Q: My husband and I have separate user accounts on the same computer. But we can’t share photos with each other in our Picture libraries.

My husband copied some photos into the Public Pictures folder in his Pictures library, as you recommend in Windows 7 For Dummies.

But for some reason, that Public Pictures folder is missing from my account’s Pictures library. What’s wrong?

A: Windows likes to assign a separate account to each person that uses a PC. Although it’s a drag to type in your password each time, that simple act keeps everything more secure, locking out snooping roommates, children or office workers.

But in a family setting, it can also lock out spouses, as you’ve discovered.

To make sharing files easier, Windows 7 puts two folders in your Libraries, and one folder is named Public. Everything placed inside that Public folder is considered open and shared, making it easy for anybody on that computer to access it.

To see the public folder inside any of your libraries (Documents, Music, Photos, and Videos), click the little arrow next to the library’s name: Pictures, for example, shown above.

There, you’ll see two folders: The My Pictures folder holds your personal stuff; the Public Pictures folder holds the files you want to share with everybody who uses the computer.

But what if your Public folder is missing?

But what if you don’t see the Public folder listed listed in one of your libraries? Without that folder, there’s no easy way to share files with other people on the same computer.

If your library’s Public folder is missing, follow these steps to put it back into place: Click to read more »

Q: When I leave my laptop’s mouse pointer hovering over certain places on the screen, it opens and closes items by itself.

This happens throughout Windows 7, even when I inadvertently leave the pointer resting over something.

Is there any way I can make Windows only open things when I click them?

A: Laptops and their trackpads can be notoriously uncooperative. A tap in the wrong spot, or the inadvertent touch of a shirtsleeve, can send the pointer scurrying.

In your case, your thoughtful trackpad notices that you’ve left the pointer hovering over a menu option or icon. So, after waiting a few seconds, your trackpad tries to help you out by automatically choosing that item for you.

It’s easy enough to tell it to stop being so helpful, though, by following these steps:

1. Right-click the Start button and choose “Properties.”  The “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” window appears.
2. Click the “Start Menu” tab, if necessary.
3. Click the “Customize” button near the top; the “Customize Start Menu” dialog box appears.
4. Scroll down and uncheck the box called, “Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer.”
5. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

That brings the touchpad back under your own control, rather than subject to your computer’s assumptions.

Personally, I loathe touchpads. Instead, I carry around a small wireless Adesso mouse that’s easy to slip into the bag with my laptop or tablet. You’ll find many other portable wireless mice on Amazon, and they’re much more intuitive than trackpads.

Q: I am trying use Windows DVD maker to make a photo slide show.

After I load the pictures and click the next icon, I receive this error message:

“Error synchronizing project – The temporary directory is not accessible.”

Why do I receive this message, and how do I make it work?

A: Windows does many things very well, but communicating its problems isn’t a strong point.

In this case, it’s giving you technospeak as to the exact cause of the problem. But it’s not smart enough to tell you how to fix things.

Translated into real words, the problem boils down to this: Windows DVD Maker needs a spot on your hard drive to store your slideshow before copying it to the DVD. And, for some reason, the program can’t find a spot it likes.

You can fix the problem and remove the error message by following these steps: Click to read more »

Q: I just noticed that some of my file names have changed to a bluish color in Windows Explorer.

They still seem to work okay, but the names are in blue letters. I’ve seen this before, but it was always just one file.

This time all the files in one of my folders have changed to blue. What happened?

A: Windows normally displays your file and folder names in black letters. When they turn a different color, though, Windows is trying to tell you something. (Earlier, I explained why the names turn green and how to fix the problem.)

In your case, Windows shows the names in blue to tell you that the files are compressed: compacted to save space. Windows decompresses them automatically when you open them, so you probably won’t even notice the slight delay.

Why bother with compression?

Microsoft added automatic compression to Windows more than a decade ago. Back then, when large hard drives were expensive, compression made sense. By compressing everything on your drive, you could cram more files onto it.

Today, compression no longer makes much sense for several reasons:

• Hard drives cost much less, and they’re enormous compared to the tiny drives of yesteryear.
• Your largest files today — the ones holding digital music, photos, and movies — come packaged in a format that’s already compressed. Telling Windows to compress them again won’t save much space, if any.
• Compressing files make them more difficult to retrieve should your hard drive crash.

That said, you can return that unsettling blue color back to black in either of two ways: Click to read more »

Q: My friend sent me a folder with zipped files.

When I opened it on my computer, Windows showed the files’ names in green letters, rather than the normal black.

And when I tried to copy the zipped folder, Windows sent me this error message:

“Confirm Encryption Loss. Do you want to copy this folder without encryption? A problem is preventing this folder from being encrypted.”

What am I doing wrong?

A: Displaying file names in green letters, as shown above, is Windows’ way of telling you that those files are encrypted: They’re encoded to keep out snoops.

When Windows thinks a file is encrypted, it sometimes sends out odd error messages like the one below:

But the confusion can be cured quite easily. Turn the names back to black and avoid that error message by following these steps: Click to read more »