67How do I replace Flash on my old scanner?
Select the messages, hit Enter and the total is shown – just click ‘No’ to avoid opening them
Q
I have an old HP Photosmart
all-in-one printer and scanner
that still works well. However,
the software that came with it won’t
work without Adobe's Flash plug-in
installed. I tried HP for an update, but
the company seems uninterested. So,
to use the scanner now I have to use
the buttons on the device itself. I
remember very many issues ago you
warned against using Flash, saying it
should be uninstalled. This I duly did.
Is Flash still unsafe to use? If so, is
there something else I can use with my
HP printer to get the same results? I
would hate to have to scrap my beloved
Photosmart! I do hope you can help.
Kay WilsonA
Flash is dead and will never be
resurrected. There’s no
legitimate download source
for it and installing it now would
anyway be monumentally unwise. So,
any Flash-based software is effectively
as finished as Flash itself.
However, your scanner should work
with any scanning apps made for
Windows – it doesn’t need software
specifically written by HP. Microsoft
offers Windows Scan. Its features are
basic, but it’ll allow you to operate your
scanner without having to pressbuttons on the physical device. It’s a free
download from the Microsoft Store, at
http://www.snipca.com/41753 (see screenshot^1 ).Alternatively, HP has its own free tool- HP Scan and Capture. Get it from
http://www.snipca.com/41754 2.
How do I count
Outlook emails?
Windows Scan
(1) and HP Scan
and Capture (2)
are both free
scanning appsQ
This isn’t really a problem, but I
wonder if you might be able to
help? Recently, I was curious
about how many emails I was receiving
and sending in a month. It was only then
that I realised I had no idea how to get
this information. Outlook does show
how many emails are in my inbox in
total, at the bottom left, along with thenumber unread. I thought if I used Shift
to select the relevant batch of emails, the
number of selected messages would
appear in this same area – but no dice, it
seems. I’m sure there must be a way to
find this information, but I’ll be darned if
I can find it. Do you know if it’s possible?
Josh CohenA
It both is and is not possible! To
explain, we mean that Outlook
doesn’t have a specific feature to
do what you want, even though we agreethat it really should: there are any
number of reasons one might want to
know how many messages have been
selected.
However, there is a workaround that
will give you the tally you want, though
you do need to be just a tiny bit cautious.
That trick is simply to press Enter after
selecting the messages. This tells Outlook
to open all the selected messages, but, if
that number is more than a handful, the
program will check your intention –
displaying a warning that opening so
many messages could take some time. It
therefore asks you if you really want to
open X number of messages, where X is
the quantity selected.
So, as long as you don’t make the
mistake of clicking Yes (or hitting Enter
again), the result you want is revealed.
Just click No or press Escape (Esc) to clear
the question box, and that’s that.Issue 632 • 25 May – 7 June 20221
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