Computer Guide

Scrolling is too fast

by George Skarbek - 25 March 2008

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Scrolling is too fast

Q: In Internet Explorer when scrolling, the bars have the annoying habit of suddenly racing. I can't seem to find an answer to this in Internet options, (it seems to be worse on some sites than others).Is there a solution to this?


A: I am well aware of the problem but despite searching I have not found an answer.
I tend to scroll by pressing the space bar to go down a page and Shift + Space to move up.

To scroll down many pages just hold the space bar and the scrolling will be very quick but probably no as fast as in your case.

Another way, if you prefer to use the mouse, is to click and hold the vertical scroll bar and drag it down at your desired speed.

Downloading photos

Q: My son, who is a chef in New York, will send me an email just saying "this is my restaurants latest review, just click on the link". This might be a few photos or a short video clip. Is here a way that I can put the video and photos into a file and view whenever without having to go onto the net.


A: This is not possible without having some software that will download these for you, or you have to download them individually. One good program is Download Studio, developed by an Australian company. It can just download all images from a given site. It can also download music, movies, web sites, RSS feeds, podcasts, flash, blogs and more and it will resume broken downloads. You can schedule downloads for later which may be useful for readers who have a large off-peak allowance and have used most of their peak allocation.  They claim that is can accelerate downloads up to 500%. My testing, using 10 Mbps cable, seems to have shown a slight improvement. However, this software can become intrusive as it tries to help even when you are downloading a 1 KB file.

See: http://www.conceiva.com/products/downloadstudio/default.asp for more details and to download a fully functional product that will last for 15 days, allowing you to evaluate it.

 

Transferring Outlook

Q: I would like some information on migrating my Outlook email from one computer to a new one. I am using Outlook 2003 and the computer I want to migrate my email to Outlook 2007.

A: This is relatively easy to do. You have to locate the PST file on both computers. It almost certainly will be called Outlook.pst and is usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\User name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Then copy this file from the old to the new computer. It will copy all mail, contacts and calendar. Note that you must do this before you receive any important mail on the new computer as copying the PST file will overwrite all mail etc on the new computer. If the PST file is very large you can delete all files in the Deleted Item folder and the compact the PST file clicking on File, Data File Management, highlight your PST file and click on Setting and Compact Now.

 

Can Spam infect my computer?

Q: When I open up Outlook Express every morning to check my emails, I (like almost everyone else) get my fair share of spam; and there's a real possibility that I could get a malicious one which contains a really nasty virus if I accidentally opened one I shouldn't have!  How can I delete these unwanted emails without having to open them first? (I can't find a feature on Outlook which enables me to do that!)

A: If you have an anti-virus program there is virtually no chance of your computer being infected. Also your ISP will be running some anti-virus software that is typically updated every few hours.

If you have been applying the Microsoft security patches then there is no chance of you computer being infected by just having some text or even image in the preview pane as Outlook Express is the program that is running and it has control of what happens. The risk occurs when you click on an attachment that contains executable code as then control is passed to that program.  

Just seeing that there is an attachment in some suspicious message cannot harm your computer and I believe that you have no cause to worry.

The only way to delete mail without seeing it is to have a rule that will move mail to the deleted folder on arrival but as spammers do not have the same and constant address, this method will not work with spam.

 

To look at the e-book in PDF format, Computer Guide, based on these columns click here