Wired Northwest would like to remind everyone to please recycle your old computers and peripherals properly by bringing them to the recycling event on Saturday, July 19 between 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., held at City of Redmond Maintenance and Operation Center, 18120 NE 76th Street.
Be sure to check the Web site before going to insure you are completely aware of any and all rules and restrictions. For more information, go to http://www.redmond.gov/insidecityhall/publicworks/environment/recyclingevent.asp
Q: I took your advice and purchased a cooling pad for my five year-old laptop computer. I plugged it into my USB hub, which is where I have my optical mouse plugged in and now my mouse doesn’t work. I can still use the touch pad on the computer, but I would prefer to use the mouse. Can you help me with this?
A: Absolutely! Most likely, your mouse and cooling pad are vying for the resources they both need to properly operate and the hub is unable to provide the required resources in an efficient and uninterrupted manner for both devices. Given this, I recommend connecting your USB mouse directly to an available USB port on the laptop. This will bypass the hub and give the mouse its own unique connection, which the computer will recognize and define. Your mouse will follow your direction, once again.
Q: I have a computer at work and a computer at home. Both have Windows Vista Home Premium and I use Internet Explorer 7 and Google to search the internet on both computers. When I want to perform a search on my work computer, I click in the empty search box and I am given a drop-down item list, which is a listing of all the searches I’ve performed. I can then make a selection from the search item of my choice and am given the Google search results. My computer at home won’t show me the drop-down list. How do I get the drop-down list to appear on my home computer?
A: This one is a little tricky, but yes, I do have the answer. Open Internet Explorer 7. Left-click “Tools” on the IE7 toolbar. Left-click “Internet Options.” Click the “Content” tab. Click “Settings” in the ‘AutoComplete’ section. You’re presented with four checkboxes. Check “Forms.” This is where Internet Explorer takes its direction for displaying web searches in the drop-down list to which you refer. Click “OK” to close all open windows. Close out of Internet Explorer and then reopen it. You will begin from this point saving the web searches for display in the drop-down list. To permanently eliminate your web searches, simply uncheck “Forms” in the AutoComplete Settings window and exit Internet Explorer.
Wayne Nelson and Jeremy Self own and operate Wired Northwest, LLC in Redmond. Submit your questions to: techtalk@wired-nw.com.
