I have a love-hate relationship with my computer.

In fact, often I love to hate my computer!

It will do things I know even the great Mr. Gates didn't intend, and it usually does them at the least convenient time (like when I'm on a deadline or in a hurry).

Rather than the usual whining and doing nothing about it, I've decided to share a couple of things that previously annoyed the heck out of me and the solutions I found to help you avoid these same problems.

*Disappearing Internet Explorer Status Bar*

The status bar at the bottom of the Internet Explorer web browser serves many purposes.

It allows you to hold your mouse over a link to see where the link will take you.

It enables you to see a page's loading progress as you wait for it to download.

Most importantly, the status bar allows you to see the little gold "lock" symbol that lets you know you've made a connection to a secure server (very important to know before you input credit card data).

For some inexplicable reason, from time to time, this status bar disappears from my browser.

Also, the toolbars at the top tend to move periodically and mess up my "system" for surfing the Internet.

Now, it's not the end of the world, but it really ticks me off when things change and I didn't change them! If this ever happens to you, here's how to literally "lock" the toolbars and status bar in place so they don't disappear or move again.

First, close all your Internet Explorer web browser windows except for one. If the status bar doesn't already appear in the window, go to "View" and then click "status bar."

Also, make sure you have all the toolbars arranged the way you want them.

Next, place your mouse over a blank spot on one of the tool bars at the top of the Internet Explorer browser window.

Right-mouse-click and a menu will appear where you should check the option "Lock the Toolbars."

Then, while holding down the key, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the window to close it. This will set your selection.

If you ever need to change your toolbars in the future, simply right-mouse-click on the toolbar and uncheck the "Lock the Toolbars" option, make the changes, and then re- lock the toolbars to keep them from moving or disappearing.

*Missing File Extensions*

One of the biggest pains in the neck involves opening Windows Explorer, viewing a list of files, and not being able to see the file extension (.doc, .txt, .html, etc.) for each file.

For some reason, Windows considers this classified information!

To make the file extensions show up, click "Start" then "Control Panel." Double-click "Folder Options" then click the "View" tab. Scroll down the list and uncheck the box that says "Hide extensions for known file types."

You will now see the file extensions any time you open up Windows Explorer.