A. After login and the normal desktop appears, press Control-Alt-Delete. In the lower left of the box that appears will be an entry for Changing Password. Select this, enter your old password where indicated and then your new password. Confirm your new password and press OK. The password change should be immediate. (NOTE: this does NOT affect your email password or your NCWISE login password.)

19) Q. On my R51 laptop, when typing certain letters, numbers appear instead. What's with that and how do I fix it? 

A. The short answer is to hold down Shift and press the NumLk (number lock) key located two keys above the zero key. This key is shared with the Scroll Lock key hence the need for the Shift-NumLk combination. This action is a toggle that allows the keyboard to turn into a numeric keypad on its right side.

20) Q. Flash drives don't seem to mount on my computer. What has happened with that?

A.WSFCS DOT recently enacted a computer policy that prevents the Autorun function from executing on system computers. This is to lessen the likelyhood of additional virus infectations on the district's computers. To get around the lack of proper mounting of flash (thumb, jump) drives use the following techniques: 1. after the drive is inserted, click on My Computer and select the drive you want to open. 2. use the up arrow folder in the top menu to navigate to the files on the drive in question. (Or use Open: Explore) 3. select the file and open it as usual. Alternately, you can save the files on the drive to another location and reformat the flash drive to remove the Autorun program enbedded on it. Then, copy over the saved files and the flash drive should then give you the option to open it directly to access your files. If none of these remedies works, your USB port could be disabled or bad. Contact Louis for help.

21) Q. Can I manually update the TrendMicro OfficeScan antivirus program that is on my laptop and school desktop computer(s)? 

A. But of course you can. Simply look at the system tray located at the lower right of the computer screen. Find the round, blue icon with the yellow sine-wave squiggle running through it. Right click on this icon and select "Update now." In the resulting window, click the "Update now" button located at the lower right. Do this entire process TWO times! (Laptops must be logged onto the district's network for this to work so you will have to bring it to school to complete the update.) That's all there is to it. Now, if the system tray icon has a red slash running through it, it will not update and you should call a technology facilitator or BLT for assistance.

22) Q. How do I manually run TrendMicro's OfficeScan software to check my computer for virus/malware?

A. Examine the system tray at the lower, right of the computer window. There locate the blue octogon with the yellow wavy line running through it. This is the TrendMicro OfficeScan (TMOS) icon. Right click on the icon and select the first item in the resulting popup menu (OfficeScan console.) Click on console and select the drive you wish to scan from the list that appears. Only currently mounted volumes or devices will appear in the list so you must have inserted flash drives prior to selecting this option. You may drill down to specific files and folders if you wish to scan only certain items. This can be a huge time saver as full scans by TMOS can take an hour or more.

23) Q. I suspect my computer is infected with spyware. What should I do?

A. Go to the S:Staff Share drive and locate the Spyware Cleaners folder. Open the Instructions folder and follow the directions found therein. Alternately, OfficeScan may remove many offenders but it does take a long time to run and may not be as effective at removing spyware/malware as is MalwareBytes. Sometimes both need to be run to effectively remove most offenders.

24) Q. An info box keeps popping up at the lower right of my computer screen telling me that "Updates are ready for your computer. Click here to install." Should I install these updates?

A. Unless someone associated with WSFCS Dept. of Technology instructs you to do so, never click on the "Install updates now." button. Three things can happen and two of them are very bad; so, the odds of there being a benefit to updating (if indeed that is what the "update" is trying to do) are nearly 7 in 10 that the "update" is actually a "wolf in sheeps clothing."

25) Q. How do I update the antivirus definitions on my school-issued laptop?

A. To update, not only your anti-virus definitions but also your operating system, simply bring in your laptop periodically (at least monthly) and logon to the school network either wirelessly or with an ethernet cable connected to an active wall port. Necessary files will be added to your laptop automatically by the network server. See also question #6.

26) Q. A student has a project that they created using Microsoft Office 2007 that will not open on our computer at school. What is the problem?