H a p p y N e w Ye a r
The ICON GRAPHIC Newsletter
Of the ICON PC User Group
T o m E n g e l, P r e s id e n t/C E O
R a n d y G ilb e r t, V ic e P r e s id e n t
M s . J a y e V u llo , S e c r e t a r y
J o h n H o u g h to n , T re a s u r e r
Volume 16 Issue 01
President’
s Message
January 2005
On behalf of myself and the ICON club we wish to extend our deepest sympathy to
John Houghton for the loss of his beloved brother Richard that passed away in December.
It saddens us to read of the passing of Mr. A. J. Richard and we would like to send our
condolences to the P. C. Richard family.
Last month’
s meeting presented by Andy Gilbert of P.C. Richard & Son was our best
attended meeting of the year 2004. Not only was the meeting informative there were a
lot of great prizes for those that attended. Now all we have to do is put Fred Kruger in
the closet so somebody else has a chance to win, since this was the third year in a row
he has won a big prize in December. Some people have all the luck, personally I think
his December money would be better spent on a Lottery ticket.
Now that I got that off my chest, let’
s get on with the HAPPY NEW YEAR. We still have
a lot of open meeting nights to fill and we would like to get your ideas as to what to
show. If anybody has a program that they are very familiar
with why not show it to your friends, they might not know
the program exists or what it actually does. Sometimes
that is all a person needs to get started having fun.
On a lighter note this meeting was attended by our youngest member Amber Dozier who had little to say all night.
Thanks Ted
for helping out
Table of Contents
Membership
Corner
Randy’
s Corner
Page
2
3
Notes with WordPad
WinXP Backup
Beginners workshop
4
Feature Article
Brian’
s Corner
5
6&7
Presentation
Cryptoquote
Boosters
8
During the summer I play golf as much as I can, but the
winter slows me down. I have been working with a simulation game of golf from Microsoft called Links. By the end
of the winter I should be ready to show this program with
a little authority. Watch for my review on the program and
if I get good enough maybe even a demo.
I received Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005 last week; it is still my favorite map program. They have improved the GPS capability but it still requires a co-pilot to safely
read the computer while you drive, some voice directions would be helpful. Microsoft
has upgraded the maps to include more streets in Canada and Mexico. When I have to
go someplace new I always check this program first. It is much better than Mapquest
the free program on the internet, the directions from Streets and Trips are so much
more reliable.
Are you still obeying your New Years resolutions?
Tom Engel, President/CEO
1
tengel@iconpcug.org
Door Prize Winners
Membership Corner
Charlie Wagner
I’
d like to welcome Richard & Carol Parmelee and Lou Castellano
as new members of the ICON family and welcome back Bruce Jensen after a
time away from the club.
Last month, Randy Gilbert was honored by the club with a Certificate of Appreciation for the extraordinary job he’
s done as Vice President of
ICON. A certificate was also prepared for an outstanding member, John
White, who has lectured many times at the Beginners Workshop and is a freCharlie Wagner
Beginners Workshop
quent contributor to the general meeting discussions and ICON-Yahoo Web
Show & Tell
site. John was unable to attend the last meeting, so we’
ll present the award to
him tonight. As is the custom at our end of the year meeting, we thanked all of
those who contributed to making ICON Long Island’
s fastest growing and –
I think –
best computer
club. I forgot to mention those terrific guys who help set up and break down our meetings, including Ted
McCarthy and Jeff Weiss. If I missed any of your names, please let me know so I can publicly announce them. Again, thanks so much to those of you who help!
Our heartfelt condolences go to our Treasurer John Houghton whose brother passed away
last month.
We had an exceptional demonstration by one of ICON’
s favorite presenters, Andy Gilbert from
P.C. Richard & Son. Andy showed us lots of the latest computer technology and had some terrific deals
for the holidays. His presentations are always packed with useful information on how to buy the best
computer or accessories for your needs. And, as usual, he came with a big bag of great prizes to raffle
off to some of our lucky members and visitors. About the best chance to win a valuable prize at our
meetings is when Andy drops by ICON (and the ICON PC User Group is the only computer club he
visits), so make it a point to attend –
and bring a friend –
the next time he’
s here!
Congratulations to all the winners of last month’
s great door prize drawings, which included a
photo printer-digital camera combo package and inkjet printers, care of Andy Gilbert and P.C. Richard
& Son: Joe Cronin, Harry Eaton, Lenny Johnson, Fred Kruger, Joe Morgano, Robert Wustefeld &
Ernie Zafonte. Debbie Robinson was the winner of the 50/50 and the club netted a cool $25 from the
proceeds. Good luck to everyone in tonight’
s drawings!
