Resources

I need help with Microsoft Word. Do you know where I can get telephone support? I have a book typed in Word and I need to put a ~ after every period. Is there any way to populate this without typing in everyone?

Help Using Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a complex word processor with tons of useful features - if you know how to use them. In this case, it’s not necessary to try to call Microsoft for help as you have found Filetonic.com and we’re always eager to do our best to lend a helping hand. I’m not sure why an editor would want a “~” mark after every period and I can see how tedious that would be to do manually, even in a relatively short document - let alone a book. However, we can accommodate this request fairly easily using Microsoft’s Find and Replace feature.

Using Word’s Find and Replace Feature

The Find and Replace feature is most often used to find certain words and replace them with new words. For example, let’s say that you wrote a book and your main character was named “Ralph.” Later, you decide that you’d rather Ralph have a different name, such as Benny. Rather than going through and replacing each instance of “Ralph” with “Benny” (and possibly missing a few), you can use the Find and Replace feature to find “Ralph” and replace it with “Benny.”

Word can also search your document for every single period (.) and replace each one with a tilde (~) mark. To do this, hit the Control key plus the ‘F’ key. I remember this by thinking ‘F’ for “Find.” A box appears. Enter a period mark in the box that says “Find what” and then click the “Replace” tab. Now, enter a tilde mark in the box that says “Replace with.” When you’re ready, click either the Replace button or the Replace All button. You can do it one period at a time by clicking the Replace button followed by Find Next, but that’s going to be quite tedious.

Problems with Find and Replace

Before you click on Replace All, keep in mind that this will replace all periods, not just the ones that end a sentence. For example, if your text contains a Web site address such as Filetonic.com, the period will be replaced and you’ll end up with “Filetonic~com.” You can avoid problems like this by including a space after the both punctuation marks when you enter them in the Find and Replace dialog boxes. That way, when Word finds a period followed by a blank space, it will replace the period and the blank space with a tilde and a blank space. When Word finds a period followed by a letter, it will ignore it.

Exploring Word

I hope this little trick helps make your job easier. Word is a powerful tool with tons of timesavers. Explore Word’s built-in Help files or check out Microsoft Office Online for tutorials and tips. Microsoft even offers a free self-paced training course covering Word 2007.

MSN IM Account Sending Spam to Contacts

Phishing and Spamming on MSN

Unfortunately, at some point in time, you must have clicked a link connected to a phishing scam and your email and contact information is now being used to send spam. In addition to the risk and hassle for the people on your contact list, the hacker responsible for the scam might have more of your sensitive information, if there is anything personal saved on your MSN account.

Change your MSN Password

The link that you clicked would have given permission to the phisher to access your MSN account with your password and copy your contact information. For this reason, the very first thing to do is change your MSN password. Once you change your password the hacker won’t be able to access you account anymore.

Change your MSN Account

However, it is possible that they have already saved your email address and your contacts and can continue to use this information to send spam that looks like it is coming from you. For this reason, the second thing to do is delete your MSN account and start a new one, with a new user name and a new password. Once you do this you can let your contacts know about both the problem and the solution so they don’t open any more messages from your account.

Delete All MSN Program Files

So, you should begin by using Windows Add/Remove to get rid of any and all MSN files. There is also a Windows Uninstaller Cleanup Utility that you can download and run to clean up any leftover bits of program. It is also a really good idea to run a quality registry cleaner like RegCure to get saved MSN data off your registry. There is also a Windows registry utility called Disk Defragmenter that you can run from your operating system. Once you remove everything, restart your computer, and then run all your virus, adware and spyware scans.

Create a New MSN Account and Be Careful

Once your system is clean you can set up a new MSN account and send your new information to your contacts. In the future make sure not to click on any links that aren’t 100%, absolutely, definitely legitimate MSN links. Some users are reporting a bad link with a URL that claims to “check who has blocked you on MSN”. Links like this are not from MSN and can only bring trouble.

Troubleshoot a High Pitch Sound from your PC

New Graphics Board and a High Pitch Sound

Hmm, well this is a little tricky to diagnose for sure because there are a number of hardware components and configurations that have been known to result in high-pitched sounds. Apparently the noise isn’t audible to every ear, depending on pitch and tonal hearing ranges, but if you can hear it can be pretty bad. To try and get to the root of the problem you can test a few theories and narrow down the possibilities.

Replace the PSU

There are a few possible causes of your sound problem. It is unlikely the new graphics board alone that is failing. There is, however, a good chance that it’s the power supply unit, or PSU. It has been reported that a new PSU alone can fix the problem and stop the sound. In your case a PSU with a higher wattage is a good idea.

Try Removing USB Devices

Other Asrock graphic board users have complained about the high pitch sound that I think you are talking about. In some cases the high pitch sound seems related to the number of USB devices that are plugged in to the system. You could try removing USB devices to see if there is any improvement.

Troubleshoot the Motherboard

It could also be the motherboard, which doesn’t really explain the timing of the new graphics card and the introduction of the sound, but it is possible that the motherboard is old and unable to properly support the new card. If your motherboard is still within warranty, you could have it checked by the manufacturer or the retailer you bought it from.

Consult a Remote Technician

It is a bit difficult to diagnose your sound problem without being there for the troubleshooting. To get around this I can recommend the services of a remote technician. If you contact a remote assistant, you can get help in real time and narrow down the possibilities with a computer technician.

