Monday, April 28, 2014

How To Get Rid Of Ask Toolbar From Internet Explorer?

Exploring the internet is not possible without a web browser and we depend on different web browsers for the same. If you have been using the internet for a long time, you would definitely know what a toolbar is. Many web browsers offer toolbars as a kind of service. It is quite true that these toolbars simplify our process of browsing. But sometimes they can even turn to be an annoyance.

Ask toolbar is one such toolbar that helps to search items in the Ask Jeeves website. They are mainly compatible with Internet Explorer and Firefox. When this toolbar occupies your web browser, you will not have to visit the website of Ask Jeeves once again and you can simply navigate right from the toolbar. But one of the major disadvantage of Ask toolbar is that it changes your homepage or your web browser and this may not be acceptable for you.

The Ask toolbar consists of a pop up blocker, text highlighter, page resizing tool and others. Sometimes it uses up much space on your web browser screen, leaving you with very little space for viewing websites. If you find this annoying, then it would be better to remove Ask toolbar from your web browser. If you wish to remove Ask toolbar from Internet Explorer, you can definitely follow the instructions given below.

Instructions
  • You can click on Start button on your desktop and click on Control Panel. Select Uninstall a program that you find below the Programs category.
  • Choose Ask Toolbar for Internet Explorer from the list of programs and select the Uninstall button. When you receive a message to confirm uninstallation of the toolbar, you can click Yes.
  • Now select OK and this will help you to uninstall Internet Explorer completely from your system.
The above step is for permanent removal of Ask toolbar from the computer. If you simply wish to remove Ask toolbar temporarily from the web browser,
  • Open Internet Explorer.
  • On an open space in the toolbar, right click the mouse and choose Ask Toolbar from the list that shows up.
  • Now select Disable and this will disable Ask toolbar temporarily from the web browser.
These are the different steps that you need to follow for removing Ask toolbar from your web browser.

Monday, April 21, 2014

How To Fix Common Windows Update Issues

Everyone knows that Windows updates are very important for the smooth functioning of your Windows operating system. According to Microsoft live chat support, it is important to check for Windows updates regularly, download them and install them on your computer.

Microsoft has categorized Windows updates as critical, recommended and optional. If it is a critical update, then it could be a major fix or update for the operating system and you should never miss it. Recommended updates will also help in the smooth functioning of the computer. However, they are not as important as the critical updates. The third in this category is the optional updates. They are targeted for different programs in the operating system and may not be important for all users. You can install them or avoid them, depending on whether you have the particular program installed on your computer or not.

Now, what will you do when some of the updates fail to install on your computer. When you try to install the updates, you may receive an error message and the update fails to install on the computer. Let us find out how to fix this issue.

Steps involved

The first step is to verify if the windows update service is running on your computer. For this, click the option Start and then Run. In the Run window, enter services.msc and press the Enter key. This will display the window for Services. In this window, locate Windows Update service. If the status of the service is Stopped, start it by clicking the corresponding option. Restart your computer and try to install the updates again. If the updates still fail to install, follow the steps below.

Go to the official Microsoft support website. Here, you will find the Search field. In this field, enter Windows update failure and press the Enter key. You will receive several search results and from these results, choose Fix Microsoft Windows Update Issues. In this window, you have two options, Fix it for me and Find it myself. If you choose the option Fix it myself, click the option Run now, which will automatically download a diagnostic tool to your computer, which will find out and fix the errors for you.

With the above steps, you can fix the Windows update issues. For additional help, you may contact Microsoft live chat support or our technical support team.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Procedure To Set Up Microsoft Outlook 2000

Microsoft Corporation has developed many high quality software products over the years, but Microsoft Outlook is probably its best creation, bar none.

Microsoft Outlook 2000 is one of the earlier versions of the email client program. It comes with Office 2000, or with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000. There are many features available in this email program making it a wonderful personal information manager. Its true caliber can be realized when you customize this program based on your setting preferences. Outlook 2000 can be easily configured with any third-party email account, such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail, or Windows Live Hotmail. You need to know the specific Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) or Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) server name, depending on the email type that your provider supports. You will be able to obtain this information by checking the help section of your provider’s homepage, or by just by contacting your provider directly. Here are some Outlook setting instructions to guide through the process of setting up Microsoft Outlook 2000 in your Windows system.

