Category: Windows

“The file you are attempting to preview could harm your computer…”

Well. That’s annoying.

It started back in late 2025 and I JUST got around to figuring out how to make Windows 11 show me a preview of a document I’ve edited.

To clarify, these are files originally downloaded from an internet source I use regularly and I can understand how this security “feature” could be helpful for documents I’ve downloaded from the interwebs. But I don’t understand why I’m not allowed to preview them after I’ve edited and saved them again.

“The file you are attempting to preview could harm your computer. If you trust the file and the source you received it from, open it to view its contents.”

Dear computer…you can trust me. please show me my preview.

Turns out there are a few ways to get your preview back, depending on your goals.

One goal is to remove the security block for existing files within a folder. The problem is that when you download new files into that folder, they just get blocked again.

Again. That’s annoying.

I want Windows 11 to display a preview of any file in my folder all the time, regardless of new downloads so I don’t need to repeat the fix every time a new file lands into the folder.

Here are the steps I used to get my preview back permanently for a particular folder:

  1. Click Start, type Task Scheduler, and open it.
  2. Click Create Basic Task on the right side.
  3. Name it something like Auto-Unblock Folder and click Next.
  4. Set the Trigger to Daily or When I log on.
  5. For the Action, select Start a program.
  6. In the Program/script box, type: powershell.exe
  7. In the Add arguments box, paste the following (making sure to replace the path with your actual folder path inside the quotes):

-WindowStyle Hidden -Command "Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Your\Specific\Folder' -File -Recurse | Unblock-File"

Make sure you change ‘C:\Your\Specific\Folder’ to your specific folder.

  1. Click Finish. This script will run seamlessly in the background and clean up the block tags for you.

There is another way to disable this security feature system-wide, but you’ll have to find those instructions somewhere else. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone previewing a malicious file they’ve downloaded.

Windows 10: Top of Computer Monitor Blocked or Blacked Out?

It’s usually a temporary blip (highly technical term 🤓) with the resolution and graphics card and it happens to me sometimes after I open one too many browsers, tabs and applications. but who’s counting. 😀

If you have time, reboot.

If you are in the middle of something, you can press the Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B for a quick refresh. Your monitors will flash, turn black, and then come back on.

You could also unplug the power for about 10 to 15 seconds and then plug it back in.

Screenshot of blocked out monitor

If none of these three quick fixes works for you, the resolution of your monitor may be set incorrectly, you may have an outdated driver or you may need a better quality monitor.



why do some Outlook appointments not show a subject in month view?

I’ll cut to the chase: the window isn’t wide enough. Either maximize or stretch the window’s width and the subject will display. You’re welcome, feel free to buy me a cup of coffee. 😎 →

This had been driving me nuts for a few months, but it was sporadic, only happening once in a while and only to (seemingly) random appointments. This morning, I got tired enough of it to figure it out.

I’ve been working with Outlook for over a decade and this had never happened before. How and why now? Was it some sort of bug in Outlook? or was it something different or new that I’ve been doing?

It was something new I’ve been doing.

I recently bought a third monitor to make online meetings easier when instructing groups.

One monitor displayed my presentation, another displayed the Brady Bunch grid of faces and the third monitor, in portrait mode, allowed me to watch and manage the waiting room, the chat and the breakout rooms. It’s worked out very well, not only for online meetings, but for my tendency to have…more than a few windows open at one time.

As a matter of everyday practice, when I’m not in an online meeting, my middle monitor is my main monitor. Straight in front of me, good ergonomics…all that. My left monitor is for reference or source material and my right, portrait monitor became home to my Outlook calendar and email.

I typically don’t have outlook maximized because, as you might have guessed, I use the bottom half of the portrait monitor for another window, often youtube or amazon music.

My default view for calendar is month view and I’ve been noticing that some of my appointments didn’t have a subject line. It happened again today. Weird. I opened the the appointment to see if it actually HAD a subject line. It did. Weird. I googled. Lots of search results about scheduling resources and…what you probably found before you stumbled upon this post.

I figured it out when I dragged my Outlook calendar to my middle (landscape) monitor and poof. Subject line appeared. Here’s a screenshot of it happening last month.

It reminded me of a previous Pragmatic Computer Tip about Excel spreadsheet cells displaying pound signs because the cell wasn’t wide enough.

I dragged Outlook back to the portrait monitor and double clicked the title bar to maximize the window. The subject line appeared. Since I didn’t want to leave the Outlook window maximized and taking up the entire height of my monitor, I restored the window and then stretched it a bit. The subject line appeared.

