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Issue #167: October 3, 2010

Dear Readers: It is my pleasure to welcome all the new “It’s Geek to Me” readers picking up the column over in Texas in the Odessa American.  The e-mails have already started coming in from your neck of the woods, and I look forward to conversing with many of you.  Welcome to the Geek side! 

This week, I received an e-mail from “Myrtle B.”, which had a whole lot of very detailed background information (EXCEPT which version of Windows she is running) and asked several questions.  Unfortunately, the e-mail was so long, that publishing just the question would have taken up my entire space allocation for the column.  So instead, I’m going to summarize the problems she described, and offer my solutions.  The background is that Myrtle’s computer had been unplugged for 8-weeks, and upon turning it on, it required her to do some Windows updates.  All the problems she is inquiring about began after the updates, and she wants to know if they are “normal” and she just needs to accept them, or if they are “problems” with solutions.

Problem 1: The very small size of print on my toolbars

Problem 2: The small sizes of the clock, temperature and calendar on the right pane of my desk top.

Problem 3: My Word Document page was only a quarter of the screen – like I was printing four pages on one page.

Myrtle, all three of these problems lead me to believe that one of the updates you installed changed your screen resolution.  I have no way of knowing what it was before, or what it is now, but I will tell you how to get to the setting screen so that you can adjust it the way you want it.  The procedure differs if you’re on Windows XP, or Vista/Win7.  If you’re on XP, right-click in an empty spot somewhere on your Windows desktop, and from the pop-up menu, select “Properties”, then select the tab labeled “Settings”.   If you’re running Vista/Win7, right-click in an empty spot on the desktop and from the menu select “Personalize”.  In the box that comes up, select “Display Setting”.  The procedures from here out are the same regardless of the Windows version.  The control you want is labeled either “Resolution” or “Screen Resolution”.  Sliding it to the right makes a higher resolution, and everything on-screen appears smaller.  Sliding it left has the opposite effect.  Try moving it left a couple notches.  I suspect it’s probably on 1280 by 1024, and you want it on 1024 by 768.  You’ll have to experiment to find the right setting.  Hit “Apply” and take a look.  Once everything looks the right size, click “Ok”.

Problem 4: The thumbnail pic that popped up in My Documents for quick identification is gone.

That’s just a view setting in the directory, Myrtle.  Open a File Explorer window and navigate to the My Documents directory.  Pull down the “View” menu and note some settings there.  In XP you’ll see settings for Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, etc.  In Vista/Win7 you’ll see “Extra Large Icons”, “Large Icons”, “Medium Icons”, etc.  Only one of these views can be selected at a time.  If you’re using XP, select “Thumbnails” to restore the view you want.  If you’re using Vista/Win7, select one of the “Icons” views.

So to answer your overall question, none of these were errors – they were simply system configuration settings that got modified by a Windows Update (thanks A LOT Bill!).  I hope this gets you back on track.


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