Aug. 31, 2005

Hi, All!
This Week: An interesting marketing plan

Yesterday I received a CD in the mail from Quicken. While I have used Quicken for many years, this was a surprise, as it was an update CD for all versions of this bookkeeping software.

This is great, but if you install this CD to keep current with all the changes and updates, it will cost $79.95 with a $10 discount. The packaging tells me that there are "121 new and improved features letting you see your finances your way." That is good but nowhere in the packaging does it tell me what the 121 improvements are. I looked on Quicken's web site and found nothing there either.

Do they have a refund policy? What happens to the data if the upgrade needs to be backed-out? If the packaging or the web site does not reveal enough information to allow an informed decision, call the support desk and get your questions answered before you do the install. It can be hard to uninstall some of these software packages and/or get your money back. Like most decisions with PC's or MAC's make the best informed decision you can and back up your data before you install any new program. Another tip on installs or changes would be to record what was done and when, so if something should cause problems later, you and your tech know what changes have been done to the machine.

'Til next week,

(ComputerFAQ#256)

Robert

Please send your questions to

Aug. 31, 2005 Upgrade CD with 121 Improvements But What Are They?

Aug. 24, 2005 Funny Characters in Email

Aug. 17, 2005 Making Backups Reduces Fear of Trying Computer Fixes

Aug. 10, 2005 Giving or Selling Old Computers

Aug. 3, 2005 Deleting Erroneous Login Names and Cloning the Laptop Drive Still Hasn't Worked

July 27, 2005 Badly Infected PC's: Cheaper to Fix or Buy New?

July 20, 2005 Upgrading by Increasing Your RAM Memory

July 13, 2005 Retrieving Deleted Emails

July 6, 2005 Are PC's Fun? Part 3

June 29, 2005 Are PC's Fun? Part 2

June 22, 2005 Are PC's Fun?

June 15, 2005 Non-working Printer Found To Be Just Paused

June 8, 2005 AVG Problems Complicated By An Automatic Outlook Update

June 1, 2005 Printing Problems Possibly Related to Update to AVG

May 25, 2005 Serious Problem with Update to Our Best Email Scanner AVG

May 18, 2005 Challenges in Cloning a Laptop Replacement Hard Drive

May 11, 2005 CMOS Error on Startup Means Replace Battery

May 4, 2005 Switches, Outlet Strips, Windows Start & Shut Down Buttons, UPS's

Apr. 27, 2005 Reader Suggest Bad On/Off Switch in Dead PIII Gateway

Apr. 20, 2005 Microsoft's Free Word Viewer to Open Newer .doc Attachments

Apr. 6 & 13, 2005 Asking Help for a Dead PIII Gateway

Apr. 6, 2005 Various Anti-spywares' Success vs. the Especially Troublesome Virus

Mar. 30, 2005 An Especially Troublesome Virus

Mar. 23, 2005 Deleting Unwanted ID's and Passwords from Messenger

Mar. 16, 2005 How to Block an Email Sender

Mar. 9, 2005 Computer Swallowed Grandma

Mar. 2, 2005 Add New Email Address with Right-Click

Feb. 23, 2005 No Downloads or Games After Updating Explorer

Feb. 16, 2005 User ID's Stored in Cookies by Passport

Feb. 9, 2005 Installing System Monitor

Feb. 2, 2005 Shortcuts to Websites and System Monitor Program

Jan. 26, 2005 Beeps on Startup by Power On Self Test (POST)

Jan. 19, 2005 Where Does MS Messenger Store Passwords?

Jan. 12, 2005 Clean PCI Board Contacts Easily

Jan. 5, 2005 Don't Defrag Too Often, It Can Cause Trouble

Dec. 22, 2004 Try Different Free Anti-Virus Programs to Clean Your Computer

Dec. 15, 2004 A Computer Infested With Over 20 Copies of Trojan Virus Must Be Completely Erased

Dec. 8, 2004 Choosing Folder Into Which Application Will Install

Dec. 1, 2004 Spyware

Nov. 24, 2004 Explanations of Various CD & DVD Formats

Nov. 17, 2004 New User Asks About CD & DVD Drives

Nov. 10, 2004 Windows PC's Hard Drive Crashes, Explanation

Nov. 3, 2004 Question about Windows PC's Hard Drive Crashes

Oct. 27, 2004 Printers and Refilled Inkjet Cartridges Revisited

Oct. 20, 2004 Windows Update Utility

Oct. 13, 2004 Explorer Screen Still Doesn't Refresh Automatically with SP2

Oct. 6, 2004 Yahoo Games Don't Work Without JAVA Virtual Machine

Sept. 29, 2004 More on Phishing, Part 2

Sept. 22, 2004 More on Phishing, Part 1

Sept. 15, 2004 Who are the ISP's in East County?

