09-25-07 Use Word or WordPad to view this file Tips.txt Use this collective Tips file to search for the subject of interest. Menu/Edit/Find, or Cntrl+F Add new tips to end of this file; menu/Insert/File This file was born out of my seeing neat, helpful things to remember in experience, newsletters, and newsgroups and I figured that there were so many of them that it would be best if I wrote them down. Then I thought that it would be helpful to family and friends to also share this with them. FIND HELP FAST I often look back at past individual Tips sheets and found that it would be easier if i just collected them all in one place so i could do a menu/Edit/Find search process on all of them to find specific refs. I collected them from tips 15 on in this Word 2000 text file. When each new tips sheet is complete and sent out i then add it to the end of this file by menu/Insert/File and then browsing to where i keep the individual tips sheets and clik OK. Word menu/File/Save. The tips sheets are made up of experienced events, magazine articles, News Group info, web info, Newsletters, etc. It was originally compiled to keep track of interesting facts so that I didn't have to trust my failing memory. Tips 1-14 not shown here. 15 Tips 15 a tiny, free file that lets you easily make Win98's Start menu act like Window 2000's: With one click, you can instantly change Win98's default scrolling Menu style to a see-everything-at-once multi-column Menu style. Another click, and it reverts back to a scrolling menu. : http://www.langa.com/reg/menu.reg To change your Start menu type, open Windows Explorer and click on View/Folder Options and then select the View tab. Scroll down to the "Files and Folders" area and you'll see the new checkbox there--- it appears as "Multi Column Start Menu." Check or uncheck it to switch instantly between multi-column and scrolling Menu types Can't see all the info in a table? Press Ctrl and the Plus (+) key on the numeric keypad. The columns will automatically adjust to fit the window or widen to display all the information Free email filter at http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~fangorn/ultimathule/index.html ******** Edit your File Associations list: Here is an example of avoiding the VBS script worms lately found in email attachments: 1) Double click on the "My computer" icon. 2) Click on View followed by "Folder Options.." 3) Click on the "File Types" tab. 4) Scroll down the "Registered file types" to 'VBScript file" and click on it (to select it). 5) Click the "Edit" button. 6) Click on action "Edit" (to select it) 7) Click on "Set Default" button. Edit should now be in bold print. 8) Click on action "Open" (to select it) 9) Click on "Edit .." button. 10) The field "Application used to perform action:" should be selected (ie text highlighted by blue). 11) Press both the Control and C keys to copy the selected text to the clipboard. 12) Press the "Cancel" button. 13) Press the "New.." button. 14) Click your mouse pointer in the "Action:" field and type in "Run" (without quotes) 15) Click your mouse pointer in the "Application to perform action" field and press both the Control and V keys to paste the contents of the previously copied clipboard item into the field. 16) Click on the "OK" button. 17) Click on action "Open" (to select it) 18) Click on the "Remove" button. 19) If you are asked if you are sure, reply yes. 20) Click on "Close" button. [Before closing the dialog box, make sure the "Confirm Open After Download" and "Always show extension" boxes are checked.---FL] Steps 5 to 20 may be repeated for Registered file type of "VBSCript Encoded File". [or other types of script files, too--- FL] common script types (VBS, VBE, WSF, WSH, JS and JSE) What the above does is first set the default action for these scripts to "edit," so if you click on (say) a VBS file, it opens in NotePad instead of running. You can thus automatically view the script contents to see if it's something you really want to run. Grab a copy of Watchdog at http://www.winmag.com/fixes/watchdog.htm ******** err msg, machine hangs up: "msgsrv32 file not responding" ans: the file is a 32 bit virtual device messaging system. it is used by other s/w to transmit messages between virtual devices (the s/w that controls your h/w). if it comes up as not responding, chances are good that it is actually another piece of s/w that is having the problem and this file is merely waiting for that problem to resolve itself before finishing its task. In other words, look elsewhere and re-install whatever you were just working on or do a clean reload of your HD. Remove the URLs that IE remembers for its AutoComplete feature by launching RegEdit and going to HKEY_USERS\Default\Software\Microsoft \InternetExplorer\TypedURLs. Delete any unwanted URLs Don't send large attachments in email. it is best to send the URL where they can find & download the large file on their own if they wish. Prevent hacking on your machine, get a personal FireWall, free. ZoneLabs version 2.1.18--- at http://www.zonelabs.com/beta_download.htm . Also, high quality free antivirus apps, InoculateIT (http://antivirus.cai.com/overview.htm ) Plus, set your Usenet/Newsgroup reader at news:alt.comp.freeware ; it's a user- to-user clearinghouse for a ton of information about various freeware apps---what's good, what's bad, where to get the apps, and lots more Mouse goes out in a session? use Cntrl + ESC to get the Start Menu and then use the Arrow keys to the right item, like Shutdown, and hit the Enter key. When a site won't let you in, or display a page, or restricts you because of your Security settings in Internet Explorer 5 look at them here: Click Tools, and then click Internet Options. Click the Security tab. Click the Internet zone. Select a security level other than High. -or- Click Custom Level, scroll to any option marked as Disable and decide. http://cookiecentral.com You can insert the current time and date in Notepad just by pressing F5 You can set a dual-pane view as your default Explorer (not IE) view by opening any folder and choosing View/Options (or View/Folder Options under IE 4.0 or Windows 98). Under the File Types tab, select the Folder item from the Registered File Types list and click on the Edit button. Highlight Explore in the Actions window, click on the Set Default button and hit OK twice. If you ever want to reverse the setting, follow the same steps, but highlight Open instead of Explore When you clik on Destroy or Delete or Exit by mistake, keep the Left button down and slide it over to Cancel to get out of the mistake. Win98 comes with a handy way to check your Registry for errors. Launch the Microsoft System Information (MSI) utility from Start/Accessories/System Tools/System Information, then select the Registry Checker from the Tools menu. I place this and others on my Desktop; SFC, Defrag, ScanDisk & RegEdit. SysEdit and Explorer i keep in the Start Menu above the separation line. All web utils i keep in a sub dir of my Web entry in the same place. From what i've seen, AMD CPUs do not handle the modem dial speed up setting, S11=50 very well. To type out a dir listing, open a DOS box and type DIR \*.* > c:\windows\temp\text.txt e.g., In DOS, get into the dir you want a listing of, say, d:\widgit then type, DIR *.* > c:\windows\temp\text.txt or try, DIR > LPT1 or, in any DOS dir, type Dir d:\widgit\*.* > c:\windows\temp\text.txt Get back into Windows by typing EXIT on the DOS cmd line Use Explorer to look in c:\windows\temp\text.txt for the Text file text.txt Dble clik on it to open it in NotePad, print as needed. If you don't want e-mail from the requesting site at all, my favorite way to deal with having to put in an e- mail address is to give them name@127.0.0.1. "127.0.0.1" is the localhost IP address. If anyone tries to use this address, they will only be SPAMming their own e-mail system. Next time you need to quickly restart Windows (when your PC already is running) go to the Windows Start button and select Shut Down/Restart as you normally would. But before you click "OK," press and hold the *left shift key*; keep the left shift key depressed until you see the words "Windows is now restarting." http://www.geocities.com/easystreet32/ Free Access http://www.zyweb.com/ Free WebSite 10 MB Anti- Hacker stuff http://grc.com/intro.htm, http://www.dslreports.com/r3/dsl/secureme http://www.antionline.com/) http://www.hackerwhacker.com See, http://www.zonelabs.com/ for a Free personal FireWall You can surf sites anonymously by using the tools at sites such as Anonymizer.com or Rewebber See also, http://www.idcide.com/html/prod/prod.htm MP3 stuff Napster http://www.napster.com/ Use LimeWire. Best CD Ripper to MP3 MusicMatch http://www.musicmatch.com/download/ 16 Tips 16 Ever get a msg like, "We are unable to load this page due to your Security settings" when trying to get to a site or get a download? This condition is probably due to your Browser's web security setting. In IE5, menu/Tools/InternetOptions/Security tab, choose Medium security. If this doesn't solve the problem, then clik on the Default btn; if this doesn't work clik on Custom btn and allow more types to load in. Not allowing cookies will stop Hotmail operations and not allowing Active-X pages will not allow you to get the Critical Updates from MSoft. Search Engines http://search.msn.com/ http://www.google.com/ http://search.yahoo.com/search/options http://www.goto.com/ http://www.metacrawler.com/ http://www.altavista.com/ http://www.about.com/ http://www.northernlight.com/ http://www.britannica.com/ http://www.dictionary.com/translate/ ******* You can place the BB card of your son's on your desktop, - or any other image. Win uses bmp's in the \Win dir, but they are big files so i make a jpg file and place it in the \win dir. if you have a computer image of the picture of your choice, fine. if not, then you have to scan it into a jpg file. Remember, you can reduce the size of jpg files further. then you right clik on clear desktop, clik on Properties in the popup menu, clik on Background tab clik on Browse if your image isn't listed find the file you want, clik on Open the image appears in the dialog box clik on Apply OK image is on your desktop ******* Norton's Speed Disk is considered far superior to Windows' built-in Defrag Same for Norton's Disk Doctor being superior to Windows' Scandisk Save disk space by reducing the number of days IE saves pages in your History list. The fewer days you specify, the less space your system uses. Access the History list settings under Tools/Internet Options. Place a shortcut to your printer right on your Desktop. Right-click on the printer you want in your Printer folder and drag it to your Desktop, choosing the Create Shortcut Here option. Then drag and drop documents to the shortcut to print them. MSoft Tips & Tricks http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindows/communicating/tips/1basic_list.a sp You can get the new IE patch that fixes the hacker problem at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/critical/patch8.htm It's hard to find an icon on a Desktop that's cluttered with dozens of them. Here's a quick way to locate the one you're looking for-all you need to know is the name under the icon. Left Click anywhere on the Windows desktop and press the first letter of the icon's label. Windows will highlight the first icon it comes to beginning with the letter-if that's not the one you're looking for, keep pressing the letter and watch the highlight as it cycles through the matching icons. ******** Free ISP cont. http://www.netzero.com/ Tacoma, WA (253) 272-2457 Tacoma, WA (253) 579-0107 (425) 223-4283 Bellevue, WA (425) 999-3453 Bellevue, WA (206) 384-4283 Seattle, WA Yes (206) 971-2799 Seattle, WA They add netzero email to OE, but their stay-on-scrn taskbar pushes all the desktop icons down to make room the sign in for local numbers is a little tricky. Alta Vista http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/altavista/index.html help pages by following this link: http://microav.com/help/ on screen taskbar. the best Free ISP is NoCharge.com, no on scrn taskbar, good OE use. Also avail is Excite and Lycos ********* http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/highlights/winme.asp See what the new Win 98 (3) Me is about. No DOS ! Sept 2000 Over and over, i implore you to never, NEVER re-type an email or URL address ! Ever (I'm still yelling) ! into anything, for any reason. Always Select, Copy, Paste ! even between apps. If you export a Registry key to disk or create a special RegEdit script, double-clicking the file automatically merges its content with the Registry. You can prevent inadvertent merging of REG files by changing the default action to display a REG file in Notepad. Select View/Options/Filetypes (Folder Options in Win98). Then select Registration Entries from the Registered Filetype list and click Edit. Choose Edit and Set Default. When you do want to merge a file into the Registry, right-click it and select Merge from the popup menu. When you save a Web page, all you really save is the HTML; images and other components remain at the original site. But IE5 lets you save an entire Web page, including graphics. Select Save As from the IE5 File menu and choose Web Page/Complete from the Save As Type drop-down menu. The last ver of win98 (Millennium, win98 Me) has been pushed back to Sept release. We want this one. Be sure to make win98 boot disks as this one may not contain DOS to help you get out of the mess you will eventually make. Of concern to me is the File Express 5.0 app that i use for my books. This is a DOS app and i wonder if it will work with Win 98 Me. http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,3719,00.html The dwnld and convoluted zip file paths are confusing, but manageable. The easiest way to create a full-screen capture in Win95, 98 or NT 4.0 is still by pressing the Print Screen key. That action sends a copy of the screen to the Clipboard. To view the capture, open any Photo/Draw app like ImageComposer and select New/Edit/Paste. SaveAs the image as JPG if possible. Use SnagIt32 for parts of the screen to be saved. 1) VIRUS: a self-replicating program that "infects" one or more files on your system. When an infected file is run or accessed, the virus is triggered, often with malicious and destructive consequences. 2) WORM: a program that moves through a network, depositing itself at each system it encounters along the way. 3) TROJAN HORSE: a file or program that seems legitimate but performs some surreptitious action when run or accessed. TaskInfo2000" is a 'better' task monitor free and can be downloaded from: http://www.iarsn.com/ Win98 comes with a new version of Tweak UI. To install it, insert the Win98 CD; from the opening screen, choose Browse This CD. Navigate to the \TOOLS\RESKIT\POWERTOY folder. (Some computer vendors do not provide TweakUI on their CDs; if this is the case you can download it from http://www.winmag.com/win98/software.htm.) Right-click on the TWEAKUI.INF file and choose Install from the pop-up menu. Setup is done when a Help screen opens. Click on the X in the corner to finish the installation and then launch Tweak UI from the Control Panel New AV scanner : http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/av.asp AntiCrash 2K ( http://www.winsite.com/info/pc/win95/sysutil/anticrash2000.zip/ ) is a Windows utility that runs as a TSR and ensures that when a program is terminated that the resources it uses are automatically returned The main hard-wired Win98 Desktop icon, My Computer, will magically transform into a toolbar if you drag it to one of the four edges of your screen and let go. drag the new toolbar to the taskbar or drag it to the center of the Desktop to create a floating toolbar. Check which version of Windows 9x you have by right-clicking on My Computer, choosing Properties and checking under the General tab's System section, or type VER at the DOS prompt. To see basic info about any HD, dble clik on MyComputer (you can rename this icon) clik on any HD, clik on Properties. Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Tools Beta Microsoft is proud to announce the availability of Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Tools Beta. This release encompasses a number of enhancements to Internet Explorer One of the things some of us has to be concerned about is going to a MSoft site and get the latest update. While there MSoft or a appointee will 'look' at the files in your machine and determine what you need. Sometimes they announce that a list of your s/w will not be given to MSoft or recorded, etc. go ahead and get the upgrade. i don't know what the situation is with Office 2000 and win98 SE updates Win 98 Me will be out this summer Make sure IE is using a minimum amount of disk space when caching Internet files. First, select View/Internet Options and click on the Delete Files button under the Temporary Internet Files section to clear your current cache. Then, click on the Settings button and make sure the "Amount of disk space to use" option is set to 1%. Also, you can use Explorer to empty all files except needed cookies from the \Cookies, \Temp, \TempInternetFiles dirs One of the things MSoft does is to schedule tasks to be done with or without your knowledge. Periodic house cleaning such as ScanDisk, RegClean, Defrag are a few examples of good ones, but ones you can do on your own when it is convenient for you. Bad ones are WindowsUpdateMgr running once a minute. this will screw up a Defrag by having it start over when there is a memory change. You'll never get it done. Clik on Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/ScheduledTasks You can clik on any offending task and then clik on the X Delete btn Then go to menu/Advanced/StopUsingTS Also related is the utils run on StartUp. in Explorer, open up the \Windows dir by cliking on the = sign to the left of the dir name in the left pane. go down to \StartMenu, open it. Open up \Programs dir. clik on \StartUp dir in the left pane. the files listed in the right pane are what is being run every time you start up your machine. Almost always they are unnecessary and can be deleted. Another area of concern is the System Tray. This is the right part of your TaskBar, usually found along the bottom of the screen. In the Tray are small icons that apps have installed there - some are necessary, wanted, extras; right clik on them and make a decision. When you delete a file it will go to the Recycle bin; if you hold down the Shift key while you do this the file will simple be deleted. 17 Tips 17 NoCharge.com is still the best local FREE ISP. ********** Hotmail tends to be susceptible to junk mail. Go to the Hotmail site; www.hotmail.com (can't do this in OE) Sign in Clik on Options in the blue Nav bar across the top of the Inbox, or any, page. Here you can select quite a few things like Compose (your next msg out), Addresses, Folders, etc In Options you can select InboxProtector, Filters, Signature, Preferences, & BlockSender. i have filtered my accts to send all mail containing any of the following words in the Subject line to the TrashBin folder: girl, ladies, xxx, $$, diploma, free, viagra, home, mortgage, loan, porn, weight, hottest, vacation, trip, money, smoking, teen, adult, credit, debt, business, stock, winner, locate, etc This folder is emptied a few times a week and will not fill up the allotted 5MB, but sending these msgs to BulkMail folder might produce a problem as it will only be emptied once a month. You can chk the msgs in BulkMail, but not in TrashBin. So, when you send me a msg and put any of these words in the Subject line - i will never see the msg. When you first visit Filters, you will see, say 10, items for you to fill in then you hit the OK btn and are returned to the Options page. If you clik on Filters again you will see that the system has added another blank item at the end for you to continue adding items to filter out. This repeats. You can also hit the last MoveDown btn to get another blank item. ******** Download the latest version of Windows Media(tm) Player 7 and take it for a spin. Get one-click access to your own audio and video library, CD copying, custom skins, a radio tuner, and more. We heretofore had been using ver 6.4 http://www.microsoft.com/insider/mi/pfwmp7new.htm best for win 98 SE Read the Agreement carefully to see what you should disable later. I was trying to download a file when with no warning i was switched to a dialup and the call was overseas. There was no Cancel btn and i was logging-in fast. I had to shut down the computer. I sent an email to USWest Billing trying to make sure i wasn't charged for the call, $6/min as i later found out. Beware! it all happened very fast. If you do Labels, you'll need AveryWizard that loads into MS Word. get the right version for your Office. http://www.avery.com/software/product_info.jhtml?soft_cat_code=AV_WZ "Here's an enhanced Notepad-like program, called NotePad Light. (There's a for-sale NotePad Pro, too.) I've been using Notepad+ for some time now but, one look at this program and that went out the window. This does HTML and *everything*. I can't believe that such a useful tool would be free. But it is." http://www.notetab.ch/download.htm installation of Internet Explorer 5.5: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie55.htm ********* Control Panel is one of the more frequently used folders in Windows, but it's not always easy to access. You can, however, make the Control Panel applets available directly from the Start menu. First, right-click on the Start button and choose Open. Then, right-click on the background area in the Start menu folder and choose New/Folder. Rename the folder with this string: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} (Windows 95 users can copy and paste this filename from the TIPS.TXT file found in the Windows folder.) Press Enter. This will place Control Panel directly on the Start menu, with the applets appearing on a cascading menu that opens when you move the cursor over Control Panel. For frequently used Control Panel applets, make shortcuts to the applets and add them to the Start menu or the desktop. ********* Create a shortcut to the Device Manager: Right-click on the Desktop and choose New/Shortcut. Type C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE SYSDM.CPL,,1 in the Command Line box and click on Next. Name it Device Manager (or another name of your choice), then click on the Finish button. Assign a new icon to the shortcut as you would any other. In Control Panel/System/Performance, select File System and the CD-ROM tab. Move the Supplemental Cache Size slider to the right to allocate more RAM for caching data from the CD-ROM drive, or to the left to allocate less. Multimedia programs perform better with a smaller cache because they seldom reuse data. For reading continuous data, such as AVI files, use a higher setting for Optimize Access Pattern. For reading random data, increase the Supplemental Cache Size and decrease the Optimize Access Pattern. IE 5.5 is available. see MSoft Update site: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ clik on Product Updates. 18 MB Say you cliked on the Cancel btn when you meant to clik on the OK btn. Stop. Keep holding the left mse btn down and just slide the mse pointer over to the correct btn or blank space and then release. Need a StartUp disk? Open the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel item and click on the Startup Disk tab. Then just put a diskette in your diskette drive and click on the Create Disk button. http://www.lissaexplains.com/ Use this site for kids and simple adults to learn how to make a web site. Print out all the fonts on your system by opening Control Panel, double-clicking the Fonts icon, then on the font of your choice and clicking on the Print button. -The four sites used most often to check online security are: http://grc.com/intro.htm http://www.dslreports.com/r3/dsl/secureme http://cable-dsl.home.att.net/index.htm http://www.antionline.com/ -to do a triggered reboot, issue the cmd C:\WINDOWS\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0x2 18 Tips 18 Screen Saver Builder is a Windows 95/98/NT tool that lets you make your own screensavers. It allows you to combine as many JPEG, GIF, BMP, and PPM images as you want into a single SCR file http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-1461932-100- 1544277.html?tag=st.dl.10001.list.1461932-100-1544277 Every week or so erase your trail. There are at least 3 places on your main HD that saves where you have been on the web and some places you haven't been. So, before the wife, ad agencies, or FBI clamps down on your behavior just look in the following places and erase the things that don't look right. c:\windows\cookies c:\temp c:\windows\temp c:\windows\temporaryinternetfiles c:\mydocuments If you get a msg that a particular file is in use, deselect the first one highlighted and continue with the deletions. ******* When you ask the computer to do something that takes a little time to do, you will see the mse pointer change into the default hourglass. you can change this dot cur files they do make animated cursors, dot ani files right clik on the attached cursor file and SaveAs it to c:\windows\cursors now, clik on Start/Settings/ControlPnl and dble clik on Mouse icon clik on the Pointer tab clik on the Busy line clik on Browse btn to the Cursor dir where you placed the sent animated cursor select it, dble clik it or whatever, Apply, OK and .... now you have a propeller mse pointer that spins while the computer is making up its mind. There are many more out there to choose from; Try MSoft Plus! Themes ******* From time to time you may need to print out a dir listing and Win9x doesn't do it. You have to go into DOS and do a DIR > PRN at the dir shown. Unless you get a free dwnld util that works in Win 9x that does it all; 1 MB PrintDir3.exe from Widget Technologies. widget.bizland.com Use the Portrait view rather than Landscape. This Week's Top 10 Downloads 1. ICQ 2000a 985,786 downloads 2. Webshots Desktop 1.3 426,769 downloads 3. Scour Exchange 3.0 beta 4 255,641 downloads 4. Download Accelerator 4.0 beta 217,540 downloads 5. WinZip 8.0 199,103 downloads 6. CNET CatchUp 1.3 141,229 downloads 7. GoZilla Free 3.9 120,170 downloads 8. RealPlayer 8.0 103,132 downloads 9. Sonique 1.63 85,983 downloads 10. iMesh 1.02 beta 67,304 downloads Find all of CNET Download.com's most popular PC files here: http://1.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=evG0Bxwha0u0TjG Napster ver2b7 is out http://www.napster.com/download/ AboutTime and DialPad continue to be the best clock set and free web telephone utils. Want to see if your dream domain name is still available? www.register.com or www.namesdirect.com never retype a URL or a email address; copy and paste it - always! LapLink 2000 does more than transfer files between 2 computers sitting on a desk. It is now fully web functional. Use a $40 high speed USB cable between them now as well as connect 2 computers thru the web. The app cost $170, but free downloads and the crack are available. It has been written that the third version of Windows 98, the Millennium (Me), "...does not support legacy DOS applications." You old DOS guys may want to stay with Win SE. The two MSoft shut-down files are in the \Windows dir. Logow.sys and Logos.sys To look at them copy them to the \Temp dir and rename them, Logow.bmp and Logos.bmp and view them in /Accessories/Paint. They can be replaced by whatever .bmp you wish. The StartUp image is a little more involved if it is not in your C: root dir, Logo.sys. If not, leave it be. Create new 320x400, 256 colors, .bmp's in PhotoShop, copy it and Paste into Image Composer to SaveAs bmp/sys. Great sound files (movie bites): http://www.star.net/People/~delaney/molly/molly1.htm http://www.star.net/People/~delaney/molly/molly.htm You can change the default sounds at every MSoft event like Exit Windows and substitute in any wave file .wav go to Start/Settings/CntrlPnl/ dble clik on Sounds icon and select the event in the list then Browse to where you have the wav files and select the sound you want. you can test hear the sounds there. http://media.intelweboutfitter.com/preview/us/preview.htm If you think you have a Pentium III and not a fake II, then go to this site and download their util that checks your CPU for you. ******* Free Business Web Sites Bizland.com, bCentral.com, Convey.com, eCongo.com, OhGolly.com, HyperMart.net, Freemerchant.com, Bigstep.com Zanova.com is now onviasites.com NOT FREE http://www.bizland.com/ best one, choose popup ad over banner. http://www.hypermart.net/index.gsp http://www.bcentral.com/ http://www.Convey.com/ http://www.eCongo.com/ http://www.onviasites.com/ was Zanova was FREE http://ohgolly.com/ NOT FREE http://Freemerchant.com didn't like hotmail or juno email http://www.bigstep.com/ free and easy to join ************ Don't forget - Formula1 in the USA at Indy Sept 24th. They will also show Qualifying on Sat., practice on Friday. Ch 35, SpeedVision, and Ch 32, FSNW, will show it here in Seattle. If your sound disappears, dble clik on the yellow horn in the Sys Tray in the TaskBar and adjust the sound levels before tearing the machine apart. I had a long list of books on a web site, but i didn't know how many. Each line was one book. I could have counted the lines, but ... I copied the text on the web page, Pasted it into NoteTab, removed the html tags, Copied/Pasted into Word, took out the blank lines. In Word you can view the number of words and lines in a document by clicking Properties on the File menu, and then clicking the Statistics tab; or, you can clik on menu/Tools/WordCount. a little work, but clever. Learn JavaScript for use in your web pages by going to: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/javascript/tutorials/tutorial1.h tml, or http://javascripts.earthweb.com/ and cliking on Primer and Tutorial menu items. And/Or, if you like Visual Basic, try VBScript. 19 Tips 19 Once again, in OE5, to send an attachment open a new msg and clik on the paper clip icon in the toolbar. Browse to where your file is located (image or text) and clik on the OK btn. Convert all images to JPG or GIF in a Photo/Draw app before sending them as we may not have the means to open your file, or even know what it is. If a file is over 200KB in size, just note the URL of where it is located and paste it in the msg and let us go get it. Check your Windows 98 Update page often for Critical and normal updates, but watch out that you don't place this task in TaskScheduler ******** IE5.5 Repair tool: Click to Control Panel, then to Add/Remove Programs, and then to "Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x." (Your copy may call itself Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x and Internet Tools," or something similar, but your get the idea.) The next step is not at all intuitive, but click the "Add/Remove..." button, and lo and behold, instead of triggering an uninstall, you'll find you've launched the repair tool! The tool gives you the option of repairing your current installation (this is usually the correct choice), or reverting to your previous installation, if you elected to make a backup of that installation when you first installed IE 5+. It reported a problem with my IE 5.5 128 bit browser and suggested reloading. I chose to replace it with the previous version, 5.0. ********* Want to know what the DLL file in your \win\system dir belongs to? Which DLLs are not associated with apps still on your machine? http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/dllarch.htm DLL Archive FREE. also, http://www.sysinternals.com/ DLLView shows which DLLs are currently being used. Want to know about the cookies on your machine? download two files at: http://www.winmag.com/columns/powertools/ptcookie.htm you will need the VBRUN file as the Viewer is written in VB 6 Just dble clik on the downloaded VB file and it will install itself in the right place; \win\system dir. dble clik on the 290KB com file to install it; PT Cookie-Setup. When you machine hangs up - DO NOT just turn off your machine ! hit Cntrl+Alt+Del keys and note the problem app hilited in the dialog box. Clik on the END TASK btn, wait. Resume. In this list there is really only 2 items needed: Explorer and Systray. Check you loaded apps and StartUp dir in Windows to see why the others are there. You are probably running more stuff at bootup than you really need to. This list will also affect your Defrag operation. We've all looked around the web and later noticed cookies and other things in our dirs that didn't look like we visited or asked for. there were a few TV news items about this Doubleclik is one of the guilty parties that places stuff on your machine that watches where you clik and reports back to the ad agency. Gator is another bad one. i've tried to go thru my machine and delete anything that didn't look right manually. this util does it for you automatically. it is free, and easy to use. it found 17 nasty bits from ad companies on my machine in 3 seconds. ADaware is a free spyware removal tool that detects and safely removes advertising spyware from your system. http://www.lavasoft.de/ C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\.