Connie Devine

I appreciate all of the comments I received regarding System Restore. I don’t think we will all agree on its usefulness but we at least have the choice of using it or not. Regarding the fact that it does not, per se, “uninstall” the offending software, this is quite true. It will, however, remove those […]

A few days ago I posted an article regarding the use of System Restore in Windows. I had a broken program which I surmised was due to a software program I had downloaded and installed earlier in the day. To summarize I used System Restore the next day to return my computer to the state […]

Not much is written about Windows System Restore anymore, so I thought I would bring it out for a bow. Every now and then it comes in quite handy.
Yesterday I decided to install some software I had downloaded from the Web. I installed it and all seemed well. The program performed as advertised and I […]

I thought long and hard before I posted regarding my use of OneCare and for good reason. I fully expected a backlash of some kind directed at Microsoft and I was not disappointed. Let me first state that not everything Microsoft is good and it is also not all bad.
I understand the reluctance of some […]

Yes, I confess! I am using and have used Windows Live OneCare since its Beta days. Granted it may not be at the top of the list for anti-virus, firewall and back-up software, but let me share when, and for whom, it may be a good choice.
Many of my clients are senior citizens or like […]

It’s finally spring and your computer can use some spring cleaning as well as other parts of your life. While being cooped up in the house all winter you may have clicked, installed, uninstalled and fooled around with some useful as well as useless software. Now is the time to undo the mess that has […]

After my Scan Dog article ran in Windows Fanatics, I heard from some of you out there that were in the same boat as I was and had older Epson scanners that did not, and would NEVER have, drivers to use the scanner while using Windows Vista as the operating system. One comment that […]

There is an old song that goes something like this: “Give me land, give me land, give me lots and lots of land… Don’t fence me in!” Well, I finally made the move. YES! I added a second monitor to my desktop. I now have a bunch of land and I am loving it. I […]

You have most likely heard the expression “hang dog” as in being down and out, but I am faced with “scan dog” this morning.
I would venture to guess that it has been over one year since I have had to use my Epson Perfection 1650 scanner, or for that matter the need to scan anything […]

There I was, lost in an alternate geek universe! Let me start at the beginning.
Once upon a time, Snow White… Ooops, wrong story! The following is the real story.
I had been using Vista when it was still in beta and I had no real issues with my Office 2003 Suite. At the time […]

As my first re-entry, let me muse about the question of whether to upgrade to the Windows Vista operating system or not. This is not as easy a question as one might imagine, as Chris so eloquently pointed out in his YouTube video.
If you have an older computer, the answer is “probably not.”
Chances are slim […]

After my initial “opportunities” in trying to get Windows Vista to install on a separate partition on a second hard drive, I must say that I am more and more pleased with what I am seeing.
My first reaction when beginning to work with the new OS was one I had not experienced on a computer […]

At long last, I’m back on the good ship Vista!
When I last wrote in late June I was waiting out the weather and getting ready to install Vista Beta 2. After the weather cleared, clouds appeared during my attempt to install Vista, Beta 2.

My continuing journey with Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 has gotten nowhere in the last few days. We have been grounded until further notice.
If you live near here, Murphy, NC, or along the East Coast, you have some idea of the weather we have been having. Here we have had cloud to ground lightning every […]

We meet again. First things first. I was a bit remiss when I mentioned my friend James in my posting yesterday. I did not provide a link to his writings. Look at what James is doing by visiting his site. He has a Vista page located there that discusses dual boot with Vista.

As I mentioned in my previous article, I bought the available video card in town to use with Vista. It is the ATI Radeon 9250 with 256MB. Now this is a very nice card, but just one small thing is missing… Pixel 2.0 shading.

I was bound and determined to not do anymore beta testing after working on XP. I have resisted putting Vista on my desktop all of this time, but I finally have broken down and I am going to give in.
It’s just too much fun for me to get the newest thing around. In […]

Here we are again, still fighting the good fight. In this installment of a series discussing the elimination, or reduction of spam, I would like to discuss “SPAM BEACONS.”

In part one of this series, we were discussing setting up a primary e-mail address. Once you have chosen a name for your primary e-mail address, the next thing I want you to do involves NOT doing something that seems, on the face of it, a good idea.

As the title suggests, I am going to embark on a series of articles to reduce the amount of spam that you have to deal with on a daily basis. This issue is not going away any time soon, so it is up to us to mitigate the effect that it has on our […]