Specifications
Page 11
The other keystroke might get you
out of an install mess. Sometimes
with this one you have to be really
quick because you have to hit it while
Windows is starting up. With
computers getting faster and faster,
you don’t have much time to hit this
key because once Windows starts
loading the desktop, hitting this key
won’t help.
One of the ways to make sure you
have time to hit the keys is to turn the
computer off completely, then get
poised to hit the F8 key. It’s along the
top row of keys of your keyboard and
you MUST strike it before Windows
starts loading the desktop.
(With some computers, this is
made even harder by a flashy screen
they display while, in the
background, Windows is busy trying
to load everything. Even if you get
this type of screen, once you hit the
power button, hit F8 anyway.)
Sometimes you’ll get a message
that you have a keyboard error and be
asked to hit F1 to continue. If that
happens, press F1, then F8 again. You
should then get a menu in a DOS-like
black screen.
Let’s say that you install a program
in Windows (any of the above three
versions) and then you start getting
error messages or, even worse,
Windows won’t run at all. The one
you want to choose is “Safe Mode.”
This is Windows with all the good
stuff removed. The operating system
uses a minimum set of drivers and, to
tell you the truth, it looks grimy
because the display is using only 16
colors. I remember the days of 16
colors on monitors and they looked
pretty good back then; now I’m
spoiled with millions of colors.
Once Windows loads, Windows
2000 and 98 will look pretty much
the same, except for the few colors.
This is the time to go to the
Control Panel, click on
Add/Remove Programs and
remove the program that started
giving you the trouble in the first
place.
You also can go into Device
Manager (right click on My
Computer, then left click on
Properties) to disable drives or
devices you suspect are creating
the problem. By clicking on the +
sign next to a category, you can
see the all the devices listed.
Right clicking on the device will
give you a context menu. On that
menu is a “disable” device. That’s
what you might want to do if
that’s the one with the problem.
While in this cocoon of safety,
you can do such stuff as change
video drivers, adjust video drivers
or uninstall a program that is
creating problems.
How to uninstall a program:
•
Open the Control Panel.
• Double click on Add/Re-
move Programs.
•
Select the program you want
to uninstall and follow the
directions from the Wizard.
In many cases, this will fix
your computer. If it doesn’t, at
least you have a fighting chance
by unchecking the automatic boot
and learning how to use the
startup menu that contains a
goody that can help you rescue
your system.
Questions, comments:
Charlie@askcharlie.com.
__________
The Editorial Committee of the
Association of Personal
Computer User Groups
(APCUG), an international
organization of which this group
is a member, brings this article to
you.
character just appear and say
something if you want, but doing
something more will take time to
learn. Again, the tutorials are not just
a good learning place, but they are
also good to watch and get ideas. The
Script Wizard helps you to have the
character say, do, move, or gesture.
Each character has a list of moves,
commands, gestures, and facial
expressions. By the way, within the
box that previews the character, there
is a hyperlink to the creator of the
character’s website. I highly
recommend going to them to get
more characters (can’t have enough).
I downloaded some great ones from
http://www.e-clips.com.au.
Within the script, you can do some
PowerPoint commands such as click,
or go to the next slide. During the
presentation you have the option of
speech balloons that are displayed
when a character speaks or thinks.
They can help to show what the
character is saying in case someone
does not hear what is said. As part of
the presentation, you can put in
commands to play a video file, read
or just show a Excel or Word file.
Vox Proxy costs $199. As an
option, you can purchase a CD prep
which allows users to burn the
presentation to an auto-starting CD.
That option will bring the total cost to
$228.95. Not for the casual user, but
if you do a lot of PowerPoint
presentations, this is a product that
will help make them even better.
http://www.voxproxy.com
Minimum System
Requirements
Windows® 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
PowerPoint® 2000 or 2002
128 MB RAM
150MB free disk space
Screen resolution: 800 x 600 minimum
300 MHz or faster processor
Microphone if you use VP speech
recognition
VOX PROXY
Continued from page 10
FROM THE BEGINNING
Continued from page 1