@doubleclick[2].txt look for this one esp; i find it replaced after every session. I use this util after every web session. You can find the latest copies of CleanUp.Bat at http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm . The associated full article on disk cleanup (at http://www.winmag.com/columns/explorer/2000/18.htm ) also has additional tips that can help you free up even more space. http://www.winmag.com/columns/explorer/2000/19.htm Part II You can look at the cookies in Explorer/Detail and check the date for old ones. Look at the date, then the name of the cookie and make a decision; e.g. ad-clik.txt is a bad one. to see the results of running c:\util\cleanup.bat clik on the C:Drive in Explorer and note how much free space there is then run cleanup then chk the free space again ******* Let's get started: Click to Tools/Internet Options/Security and then select "Custom Level." As you step through these settings, use the "?" button in the upper right corner of the dialog box to learn more about each setting: Click the "?" and then click the item you're working on: A brief and helpful explanation will appear in a small floating window. Here are my settings; you can and should modify my settings to suit your own unique circumstances: In the section headed "ActiveX controls and plug-ins" I've set these items as follows: Download signed ActiveX controls=Prompt Download unsigned ActiveX controls=Prompt Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe=Prompt Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins=Enable Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting=Prompt In the section headed "Cookies" I've set these items as follows: Allow cookies that are stored on your computer=Enable Allow per-session cookies (not stored)=Enable In the section headed "Downloads" I've set these items as follows: File download=Enable Font download=Enable In the section headed "Microsoft VM" I've set these items as follows: Java permissions=High safety In the section headed "Miscellaneous" I've set these items as follows: Access data sources across domains=Prompt Don't prompt for client certificate selection when no certificates or only one certificate exists=Disable Drag and drop or copy and paste files=Enable Installation of desktop items=Prompt Launching programs and files in an IFRAME=Prompt Navigate sub-frames across different domains=Prompt Software channel permissions=High safety Submit nonencrypted form data=Enable Userdata persistence=Enable In the section headed "Scripting" I've set these items as follows: Active scripting=Enable Allow paste operations via script=Prompt Scripting of Java applets=Prompt In the section headed "User Authentication" I've set these items as follows: Logon=Automatic logon only in Intranet zone Then click "OK." You should never be bothered by the like of an auto-installing app like Comet Cursor again. see ad-aware ******* i'm not sure how many times i have to say this: DO NOT re-type email addresses or URLs Select, Copy & Paste them ONLY EVERYWHERE ! Friends sent me msgs and they didn't get to me. I have my Subject line filtered. so if y'all place one of the magic words in it the msg gets dumped. to counteract this in Hotmail/Filters, we can set up new Filters that look at the FromName and FromAddr Containing 'whoever' and send the msg to the Inbox, safely. Place these filters at the top of the list. Use From Address to differentiate between 'moss' & 'ssome' not FromName When you have to chk in AddressBook while off line, don't open OE, just clik on Start/Programs/Accessories/AddrBk When you machine hangs up - Do Not Shut Off the Power ! hit the Cntrl+Alt+Del keys all at once and note the hilited item in the popup list. this is probably the culprit, besides you, clik on the EndTask btn. ******** WinHacker 2.0 WinHacker is a utility that you can use to configure the hidden Windows 95, 98, 2000, and Windows NT 4.0 settings. It is THE Windows Shell Management Tool. Many of the settings that change the way Windows works and feels are hidden in the overwhelming registry, or in configuration files. WinHacker give you an easy way to configure those settings through the GUI (graphical user interface). http://1.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=ev60Bxwha0u0EFdm Name: Win Company: Hacker Ser Num: 1ad6-def10e (Crack) ********** Tips 20 DIGITAL CAMERAS For the web site or email, we only need 320x240 images. This can be provided by a $60 camera, but don't try to print them out. You will have to reduce the screen size image by 1/4 the area to get close to a decent print. The above mentioned images size means 76K CCDs behind the camera lens receiving light. This is a very small matrix; 0.076 Mpixels. To get a sharp printed 8"x10" print you will need a camera with 6.0 mpixels. Translation: $2000 more. there are a few good dig cams for $80-$100 that are 640x480 = 300,000 , 0.3 mpixels that have a USB interface - these would seem to be the best low-end compromise for normal, non-tech, non-pro use. When you get into 'nice' dig cams that are 1.3, 2.0, 3.1 mpixels you are talking $700+ and watch out paying for features that you don't need like motion picture action, sound, or multiple file size saving. What do you really need? AUDIO- MP3 AudioGrabber, known by many audio fans as the ultimate audio CD ripper, this sophisticated sound utility can copy digital audio tracks to your hard drive, normalize your music for optimal volume levels, delete silence from the start and/or end of tracks, and send them to a variety or external MP3 encoders. And, to top it all off, this new version features support for the CDDB and improved ripping capabilities. Up for grabs:http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=e470Bxwha0Ou0E1NJ UPC TO SITE DeBarCode is cool, and works because a bar code is usually just a representation the Universal Product Code, or UPC; the UPC numbers themselves are usually printed in standard numerals just below the bar code. Those numbers are what you type into the DeBarCode site. http://www.debarcode.com/deBarcode/html/index.html COMPUTER LESSON A CD-RW was sent with instructions saying it was all setup, just install it and run the s/w. Didn't work. In fact, now the original CDROM didn't work either. Went into Dev Mgr and found that the entire Secondary HD Controller was in question as marked by a yellow Exclamation mark. Solution? Both the CDROM and the new CD-RW were jumpered as Slave. Change either one to Master and all is well. BROADBAND NewLetters http://www.bbxp.com/ http://www.winmag.com/columns/broadband/2000/31.htm TWEAK http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI. asp BIOS The BIOS Survival Guide. This place will take you to school on your PC's CMOS BIOS settings, and it offers help for both the uninitiated and advanced users. Keep Registry Optimized Reader submission: If you write frequent changes to your Registry, Run SCANREG with the /OPT switch in DOS only, NOT a DOS window in Win. Boot to DOS and at the prompt type SCANREG /OPT. This switch compacts the wasted space in Registry and removes lines that aren't being used. Keeps the Registry clean, which means you're less likely to encounter corruption issues, and Windows may boot slightly faster. REGISTRY http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=18924 RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys that are stored in a common location in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that contain erroneous values, and after recording those entries in an UNDO.REG file, it removes them from the Windows Registry. MONITOR VS VIDEO CARD Unsure whether your graphics card and Plug and Play monitor are communicating properly? DDCtest (136kb) will tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know about your Plug and Play monitor. Wish your older monitor had some of the OnScreen Display capabilities that newer monitors have? OSD (132kb) measures and reports vertical and horizontal sync frequencies, and features an adjustable "accuracy" control. http://www.entechtaiwan.com Also, ResMan from the same place integrates a resource monitor, process manager and memory recovery into a single little utility (124 kb) that resides in the Windows system tray. When Cntrl+Alt+Del doesn't work, try this one. Why this stuff? When you computer hangs up - don't just turn it off! Find the renegade app running and END TASK it by using either of these utils. VIRUS, worms, Trojan horses For an email bug to be an issue, someone would have to send you email formatted as an RTF ("rich text") document, and embed a particular OCX/ActiveX control inside the RTF document. Then, after viewing the email, the OCX could cause your mail app to crash. An attached executable like an exe, com, or bat file could also cause problems. Send JPG images and txt files only. If you want someone to have an executable file you found on the web, give them the URL to go to it and see for themselves. Executables tend to be too large to attach anyway. See the following for a fix: http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=24421 FILE SIZE Which brings up another aspect of attached files; when you send an image, reduce the size of the file first by compressing it in many of the Photo/Draw apps using menu/File/SaveAs for JPG compression. UPDATES Want to search for updates automatically? Click here to try out CNET CatchUp, a free service that scans your system and points you to the latest software updates: http://1.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=ezh0Bxwha0u0EgMq COPY CDs TO CDRW Nero Burning ROM: http://1.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=exZ0Bxwha0u0DVkm CloneCD: http://1.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=exZ0Bxwha0u0DVln comprehensive list of CD-burning downloads http://1.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=exZ0Bxwha0u0ETde FREE LD CALLS http://www.dialpad.com/products/index.html Jack now suggests using Juno 5 powered by Net2Phone instead of DialPad for the best free long distance calling util. You will need a headset and a means to switch between the headset and your speakers being connected to your sound card. You can just use the speakers and a microphone, but you will hear an echo. FIREWALL personal use http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/partners/zonealarm/download.html ZoneAlarm 2.1 (Not the Pro version) Easy to use, Always-On Internet Security Combining the safety of a dynamic firewall with total control over applications' Internet use, ZoneAlarm gives rock-solid protection against thieves and vandals. ZoneAlarm makes ironclad Internet security easy-to-use. ZoneAlarm is still free for personal and non-profit use. Download here. This seems to be the best personal Firewall util. WIN98 UPGRADE >My question to Newsletter: Is there anyway MSoft will listen to pleas to further refine and keep Win98 SE viable in the future? ANS : I doubt it. The next *major* upgrade to win98 (not the silly piece o' crud that WinME is) will be out in about a year. stay tuned. We have DOS-less Win2K and reduced-DOS Windows ME In WinME, Microsoft has hidden access to DOS and made it difficult to create a useful bootable floppy disk. VIRUS Be careful about sending greeting cards as email as they are Executables and can contain viruses even though they pass a virus test. AD REMOVERS http://www.adsubtract.com/se/download.html AdSubtract SE "Standard Edition" is software that works in the background along with your browser. The two main features of AdSubtract SE are blocking web ads and cookies. You may think this won't apply to you as you don't visit sex sites or buy stuff online, but it will. No matter what you look at on-line, you will be slipped these ad agency cookies that watch what you clik on and then they report back your selections; you are monitored. Removing these watchers makes the web faster, less cluttered and enhances online privacy. Look out for SexTracker and DoubleClick cookies. i use AD-aware about 4 times a day to thwart them. See also, Interquick at http://interquick.deerfield.com/. lite ver is free. IQFilter looks good too. RESTORE DOS TO WIN98Me the link at http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/ will show you how you can restore access to real-mode DOS in WinME by patching some low-levels files in the OS. However, All the MSoft support tech has to ask is "did you apply a real mode patch" and if you did, he or she can probably legitimately deny you any tech support you'd otherwise be eligible for because the OS itself has been modified. NEED FOR SPEED? With all the web use we are getting out of our computers, the speed we really need is in our web connection - Cable or ADSL modem hookup, rather than the high CPU speed that we used to crave while working off-line. EDIT IE ADDR DROPDOWN LIST To edit the IE Addr dropdown list, the info is in the Registry you have to dble clik on RegEdit.exe in \windows go to: HKCU/SW/MS/IE/TypedURLs (abrv) delete those you don't want by cliking in the right window on the Name then menu/Edit/(Shift)Delete, Yes, then do next one. Exit RegEdit by cliking on the X in the top right corner or use menu/File/Exit. Also, to remove those names from the List in CntrlPnl Add/Remove s/w that stubbornly stay there get into the Registry again. Edit HKLM/sw/MSoft/Windows/CV/Uninstall (abrv) hilite the key and DEL. Win DRIVERS www.win-drivers.com PCI Bridge Intel 82371 21 Tips 21 FORGOT PASSWORD? Only a line asterisks? Bring up Snad Boy's Revelation. Drag the X over the string of asterisks and read the hidden password. Slick. ******* SPEED TEST DSL Reports (yup, the same site mentioned in the previous item) also has recently added a free and easy-to use Java-based speed-measuring applet at http://www.dslreports.com/stest/0 . It's OK, and has the advantage of testing your upload speed as well as the more-important download speed. UPDATES Want to search for updates automatically? Click here to try out CNET CatchUp, a free service that scans your system and points you to the latest software update http://catchup.cnet.com/ My Results (verbose) Test running..Downloaded 60900bytes in 820ms Downloaded 696000bytes in 8460ms First guess is 658kbps medium speed line - now test 1mb Downloaded 1109250bytes in 13400ms Upload got ok 1 bytes uploaded Uploaded 1bytes in 60ms Upload got ok 1 bytes uploaded Uploaded 1bytes in 60ms Upload got ok 1 bytes uploaded Uploaded 1bytes in 60ms Upload got ok 50000 bytes uploaded Uploaded 50000bytes in 3080ms Upload got ok 100000 bytes uploaded Uploaded 100000bytes in 18240ms Clik on Graph btn here and ** Speed 662(down)/44(up) kbps ** (At least 13 times faster than a 56k modem) Finish. Your download speed : 662238 bps, or 662 kbps. Browsers would show : about a 80.8 k/sec transfer rate. Your upload speed : 44004 bps, or 44 kbps. Your upstream result was very slow! .. not good ********* * Further test Results * Your public IP address is 24.12.238.162 Hops left before discard (TTL) is 115 TCPopts hex string is 020405b401010402 Max Segment Size is 1460 * Your MTU is set ok SACK Permitted (RFC2018) Ping stability 101 93 93 99 98 92 90 91 92 98 * Quick packet-loss tested ok DefaultRcvWindow (RWIN) is 4288 Your RWIN limits you @94.7ms to 362kbps ********* Your RWIN limits you @200ms to 171kbps ********* * Your RWIN 4288 is much too low Your Path MTU Discovery is ON Max sized data packet from you 1500 * Conclusion.. possible problem * End The most significant parameter for TCP/IP tuning is the TCP Receive Window (RWIN). Most other tuning attempts usually do little or no benefit and may actually cripple proper TCP/IP connectivity as exemplified by so called MTUTweak programs that aim to optimize the line for dial-up use. If you have previously used one of these programs, I suggest you remove the registry changes done by them. Typically, these programs lower your MTU (maximum transmission unit) to 576, reduce TCP Window Size to as low as 2144 (an absolute no no for broadband connections), Disable Path Maximum MTU discovery (when this is disabled windows uses an MTU=576). After cleanup download one of the following registry files and double-click to import it to the registry. You must reboot to get registry changes effective. This is a Registry change Windows 98: Find the following line and substitute RWIN for nnnn as a decimal number. DefaultRcvWindow"="nnnn" HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP I set mine to 9600 from 4288 rebooted ran test again Test running..Downloaded 60900bytes in 270ms Downloaded 696000bytes in 3080ms First guess is 1807kbps fairly fast line - now test 2mb Downloaded 1679100bytes in 7630ms Upload got ok 1 bytes uploaded Uploaded 1bytes in 720ms Upload got ok 1 bytes uploaded Uploaded 1bytes in 170ms Upload got ok 1 bytes uploaded Uploaded 1bytes in 110ms Upload got ok 50000 bytes uploaded Uploaded 50000bytes in 3130ms Upload got ok 100000 bytes uploaded Uploaded 100000bytes in 11370ms ** Speed 1760(down)/71(up) kbps ** (At least 35 times faster than a 56k modem) Finish. Your download speed : 1760524 bps, or 1760 kbps. Browsers would show : about a 214.9 k/sec transfer rate. Your upload speed : 71428 bps, or 71 kbps. Your connection rocks .. above the 1mbit barrier! Note improvement 35 times faster than a 56k over the old 13 times faster by this one Registry edit after the online speed test. Next is MTU size. 2 days later ** Speed 1958(down)/123(up) kbps ** (At least 39 times faster than a 56k modem) ********* COMPUTER LESSON New MSoft copy protection, apparent. Original CDs used to install Streets 2001. Worked fine. Selected to use the Run CD #2 for data rather than load all the maps onto the HD. Orig CDs were copied. Copied Data (Run) CD was rejected when used with installed app. Removed and Reloaded app from copied CDs - still didn't work; same problem. Removed and tried to reinstall the app with Full installation of Data. Install program balked yet again at the Run CD (#2). Either the Run CD copy is bad or MSoft has found a way to outwit some people. just put in the orig Run CD with a new reload with the copied Setup CD1 and it works fine. i wonder if it is just a particular cdrw way of copying (they all seem to copy diff) or if win98 SE has a fix built into it. A way to test this is to use a cdrw with win 98 ver 1 or win 95. i'll try copying the data CD on another machine. CDs MUSIC Note that most CDs have 10-12 songs on them. If you convert your Audio CDs to MP3 files you will be able to place 160 songs on a CD using your CD-RW NAPSTER Still up and running. You can make your default dir(s) available to all other users thru Default & Settings options, but you can also realize that the more great songs you have (available) the more people will want and download them; which is the whole purpose of this exercise. However, so many people will download from you, upload on your part, that you will never be able to gracefully logoff. So, i keep the main dir of my 300+ mp3's off-line and leave a token dir of 15 -25 great, short songs for the public. Use menu/File/Preferences/Sharing and Downloading to set these areas. Consider it practical rationalizing. 22 Tips 22 MACHINE SERIAL NUMBER? "GUID" stands for "Globally Unique IDentifier" and is a technology standard specified by the Open Software Foundation (OSF) to create unique and non-repeating "ID Tags". Such "ID Tags" are generated once then stored, typically in the Windows Registry.If you're really curious, use the Windows "RegEdit" program to look under this key name: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID and you'll see a billion GUID's (Don't change anything!)In the past, the use of GUID's has aroused the wrath and concern of privacy advocates the world over, since they are like "serial numbers" which can be used to uniquely identify software users NIC means: Network Interface Card, your Ethernet card, usually. SPYWARE If you use the RealNetworks RealDownload, Netscape/AOL Smart Download, or NetZip Download Demon utilities in their default configuration . . . EVERY TIME you use one of these utilities to download ANY FILE from ANYWHERE on the Internet, the complete "URL address" of the file, along with a UNIQUE ID TAG that has been assigned to YOUR machine, and - in the case of Netscape's SmartDownload only - YOUR computer's individual Internet IP address, is immediately transmitted to the program's publisher. See previous Tips 21 for Spy Cookies and how to thwart them. ALPHABETIZE in OE, to line up the msgs in your Inbox by Date (or any criteria) clik on the bar at the top of the List. Click again to reverse the order. in IE, for Favorites, Clik on menu/Favorites to open the drop down list; right clik on any folder and select SortByName from the popup list to line up the Folders, the open up any folder by left cliking on it, move to the right into that list and right clik on any URL item and select SortByName from the popup list to line up the URLs. Normally, new URLs added to a folder in Favorites are just added to the end. New users do not create enough Folders in Favorites and clog up the root dir of Favorites with individual URLs - this is inefficient. Create Folders in Favorites when you clik on IE/menu/Favorites/AddtoFav/NewFolder. Then go back and MovetoFolder all the stray URLs in your Fav dir. COPY Sometimes when you select text on the web it doesn't seem to want to be copied; try Select and then Cntrl+C and then Paste it in elsewhere. *********begin 1 SPEED TEST Revisited Results: 1. Speed 1958(down)/123(up) kbps (At least 39 times faster than a 56k modem) this is for the ATT@home Cable ISP. 2. Speed 2108(down)/124(up) kbps ** (At least 42 times faster than a 56k modem) Ran test at http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks#howlarge * Results * Your public IP address is 24.12.238.162 * Your MTU is set ok * Quick packet-loss tested ok * Your RWIN 9600 is too low * Conclusion.. possible problem * End RWIN 9600 too low ! it was 4288 before i edited it. Edit Registry DefaultRcvWindow HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP changed it to 14200 Speed 2719(down)/53(up) kbps (At least 54 times faster than a 56k modem) Higher RWIN is bad for upload packets and dropped from 124 to 53kbps After TWEAK this result: * Your public IP address is 24.12.238.162 * Your MTU is set ok * Quick packet-loss tested ok * Your RWIN 14200 is too low * Conclusion.. possible problem Amazing. http://www.dslreports.com/tools is a menu of all BroardBand Testing IP LookUp : Get your current IP, track down owners of domains or IP addresses Changed RWIN to 18200 Speed 2752(down)/58(up) kbps (At least 55 times faster than a 56k modem) Your download speed : 2752622 bps, or 2752 kbps. Browsers would show : about a 336 k/sec transfer rate * Your public IP address is 24.12.238.162 * Your MTU is set ok * Quick packet-loss tested ok * Your RWIN is set ok at 18200 orig it was 4288 where is yours? * Conclusion.. HEALTHY SETUP! Yea ! See next item for an easier way to do this with Dr TCP. ********end 1 MTU HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Net\0000 IP MTU of 576 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Net\0000\Ndi\params\I PMTU same HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\Ndi\ATMDefaults dc 23 00 00 ???? http://www.dslreports.com/front/drtcp.html Dr TCP 45KB executable file Provides an easier way to note and change RWIN and MTU. Using this util, insert values of 1500 for MaxMTU, 3 for MaxDupACKs, and 64 for TTL. Clik on Apply btn and Exit btn. See Registry Tweaks at http://www.speedguide.net/index.shtml CDR We figured out the CD copy problem. We were coping directly from the CDROM onto the blank in the CDR. The best way is to use Adaptec's CDCopy.exe util. This copies everything on the CD in the CDR to a temp dir on your HD. Then it copies from the HD back to the CDR blank CD. The true test of this was in using Streets 2001 Data CD. The former way produced an unusable data CD and the latter way produces a data CD that works fine. Next, i would try the 1st (Setup) CD in Encarta 2000 this preferred way. Adaptec Easy CD Creator Update 4.02e(310) Look in Explorer, at the end of your HD list of folders for ZipCD dir. If you've loaded your CDR(W) s/w this dir is probably there; CDCopy.exe is in it. Create a shortcut on your DeskTop for it by r mse btn dragging the file name in Explorer to a blank space on the dt. SECURITY DSL Report's full scan (at http://www.secure-me.net/secureme_go ) is still probably the best overall, but it's slow and requires that you register. Although it's meant mainly for DSL and Cable Modem users, it will test any kind of connection. https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2, http://www.secure-me.net/scan ********begin 2 REGISTRY I've mentioned editing the Registry a few times and felt i'd better give a quick word on that as this is the one place to really screw up your machine. Every time you logon Win makes a backup copy of the critical User.dat and System.dat files, but it is still best to play safe or be careful. i have found that it is often necessary to search/edit the Registry. Here is a typical example and something that everyone would like to clear up used here as an excuse to get in there and do something. In IE, or any browser, you will see the Address window across the top that shows the URL for the web page that you are looking at. Note on the right hand side there is a down arrow that signifies that this is a drop-down list. Click on it and you will see all the addresses you have entered in lately - some valid, some mistakes. The latest visits will be at the top of the list. How do you get out the mistakes and weed out others? Bingo! You edit the Registry. I could tell you exactly where in the Registry this list is, but let's assume you don't want the easy way and would like to know how to Search for it. First, you have to bring up the Registry Editor. It is in C:\Windows and is called Regedit.exe. In Explorer, right clik on this file and drag it to the clear desktop and release the mouse btn. Select Create Shortcut from the popup menu; edit name to suit yourself. Now you can easily get to it anytime. Go to IE and open up that drop down list, pick out a mistake or something unique to search for. Dble clik on the RegEdit icon to open this util. My Computer at the top of the list on the left will be hilited. Clik on menu/Edit/Find. A popup dialog box opens; type in enough of the URL to search for. Clik on FindNext btn. It will search the Registry till it comes to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs in the left pane. If not, then hit the F3 key to resume the search. Otherwise, in the right pane are 2 columns; Name and Data. Hilite the Name entry you want to edit. Clik on menu/Edit/Modify if you want to just change the value of the Name, ie the data. Clik on menu/Edit/Delete (or hit the DEL key) if you want to erase the whole line, Name and Data. A popup dialog box opens if you select Modify. Clik in the Value Data text box and edit then clik on the OK btn. If the Data line is blue hilited and you hit the BackSpace key you will lose the whole value. Use the Arrow keys and then edit. Clik on the OK btn to fix the new value. Now, how did i get that long file path above in this msg? Did i re-type it in? Never. A mistake will always be made when re-typing such things as well as email addresses and URLs. In the left pane of RegEdit right clik on TypedURLs folder and select CopyKeyName from the popup menu. Now you can paste it anywhere. Try it. Always Select, Copy & Paste such things. *********end 2 23 Tips 23 11-22-00 the tips are added to the top of the msg; so, earlier tests are at the bottom. SPYWARE http://grc.com/oo/program.htm Clik on OptOut Freeware to get free 35KB file to check your machine against SpyWare. Se Ad-aware for the ad spy cookie fight. WEB RADIO http://discjockey.com/ i like Classical Masterpieces MSoft DIRECTX 8 upgrade http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eBG50Bxwha0u0BpAA VIDEO cards. AGP4 nVidia GetForce2 seems to be the best chip set for our use, $230. Teledyne makes a $400 video card that will work with HDTV and Samsung makes a $7000 HDTV monitor. MusicMatch 6 is free and ready at http://www.musicmatch.com/download/ This is what you would use to change your tracks on a audio CD to MP3 files. ********begin 1 DISASTER When your machine hangs up and the mse and keyboard won't work, don't just shut off the machine. Hit the Cntrl+Alt+Del keys simultaneously and clik on the EndTask btn for the hilited, troubled app in the dropdown list. When your machine goes blank and Reboot won't solve anything, Booting up on the Proprietary factory Win CD should re write everything to the HD, but before doing that i would take the another route: note: Windows Me may not let you do this. Hit F8 during normal bootup and select DOS from the menu. go to C:\Windows dir If you followed an earlier Tips sheet you made a backup of your Critical files. set the attributes on 2 files to off, i.e., system.dat and user.dat Rename each file to anything else, e.g., ssystem.dat Rename each backup file to the orig name, i.e., system.dat Cross everything you have and Reboot Details: make sure you are in the Windows dir or issue: CD C:\windows in DOS cmd line. ATTRIB system.dat -h -s REN system.dat ssystem.dat REN system.bak system.dat ATTRIB system.dat +h +s repeat for user.dat ********end 1 WINDOWS UPDATE http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ Select Product Update It is best that you do not download, dwnld, the auto notify Critical Update util as this will periodically check for new notices and interfere with utils like ScanDisk and Defrag which should be run once a week or after a major app removal or before a major installation in that S then D order. this esp applies to your Zip drive. MSN Messenger Questions/Suggestions? http://messenger.msn.com/support/contactus.asp To change the options in Msgr, open MSN Msgr & clik on menu/Tools/Options/Preferences tab. IE 5.5 SP1 Microsoft page where you can download it: http://www.winmag.com/columns/insider/2000/38.htm#prodbeat VPN A Virtual Private Network enables a business to use the Internet as its own dedicated network. It allows employees, satellite offices, and select customers, to share information and perform routine administration tasks, confidentially and securely from any location. Why use it? The predominate value of the VPN solution to businesses lies in replacing expensive dedicated private network facilities with the more economical and extensive Internet backbone CABLE http://www.howstuffworks.com/cable-modem4.htm @HOME cable timesaver info in OE, set connection to LAN in/out mail Server name for first acct to mail.sttls1.wa.home.com in/out mail Server name for 2-7 accts to mail POP3 input See Member Services site page for signup for mail and web site allowed 7 email addresses and each is allowed a web site, 10MB each All email accts are found at one loc, the default LocalFolders/Inbox Change your RWIN and MTU size to max your down/up throughput. i use 18K and 1.5K. Your web site can be found at http://members.home.net/YourID/ the FTP Host Name is members.home.net Your Initial Remote Site Folder is YourID no slashes SPEED enhancement http://computingcentral.msn.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest50.asp Your line speed:6800 Kbps, 833.3 K bytes/sec (your modem is doing 5 KB/s) http://www.dslreports.com/stest?loc=1 Other tests Test running.......... ** Speed 4616(down)/61(up) kbps ** (At least 92 times faster than a 56k modem) !! ******** Logging result Finish. This Speed test result with a RWIN of 65535. Reset RWIN to 18200 ** Speed 4447(down)/68(up) kbps ** (At least 88 times faster than a 56k modem) Your download speed : 4447947 bps, or 4447 kbps. Browsers would show: about a 542.9 k/sec transfer rate. Your upload speed : 68376 bps, or 68 kbps. Your connection rocks .. above the 1mbit barrier! Clearly, making the changes at http://www.speedguide.net/index.shtml other than RWIN helps and using Dr TCP util makes Reg editing easier. see MTU below. i can also try to set the RWIN value to 256000 HACKERS There are many tests on the web to check your security, one of them is in DSL Reports at: http://www.dslreports.com/tools. Security Probe will point out a hole that we have that i have not got a good answer for. For those of us that have FrontPage installed, it provides a Personal Server which is used to preview what out site will look like on the web without having to upload it. This opens up Port 80 and leaves it open to all who might probe. i'll keep checking. "Steve Gibson's Shield's Up ( , or ) is by far the friendliest of the security-scanning services, and also has excellent tutorials and how-to information that can be used to correct any problems uncovered by the scan. It's in two parts--- a "shields scan" and a "port probe." You should run both." Netscape6 also installs a server as well as being bloated. Spyware and open port problems. AOL too. REAR SPEAKERS Here's something that can save you a couple of hours, money, and patience. SB Live sound card; The rear speaker jack on the back (blk) is used with a 4 speaker setup. Select the 4-Speaker mode. Then the Play Control Mixer has more Advanced controls not usually shown on the left. It has a Front/Rear blender that must be placed near the bottom of the scale in order to hear the rear speakers at all and then just barely under normal sound. However, if you want the RearSpeakerEffect then install it and wait for sound that uses it. Otherwise, for loud sound around you all the time forget the above and just place the rear speaker wires in parallel with the front speakers. Also, don't set the Reverb above 10% if you are over 25; gamers, carry on. MTU (back to speed) Has to be set as well as the size of the RWIN to max your connection. http://www.speedguide.net/index.shtml Registry Tweaks. