I'm having problems paying bills online through a bank Web site that worked until I bought a computer that runs Windows XP (Home Edition). Now, when I try to call up the payment center, nothing happens.

I have made credit card payments via the credit card Web site with no problems. Now I can't get on when I ask for the payment center at the Web site. I tried lowering my security under Internet options, as suggested by my IT department at work, with no success. I can make payments at other sites.

You just missed finding a fix on your own - the problem lies not in the level of security that your Web browser is set for, but in the way your software handles privacy issues. The Web sites aren't working because they can't find the files called cookies that are used to handle details such as which sign-on screen should be sent to which users. If you change your privacy settings, the problem will be solved.

Open the browser and click on Tools and then Internet Options. Look for the tab marked Privacy. Click on the box there labeled Edit. This brings up a toolbox that lets you specify which Web sites you will allow to use cookies and which sites' cookies you want to block. Type in the address for your credit card site and click the Allow button.

Could you please give me a step-by-step guide about how to get the digits in the display of the Windows calculator bigger?

I can tell you how to blow up that maddeningly small Windows calculator so that a normal person can actually read it, but the process is a big bother.

The trick is to set your monitor's resolution as low as it can go. Here's how: Run the calculator and then move the mouse arrow onto the desktop and give a right-click. Pick Properties in the pop-up menu that appears.

In the next display, pick the Settings tab and then use the slider command to move the resolution as low as possible, 640 x 480, if possible. Click Apply and the screen will change to a low resolution with all icons much bigger than usual. The calculator too will be oversize, and your eyes will get a rest.

Reverse the process to return to the normal resolution.

You can get a slightly better calculator by loading the Microsoft Power Toys software offered at www.microsoft.com/downloads. This far more powerful calculator only provides a slightly larger display, but makes the numbers you enter nice and black, only to make them too small again once they go into the simulated tape.

James Coates writes for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune Publishing newspaper. Send e-mail to jcoates@tribune.com.