How Much RAM (random access memory) Do You Have?

    A reader called asking where to find out how much RAM his computer has. Click Start>Control Panel>System to see this information. Better yet, Belarc Advisor (free from Belarc.com) will give you lots more important information about your PC's guts.

    Regarding RAM, the more you have the faster and more efficiently your PC will run. Today's computers need at least a gigabyte, but work much better with 3 or 4 gigs. Additional RAM chips are user-installable in some PCs, but I prefer paying a technician to install mine. RAM chips can be found at www.crucial.com.

Powerpoint Dilemma

    Al Roller called to say when he double-clicked the icon of a Powerpoint presentation emailed to him it wouldn't play, even though he has Powerpoint on his computer. This is a quirk peculiar to Powerpoint that's come up before. A work-around is to right-click the icon and choose Open With>Powerpoint. Alternatively, launch Powerpoint, click File>Open, browse to the target PPS or PPT file, and double-click it.

    If someone sends you a Powerpoint slide show and you don't have the program, you can download a free Powerpoint Viewer from www.microsoft/downloads.com.. Or you can play it via the free Google Docs (docs.google.com) online Powerpoint-compatible presentation utility...or you can use the OpenOffice Powerpoint-compatible presentation program. OpenOffice (Microsoft Office-compatible) is free from www.openoffice.org.

Copying Outlook Express & Windows Mail Address Books to Another PC

    A number of readers have asked how to move their OE or WM Address Books to a new computer. The easiest way is to send them to an email address on the new PC. Open OE or WM on the old PC, click Create Mail and then click CC to display your contact list. Clicking on a contact and clicking CC will place it in the "Carbon Copy" field – or you can mouse-select all the contacts before clicking CC.

    Next click inside the CC field and do Ctrl+A to Select All, followed by Ctrl+X to Cut All. Now click into the message area and do Ctrl+V to Paste in all the Contacts. (Do NOT leave any addresses in the CC field.)

    Finally, mail the message to yourself at the email account on the new PC, from where the addresses can be copied and pasted into your new Address Book or Contact List. Or you can do what I do – paste them into a Word or Excel document, from where they can be copied as needed into outgoing emails.

    The above procedure works with all email programs, although the steps for copying addresses into the CC field may vary. If the email program you're going to use on the new PC happens to be Gmail, it has an option for importing addresses from your previous email program.

Which Anti-Virus Program Is Best?

    I'm often asked which anti-virus program is best. Well, the only way to know for sure is to have one of them installed on a computer onto which you introduce one or more viruses. Repeat the process for each anti-virus program you want to test and see which does the best job. However, this is an elaborate, expensive process for which I have neither time nor the resources.

    So which anti-virus program do I prefer? Well, since Microsoft Security Essentials was introduced, it's the one I use. Since MSE was created by the same people who created Windows, it seems reasonable that they could supply a program to protect Windows PCs. And since the program is totally free, it's a no-brainer.

    Click here to download Microsoft's Free Security Essentials anti-virus program: www.microsoft.com.

© Donald Ray Edrington – All Rights Reserved

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Don Edrington - Computer Columnist for The Californian and San Diego's North County Times

Senior Computer Tutor
Don Edrington

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