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0001 Max MTU is now 1500 for Ethernet card after setting it in Dr TCP (DSLReport site test util - get it) the IPMTU of 576 was for the DialUp, the NIC wasn't even listed in the Registry. ReRan speed test Speed 2978(down)/83(up) kbps ** (At least 59 times faster than a 56k modem) Your download speed : 2978447 bps, or 2978 kbps. Browsers would show : about a 363.5 k/sec transfer rate. Your upload speed : 83160 bps, or 83 kbps (128 max) . Your connection rocks .. above the 1mbit barrier! * Your MTU is set ok * Quick packet-loss tested ok * Your RWIN is set ok at 18200 * Conclusion.. HEALTHY SETUP! http://www.speedguide.net/Cable_modems/cable_registry.shtml HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\000n (Where "000n" is your TCP/IP protocol. It contains "TCP/IP" assigned to the "DriverDesc" value. "n" can be any number from 0 to 9) MaxMTU="1500" (string var) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP DefaultRcvWindow="256960" Select MSTCP folder, menu/Edit/New/StringVal DefaultTTL="64" (string var, range 1-255, use any number between 32 and 128) PMTUDiscovery="1" (string var, boolean, 0-false or 1-true PMTUBlackHoleDetect="0" (string var, zero for optimal performance) Tcp1323Opts="3" (string var, recommended setting is 3. SackOpts="1" (string var, recommended setting is 1. Possible settings are 0 - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VXD\MSTCP\Parameters MaxDupAcks="3" (DWORD decimal var, taking integer values from 2 to N. Recommended setting is 3) Now, make a copy of all your Critical files. SPEED We've all been really pleased with sitting down to a new computer that was twice as fast as out old one. it is a pleasure to work on a fast machine. But, then we all got on the web and now do 80%+ of computer stuff on it, no longer spending hours working with apps off-line. Everything is now email, searching for info and downloading files. Where is the need for a new faster computer? Gone, unless you are into Video, extreme graphics, number crunching, or sound. It is now a faster internet connection that is where we need the speed. Your old computer will do just fine at, say, 450 MHz (650-850 MHz. max needed) Wake up and smell the megabitspersecond 24 Tips 24 TEST YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION SPEED http://www.microsoft.com/insider/mi/pfintspeed.htm CLIPART Want to jazz up your Web page or work documents? Visit the Microsoft Clip Gallery Live for free downloads of over 120,000 graphic images and sounds, including photographs, Web animations, and clip art. http://www.microsoft.com/insider/mi/pfclipgal.htm MUSIC Learning music theory and history can be challenging. Put your computer to work and shorten that learning curve with these free, downloadable programs. Start with the basics, like chord structure and famous composers, then work your way up to ear training and composition. http://www.microsoft.com/insider/mi/pfmusicdwn.htm FIREWALL The folks at Tiny Software have released a new beta of Version 2 of their free and well-regarded "Tiny Personal Firewall" at http://www.tinysoftware.com/pwall.php or, ZoneAlarm--- the de facto standard for free personal firewalls, at http://www.zonealarm.com START UP Check your startup folder using msconfig.exe. Start/Run/type in msconfig Many programs will leave "stubs" in this folder, even after they're removed. Unchecking the startup program in msconfig will regain system resources and you may find all manner of useless stuff that can be easily shutoff without having to resort to editing your registry. Or, use Explorer to delete the startup items in the \StartUp dir SFC Use System File Checker (sfc.exe) and Version Checker (vcmui.exe) to assure that your system files have not been corrupted, deleted or changed by an install/uninstall routine. Games are notorious for installing old versions of DirectX over the new one you downloaded last week. This can cause video, sound and joystick problems that can be easily cured by checking for and restoring the files with the most recent file version number and or date. Don't pay too much attention to file dates as they sometimes are erroneously saved as the date they were installed, not the create date. Use a DLL analyzer to see what app the DLL in question belongs to, like WhatsHappening from Turboware or DLLView from System Internals. DIRECTX Run dxdiag.exe if you have problems that you know are related to DirectX. You can see if your drivers are up to date, check to see if they are working properly and change some default DX settings for compatibility. If DXDiag say the driver is uncertified, don't worry too much unless you know the driver is the problem, "certified drivers" are not usually the most recent or best for your games. OE LAYOUT options In Outlook Express you can change your View of it my cliking on menu/View/Layout In the Basic section have chk marks in only Folder List, Status Bar, & Toolbar. In the Preview Pane, chk all three on the left. IE LAYOUT options menu/View StatusBar should be chkd menu/View List should be selected menu/View/ExplorerBar Folders should be chkd menu/View/ToolBar StdBar, AddrBar, TextLabels should be chkd menu/View/FolderOptions/View tab this is where you can select Scripting options to allow getting the right picture when you go to a web site. AD-AWARE Version 4.02 is now out. From Lavasoft. get rid of spyware cookies. http://www.lavasoft.de/aaw/index.html PASSWORD It is best to use a pw with at least 10 chars (characters) of mixed letters, numbers and punctuation if you do not want your pw broken by hackers, if they would try in the first place. Got a line of asterisks and can't remember what pw you typed in? Use SnadBoy's Revelation - it is free and quick. A safe way to keep a list of all the pw's used is to place the list in an email encrypted in PGP and mail it to yourself. UNZIP In Explorer, when you have a zip file or a self-exploding exe file, right clik on it and drag it to the dir that you would like it in. Then release the mse btn and select 'Extract to' from the popup menu and it will expand into that dir. You should download the latest WinZip http://www.winzip.com or http://www.powerarchiver.com/ ZIP Master the practice of file compression and learn exactly how to send and open files that are zipped or archived. Also find recommendations for the best programs to perform this protocol. http://www.microsoft.com/insider/mi/pfzip.htm MOUSE Don't spend $22 for a new mouse. Clean it at least once a month. Twist off the ball retainer and use a alcohol (i use Naphtha) soaked Q-Tip to clean the scum off of the rollers. Before using the mse each time, first wipe the desk area clean to avoid picking up dust to begin with. And, when you do replace your mouse, get the MSoft Infra-Red, no-ball mse. 3 btn is fine; 5 btns for gamers $35 at bargain stores. All mice in the last 2 yrs have PS2 connectors. 25 Tips 25 AV http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/av.asp for a FREE Anti-Virus chk ******** Begin 2 Always ON Q: How do I set up my computer to connect to the web automatically? A: For Windows 95 and 98, do the following steps: 1) From the Start button, select "Settings" and then "Control Panels". Open the "Internet Options" Control Panel. 2) Select the "Connections" tab. Make sure the desired "Dial-up networking" selection is set as the default. (The set default button will be grayed out if you select the current default in the list.) 3) Set "Always dial my default connection". 4) Select the correct "Dial-up networking" from the list, and click on the "Settings..." button. 5) Another dialog box "xxxx Settings" appears. Press the "Advanced" button. 6) The "Advanced Dial-Up" dialog will appear. Set "Disconnect if idle for xxx (big number) minutes" Set the disconnect delay to whatever number you wish. If you wish, you may also set "Disconnect when connection may be no longer needed." 7) Close the "Internet Options" Control Panel. 8) Double-click on "My Computer", and then on "Dial-Up Networking". Double-click on the default "Dial-up networking" icon. Make sure the "Save password" box is checked. even if you are not using a password! If not already checked, check it and click on "Connect", then "Cancel". Close the dialog. ******** End 2 SETI 3.03 http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eBQl0Bxwha0u0cVUg FORWARD Please don't just forward msgs with attachments ...to anyone. You never know when there will be a virus buried in it. When you get an attachment to a msg, look at it if you dare then SaveAs that attachment to your HD. If you later, or then, wish to send it to someone else after (auto)scanning it with an anti- virus app then you can Paste in the small file to a msg or attach a large file to a msg to your friends. Lately, i've received attached files that have a eml file extension. Some of these i've been able to open, others not. It turns out that these files are just directly forwarded files. This is not a good idea. This method hides the real extension type of the attached msg and that spells disaster for your machine if it is the wrong type, i.e., an executable that contains some sort of virus, worm, trojan, etc. You will pass on a disaster without ever knowing it. WEB SCAMS http://www.scambusters.org/ Anti virus FREE http://www.free-av.com/eula.htm Go to the internet address below and setup a free account and follow the step by step instructions. They can usually get the spammers account canceled and sometimes fined. http://spamcop.net/. Hotmail has the filters too. GAMES, Video, and high res artwork push a computer's limit. These 3 things dictate the need for a very fast CPU, a $300 video card, 500-1000MB of RAM, and a $200 sound card with the right 5.1 speakers Generally, and it is in my tips sheets, when a machine locks up press the Cntrl+Alt+Del keys together and a dialog box will pop up. The errant app will be hilited in the list. clik on End Task and wait. CDROM AUTORUN for Win 98 SE, it is AutoInsertNotification for CDROM bring up Dev Mgr, open up CDROM, right clik on the Device and select Properties Settings tab, or clik on it and then clik on Properties btn. Clik the chk box if you want or do not want AutoRun to happen. Usually, you do want it, but there are times when it gets in the way. OFFICE 2000 There are updates for this, but they may be tracking who dwnlds them. Put in Service Pack 1 before you do SP 2, 9 MB, and you'll need the original CDs. Start the download and see what they ask for; you can always cancel. http://download.microsoft.com/download/office2000pro/sp/sp2/w98nt42kme/en- us/sp2upd.exe FIREWALL http://grc.com/freestuff.htm This site will offer free Leak Test harmlessly to see how well trojans, viruses, worms etc can get into your computer. It can be used as a test of your 'firewall' capabilities. This site offers SpinRite, Shields-up, and Zip drive testers. See also Zone Alarm. BIOS Flash BIOS upgrading is not for the faint of heart. Be advised that the procedure should only be done by a properly trained technician. Done improperly, it may render the motherboard useless requiring, at minimum, a return to the manufacturer or distributor for repair. OE ADDR BOOK Right clik on any email address to add it to your Address Book or to Copy it to be Pasted elsewhere. NIC BURNOUT These cards do get knocked out by things such as lightning and power line noise spikes. Every Ethernet card has its own unique 12-digit serial number, known as a MAC (Media Access Control) address. Some broadband companies automatically detect your MAC address and lock up your service to that specific Ethernet card. If you change cards in your PC or try to connect a different PC to your cable modem you lose your broadband access. With AT&T Broadband , you can usually just call tech support when you want to change an Ethernet card. It takes them less than five minutes to collect a new MAC address after you've changed an Ethernet card. NEVER Never, never buy a proprietary machine. this means AST, IBM, Gateway, Dell, HP, PB, etc. Never sign up for AOL, either. ATT UPLOAD "As AT&T @Home is considered a recreational service, the upstream rate is essentially in place to preserve bandwidth. Oftentimes, an upstream rate higher than 128kbps is not necessary for recreational users as recreational users only upload relatively small files." They limit the up-speed to 128 k/s ********begin 1 HOME NETWORK Internet Connection Sharing, often called ICS for short, is a Windows service that first appeared in Windows 98. You'll find it in Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows "Whistler" (when that ships late next year) as well. ICS does exactly the same thing that WinProxy and Sygate do. ICS is a NAT/DHCP product. I've explained this many times in the Broadband Report, but let me explain it again. NAT technology allows your PC to share Internet access from one PC with several other PCs on a local area network. NAT has a byproduct; it makes your presence invisible on the Internet. That doesn't mean you can be found and hacked. But you're not as obvious. DHCP would probably be better named: Dynamic IP Assignment. Every computer on a TCP/IP network must have a unique IP address. DHCP assigns IP addresses to other computers on a network. The combination of these two services makes it easy for people to setup and manage a simple peer network. Internet Connection Sharing has a rare trait under newer versions of Windows. Unlike WinProxy or Sygate, ICS can share virtually any Internet connection. The other products are limited to sharing Ethernet-card based Internet access solutions, such as DSL, cable modems, fixed wireless, and satellite. ICS can also share dial-up analog modem connections. Sometimes that feature can come in very handy. ICS also has an Achilles' heel. It has very few settings or controls, and isn't flexible or robust in more complex environments. What's more, some people have a very hard time setting it up. That's why Microsoft added the Home Networking Wizard in Windows Me. Microsoft might as well have called the Home Networking Wizard the Internet Connection Sharing Wizard, because that's what it really is. The first thing to know about ICS under Windows 98 is that you install it from the Windows Setup tab in the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel. Under Windows 98, you have to have two NICs (network cards) installed on your computer before you will see that option. Under Win98 SE, the option to add ICS is found under Windows Setup > Internet Tools. Under Windows Me, it's found under Windows Setup > Communications. ********end 1 26 Tips 26 DESKTOP WALLPAPER You can add a text doc as well as a picture of your choice to your desktop. Just make the text doc a htm file and add it as a web page to the desktop. You can make it a To-Do list or a poem, etc. Make the desktop an image of your kids, gkids, outdoor scenery, etc. Right clik on the blank desktop and choose Properties, then clik on the Background or Web tab for Pictures or Text, respectively. WEB PAGE *****begin 1 A web page is kept on a ISP server (computer) not on the internet. The ISP momentarily connects to the internet, web for you and gives you your results. TCP is used for this. All web pages are made using HTML language or a variant with possible added code embedded in it called scripts. You can work with web pages without having to know any code, although HTML is the easiest code on the planet. To get around using the code you can use a WYSIWYG editor like FrontPage. Now, with FP working with any web page is like working with a document in Word. You've all used NotePad text editor. Take ANY text file, add the required few html tags and save it as a htm file instead of a txt file and you have a web page that will work on the web. Here is a sample web page that will work: Simple Web Page This is the only line seen on the web page That's it ! A perfectly valid web page. See how clear the code is? Karen's page for Kaelin has a lot of stuff in it, kid clutter, but it is still the same basic layout: Kaeilin & Blaine's Web Site (Snow javascript) (mouse trailer javascript) (lines that you can see, with images) go to Karen's site http://www.mysterybooktrader.bizland.com/Kaelin.htm in IE menu/View/Source you will see the html code in NotePad print it out and mark off each section. Not so mysterious is it? *****end 1 YOUR WEB SITE *********begin 2 You can easily have a web site. Don't need one? Probably not, but why not do it for the kids or gkids or for yourself just to say you've done it? You have an ISP; that is how you get info from the web, thru them. Ask them (see Support or browse on their site for Site info) for FTP space for your site and they will provide it for free. Then ask them for the info you will need for the FTP client you will use to publish your page(s) to your site. They will know what you need and give it to you, also free. The FTP client is a util that you will use to Save your web page to the FTP space on your server who in turn will make it available to the web. Ask the ISP if you can publish your pages to your site directly using FrontPage 2000 app. If not, then ask them to give you the info about them you will need to set up WS_FTP95 LE. They will know what to give you. All these things are about 3 words to enter in the setup which will never again have to be considered. Once it is setup you just edit the page like a letter and Save it to your ISP site, just like working with a Word doc. 10 yr olds can do this. and if you don't already have it, ask them for the info to setup OE to chk your email acct instead of using their email util. *********end 2 NAPSTER v2b8 is now available. http://www.napster.com/win/download/ This version has the Exclude switch, i.e., If you want to find the Bell Song from Lakme by Delibes, but do not want to see all the Saved by the Bell listings, then type in Bell Song -Save FIND On a web page, clik on menu/Edit/Find to find a word on that page. For example, you can search on a web page, BooksRead, for the word, "Grafton". And to find the next occurrence of it hit the F3 key. In your HD, use Explorer menu/Tools/Find/Files. Here you can get a little more fancier by searching for Named *.* files that contain a phrase "xxx yyyyy" POPUP WINDOWS This is one of the most annoying things that happen when searching the web. Also, all the ads that occur on a page take up time to load in. A way to get rid of them is to employ a util called AdsOff v2 from IntercanTech. It is a $20 shareware, but a crack is available. They also block ad cookies like Ad- aware does AdsOff http://www.intercantech.com/home.html Ad-aware http://www.lavasoft.de/aaw/index.html Remove, uninstall all previous versions of this s/w before installing the latest version. IE OPTIONS In IE5 menu/Tools/InternetOptions/Programs tab you should have top to bottom: NotePad OE OE Netmeeting Outlook Address Book Then clik on Apply btn, and then OK btn End tips 26 27 Tips 27 MP3 internet music -You can make your own MP3 files from an Audio CD, the radio, cassette, or TV. -Use Napster to get MP3 files directly from other users that have already done this step. -Use MusicMatchJukeBox, WinAmp, and many others to rip a track from an Audio CD into a MP3 file. -I use MMJB to convert a song from a cassette, radio, or TV into a MP3 file. -You need an MP3 player to hear the songs; Win Media Player, WinAmp, etc. -You can record the MP3 files at diff resolutions, e.g., 96, 128, 160, etc kb/s. -Whether you make your own or get them from the web, eventually you will find some with long silence periods, snaps, crack, or part of another song added to the front or back of a MP3 file. Programs for basic MP3 editing: MP3 Splitter (splits and crops) http://wwwcodevisions.de/news/index.html MP3/Tag Studio (trims & uncooks) http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/ MP3Trim (clean up, trim, amplify, fade in/out) http://www.logiccell.com/~mp3trim/ Advanced Editing Goldwave http://www.goldwave.com/ify Mayah Edit Pro http://www.mayah.com/content/products/editpro/editpro.html Cool Edit http://www.cooledit.com Sound Forge http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/ DELETE COOKIES *******begin 2 sent in There are a number of ways to do this. You might not want to delete all cookies, e.g., i don't want to delete the TVListings cookies as it makes my going back in to that site easier. But i do want to delete phone home cookies like DoubleClick. Ad-aware and AdsOff will help here, but you can go in to your HD using Explorer to delete those you don't want. c:\windows\cookies c:\windows\temp c:\windows\temporary internet files (tif) After you've done this a few times, esp in tif, you will see all the previous cookies you allowed in the first part of the dir, then all the new cookies and images and text etc stuff since you last wiped them out towards the end of the dir as it is presented in the right pane in Explorer. Clik on a file or cookie where the new stuff begins. Then go to the end of the dir (slide the scroll bar far to the right) and holding the Shift key down clik on the last item. a popup warning will appear asking if you want to delete all the selected cookies. Clik on No btn and wait for the other type of files to be deleted. What you are left with is the new hilited cookies that many of which you will want to delete. Hold the Cntrl key down and clik on those you want to save, then hold the Shift key down and hit the del key to get rid of the rest. end 2 ********* DESKTOP BACKGROUND COLOR begin 1 ************ sent in You can change it. BEWARE - This becomes a lesson in hexidecimal numbers and Registry edit. When you right clik on the blank desktop, Select Properties/Background tab and if you select None you will get the std Teal color. You can change this in RegEdit. This is not for the faint of heart as it involves editing the windows Registry. Edit wrong and you could end up reloading Windows. Colors and many other things in computers are represented in hexidecimal numbers, base 16. If you had trouble with Binary numbers, base 2, get ready for more aggravation as hex numbers are groupings of 4 binary numbers. Colors here are in hex pairs, e.g., #rrggbb. hex, red pair, green pair, and blue pair. Remember: RGB. #008080 is no red, 80h green and 80h blue. 80h is 8x16 to the first power plus 0x16 to the zero power, exponent, in decimal base 10. Got it? 80h is 128+0 = 128 decimal C:\Windows is where you will find RegEdit.exe, dble clik on it to open, or right mse drag it to the Desktop and Create a ShortCut for future use. This is the location in the Registry where you will find this default desktop background color HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors Win 95/8 "0 128 128" teal #008080 80 hex is 8x16=128 dec pair value. Win Me grayish blue #3A6EA5 hex is "48+10 96+14 160+5" = "58 110 165" Light blue steel #B0C4DE hex is "176 196 222" decimal pairs Steel blue #4682B4 hex is "70 130 180" decimal pairs You can copy these pairs. e.g., 70 130 180, and Paste them into Registry. Try 100 170 200 as each monitor varies in effect. Get to the right place in the Registry by opening up the tree in the left pane. Clik to establish your location in the left pane. In the right pane clik once on Background to hilite it. RegistryEdit/menu/Edit/Modify Edit the Value Data line in the form 58 110 165 clik on OK btn This changes the value to Win Me default color; pick any color you want. Exit RedEdit by closing it. Reboot to see effect. Congratulation. Slick, eh? Desktop Themes can fix a theme name to this new 'theme' Win Me Right clik o Desktop, select Properties/Appearance tab, select Item/Desktop Clik on SaveAs and give your new scheme any name. end 1 ************ REGEDIT to get rid of those pesky, wrong URLs that you typed in IE, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs 28 Tips 28 CRACKS You should probably know something about them even if they are ill*gal. Here's an example of how to circumvent the system. "With Registry Crawler, you can quickly find and configure your Registry settings. Find Registry information based on search criteria, and access any key found with a single click. You can bookmark any key in the Registry and then access it directly from the system tray, eliminating the need to manually open regedit. This version features the ability to delete keys, values, and data from the Registry from within Registry Crawler. Make Windows manageable: " http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eBXD0Bxwha0u0eWM3 There are many places to get cracks, but a good one is http://www.cracks.am/main.html Clik on the 'R' hyperlink, scroll down to Registry Crawler, RC, and you'll find 4 entries for ver 3.0. Clik on Patch and save the zip file to your Download dir. In Explorer, right mse drag the zip file to your RC dir and release. Select Extract to that dir. 4 small files are added. dble clik on patch.exe and it is done. The registration info is patched into your RC exe file. Napster v2b9 http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-1896420-108-48050.html TWO COMPUTERS IN ONE BUDDY SYSTEM Vega Technologies' Buddy Systems lets a second user share your CPU to work independently. All you need to buy is an extra monitor, mouse, and keyboard and you have two computers. http://www.vegatechnologies.com/ http://www.vegatechnologies.com/buddy.htm, http://www.shopasa.com/cgi- bin/tech/153250.html HOME NETWORK http://www.netgear.com/ Small connector for Cable/ADSL or a PCI card for Dialup. This is slick. WINDOWS CD The new computers are shipping with Win Me and higher and some of these CDs are System Restore CDs and not the original OS CDs like Proprietary computer mfgrs have been doing for years. Even still you can find all or most of the original OS setup files in the windows\options\cabs directory. But this brings up a few points about recovering from a problem by having to wipe out your HD and just reloading Win. Also, the new Win OS CDs won't have DOS in them. For those of you who like to attack problems with the cmd line and boot disks, and have DOS apps to run, you may want to stick with Win 98 SE and save the $90 for the new Win ver. Win Me is half-assed and will be replaced this Fall. Auto-Save ALL your data on a zip disk and this will minimize your crash problem. WINDOWS http://www.winsupersite.com/ Windows.NET 1.0 (code-named Whistler), is expected in April 2001 and is intended to clean up Win 98 Me. FORWARD If you forward a joke, virus warning, or other email to a group of people, do you think those people stop to remove all the addresses from it before they send it on to their friends? If a spammer gets hold of just one of those, do you think they won't grab every address in the message? (We've seen one case in which a message had been forwarded so many times as attachments that it included over 1100 email addresses!) LOAD CONFLICTS Prevent Conflicts When Installing Programs (like Win98) When installing a new program (Win98), to minimize conflicts: Click 'Start', click 'Run', type in 'msconfig', click 'OK'. This will open System Configuration Utility. Under 'General', select 'Selective Startup'. Take the check mark out of 'Load Startup Group Items'. Click 'Apply'. Load your new program. This should eliminate any possible conflicts. http://www.joecartoon.com MAINTENANCE i hope y'all are doing ScanDisk, Defrag, RegClean weekly. This is esp important after you have deleted a large file and before you install large files. HOST If you are blocked from getting into some sites that you have been able to access before, look in your c:\windows\hosts file. Erase any lines that seem to be a problem. A blank file is fine. Another check is to look at your firewall. FIREWALL This is becoming a must for high speed, always ON connections like cable and ADSL that have a fixed IP address. It is free, ZoneAlarm that is. It takes a little time to set it up as Everything that comes into your computer will be challenged like hackers as well as email and your dial-up. The Pro version has a $charge for it. Load it and reboot, every internet connection will be prompted for permission once in either direction. Easier to use than previous versions. http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/partners/zonealarm/download.html CDRW http://www.zdnet.com/feeds/cgi/framer/hud0002500/hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi- bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=0011O7&b=help INSTALL Examine Files Before They Change Your Registry (Win9x) If a new application is accompanied by an information file (filename.INF), that file may contain Registry-revision instructions. If so, search it for lines beginning with AddReg= and DelReg=. These lines point to the sections of the INF file that contain those instructions. Review the sections to get an idea of what changes are about to be made to your Registry. You can track the install programs by using SFC.exe log file in your Windows dir. DSL/Cable ALWAYS ON MSoft: "There are two important steps you need to take to combat this vulnerability of being on-line all the time. 1.In Control Panel, double-click Network and make sure you clear the File and Print Sharing options. This is a first line of defense against unauthorized access from the network. 2. Install a personal firewall application. A personal firewall is like a valve that lets you access the Internet but prevents the Internet from accessing you. The firewall simply masks from the Internet all the information and activity that is on your side of the modem. Firewall software can also alert you if and when anyone tries to break through that wall to access your computer" See Zone Alarm, Zone Lab, www.zonelabs.com IMAGE LIST On any web site you can right clik on the background and Select Images List from the popup menu. Remember, that the background and horizontal rules are images too. SHORTCUT -Create an icon for, say, FrontPage on your desktop in Explorer clik once on "C:\Program Files\FrontPage\Office\FRONTPG.EXE" (if it is there) to hilite it. Right clik on the file and drag it to a clear space on your Desktop and release. A popup menu appears, Select CreateShortcut. Rename it. -Create a shortcut to "C:\Program Files\FrontPage\Office\FRONTPG.EXE" or wherever you have it stored, to your Start menu for handy access. In Explorer, Open up the Windows dir by cliking on the + sign to the left of it in the left pane. Clik on the StartMenu sub dir. The right pane shows what is inside the dir. Clik back up to the location of the FP dir and clik once on the FRONTPG.EXE file in the right pane. Be sure you can see the \StartMenu sub dir in the left pane and right mse drag the file to the \StartMenu sub dir in the left pane and release. Select Create Shortcut. Clik on the newly copied shortcut file, wait, clik again and Edit the "Shortcut to FRONTPG.EXE" to something like 'FrontPage'. Clik on the Start btn and view your work. SEARCHING docs Pete asked for info on file associations and i mentioned that it was in a past Tips sheet. Which one? In the past i've guessed which one and searched that one, maybe had to search one on either side of it. But, each time you have to Open a doc, search, and close the doc, then Open another etc. That has to be improved upon. So, i opened a TEXT file in Word, could have used WordPad, but not NotePad as it would be too big of a file for it. Into this text file i Inserted each Tips sheet in order. Now, when i want to search for a key word i just have to do one menuEdit/Find, F3 for the next occurrence. You can edit the Registry directly as well. FILE ASSOCIATIONS, again. To see what app a particular file type is associated with do the following: Open (Win) Explorer menu/Tools/FolderOptions/FileTypes tab the list shows this info. Be careful that you uncheck the box AlwaysUseThis if you are not sure or you will get locked into that app or util for that file type. Find the type you want to change apps for in the list. Hilite it by cliking once on it in the list. say, JPG contents: image/jpeg Clik on Edit btn Clik on Open in the Actions window Clik on Edit btn Clik on Browse in the Applications window Find where, say, ImageComposer.exe is located and dble clik on it Clik on OK btn, Close btn, Close btn. You may have to reboot. Now when you dble clik on any JPG file in Explorer it will open in ImageComposer, or whatever app you chose. Sound familiar? Win MEDIA PLAYER When you load in a sound app it will try to do the same thing for all sound files as above; i.e., change the association. Start/Accessories/Entertainment/MediaPlayer menu/Tools/Options/Format tab. Select all the formats that you want MediaPlayer to be the default player for that other apps have taken away. There are sites that let you look up just about any file extension type to se what they are. Here's a quick update of sites can help you track down ANY mysterious file types: http://www.wotsit.org/ http://extsearch.com/ http://whatis.techtarget.com http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/filetypes.html http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/ .eml file type was created from a directly forwarded email msg with an attachment of any file type. SOUND Found a crack for Cool Edit 2000 sound file editor. 