Mara

I'd appreciate any advice on how to get one's printer to feed through super thin paper - in this case, 'onion skin'. Am using a Canon 'Pixma MP150' and wonder although I've tried the 'specialty paper' setting, it still won't play nicely with onion skin as it either won't feed it through at all or starts to and then stops - drat. Thanks so much.

What wonderful stories and thanks ever so much to all of you for sharing! When I read of the sadder Christmas', I realize this must be an especially difficult time of year for so many. And sadly continues to be for so many - huge drat! I especially smiled at the 'Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus' ... for there is, there really really is a Santa Claus - huge gentle smile. (There must be for he's never, ever let me down yet! :)). As for all those trips to sit on Santa Claus' knee - aah, they were wonderful indeed! Well, except for one instance when I was 5. Santa was lovely and kind and ever so jolly - but right in the middle of his asking what I'd like for Christmas ... he 'tooted'. Loudly! Ever so hard to be a good and polite little girl when one's eyes are nearly watering - huge gentle smile.

Hi Kev, while I'll be no help at all with your original question, I know that the experts here will continue to help with the computer woe (they are honestly quite incredible here!). One wee suggestion, if I may ... we (I include myself in this! :)) who struggle not only with our computers but to know the terminology needed to often explain the computer woes we're having, having a piece of software that lets one 'take a photo' of any part of one's computer screen is wonderful. (Techs can often see at a glance what the problem may be). One of the free programs that do this is 'Snag Screen' - and the link is below: Snag Screen - Capture Screen Images Download by Ernic Software at Screen Capture Tools, Graphic & Design But that said, may I also suggest that no matter where one gets a link from, when downloading a program (any and all programs!), one always should: 1. Download to your computer - but never, ever open it or start to install it until it's been checked for 'bugs'... 2. Check for 'bugs' by right-clicking on the icon that represents the program one just downloaded ... this will cause another wee 'window' to open on your computer screen - and when it does, choose: a) Scan with _______ ... for instance, on my computer, this gives me an option of scanning with my present anti-virus program and when chosen, it will start the scan instantly. And then, to be on the safe side, I do exactly the same thing again and choose: b) Scan with ________ ... only this time choose my anti- malware program to do the scan instantly. And then, once these above steps have been completed, it should be safe to both open and install any new program.

I love Canon and with these little children, it combines into one of my very favourite Christmas songs - hope others enjoy it, as well. YouTube - Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Hmmm, there's so much to choose from (suspect I'm still a child at heart during this time of year - gentle smile). I love getting the fresh tree ... even if it means the children ooh and aah over what seems like hundreds of them before we all make a decision (and it's usually pouring rain - grin). I love trying to get the tree to stand straight in it's holder, laughing over the inevitable tangle of xmas lights and watching the children ever so carefully help put the decorations on the tree (with the kitties trying to bat the lower ones off as fast as they go on). There are so, so many things ... finally tucking children in on Christmas Eve, turning off the lights and simply enjoying the magic of the tree (this can be shortly before dawn sadly - if one is foolish enough to buy "easy to assemble" toys). But perhaps most of all, watching the sheer delight on everyone's face when they zip into the room so early on Christmas morning to see what Santa has left them under the lit tree and with xmas music playing. We have a tradition in our family ... children may open all the wee gifts in their Stockings but not touch the gifts under the tree until we adults have a chance to guzzle down at least one cup of very strong coffee. And we open gifts by starting with the youngest child and taking turns, each trying to draw things out as long as possible before that part of the magic ends. Yup, I absolutely love Christmas! :) And everyone else's favourite things about the holiday?

Wahoo! It's so reassuring that this program isn't needed! Huge, huge happy smile and once again my most sincere thanks! :)

Hmmm, I just used a scan by UniBlue and wonder if it's really worth the money involved in paying for the program. (My scan shows the below but of course won't allow one to fix the 'problems' unless one pays). Results of Scan Network Tweaks Set the maximum browser cache size Increase the global maximum number of connections Check for page updates only once per session Reduce rendering delay Set the cache size to 5000kb (Requires reboot) Increase connection limit Only check for updated content once per session Set the Internet Explorer start page to about:glank and disable secondary start pages Prevent Windows Explorer from looking for scheduled tasks in remote folders Adjust DNS cache size Windows Tweaks Disable paging executive Requires reboot of below: Boost disk cache performance Disable old style file name support Disable last access time stamp on file system Reserve additional space for the master file table Disable tool tips Disable fade effect in menus Enable large system cache Requires reboot) Disable windows animations Requires reboot ) Reduce the delay when displaying menus Allow fast shutdown Do not delete page file on shutdown Disable the desktop cleanup wizard Startup tweaks Disable all the below: clipbook service alerter service messenger service distributed link tracking client service IPSEC Service RPC locator service routing and remove access service SSDP discovery service NetMeeting remote desktop sharing service secondary logon service remote desktop help session manager service remote registry support service telnet service TCP/IP NetBIOS helper service UPnP device host service Disable Windows Time service D - human interface access devices service (None of this means anything to me - but perhaps it means that none of the above are necessary for the average computer user's computer?) Thanks once again.

And a warm welcome from me as well, Shamou - glad to have you with us! (Any chance you are the Inuit/Eskimo hero, Shamou - spending your time protecting Canada's wilderness? :))

There are so many sites and so many that are great - but this one is special indeed, truly it is. Not only is the help given with such understanding, but care is taken to ensure no steps in instructions are missed (a horror to someone who is not tech savvy) - and the innate kindness of everyone here makes this site so wonderful - thanks to all!! (And a special thanks to DSTM for telling me about it - for without him, I'd never have found this lovely 'home').