If you notice, the times for the problem appointment have two digits in both the beginning and ending times, making it longer than the other appointments. That was enough to do it.

Annoying problem solved. I need coffee.

How to check laserjet ink levels in Windows 10

Step 1: Click in the search bar at the bottom left corner of your monitor to begin a search.

Step 2: Begin typing the word “printers” and the system settings for “Printers & Scanners” should appear as an option at the top of the list.

Step 3: Locate your printer in the list. In my case, it’s a Canon Pro9000.

Step 4: Click on your printer name to display the menu and select “Manage”

Step 5: Select “Printer properties”

Step 6: The “Properties” dialog box will display with the “General” tab active. Click the “Maintenance” tab.

Step 7: Select “View Printer Status…”

Step 8: A visual estimate of ink levels will display. Click “Ink Details” to display the name and number of the needed cartridge(s).

How to Set Outlook as your Default Mail Application in Windows 10

I admit, I like Windows 10, but there are a few settings that tend to annoy me because they exploit the everyday user’s unfamiliarity with Windows 10 in order to push built-in Windows 10 apps on the unsuspecting. One of those settings designates the Windows 10 Mail application as the default mail application – even after Outlook has been installed.

[Just to clarify: When you are reading an email in Outlook and you click “Reply” you get a new email Window in Outlook. That’s not the issue.]

Here’s how this setting can cause you problems: When you click an email link on a web page – or even an email link within the body of an email you may be reading in Outlook, instead of opening the new email window in Outlook, Windows 10 will open a new email window in its own email application.

If you’d like all new email windows to open in Outlook, follow the 3 steps below to change your Windows 10 default mail application to Outlook.

1. In the Windows 10 search bar, type the word “Default” and the window should expand upwards displaying “Default app settings”

2. Left-click “Default app settings” and a window showing your Default Apps should appear with “Email” at the top.

3. Left-click somewhere over the envelope icon and select the email program you prefer.

(see the images below for more help and
click any image to view it larger on its own page)

When you begin typing, a menu similar to the one in the image below should pop up above the search bar.

After you click “Default app settings” you should see the following menu displaying the Mail icon under the word “Email”:

If you hover your mouse over the Mail icon, it will be highlighted with a gray bar as in the image below:

When you left-click anywhere on the gray bar, a menu will open similar to the one in the image below. Just click the email application you prefer (in this example, I’ve used “Outlook 2016”) and you’re done!

Hopefully, a Windows 10 update won’t hijack that setting and make you do this again. 🙂

cure your possessed keyboard: dvorak to QWERTY

I thought I was crazy. My keyboard was typing stuff I did NOT type. Backslashes when I pressed the spacebar. Numbers when I pressed letters and the other way around. Adding characters when I pressed the backspace button. Weirdness. Nothing short of a reboot would solve the problem and even then, it was only temporary. I searched Google and stumbled upon the possibility that my keyboard was no longer set to “QWERTY.”

To find out if your keyboard settings may have changed:
Continue reading “cure your possessed keyboard: dvorak to QWERTY”

Windows Snipping Tool: “How do you snip a menu? It disappears!”

Given the frequency of my need to provide screen shots of steps involved in these pragmatic computing tips, I ran into this obstacle pretty quick.

Every time I needed to snip (take a screen shot of) a drop down menu, the menu I needed to snip would disappear as soon as I opened the Snipping Tool. I didn’t want to go back to the legacy screen shot method (Alt+Print Screen). Those screen shots captured entire windows – much more than I needed – and then I would need to crop the images.

I knew there had to be a way to use this new, cool, more efficient tool, and there was. (I actually needed to use this method to get the screen shots I needed for this post.) Here’s how it works:

1. Display the menu you want to snip/screen shot. In this particular case, I wanted to snip something on the Start Menu, so I clicked the Start button to display the menu.

2. Open the Snipping Tool. The menu you just displayed will disappear. In my case, the Start Menu disappeared. (If this is the first time you’ve used the Snipping Tool, you’ll need to search for it – instructions immediately following below.)

To search for the Snipping Tool, click the round Start button at the bottom left corner of your monitor and begin typing “Snipping Tool” in the search box:

Snipping Tool Search

As soon as you begin typing, Windows 7 will find it and list it at the top of the menu:

Snipping Tool Found

Do yourself a favor. Right click the Snipping Tool and “Pin” the Snipping Tool to Your Taskbar and/or your Start Menu so you never have to search for it again:

Snipping Tool Pin to Taskbar and Start Menu

Snipping Tool Pinned to Taskbar

Now the Snipping Tool is easily available any time you needed it.

