I accidentally placed a faulty floppy disk in my disk drive and the metal cover which goes over the top of the disk came off in the drive. I can’t place any disks in the drive and it is getting very inconvenient. I have attempted to extract it myself but I think I am digging myself into an even bigger hole. What would be the best procedure to extract it from the drive? (more…)

I have a most annoying problem with Word 97. As I always want a backup, I check the ‘Always Create Backup Copy’ box in the ‘Saves’ menu. However at random intervals, sometimes after behaving itself for several weeks, the box is cleared and the ‘Allow Fast Saves’ box is checked. And certainly not by me. I could manually save the file every time before working on it but this should not be necessary, according to the menu. I’ve tried uninstalling Word then reinstalling the original Word 6 and applying the Word 97 upgrade, but no improvement. As a side issue, the upgrade CD seems to be the entire Word 97 (it doesn’t even ask for the original Word 6 floppy disk number). Is this normal? (more…)

When I try to drag and drop icons on the desktop or files/folders in Windows Explorer nothing happens. Clicking on the icon (or files/folders) shows that the file/folder is active (because it is highlighted) but the icon (or files/folders) will not show any sign of moving. About the same time, I have encountered another problem with the Explorer 5.01 browser. Previously, when holding down the shift key and clicking the left mouse button, a new window would open up to the link. Now an empty window opens up. The closest I came to finding a solution to this problem is a problem encountered with Norton Antivirus which sounded similar. However, I am only using VET and not Norton Antivirus. Everything else in Windows functions fine. I also checked in Safe Mode, and the drag problem still occurs there as well. I recently downloaded several software programs off the net to deal with registry problems, etc. So I wonder if something may have occurred when I used one of these programs. Otherwise I have been operating as usual. I am running Windows 95. (more…)

There are a couple of concerns I have in using the spellchecker in Word. Firstly, I have found that, both in Word 97 and Word 2000 the Australian spelling is very close to US spelling. I have set all my templates and ‘normal.dot’ to UK spelling which I think is the closest to Australian spelling. Despite this, US spelling continues to crop up from time to time. How can I eliminate the US spelling dictionary for once and for all so that my Word program never has recourse to it. How can I do the same thing for Eudora? (more…)

I have Windows 98 Second Edition. When I move, copy, rename, etc… a file in Windows Explorer it does not show changes to a directory immediately, instead I have to use F5 to refresh the screen (even if the change is done on the explorer screen itself). For example, I rename a file and as soon as I move the cursor away the display reverts to the old file name until I refresh the screen. I could not find any option anywhere that sets this behaviour. Any suggestions? (more…)