PC Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Personal Computer [Paperback]

Steve Bass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2003

In every PC user's life, there's a point when desperate measures must be taken. Some push their PC off a pier or chuck it into a landfill. Others turn their former computing ally into a planter box. But don't give up on your PC yet--help is at hand.

This easy to read, accessible book from PC World expert Steve Bass covers the waterfront of PC gripes and gremlins, with fixes for everything from Windows glitches to browsers that won't browse. These tips and tricks are served up in bite-sized portions for quick reading and even quicker fixing.

Among the topics covered:

• Windows--King of Annoyances! You'll learn how to kick Windows in the rear, get past glitches, take charge of the interface, live with the dreaded activation, and more.
• Conquer your email, from Outlook to Eudora! Beat back spam, get inside info, avoid mailing lists, send big files, manage folders, and more, for a half dozen email programs.
• Master Microsoft Office. From little-known right-click wonders to backing up the unbackable to automating data entry, you'll find workarounds for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Wrassle with hardware--and win! Learn to wake up your DSL, tame your notebook, shut up your PC's fan, save your data, and save paper.
• Internet knots untied! Shake up IE, stop Flash, outsmart defaults, control Favorites, add the Google toolbar to Netscape, and more.

Plus, you get access to more than one hundred utilities that will help you squash bugs, enhance your email, untangle a system snarl, and much more.

If your PC has ever annoyed you (do we see several billion raised hands?), PC Annoyances is for you. With the flip of a page or two, you can fix that faux pas and have your PC purring again.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"Annoyed with your PC? Fight back with this smart, funny, indispensable survival guide."
--Ed Bott, author "Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out" and "Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2003"

"If something bugs you (or, more to the point, your PC), check this book to see if there's a way out. Steve's light tone and spot-on analysis will set you straight, without putting you to sleep.
--Woody Leonhard, Publisher, Woody's Watch ezines; author, Office Annoyances, Excel Annoyances, Word Annoyances, and Outlook Annoyances.

"PC Annoyances is packed with amazingly useful tips and tricks. Every flip through the book brings me to something useful that I'm glad to know and didn't before."
--Steve Gibson, security expert and author of ShieldsUP! and SpinRite.

By concentrating on the annoyances--and the fixes--Steve Bass cleverly exposes the underlying richness of Windows and your everyday applications. Beyond boosting your own productivity and reducing your blood pressure, you'll be a hero to everyone around you!
--Bill Machrone Columnist and Contributing Editor, PC Magazine

If there's one thing Steve Bass knows about, it's computers and their problems. This book is chock full of ways to put you in a better mood!
--Jim Louderback, Editor-in-Chief, Editor In Chief, Ziff Davis Media Internet Properties

Personal computers are the most annoying gadgets ever invented. Steve Bass's practical guide for taming these beasts is a must-have for all Windows users.
--Richard M. Smith Internet Consultant and PC Industry Gadfly

Bass is the smartest and most entertaining technology writer covering personal computers today. This book is a guaranteed cure for whatever ails your PC, from the big errors that can bring a computer to its knees to the glitches that are more trivial but no less maddening.
--Kevin McKean, CEO and Editorial Director, InfoWorld magazine

Steve Bass makes even the most complicated PC issue simple and fun to read.
--Brian Livingston, editor of BriansBuzz.com

About the Author

Steve Bass is a long-time popular staff writer at PC World Magazine and is the president of the Pasadena IBM Users Group.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (October 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596005938
• ISBN-13: 978-0596005931
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #659,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #63 in Books > Computers & Technology > Hardware > Maintenance, Repair & Upgrading

More About the Author

I first learned about computers in 1982 with an IBM PC I bought from Computerland. When I asked them for support, they said, "Don't use it in the shower."

The following day, I founded the Pasadena IBM Users Group. After 24 years, I finally closed the organization, releasing the over 2,400 former members onto the streets (http://www.pibmug.com). Be careful out there. And in the late 1980s, I co-founded the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (http://www.apcug.org), a nationwide organization serving user groups.

I'm also a Contributing Editor to PC World, writing the "Hassle-Free PC" column since 1990, the "Tips and Tweaks Online Newsletter," and dozens of articles including "Net Phones: Dialing Without Dollars," and "The Ultimate PC Troubleshooting Guide."

