The following are tips and "Cool Freebies" that have been sent by members for the website and eMonitor

            Tips and Cool Freebies from 2005
 

December Freebie from Doris Collins

Get Off Joke Lists With BounceBully
     The truth is that bouncing spam back to the creeps who sent it just isn't worth the trouble. Too often the spammer's address is bogus--and my guess is they wouldn't take the time to remove you from their list. ("Oh, my, this guy's address isn't working any more. I'll just spend my time removing the dear boy.")
     But what if you have a bozo or two constantly sending you dumber-than-dirt jokes? You know, the kind you didn't find funny even when you were in the fifth grade.
     You could politely ask to be removed from their list. You could say you use your PC primarily for work, my boss snoops in my e-mail (he probably does), etc. and I don't want to get into trouble.
     More fun, though, is to use a program that bounces e-mail back to the putz, showing that your e-mail address no longer exists. And guess what: You can do it with BounceBully. It's a freebie that takes the e-mail you receive and fires it back with all the right language--saying, essentially, that your e-mail address is no more.
     Try it out by sending yourself a test e-mail--cut and paste the mail into BounceBully and hit Send--and see what happens. Here's the link: www.bouncebully.com/. 
 

December Tip from Gary Horton:
HP Scanners & Printers and IE7

November Freebie from Doris Collins

Gas Buddy
       No, this isn't about riding home from the ballpark with your friend who ate too many chili dogs... it is a very useful site to help you get ahead on the ever-changing gas prices with "the ultimate portal to local real time gas price information."
      How does it work? Simply, choose your location (either the province or state you live in) and it will give you a listing of cities. Choose your city, or the city nearest you, and you will get real time gas prices from all over your city. This site will save you time driving around trying to find the cheapest gas in town. Now you can click, and then drive.
       This site can also help you find cheap gas, for those road trips. Don’t you hate paying a lot for gas and then finding out if you had driven ten minutes more you would have gotten it for ten cents cheaper? Well, use gas buddy and it won’t happen to you anymore.
The best part?? It's FREE!
 

October Freebie from Doris Collins

Try out SpoofStick!
SpoofStick is a simple browser extension that helps users detect spoofed (fake) websites. A spoofed website is typically made to look like a well known, branded site (like ebay.com or citibank.com) with a slightly different or confusing URL. The attacker then tries to trick people into going to the spoofed site by sending out fake email messages or posting links in public places - hoping that some percentage of users won't notice the incorrect URL and give away important information. This practice is sometimes known as “phishing".

SpoofStick makes it easier to spot a spoofed website by prominently displaying only the most relevant domain information. It's not a comprehensive solution, but it's a good start. For example, if you go to www.ebay.com, Spoofstick will say: "You're on ebay.com".

If you get fooled and click on a link other than a legitimate eBay link and are sent to a spoofed site, for example http://signin.ebay.com@10.19.32.4/ (a "spoof" example used by ebay in their customer outreach), Spoofstick will say: "You're on 10.19.32.4"

You can customize the color and size of the SpoofStick display to suit your tastes and make it harder for a fake site to try to “spoof” SpoofStick with a static graphic.

SpoofStick contains no adware, spyware, nagware or other unhealthy additives.

I've been using this helpful little program for some time; it makes me feel a bit more safe on the web. I think you'll like it too. The URL is as follows:

Download SpoofStick for Internet Explorer
Download SpoofStick for Firefox
 

October Tip: Picture Captions on MS Word

Ever find yourself looking to add captions to your pictures in MS Word?
If you did a quick scan of the menus, you probably didn't run across anything that looked helpful, but if you take a deeper look into the submenus, you'll find that Word does have a caption feature. You just have to know where to look.

To begin, you need to select the picture, table, equation, etc. that you want to caption.
Now, go to the Insert menu, Reference submenu, Caption choice.
The Caption window will open looking like this:

It's here that you can choose what type of label you need: Figure, Equation, Table or you can choose to create your own label with the New Label button.

I must warn you that this feature automatically numbers the label (you can alter how it numbers with the Numbering button) and you'll have to wait until you're back in your Word document to remove the number.

You can also choose where the caption should be located relative to the object, so don't forget to make a selection in the Position field too.
Click OK when you're done.
You're returned to your document
 

September Freebie from Doris Collins

Remap/Disable Extra Keyboard Buttons
     Have you ever thought your computer keyboard layout was strange. Do you want your "Delete" key to be down by the spacebar, instead of where it is? Did you know that you can change or delete the function of any key on your keyboard? Many keyboards these days come with extra buttons along the top that include such functions as "Sleep", "Power Off", "Play", "Eject", and so forth. Many of these keys can sometimes go unused, and some can pose annoyances if you accidentally hit them (such as the "Sleep" or "Power Off" buttons).
     There's a little program called "KeyTweak" that allows you to remap or disable any buttons found on the keyboard, including the specialty buttons. After installing the program, open it up, and click on the button you want to remap/disable. Next, to disable the button, simply hit "Disable". If you wish to remap the button, you can select a new function from the drop down menu, then hit "Remap Key." All changes should take effect after your next reboot.
     The download URL for this great little freebie is: http://www.tucows.com/preview/327616
Try it, you'll like it!

