RUPERT-TECH - Computer & Laser Printer Services

If you use iCal to set up reminders and events it is often useful to add an alarm. This way you know an event is coming up and you will not forget it.

This post is about automatically setting up an iCal alarm for your events. This way you don’t have to manually add an alarm. Its rather simple to implement and can save you a couple of seconds when adding a new event.

To add a default alarm, go to iCal > Preferences >General from the menu bar. This will load the preferences for iCal. Within the options take a look about half way down for an option that says “Add a default alarm”. Check the box and add a time in the text box. The alarms are set in minutes, so if you want an alarm set for the day before enter 1440 minutes.

Now every time you add a new event within iCal it will automatically add an alarm to that event.

If an application locks up under a previous version of Windows then there was nothing you could do about it. A new Windows 7 option, however, can not only explain the problem, but may get your program working again without any loss of data.

When the lockup occurs, click Start, type RESMON and click the RESMON.EXE link to launch the Resource Monitor.

Find your frozen process in the CPU pane (it should be highlighted in red), right-click it and select Analyze Wait Chain.

If you see at least two processes in the list, then the lowest, at the end of the tree, is the one holding up your program. If it's not a vital Windows component, or anything else critical, then save any work in other open applications, check the box next to this process, click End Process, and your locked-up program will often spring back to life.

At first glance the Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but explore the Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views. And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more.

Don't take any Windows 7 applet at face value, then - there are some very powerful new features hidden in the background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows applets to ensure you don't miss anything important.

Defragmentation helps speed up access to data on your drive. In this section, you’ll learn how to schedule defragmentation so you don’t have to worry about ensuring your drive is defragmented.

Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all come with a built-in disk defragmenting tool. I’ll show you how to use this and set up a schedule.

Setting up scheduled defrags is easy:

1. Click the Start button, type defrag, and click Disk Defragmenter.
2. Click Configure schedule.

Choose a time when your computer is turned on, but you are not using it.

4. Click OK and Close to save your settings

Your disk will now be defragmented regularly.

In Office 2010, the navigation pane replaced the old Find window. And Outlook has as well received an updated search function, and an even more detailed one at that.

You can begin searching by typing into the text box located over your email previews. As expected, typing in a word or phrase will narrow down the list of results to those that include what you’re looking for. The real magic is found in Tab that now appears in the Ribbon interface.

Using the Search tab you can narrow down your search. You can search only emails from a specific contact, only the subject line, only emails with attachments, only emails sent within a certain time frame, only emails that are unread, only emails that are categorized, and more. You can also open recent searches!

Give it a go!

Here are some tips to ensure malware is not given access to your computer:

• Keep your computer up to date.
• Keep your browser up to date.
• Install a good antimalware program (Like Microsoft's own Security Essentials)
  
• Download free software only from sites you know and trust.
• Avoid clicking links inside pop-up windows.
• If you are offered antimalware programs while browsing, don’t install them.

Following these rules, you’ll protect yourself and decrease the chances of getting malware on your system.

Tip: Stepping away from your computer and don't want anyone seeing or accessing your computer account? More than one user using the same computer and hate to log off so the other person can use it?  You can lock your computer if you need to go do something else but don’t want to shut everything down, like when you log out.  

For that, press the "Windows Key(start) + L" to lock it.

Then either use the "Switch User" feature to allow other users to use the computer or just log back in and everything will be the same way you left it.

No need to log off or close browsers or email clients.

July is a special month (see fun facts below) so we thought, what better way to celebrate than to run a couple of promotional ads with some special discounts to help alleviate the "heat"...

And so, there are two promotions going on this month, and each one of them comes with a promo code! Use either code when you request our services and get 10% off!*

Find them in Google Search and/or Facebook and save!

*The "not-so-fine-print":
This offer ends July 31st, 2011.
Offers and promo codes can not be combined or stacked.
Promo Codes apply to On Site / In Shop services only, and can not be used towards parts, software/hardware purchases nor remote support services.

Fun facts about July:
July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. It is, on average, the warmest month in most of the Northern hemisphere (where it is the second month of summer) and the coldest month in much of the Southern hemisphere (where it is the second month of winter). The second half of the year commences in July. In the Southern hemisphere, July is the seasonal equivalent of January in the Northern hemisphere.