29 Tips 29 BUYING A COMPUTER It is getting more involved to do so. Even updating a computer with a few exceptions, like adding RAM, is getting difficult to do for the same reasons. And those are: Things don't always work well together due to staggered improvements that require other new components and won't work with still others. If you change one thing you may have to change 3 others and at that point you are essentially buying a new computer. We are at the point where it is wiser to give the old computer unchanged to a relative and simply buy a new one for yourself. . Having 2 computers in the house is convenient. Things to watch for are Chip Sets & type of RAM, type of motherboard, version of HDs and AGP slots, and avoiding daughter-boards. New mboards now allow up to 4 GB of RAM and here we are with 64 or 128 MB. Can you keep your old computer and old s/w and do just fine for the rest of your life? Yes, for many of us. PHOTO See Bizland site, Add-Images page, for a dramatic example of how to modify an image in PhotoShop6, or any just about any other Photo app. FIREWALL "Tiny Personal Firewall (TPF) is a powerful freeware utility designed to protect your home cable or DSL connection. TPF controls which applications are allowed to transmit data over the Internet, protects against malicious Trojan horse applications, and filters based on SRC/DST IP addresses--helping you to detect and block intruders. Surf safely" :http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi- bin1/flo?y=eBdb0Bxwha0u0e4pk See also, ZoneAlarm. DROP SHADOW ***** begin 1 A Ghosted image for a Word (e.g., someone's name). This is easily done in Paint Shop Pro ver 5. Open app. Select foreground color on right by cliking on it. This will be the main color of the Word. Clik on menuFile/New. For a word image i chose 150x60 pixels in form size, 72 pixels / inch, background color to match where you want to place the new image, and Image Type to suit the product. You may have to select 16.7 mil colors just to get the effect even though you are only using 2 colors max here. Clik OK btn The image blank form appears. clik on 'A' in the left column tool box for Text. Clik in the middle of the blank form and a dialog box appears. Select the type and size of type face you want. For this size form 9 letters at 24 point font will do nicely. Select AntiAlias in Effects, and Center in alignment. Type out the word in the text box. Clik on OK btn. The word appears in the form, shimmering (still can be modified). left clik on it and center it. To get the effect of drop shadow, clik on menu/Image/Effects/DropShadow. Select the color of the drop shadow around your word keeping in mind the color of your background. Try an Opacity of 90 with a blur of 15. The Offset shifts the shadow, cloud, Vertically above or below the text line, try 3. The Horizontal shifts it left and right, try 4. You will see the effect in the Example to the right. Experiment and clik on OK btn when you are finished playing around. The shimmering image with enclosed shadow appears on the once blank form. You can now see if the whole effect fits properly in your guessed-at form. You may continue or re-do the project. You can left clik and move the image inside your form; if the enclosed lines are flattened against the form i would re-do the project. Going back to Image/Effect now has an accumulated effect. However, if you like it press Cntrl+D keys to stop the shimmering and lock the image in. No more changes can be made; SaveAs the image to your folder for later use as a, say, signature. Later you can Insert-Image (or Copy/Paste) in the image wherever you want. The file size will be about 2 KB. Told you it was easy. ***** end 1 OE If you can't Insert images into your OE email msgs, look at Inbox menu/Tools/Options and make sure your Send options are HTML and not just Text. MP3 The best download speed in Napster so far is 253 kb/s. 543k/s top test speed. Upload is capped at 128 k/s by ATT. REGISTRY RegClean.exe has to be downloaded http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=18924 REDUCE FILE SIZE Lately, we have received some neat images, but the email msgs were 600+ KB in size. Mainly this is due to the images in the presentations; in one case Excel and the other Power Point If you have a ADSL or Cable ISP it won't matter much, but if you have a 28.8 or even 56 kbps modem it will take a while to download and could even push your ISPs email limit and get locked out. For the jet fighters, bring up PP, and get each image out of the presentation file. 109 KB for the first one, 7 images. Bring it into a photo app like Image Composer and either/and crop it, reduce overall size, or compress it as a JPG file. Cropped it became 59 KB, or if it was just compressed 50% the file becomes 20 KB with no apparent loss of quality for ordinary applications. If you were going to print it out then use the orig, but for a web site, email or placing it back in PP to make a smaller presentation file then use the compressed JPG files. ANTI-VIRUS http://www.free-av.com/eula.htm FREE Dble clik on downloaded file, clik on Setup btn, Uncheck Scheduler box. Just overwrite it; do not shut it down first. DMA Enabling DMA for the HDs and CDROMs (to make it all run faster) in Dev Mgr is an apparently common problem with CDROM/CDRWs. When DMA is enabled, the Windows 98 Explorer will sometimes not recognize the drive, even though it shows up in the System Properties in Control Panel CDR The absolute ultimate FAQ for people with CD-Writers. The URL is below. The FAQ: http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/ A good tool to check transfer rates and cpu consumption is "diskspeed32" which can be found at http://www.iop.kiev.ua/~vgrin/DiskSpeed32/ End tips 29 ******************** Tips 30 GET FILE Let's say that you uninstalled an app and it removed a .DLL file that you need for another app. Use SFC.exe from \Windows\System dir to extract that one file from an install CD that has all files grouped in .cab files. Place the install CD for the app that won't run in the CDROM. Open SFC. Clik on Extract One File radio btn. Browse to CDROM location. Type in sought file name. Clik on Open btn. Clik on Start btn. Once you have deleted or uninstalled apps you may have left DLL files in \Win\System dir that you no longer need. AnalogX's 'DLL Archive' may help you find these no-longer-used DLL files. Free util. Open it and clik on the Search btn. The util will find DLLs that are not called by any app on your machine. You can then Delete them or Archive them to play safe for now. Or, you can reload the app. OE 5 Help http://www.tomsterdam.com There is a lot of good stuff here. Tom doesn't want you to email him with questions, though. He wants you to read and then ask questions on the OE5.5 NG (newsgroup) where he will answer your questions for all to see. Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress, microsoft.public.windows.win98.internet.outlookexpress, Search NGs for: microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer One big item is the addition of the Preview Pane btn on the toolbar. If a msg is sent to you with a virus in it you really don't want to open it. You may be able to recognize a virus laden msg by the subject line. But, if you clik on it to delete it you will Read it in the Preview Pane. So, turn off the Preview pane easily by adding the Preview btn to your toolbar, then clik on offending msg and Delete it. Then turn Preview back ON by cliking on the Preview btn in the toolbar. i use this one. Watch the news for current viruses, trojans, spiders, etc. For executable attachments you have to look at the type of file attachment to make a decision; do not open executables like .vbs, .js, .exe, .bat, or .com; or even .eml because you will not know what type it really is underneath the eml cloak. To add the Preview btn to the tool bar, right clik on the blank portion of it and clik on Customize, or mnu/View/Layout/CustomizeToolbar btn. Clik on Preview on the left and the Add button to place it in the right column. SOUNDS Change any sound, or get rid of them, to any windows event. Start/Settings/CntrlPnl/Sounds. Go to event and Browse to your new sound and Apply it. If i remember i'll attach a couple wav files for email notification. C:\WINDOWS\Msagent\MEDIA\Notify2.wav End tips 30 Tips 31 2/26/2001 12:17:32 PM PHOTO APPS There are many of them. Most do one or more things better than the others. i like PhotoShop to re-size the images, smudging, and changing Contrast/Brightness on dark images, but i don't like being forced to use its format (PSD?) so i end up Copying it and Pasting it into another app. i like PictureIt for displaying thumbnails of all images in a selected dir. i like PaintShopPro5 for making drop shadows. i like ImageComposer for working with compressing the file size of JPGs. i like GIF-Construction Set for making GIF animation files. I imagine that i would like Corel Draw for professional layout work. EMAIL INBOX http://www.tomsterdam.com/ "Special attention should be paid to the Inbox, Sent Items and Deleted Items folders. It is easy for these folders to grow extremely large. OE is not a dedicated database program, and can have problems with very large files, making them prone to corruption and data loss. For this reason alone, you should not use the Inbox to store messages. Instead create other folders for storing mail and leave the Inbox for incoming mail. You should also make cleaning and compacting the Sent Items folder part of your regular maintenance." FLASH BIOS It is a programmable chip on your mboard. Why update it? For the improvements made since your mboard was mfgr'd. My BIOS has a limit of recognizing only up to 8.4 GB HDs and i am out of room. I want one of the relatively cheap 30 GB drives in my machine. I will have to push the limit up from 8.4 GB to 32 GB in order to use the bigger HDs. Over the years there have been BIOS limits of 0.5, 2.1, 8.4, and 32 GB for HDs. New machines can 'see' HDs of over 75 GB in capacity. You can change your BIOS settings by pressing, usually, DEL or F2 key during bootup to configure new hardware. But, to Flash your BIOS, i.e. write a new, upgrade BIOS file to your programmable BIOS chip on the mboard, you need two files and huevos. If you do this wrong, your machine will not work at all. You could pay $45 to have a pro do it. Those with huevos, proceed. Read your User Manual for flashing the BIOS. Go to your mboard's mfgr's web site and get the flash util and the right BIOS update file for your mboard. Unzip it. Save both files to a boot disk for your current OS. For my ASUS mboard, the manual says to use '97 PFLASH.EXE util file, but i found a newer '99 AFLASH.EXE and the BIOS upgrade lx2i1009.zip files. located at Unzipped, it reads: lx2i1009.awd .awd for the Award BIOS mfgr. Be careful in determining the letters in the file name; a lower-case L- a cap I, - and a number 1 all look similar. All of these 3 files are 100-130 kb. The Flash util file calls for the name of the BIOS update file to install. Place the boot disk in the A: drive and bootup on the floppy. Run AFLASH util file and select option 1) to 'Save the old BIOS' to file on the boot disk (make sure the floppy is not write-protected as it should be, usually). Then select option 2) 'Update Main BIOS from File' and type in your new bios file name, here it is lx2i1009.awd. Follow the prompts. If it fails then Update again but this time from the old, saved file to get back to where you were before all of this. Exit util upon 'Success' indication. Power down and then back up to the C: drive. Your boot screen should list the new BIOS file - Hit Break key to stop and look, Enter key to resume boot. Hit DEL or F2 key to get into BIOS Setup and reset the defaults. Once i had the 2 files, it took less than two minutes to do the update and that is not worth $45; maybe the peace of mind that comes with a pro doing it makes it worth it though. This was my first attempt at flashing a BIOS chip. Now, you can buy a new, big HD and put it in yourself; it is easy. Or, have them put it in for another $45, you weenie. P2L97 ACPI BIOS Version 1009. 11/05/99 New BIOS features Fix Microsoft Pre-OS test failure Support IDE hard disk larger than 32G bytes. Fix Russian Y2K test program failed. Revise Y2K patch. Fix boot failure with some boot managers installed. Update Symbios BIOS to Rev 4.12. No system node report for LPT when it's Setup disabled. (LPT disable in Windows when it's Setup disabled) Upgrade microcode update for Celeron mA0 stepping (CPUID=660) to revision 0A. Microcode update upgrade for PII 653, 672, and 673. 653: 00A->010; 672: 00B- >00C; 673: 007->00A. Fix serial port failure running Windows 2000. Add keyboard wakeup item with three choices of key combinations. Fix FDD Write Protect function failed with 'format a: /u' command. BACKUP OE Before you format your HD, back up a lot of stuff, including OE files and address book. Search for your *.dbx and *.wab files and save them as a folder on a zip disk. Save all your data from apps, like Office, automatically by setting up your file locations in all the apps to folders on your zip disk. Even save your cookies dir after cleaning them up. You will be glad you did. See Critical.bat tip in previous sheet. DATE In NotePad, you can timestamp your text by hitting F5 key. Like so, e.g., 2/25/2001 10:01:24 AM. Holding the mse pointer over, but not cliking, the Time on the right side of the TaskBar will produce the date in a ToolTip presentation. REGISTRY http://www.microsoft.com/technet/win98/reg.asp Also, in c:\win dir look for Regedit.exe (Registry Editor) and Scanregw.exe (Registry Checker). You can download RegClean.exe from the web MS Download page. Remember my Critical.bat file you should have in your c:\Util dir? It saves a copy of System.dat and User.dat, among others, that make up your Registry. If you make a mistake in the Registry your machine could grind to a halt; on the other hand, if you have such a problem you could just use your back up files to resume normal use. It is fairly easy to edit the registry to make single changes, but most people use Control Panel even though it is limited. See Tips 27? for desktop color changes thru the Registry. STARTUP Many computers have long startup times. You can look in the \win\startmenu\progams\startup dir in Explorer or you can use a neat tool. clik on Start/Run/type in MSCONFIG. A clik on Startup tab shows all that is being done; you may want to change that list. SHUTDOWN Win 98 xx has had problems with a long shutdown time. http://www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm GLUT Are there unwanted s/w on your machine taking up valuable space? How about unnecessary icons on your desktop adding to clutter and confusion? You can easily get rid on the \OnlineServices dir in Win. This dir is loaded in when win 98 is loaded whether you select it to load or not. Unless you are actually going to use their ISPs get rid of it. i always load in Windows using the Custom option to control what does or does not get loaded. Many icons are in your StartMenu & Taskbar and therefore not needed on your desktop. You can add/delete many shortcuts to apps into the Start menu above the separator line. You can change the size of Start presentation by right cliking on the blank Taskbar and selecting Properties - chk all 4. FIREWALL Stick with ZoneAlarm and not Freedom or Tiny. CABLE MODEMS http://www.kissco.com/ http://www.cablemodemhelp.com/ http://www.cabledatacomnews.com/cmic/index.html USB Over and over i say don't get any computer peripheral that doesn't have a USB and/or FireWire connection to the computer. And guess what happens? DIG CAM JamCam3 is out for retail $89. and guess what? it has a USB connection. Snapshots only. Polaroid's Fun 320 Digital Camera is $49. Olympus has a nice for $2000; 4.1 megapixels CCD. end tips 31 Tips 32 HDs ******begin 1 This begins a long series of related info. When last we met, i had flashed my BIOS chip to allow me to 'see' a HD larger than 8.4GB. First, make a boot disk from the same OS that you will load into the new HD. I have since purchased a 30 GB Maxtor HD ($109) to work along side the 5.2 GB. First, one has to do some housekeeping. i have in the Pent 266 a 5.2 (C:) and a 1.6 GB (D:) HD; the latter dragging down my machine speed, such as it is. The 1.6 goes, the 5.2 goes to D: the new 30 goes to C:. 3 HDs, 2 elec connections for them. How do i get the files off of the 1.6 and where should i place them? What on the old C: should be moved to the new C:? What type of files are on D:, the 1.6? This is the important question. If they are DOS apps or backup or download files then you can xfer them as a whole and they will work fine, but if they are win apps just ignore them and re- install them later when the new HDs are in place, because win apps install files all over the machine. Supposedly, you (editorial you) had always saved your Data files to a zip disk so this aspect doesn't come into play. Could copy all good stuff on the 1.6 to zip disks (100 MB, 0.1 GB), but that would take up quite a few. That said, i could copy the first type of files now to the old 5.2 now and then wipe out D: with a Format /u cmd. Then take out the 1.6 and store it, and move the 5.2 to D: and put in the 30 in C: FDISK, FORMAT /u, & reload Win 98 SE (not win 98 Me) on C:, copy the needed files on the 5.2 to the 30 and format the 5.2 (to get rid of the fact that the 5.2 has Win on it and is a system disk; not needed) Or, i could take out the 5.2 now, put in the 30 as C:, F & F, load it up, copy from the 1.6 to the 30, format the 1.6, take it out and store it; put in the 5.2 in the D: slot and work from there. Or, i could place the new HD in D: and Copy all of C: in one cmd to it and then manually move the Win Swap File. What would you do? BIOS Setup used to be an arcane art, but the new machines make it easy by recognizing what you change in hardware; set the 4 HD positions to Auto. Still, you have to at least look at the BIOS Setup to verify that the auto install went well; also, look at your bootup screen for this info by hitting Break key to stop the action and Enter key to resume bootup; compare this with Setup values - not always the same as there is a trade off with the number of cyls and hds and it still can come up with the same HD space. ******** end HD, but not the whole section SAVE HD INFO Before you wipe out a HD, you may want to save a lot of info so you won't have to re-enter it all later. Files to save are DATA. This is the most important. You should have grouped all the apps to save data to ONE place, dir structure, preferably on your zip disk. You also want to save a lot of Windows info. Save your dbx, wab files for OE. Save all your ini files in the \Windows dir esp if you are going to load all your apps back in the same named dirs in the same named places. Save all DOS apps directly over to the new HD. Save all collections of files like the mp3, images, sounds, and install-zip files that you have downloaded. Custom.dic for all your spelling changes. LOADING A HD .......begin Before you shut down to load in a new HD, make a win 98 SE boot disk. Test it before you wipe anything out. Boot up on it and select 'Work With a CD option'. Place your Win 98 SE CD in the CDROM. From the A: drive select the Drive letter of the CDROM, probably E: or F: and type in DIR cmd to see it you are indeed on the Win 98 CD. Type in the cmd SETUP and Win 98 will load. insert "/L:F" switch in your Config.sys CDROM file line to make sure it get placed at the end of the HD device line and doesn't get moved later. Now, you will be working in Windows so take out the boot disk. Load in Office. Load in all the other stuff you really need now. .......end section POST LOAD TWEAKING ......begin TASKBAR: Right clik on unused area. Clik on Properties; select all 4 chk boxes. EXPLORER: Change View to NOT web page, select 'List'. Chk 'Status bar'. Menu/View/FolderOptions/View tab many things to change here. Clik on 'Make All Pages Like This One'. IE: Clik on Menu/Tools/InternetOptions/General. HomePage: This is where you want to open to. Apps tend to put their URL in here; i use http://www.metacrawler.com/. History: i use 1 day. Programs tab: NotePad, OE, OE, Netmeeting,-,AddressBook. Right clik on Toolbar, std and Addr chkd; Clik on Customize, No text labels, Use Small icons. Drag Addr box to the right of menu/Help, release. OE: Inbox. Right clik on the Toolbar, only 'Toolbar' item chkd. clik on Customize, small icons, no text, move Preview from left to right pane. Fill in Address book, or move old *.wab file in over new one at C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book. Move old *.dbx files in over new ones; C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities. Inboxmenu/Tools/Accounts, Mail tab, Add btn to add new accts. you will have to know the names of your in/out mail servers. Inboxmenu/Tools/Options, General chk all but 2nd of 7 chk boxes, set time to 5- 10 mins. Go thru other tabs. DIALUP: Enter your ISP info, or use their install CD. This is DNS. START: WinUpdateMgr Use this URL and not the Win 98 Update Manager desktop icon or the Start Menu item: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ The reason for this is when you use the icon, you will trigger MS into setting up the Task Scheduler to check every 9 mins or so for any new updates. This will screw up your Defrag process with the constant checks and start overs. Other items to consider are things listed in your StartUp dir - most of which should be deleted; C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp. Go to the MSoft URL listed above and clik on Product Updates. Delete the desktop UpdateMgr icon and item in Start list. Delete the 2 Office items by right cliking on them and selecting DEL. You can setup sub dirs in StartMenu to handle more shortcuts; C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Photo. i use this one for all my PhotoApps. \Web and \Ref would be 2 more sub dirs to add. DESKTOP: Delete all icons except MyComputer (rename it) and Recycle Bin. Move Net Neighborhood out of the way. IE and OE are on your Taskbar so you don't need them on the desktop. Delete Online Services not only from the desktop but from the \Win dir. Del Internet Connection if your modem is set up and you can access your ISP. I expand the Start btn list rather than have a bunch of icons on the desktop. OFFICE:Delete the 2 Office items in the Start list mentioned above by right cliking on them and selecting DEL. Use Explorer to create shortcuts to each app in Office to this Start list, place them in C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\. Edit the shortcut names. SCANDISK: Select Std Test, Auto fix errors, clik on Advanced btn. Top-down, left-right Select Always, no log, Delete, Free. Chk boxes - chk only first in each section. DEFRAG: Clik on Settings btn. Chk the Rearrange box only one time per HD and do it only when you have plenty of time. Otherwise, "chk the drive for errors" and "every time" .........end POST LOAD ends long series. EMAIL STARTUP I always check my email first so why not have it come up automatically? place a shortcut to this file (right mse drag it) "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\MSIMN.EXE" in your C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp dir if you have an always-on web connection like cable. EMAIL ABUSE Quick tips to help you determine if an e-mail address has been forged: Hilite the msg; clik on OEmenu/File/Properties/Details. You can read the header (IP Address) of an email to determine the ISP from which the email originated. A sample IP Address will look like this: 207.46.181.18 You usually read a header "backward" from the bottom to the top. (*Please note* There are a few e-mail programs that do not follow this rule.) Look for the first line that says, "Received" then start working your way up the header (line by line) until you find the first IP Address. You can then search for this IP Address on http://combat.uxn.com/ by entering it into the "IP Whois" query. This tool will match the IP Address to the originating ISP. You can then send your complaint to the Abuse Department of the ISP identified (abuse@.com) and include the full, unedited copy of the offending message and its header IE 6.0 Hold off getting it, in fact there are problem reports on 5.5 as well. SOUND The sound out of the SB Live card deteriorated. i loaded win 98 and the SB Live CD s/w on the new HD and now all is well. Something to remember. OUT OF MEMORY Run out of memory and apps stop or won't load? Right clik on My Computer (pls rename it) and select Properties from the popup menu. Clik on the Performance tab/Virtual Mem btn. in the Virtual Mem section, make sure you have enough memory set aside if you made your own selection, or just clik on the "Let Win Manage..." radio btn and play safe. Downloads Find all of CNET Download.com's most popular PC files here: http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eBkM0Bxwha0Wl0TjZ PGP 6.5 Email encryption, free During the installation, PGP detects whether you have Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora, and installs plug-ins for each application. In Outlook Express, for example, PGP adds three icons to the New Message window: Launch PGPKeys, Encrypt (PGP), and Sign (PGP). Launch PGPKeys lets you manage your keyring, your address book of keys. It automatically adds public keys for any new correspondent and searches the key server for new keys. Click Encrypt when you send a message, and PGP finds your recipient's e-mail address in your keyring and uses his or her public key to encrypt the message. When you receive an encrypted e-mail, PGP asks for your password and displays it in decrypted form. Here's the cool part: the message itself remains encrypted on your hard drive, safe from prying eyes. note: Send these msgs overseas and expect a call from officials. http://download.pgp.com:8001/freeware//PGPFW703.zip info: http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-3356727-108- 31906.html?tag=st.sw.3752-8-4792641-1.dir.3356727-108-31906 PHOTO APPS i left one good one off last time, well, two. Office 2000 CD-3 has PhotoDraw on it and this app seems to have taken over where Image Composer left off. The last place i have seen IC was on Front Page '98 CD. Add, also, Corel Draw for the pro that does art work layout. End Tips 32 Tips 33 SORTING In many Win apps that display a table you can clik on the column headings to sort the column figures below it. Here are 3 examples to illustrate this and to show you the best col to do it on. In OE Inbox the top right pane show a list of email msgs with cols From, Subject, Received. Next to each word is a triangle that points up or down. Clik on any col heading and watch what happens. I have found that cliking on the Received col Descending is best, arrow down. This displays the newest msg first. In Napster, clik on the Ping col. In WinMX clik on File Size col when searching for MPG files. You will be happy that you did. DESKTOP COLOR A few Tips sheets ago i showed you how to edit the Registry to change your desktop color; this became a lesson in Hex and Binary numbers as well - all good stuff. This time we'll use an easier way. Right clik on the clear desktop and select Properties/Appearance tab. Left clik on the Background in the display - note the Item text box changes to reflect this. Clik on the downarrow in the color box to display default color table; clik on Other. A more extensive table is displayed. Clik anywhere in the big color display to get the best rough approximation to the color you want. Use the vertical side scale to the right of the display to get more accurate. Then change the actual RGB numbers below this to hone in on your final choice and clik on Add to Custom Colors btn to lock it in. Clik on OK btn. The display vanishes and you can clik on SaveAs btn to save this color scheme for your desktop. BOOTDISK You should have one and it must of the same OS version that you have installed or will be installing. Test it by placing it in the A: drive and boot up. If it does not stop and run the files on the bootdisk then you probably do not have the BIOS Setup set up for it. Reboot and hit F3 or DEL key at the beginning and enter FIOS Setup. Go to Page 2 and enable Floppy Boot Seek and select the A:, CDROM, D: sequence. If it does work you will boot up in DOS and show an A:\: prompt. type in DIR /w and see if there are FORMAT AND FDISK files on it. BOOKSHELF One neat feature OF BS is when you have it installed and leave the CD in the CDROM all the time, you can right clik on any word in (a MSoft app) say a Word doc and clik on Define in the popup menu and presto, there is the defn. SHARE APPS Like Napster, WinMX is a file sharing app. Unlike Napster, WinMX can share other types of files like movies and pictures. www.winmx.com it is free. When you open it first wait for the servers to connect (names turn from red to black.) then select the type of file you wish to search for Music, Movies, or Pictures. Then hit the Search btn and enjoy. Sort by files size as many files are truncated and you will be able to spot it this way. PHOTO APP Picture It. Every photo app does something better than the others. This one is good for displaying all the images in a dir as thumbnail images to see what you have. Open the app, clik on My Pictures (Documents), Clik on Somewhere Else radio btn for ver 5+, Browse to where you keep your images to lock in your default file location, view images in this dir on the right. Now, you can look for duplicates, misfiling, bad images, lost images. To close, clik on bottom left Cancel btn then Exit. IP Address: from the Start/Run line whenever you are connected to the Internet you can run "winipcfg" or WinIPcfg and all the information is there even the DNS Server is available in the moreinfo button, and you IP address is immediately viewable. Try msinfo32, msconfig, regedit, & sysedit too. BIOS UPDATE AMI: http://www.ami.com/ Phoenix: http://www.phoenix.com/ MR BIOS: http://www.mrbios.com/ Firmware.Com: http://www.firmware.com/ SPELLING When ever OE sees a spelling error it gives you a chance to correct it (unless you have it turned off in OEmenu/Tools/Options/Spelling tab) or adopt the new spelling to a Custom Dictionary. This is a text file that you can later edit Found in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof. Save this file, among many others, before you reformat the C: drive. FIREWALL ZoneLabs' ZoneAlarm, which is about to come out in a new 2.6 version http://www.zonelabs.com/products/za/index.html DOWNLOADS http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10001-102-0-1.html iMesh is a search tool that lets you locate and download audio, image, and video files from the Web. SCRN SAVER Waterfalls 1.2 is a photo-realistic waterfall screensaver. Watch as Vernal Falls and Yosemite Falls come to life and pour out of the real pictures on your computer screen. It comes with three different animated waterfalls. Based on real photos, this beautiful screensaver comes complete with peaceful sounds of the forest and flowing water If you have a cable connection do some distributed computing like with Seti@Home. SPEED For the honor of fastest PC, you'd have to look at either the fastest Athlon with DDR RAM memory, or the fastest Pentium 4-powered system. ANON Before you go experimenting to sites that you wouldn't want your