Note about SD36 school computers:
a) The computers at the Learning Center all use IE6 for a browser. Some of the tools you may wish to try have been updated to work with IE7 which our IT people are not installing at this time. These will not work at school. SD36 does not permit downloading unless a program is on the 'accepted software' list.
When working at home:
NOTE: before doing any serious downloading back up your system or at least set a system restore point. a) A possible Flashfix -- I have not tried this and so cannot offer help:
- If you have been unsuccessful at updating to Flash 9 for Internet Explorer 7: go to your C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash folder and run these two files:“FlashUtil9d.exe ” and “ NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe ”
- the Adobe site will prompt you to download Flash Player 10. I found that unstable so I went back to with Flash 9. You can find older versions of Macromedia Flash Player at sites such as OldApps.
- The latest version of Firefox is 3.0.5. I found Firefox 3 to be very unstable on my older computer, so I went back to 2. If you go to FileHippo.com, you can find many older versions of FF. Try FF3 and see if it works. If it keeps crashing, uninstall and then install a version of FF2 from the list.
- Which version of FF2? Firefox has withdrawn some features of FF2 on versions 2.0.0.19 and 2.0.0.20-- notably the anti-phishing function so you are encouraged to get your own filters. However if you go back to FF 2.0.0.18 the filters are still there, albeit not updated. FF may try to update you to the later versions, but you can decline this.
c) Having trouble getting some kinds of video files to play? It's time to learn about Codecs: "A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal." If you don't have the right ones, your computer cannot display certain videos for you.
- I have used K-Lite for quite a while with Media Player Classic (comes as part of the K-Lite package) as my default player. It likes all the different kinds of video files you might want to play. You can download it free from the K-Lite website. I accept all their default settings.
Most of what I learn I pick up by trial and error -- lots and lots of error -- so please do not look to me for help with these issues.
If it all seems terrifying, ask a tech person for help -- but that's part of the process of updating -- finding friendly, knowledgeable people who can assist you.
