CHRONICLE……… 7-25-06

HELP LINE

Restoring the recycling bin icon

Q: I don't have a Recycle Bin icon. How do I put one on my desktop?

A: If you find yourself without a Recycle Bin, it could be the result of a thirdparty program that was installed and used to hide it, such as TweakUI. I guess there are some people who really want to free up some desktop real estate.

It could also be missing as a result of a corrupt registry or someone playing around with your system's Group Policy control panel.

To restore the Recycle Bin you will need to edit the registry. The good news is that you need not edit this manually. Instead you can use Doug Knox's "Restore the Desktop Recycle Bin Icon" registry fix. It's pretty easy and very quick and painless. You'll find it at www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/rec_bin.htm

If you are interested in manually hacking away at your own registry, Microsoft explains how to restore your Recycle Bin in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 810869.


Q: I have somehow managed to lose my Solitaire game along with Freecell and Minesweeper. Is there some way to reinstall these from the Windows XP CD without completely reinstalling XP?

A: A typical install of Windows XP does not include every single component. This is because not everyone uses every component and by not installing it all, you can save room on your hard disk.

The default games included with XP like Solitaire and Minesweeper are part of the Accessories component and can be easily reinstalled.

Open up the Add/Remove Programs control panel. Click on the icon called Add/Remove Windows Components and then Accessories and Utilities. Select Details.

Click on Games and select Details again. This will show you the list of games that came installed with XP. If any are unchecked, recheck them. If any of the games you want to play are checked, you will need to uncheck them and go through the removal process. Repeat these steps and re-add the games.

Q: All of a sudden while using Internet Explorer I get the Lycos search engine on the left side of the page. I don't have any idea where it came from. How do I get rid of this?

A: Now that Google seems to have a virtual lock on the search engine market it would appear that the competing search engines are desperate to increase their usership.

What you are seeing is Lycos Side Search, a piece of software designed to take all your searches, even those you make in Google or Yahoo, and push them through the Lycos search engine.

From what 1 can gather; it gets installed on your PC when you install certain freeware applications that have it bundled as an extra.

Many anti-spyware programs detect Lycos Side Search as spyware and/or a browser hijacker.

The good news is that you can uninstall it by finding Lycos Side Search in your Add/ Remove Programs Control Panel and selecting Remove.

It wouldn't hurt to scan your system for other pests. Check out the Jay Lee Patented Spyware Removal System located at http://www.geekradio.com/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=26&p=5 for all your spyware-fighting needs.

 

Write Jay Lee at helpline@chron.com. You can view more questions and answers at the Help Line Blog located at blogs.chron.com/helpline. Lee co-hosts the weekly radio show Technology Bytes from 8-10 p.m. Wednesdays on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston. The program is also available on the Internet at www.geekradio.com. Lee cannot personally answer all reader questions.