Sept. 8, 2004 Screen in Windows XP doesn't refresh

Sept. 1, 2004 From India: Computer doesn't start #2, only LEDs and fan come on

Aug. 25, 2004 From India: Computer doesn't start, doesn't show POST Power On Self Test

Aug. 18, 2004 Reminder- Terrorist Computer Attacks Like During Republican Convention

Aug. 11, 2004 More Phishing

Aug. 4, 2004 Three Old Viruses WORM_BAGLE.AF, WORM_BAGLE.AM, WORM_MYDOOM.M

July 28, 2004 Celebrating the 200th ComputerFAQ

July 21, 2004 Sleep, Standby & Hibernation

July 14, 2004 Parts of Windows Screens, such as Status Bar

July 7, 2004 Parts of Windows Screens, such as Desktop

June 30, 2004 Losing the Address Bar and Accurate Communication

June 23, 2004 Spyware and How to Remove It

June 16, 2004 Suggestions for the iMac writer of June 9

June 9, 2004 MacIntosh User Finds Trick to Display Emailed Photos

June 2, 2004 Internet Options "Cookies" Configuration

May 26, 2004 Internet Options Box #2

May 12&19, 2004 Worm_Sasser.B and Clearing Old URL Addresses from IE

May 5, 2004 The F5 Refresh key and other Function keys

Apr. 28, 2004 First Purchase on Ebay and More on Recycling Computer Eqpt.

Apr. 21, 2004 Repairing a Laser Printer and More about Disposing Used Computer Equipment

Apr. 14, 2004 How to get rid of an old PC

Apr. 7, 2004 Another Virus Alert

Mar. 31, 2004 Keeping Both Home and Ebay Pages Open At the Same Time

Mar. 24, 2004 A Complex Alert about a Very Complex Virus

Mar. 17, 2004 A Hoax Virus Can Cause You To Damage Your Computer

Mar. 10, 2004 Should I Reload Windows?

Mar. 3, 2004 HTML Email Viruses: Disable Preview and Receive Only Text Email

Feb. 25, 2004 Spoofing and Zombies

Feb. 18, 2004 Using Spyware

Feb. 11, 2004 Spyware

Feb. 4, 2004 Phishing and the MyDoom virus

Jan. 28, 2004 Microsoft Extends Support for Windows '98 and ME

Jan. 21, 2004 More Keyboard Shortcuts

Jan. 14, 2004 The Lifesaver "Undo" and Other Keyboard Shortcuts

Jan. 7, 2004 Microsoft quitting support for Windows 95 & 98 plus minimum computer requirements for Windows XP

Dec. 24, 2003 The Trouble with Mice

Dec. 17, 2003 System Restore & Windows Safe Mode

Dec. 10, 2003 Backing Up using an external USB Hard Drive

Dec. 3, 2003 SpamSubtract, a good way to reduce spam, also other ways

Nov. 26, 2003 Disgusted about Spam

Nov. 19, 2003 How Vulnerable is Your Computer to Data Theft?

Nov. 12, 2003 Safely Deleting Thousands of tmp Files

Nov. 5, 2003 Finding the Windows Search Button & Misc Program Problems

Oct. 29, 2003 How to Print a List of Files

Oct. 22, 2003 Fall Cleanup Part 3

Oct. 15, 2003 Fall Cleanup Part 2

Oct. 8, 2003 Fall Cleaning of Your PC

Oct. 1, 2003 Explanation of DSL

Sept. 24, 2003 Installing DSL at the Shopper

Sept. 17, 2003 What New Computer Should I Buy? Part 2

Sept. 10, 2003 What New Computer Should I Buy?

Sept. 3, 2003 Protecting from Viruses and Worms

Aug. 27, 2003 Current Viruses "Bast Worm" and "Sobig"

Aug. 20, 2003 Does Microsoft Password Make Changing Passwords Easier?

Aug. 13, 2003 Passwords and Passport Part 2

Aug. 6, 2003 More About PassPort and Passwords

July 23 & 30, 2003 Where Are Microsoft Passport Passwords Stored? and More About Passport and Passwords

July 16, 2003 Internet Explorer Helpful Hint Part 2

July 9, 2003 Internet Explorer Helpful Hint Part 1

July 2, 2003 Some More Icons Explained

June 25, 2003 Online Ordering

June 18, 2003 Followup on Refilled Ink Cartridges

 

July 05, 2000 Introduction to ComputerFAQ

July 12, 2000 Computer Definitions

July 26, 2000 More Computer Definitions

August 02, 2000 Defining Bits, Bytes and Hex

August 09, 2000 Internet Service Providers (ISP)

August 16, 2000 Backup up your PC

August 23, 2000 Backup Devices.

August 30, 2000 What is the slowest PC for Internet Access

September 06, 2000 PC Nomenclature

September 13, 2000What to do with Mail Attachements.

September 20, 2000What Happens at boot up

October 04, 2000Desktop Areas

October 18, 2000Start Button

October 25, 2000Display Made Bigger

November 01, 2000 More Monitor Controls

November 15, 2000 Right Click Display Menu

November 22, 2000 More on Desktop Menus

November 29, 2000 More on Desktop Menus

December 06, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 1

December 13, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 2

December 20, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 3