A great time was had by all December 11 when ICON held it’
s annual Holiday Party at the
China Buffet City in North Babylon. Special thanks go to Jaye Vullo and Harry Eaton who organized
the event and to everyone who helped them. 29 people attended this year’
s gathering, where our members shared good food and conversation in a convivial setting. If you weren’
t able to make it to this
year’
s party, start planning now to make it to next year’
s–
I promise you you’
ll be glad you did!
I encourage all members to stop by our Beginners Workshop that meets the last Friday of the
month. Last month, we had our annual End-of-the-Year Holiday Show and Tell. Barbara & Fred
Kruger, Ron Keenan and Shelley Penn all brought in some neat technology items that they got for the
holidays. We’
ll be continuing our series on Microsoft Office Applications into the new year When we’
ll
be looking at each of the individual components of this very impressive suite of productivity programs. In
future sessions, we plan on covering Microsoft’
s PowerPoint, Outlook, Access and FrontPage. This
month, the Beginners Workshop will be demonstrating MS Publisher, an easy to use desktop publishing program that can handle countless useful creative tasks.
Contact our Computer Show Coordinator, Brian Corringham, at iconshow@hotmail.com if
you’
d like to help out at the ICON table at one of the local computer shows. It’
s a great opportunity to
meet some very nice people, get a free admission to the show and spread the good word about your
favorite computer club. MarketPro will have it’
s next show this weekend, January 8 and 9 at Sports Plus
in Lake Grove and for you folks further west, Tristate will have their one day show at SUNY Farmingdale on Saturday, January 8.
Have a wonderful New Year and wishing you many hours of happy computing in 2005!
Charlie Wagner
Membership Chairman
cwagner@iconpcug.org
2
Randy’
s Corner
randy@technologist.com
Greetings to all and welcome to 2005! I would like to thank all the members
who helped to make 2004 a successful year for our user group. People contributed in large
and small ways, all of which were necessary for us to succeed. Some members stepped
forward to prepare and present meetings, others submitted items to the newsletter and our
Yahoo discussion group, still others contributed merchandise and/or their free time to help
our meetings, computer show appearances, and the simple act of getting information to other members. For
this, I thank you all, and I look forward to seeing you again throughout this year. It takes a lot of work to
make this club run, and I will be asking for more of your help this year.
I wish to send a special message to the family of A.J. Richard, the “
son”
referred to in “
P.C. Richard & Son”
. A.J.’
s passing at the end of 2004 is a
sad reminder of how nothing good lasts forever. AJ taught me the meaning
of appreciating all the people you do business with, and how to treat them
like family. His hard fast rules about how “
every customer must be satisfiedno matter what it takes”
made it easy for people to speak highly of his company, and now it makes it easy for me to speak highly of him. His unbreakable commitment to family values and fair business practices should be observed by every business owner. His spirit of involvement in his community
( as well as that of the Richard family) has led to our good fortune at the
ICON PC User Group to have the support of P.C. Richard & Son in the
way of meeting presentations, gifts, and support to our club each year. A.J.
Richard will be sorely missed by all who knew him. To the Richard family,
please accept our heartfelt condolences in this time of loss.
At many meetings, I have stressed the importance of backing up the information on your computer. Although most members agree with this, many do
not know how to back up their systems. A good New Year’
s Resolution for
many of us would to start performing backups on a consistent basis. I spotted the following article from our friends at Tech Republic, which may be
helpful to those of you that would like to start backing up your system(s).
CREATING QUICK NOTES WITH WORDPAD SCRAPS
Do you often use Notepad to create quick notes to yourself and then save the file on your desktop? While the
process is quite simple, there is an alternative that you might want to investigate.
This alternative takes advantage of the fact that WordPad can generate and the Desktop can host special OLE
objects called scraps.
The benefit is that creating scraps is as easy as a quick drag-and-drop operation--and there's no need for all the
steps involved in naming and saving the file.
Here's how to create quick notes with WordPad scraps:
1. Launch WordPad.
2. Create your note.
3. Select/highlight the text.
4. Drag the selection and drop it on your desktop. (Ctrl C then Ctrl V)
5. Close WordPad and click No when prompted to save changes.
Once you drop the selection on your desktop, Windows XP recognizes the selection as an OLE object from
WordPad and creates a scrap, complete with a special icon with a default title name of Scrap. To make it easier
to recognize, you can rename the scrap. When you want to view your note, just double-click it and WordPad will
open the scrap.
