Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, November 15, 2009
We will not be publishing this newsletter for the next two weeks so the writers and editors can prepare for and enjoy Thanksgiving with their friends and families. We wish all of our readers a very Happy Thanksgiving!
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Internal Revenue Service Scam
Tips & Tricks: Internet Explorer Menu Bar
This Week's Topic: Create an Additional User Account
Question: Change Desktop Wallpaper
Websites of Interest: Thanksgiving; Web MD Symptom Checker; Old Wives’ Tales; Localti.me
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Special Feature: Internal Revenue Service Scam
The following is from scambusters.org
Messages purporting to come from the IRS have been dropping into millions of email inboxes in recent months, with the ominous subject heading "Notice of Underreported Income."
This phony IRS spam is said to account for 10% of all email spam sent out during those months.
In one version, the message asks you to click on a link that takes you to a bogus IRS page where you're asked to provide your Social Security number and credit card information, supposedly to make an additional tax payment.
In other words, it is simply an IRS phishing scam.
In other cases, the message contains an attachment you're supposed to click to install a tax statement viewer.
In reality, clicking the attachment installs a virus called the Zeus Trojan, which enables the scammers to hack bank accounts.
Researchers say this Trojan -- said to be missed by most anti-virus software -- has been draining more than a million dollars a day from victims' accounts.
We've said it before and we'll say it again -- the IRS never makes unsolicited contact by email. And when they do use email to respond to a message you sent them, they never ask for personal information.
If you receive this IRS scam message, simply ignore it and delete it. If you're still worried that it might be genuine (though we assure you it isn't), contact the IRS by phone.
Just don't click on that link! And if you already did, contact your bank and the police straightaway.
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Tips & Tricks: Internet Explorer Menu Bar
Question: I cannot find the menu in Internet Explorer on my new computer. Does it have one?
Answer:
Yes, it does, but you have to turn it on.
To view it temporarily, press the Alt key. You will see the menu; give your command and the menu will disappear again. This gives you maximum screen space without wasting anything on a menu you only use occasionally.
If you prefer to have the menu displayed at all times, follow these steps:
Press the Alt key. You will see the menu appear. Click View on the menu, point to Toolbars and then click on Menu Bar. The menu will display and remain in the window, even after closing Internet Explorer and opening it again.
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Today's Topic: Create an Additional User Account
Question: My wife and I will be having houseguests over the holidays. Some of them will want to use my computer. I would like to set it up that someone else cannot access my personal information. Can this be done?
Answer:
Yes, it can. You can create a guest account with limited access. You can password protect your account so no one can sign in but you. You will log out of your account and then log in on the guest account for other people to use.
The article, from askdavetaylor.com, will give the steps for setting this up:
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 make it easy to add additional users to your computer. The extra users can create and save their own files, but (if you choose the settings correctly) they will not be able to read or modify the files that you have saved, and they will not be able to change system settings.
This also offers additional protection against your computer being infected with a virus. Generally, the best protection against viruses is to install an anti-virus program. However, the nice thing about having multiple users on the computer is that if a non-administrator user does accidentally get infected with a virus, it will infect only their files and settings -- it won't affect the administrator's account or the system as a whole. (Basically, if a user accidentally gets infected with a virus, the virus runs "as" that user -- meaning, the virus only has the privileges of that particular user. If that user does not have privileges to access confidential files or change system settings, then the virus that infected them cannot do those things either.)
Before you add additional users to the computer, you should set a password for the main administrator account on the computer (the steps are at the end of this article). Even if your computer always starts up automatically without ever asking you to "sign in", there still is a "main administrator account" that you are signed in under, whenever you use Windows. That article shows you how to set a password for that account. (Obviously, it offers no security protection to set up extra accounts on the machine for other users to use, if anybody can still sign in as the main administrator account without entering a password!)
Also, if one of the reasons that you're creating secondary accounts on the machine is to prevent other users from being able to access your confidential files, then when you're following the instructions in that article to set a password, when Windows asks you "Do you want to make your files and folders private?", be sure to say "Yes".
Once you have created a password for the main administrator account, you can set up secondary accounts on the same machine. To do this, go to Control Panel and pick User Accounts.
In Windows XP, click Create a new account. In Vista, click Add or remove user accounts, Continue, and then click Create a new account.
Enter a name for the new account, and click Next. In Vista, click Standard user and then click Create.