Outlook setting instructions
  • At first you need to launch Outlook 2000. For that you need to click on the Windows Start button. You will find this button located at the lower-left corner of your desktop screen. Then you need to select All Programs and then pointing to Microsoft Office, you need to click on Microsoft Office Outlook 2000. After that, choose Accounts from the Tools drop-down menu.
  • Then select Add and then choose Mail.
  • Then you need to enter your name in the Display name field and then click Next.
  • After that, you need to type your complete email address in the box and then select Next.
  • Subsequently, choose your email type, as specified by your provider, from the My Incoming mail server is a drop-down list, type the incoming and outgoing mail server addresses the boxes and then click Next.
  • Then you need to type your email username and password in the Account name and Password boxes, respectively, and select Remember password and then click on the Next button.
  • After that, you need to choose your Internet connection type from the list of options, click Next and then choose Finish.
  • You can select the newly added account from the Internet Accounts dialog box, choose Properties, and click on the Servers tab and then select the My server requires authentication box.
  • Finally, you need to click on the Apply button and then choose OK to complete the step up process.
There you go; you have successfully set up Microsoft Outlook 2000.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Microsoft Releases Updates SkyDrive For IOS

SkyDrive cloud storage service offered by Microsoft has gained much popularity in the last few months. Although it was initially released for Windows users, the service is now extended to other platforms such as iOS and Android. Lately, it was reported that Microsoft has released an update to the SkyDrive service for iOS. The update would bring about a number of changes to the service in the iOS. The various changes include the automatic camera backup option.

Automatic camera backup for SkyDrive in iOS

The automatic camera backup facility for SkyDrive in iOS will allow iPhone users to take photos in the devices and save them directly to Microsoft’s cloud. As of now, users can avail up to 7GB of free storage on SkyDrive. It is more than enough for an average user unless he wants to save all his photo albums and favourite video or audio contents in the cloud service. The iPhone users can now access the files that they save in the cloud service from anywhere in the world. Besides that, Microsoft allows the integration of SkyDrive service between Windows and iOS and thereby allowing greater accessibility of data.

A recent press release issued by Microsoft chat support says that the company does not want to discriminate users on the basis of the device or platform they are using. It said that the SkyDrive service will be made available to all users irrespective of the OS they are using although the cloud storage service enjoys certain advantages over the Windows platform. Meanwhile, Microsoft is trying to stay ahead in the cloud storage service since it has to face tough competition from other service providers such as Google, Dropbox or Box. The major element of competition among these providers has been thus far about the amount of free storage they offer to the users. Now, the providers have realized that being able to offer the service to users across all platforms is as important as the amount of free storage facility they offer.

In addition to providing the cloud storage service, Microsoft is providing customer care options to the users via the Microsoft chat support number. Apparently, such support options would attract more users to Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service. Hope you found the information provided in this article useful.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Acer Decides To Devote More Focus On Android Devices

Microsoft Windows 8 is going to suffer a major setback as Acer has decided that it will try to concentrate more and provide maximum support for Google Chromebooks and mobile devices running on Android, which means that the priority for Windows 8 PCs will be lesser.

Bright future for Chromebooks and Android devices

Android devices and Chromebooks see a bright future ahead and Acer executives hope that this will actually turn out to be beneficial for the company. Reports from the Wall Street Journal points out what President Jim Wang said, ”We are trying to grow our non-Windows business as soon as possible. Android is very popular in smartphones and dominant in tablets. ... I also see a new market there for Chromebooks."

iOS and Android on top

When Windows 8 was introduced last year, the touch experience on Microsoft Windows 8 was supposed to gather huge customer interests and set the sales charts on fire. However, this was not meant to happen, as the sales have been very sluggish. Microsoft hoped that Windows 8 would be the eye opener and the mobile operating system world would have a sizeable impact with the arrival of Windows 8. However, Android from Google and Apple's IOS are relatively winners in the mobile operating system arena.

The downfall of the PC market

The PC market has suffered heavy downfall lately and Acer hopes to improve its sales charts by concentrating on the prominent Google technology. Reports from the Wall Street Journal indicate that Chromebooks, Android tablets and smartphones will witness a sky rocketing growth, so they will add fuel to Acer’s profits and the year 2014 will see a sizeable growth in the revenue.

