Topics

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General Software Discussion / XP to Windows 7 advice

« on: March 02, 2014, 10:50 AM »

I'm thinking of upgrading my 6 year old Vostro 1700 XP pro laptop to Windows 7.

I need to replace Outlook Express (which I like), and I don't want to use web-based email like GMail.  Last time I thought about upgrading, I figured I'd use Mozilla Thunderbird.  I have Outlook 2002 but really dislike it.

I'm still using Word 2002 and Excel 2002.  I can't afford to upgrade these any time soon, and that will be a project I'm not looking forward to, seeing if all my VB code and any of my interface customization will still work.

So, my two questions if I upgrade from XP Pro to Windows 7:

1.  Will Mozilla Thunderbird easily replace Outlook Express?

2.  Will I be able to re-install and run Word and Excel 2002 easily? 

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Post New Requests Here / Simple Counter Utility Wanted

« on: September 06, 2011, 03:56 PM »

Would someone please make me a simple Counter Program in AHK?

Two reasons:  I could use the utility and it would also serve well as an example of some of the AHK code I'd like to be more familiar with.  The GUI creation and counting subroutines would save me a lot of trial and error working the code out for myself.

There would be a simple small (~100 pixel tall x ~200 pixels wide) dialog box with:

   - Two buttons: Increment counter by 1, Decrement counter by 1.
   - Counter display (this could even be on one of the buttons)
  
The other feature would be that the counter would automatically increment by 1 each hour on the hour.  I could manually adjust the counter with the buttons for a start value, which would be incremented by 1 on the next hour (at the top of the hour, not an hour after I start).

That's all I'd need, but if you wanted to teach me one other thing, it would be to make the dialog box, buttons, counter, etc in different colors if this can be done in AHK.  You can pick the colors.

Thanks in advance to any takers!

Andy

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Living Room / 3rd monitor for display purposes

« on: May 26, 2011, 09:59 AM »

I'm running an XP laptop with a 1920x1200 screen.  I keep the laptop closed on a shelf and have a 24 inch 1920x1200 monitor, a keyboard, and mouse on my desk.  I have an extra identical 24" monitor that I am not currently using.

I have to teach someone some accounting stuff on the computer.  I know I can take the laptop off the shelf and work on that while my student is looking at the 24" monitor.  That would work just fine but would require moving a whole lot of stuff around, and the laptop screen is pretty small.

What I would rather do is split the output to the 24" monitor I am using so the student could be looking at the extra 24" monitor and I wouldn't have to use the laptop screen.  There is only the one video output socket on the laptop or I could just plug the second monitor right in.

So my question is:  can I buy a splitter that would allow me to feed 2 identical monitors?  Is this even possible?

(the student cannot sit on my lap so we can both see the same monitor )

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Post New Requests Here / Drag&Drop to move File/Folder, but leave a Shortcut

« on: March 05, 2011, 08:33 AM »

In Windows (XP) when you drag and drop using the Right mouse button, you are offered a choice to either Copy, Move, or Create a Shortcut.

What I'd like to see is a fourth choice:  Move, but leave a Shortcut in the original location (exact location if the original location is the Desktop).

This is probably difficult since this menu is part of Windows and I've never seen it modified.

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Living Room / Reverse Phone lookup

« on: March 01, 2011, 10:48 AM »

Used to be it was easy to find a name to go with a phone number, just Google the number.

Now it seems that the only way is through a paid service, the only hits I get when I Google the number.

Does anyone know if there are still free lookup sites out there?

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General Software Discussion / Outlook Sort/Group question

« on: November 03, 2010, 08:59 PM »

I own a copy of Outlook, came with Office XP (2002).  I use Outlook Express for my email, but I'm going thru several hundred emails given to me in a .pst file.  I figured I'd be better off loading it into Outlook and keeping those messages separate from my own email.

Outlook is easy enough to figure out, but I'm not able to do something I'm accustomed to (and find quite useful) in Outlook Express.