In Windows XP, the next screen asks you to "Pick an account type". If the reason you are adding secondary users to the system is primarily so that those users can use the computer without the possibility of them damaging your important files, or changing system settings by accident, then choose account type "Limited."
The screen in Windows XP warns you that "programs designed prior to Windows XP or Windows 2000 might not work properly with limited accounts". However, as of 2009, this is very unlikely to be a problem with most programs in common use today, so you should not worry about this.
Then click "Create Account" and the account will be created. Next time you log out of Windows, the account you just created will be listed.
To set up a password on your computer:
Windows XP
Start by going into Control Panel and click on "User Accounts."
On the "Pick a task" menu that comes up, click on "Change an account." A new window opens asking "Pick an account to change" and listing the accounts on the computer.
If you have never set a password on the computer before or created any secondary accounts, most likely the only accounts listed will be the main account, and the Guest account (which is turned off by default).
Click that account name, and a screen will appear asking "What do you want to change about your account?" Click on "Create a password for your account", which brings up the screen asking you to enter your password.
Enter the same password in the first two blanks. (It is common practice for a program to ask you to enter your password twice, since if you entered the password only once, you might make a typo, and then you would be locked out of your computer since you would not know what password you had inadvertently entered!) In the third blank, you can optionally enter a hint that will help you remember your password if you forget it. As the text on the screen warns you, however, the hint will be visible to everyone who uses the computer, so do not make the hint too obvious or others will be able to guess your password as well.
After setting your password, the computer will ask you if you want to make your files and folders private.
This applies to the pictures you create, the documents you create in Microsoft Word, and so on. If you choose to keep these files private, then users with other accounts on the same machine will not be able to see these files when they're logged in. (Note that, obviously, this only applies if you have created "other accounts" on the same machine. If you set a password on the machine's main account, then if you give the password to someone or sign them in temporarily so they can use your machine, they will still have access to all of your files.)
And that's it! Now, if you reboot your machine, the next time a user signs on they will be prompted to enter a password in order to use the computer.
Windows Vista
Open Control Panel and click on User Accounts. Click Change your Windows password. Click Create a password for your account.
Enter the same password in the first two blanks. (It is common practice for a program to ask you to enter your password twice, since if you entered the password only once, you might make a typo, and then you would be locked out of your computer since you wouldn't know what password you had inadvertently entered!) In the third blank, you can optionally enter a hint that will help you remember your password if you forget it. As the text on the screen warns you, however, the hint will be visible to everyone who uses the computer, so do not make the hint too obvious or others will be able to guess your password as well.
Click the Create password button.
The next time a user signs on they will be prompted to enter a password in order to use the computer.
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Question: Change Desktop Wallpaper
Can I put a picture on my computer screen? I have Windows Vista.
Answer:
Yes, you can. Here are the steps for Windows Vista:
Click the Start Orb (that’s the round button, bottom left on the taskbar, with the Windows logo on it). Open Control Panel. In the Control Panel window that you now see, click Change Desktop Background which you will find in the Appearance and Personalization section.
Click the Browse button. This will open a window which will display your folders. Maneuver to the folder where you have saved the picture you want to use for your desktop background. Click to select the picture and then click the Open button.
In the bottom section of the Desktop Background window, click to select how you want your picture positioned on the screen. Your choices are full screen, tiled or centered.
Click the OK button and your picture will be displayed on the desktop.
Changing the Desktop Wallpaper in Windows XP
Right click on a blank area on your desktop. A menu will open; left click on Properties.
The Display Properties dialog box will open. Click on the Desktop tab at the top of the dialog box. (If you do not see Desktop, look for Wallpaper or Background).
Click the Browse button. Maneuver to the folder where you have saved the picture you want to use on the desktop. Click on the filename of the picture; click the Open button.
Choose the Position of the picture – center, stretch or tile. Take a look at the preview; choose the position that looks best.
Click the OK button, and you should now see your picture on the desktop.
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Websites of Interest:
Thanksgiving
Visit our website for recipes, decorating ideas, tips for traveling, e-cards, ways to help the needy, and much more.
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/thanksgiving.html
Web MD Symptom Checker
Visit this site for an easy to use interactive tool where you select specific symptoms and it identifies possible causes.
http://symptoms.webmd.com/symptomchecker
Old Wives’ Tales
Here’s a collection of old wives’ tales, superstitions, folklore and bizarre beliefs. Fun to read.
http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html
Localti.me
For any place in the world, find local time, weather, related articles and pictures.
http://localti.me/