Mac users must be sworn to secrecy; they rarely complain about their computers. A friend, plied with alcohol, reluctantly admitted that his MacBook suffered from random shutdowns. Like, no!

PC users, on the other hand, seem to be proud of their computing annoyances. Online bragging matches are common, with each participant trying to top all the other PC disaster stories.

You think I’m kidding about Mac and PC users? Try this on for size: Mac people vs. PC people: Top 5 differences. (Thanks to TechBite subscriber Gil.)

This week’s story is a collection (okay, a hodgepodge) of ways my PC annoys me, with, of course, work-arounds.

Get the Volume Under Control

The Annoyance My wife’s office is close enough that our chatting tool is a shout down the hall. I can also hear when she plays a YouTube video–and frantically grabs the mouse and dives for the volume control icon in the Notifications tray.

The problem is that mi esposa keeps changing the volume from different locations. –Steve Bass

The Fix Here’s what usually happens: Judy opens a YouTube video, discovers the volume’s too loud (as do I), and she moves the YouTube slider to lower the volume.

The next day, she can’t hear a YouTube vid, but this time, she uses the Windows’ volume controller to increase the sound.

Everything’s cool, until a Windows’ system alert blasts her out of her chair or she plays an MP3 and Windows Media Player, with its slider set to high, and the music crinkles the wallpaper.

The goal is to get the volume consistent. Try this: Adjust every app that plays sounds–get it the way you like–and then leave it alone. Once you’re happy with the sound levels, adjust the sound from only one spot, the Windows volume controller.

I don’t have a fancy keyboard with volume and mute buttons, and I’ve never liked the volume controller in Windows–even in Win7, it takes two clicks to use.

Instead, I use Volumouse, a clever little freebie that controls my PC’s volume. I’ve configured Volumouse to mute the volume with one wheel turn on any menu bar, change the volume by turning the wheel anywhere on the Taskbar, and, in combination with a keyboard key, make a window transparent.

If you don’t like Volumouse, try 3RVX. It has fewer features, uses a wheel combo with the WIN key, and is easier to setup than Volumouse.

Hide and Seek the Status Bar in Firefox 4

The Annoyance I had five extensions I relied on that appeared in the status bar at the bottom of Firefox 3. I upgraded to 4.0 and the stat bar is gone. –Jim Murray, via e-mail

The Fix Yeah, I miss the status bar and the way it provided useful information. But that’s nothing new with upgrades: Developers take two steps forward with a few neat features–and then a step back by removing things we like.

We’re both in luck. The Status-4-Evar extension brings back the status bar, with the unobtrusive Progress Meter and Download Status, as well as letting me see my ever-faithful Lazarus, the tool that resuscitates Web forms I’ve  filled and lost.

I Need a New Multi-Function Printer

The Annoyance Our old HP printer quit working and we want a used printer/scanner. We didn’t really like the HP; the ink is expensive and it was very touchy.  We just want to occasionally print coupons and documents and need to scan some photos and documents to the computer.–pdxcatlovers, via Broad_band.

The Fix I’ve used and reviewed over a million multi-function printers and I say: get a Lexmark. I’ve had the Prestige Pro 805 for about 14 months and I ride it hard. It’s behaved perfectly for all that time.

Last week, much to my dismay, the print head stopped working. But with a five year warranty on the printer, here was the test.

I called tech support–outsourced, but smart and accommodating. His first comment: If I can’t help you fix the problem, don’t worry–we’ll ship you a new print head.

We went through a couple of things –firmware upgrade and cleaning the print head. No luck.

In two days I had a new print head–as well as a set of cartridges for the inconvenience. It was an easy, 10 second job: The print head lifts out just like one of the print cartridges. First take out the print cartridges and then lift a lever.

And to answer next your question: He didn’t know I was the exalted CEO of TechBite and czar at Bass International.

[This post is excerpted from Steve’s TechBite newsletter. If you liked it, head here to sign up–it’s delivered right to your inbox, and it’s free.]

 
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