Q.
Will the new starting and ending times
for changing to Daylight saving time
effect my programs?
A.
In a word, maybe. A new March 11, 2007
start date for Daylight Saving Time in
the U.S., which was adopted by an act of
Congress in August 2005, and some
programs will be effected by this
change. Just in case you are not aware
of this change or cognizant of these
dates, here are the new starting and
ending dates for Daylight Saving Time in
2007:
|
Change in daylight saving
time: |
|
Previously DST Started on: |
With
the new law DST will Start on: |
Previous DST Ended on: |
With
the new law DST will End on: |
|
First
Sunday of April |
Second
Sunday of March |
Last
Sunday of October |
First
Sunday of November |
|
Would have
been: April 1, 2007 |
Will now
be:
March 11, 2007 |
Would have
been: October 28, 2007 |
Will now
be: November 4, 2007 |
If you think that you may
be affected by these changes, click
HERE
to visit a Microsoft web site to read
all about it.
As noted in this
Microsoft's article, you should keep
checking it, as the time approaches, for
any new information regarding programs
that may be affected. Some programs that
will be affected are everything from
Windows Mobile and Embedded, which may
need a Registry change, to Sharepoint
and other platforms.
If these programs sound
like Greek to you, then you probably
don't have anything to worry about
concerning them. But, if you have
any computer or program that
shares calendar information with any
another, you may want to check it out.
For most of us this change will be
handled by the automatic Microsoft
updates, providing you have them
enabled, and require no other user
input. However, just in case you
are not sure if you have automatic
updates turned on, or that you have
received the update, here's how you can
check to see if you have it or not.
Click Start, then All Programs, and then
click on Microsoft Update or Windows
Update. When the browser opens fully, on
the left side, under the Options, click
on "Review your update history". Look in
the list for the item "Update for
Windows XP (KB928388). Since only 10
items are listed at a time, you may have
to click on more at the bottom to go to
the next group of 10 items. The date of
this update should be around December
12, 2006.
If it isn't there, here's how you can
get it. Click
HERE to
download it from the Microsoft web site.
Validation is required, so your copy of
Windows XP must be legit. It is only a
little over 500 KB in size so even if
you are on dialup, (I feel your pain) it
will only take a couple of minutes to
download. Once downloaded, double click
it and it will install.
If you try to install it has already
been installed, it will tell you this,
and prevent it from being installed
again so no harm will be done.
Q. How can I make the
icons in the taskbar at the bottom of
the screen bigger?
A. The Windows taskbar is a handy
tool that allows quick access to some of
your running programs and is officially
referred to as the Quick Launch toolbar.
However, on some screen resolutions,
these icons are quite small. Here are a
couple of ways to make them bigger.
1.
Make sure the task bar is unlocked.
Right click in the middle of the taskbar
and unlock it if it isn't already
unlocked. Now, right click on a blank
spot in the area where the icons are
located. You may have to move the
divider bar a little to the right to get
a blank spot. Right click in the blank
spot and select View. Now you can choose
Large or small icons.
2.
The above method gives you only two
choices, small, and large. If you want
something in between these, try this
way. Right click on your desktop, and
select Properties. Click on the
Appearances tab, and then click the
Advanced button. Click on one of the
three (X) in the window, and increase
its size. The size of this X also
controls the size of the icons in the
taskbar.