3
Visit SmartComputing website
http://www.smartcomputing.com
If subscribing please use Code 11737
Message #: 433396
Subject: WinXP Home Backup
From: ArticFox
Sent: 12/26/2004 1:33 AM
Q. Could someone please explain how to back up my entire hard drive to CD's using WinXP Home Edition's back up utility.
The instruction in Read Me explains only that it must first be put into a 650mb file and then copied to the CD. How is this
done? Thanks
Message #: 435636
From: schwag
Sent: 1/3/2005 3:58 AM
A. My solution is to use Norton Ghost (part of the System Works package), go to the Advanced options, and Clone the C:\
drive to another internal hard drive that you buy and install. A 40 GB HDD can be purchased for $30 or $40 these days.
With this Clone, you would not have to do any reinstalling of anything. It should work "as is" if your C:\ drive on your first
hard drive should ever fail.
I also do a backup of important data files onto a DVD and keep them off site in case my house burns down... :-(
Message #: 435626
From: IDscrappy
Sent: 1/3/2005 12:43 AM
A. According to my PC Geek brother - No Can Do. Mr. Gates has made parts of your HD difficult to backup due to piracy
concerns. Similar to Macrovision copy protection on DVDs. The Maxtor "One Touch" external HDs will back up all your data,
but not the entire internal HD. Bro gave me Norton Ghost software for Christmas which he and his Silicon Valley friends believe will do a complete backup.
So far seems to work and can download backup to CD, DVD, or external HD. Still experimenting with it.
Message #: 433442
From: Berton
Sent: 12/26/2004 10:44 AM
A. And if your WinXP HE CD doesn't have the backup applet on it [in x:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP], click on this to
download it: http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software/ntbackup.msi.
Message #: 433426
From: GeorgeW
Sent: 12/26/2004 9:12 AM
A. Basically, you would backup to a file on your hard drive and then use a utility to break the file into 650 mb blocks; then
copy each file to a CD. If you have a large hard drive and lots of data, this could take a great many CD's. A better approach
might be to obtain an external hard drive and back up to that.
Actually, there is not much to be gained by backing up everything: you would still have to reinstall programs in event of a
total crash. Just backing up your data files should be OK. But there are a lot of theories about backups. Hope this helps a
little.
Beginners Workshop
Charlie Wagner
Lecturer/Host
Charlie holding a borrowed camera pointed at Dr.
Kruger’
s GPS display. The camera connected to
ICON’
s projector which in turn is displayed on the large
screen.
Talk about your bank shot?
4
Windows XP Backup Made Easy
Published: July 14, 2003
By Ed Bott, Microsoft Press Author and Expert Zone Community Columnist
Editor's Note: Past articles by members of the online community are archived for your use. The information may become outdated
as technology changes. For the most current information, please search the Web site or post a question in the newsgroups.
Most people think about backing up data about 10 minutes after it's too late to do any good. If you realize that you
really need a good backup program after your hard disk crashes or your teenager decides to clear out some of
your files to make room for new music downloads, you're setting yourself up for a data disaster. Are you prepared
to lose your e-mail address book (and all your messages)? What would you do if your entire collection of digital
photos disappeared tomorrow in a puff of electrons? Do you have backup copies of your electronically-filed tax
return or your crucial correspondence?
Fortunately, backing up your essential files is neither difficult nor time-consuming. In fact, the whole process can
take as little as 10 minutes a week, and you can let Windows XP do most of the work.
Get Started
Before you can even think about creating a backup, you have to get your files in order. This doesn't mean you need to make like
Felix Unger and compulsively rearrange every file in every folder. Just check to make certain all your essential data files are stored
in one easy-to-find location.
Windows XP makes this task especially easy by giving every user account its own personal profile, which consists of a set of subfolders in the Documents and Settings folder. Your profile holds your personal files (in the My Documents folder), Outlook Express
e-mail messages, Internet Explorer Favorites and cookies, and information about your settings and preferences. If you have personal data stored elsewhere, consider moving it into the My Documents folder to make backing up easier. If you're unwilling or
unable to move those files, make a note of where they're located so you can be sure you add them to your backup set later.
Open Windows XP Backup
Windows XP includes its own backup program, although you may need to do some digging to find it. You can also take your pick
of third-party programs (listed at the end of this column) that add bells and whistles you won't find in the basic Windows XP
Backup utility.
