Last week my article about changing your computer’s battery generated some emails that surprised me.  It was not about replacing batteries but it was about the time on people’s computers.

They were asking how to set the time for their computers.  You know, the time in the lower right corner of your taskbar.

First, I would like to give you a couple of tips about the time on the taskbar.  I imagine you realize that when you hover your mouse over it you can see the day and date.  You may see a little more or less depending on which Windows operating system you have.  Also, if you increase the height of your taskbar you will see all of the information without hovering.  Try it by right clicking on your taskbar and make sure that there is no checkmark by “Lock the Taskbar”.  If it is checked click on the text and it will go away.  Next, hover your mouse over the top edge of the taskbar until you see a vertical double-headed arrow.  Now click and drag the taskbar up a few spaces.  Look at the time now and you will see more information.

From Windows 95 up through XP all of the operating systems adjust the time the same way; however, Vista and W7 are slightly different.  You get to them both the same way and once there you can click on anything and not damage your computer so go look around.

To check your time all you do is right click on the time in your Taskbar/Systray.  Click the Adjust Date/Time and you are there.  As I said before, click the different tabs and bars and you will see several settings you can change.  From this location you will of course be able to change the date and time on your computer.  You may also set up Daylight Saving Time for your system by clicking on a check box.  That way you won’t have to worry about messing with the time twice a year to set the hour forward and backward.

If you move to a different Time Zone you may also change that.

If you want to set up your clock one time and then forget it you can use the internet time settings.  There are online time servers for you to use. If you set your computer to synchronize with one of those, your computer clock should remain fairly accurate since it updates weekly using a time server.  Click the “Internet Time” tab which will not be available if your computer is a member of a domain (in a work environment).  Check the “Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server” checkbox.

To test the time server click the “Update Now” button.  When the synchronization finishes you will receive a message that the time sync was successful.  If it does not work, which is rare, you may select another time server from the drop-down list.

You will also see the date and time of next synchronization in this dialog. It is easy to be accurate using this feature between your computer and the internet.

Tags: Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, servers, taskbar, time

Your computer is working great, but the little clock in the right side of my taskbar gains and looses time every time I start my computer.  What is going on?

Most likely your battery is going dead.  Yes, your super-duper electronic marvel has a battery in it.  How do you think it keeps/kept accurate time when you cut the power off or unplugged it for a couple of days when you moved?

The battery is located on the motherboard of your computer…inside the system unit.  If you have a more modern computer, it will probably be about the size of a nickel and clipped in place.  (By modern I mean no older than 3-4 years.)

They are fairly easy to replace.  Check your owner’s manual to see exactly where it is and how to replace it.  Also check out what type of battery it uses.  Then you can buy it from an electronics or battery store before you open things up.

Getting to the battery generally requires you to remove 2-4 screws on the back of your system and slide the cover off.  On the inside, on the main board, (the motherboard) you will find the battery.  Follow your manual’s directions on how to remove the old battery and install a new one.  Touch a metal door knob right before you open it up or even the inside metal frame around your computer after you open it up.  This will discharge any static charge that could have built up.  Static can as good as destroy a computer.

If you have an older computer it may look like a "root beer barrel" candy you got when you were a kid, except it will be silver or gray.  If it does look like a little barrel it will also be soldered to the motherboard.  I would recommend at this point to take this to a computer repair shop and have them replace it.  You can try it, but you can easily "fry" the motherboard and ruin your system.

You could also get the repair shop to do the replacement–if you don’t have the courage to tackle it on your own.  The cost will be worth it as the battery also keeps the CMOS and BIOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor and Basic Input/Output System) settings for your computer.  If these are lost because of a dead battery, you will have a much more expensive trip to the computer store to get it working.  When these two settings fail, so does your computer.

Tags: battery, BIOS, CMOS, time

Mentioned on the show this morning:

• Great local training
  Massanutten Technical Center 
  BRCC
  Workforce Services & Continuing Education
• Abandoning Cable for Internet
  TechCrunch
• Movie Ratings for Kids
• Lock down you home
  OpenDNS,com
• Library of Congress
• Facebook Security Lockdown (or the next in the list)
• Job Sites
  Monster.com
  Career Builders
  The Ladders (for you really valuable employees)
• From one of our callers
  CERoss Technologies
• Unknown Usefulness
  Reputation Defender

Before I get into today’s discussion I wanted to mention the Bit.ly column from last week.  If you missed last week’s column you will have to buy last week’s paper or go to DoubleClicks.info to check it out.  The link that I mentioned about County Codes, bit.ly/a7Vmpo, was visited by 41 readers.  Thanks for looking!

