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(Some previous months still online.) This month's PC Tips: 1 Summer Safeguards
Windows 93 anyone? Some folks like sleek and ultra-modern cars and some are into retrofit and prefer the look and feel of the 1951 Studebaker. For those Windows 95 users that just can't get a handle on the new-fangled Desktop and Windows Explorer, there's hope and sustenance lurking under the hood. Program Manager and File Manager have been retired but they're not dead yet! From Start, select run and enter PROGMAN for the former, WINFILE for the latter, and hit enter. Voila! As Yogi, the master of malaprops, would say, it's deja vu all over again. The World Wide Wait You probably don't need us to give you permission, but go ahead and be impatient. Waiting to access a Web site on the Internet is not like waiting for a traffic light to change. Patiently waiting has no benefit. In fact, the longer you wait, the more likely it is that you'll have to wait even longer for the page to appear! In a recent posting by Keynote Systems based on the findings of leading researchers the following recommendation emerged: "When a web site doesn't respond quickly, you should click the Stop button on your browser and re-select the link. On average, you'll spend less time waiting. If the site doesn't respond after a few tries, you're better off coming back later." So when the World Wide Wait starts getting on your nerves, forget your mother's advice, ignore Emily Post's dictums, just go ahead and be impatient! Hewlett Packard Printer Problem In recent months, our recommendation for family and home office use has been the 800-series DeskJet printers from Hewlett Packard -- over printers from other manufacturers and over laser jet printers in general. Our experience has been that the HP DeskJets (820, 850, and 870 series) offer both excellent color print quality, and black and white quality better than that obtained with moderately-priced lasers. A hard to beat combination! The fly in the ointment is the Windows printer driver for this series. According to reports from several Installations Plus+ clients and a note in the current issue of Consumer Reports, when multiple jobs are sent to the printer, the second or third job in the que may initiate a General Protection Fault (GPF) error. To resolve the GPF, you may have to (a) close the program you're working in, (b) end your Windows session, or (c) restart your computer. The consequences range from an annoying loss of time to a potentially costly loss of unsaved data. Hewlett Packard is aware of the problem with the printer driver and their representatives counsel saving before printing (always good practice) and sending one job at a time to the printer until an updated driver is available. Check the HP Web site or the Microsoft site for updates (Microsoft writes the drivers) or, call HP at 208 323-2551 for further suggestions. 1. PC Tips is a monthly column produced by Installations Plus+ for those of its clients who don't pretend to power user status.
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If you haven't already done so, please read our June, 1997 column on