Fast Way to Get Rid of Quicken Icon - San Fransisco Chronicle

By David Einstein
Thursday, February 25, 1999

Q: Quicken 99 Basic, in its arrogance, has installed ``Quicken Download Manager'' at the right side of my Windows 98 taskbar. If I right-click on the icon, I can close it for my current session, but it reappears the next time I start my computer. I want to permanently remove it, but I can't find out how. Going to the Windows Startup folder doesn't help because Quicken Download Manager doesn't appear there. Please help me stamp out this annoyance.

A: Don't you just hate it when icons appear unbidden in your System Tray? (That's what they call the right side of the Windows taskbar.) In some cases, you can get rid of them by removing the associated file from the Startup folder. But as you've discovered, some programs manage to stick an icon in the System Tray without putting anything in the Startup folder.

Fortunately, Windows 98 gives you a weapon against recalcitrant icons. Unfortunately, it isn't very well known and almost impossible to find unless someone tells you about it. Which is what I'm going to do.

Click the Windows Start button, then choose Run. Type in ``msconfig'' and click OK. The System Configuration Utility window will appear. Click the Startup tab, and you'll see a list of startup files in your computer. Find the one for Quicken and click on its box to disable it. That should banish it from the System Tray.

EUDORA TROUBLES

Q: I am using Windows 3.1 with Netscape Personal Edition, which includes Eudora Light. I do a lot of e-mail, and my problem with Eudora is that when I get an incoming message and print it, Eudora automatically prints a header and footer that I cannot figure out how to eliminate. Sure would appreciate any help.

A: The easy solution to your problem is to download the latest update of Eudora Light, version 3.0.6 -- which is free and can be found at http://www.eudora.com . When you install it, choose the 16-bit option, which is designed for Windows 3.1. By default, the new version does not display or print the headers and routing information in messages. If you want to see all that stuff, you can click the icon in the message window titled BLAH

BLAH BLAH.

SOUPED-UP PENTIUMS

Q: I have two Pentium 100 computers that I'd like to upgrade to increase their speed. I'm wondering whether it would be worthwhile to get a processor upgrade from Evergreen, which I'm told could give my systems the same performance as a Pentium 200. Any thoughts?

A: Evergreen Technologies, based in Corvallis, Ore., offers a couple of solutions that might work for you. One is the MxPro, an upgrade processor that boosts the speed of an early generation Pentium to about 200 MHz. Expect to pay about $100 for that product. Last month, Evergreen unveiled a new upgrade processor, the Spectra 333, which, as the name implies, turns an older Pentium into a 333 MHz speed-burner. It's priced at $259.

If you can afford to wait a couple of months, you might want to check out yet another upgrade that Evergreen is planning. This one will be a processor on a PCI card, which can be installed just as you would install a sound card or video accelerator. It will feature an Intel Celeron chip running at 433 MHz. And it will include 64 megabytes of onboard memory, effectively adding that total to your system memory. The price will be around $500.

The great thing about the PCI upgrade, say Evergreen officials, is that it will be a true plug-and- play solution. You won't have to remove and replace the old chip or fool around with the PC's basic settings to get the new one to work.

FYI: If you decide to go with one of the currently available Evergreen upgrades, make sure your PC is compatible with it. Evergreen maintains a list of incompatible computers on its Web site at www.evertech.com.

TICKER TALK

Q: I'd like to put a stock ticker on my computer screen similar to the one that scrolls across the bottom of the screen on CNBC. Is there any way to do it?

A: Several free and inexpensive programs provide onscreen stock quotes in a ticker format. Among them are: WinStock, a $20 program you can get at http://www.winstocksw.com ; Quote Ticker Bar, also $20, available at http://www.starfire-inc.com ; and JavaTicker, a freebie downloadable from http://www.javaticker.com.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Last week, I suggested that an easy way to open Windows Explorer is to right-click the Start button and choose Explore. A reader wrote in with an even easier way. It only works if your keyboard has a Windows key. (There should be two of them, next to the Alt keys on the lowest row of keys that includes the space bar.) If you hold down one of the Windows keys and press ``E,'' Windows Explorer automatically opens.



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