ItsGeekToMe.co

For those Geeks among you who keep track of such things, you’ll surely want to know that this issue marks the end of the 6^th year that I.G.T.M. has been in publication.  As always, accolades in the form of telegrams, candy, flowers, jewelry, cash donations, stocks, bonds, or real estate are gratefully accepted, and may be sent in my name to Geek Central, where a member of my crackerjack staff will be sure your gifts get to my large corner office on the top floor of Geek Tower.  If you need the physical mailing address, please contact me via e-mail, or via my website at ItsGeekToMe.co (not .com). 

Q:  I took pictures, saved them to my laptop in a folder named POOL PICTURES. I burned this to a disk and thought I deleted the folder. Now, whenever I download something that requires me to SAVE/RUN if I save it, it shows up on my desktop in a folder named POOL PICTURES. What I downloaded is in this folder and can be run but the folder is named POOL PICTURES.  I am not very computer knowledgeable. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

– Bernard L.
Crestview, Florida

A: I certainly can help you, Bernard.  Actually, helping you is also what your computer is trying to do.  It’s just so modest that it helps out without ever telling you it’s helping, and without expecting a thank-you, or anything in return.  Your computer’s help is coming in the form of it remembering and re-using the place where you previously told it you wanted to save downloaded files.  It doesn’t even mind re-creating that spot for you if you happen to delete it, which is why the POOL PICTURES directory keeps showing up.

But let me serious-up for a moment.  Your problem is very typical of people who are “not very computer knowledgeable”, as you described.  Such people tend to download things without really knowing or understanding where the files are going on their computer.  In your case, at least the files are ending up in a very obvious location.  The complaint I usually get is that people “can’t find” files they’ve downloaded.  The secret to knowing where your files are going to go (and changing it from POOL PICTURES to a location better suited to you) lies in paying attention to the dialog that comes up when you start to save something.  You’re going to get one of two things.  You’ll either get the same type of dialog that you get when you choose “Save As” from the “File” menu in a program like your Word Processor, in which case the dialog itself has very visible navigation controls that show the precise path (drive and folders) to which the file will be saved.  The other thing you might see is the Internet Explorer download ribbon (which is probably what’s tripping you up.  When you get to this, look carefully at the “Save” button, and you’ll see there is a tiny arrow attached to its right edge.  Click this arrow instead of the button itself, and choose “Save As” from the little menu that appears.  You will be able to specify the destination directory for this and all future downloads.  At least, until you come in and change it again.

Q:  My e-mail font is greatly enlarged so I have to scroll back and forth to read or send a msg. I have run Cleaner twice and re-booted to no avail. How can I get the original resolution back?

– Peggy T.
Shalimar, Florida

A: It sounds like you’re doing a few simple things that you know in a desperate attempt to fix a totally unrelated problem.  I often caution people about that, because you can accidentally harm your system by experimenting with unnecessary alterations to it.  I hope you didn’t have any real expectation that running Cleaner (did you mean CCleaner?) or re-booting would change the size of a font.  At least you didn’t hurt anything, but you also didn’t tell me whether you’re using webmail, or e-mail client software, and if you’re using software, what program.  So, I’m going to give you basic instructions for the most common scenarios, and hope this helps you.  You can change the font size in Internet Explorer (which would affect the font if you’re using webmail) by clicking on IE’s “View” menu, and then the “Text Size” slide-off.  While you’re on the “View” menu, also check the “Zoom” slide-off and make sure it’s at 100%.  If you’re running Outlook, check out tinyurl.com/ydcjz9j for tips in how to adjust font sizes.  You can also try holding the [Ctrl] key while scrolling your mouse wheel.