mother to know about, change your default email address to a throw-away hotmail acct. Also, see www.Anonimizer.com TCP Settings "It's been found that normally the best MTU setting for Ethernet connection on a LAN is the default Windows setting of 1500 for the MTU. It's also been found that using some of the advanced settings (such as RWIN, DefaultMSS, DefaultTTL, and PMTU settings) actually decrease performance - sometimes substantially. It may be worth playing around with some of the settings (after making a backup of your registry) and seeing if they improve performance. Preferably, try one at a time and test each to see it's effect on performance." Try RWIN of 128000, TTL 64, ACKs 3, MTU 1500 (cable) End tips 33 Tips 34 PWR MGMT Newer computers have timers on the unattended monitor and HDs. Right clik on the empty desktop and select Properties/ScrnSaver. Clik on Settings btn and set HDs to 'Never' off and Monitor to, say, '20 mins'. Why? When downloading/uploading long files and you are not there to move the mse to reset the timers you can shut down the app and cause a fault when the HD times out and you will lose the process. FREE GAMES In the Win 95 CD there is a \Funstuff dir that contains \Hover and its sub dirs. Copy it intact to your HD \Games dir, 14MB. Also, in Win Plus! there is a 1.8MB game of Pinball that is a one-dir impressive game. I always liked the Dos 5 game for kids about the 2 Gorillas throwing exploding bananas at each other over city roof tops. OE There is a world of info at the Tomsterdam site and in the OE NG previously reported, also you will find info at http://chattanooga.net/~scochran/oe5faq.htm http://chattanooga.net/~scochran/DBXtract.htm Here you can extract file info from a dbx file that OE uses. Don't call MSoft and wait hours on the phone, just go to the applicable, searchable NG, NewsGroup, and read, then ask your question if you haven't already seen the answer. What a Help desk! i use it daily as a great source of info. SPEED 850 MHz is plenty. Worry about having enough RAM (500-1000 MB) and a Cable connection to the web. And, when you buy anything that plugs into the computer make sure that it has an USB and/or FireWire connection ! When you work with Video, Artwork, or new Games then you will need the CPU speed and a $300-600 video card. For working with MPG, AVI, ASF, MOV files Video capture and Conversion cards are $450-3700. Digital camcorders are $1500 +. There is a new RAM out there now, expensive, called DDR for use on new mboards and high-end video cards. With DDR coming out as the latest and greatest, prices on SDRAM are falling - Get some more! Computer TV Shows http://www.digitalduo.com/ http://www.cmptv.com/computerchronicles/ lots of good info, esp when trying to decide which item to buy. Distributed Computing http://www.ud.com/home.htm offers a scrn saver that will let you work on a cure for cancer. This util and SETI @ home are examples of some good you can do with your DSL or Cable connection that is left on for many hours but not used all that time. http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/windows.html WINDOWS UPDATE http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ clik on product Updates. Don't use the WindowsUpdate item in the Start menu or desktop icon - Delete it or suffer TaskScheduler during Defrag.. IMAGES revisited When you take or are given a quality image it could be 1296 x 1048 or bigger which means it will be physically a big picture and the file size will be 1.25MB or more. This is fine for printing it out - Save a copy of it, but if you want to send it by email or add it to your web site you'd best make it around 320 x 200 pixel physical size and 10-35 kb file size. This could take 2 to 4 steps and 1 to 5 Photo apps to do this as each one does some things better than others. Past tips cover this, but people must not be reading them. DOWNLOADING songs or video When downloading big files, right clik on the file and Copy the beginning of it to a temp dir and then play it there to be sure that what you have is what you wanted rather than wait until the end of a long download. Start 3 or more downloads of the same file and later choose which ones to cancel. Add cable speed users to your Hotlist. Use Auto-Retry. For AVI files have the DivX file loaded first; search. Tips: search in foreign languages and misspellings. Make friends. They will clear the way for you to download the file you want or get freezed out. Send msgs and be nice, helpful. I found that the machine would eventually get hung up if i opened both iMesh and WinMX or Rapigator or Naptster and Napigator at the same time; vying for the same servers, or any of these servers can down at any time screwing up transfers. Also, working with so many small, 3-15 MB files can fragment your HD so run ScanDisk and Defrag often. If you are going to use Napigator to select specific servers you must open Napster first. DEFRAG http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/v2/ec_dynamic.main?cat_id=7&pn=16&sid=27674 (out of date) http://www.symantecstore.com/ when the MSoft ScanDisk & Defrag fail use Norton's Utils 2001. OPERA Net Radio http://www.operadio.com/player.html you'll need Real Player 8 (free also) DESKTOP COLOR i use Registry numbers 70,130,180 - better than Win 98 Me color. Dark steel blue. End tips 34 Tips 35 RELOAD I like a clean reload. Installing and uninstalling apps over a years time leaves a lot of DLL and shared files on your machine that you might not need. Patch loading of suspected problem apps is iffy. Reloading from a tape backup places any mistakes or shortcomings on it back in. Those of you who have bought new machines have Win 98 Me loaded in and you may not be happy with it. You could reload Win 98 SE back in. You will eventually have to reload any machine when the machine has a serious enough problem. First, get to know your BIOS Setup procedure. Save your data to a zip or 1.44 disk. Then get a Win 98 SE boot disk with its FDISK and FORMAT files on it. Have the OS and app CDs handy to reload. During bootup, you will see the instructions on how to enter BIOS Setup; on my machines it has always been hit the DEL key, but on Proprietary machines you will have to hit other keys like F10. The screen presentations go by fast so you may have to hit the Break Key to stop the bootup process; hit Enter Key to resume. In BIOS Setup, go to the, usu, 2nd page and see how to change your disk bootup order. For fast bootup it may be set to just go to the C: drive. For old machines it may be set to chk A: drive first then chk C: drive. For new machines it will offer many combinations like first CDROM, then C:, etc. Usually you clik on this option and then use the PgUp and PgDwn keys to change the value. When you have the right combo, Save & Exit by first hitting the ESC key. To change operating systems, OS, you must have the boot disk of the OS that you are going to install. New machines can operate on the Restore CD alone that ships with it. Booting up on this CD (if BIOS is set right) will wipe out your HD and reinstall their factory load of their stuff and default version of Windows. All apps loaded after you got the machine will be lost. New Windows versions have a MSoft protect feature that involves your machine ID that will prevent your CD from being loaded on any machine but that one. When you looked at your machine in Explorer, or whatever File Mgr they give you, you will see that normally a HD is not partitioned, i.e., it is one continuous HD space. Proprietary machines partition, say, 3 GB for their own low level use that you should leave alone until you understand what they are doing. This brings up an unknown to me at this point. When you do a clean load on such a machine and FDISK it, you will wipe out that partition. Will it cause an irretrievable problem? The Recover CD should put you back in the original factory condition just in case everything "goes horribly wrong". Just looking at the HD in FDISK will give you more info and not risk anything; this is a step beyond Explorer viewing. When you feel confident and determined to do a clean reload, set BIOS to boot up on A:. Boot up on the boot disk in A: and FDISK the HD, then FORMAT it. then set the BIOS to boot up on the CDROM. Place the Win 98 SE (or any) CD in and boot up. This will install Windows and then you can reinstall your apps and data. If you have a Update CD, you will have to show the install program that you have an original copy of a prior Win OS; use the first four 1.44 disks of Win 3.1 or try just browsing to a Win 98 SE bootup disk in A:. Change the BIOS back to C: drive only boot up. Setup all the apps to save your data to one place, the zip. Careful of what you load back in. You will feel SpringTime Fresh. DEFRAG With the cable hookup, when i go to Defrag after ScanDisk i have to do a number of things first. Turn off the screensaver, exit anything like TaskScheduler or WinUpdate; exit AdsOff the ads watchdog, ZoneAlarm the Firewall, email & Msgr service, all apps, and physically turn off the ext modem. SCAMS, FRAUD AND SPYWARE -begin- spyware KeyKey, SubSeven, Stealth Keyboard Logger, Snapshotspy, Surf Spy, Net Spy, GhostKeylogger, Pc Activity Monitor, PC Spy, STARR, Spector, Red Hand Pro, Hacker Whacker, FreeWhack, WinWhatWhere, BossEveryware, Conducent, Aureate, DoubleClick these could be on your machine 'phoning home' to report your actions. http://www.xblock.com/faq.shtml for info on XCleaner. See also, AdsOff type utils to get rid of other stuff. If you're looking for a new source on the latest info on computer viruses, check out: http://www.techtv.com/news/virus/ HoaxBusters http://HoaxBusters.ciac.org/ http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/ https://www.ifccfbi.gov/ -end- CDR FORMATS ISO9660 for CD use among cross platforms Joliet is used for most Windows apps UDF format is used for CDR that are used as big floppies. Roxio, formerly Adaptec, offers a sm free UDF Reader. HD CONSIDERATIONS Where to place apps and files? If you have just the one C: drive you will have to place your files on it. If you have a zip drive you should set up the apps to place all data files in a special dir on it. If you have a D: drive as well, then you can imagine that if a HD goes bad it will be the C: drive so you should place all valuable and emergency-needed (bootup/repair apps) files and apps on D:, zip, or a floppy. Generally, one places the biggest, fastest HD in the C: position. Do not place a slower drive on the same HD driver ribbon cable as your HD; pair the zip drive on the secondary cable with the CDROM and not with the much faster HD on the primary connection. One does not want to slow down the HD action to wait for the slow (1000 times slower) zip or CDROM process. For HD specs look at the ATA value (33, 66, 100, 133) and the rotational speed (5400, 7200) all higher the better though your mboard will dictate how much value you can use of these ATA numbers. You can place 4 HD type devices onto the 2 HD drive controller ribbon cables. C: & D: on one and zip and CDROM on the secondary. You can buy a controller card to extend this and i'm sure mother boards will eventually allow more than they do now, but there is still the IRQ's limitation which are pushed past their limits now by sharing; expect conflicts until they get rid of it or expand it. Plug-and-Play was an attempt to work better with IRQs and make installing new h/w easier. ON-LINE computer info http://www.midnightcafe.com/ http://www.pscu.com/ http://www.sourcemagazine.com/ WINDOWS HELP Find a NG. If you won't do that, and many of you won't even try, then look at these sites in addition to MSofts help sites: www.winsupersite.com www.woodyswatch.com www.worldowindows.com www.barkers.org/windows FIND HELP FAST I often look back at past Tips sheets and found that it would be easier if i just collected them all in one place so i could do a menu/Edit/Find search process on all of them to find specific refs. I collected them from tips 15 on in a Word 2000 text file sent to you. When each new tips sheet is complete and sent out i then add it to this file by menu/Insert/File and then browsing to where i keep the individual tips sheets and clik OK. menu/File/Save. The tips sheets are made up of experienced events, magazine articles, News Group info, web info, Newsletters, etc. Just add (Insert) this file to the end of the Tips.txt Word file previously sent. end Tips 35 Tips 36 FDISK When last we met, we covered clean re-load and mentioned this: This can be a machine killer, if you let it be, but it is a necessary util to use on a new HD or when you are doing a clean re-load. I still use Win 98 SE which allows DOS cmds so this applies, and if you want to get rid of your Win 98 Me or XP you will need this too. From Win 98 Me on, DOS is not allowed and they have all Windows utils to handle this. Good Luck. FDISK Defines a HD. FORMAT, the next step, prepares, per the new OS, the defined HD for the loading in of apps. You must have set up your BIOS Setup page to boot on A: first. After you do the FDISK you will need to boot up in CDROM to load in Windows. See previous Tips on this. Place the 1.44 boot disk in the A: drive, power up and you will get a Question: Boot with or without a CDROM? Usually, you will want With esp if you are going to load in Windows next. If you have a Proprietary machine they may have Partitioned your HD with 3 GB of their stuff that you will want to get rid of if you are going to go for a total clean re-load. You can keep that Partition if you feel that you may want to go back to the original factory load at a later date, but with FDISK you can at least look at what they have done. You can get a hint of this in Explorer. Next, you will be prompted for allowing HDs greater than 512 MB in size: Yes. The 5 choice FDISK screen appears: 1. Create DOS Partition 2. Set Active Partition 3. Delete Partition or Logical drive 4. Display Partition 5. Change Current Fixed HD Type in 4 to view what your HD 1 looks like. So far, you have done nothing to affect your machine. You now have a choice depending on what you see. Is your HD Partitioned? Do you want to Delete (3.) any of it and start over? Do you want to look at the other(?) HD (5.)? If you choose to Delete, is it a Partition or a Logical drive? A new page appears. Start with the higher option numbers and work your way down to deleting drives to the DOS partition if that is your path. After you have wiped out, say, your one HD DOS info, then you are ready to Create a single DOS Partition. You can break down a single HD to a C: and a D: drive by Partitioning it. The D: drive would then be a Logical drive. Unless you have a 200 GB HD i wouldn't bother with this; use a single drive per HD, no partitions - but remember that your proprietary factory setup may have done this for you. You hit the ESC key to leave a page in FDISK or to exit. Type in EXIT at the A:\ prompt after taking out the 1.44 disk to boot up in Windows if installed. If you have wiped out the C: drive and you wish to install Windows 98 SE, then place the Windows 98 SE CD in the CDROM drive. Check BIOS setup. Bona fortuna! After all is done, Change BIOS Setup back to 'Boot on C: drive only' for fastest bootup. If you have a Update CD, you will have to show the install program that you have an original copy of a prior Win OS; use the first four 1.44 disks of Win 3.1 or try just browsing to a Win 98 SE bootup disk in A:. End FDISK EMAIL test your email, send a blank email to echo@tu-berlin.de the mail bounces and brings useful information. SPELL CHK Not all small apps like NotePad (even the NotePad+ that i use for this Tips sheet; i have to do the spell chk in OE when i go to send it out - until now) have spell check, you can arrange for this in any app by going to http://www.pcnineoneone.com/tweaks/scripts8.html and getting the zipped script file. Instructions are there. Pinball The free game, 1.8 MB, that came with MSoft's Plus is now $20 and has ballooned to 5 MB. http://www.microsoft.com/games/home/games.asp?g=144#trialVersion MSoft Learning http://www.microsoft.com/insider/learning/ This downloadable Word document shows you how to plan and design a database from the ground up. http://www.microsoft.com/insider/pf/accdbdesign.htm DLL You can search any DLL files from many MS programs and know which version came with which application. Thought it might be useful to your readers! http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/dllinfo.asp Excellent! Microsoft's Resource Kits have long had a CD-based tool ("FileInfo") that can tell you what file goes with which app, but this free, online, searchable database is even slicker for quickly tracking down DLLs. SPEED The de facto standard for measuring CPU clock speed is WCPUID, available from http://www.h-oda.com/ . Use the FTP download option. A very similar program called CPUz is at http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.htm . Either one will show you, with good precision, just how fast your CPU's clock rate really is. COMPUTER CHECKOUT http://www.pcpitstop.com Other FREE tools are Microsoft's RegClean http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q147/7/69.asp and Jouni Vuorio's RegCleaner http://www.jv16.org/ JUNO Other ISPs are doing the same thing as Juno does when it puts s/w on your machine that runs in the background and does computational chores and sends the results back to Juno who sells this service that you are unwittingly providing. Earthlink is one. This distributed computing is insidious unless you purposely sign up for it at SETI at home or the cancer research one mentioned in a previous tips. WIN SETUP Start a new installation or reinstallation of Windows with the command: setup /p g=3 you'll see something different. The detection progress bar will become "verbose" and show all the resources of the detected devices along with the progress bar. This helps you to know exactly what's going on: If you run into trouble during an installation or reinstallation, knowing precisely which component or module failed can be a big help in correcting what's wrong. You can find a list of all the available Windows9x/ME setup switches and what they do at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q186/1/11.asp KNOWLEDGEBASE This link shows a list of MSoft knowledgebase keywords. an excellent aid in doing searches. See Also, Google Search. Add the word ' kb' to your search to get the Q doc. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q242/4/50.ASP Search FAVORITES Say, you have 40 folders in \Favorites URL collection in IE and you can't remember in which one you placed the pointer to JellyBelly to get your free bag of jelly beans mailed to you. Get into Explorer, open up Windows dir and clik on \Favorites, and clik on menu/Tools/Find/Files. Type in 'Jelly' in the Named text box and clik on FindNow btn. If you don't have 40 folders in \Favorites - ask yourself 'why?' And, for your pleasure http://www.jellybelly.com/ FREE EMAIL There are many of them. Amazingly, there are some that do not let you send msgs out! You will need a Hotmail acct to use MSN Msgr. Use these throwaway accts to talk to dubious sites. See Anti-SPAM below. COOKIES I find myself using Cookie Viewer, see past Tips, after every new site visited to chk which of the hated spy cookies and popup windows they are placing on my machine. Then i send a msg to the company about it and delete the offending cookies. ANTI-SPAM When you use your email they keep your address and possibly sell it to a SPAM group; then you will get all sorts of junk email. One way to avoid this is to give out a spare email address that isn't used for your friends and family. Also, you can modify this addr to further thwart them by going to OE Inbox menu/Tools/Accounts/Mail tab/ clik on email acct that you want to change then Properties btn/General tab. In the last text box under User Info, in Reply Address you can modify your addr like so: for acct emosss@home.com i put in emosssspam@home.com and you will not be able to Reply to my msg; try to do so. yes it is emosss. because 2 ss' were already taken @home.com WINDOWS XP will be formally released later this year on Thursday October 25, 2001. LOCKED IN First it was BIOS-locked PCs, then Product Activation, and now MSoft is changing the way enterprise customers license and re-license Windows software (subscriptions). end Tips 36 Tips 37 REFERENCE http://www.libraryspot.com http://www.xrefer.com http://www.bartleby.com http://www.dictionary.com http://www.dictionary.com/translate/ http://www.freetranslation.com/ BLOCK In Hotmail it is easy to set up your accts in OE, but i get so much junk, lewd email in these accts that i open them up by going to the www.hotmail.com site and clik on the offensive msgs in Inbox and clik on the BlockSender btn to prevent any more from those addrs. There are always new addrs cropping up so this is an ongoing process. By cliking on Options you can also block msgs by key words in the Subject line. Send all to the Trash bin. You can also send the offending msg w/header info to abuse@ISP.com where ISP is the name of the group like yahoo or hotmail or lycos, etc. OLD DOS NAMES DOS uses 8.3 format for file names. We now can use long filenames, but sometimes we have to work with them in DOS and an error occurs. In Windows Explorer, navigate to whatever long-named file you're interested in. Right click on the file, select Properties. The dialog box will show you the unique DOS version (shortened) of the file name. Use that version of the name will work in Autoexec or other DOS-level file operations. LOTTERY http://www.note.com/note/pp/jackpot.html info on what to do if you win. IE DEFAULT I used to have IE open to MetaCrawler search engine, but now i have it open to a TV Listing HOAXES You can make yourself chain-letter-proof by taking literally about a minute to check up on any claims made in chain letters. There are any number of resources you can use, including: Symantec Anti Virus Research Center at McAfee Associates Virus Hoax List at Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability at http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html> Debunking online and email hoaxes: The Urban Legends Web Site at Urban Legends Reference Pages at Datafellows Hoax Warnings at PROPRIETARY free tool to uninstall System Restore from Windows ME, and it's easy to use! is the link to the site; by the way the side is also very nicely made (flash). The filename to download is RPsetup.exe about 300Kb. REGISTRY MSoft has RegClean 4 for free and here is one that is more powerful: http://www.toniarts.com/ecleane.htm Easy Cleaner. PROBLEM "PEBKAC": "Problem exists between keyboard and chair." , "To err is human, but to back up is divine." Also, i hope everyone has been running ScanDisk and then Defrag once a week. SPYWARE These sites can help--- they maintain lists of all known spyware. Using them, you can search BEFORE you download an install. ... and many others: I use Ad-aware to root out this stuff. And, i use CookieViewer to get rid of ad cookies many times during a session. Like these: ad2-one.txt ad.doubleclick.txt admonitor.txt advertising.txt doubleclick.txt avenuea.txt cydoor fastclick.txt hc2.humanclick.txt hitbox pei-ads.txt rankyou.txt rmuk.co.txt twistedhumor.txt valueclick.txt some of you may have sextracker on your list; not me. Cookie Viewer - "A better way to dispose of this sort of cookie is to prevent them from being stored in the first place. If you're using Internet Explorer, this is done by adding sites to the Restricted Zone and ensuring that the Restricted Zone is prohibited from storing cookies. Procedure In Internet Explorer, select Tools | Options, and then the Security tab. Click on the Restricted Sites icon, then the Custom Level button. Scroll down to "Cookies" and make sure that "Disable" is checked under both "Allow cookies that are stored on your computer" and "Allow per-session cookies (not stored)." The latter choice may be unnecessary, but I've had it set that way for months without any problem at all. It's worth noting that every option in this section should be either "Disable" or "Prompt". Click "OK", then "Yes" to make the setting changes. Now click the Sites button and enter "*.doubleclick.net" in the top box, then click the Add button. Repeat for any other annoying cookie sources you've encountered. Now click OK, then OK again, and those Doubleclick cookies are gone forever. Some of the names in my restricted site list adforce.com, admaximize.com, admonitor.net, avenuea.com, bfast.com, doubleclick.net, hitbox.com, linkexchange.com, and valueclick.com. " PASSWORDS Another file to save when you are reloading a HD or just changing your logon name is your *.pwl file in your \Windows dir. I also keep a hidden text file that has all useful info like user IDs and pw's in it. BIOS http://mindprod.com/products.html has a small util that will save your CMOS info. The flash util that you use to Flash your BIOS to a newer version should have a Save Old file feature. SPELL CHK Use http://www.spellonline.com/ to spell chk a URL or any text you want to paste into this site's text box. Chks Foreign words as well. For translations, i use http://www.dictionary.com/translate/ DEFRAG Most of the time you have to shut down a lot of stuff like Scheduler, Cable Modem, ScrnSaver, email chk, etc. OR, Try reboot, and hold the LEFT SHIFT key down as Windows loads (this tells Windows to bypass most of the normal startup stuff). When Windows has fully loaded, and without starting any other apps, run a full defrag to completion. ASSOCIATIONS http://www.xs4all.nl/~wstudios/Associate/WAssociate.html "Hey!", you would say when a file opens up in a new, strange app instead of the old, usual one. That means your file association has been changed. Free util can easily correct that at the URL above. Now, we use, Explorer menu/Tools/FolderOptions/FileType tab Find file type, clik on Edit btn, and so on. Also, OpenExpert is now free at and may be easier to use. Another freebie worth a look is Resplendent's Registrar Lite and some users might want to upgrade. Also see, FIREWALL Free ZoneAlarm 2.6 beat costly Norton's firewall in an independent evaluation. If you have DSL or Cable connections to the web, you must have one. Your IP is fixed. See also, "Almost any hacker, cracker or warez site offers tools that will make a law- abiding netizen's hair stand up. For example, there are any number of "port scanner" tools available that can run through upwards of 10,000 IP addresses an hour, looking for any online system with an open and attackable port. " NET ENABLED Phoenix, at least, is now selling Net-enabled mboards. This means that the start up page when you get on the web is fixed in BIOS - you have no choice, you can't get rid of it. A Flash could change it, but Phoenix provides the Flash. PhoenixNet may be hard to avoid: A number of motherboard makers have already agreed to start using PhoenixNet: They include AOpen, Chaintech, ECS, EpoX, Giga-Byte, Jetway, Legend-QDI, MSI, Soltek and Zida. End Tips 37 Tips 38 Win9x Logon protect begin 2 Although I have tested this tip, it is very possible there's a way around it. Certainly any determined user could just boot to a DOS floppy disk or interrupt to the boot menu or any number of things. But to prevent casual abuse of logins where people might just hit Cancel, this very simple idea could definitely help out. This is for Win9x/Me only. It just isn't needed under NT/2K/XP. 1. Drag a .SCR icon from C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System to the C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder. A .SCR file is a screensaver, and Windows comes equipped with several by default. 2. Password protect your screen saver. To do that, right-click the desktop, choose Properties, then click the Screen Saver tab. Adjust the screensaver to your liking and set a password. When you reboot the machine you'll be immediately faced with a password logon box. end 2 "WinME actually still has DOS; it's just harder to get at. But XP is more like NT/2K, where there is no separate DOS subsystem. I still feel Win98SE is the best general-purpose OS" FL QMgr begin 1 There are a couple things going on that have very similar names. The file C:\Windows\Loadqm.exe is a "quality monitor" that's part of MSN. It collects and transmits anonymous statistics back to Microsoft. You can read more about it--- and turn it off, to prevent anything from being sent back--- by opening MSN Explorer, clicking on "Help and Settings" at the top of the pager, then click on "Privacy" in the left nav bar, then click on "Service Quality Monitoring." QMgr apparently is a "queue manager" identified as a "Background File Downloader" that "Downloads data for programs when the computer is idle." There is no separate on/off switch for QMgr that I know of, but it can be blocked by ZoneAlarm (and by other firewalls that allow per- application settings). I've noticed no problems from blocking QMgr; if I ever do encounter a download problem, I can adjust ZoneAlarm on the fly to allow QMgr to connect temporarily, and then can re-disable it. By manually disabling the Quality Manager and using ZoneAlarm to block the QMgr, you can regain control over some of the less obvious background activities that may be going on in your PC. end 1 Test your connection speed http://webservices.cnet.com/Bandwidth/ Pull out images from a PwrPoint File, pps Open up PP menu/file/Open select the pps file slide show The list of images will be on the left, clik on any one. R. clik on the pic that appears on the right Select Copy Open any Photo App, like PhotoShop or ImageComposer menu/Edit/Paste Do the physical size reduction and file compression here if needed or wanted menu/File/SaveAs JPG Repeat for each the images you want to save out of the PP slide show. Windows Update (it's worth visiting every couple weeks) OE "I don't recommend installing IE 5.5. I never have. Although I run it on a couple of machines in the SFNL Labs, I recommend IE 5.01 SP2 instead." this from a NewsLetter, SFNL. Web Activity The xfer lites on the cable modem were flashing (2 and 4 from the top) with out me doing any dwnlds. Open up ZoneAlarm and watch the Up/Dwn meters to chk internet traffic to and from your machine. Clik on Security/Stp btn and cutoff all traffic. @Home says they have a Code Red virus problem; not to worry. TRAVEL When you travel and want to send email, you don't have to use your host's email acct. As long as you can get on any computer that is connected go to www.hotmail.com and use your own acct. SHOPPING http://www.pricewatch.com/ "News Flash! Napster File transfers are currently disabled by order of the Court. See the Statement of Hank Barry for more details. " WIN MSGR "Think of Windows Messenger as a half step between MSN Messenger and NetMeeting. Windows Messenger integrates online presence, text, voice, and video messaging in a simple user interface. It only works in point-to-point mode (between two people) not multipoint (among three or more people). " SF BIOS UPGRADE Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools -- ttp://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html#dlgtools Maxtor MaxBlast Plus -- http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/software/maxblast/default.htm> Seagate DiscWizard -- Quantum Ontrack Disk Manager 2000 -- IBM Disk Manager 2000 -- ttp://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm#Installation Fujitsu OnTrack DiskGo -- EMAIL You probably are only allowed 2-5 MB for msgs so, in OE, don't forget to clean house at least once a week by opening your Inbox & Sent box for each acct and deleting the msgs you don't feel are worth saving and move (drag) the other msgs to the proper subdirs (that you create) under your Inbox dir. If your email acct if full then any new msg to you will be rejected. OE check your mail often in 2 ways. Auto chk by setting up menu/Tools/Options/General tab Send/Receive section chk box set time between checks - i use 2 mins. Also, you can force a mail chk at any time by cliking on the Send/Receive icon in the OE Inbox Toolbar or by cliking on menu/Tools/Send-Receive. COVERUP After a session you might not want someone to come in and look at where you have been. There are many places where they can look to see what you have been up to. So, if you have been a bad boy you might want to do some deleting in the following places: C:\Windows\Recent, ...\temp, ...\TempIntFiles, ...