Announcements

Virus Hoax - Part 2

Yesterday, we mentioned there was a virus hoax going around telling people to delete this file:

jdbgmgr.exe

Again, don't delete it, this is a hoax. That file is a Windows System file. Unfortunately, there were a lot of you who had already deleted this one. If that was you, we've uploaded that file to our server.

Now, before you rejoice, the file is from our XP computer. It should work on everything, updated files are usually backward compatable. However, since I'm not 1000% sure, this is a do at your own risk type thing.

Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.worldstart.com/jdbgmgr.exe

Save the file to your Windows/System folder and you should be good to go again.

New Download

Got old registry entries? Get rid of 'em! This week's download can help clean things out for you - for free!

Check out the download, plus the Term of the Week and the Top Tip of the Week at our homepage:

http://www.worldstart.com

2 Popular Tips

We've been getting tons of requests for the two tips below lately. They are probably two of our most frequently asked for tips, but lately, geeze, lots of requests. So, here you go:

Computers 101

Q:
How do I copy & paste?

A:
First off, you'll be glad to learn copying and pasting is easy. You can copy and paste just about anything your little heart desires: text, web pages, files, pictures, you name it. The idea behind the process is to take information from one place and deposit it in another.

For an example, let's pretend you're working in a word processor and need to copy and paste a section of your document into another area. Here's how:

1. First, you'll need to select the text you wish to copy. You do this by putting your mouse cursor at the first character you want to copy and, holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to the last character you need copied. As you drag, you'll notice everything gets highlighted (selected).

2. Next, right-click the selected area. Choose Copy from the menu that pops up (or you can use CTRL-C if you like keyboard shortcuts).

3. Finally, right-click the area in your document where you would like to insert the word processor text. Click Paste from the menu that pops up (For this, CTRL-V is your keyboard shortcut).

And the new line is pasted below the first.

That's it. The steps are basically the same for any copy & paste procedure you need to do. Oh, and you can copy and paste from your word processor to another program if you want. We just kept it inside the word processor to make things simpler for our example.

If you want to get a little more fancy, place your cursor at the first character you want selected and, while holding down the SHIFT key, click the last character you want selected. It's sometimes easier to follow this procedure than to make selections by dragging, especially when your wrestling with a lengthy document. I can't remember the number of times the area I wanted to stop selecting at zipped right by me on a document!

Another way to use the SHIFT key is adding to an existing selection.

Let's say you select an area of text and you came up short of what you really needed. Rather than trying to re-select the whole thing, just hit the SHIFT key and click your mouse where you would like the selection to end. (You can shorten a selection by doing this too.)

After you have used the SHIFT key to get your text selected, follow the pervious steps to copy / paste.

Told you it was easy :-)

Have a question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitquestion.htm

Tip of the Day

Don't Start!

Don't you just hate it when you've installed a program that insists on starting itself when you boot the computer? You know the drill. You install something and it places an icon in your system tray to make it "easier" to get to.

Now, all those little icons you see in your system tray represent programs that are RUNNING. If a bunch of stuff loads when you start your computer, you may be maxing out your system before you launch your first regular program. So, if you find your computer getting progressively slower as you add more software, it could be that these system tray icons are, at least partially, at fault.

In addition, program running in your system tray can cause any (or all) of the following problems:

- Sluggish system speed
- Frequent lockups / illegal operations
- Software install problems
- Difficulty in running some programs

The more of these programs you have running, the more likely it is that you're going to see one or more of the problems mentioned above. Granted, System Tray programs are not the only cause for the conditions mentioned above, but they are the first place to look.

So, how do you keep all these unwanted programs at bay?

1. Click the Start button and select Run...

2. Next, type in:

msconfig

Then hit OK.

3. The System Configuration Utility should run (please note that not all computers have it installed -see note below).

4. Click the Startup tab.

5. You'll see a listing of all the stuff that starts itself when your computer does. Just uncheck the programs you don't want to load and leave the rest alone.

Note - If you don't have msconfig on your system (win 95 / 2000 doesn't) then check out Startup Control Panel at:

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

It does basically the same thing.

Once you get msconfig or the StartUp Control Panel running, you'll probably see more stuff than you bargained for. I would advise exercising caution while unchecking, especially if you're not sure about what program(s) you're suppressing. Stuff like "Scan Registry" and "System tray" are probably best left alone. If you see stuff that you recognize as being non-essential software, than uncheck it. This is one of those do at your own risk things - for sure.

If you're not sure which program is being referred to, look at the path. Sometimes the folder just before the ".exe" file can give you a clue as to what program you're dealing with.

For example, if I see something like:

"C:\program files\real\realplayer.exe"

I can guess the program in question is the ever annoying Real Player.

In general, don't disable stuff that starts like this:

"C:\Windows\"

Or stuff like this:

SysTray.exe

These are more likely to be important system files and programs. You may find that your computer won't run without them and you'll have to go into Safe mode to get things working again.

Finally, note that unchecking this stuff doesn't remove it. The idea behind having these programs start when the computer does is to give you fast, easy access to them. However, having too many of these programs running at the same time can hit you hard in the system resources department. I personally make sure anything I don't need isn't running. If I need it, I'll click on it's shortcut.

Have a tip for the newsletter? Submit it below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitatip.htm

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Hubble Site

Interested in the Hubble Space Telescope? Well now you can find out all about it at the Hubble site. They have a News section where you can read up on the latest news on the telescope. You will also find a gallery with pictures, and even a screensaver section. Then there is a Discovery section which covers the various discoveries made with the telescope.

There is also the Sci-Tech section talks about the actual making of the telescopes and gets down to well the nuts and bolts of it. You might enjoy the Edu-Space and Fun sections as well. They more geared towards the kids but are still interesting.

http://hubble.stsci.edu/

Do you have a cool site that you want to share? Send it to Amanda!! Here's the address:

amanda@worldstart.com

Oh, and we're looking for non-commercial sites. We generally don't run sites that are strictly for shopping.