Computer problems and/or advice 2012

[Martin Baxendale]

Is what's worrying you that you keep seeing OE inbox, outbox, sent items, and other such folders (as dbx files) in your recycle box after OE has compressed files? That's nothing to worry about, just the uncompressed old files being dumped. So long as you can still see your emails in the folders in OE then you still have them all.

[David Nicholson]

Martin I have never checked what was actually in the files in the recycling bin I only checked the file name and assumed that the file contained what was in that file in my Inbox. The next time I get the meassge I will check.  Many thanks for your help.

[Martin Baxendale]

If they say thnigs like Inbox.bak then there's no problem. You won't be able to open them by clicking on them as they're dbx files that won't open.

[Anthony Darby]

Yesterday Vivienne had her iPhone 4s stolen at school. It was switched on late last night and we are now tracking it on "find my iPhone". Vivienne and James are now sitting in a car near its current location awaiting the police. In the last half hour it has changed to someone else's iPhone. I wonder how accurate the GPS is, as it keeps moving between about three addresses?

Update: phone recovered, minus Sim and cover, but with the perpetrator's name on the phone and loads of photos and video, some of which has already been uploaded to Facebook!!! He says he was given it by a former student, which begs the question, how could a former student wander into the work base and find a hidden phone? Answer: Friday was mufti, so kids not in uniform. Difficult to identify intruders.

[Alan_b]

The thing is how do I stop Windows (I use XP) constantly asking me if I'd like to "compress" my folders

Since Outlook Express and the associated "compress" question was discontinued after Windows XP then buying a new computer would cure the problem.  But actually you need to do the same thing on some other older email programs, you're just not pestered about it.

The thing about compressing folders is that you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.  If you don't then the size of the folder (which is actually a file) that contains your Inbox messages can become very large because when you delete or move a message from the Inbox the folder doesn't get any smaller until you compress it.  If you let your Inbox folder swell to giant size then your email program will run very slowly and the chances of the folder/file becoming corrupt causing you to lose the entire contents increases.

But if you opt to compress the operation is fraught with danger, particularly if you ask the computer to do something else that it finds effort-intensive or switch it off whilst the compression is going on.  If it goes wrong then you can lose all your emails - but that situation is usually recoverable if you know how.  At which point you might be glad of those old email files you can salvage from the recycle bin.     

[David Nicholson]

Thanks for that Alan. I think I shall continue to do what I do now-When the message comes up asking me to compress files I shall indicate yes, this deposits a range of files in the recycling bin from where I restore them. Daft, init!

[Alan_b]

David, unless the process has gone badly wrong there is no need to restore the files that end up in the recycle bin.  They are most likely temporary files created as a safeguard whilst the compression process is running then deleted once it has finished. 

[Maggi Young]

[quote author=Lesley Cox link=topic=3537.msg245947#msg245947 date=1336425341

I still can't get whole enlarged pictures. Johnny is sitting in solitary state while Clare is separate when I scroll along. The picture itself doesn't seem too big, judging from the info at the bottom so I don't know what the problem is. I did what Maggi said, clicked outside the pic then rolled the centre button towards me but that made the whole page smaller, not just the picture, so the problem remained. This never happened before the change so maybe something in my settings has gone wrong. I have to scroll across with a lot of pics now.
[/quote]

 Lesley, I have resized the John and Clare photo to the recommended 760 pixels wide format... can you see it properly now, when you click to enlarge it?

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi, it helps but still not enough. Without scrolling I can see Clare's hand and wrist and a little of her front but not the rest. It seems as if I will somehow have to make the whole page smaller, as a setting, because it happens with many or most topics. I don't know how to make the page smaller. The method you gave me before makes the page smaller but the pics are the same COMPARATIVE size, on it, i.e. they are still too big. When I open any topic, the whole page sits there nicely with about 1.5cms outside each side of the page, as background so I don't think it's a matter of moving everything over to the left. It all just needs shrinking a little. Changing settings and other technical matters are not my strong point I'm afraid.

[David Nicholson]

Thanks Maggi, it helps but still not enough. Without scrolling I can see Clare's hand and wrist and a little of her front but not the rest. It seems as if I will somehow have to make the whole page smaller, as a setting, because it happens with many or most topics. I don't know how to make the page smaller. The method you gave me before makes the page smaller but the pics are the same COMPARATIVE size, on it, i.e. they are still too big. When I open any topic, the whole page sits there nicely with about 1.5cms outside each side of the page, as background so I don't think it's a matter of moving everything over to the left. It all just needs shrinking a little. Changing settings and other technical matters are not my strong point I'm afraid.

Lesley,

at the bottom right hand corner of your screen, just above where your computer shows the time is a little thing that looks like a magnifying glass. It will have a number% showing next to it. What is yours showing please?

[astragalus]

David, that's excellent information except my computer doesn't seem to have that magnifying glass you mentioned.

[David Nicholson]

Anne, I'm running Windows XP, if you are not then that may be the reason the little zoom indicator isn't there.

[Maggi Young]

I'm running Windows XP as well, David... I haven't got that doofer either. Ian has it on one of his machines.

[David Nicholson]

Maggi,  mine is in a line immediately above the bottom bar which I think is called the Task Bar. On the right hand side of the bar it shows the address of the web site and page I'm downloading and when it has fully downloaded it says "Done". Further on the line is a little symbol and if I hover the curser over it it says "Privacy Report". A little further on still is the globe Internet Symbol and if I hover over that it says "Double click to change security settings". Further still another symbol with a padlock and arrow which is something to do with security settings for blocking content; and the final symbol is the zoom setting. I'm using Internet Explorer Version 8 so maybe you are not?

[Maggi Young]

That's the  difference, David... I'm using Firefox. Ian just told me it is there on IE.