ShareThisReader mail fills the box today; let's answer some of your pressing general interest questions.Q. I manage a Little League baseball team and the league keeps sending me attachments in XLS format, which I think are Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, but when I double-click on them my computer says I don't have any program on my computer to open them. A. Two things could be going on here. You could have Excel but it may be a trial version and not fully installed or expired. Go to the start menu and look under Microsoft Office and see if you have Excel as an option. Launch it from there and see if it fully launches. What I suspect, however, is that you don't really have Excel on your computer. I suspect you really have Microsoft Works and perhaps Word as well. So you can purchase Excel or download Open Office for free at www.openoffice.org.Q. How can I tell how much memory my computer has installed in it?A. Assuming you have a Windows box, right click on My Computer on your desktop and hit Properties.Q. If I have all of my e-mail in Outlook 2003 and I upgrade to Outlook 2007 will I lose all of my e-mails, contacts and settings?A. No, your settings should be intact. However, you should always back up your data to PST files before you do any sort of upgrades to your client. It is always better to be safe than sorry.Q. Now that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been released, I have installed it but I don't notice much of a difference in my system or its performance. In fact, I don't notice much at all. What should I be seeing?A. If you have been patching all along, not a lot really from the visible perspective. There is quite a lot going on under the hood however. There are quite a few improvements in speed and security so it is worth installing. In my experience I find the upgrade works the best if your computer has at least 2 gigabytes of RAM. In some cases the performance from file copying actually has decreased, according to lab tests so clearly Microsoft has some work to do.Q. When support for Windows XP ends in June will we still be able to buy XP on new computers?A. Support for XP does not end in June; however Microsoft will no longer allow computer makers to install it on new computers. PC makers are hoping for an extension of the deadline and there is a petition floating around begging Microsoft to keep XP as an option but if not you will have to order your PC with Vista and downgrade the OS to XP yourself. The manufacturer at that point will be under no obligation to help you with issues with the operating system but the warranty for the hardware will remain in place. Support from Microsoft for XP will remain for a few years.James Derk is owner of CyberDads, a computer services company and tech columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim(at)cyberdads.com
Computing questions and answers
Submitted by SHNS on Tue, 04/22/2008 - 09:51
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
Who's got your number?
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
