Minutes of Meeting - 4 January 2008

Minutes of the January 4, 2008 meeting of the Sioux Falls Seniors Computer Club as submitted by Garth Peterson, Secretary:

President Norm Knox called the meeting to order in room 204. Because of a scheduling limitation, all of the meeting was conducted in room 204. The minutes of the December meeting were approved after being viewed in hard copy. Vice President Bill Goebel reported that the club's laptop computer was unusable because of a missing power cord. This laptop was paid for by club dues collected in the past, and had previously provided reliable service. Bill proposed that the laptop should be kept by a club member rather than in the front office. A motion to this effect was approved by the members. Another motion, also approved, designated Bill as the club member in charge of the laptop computer.

Bill answered an e-mail question about YouTube. Access to YouTube does not need Google. However,access faster than dial-up is necessary. YouTube can be accessed directly at its Web site http://www.youtube.com/, subject to an easy registration requirement. A YouTube presentation via e-mail does not need registration. Special software for YouTube is not required.

There was also a question about sending an e-mail attachment to a group of people. A group name in Outlook Express can be used to send e-mail to a group of recipients, and this will work with an attachment. However, some computer users are reluctant to open attachments because of the fear of viruses. Bill described how to overrule a pop-up blocker, in case a pop-up blocker is preventing pictures from being seen.

A picture in e-mail may be saved by right-clicking on it and then clicking on Save As. Outlook Express can re-size pictures in outgoing e-mail. A picture can be resized by putting it into Word and resizing it there.

Bill then discussed important parts of the Windows XP Control Panel, using a borrowed laptop computer. The club was fortunate and is grateful that Mildred Hottmann Roesch brought her laptop to the meeting and made it available. During his discussion, Bill referred to the Classic View of the Control Panel. He skipped over certain parts of the control panel that have limited interest to most computer users, and these parts are omitted below. Different versions of Windows have differences in their control panels. The option Add New Hardware in the Control panel can be used when adding new hardware to a computer, but Bill said that the wizard supplied by the manufacturer of new hardware will usually serve the same purpose. Add or Remove Programs is a very important part of the Control Panel that all computer users need to know how to use. The window under this item is the place to go to remove a program from a computer. Generally, any program that one does not recognize should be left in place. To carry out a removal select a program and click the Remove button. This will usually give complete removal of a program. If it does not, it may be necessary to go to My Computer to finish up. If you are unsure how well the removal process will go, it can help to create a restore point just before starting the removal. It is not wise to depend on a restore point that is several days old because going back to a restore point means losing e-mails and possibly other important information that was received since the restore point was made. Bill recommends leaving the Automatic Updates option on. Date and Time icon lets the user choose a time zone for a computer's display of time. Display Properties can be changed by clicking on Display in the Control Panel or by right-clicking in an empty area of the desktop, followed by clicking on Properties. Some programs may need a change in the resolution of the display. This is also the place where you can turn off your screen saver while running Disk Defragmenter. File types can be changed to allow new file types to be recognized in attachments. These come under the Folder Options icon. Fonts can removed in some cases to save disk space,but this may interfere with the operation of some programs. Internet Options in the Control Panel will take you to the same menu that is found in Internet Explorer under Tools. Keyboard changes are permitted to vary the way the keyboard works, but it is advisable to make a note of all the old settings before making any changes here. Mouse options are available like options for the keyboard, and again you should make note of the old settings before changing anything. Network Connections can let you see how your computer connects to the Internet, and there is a wizard here for making new network connections, but your Internet service provider should provide you with a disk for making a new connection. Power Options in the Control Panel provide ways to put various things in a computer on standby after various periods of idle time, but Bill feels it may be simpler to leave these alone. It is desirable for a laptop to give a low battery warning. Some keyboards have keys to bring a computer up or down or put it on standby. Printers and Faxes will take you to the list of print requests, where stalled print requests can be removed if necessary. This is the place to select your default printer. Older PCs may have old unused printers listed here. These can be removed here. Scanner and Cameras icon leads to a wizard for adding devices, but programs with these devices will also do this. Scheduled Tasks can let you run the defragmenter on a schedule, or you can have a quick disk cleanup run whenever there is a reboot. Task to be run automatically can be tied to clock times or run at reboot. Security Center controls the firewall that comes with Windows XP. This firewall needs to be turned off if a computer has another firewall included with software from a security provider. Security options under this Control Panel item include the firewall and anti-virus protection. Sounds and Audio Devices icon leads to the window for sound volume adjustments. There is also an icon at the lower right corner of the desktop to get to these same adjustments. System on the Control Panel leads to very technical adjustments. Among other things, the system restore capability can be turned off here. User Accounts icon lets different users of a PC have their own desktops while using the same programs on the hard drive. Bill feels that this feature is not all that effective.

The Sioux Falls Seniors Computer Club welcomes new members Linda Bauer, Ladean Klein, and Kris Rauscher.

Respectfully submitted by Garth Peterson, Secretary.