November/December, 2005

If there are any topics you would like to see discussed in the future or if you have any comments, please contact me at JoeT@HighCaliber.com

Bullet Points

  • MS Office 2006 Calendar Templates

    You can download Microsoft Office templates for 2006 calendars and 2005-2006 academic year calendars to use with Visio, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, and Word here:
    Click Here

     

  • Say Goodbye to Windows XP Home, Windows 98

    The Microsoft Windows XP Home operating system is scheduled to become unsupported at the end of 2006. Windows XP Pro will continue to be supported in the limited form of ongoing security updates (but not necessarily any new features) until 2011.

    Windows 98 is scheduled to become unsupported on June 30th of this year. There will be no new patches, updates, or fixes after that.

     

  • Googling Micrsoft's Web Sites

    Microsoft's website is searched so often and contains so much information, their big competitor, the people at Google, I have created a special search page to make it easier to limit your searches to www.Microsoft.com and related sites:

    http://www.google.com/microsoft.html

     

  • Accessing Local Disk Drives During Remote Desktop Sessions

    I am sure many of you have already learned about the joys of Windows' Remote Desktop feature which allows you to remotely connect to a PC (normally so you can work at home!) Normally, when you connect to a remote PC you can not longer access your local hard drive, CD ROM drive, etc. If you need to transfer files from the remote PC that you are controlling to your local drives, here's how:

    1. On the remote (client) computer:, Click Start
    2. Click All Programs
    3. Click Accessories
    4. Click Communications
    5. Click Remote Desktop Connection
    6. Click the Options button
    7. Click the Local Resources tab
    8. Click Disk Drives
    9. Click Connect

    Your local drives should now show up in Windows Explorer and My Computer and you can transfer files between the remote and local PC's.

     

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Routine Workstation Maintenance

Here is a quick lists you can do to your personal computer on a regular basis to keep things running smoothly:

  1. Make sure all of the latest Windows OS and Office updates have been installed on your PC.
  2. Check for and install new updates to any other programs you use on a regular basis.
  3. Permanently delete worthless email. Empty your Deleted Items folder regularly. Go through your Sent Items folder and selectively prune out emails that you sent but absolutely do not need, especially those with attachments (e.g. those jokes and chain letters you keep forwarding to all of your friends!). Remember that you can permanently delete an email (obliterate it without sending first to Deleted Items) by highlighting the email and pressing CTRL and DEL at the same time.

  4. Defrag your C: drive at least once a month. This will speed up disk reads and writes. Click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter
  5. Clean out temporary files. Windows automatically creates several holding areas for temporary files. Windows provides a "Disk Cleanup" utility that can help you do this. Click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup

  6. Run at least two different anti-spyware programs (e.g. PestPatrol, Adaware, Spybot Search And Destroy, etc.) frequently. Make sure you download the latest updates before you run the scan.

  7. Make sure your anti-virus software is running properly and downloading updates regularly.
  8. Back up data you are storing on your local hard drive. If you are not using Microsoft Exchange to handle your email, then you should be backing up your Outlook Mailbox which is normally stored here: C:\Documents and Settings\[Your User Name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook You should also backup any other documents you are storing locally. These are normally stored in the My Documents folder, but could be almost anywhere.

 

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