Loss for Acer

Around $11.4 million was reported in losses for Acer this quarter. But last year, the same time was good time for Acer as the company registered profits in the range of $56 million. This shows that PC sales have been affected much and how it has affected the revenue of the company.

What the chairman says

Chairman J.T. Wang said, ”The Windows camp has to do something to re-establish or reinforce confidence among PC users. People are reluctant [to buy] and are holding [off] their purchasing decisions."

We have to wait and see how the latest decision from Acer is going to adversely affect the sales of the Windows 8 OS even further.

Windows XP Still Possesses 31% Market Share

Laptop and desktop consumers of huge numbers make use of Windows XP as their most favored operating system. Even though support for Windows XP will completely be phased out post April 8 2014, Windows XP customers are still not able to curtail the use of the operating system. The availability of Windows 8 and Windows 7 has not successfully made any thundering impact on Windows XP customers.

The market share

Around 31.22% of the systems run on the coveted Windows XP operating system, says Net Applications, from reports that were published in November. About 46.6% of the systems run Windows 7 that debuted in 2009. Apple’s OS X 10.9 “Mavericks” contributes market share in the range of 2.4%. OS X 10.8 holds a small 1.9% market share.

Downfall of Windows 8

The wealth of features available on Windows XP and its user friendliness have largely contributed to the growth and success of the OS and that is why even now, users continue operating with XP. However, Windows 8 uses a Metro UI with live tiles and a sophisticated Start screen. The similar types of live tiles are also available on Windows Phone 8. Therefore, if users do not find Windows 8 interesting and fun to work with, the success rate for Windows phones will also diminish.

Issues with Windows XP

Stability issues with Windows XP are a cause of worry for companies and they are taking a gamble employing Windows XP post April 8 2014. Patches, fixes and service packs will not be distributed by the company anymore and also support from software developers for their different programs will also be withdrawn after April 8.

End of support for Office 2003

Office 2003 support will also come to close on April 8 2014. An upgrade to Office 2013 or Office 2010 is possible and these versions of Office are relatively very much advanced in comparison to Office 2003. Users opting for Windows 8 powered tablets will have a sweet touch experience as Office 2013 supports the touch interface also.

Users may require help with Office 2010 or Office 2013 regarding its features and functions. For all doubts and queries with Office 2010 or Office 2013, users may get help from the Windows tech support center. Windows tech support help is essential for all users who require the best help for their Windows related programs and services.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

WeChat Releases Animated Sticker Support For Windows Phones

While some of the messaging and calling applications continue to withhold app or feature support from the Windows Phone users, some other applications have embraced the Microsoft operating system with open hands. WeChat is one of these applications and they have released a number of features that are built into the application. These features are either disabled by default or are completely separate downloads on other platforms. Some of the notable holiday features made their debut in the last few weeks on iOS, Windows Phone, and the Android operating system. This was confirmed after contacting the Windows support number.

While the WeChat games and voice calls features remain missing from the platform, the iOS and Android OS got voice calling back in October and November months. The voice messages are part of the app’s feature set and other features have been released with the recent update that keeps the Windows Phone largely on par with the versions found on other two important mobile platforms. One of these important features is the ability to download a number of animated stickers from the Sticker shop. Users who are downloading the latest updates can also look forward to saving their favorite clippings from the chats or Moments as well as the capability to link email addresses for easy login and retrieval of the password.

The latter two additions may seem minor to the users, but they add up to a bigger picture that represents support for the Windows Phone that is not found in app makers like Tango, or LINE. Tango is yet to release a Windows Phone 8 version of the app that builds on the outdated Windows Phone 7 version. LINE does allow the use of stickers that are downloaded via other platforms on Windows Phone, but it does not have its own Sticker Shop, so the promotional stickers from messages cannot be obtained even though the messages themselves are received.

If you wish to know more on the animated sticker support for Windows phones from WeChat and other app manufacturers, you can contact the Windows support number. The Windows support technician will be able to provide you with more details on the animated stickers and the Sticker Shop. Let us hope that the other app makers will follow WeChat and will release more and more apps that can work in the Windows Phone operating system.