Posted on: Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Q & A
Resolution key for clear photos

By Kim Komando

Q. I scanned pictures of my friend and they look bad when printed. How many pixels should images be?

A. A good rule of thumb for top quality printouts is to have about 200 pixels of resolution for every inch of print size. A 5-by-7-inch photo would then need to be 1,000-by-1,400 pixels, and an 8-by-10 print should be 1,600-by-2,000 pixels. If an image doesn't look crisp at a large size, scale it down and it should look better. Use your photo-editing software to improve the color and contrast, cut and crop to size, as well as optimize the image for the final print size.

Q. Is there a way to use my Windows 98 screen saver to secure my computer? Someone is using my PC while I'm in meetings.

A. Easy. Right click on the desktop, select Properties and click the Screen Saver tab. Check the box labeled Password Protected. Click the Change button, type your password in both boxes, and click OK. Choose an appropriate idle time to launch the screen saver and your system will be safe, at least a little bit. While you're there, select the Marquee screen saver. Then, click Settings. Here, you can type a message that will roll across the screen. "We know who you are and we are coming to get you" seems appropriate.

Q. How can I get rid of the little arrows on my shortcut icons? I'm using Windows XP.

A. You could edit the Registry file but who in their right mind wants to do that? Simply download Microsoft's Power Toys for Windows XP. At Microsoft.com, enter "XP Power Toys" in the search box. Specifically, you need the tool called Tweak UI. After installation, open Tweak UI, click on Explorer and then Shortcut. Under Shortcut Overlay select None. Click OK. Bye-bye arrows.