Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Help! Microsoft Navigator is Driving me Mad!

Imagine, if you will, hearing a little electronic-robotic voice repeat that above statement over and over again. Then add to that the fact that it is Microsoft Navigator itself reading this sentence to you in it's annoying little robotic voice!

I have had many windows problems in recent weeks (mostly VISTA problems, but some XP problems - nevertheless ALL of the problems caused by VISTA.)

Well, this problem was by far the most amusing!

Several weeks ago I accidentally hit some key combination that turns on Microsoft Navagator in VISTA. What happens is suddenly your computer starts reading to you everything aloud. Emails, web pages, key combinations, you name it. A nice thing to have if you are blind, but otherwise very annoying.

I turned it off right away, but soon thereafter discovered that it comes back on every time I reboot. So, today I got fed up with that and went out and found out how to turn it off once and for all (at least until next time I accidentally hit that magic keystroke combination.)

I landed upon this page here to help me figure out what to do:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080223072941AABOlLV

Then I busted up laughing, because my Microsoft Navigator kept reading to me over and over again: "Help! Microsoft Navigator is Driving me Mad"

Anyway, so much to say the instructions on that page are incomplete, at least with respect to VISTA business edition. You have to go to that page, as in start >control panel>ease of access>turn off - but when you do there is only a "turn on" option and no "turn off" option. I had to dig a little deeper by clicking on "make computer easier to use"- where I finally found a check box that lets me turn on and off individual features.

Have fun with VISTA, and don't let the Navigator drive you mad!

~ Basil

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