Welcome
to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, November 15, 2009
We
will not be publishing this newsletter for the next two weeks so the writers
and editors can prepare for and enjoy Thanksgiving with their friends and
families. We wish all of our
readers a very Happy Thanksgiving!
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Internal Revenue
Service Scam
Tips & Tricks: Internet
Explorer Menu Bar
This Week's Topic: Create an
Additional User Account
Question: Change Desktop Wallpaper
Websites of Interest: Thanksgiving;
Web MD Symptom Checker; Old Wives’ Tales; Localti.me
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Special Feature: Internal Revenue
Service Scam
The
following is from scambusters.org
Messages
purporting to come from the IRS have been dropping into millions of email
inboxes in recent months, with the ominous subject heading "Notice of
Underreported Income."
This
phony IRS spam is said to account for 10% of all email spam sent out during
those months.
In
one version, the message asks you to click on a link that takes you to a bogus
IRS page where you're asked to provide your Social Security number and credit
card information, supposedly to make an additional tax payment.
In
other words, it is simply an IRS phishing scam.
In
other cases, the message contains an attachment you're supposed to click to
install a tax statement viewer.
In
reality, clicking the attachment installs a virus called the Zeus Trojan, which
enables the scammers to hack bank accounts.
Researchers
say this Trojan -- said to be missed by most anti-virus software -- has been
draining more than a million dollars a day from victims' accounts.
We've
said it before and we'll say it again -- the IRS never makes unsolicited
contact by email. And when they do use email to respond to a message you sent
them, they never ask for personal information.
If
you receive this IRS scam message, simply ignore it and delete it. If you're
still worried that it might be genuine (though we assure you it isn't), contact
the IRS by phone.
Just
don't click on that link! And if you already did, contact your bank and the
police straightaway.
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Tips & Tricks: Internet
Explorer Menu Bar
Question: I cannot find the menu in Internet
Explorer on my new computer. Does
it have one?
Answer:
Yes,
it does, but you have to turn it on.
To
view it temporarily, press the Alt key.
You will see the menu; give your command and the menu will disappear
again. This gives you maximum
screen space without wasting anything on a menu you only use occasionally.
If
you prefer to have the menu displayed at all times, follow these steps:
Press
the Alt key. You will see the menu
appear. Click View on the menu,
point to Toolbars and then click on Menu Bar. The menu will display and remain in the
window, even after closing Internet Explorer and opening it again.
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Today's Topic: Create an
Additional User Account
Question: My wife and I will be having houseguests
over the holidays. Some of them
will want to use my computer. I
would like to set it up that someone else cannot access my personal
information. Can this be done?
Answer:
Yes,
it can. You can create a guest
account with limited access. You
can password protect your account so no one can sign in but you. You will log out of your account and
then log in on the guest account for other people to use.
The
article, from askdavetaylor.com, will give the steps for setting this up:
Windows
XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 make it easy to add additional users to your
computer. The extra users can create and save their own files, but (if you
choose the settings correctly) they will not be able to read or modify the
files that you have saved, and they will not be able to change system settings.
This
also offers additional protection against your computer being infected with a
virus. Generally, the best protection against viruses is to install an
anti-virus program. However, the nice thing about having multiple users on the
computer is that if a non-administrator user does accidentally get infected
with a virus, it will infect only their files and settings -- it won't affect
the administrator's account or the system as a whole. (Basically, if a user
accidentally gets infected with a virus, the virus runs "as" that user
-- meaning, the virus only has the privileges of that particular user. If that
user does not have privileges to access confidential files or change system
settings, then the virus that infected them cannot do those things either.)
Before
you add additional users to the computer, you should set a password for the
main administrator account on the computer (the steps are at the end of this
article). Even if your computer always starts up automatically without ever
asking you to "sign in", there still is a "main administrator
account" that you are signed in under, whenever you use Windows. That
article shows you how to set a password for that account. (Obviously, it offers
no security protection to set up extra accounts on the machine for other users
to use, if anybody can still sign in as the main administrator account without
entering a password!)
Also,
if one of the reasons that you're creating secondary accounts on the machine is
to prevent other users from being able to access your confidential files, then
when you're following the instructions in that article to set a password, when
Windows asks you "Do you want to make your files and folders
private?", be sure to say "Yes".
Once
you have created a password for the main administrator account, you can set up secondary
accounts on the same machine. To do this, go to Control Panel and pick User
Accounts.
In
Windows XP, click Create a new account.
In Vista, click Add or remove user accounts, Continue, and then click Create a new account.
Enter
a name for the new account, and click Next. In Vista, click Standard user and then
click Create.
