How To Make Your Music Play In iTunes (or other media player)

By default, when you click on a folder containing music, you will be prompted to use Windows Media Player — which perhaps you do not use, preferring iTunes, or Winamp, or some other. You can easily change this ‘default behavior’ to use your preferred media player by following these simple steps.

Click Start button > Control Panel, then Programs

Under Default Programs, click  Set Default Programs (or “Set your default programs”).

On the left-hand pane, scroll until you find the desired program (in my example “Media Player Classic”, but yours could/will be different.. say, iTunes.) Click on it to turn it blue (aka “select” it.)

Then click the big Set this program as default button. Then OK.

That’s it. iTunes (or, in my case Media Player Classic) will now be the player your computer thinks of when it sees music (media) files. Should you change your mind, or decide on another media player at some future date, you can simply repeat this process and choose Windows Media Player (or.. whatever one) again.

Note: This method is how you change other “Opens with” defaults as well — such as changing back to Internet Explorer as your default web browser after you’ve tried some other “alternative” browser.

Today’s quote: “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” ~ Oscar Wilde

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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One More Reason I Don’t Facebook

This person..

“Facebook’s marketing director Randi Zuckerberg, who also happens to be Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, wants to put an end to online anonymity. She believes that Internet users would act much more responsibly online if they were forced to use their real names at all times.“

Ah.
Yes.
Interesting theory. (It might reduce “cyber bullying”.)
But the price? Read the article, here, Facebook: “Anonymity on the Internet has to go away”. (I humbly suggest you read the comments, too..)(Fortunately, I believe I saw that she is leaving/has left Facebook to launch her own “social media company” [ to read more on that, click here] .. But.. Mark Zuckerberg’s views on Internet privacy strike me as even more alarming.. See, Report: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Doesn’t Believe In Privacy.)

I kinda hope Germany follows through.. Germany: Facebook facial recognition feature violates privacy laws.

I know. I know. Facebook is just a tool.. and any tool can be used for good and bad…

• Facebook used to organize UK riots, clean them up
  “Facebook is being blamed in part for helping organize the riots in the UK. At the same time, citizens have teamed up on the social network to clean up after the disturbances.”

.. but because I am concerned about my privacy, and how the Internet is being misused (think “data mining”/”information hoovering”, database hacking, spamming, its permanency, etc.), I stay far away from Zuckerberg’s Facebook. (I certainly don’t want privacy going away any more than it already has. Period.)

