Long-time reader Chet Norris wrote to ask aout a couple problems he was having:
Hi Terry 2 questions for the price of one if I may. 1.When I try to copy ‘my pictures’ to a CD they come out as addresses or locations instead of pics. I don’t know if that’s normal [...]

Recently, subscriber Peter Killick had a question about protection from downloads:
I was under the impression that my combination of a router plus a software firewall completely prevented anything ever being downloaded on my computer over the web without my approval, typically indicated by clicking a button. My router is a Netgear, properly and carefully [...]

Longtime subscriber Greg wrote to ask:
Terry, My desktop has started to have a couple really aggravating problems and I wanted to run them by you. 1) Every morning when I go to check my email before work, I find that all my desktop icons have disappeared and I am looking at the wallpaper only. [...]

As long-time readers of my newsletter and site know, as does anyone who reads the introduction to the recommended security software article in my weekly online issue, my selection of recommended software is driven by my search for software for me to use. I only recommend programs that I like and that I use. I [...]

Reader Teri Scott wrote me to ask about her slow dialup Internet connection:
Hello,
I have a desktop and a laptop and live in a remote area so the only internet I can get is dial-up. We recently moved and in our previous home, my desktop and laptop connected [...]

One of the easiest ways to document web pages and other printable content is to “print” them into a PDF file. Adobe’s Acrobat program provides a printer driver to create such files from anything that you can print.
Of course, Acrobat is out of reach for many people, or at least, we don’t have any desire [...]

Once we have our home network set up, often, our next desires are to be able to copy files from one computer to another and to be able to share a printer among multiple computers.
Sharing files is usually an easy step, except that Windows likes to protect us.
The first step is to open My Computer [...]

EJ wrote to ask about backing up his computer:
Terry, what program do you use to back up your files
I use two programs routinely.
First, every evening, I use Karen’s Replicator (www.karenware.com, free for personal, non-business use) to copy my data files to another computer across my home network. Not only does [...]

Why should I network the computers in my home?

Convenience, so you can share files and/or printers and/or the Internet connection
Backup, so you can copy critical data files (e.g., your Quicken data) to the other machine for backup
Computer access, so you can surf the Web while your spouse or kids are doing email or playing games

Basic [...]

Do you search the web using Google? I do. It’s easy and you can find the answer to almost any question via the web.
Some people, though, are intimidated by the search engines at Google.com, Yahoo.com and Live.com (the renamed MSN.com) among others. The only real problem between them is that they don’t all use [...]