In
Windows XP, the next screen asks you to "Pick an account type". If
the reason you are adding secondary users to the system is primarily so that
those users can use the computer without the possibility of them damaging your
important files, or changing system settings by accident, then choose account
type "Limited."
The
screen in Windows XP warns you that "programs designed prior to Windows XP
or Windows 2000 might not work properly with limited accounts". However,
as of 2009, this is very unlikely to be a problem with most programs in common
use today, so you should not worry about this.
Then
click "Create Account" and the account will be created. Next time you
log out of Windows, the account you just created will be listed.
To
set up a password on your computer:
Windows
XP
Start
by going into Control Panel and click on "User Accounts."
On
the "Pick a task" menu that comes up, click on "Change an
account." A new window opens asking "Pick an account to change"
and listing the accounts on the computer.
If
you have never set a password on the computer before or created any secondary
accounts, most likely the only accounts listed will be the main account, and
the Guest account (which is turned off by default).
Click
that account name, and a screen will appear asking "What do you want to
change about your account?" Click on "Create a
password for your account", which brings up the screen asking you to enter
your password.
Enter
the same password in the first two blanks. (It is common practice for a program
to ask you to enter your password twice, since if you entered the password only
once, you might make a typo, and then you would be locked out of your computer
since you would not know what password you had inadvertently entered!) In the
third blank, you can optionally enter a hint that will help you remember your
password if you forget it. As the text on the screen warns you, however, the
hint will be visible to everyone who uses the computer, so do not make the hint
too obvious or others will be able to guess your password as well.
After
setting your password, the computer will ask you if you want to make your files
and folders private.
This
applies to the pictures you create, the documents you create in Microsoft Word,
and so on. If you choose to keep these files private, then users with other
accounts on the same machine will not be able to see these files when they're
logged in. (Note that, obviously, this only applies if you have created
"other accounts" on the same machine. If you set a password on the
machine's main account, then if you give the password to someone or sign them
in temporarily so they can use your machine, they will still have access to all
of your files.)
And
that's it! Now, if you reboot your machine, the next time a user signs on they
will be prompted to enter a password in order to use the computer.
Windows
Vista
Open
Control Panel and click on User Accounts.
Click Change your Windows password.
Click Create a password for your account.
Enter
the same password in the first two blanks. (It is common practice for a program
to ask you to enter your password twice, since if you entered the password only
once, you might make a typo, and then you would be locked out of your computer
since you wouldn't know what password you had inadvertently entered!) In the
third blank, you can optionally enter a hint that will help you remember your
password if you forget it. As the text on the screen warns you, however, the
hint will be visible to everyone who uses the computer, so do not make the hint
too obvious or others will be able to guess your password as well.
Click
the Create password button.
The
next time a user signs on they will be prompted to enter a password in order to
use the computer.
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Question: Change Desktop
Wallpaper
Can
I put a picture on my computer screen? I have Windows Vista.
Answer:
Yes,
you can. Here are the steps for
Windows Vista:
Click
the Start Orb (that’s the round button, bottom left on the taskbar, with
the Windows logo on it). Open
Control Panel. In the Control Panel
window that you now see, click Change Desktop Background which you will find in
the Appearance and Personalization section.
Click
the Browse button. This will open a
window which will display your folders.
Maneuver to the folder where you have saved the picture you want to use
for your desktop background. Click
to select the picture and then click the Open button.
In
the bottom section of the Desktop Background window, click to select how you
want your picture positioned on the screen. Your choices are full screen, tiled or
centered.
Click
the OK button and your picture will be displayed on the desktop.
Changing
the Desktop Wallpaper in Windows XP
Right
click on a blank area on your desktop. A menu will open; left click on
Properties.
The
Display Properties dialog box will open.
Click on the Desktop tab at the top of the dialog box. (If you do not
see Desktop, look for Wallpaper or Background).
Click
the Browse button. Maneuver to the
folder where you have saved the picture you want to use on the desktop. Click on the filename of the picture;
click the Open button.
Choose
the Position of the picture – center, stretch or tile. Take a look at the preview; choose the
position that looks best.
Click
the OK button, and you should now see your picture on the desktop.
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Websites of Interest:
Thanksgiving
Visit
our website for recipes, decorating ideas, tips for traveling, e-cards, ways to
help the needy, and much more.
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/thanksgiving.html
Web
MD Symptom Checker
Visit
this site for an easy to use interactive tool where you select specific
symptoms and it identifies possible causes.
http://symptoms.webmd.com/symptomchecker
Old
Wives’ Tales
Here’s
a collection of old wives’ tales, superstitions, folklore and bizarre
beliefs. Fun to read.
http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html
Localti.me
For
any place in the world, find local time, weather, related articles and
pictures.
http://localti.me/