Ah, the numlock strikes again.  Now you’re probably saying one of two things; “My laptop doesn’t have a numlock button” or “I press the numlock button on my laptop keyboard but it doesn’t work”.  First you’ll need to find your  “function” button on your laptop. Don’t worry, lots of people don’t even know it exists, or have no idea what it does.  It’s usually on the lower left hand of your laptop keyboard and looks like this:

Once you’ve found that, you’re going to want to hold it down and hit your numlock button. This button usually shares the scroll lock key and will look like this:

Now, if you’re wondering what else that function button can do on your laptop keyboard, take a look at your keyboard a little closer.  Notice all those keys with some extra writing on them in blue?  That means when you hold down function, those blue tasks become active.  Most laptop keyboards have buttons to turn the sound up/down, turn the screen brightness up/down, switch to an external monitor or projector, and lots more.

If you’re like me, at times your taskbar is so full you can only get a letter or two from each entry. (Unless you have the “group similar taskbar buttons” checked, which then you can’t see what they heck they are anyway.)  When Firefox, IE and everyone else started incorporating tabbed browsing it was a lifesaver.  However, i’ve still got quite a few programs open at a time on any given day so when I heard there was a free program that can clear up my taskbar I had to check it out. 

4t Tray Minimizer is a little program that allows you to minimize any program to a small icon, versus a taskbar entry.  This is great for those of you who keep email open all day, or have an additional browser open for internet radio.  All you have to do is click “add” and drag the crosshair onto the application you want to minimize to the tray.  Then, right click on it’s taskbar button (if it hasn’t already disapeared) and click minimize to tray.  It’s easy and free! My two favorite things. (Get your mind out of the gutter.)

Like most people, you probably don’t get your computer screen clean too often.  Hopefully you’ve never sprayed your LCD screen with Windex or anything abrasive, or you’ll be staring at the streaks for a long time….yes, they’re burned into your screen.  The best thing to clean your lcd monitor with is some cleaning gel.  The screenwipes are ok too, but changes are they’ll dry up before you even use half of them.  Then you just paid $10 for a few small napkins.  LCD monitor screen gel works well, it’s non-abrasive and it can be used to clean all sorts of stuff like your big screen tv, cd’s, that sweet clear side panel on your computer, you get the idea.  The best part is that it’s a gel, which means no dripping into the cracks or the bottom of your monitor. Also, I recomend using  a microfiber rag, which usually comes with the bottle of lcd gel cleaner, to clean your lcd monitor as well.  Here’s the tricky part; trying not to spend $25 on a stupid 12oz bottle of screen cleaning gel.  It’s tougher than it sounds. For some reason the manufacturers seem to think that this spray bottle of lcd cleaning gel is worth it’s weight in gold gasoline. If you can pick up a bottle of this stuff for under $20, then you’re doing alright.  You probably won’t feel great about spending that much on a bottle of liquid, but hey at least you’re not the guy trying to look through the burnt in streaks from that bottle of Windex.  Oh, and if you need to clean the inside of your monitor, here’s a dog that will do it for you -

Clean the inside of your monitor for FREE!

Global ink and toner expert experiences astounding growth despite economic recession; local Cartridge World owner applauds accomplishment.

Sheboygan, WI (Grassroots Newswire) February 23, 2009 – As most retailers were feeling the strain of the recession in 2008, Cartridge World, the world’s fastest growing ink and toner refilling retailer, experienced record-setting growth.

As the leader in the $80 billion printer cartridge industry, Cartridge World in the U.S. experienced a 13 percent increase in same-store sales over 2007. Cartridge World’s sales have skyrocketed relative to the economic slowdown as more consumers and business owners are opting for ways to save money on ink costs by refilling cartridges, instead of always buying new. [Read the rest of this entry...]

This is a common question, unfortunately.  If you’re reading this then most likely you’ve accidentally deleted some files from a flash drive.  If you haven’t already checked the recycle bin, chances are your files aren’t there either.  See, when you delete a file from a flash drive in Windows, it erases the file immediately without sending it to the recycle bin.  It would be just like using the shortcut Shift+Delete which skips the recycle bin option and permanently deletes a file from your computer.

Answer:
If you’re wondering if you can recover deleted files from a flash drive, memory card, or hard drive, then your answer is – maybe.

First you need to understand that when you tell your computer to “erase” that file, it never really erases anything.  It simply tells your operating system to ignore anything that’s written to that area of your hard disk and that it may write over it at any time it chooses.  So, keep in mind that even though your file still might be there, doing anything on your computer like moving other files around, installing new software, even simply rebooting can write information over the “ignored” files.  If that happens, you’re going to need a heck of a lot more help than this post can give you.  However, we can at least check and see if your files are still there.  To do so, we’ll need a file recovery program.  One possibility is http://www.munsoft.com/EasyFileUndelete/.  Once you download that software, it will skip right past the command telling it to ignore certain parts of the hard drive and really tell you whats there.  It’s kind of like a recycle bin on steroids.  This one even has special programming to recover photos made by Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Kodak, and many other photo cameras.  So, if you’ve accidentally deleted pictures from your flash memory card, this can be a possible solution for you also.  This also works for those that accidentally deleted files from your hard drive.

I wish you good luck!  Perhaps now would be a good time to review automated backup solutions.

Question:

Can you help me find a resource to set up the print server part of my Netgear ProSafe 802.11g Wireless Firewall/Print Server, Model FWG114P?

Answer:

Here is a link to the online documentation – Netgear Prosafe FWG114P Online Manual (PDF). You’ll want to start in chapter 7 (page 97) to get to the part about setting up the wireless print server.

Question:

We have a HP Laserjet 4350 dtn printer that has decided to add extra toner down the middle of the page. We’ve tried cleaning it ourselves, but there are no directions as to how to take the machine apart. It’s our only printer in an office of 9 computers, so it’s not something that can leave the building. Is it possible that you might have instructions for this printer?

Answer:

Usually what happens is that a piece of paper or something else is stuck and smearing the toner while the paper slides through. Have you removed the toner and opened up the gate to check if there is anything in the toner cartridge itself?
Here is a link to the online user guide that I found – http://www.fixya.com/support/p378929-hp_laserjet_4350_printer/manual-19422

So, you’ve got yourself Windows XP Antivirus a.k.a Windows Vista Antivirus?  OH NOOOOOOOOO! It’s amazing you’ve even got here. I hate to even think how infected your computer is.  That poor thing is probably crying out with pain and anguish.  This isn’t helping at all is it?  Ok, ok, read on for some real removal tips.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Have you installed Vista Service Pack 1?  It’s definitely a great upgrade and most people are very happy with the added reliability and stability it gives Vista.  The problem is that it leaves a lot of files behind. Almost 800 megabytes worth.  Read on to find out how to remove this extra “stuff”. [Read the rest of this entry...]

As is normal with Windows, Microsoft has provided a huge number of keyboard shortcuts to make interaction with the product easier for those who enjoy the productivity that almost 100 percent keyboard use can supply. The problem is, nobody knows what they are! Read on to view all the glorious shortcuts you never knew but know you needed to know, when you knew you didn’t know. [Read the rest of this entry...]