September Tip: How to Backup the Windows Registry  from Gizmo’s (Ian Richards) Support Alert Newsletter: supportalert@techsupportalert.com

     In simple terms the Windows Registry can be thought of as a file containing an extended inventory of all your PCs hardware and software.

     When Windows starts up it consults the Registry in order to know how to relate to your specific hardware and software.It's a file that's essential to Windows. If it gets corrupted Windows won't be able to function properly.

     And it does get corrupted; rather too often actually. That's why it's good practice to have a backup copy.

     Easy, you say, I'll just copy the file to another location.

     In Windows 95, 98 you can do just this. The Registry consists of two files system.dat and user.dat located in the Windows folder and you can simply copy these to another folder to create your registry backup. ME adds a third file, classes.dat, but it too can be simply copied.

     This simple approach won't work with Windows NT and later versions as the Registry files are locked by the system and can't be easily copied.

     Windows addresses this by providing automatic backup of the Registry as part of the automatic System Restore feature. This feature is enabled by default when Windows is installed.

     If you have left the System Restore feature enabled on your PC then your Registry is automatically being backed up. If it gets corrupted Windows will automatically try to recover it from previous restore points.

     However, many users, me included, turn the System Restore feature off as it is a notorious disk space hog. Once turned off, your Registry is no longer being backed up.

     Thankfully, there are a number of utilities that will back up your Registry. One of the best is also free. It called ERUNT.

     ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility for NT) will backup the Registry for all Windows systems from NT onwards. It also allows you to recover from backup either through a special recovery program or through the Windows Recovery Console.

     And it's fast, very fast.

     With ERUNT it's also possible to set up automatic Registry backups using the Windows Scheduler.

     As a bonus, ERUNT includes another utility NTREGOPT that allows you to defragment your Registry. To be frank, I've never myself seen any performance improvement from registry defragging but then again it does no harm either.

     ERUNT is easy to use but it's not intended for raw beginners. Raw beginners will most likely have System Restore enabled anyway so they won't need to back up their Registry.

     Download: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1267.html

August Freebie from Doris Collins

The Wave of the Future
        Get ready for PayPal. In my personal, unsubstantiated opinion, this service and others like it will be the way we exchange money in the future. PayPal is a free service for sending money to anyone with an email address; many businesses are now accepting PayPal as a form of payment for online orders; it has been the payment standard for eBay for years. Some eBay sellers will accept no other form of payment, and most buyers hesitate to buy if PayPal is not listed as a payment option.
        In order to set up a PayPal account, you must provide both checking account and credit card numbers (you have a choice of sending money from either one). PayPal is an extremely secure site and in all the years I've been using it I have never had a problem.
        PayPal also offers a debit card and a credit card. Why a debit card, you ask? If you use your account regularly to receive money you usually have a balance in your account. Currently PayPal is paying 4.98% on account balances. So you leave your money in PayPal (instead of transferring it back to your checking account), and use your debit card if you need it right away.
        If you receive money due to a transaction of the sale of goods, you pay a small fee, depending on the amount of the sale.
        Go to www.paypal.com and look around - you'll be glad you did.