\cookies. Use Explorer. You really need CookieViewer util. Also, you might want to change the amt of days you save such info as History. IE menu/Tools/IntOptions/General tab/History. i set mine to 0 days and Clear it NOW. Also, Right clik on the clear area of the Taskbar and select Properties/StartMenuProgs tab/DocMenu/Clear btn. you can see this incriminating list in Start btn/Docs. Also, in IE your Address text box where you typed in some URLs is kept in a list in your Registry; see previous Tips on how to selectively delete these entries. XP A lot of not so good things being said about MSoft's XP line. i really don't see where we need any of it, esp with the new registration gimmicks (Product Activation) that are designed to thwart the loading in of CDR copies, even moving it to your newer computer. Many new improvements really aren't; the MSoft Media Player, for example, just adds the ability to play MSoft's new format which will charge you to play recordings that we used to get for free from MP3 format. (Remember that mp3 is a lossy compression; info is taken out of the original recording and can't be put back - it is a compromise, good- enough, 50 down to 3 mb file per song for most users listening needs.) "Microsoft has announced official system requirements: a Pentium or equivalent CPU running at 300MHz or faster, 64MB RAM minimum (128MB strongly recommended), and 1.5GB free disk space. The BIOS and components in PCs born before January 2000 could have trouble with Windows XP, since Microsoft focused on devices shipped since that date. Some features of Windows XP will actually require BIOSes that won't come to market until later this year." SFNL APPS OPEN Many times i have seen users shutting down an App or IE form just because you are thru with it for the time being. Minimize it if you think you will come back to in the next hour. i often just leave the form up on the screen and just bring up another form over it. i do not maximize my forms but stagger them so i can see a 1/4" to clik on to bring it to the front. i also leave one form of IE up with, say, the TV schedule and use another instance of IE to look at other sites. i always leave OE up. Win 98+ allows up to 7 monitors to be connected to your one computer. XP will allow multiple monitors only on the expensive Pro version. MSoft drops support for USB 2.0 in XP Smart Tags is another XP goof. you don't want them popping up on your web pages. BLOCK blocking the sites that send you cookies that you don't ever want really works, see last tips sheet. Get Cookie Viewer, set it to your cookie dir, c:\windows\cookies, clik on a suspect cookie in the 2nd text box and read the URL in the 3rd. Use this URL in IE menu/Tools/InternetOptions/Security tab. clik on Restricted Sites Zone then clik on the enabled Sites btn. Add the URL as *.xxxx.com or .net etc the *. prefix takes care of whether or not the url has a www domain or not in the url. Some sites have both. Hotmail has a new blocking scheme in place now in addition to filters and blocks you can set up an auto Off, Low, High, Exclusive filter on all incoming email msgs. it shunts all suspect msgs that they detect to your Junk bin for you to look at later and decide whether to send them to the Trash bin. DOWNLOADS http://www.webattack.com/freeware/security/fwcookie.shtml get at least Ad-aware and Cookie Viewer from this list. PopUp Stopper is a good one; http://panicware.com/product_dpps.html hold down Cntrl key when cliking on URL hypertext. AdOff/PopOff from another company is similar. http://www.antivirus.com/ NEW BUG "Web Bugs are often invisible because they are typically only 1-by-1 pixels in size. In many cases, Web Bugs are placed on Web pages by third parties interested in collecting data about visitors to those pages." "To me, Web Bugs--- like Cookies--- are just a minor sideshow in the security arena, and hardly worth any concern at all. But many feel otherwise" end tips 38 Tips 39 NEW HD First, you have to salvage good stuff off of the old one if you are replacing it and clean it up for storage or for use in another machine. See previous tips sheets on this whole subject. This process depends on whether it is a C: or D: drive. Saving the Stuff on D: to C: by dragging whole dirs to it is the easiest of the two conditions to do. Don't use the apps while they are on C: as the apps think they are still on D:. When the new HD is in D: then drag the dirs back to D: and all will be well. However, if the C: drive is being replaced then don't bother moving Win apps to D: just delete and reload them on the new C: from the CDs. Although, you can move data & image files and DOS apps back and forth. It is a good idea to fdisk and format and then at least install win 98 SE on the old drive and tape a win 98 SE boot disk to it. Then store it in a mylar bag or install it in another computer. As to the new HD, boot up on the win 98 SE boot disk in A:. You should have loaded the format file on this disk. fdisk file should be there. You may have to change your 2nd page item in BIOS Setup to boot sequence A,C. When you booted on the floppy you selected the 'with CDROM capabilities' so, after format you can start loading in Win 98 SE. The boot disk has to be created by the same version as the OS you are going to load in. From A: fdisk the new HD to max size by issuing the DOS cmd FDISK. You may need help with this. If you aren't allowed to do this then you will have to update your BIOS from the mfgr's web site; every BIOS has a max limit to the HD size it can handle - forget partitions. Be sure to get the util file as well as the updated BIOS file from the dwnld web site. Save the old BIOS file. This has to be done in DOS so get these files on your boot disk. After fdisk then you will issue the DOS cmd Format C: /U (or D:) the switch is for unconditional format. For Jack's computer we used for util file for upgrade file SIS chip set ASUS P5S VM mboard (SiS(r) 530, UDMA/66) DEFRAG As long as we are reviewing subjects (see above) we might as well go over ScanDisk and Defrag again. If it is taking 3 hours to do ScanDisk and overnight to do Defrag - you have a bad situation. Set ScanDisk options to Std not Thorough (do once a yr) and set the Advanced options to Delete or Not Save. In Defrag/Settings, chk for Errors not Rearrange (do once a yr), Remember. EMAIL When you Forward an email msg to an Abuse dept of the offending ISP, you must include the Header info. Clik on ht e incoming msg, Go to OE menu/File/Properties/Details tab. Select and Copy the info. Move to your Forward msg and Paste in the header details. They must have this info. Look for MsgID line; it must be there or the msg is probably forged. http://search.ancestry.com/cgi- bin/sse.dll?targetid=594&sourceid=965&ti=0&gsfn=&gsln=copperfield&submit=Search& gl=allgs&prox=1 MS IE UPDATE Go to the MSoft IE download page and get SP 2 for IE 5.5 http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.asp This supports the older "MOV" format used in Quicktime. Apple already has released a new Quicktime player that works correctly with IE5.5 SP2: PRIVACY http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/protect.htm or call 1-888-567-8688 choose option 3 HARDWARE UTIL Look for hwdiag.exe on your Win Install CD CPU benchmarking (see ); a few, like do full system testing. VIRUS CHK SCAN NOW: FOIL HD Overlays Here are the simple steps to remove the DDO 1. User must have a bootable DOS diskette which has fdisk on it 2. Boot DIRECTLY to a floppy diskette (so the overlay does not load from the hard disk) 3. Type 'fdisk /mbr' and press Enter Modem Drivers the two best modem related sites on the Web. and see also, http://www.freetune.com/most_popular_pages.htm REGEDIT location of your typed in URLs in IE HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs AV http://www.antivirus.com/ end tips 39 Tips 40 WINDOWS OS VERSIONS win XP requires Product Activation - this alone is enough to not get it. win 98 Me this ver makes it near impossible to get to DOS and running DOS apps is out. win 98 SE this one seems to be the best. you can get into DOS and run DOS apps. win 98 this one had problems VIRUS Actually a worm; this is typical of the new problems we face: Worm Ways - TROJ_KLEZ.C (Low Risk) This destructive worm, a variant of TROJ_KLEZ.A, sends itself via email and arrives as an embedded executable or PIF file (shortcut file). It uses bogus email addresses in the "From:" field of the email it sends, and uses a known vulnerability in Internet Explorer-based email clients that executes file attachments automatically. This vulnerability is known as Automatic Execution of Embedded MIME type. From Trend nl. EXT DRIVE Maxtor has an ext HD that connects thru the FireWire port. This would be an improvement over a zip drive for xferring data to another machine. ZIP DRIVE you have 3 ribbon cables connected from your mboard one is for the floppies (end 'twist' conn goes to A:) and it, they, all have 2 connectors on them the other 2 ribbon cables are for HD devices 1st the primary cable to connect to the C: and D: drives only, one not used if no D: often the conn on end goes to D:. 2nd is the Secondary cable that connects to 2 HD type devices like a CDROM and a Zip drive a 10 yr old can put in a zip drive if they pay attn to the above. Remember that the gray ribbon cables have red slash marks on one edge: this signifies pin one. Place it closest to the pwr plug, usually. FILE ASSOC Normally, we would use Explorer menu/Tools/FolderOptions/FileType tab and set the file association for a file type, extension, to an app of choice - a bit involved, see previous tips. Or, you can edit the Registry directly with RegEdit. However, some types are hidden from the list, like 'avi'. Sometimes avi files will play on Win Medial Player, but they seem to play better on a Real Player. To set this file type to assoc with Real Player i used a free dwnld util called WAssociate. This is slick. Found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~wstudios/Associate/ 343KB Open the util. Think of the form as being divided horiz into 2 parts one above the other. In the top part, clik on the down arrow for Extension. Select your file extension, i used 'avi'. In the lower part, pane, i found this in the Command line "C:\PROGRA~1\WINDOW~1\wmplayer.exe" /Play "%L" i wanted to use the Real player instead. You can clik on the right-most btn to the right of the cmd box to Browse to the right cmd, or you can edit the cmd line directly and i changed the contents of the first quoted cmd to: D:\Mp3\Real\realplay.exe which was later internally changed to: D:\Mp3\Real\realplay.exe /m video/avi %1 SCAN & DEFRAG Close everything down. 1. shut down your open apps. 2. chk systray; right clik on each and Close it. Even things like Real Player and auto time set utils are bad. 3. cntrl+alt+del list to see what is still running; end-task them about the only thing you need running is explorer and systray. Shutdown internet activity by hitting the Stop btn in ZoneAlarm. Turn off scrn saver and Task Scheduler. AV SCAN NOW: CDR note the diff color on the writing surface? some dyes allow data to last for decades and some only months. there is a diff in quality; gold beats blue. this from a newsletter: "CDR Identifier: This little tool lets you read the ATIP (Absolute Time In Pre-Groove) of CDR (CD-Recordable) media with most of the current CDR recorders. This information tells the real manufacturer and type of dye used for this media." " GREETINGS web cards are dangerous as they contain exe files and take over your browser. best to avoid them. SAME FILE When you have collected a lot of files and you are not sure if you have duplicates, first arrange by file names in Explorer, then after weeding arrange by file size. Or, search on files size alone; place file size in name. HOTMAIL They allow 2MB of space for each acct Inbox. Read them and Delete them, or move them to a folder that you create. ZL9 apparently eml is not the only email/firewall renaming of file extensions. ZoneAlarm firewall renames mail to zl9 after chking it find out from the sender what the orig ext was and you rename it back. from ZA: ZAMailSafeExt: REG_SZ: {renamed extension -- zl9, for example). if you have a question or problem that requires an answer, please use the Web Based Support System : a firewall is a must for DSL and Cable ISP use the xray gal file, move the mse pointer over the dress, passed my AV test and ZA this is an exe file, but came to us as a zl9 file after going thru ZA when dble cliked on it uses Macromedia Flash Player to get the xray effect FIND FILE In Explorer, file mgr, you can clik on menu/Tools/Find/Files and type in a file name or part of one. Choose where you want to look first and also consider entering info into the Containing text box. ex. Find recipe.* containing flan. If an app stops and says it cannot find, say, a DLL file. This means you probably have a corrupted app dir and you should reload the app from the install CD. Or, you can search for this file as above to see if you do have it. Or, you can get this file off the install CD even though it may be buried in a cab file or a DLL by using SFC.exe in \Windows\System dir choose Extract and type in the location and file name. DIVX PLAYER free http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10079-108-81931.html Use Real Player for most .avi files the rest you can use Win Media Player TIME ver 4.8, free, auto chk see also TimeSync LEARN FROM MISTAKES i took out my C: drive and inserted a friends C: drive into my perfectly running machine. Now i had my good D: drive, 40 GB and a blank 40 GB C: drive. i fdisked and formatted the indicated C: drive for my friend and found that the machine didn't like his C: drive and moved my D: drive to C: and i formatted all my good apps and dwnlds on D: into oblivion. i loaded my D: drive only to have it crash and burn; got my money back though, but only have a 5GB drive in D: now. EDIT REGISTRY c:\Windows\RegEdit.exe This can be tricky - win saves a backup copy of it if you really screw up. To search for and edit any word, say, Karen, open RegEdit, clik on menu/Edit/Find. Type in the name, word or part of a word and clik on the FindNext btn. Wait - this util is typically slow and it is looking in a detailed 7 MB system file. A popup form will appear when found. The whole item could be Deleted at this point or edited. When it finds the target word you have a choice of moving on to the next occurrence F3, or editing this item value. If you want to edit this item notice that the right pane contains Name and Data values. The Name entry is usually hilited. To edit it clik on menu/Edit/Modify. Another popup form will appear with the Data value hilited - edit it just like any win operation (use the left arrow key or mse first!) to what is the correct value. Clik on the OK btn when finished. You can now close the Editor or clik on FindNext btn (F3). end Tips 40 Tips 41 PGP Privacy. latest: http://www.pgp.com/products/freeware/default.asp HOTMAIL You can have these accts auto displayed in your OE Inbox for your convenience. But, Hotmail is a target of SPAMers that send out mass mailings like phone solicitors call telephone numbers - they get your addrs from others whom you have sent mail to and to all serial addresses e.g., some, ssome, sssome, som, ssom, etc. You really want to keep at least one HM acct to use while traveling, to use MSN Msgr, to be a little anon, to have more accts than you think you need. You can do 3 things to minimize this mess 1. get more hotmail accts and drop the contaminated ones 2. set your filters at www.hotmail.com to weed out the msgs by Subject 3. Block certain sending addresses 4. set your Reply addr to, say, emossxspam@hotmail.com all of these, save 4, have to be done at the HM site; the 4th is done in OE Inbox mnu/Tools/Accounts/ clik on your HM acct of interest and then clik on Properties/General tab. Edit Reply addr to anything. Your friends will have to know that a Reply to a msg from this acct will not get sent; they have to select the right addr for you, thus eliminating the casual spammer. SEARCH http://www.google.com/ They have 4 major groups to search within, the main one being Web, but their Images section is very complete - toggle Mature Option text with a dble clik as needed. MPG read http://www.411forsex.com/help/codecs_and_tools/codecs.html if your movie files are not playing properly; you probably need more codecs to view the many compressed files out there. get mpg4c32.dll file and dwnld it directly into your c:\win\system dir. Also, get DivX COPY SC To copy a shortcut, URL, that is buried somewhere in your Favorites, go into Explorer/Win/Fav and search for a key word, Cntrl+F. when you find the link, right click on it and select Properties/WebDoc tab. Copy the URL and Paste it wherever. TROUBLE --begin One of the basic situations that people get into is the allowing of apps to run amok upon installation and then the apps auto start everything they have up when win boots up. They put 2 or 3 executables in win startup and place at least one in the sys tray. Look in two places to see what they have done to your machine. First, in Explorer look in C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp to see what does auto start up and virtually all can be deleted. Then do a cntl+alt+del and see what the sys is running (look in the sys tray of the TaskBar); all but 2 of these can be deleted, explorer and systray. Also, see tips 45. This later tip is esp handy when your machine hangs up; one of these items will be followed by 'not responding' select it and End Task it. ---end XP PA "There's nothing you can do in BIOS. In a nutshell, activation is tied specifically to the hardware on your PC. There is software in XP that analyzes your hardware configuration and creates a Hardware ID that identifies your PC uniquely among all the millions of computers on the planet. That number is further integrated with the product ID number of your copy of Windows XP. Then that number is validated by Microsoft's product activation servers, whereupon a Confirmation ID number is produced and stored on your PC. That's what allows you to boot Windows XP after your initial 30 days." SFNL MSGR Microsoft has developed two versions of its popular instant messenger, one for Windows XP called Windows Messenger, and one for the other Windows platforms including 95,98, NT, and 2000, called MSN Messenger. XP has troubles and updates are already coming out. XP msgr doesn't appear to work unless your tgt also has XP. Stay with win 98 SE. SHARING -- XP and Internet Connection Sharing -- QUESTION: What about Internet connection sharing. a-la Win98SE? Hate to have to pay double the money just to occasionally use my 2nd PC. Will the home version of XP support ICS? ANSWER: Yes, both versions of Windows XP (Home and Pro) provide Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). ICS is a very simple NAT (Network Address Translation)-based software solution that allows you to share a single Internet connection (typically, broadband) with several other computers. To achieve this feat, you need to install two network cards in a primary PC, and that PC must be both connected to your Internet access device (cable modem, DSL bridge, so forth) and the other computers via an Ethernet or other type of network. ICS was designed to work in a peer network environment like Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000, and Windows Me. Windows XP includes this functionality. But I don't recommend ICS. It is a pain to maintain and many people have problems with it -- especially in mixed Windows version environments. Spend the money to get an inexpensive hardware alternative, such as the Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL router (or something like it). It works, you can forget about it, and it has at least one other advantage over ICS and other software solutions: You don't have to have one computer on at all times for other computers to access the Internet. In my opinion, most broadband-equipped home computer users who share Internet access among two or more PCs would be better off spending their $100 on a NAT/DHCP broadband router like the Linksys than on Windows XP. The payback is higher, and there are no aggravations. -- S.F. newsletter VIRUS Simply reading a Nimda-infected e-mail message can result in an incursion of the virus onto your system. You don't even have to open an attachment.http://www.f- secure.com/v-descs/nimda_e.shtml STEGANOGRAPHY Hide your email msg in plain site. Search the web and find the free util for hiding text within an image. NewsGroups begin 1 NGs are a valuable tool people who do not create a NG acct are ignorant as there is simply too much info available to ignore. the service is provided by every ISP and even with a free web hookup you can directly access this USENET People ask questions that could have been easily answered by searching thru or reading the appropriate NewsGroup msgs and posting a question. Web friends are made this way. i have received many free books from users on rec.arts.mystery signed by the author. i have also learned about many new authors. Also, i have had many questions answered about OE on MSofts outlookexpress NG by MSoft certified experts. They won't answer any email sent directly to them, but will answer a posted question on a NG in minutes. msnews.microsoft.com Calling MSoft and being put on hold for 45 minutes and getting a misguided answer caused by your vague question is not the way to go. You may be put on a Nuisance list. i set up a NG acct in OE for people and they watch the initial load of NG titles into their computer, 37,000 of them and scream, 'get all that off of my computer, i don't need it.' Yes, they do and although that number is high it is just names of NGs and not full data, when you want the data from any particular NG of the 37K then you subscribe to each one separately. i subscribe to 3-8 of them out of 37K and a whole new world opens up, FIND To find help on any keywords in this doc, Tips.txt, or any doc in the world just open the doc, do a Cntrl+F and enter the key word(s), and clik Search or OK or whatever the btn is to instigate the search. Hit F3 key to search for the next occurrence until you find what you want. Surely, you wouldn't search for help line by line looking for something close to what you want? TRAIL Erase it. in Real Player to get rid of the Recent list 8 entries. Use RegEdit to clear the data at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\6.0\Preferences\MostRecentCli ps1 This is the Key Name in Left pane. Clik on the Name (Default) in right pane and then clik on menu/Edit/Modify. The data value will be hilited; hit the Backspace key to erase it, clik on OK btn, thus emptying that Recent value. Use Explorer to clear the file names in \Win\Recent, \win\temp and \win\TIF JUNO Uninstall the Juno app off of your machine and just go to this site to check all juno email EMAIL SIGNATURE OE Inbox menu/Tools/Options/Signatures set up 3 or 4 and add a beginning blank line to each. EMAIL ATTACHMENTS To send photos or doc along with a msg you can do this in 3 basic ways; Insert it or Attach it. Open a new msg and start it; at some point in the text you will want to put in, say, the photo. With the mse pointer in the place where you want ext text or a picture clik on mnu/Insert/TextorPicture Browse to where the file is stored on your machine, select it, clik on Open btn, clik on OK btn. Admire results. For Attaching a file, when typing a new msg, clik on the paper clip icon in the Toolbar, or clik on mnu/Insert/FileAttachment Browse to where the file is and clik on it, then clik on Attach btn. Or, you can just Select, Copy, and Paste text into your msg from an ext file. Do this esp for short text files rather than attach an unknown file type to a msg which could give a viral heart attack to the recipients. Esp do not forward a msg that has an attachment. When you do this the system will change the attached file type to 'eml' (email) type which disguises the real type and causes concern. You should save the attachment of the msg you receive, and then pass it on by going thru the above procedure to retain the file type extension. WIN XP PRODUCTS Don't ask me any questions about them. i don't want anything to do with them. defeat all or some of WPA: Disconnect from the internet, install xp, reboot in safe mode, run regedit, modify HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFTNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon (change Activation Required value to zero) then HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion (change RegDone value to 1) Run Upgrade Advisor on your win9x or 2+ yr old machine before you buy XP. It is free at the Win site. QM You can't delete this nebulous win file as it will be in use, so you have to do a cntrl+alt+del and EndTask it then delete it from your \win dir. Eventually, MSoft will put it back in so you will have to delete it often. What does it do? Ask MSoft. it chks up on you. ldqm.exe. Also, MSoft puts a \Qmgr dir in your machine to run this chk on your habits. end tips 41 Tips 42 RAM When you add RAM, (DIMMs) be careful that you ground yourself by touching the case before touching a RAM strip to prevent static elec shock to the strip and blowing it out. Don't touch the gold contacts on the module. Keep the modules in a mylar (non static) bag when not in the machine. Usually, it is just a matter of plugging it in at an angel and rotating it to the full upright position to let it snap into place. The modules are keyed and the keys have to be the same as the one you have in there now. New BIOS usually recognizes the new RAM on bootup; although sometimes it is necessary to hit the F! key, or even go into BIOS and exit Saving, when it first sees it to continue bootup. Also, i had one case where i had to exchange the positions of the 2 strips to get it to work, but this may have been just lift the 2 out of the sockets and replace them-magic. The main thing is to get the same type of strip, module as the one in there which is determined by the mboard features such as bus speed, parity, and chip speed rating in ns. The amt of RAM in MB per module is the only thing you can change, i.e., 128, 256, 512 MB etc. Know what 30 (SIMM old), 72 (SIMM old), and 168 pin modules (DIMM) are. Know what SRAM, ECC SDRAM, DDR, RAMBUS, etc is. In old machines you couldn't mix and match these MB values except by very strict rules stated in your mboard manual. OLDER VERSIONS The site at currently contains 215 versions of 26 different programs TRACE SPAM http://combat.uxn.com/ This page has a variety of WhoIs tools, TraceRoute and DNS lookups, tools to un-obfuscate a disguised URL, ways to see if a site has been blacklisted by various blocking services RAM Tied in with RAM and Performance is Start/Settings/CntrlPnl/System, dble clk on System icon, clik on Performance tab/VirtualMem btn, make sure radio btn 'Let MSoft do it' is selected else you could get 'ran out of mem' msgs if your value is set too low. DEVICE MEMORY Used to be SmartMedia and CompactFlash, now MultiMedia Card and Secure Digital may be taking over. www.Dazzle.com device can read them all. WEB SITE DESIGN www.useit.com/homepageusability HIGH SPEED CONN One of the great things about cable besides the obvious speed is that it is always ON; no dial-up. When you turn on the TV the signal, barring trouble, it is always there waiting for you to use it. It is the same with cable ISP. when you turn on your computer you are connected and you are not tying up a phone line. copy (r mse drag it in Explorer) a shortcut to "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\MSIMN.EXE" to C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp for OE to startup automatically Leave the computer ON all day. COOKIES Which ones to Delete? In Explorer, c:\win\TIF, go to Details and go over to the Last Accessed column, clik on the col header to arrange them ascending or descending by date. Select the rows of the oldest cookies and delete them. You be the judge on 'how old', i used 3 months. Interestingly enough, the other sub dirs of this dir will mirror the change you just made. Also, Delete the 'report back' cookies. ANTI-V I R U S One of the main things to look out for in a DSL or Cable conn is your IP addr is now fixed - read: sitting target. Reg modems change IP addr each session. So, you have to get a firewall. there is a free one at ZoneAlarm and have a Anti- Vir*s util resident and a popupstopper and Ad-Aware and a cookie viewer to see what to delete: http://vil.mcafee.com/ http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ TUNE UP http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/98runbetter/default.htm AdAware don't run radlight SysInfo Learn more than 100 interesting facts about your computer. Details about your CPU, memory, operating system, even your computer's power source, are all displayed. You can also copy the information to the Windows clipboard, and paste it into a document for permanent storage PORTS serial 0.115 kbps USB 12,000 kbps USB2 480,000 kbps FireWire 1394 ? WIN 98 MULT Monitors http://www.microsoft.com/insider/articles/multimon.htm MPG Many idiots make movies without thought to the camera needing more light, esp too little fill-light or too much back-light or stupid mood-lighting, than the human eye, so a Brightness/Contrast control is needed on your mpg player. There may be one already, try the F7 key. Hold onto 'dark' video with the hope that players will eventually get better at solving these problems. JAVA. Enable JavaScript, which allows for pop-up windows, and clear the browser cache. 1. Click Tools, and select Internet Options from the Internet Explorer menu. 2. On the Security tab, click the Internet zone, and click Custom Level button. 3. Scroll to Scripting, and verify that Enable is selected for Active Scripting. 4. Make your best choices 5. Click OK, to confirm and close. VIR*S Avoid anything to do with TGOS, email mess WRONG PLACE If you clik on a known favorite and end up in a diff place, use Notepad to look at your c:\win\hosts file. hosts.sam is just a sample of what you should expect. FREE http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/ http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm http://answersthatwork.com http://securityresponse.symantec.com/ http://www.microsoft.com/security/ CD-R and CD-RW FAQs DVD FAQs http://www.email911.com http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;kbinfo http://download.com.com/1200-20-884830.html Ads aware OpenOffice ( ). It really does perform the same functions as Microsoft Office http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/download.html NEW HD generally, if you buy a newer, bigger, faster HD then you place that one in C: and load in Win and Office - all the big apps on it, and place the old C: drive in D: but if your new HD is the same speed and your Old C: drive is of decent size, like 10-30GB, then you might be better off leaving the old 30GB in C: and put the new 60-180GB in D:, as the C: drive is the one that gets the most use and will probably crash first. So, place Win and Office and all other BIG apps on C: that are easily reloadable and no great loss if it crashes and loses info on it. Place all your med and sm apps and big collections on D:, and place all app data to auto go to your zip drive RAID If you have a need for speed or extra HD security, you can combine 2 HDs to work at the same time on the same work. HOST choices 1. Open an acct on your ISP, no extra charge by ISP 2. Rent web space from a web hosting service 3. Co-locate on a web hosting server 4. Set up a web host on your own computer servers BEST Klipsch speakers Promedia 4.1 $280 nVidia video card GeForce 4 $360 RAM DDR (333MHz) or RDRAM (2x$$) UATA133 HDs 7200 180 GB max now CPU Intel 2.2 GHz (3.0GHz by end of 2002) or AMD Athlon XP 2000+ use Quake III Arena to test CPU/Video card graphics abilities VideoStudio 5 for video editing end tips 42 Tips 43 BACKUP REGISTRY http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q322754 START UP What is in startup msconfig? do you really need it? SysTray clogged? Start/Run/ type in msconfig. Also, Do a Cntrl+Alt+Del to see what is running. and use Explorer to look at C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp to see what auto starts up for you. Then look at this site to see what it is: http://www.az13.net/help/startup2.htm COOKING http://www.topsecretrecipes.com http://www.copykat.com http://www.foodtv.com http://eat.epicurious.com/ RECENT Clear unwanted recent lists HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentFileList HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentURLList In right pane, clik on Name entry, clik on mnu/Edit/Modify, hit BackSpace key, hit Enter key, search for next, F3 BIRDS http://www.birdzilla.com/ http://www.petersononline.com/ WIRELESS BEST EtherLinx has come up with a way to tweak inexpensive, readily available wireless fidelity - better known as 'Wi-Fi' and extend its range from mere feet to up to 50 miles at incredibly high speeds. The data transfer rate has been successfully tested at 10 Mbps, but when it reaches the market it will offer only 2 Mbps. HOME "Fly" Over Aerial Photos Of Your Home/Office Punch in your area code or home address, and it shows you a really cool aerial view of your neighborhood. KLEZ http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/FixKlez.com Quik SHUTDOWN create a shortcut on your desktop right clk in a clear place, clik on New/Shortcut; put this in it C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows call it Shutdown HD PROB Fdisk /mbr to refresh the master boot record The most common hardware problems are a bad controller, a bad drive motor, or a bad head mechanism. 