How do I stop the various Internet search services from recording every keyword I use? It can be embarrassing when somebody sits down at my desk and starts to type in a Google search, and when the first letter is typed, all of my searches starting with that letter appear. -Dennis Christopher
A. The fastest way to cover your surfing tracks on sites such as yahoo.com, google.com and ask.com is a little dance with the delete key and the cursor-down arrow, Mr. C. Type in the first letter, and when the list of your queries starting with that letter drops down, tap delete on the first item and push down on the arrow key to highlight the next keyword. Tap delete for that one and repeat the two-step cursor-delete to the bottom.
Q. I want to buy a new computer because my PC has become impossibly slow, and I am tired of waiting two minutes for Microsoft Excel to come up. But I need to figure out how I can move my information in Microsoft Outlook from the old computer to the new one. I failed to get a clear idea about this by using the Help area in Outlook. It looks like a lot of trouble. Help? -Ed Travis
A. The conventional method for moving Microsoft Outlook information from one machine to another is to transfer the files holding the data using a CD or a USB thumb drive, etc.
First, you need to find the data files for Outlook, which are tucked deep into the computer innards at addresses such as C: Documents and Settings Administrator Local Settings Application Data Microsoft Outlook outlook.pst. “PST” is the format used for Outlook data.
Instead of tracking down that mouthful of Microsoft by exploring the folders on your C: drive, here is the way to quickly find your PST files: Open Outlook, then click on File in the tool bar and select Open and then Outlook Data File (Outlook 2000 users can click Start, then Search to find (asterisk).pst files.) This summons a box showing all the PST files on the computer and thus points to a way of retrieving them. To get the address of the folder, give the PST file a right-click and then look for the item called Location under General in the tabbed menu that appears. Use the mouse to paint the words next to Location and then type Control+C to copy the long address into memory.
Now click on the Windows Start button and select Run. Click the cursor in the box alongside Run, type Control+V and tap Enter. This will open the folder holding the PST files, making it possible to drag and drop them into an external storage device.
On the new machine, to find the best folder to put the PSTs in, backtrack the steps used to find those files and copy that location.
Now just drag the PST files into that folder from the USB drive or CD where the copy is situated.