If you use Windows XP Professional, the Windows Backup utility (Ntbackup.exe) should be ready for use. If you use Windows XP
Home Edition, you'll need to follow these steps to install the utility:
1. Insert your Windows XP CD into the drive and, if necessary, double-click the CD icon in My Computer.
2. On the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP screen, click Perform Additional Tasks.
3. Click Browse this CD.
4. In Windows Explorer, double-click the ValueAdd folder, then Msft, and then Ntbackup.
5. Double-click Ntbackup.msi to install the Backup utility.
For more information, see How to Install Backup in Windows XP Home Edition.
With that chore out of the way, you're ready to begin backing up. By default,
the Backup utility uses a wizard that makes the process straightforward. To
start Backup:
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System
Tools, and then click Backup to start the wizard.
2. Click Next to skip past the opening page, choose Back up files and settings from the second page, and then click Next. You should see the page
shown in Figure 1, which represents your first decision point.
Decide What to Back Up
You might be tempted to click All information on this computer so that you
can back up every bit of data on your computer. Think twice before choosing
this option, however. If you've installed a slew of software, your backup could
Figure 1
add up to many gigabytes. For most people, the My documents and settings
option is a better choice. This selection preserves your data files (including email messages and address books) and the personal settings stored in the Windows Registry.
(Continued on page 6)
5
If several people use your computer—
as might be the case on a shared family PC—
select Everyone's documents and settings.
This option backs up personal files and preferences for every user with an account on the computer.
If you know that you have data files stored outside your profile, click Let me
choose what to back up. This option takes you to the Items to Back Up
page shown in Figure 2.
Select the My Documents check box to back up all the files in your personal
profile, and then browse the My Computer hierarchy to select the additional
files you need to back up. If some of your files are on a shared network drive,
open the My Network Places folder and select those folders.
This option also comes in handy if you have some files you now you don't
want to back up. For instance, I have more than 20 GB of music files in the
My Music folder. To keep my data file backup to a reasonable size, I click the
check box next to the My Music folder. This clears the check box from all the
files and subfolders in My Music.
Figure 2
Decide Where to Store Your Backup Files
On the Backup Type, Destination, and Name page, Windows asks you to specify a backup location. If you're one of those exceedingly rare individuals with access to a backup tape, the Backup utility gives you a choice of options in the Select a backup type
box. No tape drive? No problem. Backup assumes you're going to save everything in a single file; you just have to choose a location for that file and give it a name.
By default, Backup proposes saving everything to your floppy drive (drive A). Although that might have made sense 10 years ago,
it's hardly a rational choice today. You'd need dozens, perhaps hundreds of floppy
disks to store even a modest collection of data files, especially if you collect digital
music or photos.
Instead, your best bet is to click Browse and choose any of the following locations:
•
Your computer's hard disk. The ideal backup location is a separate partition from
the one you're backing up. If your hard disk is partitioned into drive C and drive D
and your data is on drive C, you can safely back up to drive D.
•
A Zip drive or other removable media. At 100-250MB per disk, this is an option if
you don't have multiple gigabytes to back up. Unfortunately, the Windows Backup
utility can't save files directly to a CD-RW drive.
•
A shared network drive. You're limited only by the amount of free space on the
network share.
Figure 3
•
An external hard disk drive. USB and IEEE 1394 or FireWire drives have dropped in price lately. Consider getting a 40 GB or
larger drive and dedicating it for use as a backup device.
After you've chosen a backup location, enter a descriptive name for the file, click Next to display the wizard's final page, as shown
in Figure 3, and then click Finish to begin backing up immediately.
Set a Schedule—
and Stick to It
If you're disciplined enough, you can repeat the above steps once each week and perform regular
backups when you're ready. If you'd rather not count on remembering to perform this crucial task,
however, set up an automatic backup schedule for Windows. When you get to the final page of the
Backup Wizard (see Figure 3 above), don't click Finish. Instead, click the Advanced button, and
click Next to open the When to Back Up page. Choose Later, and then click Set Schedule to
open the Schedule Job dialog box shown in Figure 4.
This example shows the settings for a weekly backup on Friday afternoon—
a good way to make
sure your week's work is protected. But you can set almost any schedule you want by poking
around in the extensive set of options available in this dialog box. After you click OK to save your
changes, Windows XP runs the backup automatically. Just remember to leave your computer
turned on.
