nternet Home Page

I’m sure that the majority of readers who possess a PC are on the internet and use it to one degree or another. When you first sign up to an ISP (Internet Service Provider) you quite often install their software from a CD. This is all good stuff and hopefully works first time and hey presto! Off you go surfing the world wide web. One thing however that can be annoying is that from that day on every time you go on the internet the first page you see is that of your ISP. If, like most people you use the web to go to specific sites or mainly use search engines to find what you want you may find it nicer to start the internet at the page you want to look at rather than your ISP’s home page. This is very easy to accomplish.

With Internet Explorer loaded, click on “Tools” on the top taskbar and then select “Internet Options”, a new page will be displayed. At the top of this page is a box entitled “Home Page” and an internet address in the space labelled “Address:”. In this space you need to overtype the address in there already with the one you want to put in. For example if you wanted Internet Explorer to start with the Google search engine type: http://www.google.co.uk or Ask Jeeves, http://www.ask.co.uk . Once you have done this click “Apply” at the bottom of the page and then “OK” . The next time you start the Internet your home page will be the one you have specified. This does not in anyway affect your contract with your ISP just simply makes your PC work as you want (for a change).

Shortcuts

For programs that you use regularly it can be useful to have a shortcut icon on the desktop. A lot of programs do this for you when you install them but a fair number do not. To place a shortcut onto your Desktop (the main screen you see when you start your PC) complete the following procedure:

Click “Start” then select “Programs” highlight the program you want to make a shortcut to, then right-click; from the pop-up menu that appears select “send to” and then from the second pop-up that appears left-click “Desktop”. Depending on the Windows version you have you then may be prompted with various questions, whatever the question, the answer is “OK” and consequently a shortcut icon will be placed on the desktop. You should now be able to access your program by double-clicking the new icon on the desktop. As a word of warning, the more shortcuts you place on your desktop the slower your PC will be to power on. 1-3 new shortcuts will not make too much difference but 10+ could cause a notable slowing up of the power-up procedure. The overall speed of the PC is not affected, just the powering on.

I hope people find this info useful, if you have any comments or little tips you have found out that you would like to share please e-mail me at barry@cactusfixit.co.uk .

Barry Wilson (Cactus Trading)