But, if you are a Facebook user, I strongly urge you to take control, and learn about – and set – the Privacy Controls. To help you, I recommend this How To: Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings Every User Needs to Know.

~~~~~

• Don’t miss out on the chance to enter my latest software license giveaway drawing!

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*** A Chance To Win A Valuable Prize! ***

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The folks at Softland have generously donated ten licenses for novaPDF Professional to me, to award to my readers.

“novaPDF is a PDF creator for Windows that allows you to easily create PDF files. With novaPDF, everyone from novice users to professionals can create high-quality documents in industry-standard PDF format, by simply selecting the “Print” command from virtually any application.“

To enter the drawing, please see: Software Giveaway – novaPDF Professional

Today’s quotable quote: “To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.” ~ Confucius

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

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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 Rip Your CD’s To MP3

MP3 is the “universal” digital music format. By using this format, your music collection will likely play on any music player device, for many years yet to come.

The newer versions of Windows Media Player (v’s 11 and 12) come with the ability to rip (copy from CD) music to mp3 files. Many music players, including Apple’s iPod, will not play the default .wma format,  but by switching to the mp3 format, you ensure that you can listen to your music on any music-playing device.

With these easy steps, you can set Windows Media Player to always “rip” your music CD’s to mp3 files.

1) Open the Windows Media Player (WMP): Click the Start button, then All programs, and scroll down the list (Or, type WMP in the Search pane).

2) Click the downward arrow under the Rip button

3) Select More options. (It should open to the Rip Music tab.)

4) In the Format section, use the drop-down arrow to select mp3.

4a) * Optional: you can also user the “slider” to set the music Audio quality “bit rate” from lower quality+smaller file size to highest quality+larger file size.
(I have chosen “Best Quality”, as I do not have an extensive music collection, and the size of my library is not an issue for me.)

5) Now click the Apply button, and then the OK button to close out the Settings window.

That’s it. You’re done. Until you go back in and undo your changes, Windows Media Player will always copy your music CD’s to the more portable, and universal, mp3 file type.

Today’s free download: If you are on an older Windows computer, and have not yet “upgraded” your version of WMP to Windows Media Player 12, you can download it here.

Today’s quotable quote: Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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How To Play Your Steam Games Offline

This tutorial is for those folks who, like me, have no interest in online ‘deathmatches’, but prefer to play their games against the computer in Single-player mode. Or .. otherwise do not like Steam. I have not had time to try this yet myself, but a reliable source told me it works. Source ~ It is posted on the Call of Duty Black Ops forum.

[note: this applies to games you own.. and are in your Steam “library”.]

“Offline Mode allows you to play games through Steam without reconnecting to the Steam Network every time you wish to play – this is particularly useful if you do not plan on playing over the internet and would prefer not to download new updates for your single-player games.

1) Start Steam online – make sure the Remember my password box on the login window is checked.

2) Verify that all game files are completely updated – you can see the update status for a game under the Library section (when the game shows as 100% – Ready it is ready to be played in Offline Mode).

3) Launch the game you would like to play offline to verify that there are no further updates to download – shut down the game and return to Steam once you have confirmed that the game can be played.

[NOTE: Mine never showed “100% Ready”, and I had to download an 8012.4 MB file (which I believe is the entire DVD contents) to complete the update process referenced in Step 3.]

4) Go to Steam > Library then right click on Call of Duty: Black Ops and select Properties. In the Updates tab, choose Do not automatically update this game under Automatic updates.

5) Go to Steam > Settings to ensure the Don’t save account credentials on this computer option is not selected.

6) From the main Steam window, go to the Steam menu and select Go Offline.

7) Click Restart in Offline Mode to restart Steam in Offline Mode.”

And, yes, I am going to implement this mucho muy mas pronto. I am not a fan of Steam, and successfully managed to avoid it for years — until my favorite game title, Call of Duty, required Steam to install.

Call me an old dinosaur if you want, but I do not enjoy running around arenas, getting knifed in gun battles and sniped by campers — and trying to guess if what just killed me was a hack, a bot, or a lucky/good player. I leave online gaming (and Steam tracking everything I do..) to the teenagers-of-all-ages, gladly!

My sincere and profound thanks and regards to the person who alerted me to this. (You know who you are.)

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

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How To Set An Automatic ‘I’m Away’ E-mail Reply In Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird.

A few days ago I posted a tutorial on how to set up an automated “vacation” (aka “out of the office”) reply for those folks who use webmail services for email (see, How To Set An Automatic Webmail ‘I’m Away’ Response). Today I am going to provide the same tutorial, but for those folks who use an email client for managing their mail – Outlook, Windows Live Mail, and Mozilla’s Thunderbird.