July Freebie from Doris Collins

Free Fax Service
       There is a place online that allows you to send a free fax, no strings attached. You don't need a fax machine, you don't need fax software, and you don't have to give anyone your credit card number. My favorite is FaxZero, which lets you send a fax to any fax machine in the United States (including Puerto Rico) or Canada for free. All you need is a computer on the Internet and a valid e-mail address. Faxzero is web-based, so you can access it with a PC, Mac or Linux based computer.
      Here's how it works... First visit FaxZero.com and fill out the fax form. Enter your e-mail address and carefully type the Confirmation Code. (This prevents malicious users and automated bots from abusing the system.) Then type the text of your fax (for a quick text-based fax) or attach a file. You can send plain text, PDF, Microsoft Word (DOC), or an Excel spreadsheet (XLS) file. Ready to send? Whack the Send Free Fax Now button!
      A confirmation message will then be sent to your e-mail address. Your fax won't be transmitted until you click the link in that message. You'll receive an e-mail confirming that the fax was either delivered, or that it failed for some reason.
      Yes, it's really free. The service is supported by advertising on the cover page of the free faxes you send. That seems like a small "price" to pay for sending a free fax. You don't have to buy a fax machine, fax software, fax supplies, get a fax line, or pay long distance phone charges. And typically the cover page is mostly blank anyway. Why not fill it up with something useful?
      And you needn't be concerned about getting spammed or scammed if you use FaxZero. Here's the FaxZero privacy policy:
      We hate junk e-mail and junk faxes, and will absolutely not send any unsolicited e-mail or faxes. Users will receive e-mail messages (such as confirmation messages) as part of the process of using the service. If you subscribe to the FaxZero mailing list, we will send occasional news about the service, which may include advertisements for our marketing partners. Your name, company name, e-mail address, and fax number will appear in the "Sender Information" area of the faxes that you send. FaxZero will not share your information, or information about the people to whom you send faxes, with marketers or anyone else, unless compelled to do so by court order.
      The free service provided by FaxZero is limited to 2 faxes per day, and there's a maximum of three pages per fax. If you need to send more than that, you can use the FaxZero Premium service. Sending a premium fax costs $1.79, and there's no ad or FaxZero logo on the cover page, so you may like that for business communications. The number of pages increases from 3 to 10, and there's no 2-fax-per-day limitation.
      The URL for this site is www.faxzero.com. 

July Tip: Pin to Start Menu - From PC Mech
If you find yourself using a certain application a lot and don't like
cluttering your desktop/quick launch bar, simply pin it to your Start
Menu. Here's how it works:

1. Click your Start Menu
2. Right click on the target application on the "recently used programs" list
3. Select "Pin to Start Menu"

It will now appear at the top of your Start Menu and will not be placed in the "recently used programs" list anymore like other shortcuts will.
 

June Freebie from Doris Collins

     One of the best new FREE software programs I've found in a while actually comes from Microsoft. Highly rated in the trade magazines, Windows Defender is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other poten-tially unwanted software.
     This program provides real-time scanning, which means that it starts when your computer does (if you don't want it to, you can change the setting) and watches for unwanted spyware all the time your computer is on.
      Remember that you can and should have more than one spyware detection program on your computer. Pick from the free ones carefully - some could be spyware in disguise. You can download the software from www.microsoft.com or go directly to this site: Windows® Defender (Beta 2)
      Note: You will have to allow Microsoft to check your computer to determine that you have a legal copy of Windows before you will be able to download this program.

June Tip From PC Mech
How to change maximum number of frequently used program shortcuts:
When you use the same program frequently, it goes into the Most Frequently Used Programs section of the XP Start menu. By default, the eight most frequently used programs show up here. If you'd like XP to display more (or fewer) programs, you can change that. Here's how:

Right click the Start button.
Select Properties.
On the Start Menu tab, click the Customize button.
On the General tab, under "Programs" in the middle of the page, set the number of programs you want to appear on the most frequently used menu. You can select from 0 to 30.
Click OK, and then OK again to exit the dialog boxes.
If you select a high number, you should also select "small icons" on the General tab so there will be room to display them all.

May 2006 Freebie from Doris Collins

Everyone likes free stuff - right? Well, this month's freebie has a plethora of freebies - all in one place. Take a trip over to www.freeafterrebate.info. They offer software, peripherals, you name it, from many on-line retailers. These items are completely free after mail-in rebates; some companies even offer free shipping.

I've used this site for about two years now and bought a lot of really great gadgets. I bought my computer geek son a watch that is also a USB flash drive. I bought myself a ball-point pen that is also a flash drive. I've bought software and many other things from this site. They even have some items that don't require a rebate; for instance, they have free downloadable fax cover sheets, certificates for all occasions, stationary, etc. As long as you read the fine print on the printable rebate forms and comply with them exactly, you will get your money back - minus shipping if there was any.

Check out this site, and then bookmark it. The items for sale change regularly, so check it often. Have fun and happy shopping!

May Tip:  Rename Via F2

Something that saves me a bit of time when renaming files is by enabling the rename function by pressing F2. It's simple, just select the file to rename and hit F2. This is much faster than doing a delayed doubleclick or going through a menu option

April 2006 Tip from Joy Melton - Read Small Print

Here's a tip that's very useful when trying to read small print.
If you hold down the Ctrl key on your key board, then turn the small wheel in the middle of your mouse away from you or towards you, the print size will change -
it will either get larger or smaller -depending on which way you turn the wheel.

Might help with some of that too small font we sometimes see.
WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS ???