The birthstone for July is a ruby.

When Windows 7 or Windows Vista programs won’t run right, there are some things you can do to get them working. Programs that won’t load quickly, don’t function correctly, freeze, won’t show up on your desktop or don’t install properly can all be fixed.

Here are some tips on how to troubleshoot Windows software problems.

1. Obviously, first make sure the program you have installed is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista or whatever version you are running.
2. Second, make sure your computer meets the software’s minimum system requirements. You will need to upgrade your equipment to run software that exceeds your system’s capacity. Computers that barely comply with minimum requirements may perform unreliably or slowly when their capacity is being maxed out.
   
   
3. Some software works better when few other programs are running, so close windows and programs you aren’t using. Try the program in question again after you close everything else.
   
   
4. Make sure at least 5 to 10 percent of your total hard drive space is free to get the best performance from your Windows 7 or Windows Vista machine. This makes programs run faster and prevents annoying crashes. Use a disk cleanup utility to free some space if you’re running short.
   
   
5. Visit your software maker’s website for updates and notes about frequent issues. If it’s a Microsoft program, run Windows Update and let it load all patches. Once you’ve installed all available updates for your system, restart the computer before you try your software again.
   
   
6. Improve your system’s overall performance by deleting or uninstalling any unwanted programs. Windows 7 and Windows Vista work best when they’re not cluttered, so this may improve your software’s performance.
   
   
7. Check your Startup folder and disable any Windows 7 or Windows Vista programs that load automatically when you start the computer. Once again, restart after making these changes.
   
   
8. Next, further improve the performance of your machine by running its defragmenting utility to optimize your hard drive.
   
   
9. If your new software still isn’t working correctly, scan for spyware and viruses. Both Windows 7 and Windows Vista can use Windows Defender, which can help eliminate threats and reduce pop-ups that claim system resources.

When everything else fails, you have two more options.

1. After uninstalling the software and rebooting the computer, try loading the program again. Something may have gone wrong the first time.
   
   
2. Finally, go for help from either Microsoft or the software company’s technical support, but be aware that these services may charge a fee. They may also be able to help you finally solve your problem.

Following these steps should get any piece of software up and running. Software can be finicky, and so can many computer systems. Every problem, however, has a solution.

Has this happened to you? Your computer’s performance gets slower and slower. Applications take a little longer to open each time. Web pages time out before they’ve fully loaded.

Then, something dramatic happens. You get a worrying message that your virtual memory is too low.

It’s not as bad as it seems, however. You can fix the problem of low virtual memory.

Simply put, your computer’s virtual memory is the hard drive space your machine uses when it is running short of random access memory, called RAM. Common programs like Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Microsoft Office Word can be real memory hogs, sometimes using all of your computer’s free RAM.

What can you do about a “virtual memory low” message?

If you get a warning that says your virtual memory minimum is too low or something similar, there are two things you can do to correct the situation.

The simplest solution is to increase the virtual memory size on your hard drive, if space allows. To do that, simply go to your control panel and increase the size in the System section. The exact location varies depending on whether you’re using Windows 7, Windows Vista or another version of the operating system.

A somewhat more complicated solution is to add more RAM to your computer. If you continue to get messages that say things like “your computer is running low on virtual memory” even after you increase the virtual memory size on your hard drive, adding more RAM is your only option. That requires opening the case, but the new RAM simply clips into place.

Here are some general guidelines for how much RAM average systems need:

• Windows 7 requires 1 GB of RAM to work properly.
• Windows Vista requires 512 MB of RAM or more to work well, but some applications, especially gaming software, need twice that much.
• Windows XP can manage with only 256 MB of RAM, but like all systems, it will work better with more.

For a work computer, ask your company’s IT administrator to add more RAM for you. It’s a simple process. For your own computer, buy additional RAM at a computer store and ask them to install it for you. You can buy more RAM online if you prefer.

A low virtual memory message isn’t really as terrible as it sounds. It indicates a problem you can easily solve.