Add a Calendar to the Desktop

I cannot count how many times I have double-clicked the clock in the system tray to get a date from the calendar. Of course you have to be very careful not to click OK and change the system date or all your new and modified files end up with the wrong dates.

Well, I finally did something about it. Check out www.rwevans.com/calendar. It opens a small browser window with an easy to use calendar. Nothing fancy. All it does is allow you easy access to the calendar so you can find that date you need to find. Drag it to a location on your desktop or minimize it to the task bar where it is ready at any time to use.

I Lost Send To Compressed!

All of a sudden the right-click > sent to compressed option was gone! Along with it was missing the ability to double-click a compressed file to extract the files.

I had no idea what caused the removal of this ability from my Windows XP machine, but it was a problem. I used to use PKZip and it was great, but it takes extra steps to decompress and compress files and folders. XP is great; right-click and you are good to go. But, no more.

I Googled every combination of words I could come up with and found a few suggestions. Here is the simple solution if it happens to you, or to me again.

First, locate a computer that has the right-click working. Then, from the Run dialog box (Win+R) type at the run line type this %userprofile% \sendto, and then click OK

Copy the Compressed (zipped) Folder file to a flash drive, diskette, or CD. Or somehow get it over to your desktop.

On your desktop, at the run line type this regsvr32 zipfldr.dll, and then click OK

At the run line type this %userprofile% \sendto, and then click OK

Next, drag the file from your desktop to this folder

Now right-click > send to should have the compressed folder selection

Instant Virus Check

Wonder if there is a virus lurking around in your machine right now? If you have an Internet connection, try out http://www.nanoscan.com/. This is especially useful when you are away from your own machine or even using your notebook at one of the local WiFi available restaurants or coffee houses. It work very quickly--try it out.

Getting Rid of U3

Not to be confused with R2D2, U3 is an application that is piggybacked on the SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash drives. The Cruzer flash drives are a nice size and I like the slider to expose the connection. Those darn caps seem to always get lost or do not stay on after a while. However, I am not thrilled with the included U3 and extra software that comes with it. It takes too much time to mount the drive, I do not want the extra software, and I want all the gigs I paid for.

This procedure will remove U3

1. Open your browser to:

http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1415

2. Download the application

3. Plug in the flash drive and wait for the U3 launch pad to load.

4. Run the application choosing one of the two options. Both options remove U3 and format the drive. (Yes ) keeps all your data (takes about 1 hr/gb) or (No) destroys all data on the drive (takes about 10 sec)

You now have a full sized USB flash drive without the U3 application