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The following blog will show you how to download pictures from your digital camera onto a Vista machine and then how to manage the photos once they are on the computer.

First of all take some photos on your digital camera and then insert the camera into the computer using the USB cable provided with your camera. When you plug the USB cable in, make sure that the camera is off.

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A couple of months back Brandstar designed and published a free Address Book tool. The Address Book is ran on Microsoft Access, however don’t stop reading now if you’re thinking ‘I don’t have Access’, you can download for free Access 2007:Access Runtime. The download allows those who don’t have Access to run Access files. It’s great!

The tool came about when Graham, from the Brandstar and pctoolbox team, noticed that many people want a simple tool that can be used for storing information such as; people’s contact details so they can print off labels at Christmas or email address’s for email newsletters.

The database has many features:

• Easily store Friends, Family, Customers, Subscribers or Supporters Contact Details: Name, Address, Phone, Email, Website etc.
• Sort users by first/last name
• Easily add/edit/delete records from a simple user friendly interface
• Print individual records
• Print labels of those registered to receive a newsletter
• Email direct from the system those who you have registered to receive an email newsletter
  • These emails are sent BBC (Blind Carbon Copy) so that you are not spreading everyone’s email address
• Search Contacts
• The latest version (1.2 standard) comes with a new style user interface, just as easy to use as before, but a bit more … interesting!
• And most importantly….it’s free!!

Now you know what it is, I better tell you how to use it……

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Google has created an incredibly easy way to share photos with people on the web. It’s called Picasa. Picasa is a great free download which helps you to organise photos on your computer, share photos via email and the web etc and to edit/add effect to your photos with just a couple of clicks. In this review we will tell you a little bit about Picasa and show you some basic features of the program.

Before you download Picasa for free you must you need to create a Google and Picasa account which will allow you to share your photos on the internet. Both Google and Picasa accounts are compltely free. If you already have a googlemail or gmail account then you don’t need to create a new Google account, just a Picasa one. Click here for a Google account. Then for a Picasa account click here. You need a Google account to use Picasa Web Album.

Once this is done you need to download Picasa for free and then install it.

Then you need to upload your pictures to Picasa by selecting where you wish for them to be uploaded from. If you have some pictures on a digital camera that you wish to upload to your computer follow the instructions on the pctoolbox.co.uk tutorial named ‘Downloading Pictures from Your Digital Camera On An XP Machine‘.

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This blog will show you how to use AVG Free Edition efficiently and effectively. AVG is a free (for personal use) virus scanning software download which we have found to be an excellent virus scanner.

AVG Will automatically update each day if the computer is connected to the Internet. The update will take roughly one minute on a Broadband connection but may take longer if you are on a dial-up connection. The AVG icon is the square on the left-hand side of the picture below.

To manually update you simply right-click on the AVG icon and select check for updates. However, you must be connected to the internet to do this. Again the update will take roughly one minute, on a broadband connection but may take longer if you are on a dial-up connection. If the AVG icon becomes slightly grey it means that AVG is in need of updating.

How to run a Scan:

To run a virus scan you must firstly double click on the AVG icon located on the bottom right-hand side of your screen.

Secondly click on ‘Test Centre’ situated on the left-hand side of the AVG window.

Then a second AVG window will appear. Simply select ‘Scan Computer’ and your computer will begin to search for viruses. AVG will then deal with the virus. The scan will take approximately 1 hour.

How to change the time of a Scheduled Scan:

AVG automatically is set to do a system scan at 8.00 am each day. If the computer is switched on after 8.00 am, AVG will automatically run a system scan as soon as the computer is switched on. The scan should take roughly 1 hour depending on the speed of the computer and the amount of files there are on it. To change the time of a scan follow the instructions below:

Firstly double-click on the AVG icon located on the bottom right-hand side of your screen.

This will open up the window below. Click once on ‘Scheduler’ and then select ‘Scheduled Tasks’.

By doing this a new window will open. Click once on ‘Test Plan In Basic Mode’ to highlight it and then select ‘Edit Schedule’.

Then the window below will appear. All you need to do is simply change the date and time in the bar, either using the arrows or keyboard. Once you have made your changes click ‘OK’ or to delete changes click ‘Cancel’.

