Screen Shots and Screen Recording

Problem: You want to take a picture of your desktop that you can immediately save as a normal image (like a jpeg). You might also want to save video recordings of your desktop activity, perhaps in an effort to include it in a tutorial or presentation.

Solution: Try Debut Video Recorder for free from download.com (safe downloads, I use it all the time).

For those out there looking for a way to take screen shots, of course there is always the "Print Screen" button on the standard keyboard right above the "insert" button. However, once you take the screen shot, you have to paste it somewhere, and well it takes more steps than I'd like.

So if you want a program that saves your screen shots as pictures, try Debut Video Recorder. I got it off download.com, which I like to go to for safe and free software downloads.

But here's the best part, you can also record your screen activity! I love it! It's not the best resolution, but for free, you can save videos of a tutorial for a presentation, and if your computer has a microphone, it will record sound as well!

*BEST PART* you can create key commands with the program so that you can record, take a screen shot, and more. This way, you don't have to manually start/stop with the program before recording what you like--instead, you simply minimize it and then use your customized command (mine is "ctr + r" for record, for example).

Here's the link:

http://www.download.com/Debut-Video-Recording-Software/3000-13633_4-10684791.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10895856

From Download.com:

"Debut is a simple, easy to use video recorder that lets you capture video files directly on your PC using a webcam (video camera), or capture device (from video). This software can also capture and record almost anything that can be played or displayed on the computer screen. The program saves the video on your hard drive as avi, wmv or many other file types. Version 1.34 fixed some Video Render issues (for old DirectX versions and Windows 2000 and earlier)."



*Caveat*
This information is provided to you to utilize at your own risk. I am not responsible for any consequences that result from the use of the information I provide on this blog.

How To Send Outlook Email Folders To Your Email Server

PROBLEM: You want to save a personal folder from Outlook onto your online email account.

My Specific Problem: I set up my email account with Microsoft Outlook 2007 and it took my inbox from my online email server, leaving it blank. But I need to access my emails online without my computer.

SOLUTION: Set up your email with Outlook as an IMAP, and then drag and drop the folder into this email account on Outlook. If you succeed, it will slowly transport all the files/emails to the online account.

My Specific Solution: First, I re-set up my email account (not as POP3 but now as IMAP), which would no longer steal my emails from my online account. Then I cut and paste my stolen inbox folder onto the account, which magically saved onto my online account.

So I recently decided to try Microsoft Outlook 2007. I absolutely love it. Only thing is that when I set up my email address, I did it through POP3, and my inbox was imported onto my computer and deleted from my email's online server (berkeley.edu). Although I love having copies of my emails on my laptop, I need to access my email all over the place, without my laptop at hand.

There are many solutions to this issue. Here's what I did.

TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION

1) I deleted my email account from Outlook (which was based as a POP3 account by default when I set it up originally. Nno files are deleted, by the way, this just disconnects the email feed.

2) I then set it up again, but this time as IMAP (which keeps your regular email account active while also feeding your Outlook).

3) Then I made a new folder in my regular Outlook "Personal Folders" area. I named it something other than inbox, specifically, IBX.

4) So then I grabbed "IBX" and dragged it into the new email account. I was praying it would save the folder onto my email account online (berkeley.edu) and it did! I had to save it as a new folder with another name, because it wouldn't add the folder with the same name ("inbox").


*Caveat*
This information is provided to you to utilize at your own risk. I am not responsible for any consequences that result from the use of the information I provide on this blog.

How I Resolved My Vaio Camera Capture Problem

Problem: You are getting a blue screen error, your camera fails to initialize, or a program tells you to check if the camera is being used by another program.

Solution: I uninstalled all the drivers for my camera listed in the Device Manager, and I installed a new factory version of the camera from Sony eSupport

As I am sure you want to get right to my successful solution to the Vaio Camera Capture problem, SCROLL DOWN TO THE TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION Below.

Hey fellow frustrated Vaio user. Do you have Vista? Is it Business? Well if you don't, I'm surprised. From my own desperate internet searches, everyone with my problem seems to have a Vista Business version of Vaio.

For months, I've been restarting my computer as a makeshift way of getting my camera to work. Finally this week it just stopped working. I TRIED IT ALL. I did system restore. I downloaded all the updates in the world. I disabled and re-enabled my drivers...all to no avail.

The ugly truth is that everyone seems to have this problem. I used Google Trends out of curiosity to see how many people are searching for solutions to this problem (like me). Check it out:



Now to the steps I took to finally solving the issue...


TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION:

1) I first downloaded and installed the factory version of the camera driver. Here is the link. Remember, you might want to check for a similar download for your model.

2) Once I installed the factory version, my computer told me it did not install correctly. I ignored this for the moment because I did not want to re-start my computer.

3) Once I was sure I could obtain a factory version of the driver, I proceeded to delete all other versions of it in Device Manager. I will explain next how I did this.

4) I went to Start. Control Panel. I clicked on the link that says "Update Device Drivers."

2) I looked for an item called "Imaging Devices." I had to press the plus sign to expand this item.

3) I looked for "Sony Visual Communication Camera." I found several listings, a total of five in fact! One was "enabled," whereas the others were all "disabled."

**Quick Add-In Note: if you can't find the camera under Imaging Devices, perhaps you don't have it installed at all. Or if you think you do, try looking in other places in the Device Manager, maybe mine is just "Imaging Devices." If you don't have it, I would try just installing the factory version for your computer off the Sony site.

4) I knew whether they were enabled or not by right clicking on each of the listings, then clicking on Properties. It said disabled for several, and the one that was enabled said "This device is working properly." Yeah right...anyway, moving on.

5) I right clicked on all these listings for the Sony Camera and uninstalled them. I tried simply making them all disabled. This did not work. So I removed them all.

6) I re-started my computer. On start up, a window told me that my recent installation was complete and that my camera would now work.

7) To verify my work, I went back to Device Manager and found that there were no longer several camera listings, but only one. I assume this is the one I installed. This is how it looks now:




Hope this helps. Remember, I made sure that I would be able to install my camera once I uninstalled it from my computer. By camera, I mean the drivers for the camera as listed in the Device Manager.


*Caveat*
This information is provided to you to utilize at your own risk. I have done the following on my own computer, and in no way does that guarantee it will work for yours. I am not responsible for any consequences that result from the use of the information I provide on this blog.