Back to Step 2.

2. Open the Snipping Tool. Again, a small window will open, the menu you’ve displayed and want to clip will disappear and the screen will fade in color a little bit. That’s normal.

3. Press Esc on the Keyboard. The small Snipping Tool window will stay open and the vibrancy of the screen colors will come back.

4. Re-open the menu that you need to snip.

5. Press Ctrl+PrtScn. (Staayyyy with me…Don’t quit just because you can’t find the PrtScn button. There’s one on every keyboard, just not always in the same location.)
The screen will fade in color again to let you know the Snipping Tool is active.

6. Click and drag the area around the area of the screen you need to snip.

7. When you let go of the mouse button after the click and drag, your screen shot will be displayed in the Snipping Tool window and you can save, copy or email it.

(To learn more about the Snipping Tool, click HERE)

Default NumLock State

I’m a NumLock OFF girl, myself. See, when I started using computers, keyboards didn’t have dedicated arrows, you had to navigate using the arrows on the number pad. Now, a couple of years later 🙂 the habit is well ingrained. My husband and I spent years changing the NumLock back and forth on our home computers.

I was very happy when I found out the Windows XP default NumLock state was OFF!

I win!

Then, a client asked me how to set the default state to ON. Since I never wanted to do that, I asked my favorite IT guy how to do it. He started talking about the bios and the registry and then my eyes glazed over and I started to hear the ocean – or a Prius, I’m not really sure.

There had to be a simpler way. And there is. The NumLock state can be set differently for each user profile in Windows XP. Here’s how to set the default NumLock state to ON:

1. While logged in, set the NumLock to ON.
2. Click the START button and select “Log Off” (the second option from the bottom).
3. Select “Log Off” again (NOT switch user)
4. You should see a message which reads “Saving your settings” as the computer logs off.
5. After log off is complete, you should see a message which reads: “To begin, click your user name”
6. When you do, you should see a message which reads: “Loading your personal settings”

The NumLock should automatically turn on all by itself!

It should stay set to ON until or unless someone LOGS OFF with a different NumLock state active. Shutting down without logging off shouldn’t change the NumLock setting.

viewing invisible grid lines

Can’t see the grid lines for labels or margins in WordPerfect? It could be a problem with Windows and flatscreen monitors. (Corel’s support database – Answer ID 207679) Try this:

For Windows XP:
1. Right click on the Desktop, select Properties.
2. Select the Appearance tab.
3. Click the Advanced button.
4. Select 3D Objects in the Item dropdown.
5. Under Color 1, choose a darker shade of gray.
6. Click OK, then click Apply on the Appearance tab.
7. Click OK, and open WordPerfect.

For Windows Vista:
1. Right click on the Desktop, select Personalize
2. Click on Window Color Appearance
3. Click on Open Classic Appearance
4. Click the Advance button
5. Select 3D Objects in the Item dropdown
6. Under Color 1, choose a darker shade of gray.
7. Click OK, then click Apply on the Appearance tab.
8. Click OK, launch WordPerfect.

The grid lines should be more visible. (The darker the shade of gray you select the more visible the grid lines will be.)

i can see clearly now

When you read text on your computer monitor, do the fonts seem . . . grainy? Do the edges of the letters appear ragged? Especially italicized text?

Try this:
Click the “Start” button (on the task bar at the bottom left of your screen).
Hover over “Settings” and click “Control Panel”
Double Click “Display”
Click the “Appearance” Tab (the fourth tabbed page)
Click “Effects . . . ” (at the bottom right of the menu)

Under the second check mark, labeled: “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” Click the drop down arrow and select “ClearType” instead of “Standard”

Click “OK” (NOT cancel or the red “X” in the top right corner)
Click “Apply” (at the bottom right of the menu)

beautiful!

VISTA USERS: Clear Type is enabled by default on Windows Vista.

To Find the Option:
Right Click Anywhere on Your Desktop (away from any icons)
Click “Personalize” on the menu when it appears.
Click “Windows Color and Appearance”
Click “open classic appearance properties for more color”
Click the “Effects” button

Under “use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts” Click the Arrow to the Right of the Box and Select Either “standard” or “cleartype”

Click OK, then OK again and then Close the personalization window