I want to group/thread the messages by subject, but sort the threads by earliest date.  So a thread that started in 2006 would display before a thread that started in 2007.  But each thread would be together, either sorted internally by date/time, or threaded if there were multiple replies to various messages in the thread.

This is easy to do in Outlook Express: View>Current View>Group by Conversation in order to group by subject, and then click the "Recieved" header in order to sort the conversations chronologically.

I want to do the same thing in Outlook:  Group the messages by subject, but display the groups in chronological order.  Right now the best I can do is sort the groups alphabetically, so a 2010 group can come before a group of 2006 msgs if it's subject starts with an "A" as opposed to a "Z".

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General Software Discussion / .NET Framework 3.5 install advice

« on: January 15, 2009, 07:39 AM »

All I have installed currently is .Net 1.1  (not sure why)

I've finally seen something I'd really like (a tiny Windows Explorer utility) that requires .Net 3.5.

Can I just install 3.5 or do I have to install 2.0,etc first?

Are there downsides to having .Net framework installed?

A google search raised more questions than answers so I come here for some quick advice, or links to good info.

TIA,  Andy

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General Software Discussion / XP Toolbar menu sort order

« on: February 09, 2008, 04:25 PM »

Does anyone know how XP remembers (when it does) the sort order of
taskbar toolbars when the toolbar is made narrow so the whole thing is
a flyout menu (has the bar with the tiny >> next to the folder name)?

I have three folders set up like that (C:, A, and X).  Once upon a
time I could drag icons in the flyout menu and the order would be
retained through reboots and explorer restarts.  Then one day, after a
Windows Update last year, the sort order would revert to alphabetical
after a restart.  Then sometime after that, the manual sort order for
A and X at the time was retained, but never the root directory C:.
Now A and X revert to that retained sort order (better than nothing),
but any changes are not retained.

I've looked through the registry but can't find anything that looks
like a sort order.  The sort order of the opened folders themselves
has no affect on the sort order of the flyout menu.

I'd like to understand how this works, and I'd especially like to
figure out a way to either retain or restore a manually sorted menu.

Any thoughts?

Andy

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Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Alt-DoubleClick folder icon also closes original folder (a la OS/2)

« on: January 19, 2008, 04:12 PM »

Umm, I guess the subject line tells it all, but here's what I intended to paste here:

Right after I stumbled across DonationCoder some time ago, I asked
about a utility to duplicate a feature I had liked in OS/2 (Alt-drag
any part of a window and move it without taking focus so you can move
one window underneath another).  I didn't really think anything would
come of it, but sure enough Skrommel came right back with a perfect
autohotkey script (if it wasn't in less than an hour, and I think it
might have been, it sure seemed pretty instant). I was hooked.

So... another feature I liked from OS/2 was Alt-DoubleLeftClick on a
folder in an explorer main window, and not only did you open your
folder (I have my system set to open folders in a new window), but the
original folder was automatically closed.

Anybody interested?  I have DonationCredits lonely for a new home...

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General Software Discussion / Web Mail Recommendation?

« on: May 17, 2007, 02:30 PM »

Friends,

This is sort of a software question, so I thought I'd ask here.

My wife will be losing her work email address, and it seems to me it would be best for her to get a gmail or yahoo account.  I have absolutely no experience with this, so I thought I'd ask for opinions here.

Any opinions?

Thanks,

Andy

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Finished Programs / DONE: Move Window without it gaining focus?

« on: March 13, 2006, 07:28 PM »

A feature I miss from OS/2 that I'm wondering if someone can give me
back for XP Pro SP2:

To be able to click and drag a window that doesn't have focus and not
have it get focus.  In OS/2 one could do this by holding down the ALT
key and dragging the window.  I don't remember if you had to grab the
title bar or if you could drag any part of the window.  Either way
would be ok with me.

If I have part of a window sticking out from under my active window,
it would be nice to be able to adjust it's position while still
leaving the active window on top.

Andy