My "How to Fix the Biggest PC Annoyances" article has won PRSA's prestigious Excellence in Technology Journalism award.

My blog is at http://snurl.com/BassBlog. You can also subscribe to my weekly newsletter (a compilation of the week's blogs) at http://snurl.com/homeoffice (Look for "signup" at lower right corner of the page). And a collection of previous newsletters are available here: http://snurl.com/homeoffice.

I've also written for Forbes, Family Circle, and Computer Currents, and once had a syndicated newspaper column that was way more work than it was worth. But wait, there's more: I have a semi-regular spot on KPCC''s "Airtalk," an NPR affiliate radio show, and Pacifica's KPFK's "Digital Village." I'm also producing a new computer show, "Phrenology: The New Topology." It's been a bumpy road.

In a previous life, I was a licensed family therapist (hard to believe, I know); owned PCG Seminars, a training company for mental-health professionals; and met his wife while doing magic at Hollywood's Magic Castle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Help Yet, November 12, 2003

By 

dorene stalter (Princeton, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PC Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Personal Computer (Paperback)

No matter how computer literate (or illiterate) you are, sometimes your computer seems to have a mind of it's own.

Often it is a little thing that nags you. You wish that you could find a way to tweak a program so that you could work faster or easier. Or you want to find a way to make a program behave in a certain way. But try as you might, your computer simply refuses to do what you want it to.

I like to thumb through books like this one before I actually sit down to read it. When I got PC Annoyances by Steve Bass, I started thumbing through and within 5 minutes saw a tip that told me how to do something that I'd been trying to do for a long time.

I ran over to my computer and followed the easy steps. Voila! Just one tip was worth more to me than the price of the book.

This book is packed full of useful tips and tricks that will make every day easier. It helps you take charge of your computer.

Email tips, Windows tips, Internet browsing tips and much more.

This book is a must have for everyone who uses a computer.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Show your PC who the BOSS really is, November 13, 2003

By 

David Burke (Corpus Christi, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PC Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Personal Computer (Paperback)

The style of writing used by the author is light humor, which is a helpful, since if you are looking for a solution to a pc annoyance, you are more than likely seconds away from snapping, or running for governor of California.

PC Annoyances, does not focus on Windows alone, Windows and other Microsoft programs are in there, but this book offers fixes for everything from email, Virus, Netscape, downloading numbers to your cell phone, to how to get rid of telemarketers? The latter is "very clever" and works!

What I liked best about PC Annoyances are the links to fixes such as; http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm this site has a lot of really neat solutions to PC Annoyances, and there are many more listed in the book. I downloaded several utilities myself. One I discovered by reading the book was AM-DeadLink, this "freebie" went through my 2590 web addresses, yes you read correctly, in MS Internet Explorer, and found all the outdated, non working and duplicate ones, quickly and easily.

Got to love the Annoyance family/series of books, and in my opinion PC Annoyances at the current LOW Amazon.com price is not only the best of the litter, but an absolute must buy.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Many Tips, So Little Time, December 1, 2003

By 

Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PC Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Personal Computer (Paperback)

At least it seemed that way when I first read this book! You could spend days downloading the numerous utilities and trying the numerous fixes in this book! Not that this is a bad thing; I love books that explain how to fix "annoying issues" that come up when you try to use your PC or software or surf the 'Net.

This book at first read contains a lot of excellent tips and advice for dealing with problems that regularly occur. It also becomes a great reference for what to do when a problem happens. I know that I'll definitely be referring back to this book from time to time to deal with various problems or even "work-arounds" on my PC.

Since I'm a Windows 98 user, I wish he'd had more on that, but that's a small issue. Overall, virtually all of the "fixes" he calls for are excellent. From "tweaking" a setting to downloading numerous utilities to help "fix" an annoyance, there's lots of solid information in the book.

The book's seven chapters are divided into email annoyances (even subsections on dealing with Eudora, Outlook Express, AOL, Hotmail, etc), Windows issues, Internet problems, Microsoft Office workarounds, Windows Explorer, Music, Video and CD issues, and finally Hardware issues. I've already downloaded a couple of utilities the book suggests and plan to get a few more.

I tend to get rather frustrated at times with my PC and a book like this helps to make using my PC much easier and enjoyable.