ItsGeekToMe.co

– Gary C.
Niceville,FL

 A: PCHnotify is a piece of software specific to computers manufactured by Hewlett Packard and Compaq.  HP is pretty mum about what it actually does, but I suspect it’s a utility (read: Nagware) designed to keep reminding you to register your computer until you go and actually do it.

 Although HP doesn’t say what PCHnotify does, they do say that prevent it running will not have any adverse effects.  You can find step-by-step instructions here: http://tinyurl.com/2uwjqy

 Q: I hope you can assist with a strange problem.  My school’s IT person is at a loss.  We are on a Novell network.  Our data files are on the server so we can access them from any PC.  I have one HP computer attached.  With it, the files have strange icons (see attached screen print) and many of the files indicate they are currently open by me when I try to open them.  I do not have this problem with any other PC. Do you have any suggestions?

– Jon P.
Pensacola, FL

 A: The dual blue arrow overlay on your icons indicates that the associated files are configured to be available “offline”.  This is Microsoft-speak meaning that the files are stored on a network shared drive, but a local copy is maintained on your computer so that even if your network connection goes down, the files will still be available.  In your case, it looks like your “My Documents” folder is located on a network share drive, and someone has told Windows to make its contents available offline.  It only happens on one computer because this is something that is set up on a computer-by-computer basis.

 Turning it off is relatively easy:

1. Open “My Computer” (or hit Winkey+E)
2. Browse to the network path that contains the files or folders in question
3. Right-click on one of the selected files, and in the context menu that comes up, uncheck “Make Available Offline”.  If that selection is absent or disabled, go to the “Tools” menu and select “Folder Options…”.  Select the “Offline Files” tab, and uncheck “Enable Offline Files”.

TIP OF THE WEEK: Did you know that a lot of what you usually do with a mouse in Windows, you can also do with your keyboard?  Browsing menus, switching between programs, even resizing windows all can be done without ever taking your hands off the keys.  The secret is the “Alt” key.  For example, if you press the “F” key, you usually type an “f” into whatever program you’re running.  But if you press Alt+F, you open the program’s “File” menu (if it has one).  Most menus and entries on menus have little underline marks called Keyboard Mnemonics (nee-MON-iks) below the letter that triggers them when paired with the Alt key.  Other cool “Alt” key combination include: Alt+Tab to switch between currently running programs, Alt+Esc to minimize the current program, Alt+Spacebar to display the current program’s system menu, and Alt+F4 to close the current program.  These mnemonics and others are built right into Windows.  There are also mnemonics built into applications.  You’ll have to read the program documentation, or do some experimenting to learn them.