1. Can the BIOS see and identify the hard drive correctly? If it can't, then the hard drives onboard controller is bad. 2. Does the drive spin and maintain a constant velocity? If it does, that's good news. The motor is functioning. 3. If the drive surges and dies, the most likely cause is a bad controller (assuming the drive is cool). A gate allowing the current to drive the motor may not be staying open. The drive needs a new controller. 4. Do you hear a lot of head clatter when the machine is turned on and initialized (but before the system attempts to access the hard drive). Head clatter would indicate that the spindle bearings are sloppy or worn badly. Maybe even lose and flopping around inside. 5. There is always the possibility that the controller you are using in the machine has gone south. FIREWALL This is for ZoneAlarm free firewall, but i imagine that all such utils have similar features. Firewalls allow you to choose which of your apps can connect to the web and can also, or not, run as a server to receive and send info. You can Stop all traffic by cliking on the Stop btn. You can also use the Lock function which can be set to Auto and will lock the traffic when your machine is not used for a adj period of time. This can be a set period, like 10 mins of inactivity, or you can tie it in with your screen saver timer. With this feature, you can use the Pass Lock function which allows you to select one or more apps (like OE) to pass the lock condition during this lockout period. Check the list of programs you allow to talk to the web often as new installations of apps can surprise you. Open ZoneAlarm during modem activity to see what is trying to get in; your active apps will show up as a flashing icon. Modem activity may just mean that someone is trying to get in; chk the xfer bar graphs to see if they are successful. Start/RUN Type in: tracert yourISP ping yourISP PORT 443 Open port 443 on your firewall for https communication. A good way to verify the status of the port is to enter the following URL in your browser: If you can access this page, you will receive the message "HTTP GET Requests not accepted". This means port 443 is open. If you can not access this page, port 443 is closed on your firewall or you do not have the Internet Explorer 128-bit encryption module installed on your browser. Windows NT or 2000 users can download the 128-bit encryption module from www.microsoft.com . UNFORMAT Until it's overwritten with new data (not a reformat, but actually written over with new files) the old data is still on the disk and *easily* accessible via simple--- even free!--- tools. (See ) DRAFT MSG in OE Inbox, when typing a msg that you decide to finish, send later, clik on mnu/File/Copyto Folder. select Draft. clik on OK btn. Later, when you wish to resume, in OE Inbox, clik on Drafts folder in left pane, dble clik on msg in top right pane to Open msg and continue as normal. PEER TO PEER http://download.com.com/3000-2166-10110812.html XoloX no spyware, Gnutella. Resource hog. http://download.com.com/3000-2166-10057840.html new Morpheus, Gnutella CD BURN CDCheck, from , has developed into a sophisticated tool that will detect and explain any read errors in CDRs. AUTO OE Now that you have a cable/DSL hookup, you can turn ON the computer in the morning and leave it on all day. think of it like a TV; the signal is always there waiting to be used. Get a ZoneLab FireWall for free to protect the cable/DSL computer hookup during ON time (fixed IP). In Explorer, right mse drag this file 'C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe' to the 'C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp' dir and clik on Create Shortcut This way OE comes up automatically when the machine is turned ON, thus making it easy for non computer types to stay in touch. FREE http://www.consumerreports.org/main/home.jsp http://www.tek-tips.com/ http://www.wugnet.com/ http://www.winsupersite.com for XP HTML View Take a look at any html file in Notepad, in Word, and in FP (clik on the HTML tab at the bottom of the FP screen). images (including background) won't show up until you place them in your \images sub dir Normally, you would use IE to look at a html file on the web, but you can't work on it in IE. you can, however, in IE mnu/View/Source see the raw html file in code. See your IE setting for this in IE mnu/Tools/InternetOptions/Programs tab; top to bottom it should read: NotePad, OE, OE, Netmeeting, Outlook, Addr book When you dble clik on any file in Explorer, it will open in the app that is 'associated' with that type of file extension. you can change this association. In Explorer, mnu/Tools/FolderOptions/FileType tab, scroll down the list to HTML Doc and clik on it to see what your default app is associated with for this file type POPUP I couldn't get thru to my acct in Vanguard to chk my transactions i had been able to do it months ago Turns out that popup stopper had prevented me from going to the right place when i cliked on a Continue btn, not hypertext, a btn ! i held down the Cntrl key and cliked on the btn and all is well. A new one for the books. NEEDED FILES for many things you may need these files For the Lot Excel spread sheet, you will need to include an Add-in Excel mnu/Tools/Add-ins/VBA analysis toolpak Also, In Excel, key in Alt+F11 (VBA Editor) to get it to prompt for the CD to install VBA if it isn't already in. For Front Page, FP, you need to install the Personal Web Server. Clik on the Preview tab along the bottom of the FP screen when viewing a htm page to prompt the app to ask for the Office CD to install it if it already isn't in. For both of these you will probably have to put the Office CD in and add these features if you don't already have the features installed. To run many small apps and utils, like Karen's Power Tools, you may need to have VB 4, 5 or 6 run DLL file install in your \win\system dir as all VB made apps require this collection of VB library files to run. Usually, when a developer offers such a VB based app or util it will also provide this runDll file for each ver of VB that it uses. These are good things to have for the many developers out there that program in VB. The DLL file may already be there on your machine due to loading other apps and utils. See, and get her RunTime VB6 file as well as this fine Cookie Viewer. end tips 43 Tips 44 VIRUS Grisoft AntiVirus ("AVG") is the current leader in free AV tools UPDATES Revised Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6 Impact: Allow an attacker to execute commands on a user's system. Max Risk: Critical IP Address In Win9x, the tool is called "WinIPCfg," which stands for Windows IP Configuration. It lets you see lots of information about your internet connection; and to "Release" and "Renew" any dynamically-assigned address. WinIPCfg: AdAware New http://lavasoft3.element5.com/support/download/ PRINT DIR In addition to Karen's util, "How to Add the Print Directory Feature to Windows Explorer" is at WARNING avoid anything to do with: Friendgreetings.com , surprisecards, surprize- greeting, cooldownloads, Spyware Nuker, NoPop etc SEARCH http://www.google.com/ DRAG & DROP put any disk in A: open Explorer you should see 2 panes, L & R the left pane should be Folders clik on A: (this is the root dir of A) Open it up (clik on the + symbol) nothing there if it is a blank disk or no sub-dirs in it clik on mnu/File/New/Folder type in Temp, OK now open up A: to see the \Temp subdir clik on A:\Temp clik on mnu/File/New/Folder type in Temp1, OK now open up A: to see the \Temp subdir & its subdir \Temp1 clik on C: in the left pane (this is the root dir of C) open it up to see if there is a Temp or Sites sub dir of C: clik on A: in the L pane right clik on \Temp in the right pane and hold it down drag it left to the left pane so that C: is just hilited stop & release R mse btn and L clik on Copy in the popup mnu see that the \Temp and \Temp1 subdirs have been added to C: if there had been files in either subdir they would have been copied over too drag & drop ISP List COPY A program that turns your scanner and printer into a very simple to use photocopy machine. You can find Photocopier at . Email You can sometimes be recover indiv msgs from a dbx file by using an extract utility: end Tips 44 Tips 45 Running HOT? Get a small freeware program called Rain from http://www.benchtest.com. See also, Hardware Sensors Monitor ( http://www.hmonitor.com/ ) NOTEPAD Default file loc is C:\My Documents. i went into RegEdit.exe and changed the default loc to a Files\Text dir on my zip drive where i save all data - changes made 2 ea under key 'Personal' only ! Now when i open a file in NotePad i don't have to browse in 4 steps to get to my text files. SPYWARE http://www.cexx.org/startup.htm http://www.cexx.org/adware.htm see Lickety below too. SNAGIT This util can be invaluable when demonstrating where to go and make changes in some buried Win dialog box. Go there create a jpg of the situation and send it in an email msg. FAV Internet Explorer plug-in that adds a convenient explorer bar to search in Favorites. http://www.dzsoft.com/favseek.htm free. 800x600 = 480,000 pixels; 1024x768 = 786,432 pixels; 1280x1024 = 1,310,720 pixels CPU Coolers You might want to take a look at this site where different CPU heatsink/fan combos are compared with info on the dB's they produce. http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm It is updated regularly and might be of interest ShutDown Perhaps the best single source for resolving all these and other common shutdown and boot issues is James A. Eshelman's "WINDOWS SHUTDOWN & RESTART CENTER" at http://www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm Quik SHUTDOWN create a shortcut on your desktop right clk in a clear place, clik on New/Shortcut; put this in it copy it, don't retype it, you will make a mistake C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows call it Shutdown Win98 HD Limit Will 98's fdisk see 80 gig hard drives? > > No. 64GB is the limit. There is a fix available. > > http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q263044 Licky and Startup This is a better way than to use Explorer, Win\StartMenu\Programs\StartUp. Instead use Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Information - Tools - System Configuration Utility - Start Up tab. Uncheck anything you don't want running on start up. another NG, alt.windows98, example of great help. SHEP and Explorer/IE TweakUI's repair options. Use them all and see if it helps? http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html http://www.tomsterdam.com There is a lot of good stuff here. Tom doesn't want you to email him with questions, though. He wants you to read and then ask questions on the OE5.5 NG (newsgroup) where he will answer your questions for all to see. Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress, microsoft.public.windows.win98.internet.outlookexpress, Search NGs for: microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html Or dump explorer (just don't use it), try http://www.netez.com/2xExplorer/ as it's crap anyway the whole point to this entry is that you can get your questions answered and problems solved by using NewsGroups. Just pick a relevant NG, read the info in your area of interest, ask questions, post a new problem, and wait for the experts to reply. It works, quickly. Here, a guy in England answered my question within a minute and suggested something that i didn't think would work, but it did. here it is: i had a problem with Explorer and he suggested that i use the repair tool for IE, not Explorer, Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/SystemInformation, which is: "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSINFO\MSINFO32.EXE" or, Start/Run/msinfo32 mnu/Tools/RepairIE this is for win 98 SE, try it for the other versions. How many calls to MSoft and hours on-hold would it have taken to get the same results? Reveal Password http://camtech2000.net/Pages/Downloads.html Free util that will uncover any ***** password SE -> XP With the coming end of support for Win98, a lot of readers are facing this. Check out: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011115S0014 and http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009 and search the archives--- tons of XP stuff there: JAVA http://java.sun.com/getjava/ Free File Systems Win 3x FAT 16 Win 9x FAT 32 Win 2000, NT, XP NTFS all diff, beware. To chk to see what FS you have on each HD, dble clik on MyComputer desktop icon and then right clik on each HD in turn, select Properties/General tab. NTFS in a pinch, when you need to read that mixed up file: get a NTFS file reader tool (there are many available for free, on the web). Win 2000, win XP, NT file system as opposed to the prior FAT32 FS of win 98 SE. RESOURCES If you're still using Win9x or WinME and are having system resource issues, please see http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/14.htm> for some easy fixes. ADS What is Ad-aware? Ad-aware is THE award winning, multi-trackware detection and removal utility (designed for Windows 98 / 98SE / ME / NT40 / 2000 / XP Home / XP Pro) that will comprehensively scan your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known Datamining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, Keyloggers, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. Free at http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/. Also, see Spybot at: http://security.kolla.de/ end Tips 45 Tips 46 JUNO When you sign up for a new email acct at webmail.juno.com, fill out the whole form with whatever you want but don't do the last step of downloading the s/w. that is unnecessary and it will just take over your machine. instead, just Exit and go into webmail.juno.com and sign in the next day. Do not ever load Juno from their CD or floppy with the exception of emergency use of v 1.49 from a floppy. DVD very useful to anyone wanting to know about DVD types, formats: http://www.dvdirect.com/TSS/charts/DVDFormats.htm SPAM FREE K9 by Robin Keir ( http://www.keir.net/k9.html ) . It has reached version 1.01 already and is very stable. It is a Bayesian (statistical) spam filter for the Windows platform. The installer can autoconfigure Outlook (Express) to work with the K9 proxy. FREE EMAIL http://www.myrealbox.com/a?.BQ.EE.Z1QQ.d http://www.fastmail.fm/mail/?STKI=5420 Not generally targeted by spammers. Invis User one tip that is truly useful is this simple Registry edit that makes user accounts invisible. The best part is that it takes only about a minute to accomplish. Here are the steps: 1. Open the Start Menu, select Run, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks) and press Enter. That opens the System Registry Editor. 2. On the left pane of the Registry Editor (RegEdit), select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (which is abbreviated to HKLM below). Then navigate to this location: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon \SpecialAccounts\UserList 3. With UserList open in the left pane, right-click any blank area on the right pane and choose New > DWORD Value. 4. Give the new icon the exact name as the user account you want to hide. Then press Enter. 5. Repeat the steps for each additional user you want to hide. You're done. You can test it by choosing Start > Log Off > Switch User (if that's available). If you don't see Switch User, then use Log Off, but this will shut down all your apps and documents. To reverse it, just delete the icon you added. "Please help, I followed your tip about making users invisible. I made my primary user invisible and now I can't access Windows at all to reverse the change. What do I do?" Here's the solution: 1. Turn on your PC or restart it if it's running. 2. You should encounter the Welcome screen with no names on it. At that point, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete. 3. You'll probably see your main username there. Just enter a password if you have one (or nothing in the Password field if you don't) and press OK. That should do the trick. If not, proceed with the next steps. 4. If you don't see your username or it doesn't work, after you press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, type "Administrator" in your username field. No password (unless you've used Administrator before and used a password). Press OK. This will get you in. Once you are in, follow the steps from last issue's tip again. In the System Registry Editor, you can just delete the icon labeled with the username you hid. AC Net "The whole idea of power-line Internet has been in the news lately. FCC chairman Michael Powell visited a power-line-Internet-equipped model home in Maryland, and the agency is supporting this new form of broadband delivery. One of the advantages to it is that you can plug your computer into any AC outlet in your house and get instant Internet access. You may be aware that there are also power-line-based LAN networking solutions coming to market in droves right now. Netgear and others have recently released new product lines." Scott NL Msgsrv32 I am using Windows 98, Internet Explorer 6.0 and a HP Printer 932C. My computer freezes about 30% of the time when I try to print. Multiple striking of CTRL/ALT/DEL eventually gets me a pop-up saying "Msgsrv32 (Not Responding)". I then click on "Cancel" and usually the printing proceeds, except on some occasions when the computer shuts down entirely! Is there no way to avoid this annoying detour? I believe that "Msgsrv" is an embedded program in Windows and cannot be removed, though what it does I have no idea. I've never heard of anyone else having this problem. --- Oh, it's not just you, Msgsrv32 has been around--- and has been causing trouble--- all the way back to Windows 95! Msgsrv32 is actually a general-purpose OS component in Win95/98/Me that handles a variety of tasks, explained here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=138708 . And no, it can't and shouldn't be removed. In fact, it may not even be the problem, but we'll come back to that. This page lists the 14 most common types of error messages that Msgsrv32 usually can generate, along with links to the specific fixes. (Finding the correct fix hinges on the full, exact error message you get, beyond the simple "not responding"). http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/ermsgs32.htm If that doesn't help, you could try a general search of the MS Knowledgebase, which has no fewer than 25 articles relating to problems with Msgsrv32: The URL is enormous--- over 200 characters long--- so let me supply these shorter alternatives: http://tinyurl.com/aky8 or http://snurl.com/193l Backing up even further, Google Groups lists over 27,000 entries ( http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Msgsrv32&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search ) and Google itself delivers some 4000 more http://www.google.com/search?q=Msgsrv32 Finally, I must point out that from afar, it's impossible to say if your problem is actually with Msgsrv32, or if there's something bad in your printing subsystem that's causing Msgsrv32 to fail. So, along with exploring the Msgsrv32 links, I'd also suggest you remove (uninstall) your printer software and drivers, then download fresh, new copies of the drivers and software from the HP site ( http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/support.html ) , and reinstall that, too. Working the problem from both ends--- the printer software and Msgsrv32 itself--- will almost surely lead you to an answer. WIN 98 SE diehards, you can get info/help at alt.windows98 NewsGroup, NG. USB If your PC doesn't yet have USB 2.0 ports - which are up to 40 times speedier than the older USB 1.1 specification - you can add them quickly and easily with the new Orange USB 2.0 PCI Card. It gives you four USB 2.0 ports in the back of your PC plus another one that you can access in front through a drive bay. DRIVE LETTER Letter Assigner http://www.v72735.f2s.com/LetAssig/ works with Windows 98SE Free NEW OS? There are all kinds of considerations to contend with when getting a new machine that will inevitably come loaded with win XP. ask your local shop about them. some nightmares, some good advances that deal with new CPUs. When i buy a new machine, unless MSoft changes its ways, i will buy without an OS installed (save $180) and install Win 98 SE when i get it home. Product registration, DOS are just two considerations. CPU speed is no longer a main reason to get a new computer, but internet connection speed is the most noticeable way to improve your daily operational speed. the new advances in computers seem to be in the video field which gamers will like. unless you get big into digital photography or dig movies, you will probably never need a new computer or OS. 850+ MHz CPU is just fine. i'm still at 266 MHz which is too slow, but serviceable. new CPUs are now at 3 GHz, 3000 MHz If we are doing the same old things with the same old s/w then we will do just fine with the same old OS. DOWNLOADS, FREE http://download.com.com/2001-20-0.html?legacy=cnet http://download.com.com/2001-20-0.html?tag=stbc.gp FILE SYSTEMS http://www.ntfs.com NEW COMPUTER DESIGN http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20030404S0003 OE Look at the following Links, for Most of the OE5 Information that you will ever need: Tom Koch MVP's Great OE FAQ's Site: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/ Steve Cochran MVP's Great OE FAQ's Site: http://www.oehelp.com/Default.aspx Add MS News Server to your OE with news://msnews.microsoft.com/, and NG: microsoft.public.win98.internet.outlookexpress Dawn allows you to convert one OE address book format to another from their website. Dawn ( http://www.joshie.com/projects/dawn/ ). FIREWALL ZoneAlarm has an update for y'all on Cable or DSL. Major revamp in the works. If you have cable or DSL hookup, you must have a firewall and AntiVir*us s/w installed. Don't forget when using ZoneAlarm to allow PassLock on OE so you can still get msgs while in ScrnSaver. TRASH Put there by sneaky apps you download. In Registry Editor, RegEdit.exe, press the F3 key to bring up the Find dialogue. Type "RunServices" in the box. This probably won't find your trash app, but it will bring us to about the right location in the Registry. When the Find completes, you should have a folder named RunServices highlighted in the left pane, with several similar-sounding folders (Run, RunOnce, etc.) listed nearby. Click on the first one, "Run". The righthand pane will list the applications that run at start-up. Under "Name" will be the program names, and under "Data" will be the path and filename of the program. Look carefully at the list and see if you find the program that is annoying you. If you find it, highlight it and use Edit > Delete to remove it. If you don't see it, cycle through the other nearby Run-like folders (there may be several) and look for them there. Be careful not to delete anything unless you are sure it is your trash app. OE Clean Up Don't forget to clean out your Sent and Deleted folders for each mail account to avoid it bogging down. Move msgs that you want to save to Folders that you can create under Inbox for that acct. mnu/Tools/Options/Maint tab: Chk first 3 boxes, set Compact msgs to 5%, and clik on CleanUp Now btn, clik on Compact Now. SysInfo This one is FREE. Run it on line, D/L or copy to a floppy (500K+). Anyone who is wondering what is in their machine should find this useful. http://www.belarc.com/Download.html. Print it out/SaveAs to Word. Very thorough. Also, a 1.5MB Zip file free at http://www.aida32.hu/aida- download.php?bit=32 . See also, http://www.whatsonmycomputer.com/ $20 to keep it. End Tips 46 Tips 47 WIN 98 HELP http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/house.html e.g., Win95/98 Tip:You can download and copy the WinME Defrag into your Windows folder and it's up to 8X faster than the win95/98 version :) at http://www.comp-solve.com/defrag.htm. Make sure you have dskmaint.dll in your \win\system dir. Free stuff at http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/freeprog.html Scandisk update: ESDI_506.PDR file in the iosubsys dir http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243450 Find your stock version of DEFRAG.EXE in your %WINDIR%, usually C:\Windows. Right-click it and select Rename from the menu, and rename it to DEFRAG_OLD.EXE. Now unzip WinME Defrag to that temporary directory and rename it to DEFRAG.EXE. Move it to your C:\Windows directory, and you're done. If for some reason, the new WinME Defrag doesn't work, you can simply delete WinME Defrag, rename the original, stock version back to DEFRAG.EXE again and you're back in business. Back up your Registry. Open RegEdit.exe in \Win. mnu/File/ExportRegFile; pick your Vault sub dir on your data zip disk. PASSWORD First, go to CntrlPnl as dble clik on Network icon, see if you have Windows Logon or Family Logon selected - you want this. Do a Find (cntrl-F) for all your files with the extension .pwl (PassWordList). And rename them. Re-boot. If and when windows now asks for a Password on bootup just give it a name but,"NO" password. This should create the password cache. Now you should be able to enter your Internet ones etc as well. If this does not fix all the problems in IE then go start/run and type msinfo32/OK/Tools/Internet Repair Tool and re-boot. NOTEPAD NoteTab lite v4.5 free. Big time replacement for Notepad that does many things including remover HTML tags. http://www.notetab.com/download.php Also, see Notepad+, http://mypeecee.org/rogsoft/ EMAIL OE Once again, leave your Preview feature OFF when waiting for new email. This will thwart email that contains executables that start when you merely read the msg. OE Inbox mnu/View/Layout/CustomizeToolbar btn. If Preview isn't listed in the right pane, move it from the left pane to the right one with the Add btn. BCC Open up a New msg in OE, mnu/View/AllHeaders, check it CLEAN RELOAD of C: This process should be done every couple of years because of all the vir*uses, worms, trojan horses, data miners, spy s/w, phone home, extra files that get left in your machine over time when you download, install/uninstall utils and apps over time. To see an example of this, go to CNET Download site (a good one): http://download.com.com/3000-2166-10210301.html?tag=pop Read the Editor's Note warning of dangerous s/w that comes with too many downloads. You should have saved all your data automatically for years for each app directly to your Zip Drive\Files. That is the big item. Save your \Win\Favorites folder to D: or a Zip. Save your \MyDocs, \MyPics folders the same way. Go thru your C: drive in Explorer and save text and pics, forget saving any apps that are run in Windows - you have to reload them. DOS dirs you can save. Try to save your x.wab OE Address Book, play safe and write out all your email addrs or SnagIt. Save all your OE DBX files. Change the BIOS on bootup to A: drive first. I used the Win98SE boot disk, 1.44 mb, to Format C: /u. Change the BIOS on bootup to CDROM drive first with the Win 98SE CD in place. You can use a CD, but make sure it is a system disk, a bootable CD first then copy the needed files to it. Now, what to reload? Load Win 98SE Complete/Custom selection. OE Clean Up Don't forget to clean out your Sent and Deleted folders for each mail account to avoid it bogging down. Move msgs that you want to save to Folders that you can create under Inbox for that acct. mnu/Tools/Options/Maint tab: Chk first 3 boxes, set Compact msgs to 5%, and clik on CleanUp Now btn, clik on Compact Now. Change BIOS back to boot up on C: only. Load in drivers for all devices you have in your machine that Win98 didn't pick up (like the cable/DSL modem NIC, etc); right-clik on MyComputer icon, select Properties/DeviceMgr tab, look for problems. Load in Photoshop v4, 5 or 6. Load in Office 2000 CD1 only. Load in Image Composer from the FrontPage 97 or 98 CD. Load in Picture It CD1 only. Load in free vers of downloadable SnagIt32, WinZip, AVG6, CookieViewer, AdAware, Reveal, WS_FTP, AboutTime, DBXtract, Acrobat Reader & PopUpStopper. Desktop: Create ShutDown, ScanReg, RegEdit, SysEdit, SFC, ScanDisk, & Defrag shortcuts from various Win, Win\System dirs. Delete all other desktop icons (see left side of Taskbar). In Explorer, delete \Win\Online Services dir unless you actually use MSN. Resize your monitor, change Properties, set scrn saver. Right clik on TaskBar and change Properties. Modify your Start/StartUp menus to suit your style. Setup OE accounts (StartUp). Setup IE Options. Set your Sound properties. Load in Win updates. See Tips.txt file for info on how to find & do all of this. This is what i call a minimum re-load process. End Clean re-load Anti Telemarketer http://www.ftc.gov/donotcall/ SHUTDOWN Once again, you can speed up your session shutdown by creating a shortcut on your desktop. Right clik on the desktop, select New/Shortcut. Paste in the following: C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows Name the SC ShutDown. live and be well. FIREWALL free version available: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp if ZoneAlarm doesn't work for you, suggest Sygate Personal Firewall as an excellent alternative ( http://www.sygate.com ). And if *that* doesn't work, then try any of several other good firewalling tools: http://www.google.com/search?as_q=firewall&as_sitesearch=langa.com The only firewall choice that's always wrong is not to use any. Don't forget the turn on PassLock for OE mail during ScrnSaver. OE NewsGroups, NG Find out the name of your ISPs newsgroup server, e.g., mine is netnews.attbi.com. In OE Inbox, mnu/Tools/Accounts subscribe to : alt.windows98 microsoft.public.win98.internet.outlookexpress and many more. WIN98 -- Windows 98 Lifecycle Extended Seven Months -- Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away. It seems this time, though, the company has thought the better of killing off the "extended phase" of Windows 98's support this month. It appears to have pushed that date back to January 16, 2004. Windows 98 gets a seven-month reprieve. Check out Microsoft's convoluted Lifecycle document for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.mspx IE -- Microsoft Killing Standalone IE? -- A couple weeks back Microsoft apparently dropped the bomb that it would not be continuing the standalone version of Internet Explorer, meaning that the only way you could get the browser would be by buying Windows or other Microsoft software. This bit of news was attributed to IE program manager Brian Countryman in an interview posted on the Microsoft's website. PHOTO Image Composer, MSoft, can be found on the FrontPage97/98 CD. Irfan gets good reviews. Free at http://www.irfanview.com/ been around for a while. ANTIVIR*US If AVG no longer supports the free version, try AVAST http://www.avast.com end Tips 47 Tips 48 VIR*US RapidBlaster cockroach http://www.wilderssecurity.net/specialinfo/rapidblaster.html#removal LOST FILES ON CD "IsoBuster : The Ultimate CD/DVD data recovery tool! Rescue lost files from CD or DVD. A full description and download link is available at http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/ WIN 9x "Setup Secrets" for Win9x and ME in http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/1999/0831.htm (see also "Ten Ways to make Windows 98 Run Better" http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/98runbetter/default.htm and "Ten Ways to make Windows ME Run Better" http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/merunbetter/default.htm ). We then revised that original setup information in "System Setup Secrets Updated for 2001" http://www.informationweek.com/LP/columnists/langa/2001/03.htm . If you're still using Win9x or ME, those articles are still completely valid. "Ten Ways to make Windows XP Run Better" http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009 and a new article is called "System Setup Secrets For XP," and it's at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=12803122 . "Get Ready to Set Up Windows XP." There's a version for XP Pro (http://langa.com/u/9.htm) and for XP Home (http://langa.com/u/1a.htm) LIGHTENING It makes no difference whether your machines are powered down and plugged into a surge protector when there's a lightning strike 200 feet from your house. The spike killed all three PCs and the cable modem.... Next time unplug everything. PROXY SERVERS Many of us protect our computers from unwanted communication, using "firewalls", and configuring Windows to ignore most incoming