Resolve Internet Errors and Freezing

Ctrl Alt Del = CPU Panel

First of all, the response that you are getting from Windows when you press Ctrl Alt Del is the CPU panel, which you can close by simply clicking on the grey area around the box. This will take you to the Task Manager. The CPU panel is a feature Microsoft added to the operating system, presumably to allow the user more than one troubleshooting option when the system hangs unresponsively. Clicking the grey area will close the panel, displaying the Task Manager, with which you can close your program.

Update and Run AntiVirus Software

The bigger issue that you are having is the system crash while playing poker online. Frequent and unexpected computer crashes are often the result of viruses and other malware programs, which are especially prevalent on gaming and gambling websites. You should be sure that you are running up to date virus protection. There are free versions available of Avast or AVG for viruses and Spybot, MalwareBytes or Adware for spyware and adware. If you are running free versions, you need to check for updates manually and often. If you run a subscription antivirus, make sure that you are set to look for and allow updates. Run a full virus, adware and spyware scan and let the programs quarantine or remove any problem files that are found. Antivirus programs that you have to pay for have some real benefits, like automatic virus definition updates and enhanced security. If you are interested in a professional security suite, check out XoftSpy and AntiVirusPlus by Paretologic.

Delete Temporary Files

Once you are all up to date, you can try a few things to tinker with your Internet settings and configurations. Each time you visit a webpage your computer saves the data in cache files so that it can recall the page next time you visit. Sometimes flawed or corrupt pages are stored that interfere with the use of the website. Deleting your temporary Internet files and saved cookies will solve this problem. However, deleting temporary files will also clear data that you have saved with Internet Explorer, like passwords and user names. Make sure that you record this information before deleting your files.

• Close any open Internet Explorer windows and quit the program
• Close and quit Windows Explorer
• Click Start, then Control Panel, then click twice on Internet Options
• Find and select the tab marked General, then choose Delete Files
• A Delete Files box will open, choose the box to Delete all Offline Content
• Click OK, then OK again
• Restart Internet Explorer and try your poker page

Try these fixes and, if your problem remains, write again and we can take another stab at it. Good luck!

You were right to experiment by turning off the firewall - now we know that even though the diagnostics returned an issue, that’s not the connection problem you’re having here. I think that working with your IP address is going to solve your connectivity issue - I had the same thing happen when visiting a relative recently and this worked for us. Once we’d set a static IP address, we went back and allowed it to obtain an automatic address and it worked fine.

Configure the IP Address

Are you using a router? If so, the computer is probably set to configure the IP address automatically. The first thing you need to do is to find the correct static address that was assigned by your IP provider. If you are using a modem, this will be the address that is showing when your computer is plugged directly into the modem, bypassing the router. You may have the address somewhere in your records, or you can call them and find out the static IP address for that computer.

First, let’s try to trick your computer into resetting the IP address. If you’ve done this already, move to the next step. Go to Run, type in cmd and then at the prompt, type in ipconfig /release and press Enter. Now go back to the prompt and type in ipconfig /renew. Try it again to see if you can access the Internet with a new IP address.

To find the IP addresses, go to My Network Places, choose View Network Connection. Find your connection and right click it. Choose Properties. Under the General tab, find Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties. If it is set to choose the IP address automatically, choose the option to Use the Following IP Address. Type in the static IP address, close the windows and see if you can access the Internet. From here, you can either continue to use that static address while you’re in that location, or you can wait a few minutes, go back in and reset it to “Obtain IP Address Automatically.” We did this in our situation and for some reason it reset just fine. If you do continue to use the static IP address, know that if you go somewhere like a hotel or coffeehouse where they have wireless Internet, you are going to have to change it to Automatic in order to try to access the Internet from that location.

Hopefully, troubleshooting the network connection this way will work for you and get you up and running.

Is there an easy way to get my pictures and other info off of a computer that the motherboard had a meltdown? I have a new computer and still have the old hard drive. I was thinking that there may be some way to take the hard drive out of the old computer and connect it to my new computer, perhaps through a USB port. Help?

You were completely on the right track. In fact there are two good ways to get your information off the old hard drive. One is to get an external hard drive enclosure that you can put your hard drive in and transfer the information to another computer. The other way is to put your old hard drive in the new computer and use it as a “slave.”

Hard Drive Enclosure

The easiest thing to do is to purchase an inexpensive hard drive enclosure. You can find them all over computer stores and the web - two places to try are New Egg and Tiger Direct. Don’t be frightened by the 4-bay enclosures that cost a few hundred dollars. All you need is an enclosure with one bay and that should run you considerably less than $50. All you need to do is take the old hard drive out, put it in the enclosure and hook the enclosure up to your new PC using the USB port. The new computer will assign the enclosure a new drive number, and you should be able to access the information and transfer it to the new system with no problem.

Set Up as a Slave

You can also put your old hard drive into a free bay in your new machine and set it up as a slave so that you can recover the data. Follow these directions to set it up as a slave:

1. Unplug the old PC and take the case off. Locate and remove the hard drive by removing the screws and take the small power cable on the side (it will have red, black and yellow wires). Pull the hard drive out.
2. Now you need to set the jumper. Find a set of pins that are located on the back of the hard drive - they are usually between the power and hard drive cable connections.
3. You should see one labeled Slave. For most hard drives, you should put the jumper here to save it as a slave.
4. Now get into the new computer and find an empty bay for this hard drive. You will see a big, wide cable. You want to connect the very end of the slave drive and use the second connection to the end for the drive that is already there.
5. Connect a power connection to the hard drive and put the case back together.

For my money, as long as all you want to do is access the data, a hard drive enclosure is the way to go. It is inexpensive and easy to do and you should be able to access everything off of it as long as it hasn’t been damaged.