number of emails with attachments. Always ensure that attachments are removed from an email and saved in "My Documents' (or wherever) and that the email is itself deleted (which deletes the attachment embedded in the email) and you will reduced the size of your emails and the slowness of Outlook Express. Don't forget to compress your email folders too. From within Outlook Express, click on File > Folder > Compact all folders to reduce the actual size of the .dbx files. Q: I have two computers - a desktop and a laptop and want to get my emails on my laptop, but still be able to receive them on my desktop when I get back home. Can I do this? I am using Outlook Express. A: Of course! Launch Outlook Express on your laptop. Click on Tools > Accounts. Click the 'Mail' tab and highlight your email account. From the right hand column, click the 'Properties' button When the properties dialogue box comes up, the last tab is called 'Advanced'. Click on that tab and on that page is a tick box saying 'Leave a copy of messages on the server' - tick this. That way, when you collect your emails on your laptop, they will still be there for you to collect on your desktop computer when you get home. Q: My email is on that setting where it disconnects from the internet after sending/receiving mail. Where is that setting to turn it off? A: Within Outlook Express, pretty much all settings can be found by clicking on 'Tools' in the menu bar and then selecting 'Options'. On the 'Options' screen, there is a tab called 'Connections' and here you will find a tick box to enable or disable the auto-disconnect function within Outlook Express. Set it as you wish! Q: Could you please tell me how to ensure that new e-mails I receive always appear at the top of the Inbox list? I use both Incredimail and Outlook Express and have to scroll down the Inbox list to find any new messages. A: At the top of the Inbox in Outlook Express, there are usually three column titles: From, Subject, Received If you click on each of these title bars near the word, it will re-arrange the emails in the folder according to each of those titles, eg: - alphabetically, by first letter of the sender's name (A-Z) - alphabetically, by the first letter of the message subject (A-Z) - chronologically, in order of date If you click on each of these again, it will reverse the order - eg alphabetically Z-A. If you click on the 'Received' title, it will reverse the order by date, from most recent to earliest, or earliest to most recent. That's the one you want! It should be the same in Incredimail. Q: How can I improve security within Outlook Express? A: Outlook Express is the most widely used e-mail application, which also makes it the primary target for many virus writers. A typical OE default installation will do the following: It will start in 'Internet zone', automatically send and receive messages at startup, open the inbox with the preview pane enabled, and execute executable code that might be concealed in the e-mail message. To improve security levels within OE: - click on View > Layout and untick the 'show preview pane' - then go to Tools > Options and under the 'Security' tab, set the security zone to 'restricted sites' - Under the 'General' tab, untick 'send and receive messages at startup'. Whilst here, untick 'automatically log on to MSN Messenger' - Under the 'Read' tab, untick 'automatically download message when viewing in the preview pane'. For higher security, on the 'Read' tab, tick the box which says: 'Read all messages in plain text' Q: I am having difficulty opening attachments - it is as if I am not allowed to do this. I am using Windows XP Home. A: As you are using Windows XP, I suspect you are using Outlook Express 6. By default, OE6 has security settings that will not open attachments deemed 'unsafe'. You need to disable this 'feature'. - In Outlook Express, click on Tools > Options and then the 'Security' tab. - When you are there, Untick the box which says: "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened which could potentially be a virus" Click Apply and OK and all should be well. Q: You don't have any tricks to storing email messages in to other files in a text format without going through each individually do you? A: Yes, you can save them more than one at a time 1) open the My Documents folder 2) create a new folder in there, say called: Saved Emails 3) open your email program 4) resize the windows so you can see both Outlook and your Saved Emails folder at the same time (ie resize them so they are placed side by side) 5) then, highlight all the emails you want to save and drag 'n' drop them into the folder And then you will find that they all save as individual email files. Q: Is it possible to have a different default setting for the font & size when creating a new email? At the moment, it defaults to the font on the top of the list of fonts which is Arial & size 10. Can I change this default to Comic Sans MS & size 14? If so, can you please tell me how to do it. A: In Outlook Express, click on Tools > Options and in the options, click on the 'Compose' tab and select the font/size that you want to use as default. Click OK etc to get out of there and you are done. Q: I can't open photos sent as an attachment to emails. When I click on the attachments part the titles come up very faint which traditionally has told me I can't open them - have tried again and I can't - tried double clicking and all that. A: This can be caused by a security setting within Outlook Express. If so, click on Tools > Options and then go to the Security tab. Untick 'Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened....' , then click Apply & OK. However, sometimes this problem is also caused by a lack of association of a file type with a program. - go to My Documents/My Pictures and find a jpg file - click on it once, just so that it is highlighted (don't actually open the file) - press the SHIFT key on the keyboard, and as you are holding this down, right-click on the file This will bring up the right-click menu with an additional option: Open With.... - click on 'Open With' and a little box will come up with a range of programs -scroll down through this list until you find Internet Explorer (maybe there as iexplore) and highlight this - put a tick in the box that says 'always use this program to open this kind of file' and then click apply/OK. And that should do it.

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