How to start Windows in safe mode

Safe mode is very useful if you think you may have an infection on your computer, or if there is some other problem with Windows. Safe mode is a way to start Windows with the minimum of applications and facilities running. Consequently, viruses and the like are not invited to the 'safe mode' party.

To enter safe mode on Windows you need to press the F8 key when the system is booting up. You may have to wait a moment or two for the BIOS to finish its work. That is, you should wait for the initial 'splash screen' and system information to disappear. If you miss your opportunity, don't worry, just restart the machine and have another go.

After pressing F8 you will be presented with a menu of 'Advanced Boot Mode' options. For the purposes of this post we are only interested in the first two of these: 'Safe Mode' and 'Safe Mode with Networking'. You should have up-to-date anti-virus and other security software installed on your machine. If you do not, you can use 'Safe Mode with Networking' to start up Windows, download, install and run them. However, it is usually best to start the machine using the basic 'Safe Mode' option.

When starting in safe mode you will see a stream of file-names and services being started. If there is a problem with Windows you may see an error message at this stage. If so, make a note of the error message and type it into Google (other search engines are available) on another computer in order to learn more about the problem.

If all else fails and you still can't use Windows normally, you can use safe mode to copy your important files onto a memory stick or some other device before reinstalling Windows.

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Top Three Web Based Image Editors

If you are using a computer that doesn't have a decent image editor program, then you can make use of a variety of web-based image editors. Having surveyed those that are freely available, I present a list of the top three. Each of these alows you to perform a variety of simple tasks upon an image, such as cropping and resizing. Each also includes the usual drawing tools as well as supporting layers. Please try them out and leave a comment to share your experiences.

Editor by pixlr.com
Editor enables you to create new images or open image files from your computer or from the web in the following formats: bmp, gif, jpg, png, psd and pxd (Editor's own format). You can save images as bmp, jpg, png or pxd to your computer or to Facebook. It offers a good selection of tools and filters.


Sumo Paint 2.0
Sumo Paint also lets you create new images and open files from your computer or the web. You can open files in gif, jpg, png and its own sumo format, and you can save as jpg, png and sumo. It has the best selection of filters and tools of the three here.


Splashup
Splashup will open bmp, gif, jpg and png files not only from your computer and the web, but also from Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa. You can save files back to each of these in jpg, png, and the somewhat obscure fxo format. It has the most limited selection of tools and filters of those listed here.

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How to see the Explorer menus in Windows Vista and 7

As promised some time ago, here is the first post about Windows 7 (and Vista).

Users of XP and earlier versions of Windows who now use Vista or 7 will have noticed that the Explorer menus are no longer shown.


Thankfully there is an easy way to remedy this either temporarily or permenantly. To see the menu bar simply press the Alt key.


If you wish to always have the menus visible, select 'Folder options...' from the 'Tools' menu.


On the 'Folder Options' window, go to the 'View' tab and tick 'Always show menus' and then click the 'OK' button.

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Linux commands for OpenOffice applications

In order to create a launcher for a particular OpenOffice application, or if you wish to run one from a terminal in Linux, you will need to know which command opens each application. Unlike Microsoft Office, for example, there is one command to run OpenOffice to which you can add a parameter to run a particular application.

Command to run the Writer word processor: openoffice.org -writer

Command to run the Calc spreadsheet application: openoffice.org -calc

Command to run the Impress presentation application: openoffice.org -impress

Command to run the Base database application: openoffice.org -base

Command to run the Draw vector graphics editor: openoffice.org -draw

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Three years of Bloody Computer!

Earlier this month Bloody Computer! reached its third anniversary, so I decided that I should mark the event by sharing a few statistics, as I did to mark 50 posts, 100 posts, and the first anniversary.

This blog has now had 166,042 visits and 189,489 page views from 181 countries.

Top 5 Most Read Posts
1. Keyboard shortcut of the week: undo and redo : 28,800 views
2. How to reboot Windows using the keyboard: 8,311 views
3. Mouse stopped working: how to reinstall: 5,255 views
4. Make any window stay on top: 3,545 views
5. How to save a list of files in a folder: 3,067 views

Data taken from the excellent Google Analytics

Many thanks to all my regular readers and a pox on those who keep leaving spam comments.
K

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How to fix Firefox backspace function

I recently installed Ubuntu 10.04, and found that pressing backspace no longer takes me to the previous page in Firefox. Thankfully, there is a way to fix this.

Type about:config in the address bar and press the Enter key. A warning page will open. Click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.

In the filter type browser.backspace_action and then right-click on the entry and click "Modify". Enter 0 (zero) in the box and click OK.

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New posts soon

Apologies to my regular readers for not having posted anything in the last month or so. I have been busy with other matters, but I am glad to say that my summer holiday starts here and I will be able to dedicate more time to Bloody Computer!. So expect to see some new posts soon, including updates of previous tips for Windows 7.

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