Thanks for the 'heads up' about this! I simply and utterly don't open any ecards anymore - and gently suggest none of my friends do either. Most of us are getting savvy to things like things - simply because of the wonderful advice on sites like ours here - but there are zillions of the vulnerable out there (usually really young or even sadder, older folks) who's computers are destroyed by stuff like this. Thanks again, Plastic Nev.

Never saw it before and it's a wonderful one - thanks so much for the terrific wishes!

Welcome, welcome, welcome! :) This truly is a friendly place so please feel free to join in any thread or simply start one of your own - it's lovely to have you with us!

Yes, the festive logo is great and I especially love the falling snow :) And may I wish the entire team here and all our members the most wonderful holiday season, too!

That is so kind of you, Wolfey - really do appreciate it. It's so often difficult to find a program that does what one needs yet isn't to 'bloated' that it's hard to run - or equally bad, takes up enormous space on one's computer. Again, thank you - so lovely of you to 'test drive' new programs! :)

Wonder if anyone has ever used this free desktop calendar - and if you, did you like it? Rainlendar Apparently ... (Quote) "Rainlendar is a great little calendar program. It sits right on your desktop. It can look like a part of your wallpaper. But you can interact with it. It’s actually pretty sleek. It has three independent panes. There’s one each for the calendar, upcoming events and a to-do list. You can place them anywhere on your desktop. Double-click any day on the calendar to add an event. You can enter a title, time, description and category. Each category comes with a different icon. There’s an airplane for travel events. You’ll get a star icon for birthdays, and so on. The icons sit over their designated day. So, you can see the kind of event with just a glance. You can set alarms for any event. You’ll get a reminder when you have something to do. Current and upcoming events are also displayed in the Events pane. So, there are several ways to stay on top of your schedule. You can also create a to-do list for your miscellaneous items. Everything on your list is displayed in the To Do pane. You can also customize the calendar with different skins. You’ll find new skins on the Rainlendar Web site. You’ll be able to match the calendar to your computer’s theme". (Unquote) (Source: Kim Komando) I ask because I used to have a great little desktop calendar - one that I just clicked it's desktop icon and could click each day and simply add/delete stuff ... and am hoping this one is easy to use.

Wow, what a lot to learn - who knew there was even such a thing as 'Fire Tune'! :) Thanks so much for sharing! The only 'add on' I have to Firefox is the 'similar too' side bar - not that I likely couldn't use some of the other toys they offer but the more toys (for me), the more there is to try to fix one day - gentle smile.

I actually quite like Firefox and just wonder if anyone else is having problems with Firefox being super slow connecting to internet sites ... and sometimes 'freezing up' solid, even with only one window open? - and yet my computer is as fast as a bunny when booting and loading/working with programs. Know it may not be Firefox itself - but I've run every single Anti-Malware and Anti-Virus program I have plus ran a scan for 'root kits' using ThreatFire ... then ran disk cleanup and even my O& O Defrag program again. Thus my wondering if it could perhaps be a wee snag with Firefox that others may be having problems with too?

All seems to be well with it, thankfully! :) It's so nice to have this 'similar to' side bar back - not necessary all the time but when doing research or shopping it's terrific.

Oh those pesky cookies - if only they were edible! But then again, I'd be overweight in no time - gentle grin. I'm going to download and install my old trusty Netscape simply to use in conjunction with my Corel Print House - but promise to not use it for any other purpose because of security. (But how wonderful it will be to be able to use my Corel once again! The problem is Mozilla has a solution for the newer versions of my program but darned if I can bring myself to pay for the newest version). So very happy to have the Alexa Sidebar - very similar to old times and I really do appreciate all the wonderful help! :)

It does help and I'm off to download it - thank you ever so much for your kindness in actually searching for it and posting a link, Goku! Hmmm, I know our poor Netscape "isn't supported" anymore ... but since we have nearly every kind of protection possible running on our computers, what's the worst than can happen I wonder if we simply go back to using the last version of Netscape we had. (And without it my old (and only version) of Corel Print House will no longer work for sending images via email - sigh). I miss it - just as you do - and I suspect we can't be alone in this - gentle smile. Thank you again, kind man - really, really appreciate it!

While trying to Christmas shop on line last night, never more have I missed my poor Netscape - gentle sigh. While I've switched to FireFox, the part I miss about Netscape the most is the 'what's related' section that used to show on the right side of the screen. With it, no matter what type of store or other site I went to, similar places would pop up in this section - making things so, so much easier. Does anyone know if FireFox has something similar, please? I've checked some of their 'add ons' but nothing looks quite the same. Thanks so much once again.

I'm far, far from an expert on computer technology but wonder if I may suggest using O&O Defrag program (freeware)? - at least during the interim. Download O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware - FileHippo.com (The paid for version is faster and fancier looking but the freeware version works wonderfully plus is so easy to use).

Hi and welcome!! You honestly have found 'the' perfect place to learn about computers and get rescued when these magical machines 'turn on us' and make one want to rip hair out. I've only been a member a short time and I know you will find everyone here more than happy to help, nuttyhaze.

For someone like myself who loved AVG and finally gave up using it because of 'false positives' - I do feel sorry for the techs that created and shared this program.

This is wonderful!!! Wahooo!!! I'll never in a million years truly understand what makes a person want to sit down and create something that will cause distress to another ... I think of them as 'invisible bullies' and reading this article made me really smile! Thanks so very much for sharing it, Plastic Nev.