 Cate provides tips on common issues including setting your start page. |
Three quick fixes
by
Contributed - Story:
40313
Jul 3, 2008 / 5:00 am
Jul 3, 2008 / 5:00 am
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:
Browse to the page where you'll always want to start
Click on Tools Internet Options General
In the "Home Page" section, click on Use Current
Click OK
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:
Right-click on a blank spot on your Desktop
Click on "Personalize"
In the left pane of the Personalize window, click on "Adjust the font size (DPI)"
Confirm any User Access Control prompts until you get to the DPI window
Choose "Larger scale (120) DPI..." to make the text larger - or -
Choose "Custom DPI" and make your choice there (Be sure to select "Use Windows XP Style DPI Scaling" in Custom, or your font will be blurry in some applications)
Click OK
Close any running applications, save any open documents, and allow Vista to restart
In XP
Right-click on a blank spot on your Desktop
Click on "Properties"
Click on "Settings"
Click on "Advanced"
Choose "Normal" or "Large" or even "Custom"
Close any running applications, save any open documents and click "OK" and allow XP to restart
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:
target="_blank">Windows Mail hotfix
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 at
Cate's archives
Happy Fourth of July to our American readers and friends.
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:
target="_blank">Windows Mail hotfix
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 at
Cate's archives
Happy Fourth of July to our American readers and friends.
The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet.
Castanet presents its columns "as is" and does not warrant the contents.
- Your questions answered Sep 4
- Zoom and zip Aug 28
- Backups 101 Aug 21
- Make computer use easier Aug 14
this page.(Click for RSS instructions.)
© 2008 Castanet.net