Q. Recently, I received an update for the Windows Media Player, and now my player will not work. I receive the following error message: “To finish installing Windows Media Player, restart your computer and then log in as an Administrator or a member of the Administrators group.” I did a few things, but it did not work. Your help is greatly appreciated.
John Barna@comcast.net
A. Your only fix is to go to the Microsoft Web site and then download and install the latest version of the Media Player, which cannot be removed from a computer because it is part of the operating system, according to Microsoft’s design.
Open your Web browser and go to www.microsoft.com/mediaplayer. There you can select your version of the software (now version 10 and 11 for Windows XP) and follow the prompts to download a new version of the player and install it. I’d play things safe and pick version 10 because it has been around longer and probably less buggy than the latest version 11. If you get in trouble with version 10, you will have the option of moving on to version 11 later. And now that you know the drill, that move should be a cakewalk.
Q. I do some fundraising for a small arts organization, and many corporations are going to online applications, which so far I have been able to sort out. However, when I try to access the application for one company, I get the message “Your browser is not configured to support cookies. In order to access this online application form, you must adjust your browser settings to allow cookies.”
I have poked and searched but have not found any place to either disable cookies or a blocker. Is there a phrase other than cookies that I should look for?
Judy Leviton, Lambertville, N.J.
A. I can show you how to accept all cookies, but I’d also advise you only to do this when you’re trying to deal with that one company. Cookies are small files that contain specific information about the computer user and/or specific instructions about what a Web page is supposed to do when it is called up.
Cookies are so integral to how the Web works that they cannot be sidestepped, yet they can be dangerous if planted by somebody with ulterior motives. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 comes with a tool that is set by default to guard against potentially dangerous cookies but to allow ones that can be established as benign. You need to ratchet that setting down to the basement setting when dealing with Company X, then go back and restore more rational protection afterward.
Click on Tools in Internet Explorer and then select Internet Options, and in the next menu pick the tab marked Privacy. This brings a slider control to move between highest and lowest security, and you should drag it all the way to the bottom, where an Accept All Cookies option is set.
If you want to continue doing business with this company, you can set the computer to accept all cookies from it while retaining other protections at the medium and high levels on the slider. Click on the Sites button on the Privacy tab, and you will get a box that lets you type in a Web site’s address and specify that it can scatter cookies on your hard drive.
Q. I’m looking for a solution to problems my grandfather is having with the Microsoft Word Track Changes tool. When he runs Word to begin a new document, it automatically brings up the Track Changes toolbar and causes confusing flashing icons, even though he didn’t activate the tool and its icon is dim at the bottom of the screen.
He actually doesn’t know what TRK is (and doesn’t need to use it), so I read a lot about the Track Changes command and how it magically and mysteriously works, but it never addresses the toolbar appearing without being asked. I use Office 2003 and never see the TRK toolbar unless I activate it.
Linda Juarez@comcast.net
A. For hard-core word slingers, like newspaper editors, Track Changes is a superb tool that lets them keep track of each and every alteration different people make in a document before it is finished and approved by the boss.
While TRK, as it is called, helps lots of business folk collaborate, it certainly should not be bugging your granddad working alone on his modest PC. Because each changing participant’s contribution gets displayed in different colors and type sizes, it is most understandable how it could confuse just about anyone, no matter what their experience level.
There’s both an easy and a hard way to fix this. First, consider a clean start. The problem with your grandfather’s copy of Word is that the Track Changes tool has been activated in the template that Word uses by default to establish things like margins, fonts, colors and other elements for a new document. The template goes in a file called normal.dot and is saved along with other Office templates under Application Data. The easiest way to fix this problem is to find his normal.doc template and rename it. Doing this forces Word to create a new normal.dot template that uses the default settings for Word when it comes out of the box.
Click on Start and Search, then select Files and Folders and type in normal.dot and click OK. When this brings up the file, give it a right-click and select Rename from the options that pop up. Change it to xnormal.dot and close the Search tool. When your granddad restarts Word, the problem will be gone, and, hopefully, he won’t lose any changes worth keeping.
The hard way is to go down to the TRK item at the bottom of the screen and give it a double-click to call up the Track Changes toolbar. Click Show on the toolbar, and you’ll get a list of those making changes in categories like Original, Comments, Insertions and Deletions and others. Make sure a check mark is placed next to each.
Now open the Show tool again and select the Reviewers item. In the line this brings up, select All Reviewers. Make sure they, too, are checked. Now go to the Track Changes toolbar and look for the icon showing a little red X. Click it, and it will remove all of the changes made by anyone once and all. That will stop all the blinking, flashing and mixed text. At the very least, you will need to do this to clean up any of the documents he has created since the TRK confusion set in.
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Got a question on personal technology? Send a note to Jim at askjimcoates@gmail.com. Questions can be answered only through this column. James Coates
