Turning off auto-dim in Dell laptops and win7

I had a Dell laptop with Win7 that the user was complaining that the screen was going black. I quickly realized it was not the screen, but a setting. When you put your hands on the keyboard, the screen would dim. If you put your finger over the sensor, it would (obviously) go black. I hunted around for quite a while, but found a simple fix:

function

This turned the auto-dim function on and off. I am thinking that he inadvertently set it when he was trying to change his resolution.

cannot open excel files

Well, this one stumped me for awhile. I now have Win7 and Office 2007. All was going well, when I couldn't open any excel files. The error was:

"There was a problem sending the command to the program"

After digging around a bit, I found the solution.

Bring up the Excel options, go to advanced and then scroll down to the

"General" section. Make sure that "Ignore other applications that use

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" is not checked.

I am not sure what DDE does, but after unchecking that box, I could open Excel files again.

chkdsk

When trying to run a chkdsk from the Windows XP CD, it kept asking for an administrator password. I tried all the passwords I knew, and found none worked. In researching this I found a random post that said to use a Windows 2000 CD. I tried this, and IT WORKED. Chckdsk resolved the problem and I had another happy customer.

Adding Programs To Stay On The Start Menu

Adding Programs To Stay On The Start Menu

Right click on any .exe file in Explorer, My Computer, Desktop and select 'Pin to Start Menu', the program is then displayed on the start menu, above the separator line. To remove it, click the file on the start menu and select 'Unpin from Start Menu'.

Associating files with programs

I know this will be a "duh" post to some geeks, but the process stumped me for a bit, so I thought I would put it up.

We had an application that would send out .tif files. When my coworker would open it, he could only see the first page. This was because he was by default opening them in picture preview instead of Microsoft Picture and Fax Viewer. I fixed it to where he could see it once, however, I needed to get .tifs associated with picture and fax viewer all the time. So, here are the steps:

1. right click on the file
2. go to open with.....
3. click choose program...
4. highlight the program that you want to use
5. IMPORTANT!! click the check box that says always use the selected program to open this kind of file
6. click OK
VIOLA!! Now every time you open that file type, it will open with the new program!

Syncing Wii remotes

Howdy,




Since this is Saturday, I am troubleshooting kids/family electronics today. For some reason our Wii would not cooperate. It was not recognizing the remotes. I think it had something to do with Wii Fit being installed recently. So, after some Googling, I found these steps. I hope this will get you out of a jam.

1. Turn the Wii console power OFF by pressing the POWER Button on the front of the console. Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet for a few seconds. After a few seconds have elapsed, plug the cord back into the wall outlet.
2. Turn the power of the Wii console ON. When you see the Health and Safety screen, open the small flap on the front of the Wii console to find a red button labeled "SYNC." Press and hold the SYNC Button down for 15 seconds. This will clear all the syncs on the Wii, allowing you to get a clean start to begin the process described below.
3. After holding the SYNC Button on the Wii console down for at least 15 seconds, you can now "re-sync" your Wii Remotes:

   1. With the first Wii Remote you wish to sync, remove the battery cover on the back of the Wii Remote to find a small red button just below the batteries.
   2. Press and release the small red button just below the batteries on the Wii Remote; the blue lights on the front of the Wii Remote will blink.
   3. Quickly press and release the red SYNC button on the inside of the white flap on the front of the Wii console (picture).
   4. When the Player LED blinking stops and stays lit, the syncing is complete. The LED that is illuminated indicates the player number (1 through 4).
   5. This sync procedure (steps "a" through "d" above) must be followed for each additional Wii Remote added to the system.

OpenDNS

I did quite a search for web filters for my home. I tried several, and found that they can be easily defeated. Then I found open DNS

Basically DNS translates a web URL to an IP address. For example, www.google.com translates to 74.125.127.103. So, instead of remembering a string of numbers, it is easier for us earthlings to remember www.google.com. There are large computers that translate the numbers into words. Somewhere in your path from your computer to the internet, you have a place that you can point to which of these large computers you want to go to. Most of the time, this is automatically done for you.

Wow, that was a lot of techie jargon. The practical steps to get a pretty good filtered internet to all of your house is this:

1. Go to www.opendns.com and create an account. They have great tutorials on there that I would look through and follow.
2. You will need to log into your home router and change the DNS numbers.
3. If your internet provider gives you a dynamic IP address, you will need to poke around in there to find a small piece of software that sends your current ip address to opendns.

I have tested this, and for the most part, it seems to work well. On OpenDNS website, you can adjust the filter, and also add and restrict certain sites. For example, I blocked craigslist from a small business I support, because too many people were waisting their time on that site. I would highly recommend opendns for a home/small business web filtering solution.