Photo: Contributed

Hibernation is for bears, not for laptops. Change the size of things on your screen so you can actually see things. Fix most of the display issues with IE9. And finally, if you must have shortcuts on your desktop, you might like some that open right to a website. This week’s theme: Things that didn’t fit into any other theme!

To sleep, perchance to hibernate

At least once a month I hear from a reader or visit a customer who is having trouble with a hibernating computer. By default, many computers and especially laptops are set to hibernate after a certain period of inactivity. That shouldn’t be a problem, but in fact it often is. Sometimes computers have trouble recovering from a hibernate state. Sometimes the computer cuts the power to the USB ports when it hibernates, so moving a mouse doesn’t “wake” the computer.

Here’s my advice: If you’re not going to use the computer for awhile, turn it off. Never mind “putting it to sleep” or letting it hibernate. Just turn it off.

And here’s another shocker for you laptop owners: Just closing the lid usually doesn’t turn the computer off. Usually it causes it to hibernate. To learn how to turn off your computer properly, see this column from last year: http://rlis.com/columns/column269.htm.

You can disable the hibernate feature. To do this in Windows 7, follow the instructions here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-create-or-delete-a-power-plan-scheme. Vista instructions are here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-create-or-delete-a-power-plan-scheme.

Change the size of text on your screen

You can always adjust the size of text in each program you use, like your browser (See the third item in this column: http://rlis.com/columns/column311.htm) but if you want everything big all the time, you can make one change that applies to everything.

In Windows 7:

• Click on Start | Control Panel | Appearance and Personalization | Adjust screen resolution

• Choose Smaller, Medium, or Larger

• Click Apply

You’ll need to log off and log on to Windows for the change to take effect.

In Vista:

• Right-click on an empty spot on the desktop

• Click on Personalize | Adjust font size (DPI)

• Choose Larger Scale

• Click OK

You’ll need to restart Windows for the change to take effect

Fix the weird-looking web page problem in IE9

If you’re using Internet Explorer 9, you might have encountered some web pages that don’t display properly. Maybe the colour is a little off or elements on the page seemed crammed together. Probably this is because it’s an older website and not compatible with IE9. Most of the time the solution is to make IE9 compatible with the older website!

Look at the address bar, and locate the icon that looks like a torn piece of paper. Click once on that and see if this corrects the problem. Most of the time it does, but not always. If the site you’re trying to view requires Active X controls and won’t display, you probably have Active X Filtering turned on. To turn that off Click on Tools and remove the check mark next to Active X Filtering. (If you don’t see the Tools choice at the top of the window, press the Alt key once to show the menu bar.)

Make a desktop shortcut to a website

Another question I’m often asked if how to make an icon on the desktop open a website. Many readers will know that I’m a big fan of NOT cluttering up the desktop. But, hey. That’s just me. If you want to open a website with one click on a desktop icon, it’s easy to do. Open the website, click and drag the icon from the browser address bar to the desktop, then let go of the mouse button. Have a look at this screencast: http://youtu.be/6ShJ0r_LUfY.

Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or business computer get along!

Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna (http://computercarekelowna.com/) a mobile service helping home users and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send email to help@computercarekelowna.com.

You can read previous columns here: http://rlis.com/column.htm . If you'd like to subscribe to this column by email, please visit this link: http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618 . It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the RSS Feed, click here: http://rlis.com/rlis.xml.