Figure 4
6
Continued on page 7
(Continued from Page 6)
All in all, you can count on backing up 5 GB of data in as little as 10 minutes. And you don't need to worry about shutting down
running programs, either—
thanks to a feature called volume shadow copy, the Backup utility can safely create a copy of any file,
even if it's currently in use. For more information, see the Microsoft TechNet article, Volume Shadow Copy Technology.
Other Backup Alternatives
The Windows Backup utility is handy and free, but it's not your only backup choice. Depending on your preferences, you can
choose all sorts of third-party backup solutions. For instance:
•
Want to back up your e-mail and nothing else? Try OutBack Plus 4 or the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup Utility if
you use any version of Microsoft Outlook, or use OE Backup for Outlook Express. These programs specialize in helping you keep
safe copies of your messages and addresses.
•
Want the option to restore your entire hard drive in case of a crash? Drive imaging tools like PowerQuest Drive Image 2002 can
take a virtual snapshot of your disk, compress it to a single file, and save it for quick recovery later.
•
Worried that fire, flood, or theft will wipe out your backup copies along with your computer? Consider paying a few dollars a
month for online backup alternatives like Xdrive Plus or @Backup, where you can upload your most important files for storage on
a secure server.
Naturally, you always have the option of copying important files to removable media. With CD-RW drives and their 650 MB-perdisk capacity, that's an attractive option. In fact, just about any backup program is preferable to doing nothing and hoping that your
data will magically take care of itself.
Expert Zone columnist Ed Bott is an award-winning computer journalist who's been working with Microsoft Windows for more than
15 years. His latest Microsoft Press books include Faster Smarter Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out
(with Carl Siechert and Craig Stinson).
Brian’
s Corner
The MarketPro Computer Show
“
If you are a member of the ICON club chances are
you’
ll meet somebody that knows less than you do”
The Sunday shift 9:30 to 12:30
We’
re ready
Editors Note: I regret I cannot make all the
shifts . There are great war stories I missed
and the laughs that goes along with them.
Brian trying to figure out
how to get started
Bill Kerr
That smile is very real
because he has good
reason to be smiling.
Neil Rosenberg
Just dropped in
to see how
things are going.
Bill is nice people to
have around.
7
Brian O’
Rourke
Reporting for duty
(That’
s plain coffee)
Randy Gilbert
He gives freely of his valuable time, the General meetings, the Beginners Workshops, the board meetings
and contributing more than his fair share to each one.
He also maintains the ICON Yahoo discussion group of
which he is a frequent and valuable contributor. On
those few occasions when the fur starts flying, he is a
welcome calming and moderating influence.
One of the most knowledgeable and eloquent members
of this club Randy has the rare gift of being able to
communicate complex technical issues to a lay audience in a way that they can understand while maintaining the interest of our more advanced members.
Many of us have seen Randy hosting a very popular computer show on Cable TV.
President Tom Engel along with the Membership Chairman Charlie Wagner
presenting Randy Gilbert the ICON PC User Group plaque of honor.
Cryptoquote by Charlie Wagner
The following is a computer related quotation encrypted with a simple character substitution cipher, that is, each
letter of the alphabet is substituted by another letter (but in this month’
s, “
I”
remains an “
I”
). Your mission, should
you decide to accept it, is to decipher the code by figuring which letters to substitute and make the quotation
legible in plain English. The answer will be in next month’
s newsletter. Good luck and have fun!
IVELICJ ID JZJGN KRQGSHEN NFQG SRFJS JYUBFHJH ID NFQ KIJH KRJV KRJ QSQEB
MEN. KRIS REUUJCS KF QS EBB KRJ KIVJ MIKR TFVUQKJGS, ECH CFPFHN KRICXS
FD TFVUBEICICL.
-- AJD GESXIC
Answer to last month’
s Cryptoquote:
Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be
done.
-- ANDY ROONEY
ICON PC User Group
Email: info@iconpcug.org
http://www.iconpcug.org
Contents© 2004 ICON PC User Group
DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is freeware / shareware—
It may be copied, duplicated
and shared with others. The information that has been placed into the
newsletter has been obtained from many sources and cannot always be
verified. Before applying any suggested changes, you should completely backup your system and verify the recommendation(s) with the
manufacturer(s) of your system and its components.
The Beginners Workshops
Last Friday of the Month
Time 7:00PM to 8:45PM
The ICON PC User Group
First Friday of the Month
Time 6:30PM to 8:45PM
Brentwood Public Library
34 Second Avenue, Brentwood, NY
Supplier of monitors to ICON PC User Group at Computer
8
He, who loses money, loses much;
He, who loses a friend, loses much more;
He, who loses faith, loses all.