How to cancel todays scan:

When a virus scan is happening the computer will slow down a fair amount. If you wish to cancel the scan for that day, follow the instructions below:

Firstly right click on the AVG sign with a white triangle in the middle, which is placed on the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. The white triangle simply means that AVG is running a Scan.

Then simply select ‘Cancel Scanning’.

How to stop all daily scan:

To stop the computer scanning daily double click on the AVG icon.

This will open the window below. Click once on the ‘Scheduler’ and then select ‘Schedule Tasks’.

By doing this a new window will open. Click once on ‘Test Plan In Basic Mode’ to highlight it and then select ‘Edit Schedule’.

Then simply un-check the box which says ‘Periodically Start Scheduled Anti-Virus Test’. This will mean that you will have to manually run a test, we recommend a scan once a week for most machines.

If this helps please let us know!

This blog will show you how to run a ScanDisk on your computer.

What is a ScanDisk?
ScanDisk, also known as Error Checking, simply scans the file system and repairs any errors or bad clusters.

First of all, click ‘Start’ and then ‘My Computer’.

Then right-click on ‘Local Disk’ (C:) – Your drive maybe called something other than ‘local disk’ but it will be label (C:).

Select ‘Properties’

Then select the ‘Tools’ tab.

Click ‘Check Now’.

Click both the boxes so that there are ticks. Then click ‘start’.

Read the message below and then click ‘YES’.

Click ‘OK’

Now you must restart your computer. First of all close all programs. To close your computer click ‘Start’ and then ‘Turn Off Computer’.

Then Select ‘Restart’.

Once you have restarted your computer a screen will appear telling you that the Error Checking process is running. Afterwards your computer will turn on as normal.

If you have any comments let us know!

The following blog will show you how to defragment your computer.

What is Defrag?
If you use this analogy, your computer is like a filing cabinet, it starts all neat and tidy but over time it becomes messy and disorganised. Defrag simply tidies things up which makes it easier for the computer to locate the information it requires therefore improving the machines performance.

First of all, click ‘Start’ and select ‘My Computer’. It is best not to do anything on the machine while the Defrag is running.

Then right-click on ‘Local Disk’ (C:).

Select ‘Properties’.

Then select the ‘tools’ tab.

Click ‘defragment now’.

Then Click ‘Defragment’

Whilst the Defrag is happening the window will look similar to the image below. The Defrag may take a while. You will be informed that the Defrag is complete. You can then close the Defrag utility and continue using the machine.

If you found this tutorial blog helpful please let us know!

The following blog will show you how to download pictures from your digital camera to your Windows XP computer and how to manage the photos once they are on your computer.
Firstly you must plug your camera into your computer using the USB cable provided with your camera.
Next switch you camera on.
A window very similar to the one on the left will appear. Double-click ‘Copy pictures to a folder on my computer’.
Click’Next’.
All your pictures will appearon the screen. If you wish for the picture to be copied you must ensure that that the box in the corner of the picture has a tick in. All the pictures already have a tick, to unselect click on the tick.
Then select ‘Next’.

Next select a name for the group of pictures. We suggest that you name your pictures in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD + short label. E.g. 2007-09-01-Tutorial Pictures.
Make sure that you are saving your photos in the folder ‘My Pictures’. To do this select ‘Browse’.

Select ‘My Pictures’. (The folder name will turn blue when it is selected.)
Click ‘OK’

You can also select to delete the pictures from your camera once they are downloaded to your computer. To do this simply click once in the box next to the sentence ‘Delete pictures from my device after copying them,’ until there is a green box.
Click ‘Next’.

Your pictures will now be downloading onto your computer. This shouldn’t take very long, depending on how many pictures you decide to upload.

Select ‘Nothing. I’ve finished working with these pictures,’ by clicking in the circle next to the option. (An option is selected when a green dot is in the circle.)
Click ‘Next’.

Click ‘Finish’.
By clicking ‘Finish’ the folder where your photos were saved will be opened.
Next we are going to show you how to find the folder where your pictures are saved.

Open start and click on ‘My Pictures’.

Your ‘My Pictures’ folder will now open. Then all you do is double-click on the folder which you created and added your pictures to. Your folders will be in date order if you named your folders as named previously.
The folder with your photos in will now be open.

If you have any questions, comments or problems please leave a comment!