April 2006 Freebie from Doris Collins

March 2006 Freebie from Doris Collins - Clever Keys
This month's freebie is really a time saver whether you're creating a document or just scanning a web page or email. Say you read a word with which you are not familiar: just click "Ctrl-L" and your web browser will open to a dictionary defining the word. "Ctrl-M" gives you a menu that will allow you to check a thesaurus, or reference material related to the word, etc. Try it out - it's one of the most useful programs on my computer!
CleverKeys for Windows    http://www.cleverkeys.com/ck.html?p=home&os= 
With CleverKeys for Windows you can look up words from almost any application, including Microsoft Word, Web browsers and e-mail programs. CleverKeys is easy to use and easy to install.
Highlights of this version include:

     New 'Edit and Lookup' search mode (ctrl+Q)
     Ability to add your own URLs
     Option to open CleverKeys results in a new window
     Highly configurable hot keys
     Compatibility with Windows 95/98/2000/Me/NT/XP
     Compatibility with current Web browsers including Firefox
     In-depth documentation

How to use CleverKeys for Windows:
     Highlight a word
     Hit control-L to look it up at Dictionary.com
     CleverKeys takes you right to the definition in your default Web browser!
     Hit control-M to be presented with a menu of other options, such as Thesaurus.com and Reference.com
For more help, double-click or right-click the CleverKeys icon in the System Tray (the group of icons near your clock) and select 'Help'.

March Tip!! Tip!! Launching Multiple Programs  -  from Worldstart.com newsletter
Have you ever needed to launch multiple programs? Normally, you hit the Start button, Programs, then select the program you want to run. Once that one starts, you go back through and repeat the process for the next program. Well, here's a better and quicker way. Next time you need to launch more than one program from your Programs menu at the same time, hold down your Shift key while you click the program's icon. The application will launch. Plus, you won't lose the Programs menu and have to start all over.      So many tricks, so little time.

February 2006

Freebie Add Remove Pro - by Doris Collins
     Have you ever had a bad experience uninstalling a program? Are little bits of the "uninstalled" program left behind, popping up and appearing here and there in your system? Do you find them in your Startup Menu or the Programs lists? Do you even get error messages from some program that you thought was removed long ago? Even if you feel comfortable searching through your PC and removing fragmented entries that your uninstaller neglected to find, it can still be an incredible hassle.
     Of course, there are the registry cleaners that will help you find orphaned entries in the system’s registry - a process that is often performed with disastrous results. Most of the Registry Cleaners I have seen work in pretty much the same way; they like to present a list of unusual entries detected in the Registry. The user must decide if the entry should be kept or removed. The problem with this is that the entries in the list are cryptic and confusing at best. This is where the trouble begins. Some users will select the entire list of entries indicating that they would like them to be removed from the system. This can have all kinds of ill effects on your computer and can possibly render it useless.
     Well, hopefully with this month's Freebie, all that will be in the past, because with Add/Remove Pro all the work of uninstalling a program is done for you.
     Add Remove Pro is a program uninstaller. This program will uninstall programs for you, removing any file, folder or registry entry - leaving behind no “system ghosts”. Add Remove Pro also puts the question of how you should uninstall a program to rest. Should you use the Windows Add/Remove service or the program's own imbedded uninstaller? With Add Remove Pro you will always uninstall programs the same way.
     If you have corrupt and seemingly irremovable programs in your system, Add Remove Pro will check all the system entries, make sure they are valid, and if not they are removed. This validation finds all the “pieces” of a program even - hidden registry entries that would have been easily overlooked otherwise.
     Add Remove Pro is a program that most of you should find very helpful, as it is a great substitute for the conventional Windows uninstaller. It's time to rid your computer of “system ghosts” once and for all!
     The URL for this free program is: http://www.superwin.com/index.htm
Note - Click the "Freeware" link on the left to get to the correct page
 

January 2006

Quickly Access Address Bar
     I personally know that sometimes you want to enter a new link into the address bar in your browser and have to click the bar 10 times before you can select the whole thing to delete. Well, there is a quick shortcut that will not only take you to the address bar quickly, but will also select the entire link that is there for you so that you can enter your new link over it. To do this, hit F6 any time you are browsing and voila, you are taken right to the address bar. This tip also works with browsers such as Firefox and Avant Browser.

A Great Find for Those Who Love to Read from Doris Collins
      I love reading and have accumulated several hundred books over the years, but keeping track of my books can be difficult. Sometimes I pick up a book only to discover I've already read it, or loan a book and forget to whom I loaned it.
Then I found Library Thing. It helps me manage the books in my collection. Once you register, you can start adding books to your library. You can type in a few keywords and

select your book from a list of results.
     Library Thing pulls the information from Amazon, so you're bound to find your book in the search results. When you add a book to your library, tag it with keywords. This helps you organize books by subject or location.
    I can tag my books as read or unread, but the best feature is the reviews. The site has a lot of members, and many of them post comments on books. This comes in handy when it's time for a new book! The program is free for the first 200 books; after that, it's $10 per year or $25 for a lifetime membership. The URL for this program is: www.librarything.com.