Leo’s Answers #79 – May 25, 2007

Leo's Answers
A Weekly Newsletter From
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Leo Notenboom

Hello!

*** Contents

*** This Week's New Articles on Ask Leo!

How do I copy an entire web page?

How do I copy an entire web page? I copy and paste, but not everything appears as I see it. For example I'm copying and pasting a bank statement to Word, but portions of the page appear empty.

It depends a little on exactly what you're trying to do. I know you're trying to copy a web page, but why? So you can modify it, or just save a copy for your archives?

There are several approaches. None of them are what I'd call really clean, but depending on your goal, one or more of them might work for you.

Continue reading: "How do I copy an entire web page?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_copy_an_entire_web_page.html

* * *

How do you ask a question when you don't even know the right words to use?

This may not be a very straight forward question, but how does one even begin to find a solution to a problem, when they have no idea what's causing it, or even the terminology to describe what is happening? Are there any concrete ways to narrow down a search, or steps to follow? It would seem that much of the time, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, pretty hit and miss, and many times if you find an answer at all, it's by sheer luck that you have stumbled upon it at all, and then many times, it's only after days and weeks of searching. Some times months even.

I love this question because I think it represents exactly where a lot of people are. I know I get a lot of questions every day where people try to describe their problem but have no idea what, or even how to ask the question. The result is that I'm often left scratching my head wondering just what the heck they're talking about.

It's not their fault or problem. It just is. But it also makes dealing with these issues all that much more difficult.

Now, re-read the question and the response I've written, imagining that I were an on-line car advice guru instead of a computer geek. It all still applies, doesn't it?

And as complex as cars are, computers are worse.

Continue reading: "How do you ask a question when you don't even know the right words to use?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_you_ask_a_question_when_you_dont_even_know_the_right_words_to_use.html

* * *

How do I switch Windows Live Hotmail back to the old style MSN Hotmail?

Somehow I've been converted to the "new" Windows Live Hotmail interface, and I don't like it. I want to switch things back to the way they were before. How do I do that?

I'll show you, but I'll also warn you.

The forward march of progress always has casualties, and I believe that what you're calling the "old" Hotmail interface is going to be one of them.

Continue reading: "How do I switch Windows Live Hotmail back to the old style MSN Hotmail?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_switch_windows_live_hotmail_back_to_the_old_style_msn_hotmail.html

* * *

Why does the defrag program crash on my machine?

I am unable to defragment my computer. I used to be able to do this but some 6 months or so ago, I noticed I could no longer do so. I could start the process but every time I got to around 10% defragged the computer would reboot. Sounds silly I know but I run XP on a Celeron 26000 and have tried everything I know to fix, short of re-installing. I am at a loss. Could you please shed some light on my problem? Have you come across this before?

I do have some ideas, yes. My guess is that there's something wrong with the data on your hard disk or the disk itself. The good news is that in all likelihood we should be able to repair it.

Continue reading: "Why does the defrag program crash on my machine?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_does_the_defrag_program_crash_on_my_machine.html

* * *

Where is the Run command on Windows Start Menu?

When I go to Start menu I have no Run option?

One of the "problems", if you want to call it that, with computer systems is that almost nothing is standard. There are defaults, there are common settings, and there are recommended tweaks and personalizations.

The net result is that often for something as "standard" as Windows XP, it's very easy for one person's Start Menu to be quite different from another's.

And so it is with respect to the Run... command. Let's find and enable it for you.

Continue reading: "Where is the Run command on Windows Start Menu?"
http://ask-leo.com/where_is_the_run_command_on_windows_start_menu.html

* * *

What's with Microsoft's Patents?

Is Microsoft going to sue everyone? Who knows?

Continue reading: "What's with Microsoft's Patents?" Article Includes Audio
http://ask-leo.com/whats_with_microsofts_patents.html

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*** Popular Articles from the Archives

I'm actually going to highlight an article I ran only a couple of weeks ago because it's something that a lot of people are experiencing, and Microsoft just this week released the fix that many of us have been waiting for.

How do I fix this high CPU usage svchost virus or whatever it is?

After I log in my system slows to a crawl. Looking at task manager I see that my computer is experiencing high CPU usage. Looking more closely I see it's something called "svchost" is taking 100% of my CPU time. If I kill the process suddenly other things stop working. Is svchost a virus? How do I fix this svchost problem?

Important: please see the update near the end of this article.

That's actually a composite question based on several reports I've been getting recently.

Svchost is not a virus. In fact it's a required system component. You'll often find several copies of svchost running.

Svchost, or more correctly "Service Host" is a program that is designed to run other programs and "hosts" many of the system services in Windows XP. Several copies of Svchost run more than one service, which is why when you kill an instance of svchost several things on your machine might stop working.

So why is one of the Svchosts taking all your CPU?

And what can you do about it?

Read more... How do I fix this high CPU usage svchost virus or whatever it is?
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_fix_this_high_cpu_usage_svchost_virus_or_whatever_it_is.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

I had hoped to delay my education in HDTV until the industry settled down. I've walked by HDTV demonstrations and done my appropriate share of drooling, but my plan was to wait until prices came down and more of the standards were, well, standardized.

Note my use of the word "was". My 11 year old Mitsubishi big screen TV had other ideas. Last Sunday it basically said "I'm done" and refused to turn on.

My replacement HDTV Mitsubishi is on its way.

As I explained to my (very patient and understanding) wife, this is a slippery slope. Now that we'll have an HDTV, we need some HDTV programming to watch. So the folks at DirecTV are coming out to upgrade our system to their HDTV compatible DVR and programming.

And then there's my sound system; a mix of very random components including my 30+ year old speakers (bought 'em when I was in high school and they're still working great!) to a 10 year old receiver. But no 5.1 surround sound, so I'm thinking we're looking at an upgrade there.

And I suppose if I'm going to be able to watch HD I should be able to record HD. That means my camcorder, which was having an issue or two of its own, is probably in for an upgrade as well.

Slippery slope indeed.

A big thanks to Ara Derderian of The HDTV Podcast who helped with my rapid HD education, and to my friend David Lawrence for hooking me up with Ara. HD's still a confusing technology in a confusing state, but Ara helped cut through much of the noise to focus in on what was going to work best for me.

'till next time...

Leo

* * *

The Latest:
Forwarded Funnies: "Tickle Me Elmo"
Taming Email: "Email is never urgent. Really."
Leo's MovableType Tips: "Tolerate Broken URLs"

*** Newsletter Administration

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I'll be honest: I'll try to respond, but I get a lot of questions every day - I just can't answer everyone. Rest assured, though, that even if you don't hear from me directly, I read every email I get.

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Newsletter contents Copyright © 2007, Leo A. Notenboom & Puget Sound Software, LLC.

Posted: May 25, 2007 in: 2007
Shortlink: https://newsletter.askleo.com/3035
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I'm Leo Notenboom and I've been playing with computers since I took a required programming class in 1976. I spent over 18 years as a software engineer at Microsoft, and after "retiring" in 2001 I started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place to help you find answers and become more confident using this amazing technology at our fingertips. More about Leo.