My kid was playing with my computer and all of a sudden I find my screen turned on its side. I have no idea how he did it, and I have no idea how to fix it. Can you help?

There are a number of video cards on the market that let you rotate your screen, a feature that’s useful for some graphic designers, especially if they want to see how something they want to produce on an A4 sheet of paper. Turning the screen sideways lets them visualise this, and some monitors even allow you to swivel the screen so you can see it upright.

The way this usually works is by pressing CTRL-ALT and one of the arrow keys. So, CTRL-ALT-Up will turn the screen the right way up. Give that a try, much simpler than trying to find an appetite suppressant online, and that’s not hard to find.

We have a set of different remotes in our living room, one for the TV, DVD player, satellite decoder, surround sound and video player. We always keep losing the one for the TV. Is there anywhere I can get a spare remote from?

Well, normally I would recommend going to eBay or somewhere similar, but I have a better idea for you. What about getting a combined remote control that can replace all the different remotes you have. It’s much easier to take care of one remote, rather than a whole bunch.

Take, for example, the Emerson 8-Device Universal Jumbo Remote. It’s a single remote control that can replace up to 8 different remotes. It’s compatible with a large number of different devices and it’s huge, so it’s quite hard to lose. Programming it is relatively easy, thanks to a code search feature and it’s currently on sale from Buy.com for $6.99 (with free shipping).

I’m not sure how that fits into your needs, but it feels like a great fit. I might even consider getting one of these for my house, we always seem to be losing our remotes too. Makes you wonder where remotes go off to when they’re hiding. Do they have a secret remote party we’re not supposed to know about …

Can I set up Microsoft Outlook 2003 to send and receive emails sent to my Google Mail account using Windows XP?

You can compose, send and receive email via your google Mail account using many popular email programs, including Outlook 2003. You can also find instructions on how to set these up here. Outlook can receive Google email via POP and IMAP. IMAP is usually best because it is better suited to accessing emails from more than one place, in this case Outlook and the website.

Open Outlook and click on the Tools menu, then click on Email accounts. Select Add a New Email Account, then click next. At the next screen, make sure IMAP is selected and click next. Fill in the account information including your name, as it will appear at the top of outgoing emails, your Google Mail email address and your username and password. Fill in the server details too, the Incoming mail server is imap.gmail.com and the outgoing mail server is smtp.gmail.com.

Click More Settings, then in the window that pops up, open the outgoing Server tab. Tick the box next to “My outgoing server requires authentication” and select the option to use the same settings as your incoming mail server. You also need to click the Advanced tab and tick both boxes saying “This server requires and encrypted connection”. Enter the port number 993 for the Incoming mail server (IMAP) then enter the number 465 for the Outgoing server. Click OK to close this window, then cllick Test Account Settings.

You should be good to go after this. The great thing about Gmail is that it has an excellent spam filter, so now more messages about cheap pharmaceuticals and inexpensive LCD tvs, unless you want them that is

I’ve been using Vista for a few weeks now and all of a sudden my volume indicator seems to have disappeared from my System Tray. I used to use this quite often as my laptop doesn’t have volume buttons. Is there any way I can get it back?

The short answer is yes, you can get it back, and it’s actually quite easy. Here’s what you do:

• Right click on your Task Bar and click Properties


• Click on the “Notification Area” tab in the popup


• Look for “Volume” under System icons and make sure this is ticked


• Click OK

Told you it was easy, way easier than anything else you may have tried (especially trying to lose belly fat). You’ll notice there are a number of other System icons in that popup. I like keeping them all on, but you may have other ideas if you want to declutter your Notification Area.

I have an old computer I’ve been using for a number of years now. Recently, when I switch it on, the date seems to be return to December 2003 and I have to keep changing it to today’s date and time. It goes back to this date next time I turn it on again. How can I make it remember the date?