Today Brian asked how he could change a desktop icon graphic for another graphic.  Keep in mind this can only be performed on your shortcuts.

It isn’t hard to do and it’s sometimes fun to change these tiny graphics to something else.

First, you right click on your shortcut and left click “Properties” at the bottom of the menu list.  Look at the bottom of the window that opens up and click the obvious box, “Change icon…”

The next window displays all of Window’s basic secondary icons.  You will have over 150 icons to choose from, depending on which version of windows you are using.

Once you select the one you like, clicks “OK” at the bottom of the window.  The window will close and the icon on your desktop will change almost immediately.

You can do this with any shortcut icon on your computer, not just the ones on your desktop.  However, it is easier to change those on the desktop until you are a professional…which takes about two tries.  I told you it was easy!

Now don’t go around changing them on your spouse’s computer.  I had a friend who did.  She changed her husband’s icon for Word to Internet Explorer’s so when he thought he was going to open Word he was browsing the net.  Funny trick; however, it was a bit frustrating after he tried it a few times and thought his computer was broken.

Now I didn’t tell you how to change Word to MSIE but if you wanted to try that, click the “Browse” button under “Properties” again.  Then find any other program’s icons and choose that one…not that anyone who reads this would do it – muhahaha!

When you shutdown your computer for the night and restart the next time the icon remains.

Brian asked another good question about changing an icon to a picture he had of himself.  That is trickier but still doable.  Unless you are a real techie-artist I recommend you download a small program which will do it for you.

Pixel Toolbox is a neat little app that will do other small graphics but you need to read the directions to work it smoothly.  It is easy once you figure it out but at first glance it may scare you.  Here is a hint… check the “Icon” picture and import the picture.

If you go to my site and look to the left of the URL you will see a picture of me that I made using Pixel Toolbox.  Have fun and let me know if you enjoyed trying this method out.

Tags: change icon, grahics, picture, pixel toolbox, tricks

Thanks for the many questions this week that all dealt with the same thing.  Many readers wanted to know about all the references I have given out over the past several weeks.  Most everyone wanted to know what the ‘bit.ly’ links were since they accessed different sites.

First, allow me to give a short explanation about top-level county code domains.  You are familiar with the “.com” (commercial), “.info” (information, like DoubleClicks.info) and “.gov” (for the US government) top-level codes.  The code is not necessarily indicative of what the site is used for. For instance, I could sell items on an “.info” site that provides absolutely no information.  However, “.gov” is only to be used by the US government.

A few years back a new domain level started, “Country Code” top-level domains.  This allows some countries to have their own top-levels.  The first I remember seeing was “.to” which represents the very small island of Tonga in the South Pacific.   Do not ask me why they get one and others do not.  If you are interested in a site with more detail, including a country list, try http://bit.ly/a7Vmpo.

If you notice the link above it is a “.ly” top-level domain which is the country code for Libya.  This does not mean that the site has anything to do with Libya other than the “.ly” at the end.  As a matter of fact I checked the owner of Bit.ly and it appears to be someone in New York.

OK, now to Bit.ly and what it does.  This designer had a great idea.  Sometimes you have a site address that is very long and cumbersome.  Bit.ly allows you to shorten a long URL address into a much shorter address.  For instance the one I typed two paragraphs up is actually the shortened bit.ly code for, “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain”.  See the difference in the amount of space they take up.  In case you didn’t count that is 20 characters compared to 54…no question about which is easier to use.

If you go to http://bit.ly and enter a site address it will convert it to the short one. You can then give it out to others.  This makes a large address much easier to deal with.

One final interesting feature offered by the “bit.ly” site, is that it lets you know how many people use your link.  For instance, the link I gave last week for a dropbox.com account was clicked on by 35 people the first day it was printed and 12 actually signed up.

I made a bit.ly link that has received 1,876 views (my largest) since I posted it on Twitter.com, January, 2010.  It is http://bit.ly/9tqtAN which concerns the defunct TV show, “Firefly” (yeah, my favorite too).

There are other sites which provide similar services but bit.ly is the one I prefer.

Tags: bit.ly, links, shorten, shorten urls, url shortener