How To Restore The Menu Bar In Vista And Windows 7

In older versions of Windows, the menu bar was always visible in Explorer. In Vista and Windows 7 the menu bar is now hidden by default, and you must press the ALT key to see it. These simple steps will cause it to always be visible.
(The “menu bar” gives you the familiar File | Edit | View |Tools | Help ‘drop down’ menus)

1) Launch Explorer by opening Computer (or Documents, or Pictures..), then press ALT to access the menu bar.

2) Click on Tools and then on Folder options.

3) In the Folder Options window, click on the View tab, and click to place a check in Always show menus.

4) Click on Apply and then OK.

That’s it. You’re done. (Should you decide you prefer the “more screen real estate” no menu bar look, simply repeat the steps and un-check the box.)

Today’s quotable quote: “Action without study is fatal. Study without action is futile.” ~ Mary Beard

Today’s free download: (an “oldie but a goodie”) It has been a while since I have mentioned one of my fave little computer protection apps – WinPatrol.

Clean up your Taskbar, ActiveX, Brower and Startup programs. WinPatrol monitors and exposes adware, keyloggers, spyware, worms, cookies, and other malicious software. This program puts you back in control of your computer with no need for constant updates.
Download WinPatrol 20.5.2011 (Window XP, Vista, Windows 7 including x64 support)

Have a great weekend everybody!

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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How To Remove Internet Explorer 9

“…for some reason should want to uninstall it, you need to know a little trick..“

If you read this series, the odds are good you read other tech-type websites as well, and so you probably know that Microsoft is getting a lot of good press over their latest release of their web browser, Internet Explorer 9 (aka “IE9”).. which is still a “beta”. It’s fast!, seems to be a common laud.

As a matter of fact, I mentioned it last week as a Today’s Free Download pick.. which I will repost here, as it includes a mini-review:

Today’s free download: Internet Explorer 9 (beta)
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on September 16, 2010

“First Take: After several months of teasing Internet Explorer’s upgrade with a series of feature-free developer’s previews, Microsoft has unleashed on the world an Internet Explorer 9 beta (32-bit Windows 7; 64-bit Windows 7; 32-bit Windows Vista; 64-bit Windows Vista) with some impressive new features. Like any properly named beta, though, there are also some bugs to be ironed out.

This is the biggest overhaul to the browser since Internet Explorer 7 landed. The changes to the interface are enormous, the browser’s overall usability has greatly improved, it’s more secure, and it’s significantly faster and more standards compliant.”

(Click any of those 4 links to read Seth’s full review.)

Even though Microsoft has been releasing remarkably stable and usable “betas” of late, I have not yet tried IE 9. But if you have, or do, and for some reason should want to un-install it, you need to know a little trick..
[update: I am currently evaluating the IE 9 beta. I will “review” it soon.]

To wit: Microsoft considers IE 7, 8, and 9 to be Updates, and not stand-alone programs.

So, when you open Programs and features in your Control Panel, you will not see Internet Explorer 9 listed in your Installed programs list.

Until you click on the “View installed updates” link in the sidebar (on the left), that is.

Once you do, all the installed Hotfixes, and Updates will be added to the list.

Scroll until you locate IE 9, and then right-click on it, and then click on Uninstall.

Uninstalling IE 9 will revert your machine to the last version of IE you had.

So there you go. Internet Explorer is an Update, not a program.

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

In case you’re wondering:
… I was quite eager to try out IE 9 – in spite of my reluctance to fool with betas (or, even 1st releases) until I read about the combined address and tab bar. I typically have at least 5 tabs open, and often as many as 10, so I want a separate tabs bar, to avoid “tab crowding”.
(There. Someone at Microsoft will read that, and make the change.)(Because I put it in bold font.)(And my opinion is that powerful.)(Not. But one could hope. Ha!)

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Troubleshoot Runtime Error in Internet Explorer

Recent calls from clients has triggered in me a sense of deja-vu. There was an unusual number of people who were having their IE web browsing session crash, due to a “Runtime Error”.

When I looked at their machines, I kept being reminded of one of my earliest articles, Toolbar madness.

So, I would like to take a moment to reiterate: People, you neither want, nor need, 5 different “media players”, 4 accounting programs, 3 Peer-to-Peer apps.. and – most certainly not – a dozen “toolbars”!
(“Paul, why is my computer so much slower than it used to be?”)

I am not sure if it’s conditioning, simple human curiosity, or what, but people have a tendency to download and install every new thing they stumble across.. So they can “try it”, or “it looked kewl”…

In computing, less is more. You want lean. You want mean. And if you don’t use, remove it!
End rant.

Error message: Runtime Error!! Program: c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplorer.exe. This application has required the runtime to terminate in an unusual way.

Tip of the day: You can cure this malfunction by knowing that it is caused by a conflict with a (possibly corrupted) installed Add-on. In each and every of my caller’s instance, it was the Google Toolbar – so that’s the place to start your troubleshooting.
[Note: to be fair to the Google toolbar, the corruption probably occurred during an update, and was caused by these people having the Yahoo! toolbar installed also. One or the other, folks.]

The quick-and-dirty solution is to go into Add/Remove Programs and uninstall/re-install the Google toolbar, but the way to be sure – or, if you’re getting this error and don’t have the Google toolbar – is to disable add ons one at a time until the problem goes away.

1) In IE, click on “Tools”, then select “Manage Add-ons”, and then “Enable or Disable Add-ons”, as shown above.

2) A list of installed Add-ons will appear. Start by looking for “Google Toolbar Helper”. Select it, and then click on the “Disable” button.

3) Close, and restart Internet Explorer, and surf normally for a while. If you no longer get crashes and error messages, you’ve found the culprit. An uninstall/re-install is now in order (if you want to keep the toolbar, that is).
If you continue to get crashes, repeat the Steps and disable one more Add-on.. until you find the right one by process of elimination.

Today’s free link: Create your own online newspaper at crayon.net (CReAte Your Own Newspaper). Get just the topics you want from the sources you want.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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