This is a common problem with old PCs. Computers have a battery that keeps an internal clock running when they are switched off. Like any battery these run down over time and need to be replaced. What you need to do is open up your PC and look around the motherboard for what looks like a silver coin. Most computers use a battery called CR2032, but you’ll find the exact type of the battery by checking out the number on the back of the battery. Once you figure out what it is, you can normally buy a spare from a jeweller’s store or computer outlet. Here’s what it looks like:

This tends to be a specific PC problem, you probably won’t find the same issue on Apple computers or on a PS3. But if you know where to look, it’s not a hard problem to fix.

I downloaded Ubuntu recently and now I have a .iso file. What’s the best way of handling and opening those files?

An ISO file is a disk image, meaning it’s a copy of the entire contents of a CD or DVD. There are a couple of things you can do with this file; for example, you can open the ISO file and extract the individual files from it. I like using a program like 7-Zipp to do this. So, for example if you had an ISO file with the best work Philly had to offer; and didn’t want to waste a DVD, you could point 7-Zip at it and just extract the file you’re interested in.

The thing about Ubuntu is that you will need to boot from the disk image, rather than extract files, and the easiest way to do this would be to burn it to disk. You can use software like the ISO Recorder to do this. It’s a straight-forward (free) application that takes you ISO file and creates a disk with it, allowing you to boot right off it and install Ubuntu on your hard disk.

I would like to stop the constant popup-up windows that appear when I plug in a USB memory stick or insert a CD into my computer with Windows XP. I would either like to set a default action or disable the messages altogether. How can I do this?

Although these messages can be helpful, they often get cluttered with suggestions for other software. There should be an option to “Take no action” at the bottom and a check box to remember this option.

The easiest way to disable the messages with Windows XP is to use TweakUI. Install it, start it up and click on the small plus next to My Computer and then Autoplay on the left. Click on the Types option beneath Autoplay and click in both boxes in the main part of the window to disable Autoplay for both removable drives and CD and DVD drives.

It’s a cute little trick, so you may want to wrap is up and stick it under on of those artificial christmas trees for someone to open up

I travel around the country a lot and carry my laptop around wherever I go. My previous one ended up all scratched and dented, how can I prevent this from happening to my new one?

I guess from your question that you already have your new laptop, otherwise it’s worth considering a ruggedised one (although they don’t look very pretty, so it really depends what line of work you’re in). Anyway, as you have a new laptop already, what I would suggest is a proper case for your computer. I came across an interesting one that you leave your computer in ever as you use it.

It’s the Themapak HeatShift 15.4″ Laptop Cooling Bag and it’s a laptop bag that’s designed to hold your laptop. The great thing about it is that it protects your laptop from bumps and scrapes, but when you want to use it you can just open the lid and use it inside the bag. It has a special layer at the bottom that takes heat away from the laptop and is on sale from Buy.com for just under $25.00. It’s a pretty good idea I thought, especially the fact that you don’t need to mess around with taking the laptop in and out of the case.

By the way, they also have a model that takes a 17″ laptop, if that’s the size of laptop you have.

We’ve just rounded up all the remote controls in our living room and it turns out we have six different ones! My cousin mentioned that it’s possible to get a “super-remote” that can replace all of them. Is this really possible?

Your cousin is quite right; there are a class of gadget around that lets you replace all your different remote controls with one device that can replicate their function. This is thanks for the fact that different remote controls are designed not to interfere with one another, therefore this device can just replicate the signals that each remote control generates.

One such device is the Philips PRESTIgO RSU8015 Universal Remote Control. It’s a 15-in-1 remote control that lets you control up to 15 different devices from one remote control which is currently on sale from Buy.com for under $40 (and that includes shipping too). The remote control has a high resolution colour LCD too, so you can easily see what you’re about to be doing. The PRESTIgO has a huge database of different devices it controls, so matching it up against what you have should be relatively easy. It also lets you program different actions in it, so you can press one button to close the curtains, lower the lights, turn on the TV, turn on your satellite decoder and change the channel to your favourite station.

If you noticed the comment above, you can control more than just your TV. It also supports other remote control devices you can wire into your home and control all from one place. Hmm, maybe I should get myself one of these for Christmas