Southwest Louisiana PC Users Group has a new web page with some very good information. Please visit http://www.swlapcug.com/

November 16, 2008 Sig Dr. Sam's Discussion Group

Today’s discussion group was primarily on the subject of our pending re-location site for GTPCC meetings. Also briefly discussed: Applian  software in Ira’s article in The Examiner. The suite is priced at $99.00 and used to record streaming media from the web. Some of the members said that there are some free programs available that will do this as well. We finished with discussion of converting Toshiba laptops with Vista, to XP, and the lack of XP drivers for these computers.

October 19, 2008 Sig Dr. Sam's Discussion Group

SIG discussed the following topics. We reviewed Ira Wilsker’s article in The Examiner about a new antivirus called Viper. Good program, uses very little system resources, but has no firewall. I mentioned a problem with MS Office 2007 Pro. My version has a problem with re-configuring when it starts up. It may have something to do with the service pak 1 update. One member asked about changing computers with Vista, back to XP. The main thing is to have are XP drivers for its hardware before doing so. The last topic was a Hackintosh computer built by one of our members. These are PC’s built to run the Mac OS.

August 17, 2008. SIG Dr. Sam's Discussion Group        

The following Subjects were discussed:

Storing "My Documents" on external hard drives, and linking registry to the new location.

Problems with Windows XP SP3 on Dell and HP computers using AMD processors.

The latest free Defragmenter version 6.01 is now available from www.Iobit .com  website. It’s fast and works well with XP and Vista.

The latest free version of AVG antivirus is version 8.0, version 7.5 is no longer being supported.

Extortion ware AV 2008 is attacking computers, and some are having to take their computers to service shops to clean it off. Club guest, Brandon Hardy, reported that the Free AVG program removed it from his computer.

Slow running computers can be caused by malware and viruses. Also discussed cleaning out startup manager, etc. with Advanced Windows Care 3 (free version) from Iobit.com.

Discussed using other browsers like Firefox 3. It’s faster and more secure than IE 7.

Sir John spoke about restarting the Genealogy Group.  Time and place for the meeting was chosen.

July 20, 2008 Discussion Group Summary

Claud Sibert brought to our attention of "How do I restore Windows if I've lost my restore CD?", PCWorld, page 116, August 2008. The problem is the "hidden hard-drive partition".  Once this partition is corrupted, only the restore CD will supposedly correct the situation.  The partition is not detected with Windows Explorer.  Partitioning software will identify the partition. His Compaq Presario had a "Compaq Config Partition". A countermeasure - build your own computer. Also discussed was The continuing problem with XP SP3 with some users:The need for update of Firefox 3 to 3.0.1:To restart Genealogy Group as an SIG: and The past access outage of our web page.

June 15, 2008

 Dr. Sam's Discussion group Summary

 The MS Vista annoyance factor of asking several times to confirm commands issued with the mouse can be eliminated by following the procedures found at this website,  http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/user_account_control.htm.

 Writing files to CD-R, DVD-R, verses CD-RW & DVD-RW’s. was brought up. The question of recycling old, unused PDA’s was asked. The consensus was that the memory fades in a short period of time after they are turned off and fully reset, and should be safe to give away or recycle. A question of backward compatibility of Acronis 10 and Acronis 11 was brought up. I am waiting to hear from their tech support site presently. One member had a problem with Road Runner modem not maintaining connection. Possible solutions were discussed. A CD-RW drive problem with random tray opening was discussed. And last was a  problem with computers setup on a home network not being recognized was discussed.

Submitted by Dr. Sam Giglio,  GTPCC Vice President

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