If you go on vacation (or otherwise won’t have Internet access for a while) and you have a vacation responder turned on, an automatic reply – with a message you’ve pre-typed – will be sent automatically to the Sender letting them know you will get back to them, just not right away. When you get back online again, you simply turn the feature off again.

[note: you would have to have an “always on” Internet connection, and leave your computer running while you are away.]

Outlook: In Outlook, you need to create a “Rule”; and this Rule tells Outlook what to do with an incoming message. We want the Rule to tell it to ‘send this reply to the Sender’.

Click on the image to go to Step 2. (The walkthrough is on About.com)

Outlook Express/Mail/Live Mail: Again, we will need to set a Rule, but we also need to create a .txt (text) file, containing our response.. so Step 1 is to open Notepad..

Click on the image to go to step-by-step tutorial. (The walkthrough is on About.com)

Thunderbird: Basically, you do the same thing as with the other clients – create a “Rule” – but in Thunderbird, it’s called a “message filter”

Click on the image to go to step-by-step tutorial. (The walkthrough is on am-novice.com)

* My thanks to TuneUp for reminding me.

ATTENTION: You have already seen the ads. “Black Friday” sales are everywhere. I want to remind you that this is the cyber-criminal’s favorite, and most active, time of year. It is the time to redouble your “paranoid common sense” and triple your vigilance for scams, e-mails links, making sure the payment portal is https://, etc.. ATTENTION

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

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How To Set An Automatic Webmail ‘I’m Away’ Response

You have probably seen one of these: you send someone an e-mail, and later, in your Inbox you see their reply. So you open it and it says, “I’m on vacation. Quit bugging me!”

Okay. Maybe not those words. Exactly. But you know what I am describing. Right? It’s an e-mail feature called ‘vacation responder‘ (aka “I’m out of the office”).

If you go on vacation (or otherwise won’t have Internet access for a while) and you have a vacation responder turned on, an automatic reply – with a message you’ve pre-typed (you do not have to say “Quit bugging me!”) – will be sent automatically to the Sender letting them know you will get back to them, just not right away. When you get back online again, you simply turn it off again.

Find the Webmail you use from the list below.

* Gmail
Here’s how to let people know you can’t respond right away:

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings along the top of any Gmail page.
3. From the General tab, select Vacation responder on in the Vacation responder: section.
4. Enter the subject and body of your message in the Subject: and Message: fields.
   • If you’ve enabled a personalized signature in your settings, Gmail will automatically append it to the bottom of your vacation response.
5. Check the box next to Only send a response to people in my Contacts if you don’t want everyone who emails you to know that you’re away from your mail.
6. Click Save Changes.

* Hotmail
To make Windows Live Hotmail reply to incoming emails in your absence:

• Select Options | More options… from the Windows Live Hotmail toolbar.
• Follow the Sending automated vacation replies link under Managing your account.
• Make sure Send vacation replies to people who email me is selected.
• Type your desired out-of-office message under Enter the message you’d like to send while you’re away:.
  • Possibly include approximate info on when you will be able to reply personally.
  • Who to contact in the meantime or an alternative way of reaching you might also be appropriate.
  • In general, keep the message simple. Something like “I’m currently unable to read my mail, sorry! Come February, I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, you can…” shall do.
  • The subject Windows Live Hotmail uses for automatic replies is “Vacation reply”, by the way.
• If you frequently get mail from people not yet in your Windows Live Hotmail address book, make sure Only reply to your contacts is not checked.
• Click Save.

* Yahoo! Mail/Earthlink/Mindspring
To set a vacation response:

1. Click Options in the upper-right corner of your Mail page. Then select Mail Options…
2. From the list on the left, click Vacation Response.
3. Check the box that says Enable auto-response during your vacation.
4. Select start and end dates for your trip.
5. Enter the day your vacation will start in the “”Auto-respond from”” field and the day it will end in the “”up until (and including)”” field.
6. Enter a Generic Response. It can be up to ten lines.
7. When you are finished writing your Generic Response, click Save Changes located near the upper-left corner of the page.

* AOL
AOL WebMail allows you to setup an away message, that will auto-reply with a custom message or a pre-set message that you choose, when you are away. This is extremely useful if you are on vacation and need to reply to someone who might email you.

1. Click the Settings link, located at the upper right of your AOL WebMail inbox.
2. Click the General link, located in the left panel.
3. In the Mail Away Message section, click the drop-down menu and select an appropriate away message. If you select Custom type your own personal away message in the text box provided.
4. Click Save.

[Note: if your webmail service is not listed here, don’t worry. The method is the same. Look for a “settings”, “options”, or “preferences” menu (those are all the same things, btw.).]

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

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