WinClient Update, Aug. 17, 2006: Getting Reacquainted with Windows XP

A client who is a realtor presented me with an opportunity to get reacquainted with built-in capabilities of Windows XP that I rarely use. In this case, my computer-illiterate client needed a recommendation for image-editing software.

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Caroline Marwitz, David Chernicoffand 1 more

August 16, 2006

10 Min Read
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Getting Reacquainted with Windows XP: Image-Editing Software

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COMMENTARY

- Getting Reacquainted with Windows XP: Image-Editing Software
- Editor's Note: Roadshow Coming Your Way

NEWS & VIEWS

- Patch Can Crash IE

RESOURCES

- Tip: Viewing Images in Windows XP
- Thread: What's going on in the Windows XP forum this week?
- Featured white paper, Web & live events, announcements

NEW AND IMPROVED

- Drive Backup 8.0
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==== COMMENTARY ====

by David Chernicoff, [email protected]

Getting Reacquainted with Windows XP: Image-Editing Software

A client who is a realtor presented me with an opportunity to get reacquainted with built-in capabilities of Windows XP that I rarely use. In this case, my computer-illiterate client needed a recommendation for image-editing software.

Personally, I use Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 2 (CS2) and CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3, neither of which I'd recommend to this client, who didn't plan to spend the time necessary to master the applications. Before describing the capabilities of various applications, I asked the client how he planned to use the software. He said he wanted to be able to resize the images he provided to his Webmaster for online listings, add simple captions, and do some form of marking on the images, such as circling or highlighting features.

I told him he already had the tools he needed for those simple tasks: Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Microsoft Paint isn't a full-fledged editing tool, but it works well for the simple task of adding text or drawing lines. It has no trouble loading the JPEG images produced by point-and-shoot cameras, regardless of resolution, and it easily saves modified copies of the images.

For resizing, I showed him how to use Microsoft Office Picture Manager, which is part of Microsoft Office 2003. For his purposes it was perfect, as he could select all of the pictures in a folder and resize them to the same dimensions. The application offers the additional advantage of basic image editing capabilities, which I showed him how to use to make the pictures he was modifying look better.

At some point he might decide he needs a more comprehensive image-management application, but between Paint and Picture Manager he was able to achieve the results he needed without buying an additional piece of software and dealing with the learning curve required to master it.

Editor's Note:

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Cross-platform experts from Scalability Experts and Solid Quality Learning will present interoperability tips to IT professionals and DBAs who work with Oracle or SQL Server in a one-day roadshow that kicks off September 7 in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by Oracle Magazine, Windows IT Pro, HP, Intel, and Microsoft, the show will feature information about the Windows 64-bit platform for database computing, an under-the-hood tour of Oracle and SQL Server, an overview of deploying highly available Oracle and SQL Server databases, guidelines for using SQL Server business intelligence on the Oracle platform, and a research-based session about how IT professionals can prepare for the changing database job market.

The roadshow will visit 12 cities between September 7 and October 24:
Washington, D.C.; Boston; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; St. Louis; Houston; Irvine, Calif.; San Francisco; Phoenix; New York; Atlanta; and Seattle. Attendees who register before August 25 will enter a drawing for a free iPod nano sponsored by Windows IT Pro. For complete agenda and speaker information, go to the Web site below. http://www.windowsitpro.com/roadshows/sqloracle

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==== NEWS & VIEWS: Patch Can Crash IE ===========

by Paul Thurrott, [email protected]

Microsoft Security Patch Can Crash IE

A recently released Microsoft security patch is, perhaps, a bit too aggressive. Although it does fix several security problems in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), it can also cause the browser to crash when you visit certain Web sites. Microsoft will issue an updated version of the patch next week to address this problem.

The patch--which is addressed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-042--was rated critical and automatically delivered to tens of millions of people around the world via Automatic Updates. It affects IE 6 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on Windows XP and Windows 2000.

A flaw in the patch causes IE to crash when users browse Web sites that use HTTP 1.1 compression technologies. This is the second time this year that an IE patch has had to be re-released: In April, an IE patch caused problems for users with certain HP scanners and NVIDIA video cards.

Microsoft says it will release a new version of the patch on August 22, but because the patch fixes eight security flaws in the browser, it still recommends that users install the original version of the patch in the meantime. Microsoft notes that users can bypass the patch problem by disabling HTTP 1.1 support under the Advanced tab of IE's Internet Options dialog box.

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==== TIPS AND THREADS ===========================

Tip--Viewing Images in Windows XP

If you've been unable to view images with Windows XP’s Windows Picture and Fax Viewer and you can't see thumbnails when you're browsing folders that contain images, it's because the OS has lost the proper registration of the Shimgvw.dll file. To fix this problem, do the following:

1. Close all Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) windows.
2. Click Start, Run.
3. In the Run dialog box, type

regsvr32 /s %systemroot%system32shimgvw.dll

4. Click OK.

At this point, you should be able to view thumbnails properly. To check that the viewer works correctly, do the following:
1. Open a folder that contains images.
2. Right-click an image.
3. Select Preview from the context menu.

Thread—-What's going on in the Windows XP forum this week?
Plenty: A drive letter is missing. A computer crashed. And IE is causing a red mark in a display. Check it out:
http://forums.windowsitpro.com/web/forum/categories.aspx?catid=36&entercat=y

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About the Authors

Paul Thurrott

Paul Thurrott is senior technical analyst for Windows IT Pro. He writes the SuperSite for Windows, a weekly editorial for Windows IT Pro UPDATE, and a daily Windows news and information newsletter called WinInfo Daily UPDATE.

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