messages. But for added security, some careful folks connect to the Internet anonymously. For that, you need a spare computer, and a special program called a "proxy". To use this sort of proxy, first disconnect your computer from the Internet. No modem that dials your ISP. No network card that sends information to a router or other 'net "gateway." Next, connect your proxy computer to the Internet. Make sure your computer can communicate with the proxy, and with other computers connected to your local network. Finally, reconfigure your 'net software. From now on, your web browser, e- mail program, and all other programs must only talk to the proxy. That's it. Want to see a web page? Your web browser asks the proxy for the information. The helpful proxy contacts the remote web server, discretely acting on your behalf. When the reply arrives, the proxy forwards the web page to your computer, which miraculously appears on your screen! Your computer remains hidden, because the proxy computer's return address is sent over the 'net, not yours. Best of all, because it no long has its own connection to the Internet, your computer is inaccessible, out of the reach of 'net hooligans. Karen Kenworthy. ASTRONOMY Check out "Celestia"-- http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ -- A very cool 3D way to tour the universe. Free, open source program with high resolution graphics POWER ON BEEPS The POST (power-on self test) "beep codes" can be a very useful diagnostic, although the meaning of the beeps' number and sequence can vary by motherboard or BIOS type. See http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm or http://www.google.com/search?q=power+on+self+test+beep+codes for info specific to your kind of system. MOUSE CURSOR You can change the icon to animated icons for any of the events such as Busy. Open Control Panel, dble clik on Mouse, clik on Pointers tab, clik on Busy in the list and Browse to where you have saved your fancy animated icons like Propeller. C:\Win\Cursors. Select it and Apply. SETI http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/windows.html Distributed Computing to help with analyzing Radio Telescope data. The app will run in the background all the time if you have a fast machine, or you can select it to run when your scrn saver kicks in. In this latter case, go to the scrn saver dialog box by right cliking on the desktop, select Properties, clik on ScrnSaver tab, select Setihome and then clik on the Setting btn to set the screen to go Blank in 1 min. The app will run faster this way if you don't watch the pretty colors for more than this one minute after the scrn saver kicks in. IE ADDRESS TEXT BOX -Drag it up to the right of the menu items past Help and release. -To clear this Recent List, clik on mnu/Tools/InternetOptions/Gen tab clik on ClearHistory btn . Also, on this dialog box is your chance to set the opening site you want IE to go to when you start up IE, HomePage section, e.g., type in, http://www.google.com/ to always start up Google search engine. -To selectively clear some of these items or to edit them, Open RegEdit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs. Clik on Name, mnu/Edit/Modify. WINDOW TITLE -For OE, in RegEdit, go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{ED682500-A240-11D7- A678-A5CA56B8907D}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0 mnu/Edit/Modify Window Title to change the wording from, say, 'OE Provided by Juno' to "OE for yourname" -For IE, in RegEdit, go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main mnu/Edit/Modify Window Title to change the wording. BACKUP If you are backing up your HD, you will have to learn about Disk Imaging. The latest vers of Ghost, Drive Image and Partition Magic are not recommended in SFNL. Ver 5 is rec. The process is described more fully here: http://www.langa.com/backups/backups.htm PHANTOM ICONS in TASKBAR These blank place holders seem to appear after i did a clean reload and put in many win98 SE updates from MSoft. Per newsgroup help i used SFC to reload user.exe and user32.dll from the win 98SE CD. This appears to have solved the problem. Other suggested fixes were to load the latest video driver for your monitor, take any zip refs out of your StartUp subdir, slow down your hardware rate in Display/Settings/Advanced/Performance. end Tips 48 Tips 49 TEMP STORAGE The big, new thing is USB 2.0 Flash mem. If you need to transport 256 or more MB of info from one location to another you can use CDRW to make a rewriteable CD, use a 250 MB Zip disk, or use this key chain fob size USB Flash mem module. Just plug it into any USB port and xfer data. It is about 2/3 the size of a BIC lighter and cost $55, slick. VIR*US For MSBlast vir get: Security Update for Windows XP (823980) on your machine it will be: Windows XP Hotfix - KB823980 HANDY http://www.driverguide.com/ an absolute haven for device drivers and updates, particularly for older devices. Also, free anti-virus software, I recently installed AntiVir from http://www.free-av.com/ For links to many drive makers, see this: http://www.techrescue.net/drives.asp Download the Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic tool from http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp It tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors http://doxdesk.com/parasite/ . http://froogle.google.com/ Froogle is a new service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online LangaL for school or research: www.itools.com www.bartleby.com www.refdesk.com www.refdesk.com/factmaps.html www.physlink.com/Reference/Index.cfm www.coolquiz.com/trivia ZIP http://download.com.com/3000-2250-10161502.html http://www.pkzip.com/products/free_eval.html try EzZip from download.com it is easy to use. EMAIL HOAX For more information on this hoax and many others, please go to the following Web sites: Computer Incident Advisory Capability (official United States Government organization): http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/library/blhoax.htm http://diamond-back.com/emailhoaxes.html http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/default.htm http://www.f-secure.com/hoaxes/hoax_new.shtml http://www.uga.edu/~ucns/helpdesk/information/howto/other/hoax-scam.html Please also be reminded that Microsoft does not send attachments. OE 'Reply to': NG response noted as interesting: "To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)" you can change your Reply To address to foil SPAMers OE Inbox mnu/Tools/Accts, Mail tab Select Default acct, Properties tab General/ReplyTo text box if your email addr is abc@xyz.com enter abcattitude@xyz.com WIN UPDATE Another reason to keep win 98SE on your machine is that all the new vir*uses attack newer OSs than SE. SPELL CHK OE uses spell checker from other MSoft products. Sometimes you want a 'wrong' spelling to be allowed so you 'add' it to your custom dict. Sometimes you have made a mistake in adding them, so you can delete the mistake by going to OE mnu/Tools/Options/Spelling tab, clik on Edit Custom Dict btn. HDTV http://avsforum.com/ http://pub1.ezboard.com/bdigitaltelevisionhdtvforum Home HDTV camera JVC GR-HD1 consumer version: http://pro.jvc.com/prof/Attributes/features.jsp?tree=&searchModel=&model_id=MDL1 01394 http://www.cinematography.com/index.asp?newsID=55 http://www.cinematography.com/index.asp?newsID=85 end Tips 49 Tips 50 STATIONERY IN OE To change the background of the msg you are currently sending, clik on mnu/Format/Apply Stationery, select Clear Day, or any of the offerings. For a re-occurring background, On the OE Inbox Tools menu item, click Options, and then click the Compose tab. In the Stationery area, Select btn and select one of the htm pages or click Create New btn, or edit the Blank.htm page and put in your own values for image and color. Hints To use stationery you see in a message from someone else, select the message, and then on the File menu, click Save as Stationery. A stationery file is an HTML file and can be edited in Outlook Express, IE or Notepad. In a new message window, click the View menu, click Source Edit, and then click the Source tab to make changes. When creating your stationery, try to keep the file size smaller than 10 KB. Pictures and other objects can make the file too large to be easily downloaded. (Check the size of your stationery inside the Stationery folder at \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery.) make your own stationary at the above location with this code, use your own image: Background4

 

end Stationary subject HDTV http://www.avsforum.com/hdtvfaq/HDTV-FAQ.htm all the info HDs 1 Kilobyte (KB) = 1,000 bytes 1 Megabyte (MB) = 1,000 kilobytes 1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1,000 megabytes 1 Terabyte (TB) = 1,000 gigabytes 1 Petabyte (PB) = 1,000 terabytes 1 Exabyte (EB) = 1,000 petabytes 1 Zettabyte (ZB) = 1,000 exabytes 1 Yottabyte (YB) = 1,000 zettabytes The latest thing is to forget ATA Drives that we've known all these years and to now have a mboard that supports high speed Serial HDs. CLEAN UP How many of you are still doing a ScanDisk and then a Defrag (use win98Me defrag for SE) once a week or right after a big uninstall or delete process before you load something else in? Related, C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\sub dirs. You can delete the files in C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 but don't delete the Content.IE5 sub dir itself but the files in it can be. AV I'm not sure if this will work, but i can't see it doing any harm. Many vir*uses, worms, etc get into your email and start mailing out bits of your files to everyone on your Address Book in OE. I changed the location of my .dbx files, the msgs in your machine, to a new nearby dir in hopes that the bug will not look for them in any but the expected place. I'll let you know if this screws anything else up. Procedure: In Explorer, create a new sub dir of C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\ called anything but don't use dbx in the name. In OE mnu/Tools/Options/Maintenance tab clik on Store Folder btn, clik on Change btn and browse to your new sub dir. Close and re-open OE. While you are at this also clik on the Clean Up Now btn then clik on Compact btn to do a sort of defrag for email. HEX http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.htm#shrink . Here is the relevant excerpt from the page: "If you want to attempt repairs yourself, use a tool called a hex editor to edit the data in the file directly. Every Windows shareware site has a selection of hex editors. [Examples: http://www.google.com/search?q=hex+edit ] Eugene McCarthy of FAO Headquarters in Rome recommends the free iHex editor, which loads only 64kb of the file at a time, making it ideal for tinkering with extremely large PST files. Get it at: http://www.memecode.com/ihex.php PNP "uPnP" stands for "Universal Plug And Play." It's an outgrowth of the basic PnP (Plug and Play) hardware standard from the mid-1990's, extended to networked devices. It's not an inherently bad thing, but there's very little that actually uses uPnP yet. And it can cause trouble (See http://www.upnp.org/ ) and to http://grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm FREE http://grc.com/default.htm lots of stuff You can browse the port database online, or access it directly from your system by creating a URL in the form http://grc.com/port_NUM.htm, where you replace "NUM" with the actual port number you're interested in. For example, if you want to learn about Port 80, you'd type http://grc.com/port_80.htm , and that URL leads you to the page that discusses port 80. It's simple, and it works for any of your PC's 65,535 ports. Chk 135 with DCOM tester to avoid worms. See also, http://camtech2000.com/Pages/Useful.html SNEAKY & DANGEROUS Leave your OE Inbox in No Preview mode, see Tips on site, because just opening some email triggers an executable that will not only ruin your machine but everyone else's in your Address Book. They usually have attachments. There are email from Nigeria to not read as they are scams. There are email not to read that say things like: Your Account, Returned Mail, DAEMON-MAILER, Security Alert, Critical Patch, Becky, even Microsoft Account, etc that you should not open; instead just right clik on the msg, select Properties, and look at the header info to see that it is from China, Nigeria, Taiwan, etc and not from Redmond, WA. Delete these. If you do open one, update your AV and run it. NASA http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html?skipIntro=1 LANS Radio-based wireless LANs often can be hacked with ease. For example, hackers can eavesdrop on WLANs from literally *miles* away--- up to 10 miles or more!--- using nothing more than (believe it or not) the aluminized tubes used to hold Pringle's potato chips. (See http://www.google.com/search?q=pringle+antenna ) And there are dozens of free "warez" programs around to help crack the 128-bit encryption most commonly used to try to secure wireless LANs PARASITE Check your \Windows sub dirs for \sbnet There is a phone home bug here called ShowBehind.exe Delete the whole sbnet dub dir. chk your StartUp list, see previous tips. Online PHONE http://phonefree.com/ end Tips50 Tips 51 TRACKING Deleting "Internet Logs" I use your clean9x.bat but slightly modified to find Temporary Internet Files in other locations. For example: C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\[name]\Temporary Internet Files C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\[name]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 While looking space I could free up today I came across a folder which had 152 megs of files C:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs It contained files with names like ZALog2003.07.02.txt and xDBE335.TMP but the big one was tvDebug.log (24 megs). Using Google I found an explanation at http://forums.techguy.org/t128272/s4752770a473af3b76974a60050857fd8.html "The folder Internet Logs is created by ZoneAlarm..." BTW From Explorer, go to Tools > Folder Options > View tab and ensure that you have "Show All Files" selected, and UNselect "Hide File Extensions for Known File Types". Now, under that folder you will normally find a LDB file, named after your computer name, and a lamdb.rdb file. These are the ZA main files. You may also find a Backup.rdb file, tvdebug.log and ZAlog.txt file. The latter is logging all ZA alerts, if you have this selected and can be removed it not needed. TvDebug.log file can be deleted. If you don't do this periodically, this file will continually grow larger. I have also found that over time, the RDB and LDB files also grow over time. So, periodically I restart to DOS/Safe mode, rename the files and reboot. ZA then rebuilds these files. After a couple of days, ensuring that all is well, I delete the 2 renamed files." It struck me that the .tmp would lend themselves to being deleted periodically by using a modified clean9x.bat. Any thoughts on this... Cheers, Paul One of the nice things about the free CleanXX files ( http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm ) is that you can make them do *anything* you want, cleaning any folder you designate--- including the "Internet Logs" folder. The information in the folder actually could be useful in the event of a hack attack; the data there might help you trace an attack to the source. But as you found, the files can get quite large. (Although ZAP does allow you to set max sizes.) I try for a good compromise between having lots of data so I can trace an attack if I need to, but not so much as to bog down my hard drive. To do this, I added 2 lines to my CleanupXP.Bat file: cd "C:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs" del ZALog*.* The above wipes out the main logs when I run the CleanupXP file, typically every day. Until I run the cleanup, I have full logs available, if I need 'em. But once I run cleanup, they're totally gone, for good, and the folder starts over clean. If you wanted to clean all logs from that folder, you could use del *.log TLNL TWEAKING http://www.pureperformance.com It's a tweaking site, easy to navigate and with excellent explanations suited for all windows versions. WIN 98 SE RAM LIMIT Crucial memory in all my computers and they are just the greatest company and the very best place to purchase memory. Their tech dept even clued me in to a go around to install 768 MB RAM in Win 98 SE which normally does not like over 512, but the go-around works. http://www.langa.com/sponsors/crucial.htm There is no known instance of Windows 98 every being used successfully on a PC with 2 gb of RAM installed unless the MaxPhysPage parameter is used in System.ini to limit Windows 98 to 1.5 gb or less. If you have more than one operating system installed on the PC and need to have 2 gb (or more) of RAM installed for the other operating system(s) then you need to add the following line to the [386enh] section of the system.ini file for Windows 98: MaxPhysPage=60000 which will prevent Windows 98 from using more than 1.5 gb of the installed RAM. Note that you may have to reduce this value, as some machines do not operate with more than 1 gb of RAM with Windows 98. The setting would then be: MaxPhysPage=40000 And if Windows 98 is the only operating system installed on this computer then you should reduce the installed RAM to only 1 gb. That is almost always more than Windows 98 will ever need, unless you are running some very specialized memory intensive applications. OE HELP Outlook Express problem when I found the answer in this site: http://www.springfieldtech.com/Support/ When I browsed around in all the other listings there and saw the wealth of knowledge available, I wondered if you had ever seen it. Another good find! The site is graphically very simple but rich in content, especially for common, older software. It's divided into these major sections: Programs and Shareware to Download All of our Windows Error Messages Drivers for our Systems (and others) Create your own boot disk Quick help Windows 95 Help Windows 98 Help Windows NT Help IE 4.x Help IE 5 Help MS Office Help MS Office 2000 Help Hardware Trouble Shooting Boot Problem Trouble Shooting Our How do I Help Section TLNL CD BOOT http://www.bootscriptor.org/ Boot Scriptor is a little different from other boot tools we've covered. Rather than being a self-contained, ready-to-run thing, it's a tool that lets you create an interactive boot process so you can pick and choose exactly how your system boots (from hard drive or CD/DVD) and exactly what loads. ON-LINE COLLEGE at MIT http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/all-courses.htm NEW WIN Windows "Longhorn," the next desktop version of Windows, 2005. WIN 98 clean-up Backups: http://www.langa.com/backups/backups.htm Win98 Boot Disks: http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/1999/1025.htm Setting up a Win98 System: http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/1999/0831.htm Perfecting A Win98 System: http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/98runbetter/default.htm If you don't want to do a full reformat, you can try this no-reformat option for reinstalling Windows98 cleanly: http://content.techweb.com/winmag/library/1997/0301/analy026.htm EBAY Advice and Tips on eBay: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebaycenter http://www.freewarehof.org/ebay.html http://www.ebayersthatsuck.com/main/index.php Tools for eBay: http://www.hammertap.com/index.html http://www.vendio.com/ http://www.andale.com/corp/index.html http://www.auctionsniper.com/ http://www.powersnipe.com/ http://www.auctionessentials4u.com/ http://www.bidspyder.com/ XP Here's a site that is most useful if you're having troubles with Windows XP. http://www.theeldergeek.com/index.htm There's also a list of the services that can be disabled. It's very easy to search the site and the information is presented in such a way that nearly everyone can follow. See also, http://langa.com/u/1n.htm FAMILY USE Win2K and XP, these are multiuser OSes. This involves just one extra step during install, and is fully explained in the "Quick-Start Guide, Windows in a Multiple User Environment" at http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/instructions.html . FREE "Open Office" it's perhaps the best free office suite there is, duplicating all the essential functions (and many of the bells and whistles) of Microsoft Office, but totally for free. http://www.openoffice.org/product/ VERSION right clik on MyComputer desktop icon and select Properties shows OS ver in OE or IE or any app clik on mnu/Help/About OE MSG ORDER OE inbox in the right side top pane, clik on the Received header (you may have to scroll right) so that the triangle next to it is pointed down and then the msgs will be in order with newest at the top. Clik again and the order toggles. ICONS want to create or modify icons? http://www.thefreecountry.com/ VIR*US this all started by trying to get the update that protects us against QHosts. IE 5.5 is in win 98 SE updates are needed to thwart hackers, but you can't get the updates to work if you don't have IE 5.5 SP2 in MSoft no longer will allow you to dwnld SP2 i had to search the web to find the 84 mb SP2 ver of IE 5.5 you could dwnld IE6 and avoid this, but i didn't like IE6 there are many more updates to win 98 SE that will soon be cut off by MSoft and that is why we are saving these files on 3 zip disks all to be stored on a Win 98 SE Update CD that we will distribute to those who want to keep Win 98 SE and not give in the rules in 2000 or XP http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bull etin/MS03-040.asp http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/828750/default.asp q828750 2.2 mb needs IE 5.5 sp2 in first http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/828750/download.asp IE dwnlds http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/archive/default.asp for Me, not SE IE 5.5 sp2 http://www.windows-help.net/windowsMe/ie55-sp2.html 11 mb dwnld blocked by MSoft for 98 SE. dwnlded 84 mb of IE 5.5 SP2 full file. this is the only way to work it for 98 SE IE 5.5. Now, other updates will load in: Q828750, Q810847, Q818529 SFC Run this \win dir for Scan for Altered Files DLL Archive http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?cid=/servicedesks/fileversion/dllinfo. asp http://pacosdrivers.com/dll.asp http://www.webattack.com/help/missingfiles.html http://www.sysinternals.com/ http://www.turboware.com/ USB Microsoft is not developing USB 2.0 drivers for any Windows 98 operating system including Windows Me. A post on the Microsoft Web Site regarding USB 2.0 support for other operating systems reads: "Microsoft will not provide USB 2.0 driver support on Windows 9x or earlier Windows operating systems". Q258773 How to Enable Universal Serial Bus (USB) Support Q263218 General USB Troubleshooting in Windows 98/98 Second Edition/Me Q206071 General Information About Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition Hotfixes Many USB 2.0 card manufacturers have developed USB 2.0 drivers for Win98 SE, ME and Win2000. http://www.usbman.com/USB%202%20News.htm If you plan to use USB 2.0 with Windows 98SE and ME, your only option is to purchase a card from a manufacturer that supplies the drivers for your OS. STARTUP CHKS http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/ http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml http://www.winpatrol.com/ http://www.xteq.com MSoft Optical Mse leave old PS2 mse in install Opt Mse CD s/w i copied vmouse.vxd from CD to \win\system dir the other 2 files are vmouse.inf and a pnf file, drivers, and they go to \win\INF dir install new optical mse in USB port reboot let win98 find it it has to be recognized as an USB Human Interface Device, HID not just as an intellipoint mouse the mse will then light up red you can leave old PS/2 mse in and both will work. One will stay clean. AV go to site and at least run Stinger to clear your machine http://vil.nai.com/vil/averttools.asp#stinger, this is the McAfee site http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ visit too. http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/tools.list.html end tips 51 Tips 52 LONGHORN Next ver of windows. GDI, Win32, FAT32, NTFS, are all antiquities in the next version of Windows. They all continue to be supported, but they're all superceded by something newer and better: WinFS (the upgrade of the NTFS file system). LAN The software is open-source and available for free at the URL http://www.videolan.org/ This same software also could be useful for distributing digital satellite or cable around your home or office too; and I bet that you might even be able to use power-line networking (http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030108S0003 ) to get the signals to or from any PC or appropriate digital display device, anywhere you want, even without networking cables. WEB SITE How to track down the web host that's perfect for your own specific needs, budget, and abilities. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16400938 JUMPER SETTINGS Jumper settings for 18655 devices". very useful for those people working with older equipment http://th99.pley.org/ http://www.osuweb.net/~ahaning/totalhardware99/totalhardware99.html http://support.trilobytes.com.au/th99 PASSWORD GEN Password generator, which I've been using for years: http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php?guide=registry EMAIL Check the Properties of suspect msgs before you Preview them. Received: from FAMILIA (red-200-74-186-100.manquehue.net[200.74.186.100] Received: from 216.148.227.70 (unknown[211.44.90.135](misconfigured sender))(untrusted sender)) by rwcrmxc14.comcast.net (rwcrmxc14) with SMT id <20031213173300r1400gn168e>; Sat, 13 Dec 2003 17:33:01 +0000 X-Originating-IP: [200.74.186.100] From: "Marlena Villanova" To: "sssome@attbi.com" Subject: Re: info Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 14:33:45 -0300 X-Priority: 3 (normal) Importance: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Notice there is no Msg ID line, look for foreign source, untrusted, etc. WIN 98SE Microsoft to drop older products. The software maker says it is retiring several of its older products, including Windows 98, to comply with a court order related to Sun Microsystems and Java by 12-15-03 to 12-23. Users cling to old Microsoft operating systems The software giant can stop selling older operating systems, and it can even stop supporting them, but that doesn't mean that customers won't still use them. http://ct.com.com/click?q=96-pjrWQtdeds5dDmeqBfYmSji50L3K The company got an extension that allows Microsoft to support such software through Sept. 30, 2004, but officials said the company still has to stop distributing the software by January. XP is on 6% of business machines. Both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) are on life support. They'll join their ancestors in less than a month, on January 16, 2004. Feeling smug because you're running Windows ME? Don't. Support for this version lasts only one more year, until December 31, 2004. we have these updates on CD for win 98 SE: http://www.windowsupdate.com Windows 98 and 98SE are currently slated to enter their "non-supported phase" on January 16, 2004. That's a little more than a month away. Windows ME enters the same phase on December 31, 2004. Windows XP Home loses support on December 31, 2006. Windows 2000 is good until March 31, 2007. Windows XP Pro's time runs out on December 31, 2008. With these facts in mind, Windows 2000 Professional -- though not cheap -- continues to be the sweet spot for long-term Windows use. It lacks product activation, which makes it an excellent choice for power users who install their OS on a succession of PCs ERASING COOKIES Run Cookie Viewer and get rid of the obvious cookies. A big area is the \win\TempIntFiles (TIF)sub dir of Windows. (See also, C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5) Open up this sub dir and clik on Contents.IE5 sub dir. Select all files, then clik on Del btn while holding down the Shift key. You will be prompted to Delete all cookies? clik No. wait. the cookies will remain hilited, hold down the Cntrl key and clik on the cookies that you want to save, deselects them. hold down Shift key and hit Del btn and say Yes to delete the remaining bad cookies. This process deletes the same bad cookies in the dir above and below this selected sub dir. slick, eh? don't forget the other dir to chk for cookies, see prev tips. Run Ad-aware. FREE SITE http://www.bizzz.com/mybizzz4u.htm DVD Plextor PX708A can do it all DVD and CD RW etc. Blu Ray DVD will have 25 GB capability FILES http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cool/kish/pplusmain.htm BACK UP If all you want is the part of BootIt that does disk imaging, you can indeed get that as a separate product, and for as little as $19--- much, much less than competing products. BootIt Info: http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=bootit&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 Home: http://www.bootitng.com/ AD-AWARE http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/#free COMPUTER NEWS http://news.com.com/2001-1_3-0.html CDR details and specific recommendations in the new article live now at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15800263 Only disks that failed were those that I had covered with a glue-on paper label from a print-it-yourself CD label-maker kit. EMAIL Never forward a msg with an attachment. Save the attachment, scan it, attach it to a new msg going out. If the msg is a short text file, just copy and paste it in a new msg! READER Free Text Readers/Speakers free version of ReadPlease at http://www.readplease.com and http://www.centralwebs.co.uk/Links/Books.html DIG CAM Most new cameras come with an USB connection and when it is plugged into the computer they, the cam, will appear in Explorer to be a storage device like a HD. You can file manipulate without the proprietary s/w loaded. When you buy a new dig cam look for s/w independence as a feature. CS MUSIC COPY Roxio's Easy CD & DVD Creator $70 http://www.roxio.com/ LP Ripper $50 http://www.cfbsoftware.com/lpripper/lpripper.htm REGEDIT Registry Crawler (http://www.4dev.com/regc/index.htm ). - Microsoft RegEdit: 1 min, 45 sec - Resplendent Registrar: 24 sec - Registry Crawler: 11 sec 30 day trial Windows built-in RegEdit is a real slug. end Tips 52 Tips 53 BHOs Think of BHODemon as a guardian for your Internet browser: it protects you from unknown Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), by letting you enable/disable them individually. BHODemon is free, runs in the "tray" area, and works on Windows 95 or later operating systems. (For Windows 95, you will probably need a recent version of Internet Explorer.) http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/bhod/ Compliments PopUpStopper. The best reference for BHOs is still the Esposito article. If you want to learn how to create BHOs, this is the place to start. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/bho.htm This is a good site for general spyware info: https://www.spywareinfo.com . There is extensive info about spyware at https://grc.com/optout.htm . "Ad-aware" software is available at http://www.lavasoft.de . This article and this website describe the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) project WIN UPDATE http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/catalog/en/default.asp OE STUFF -Delete and or move your Inbox msgs to a folder then Compact your msgs OE Inbox mnu/Tools/Options/Maint tab, Clean Up Now btn, Compact btn -Can't attach a picture to your msg? Create a new msg to do this, doesn't work when Replying or Forwarding a msg -Can't do fancy text in your msg? Inbox mnu/Format/RichText -Want a background picture or texture in your outgoing msgs? See above item for Stationary info. -Turn off Preview before you shut down so it doesn't come up on a bad msg and Open it. Leave Preview off when working on something else to avoid them too. MP3 MP3Trim is freeware and requires no install- just put it in a folder and launch it. It can be used to *automatically* remove the digital silence at the beginning and end of mp3 files, or it can be used *manually* to remove selected moments, such as the applause you refer to- either by the second or by the frame. http://www.logiccell.com/~mp3trim/ FREE WEB http://www.members.mher.org/ from http://www.mher.org http://www.portland.co.uk/ DEFRAG GEODisk http://mvps.org/PracticallyNerded Diskeeper Lite http://www.webmasterfree.com/software/SystemUtilities/DiskTools/diskeeper_lite.h tml I also use Diskeeper Lite BUT I would like to disable the constant nagging to buy the Pro version. easy fix. For 9X systems: remove DiskKeeper Lite from the *path* in your Autoexec.bat file. Reboot. Go to the DK folder in Program Files, and create a sub-folder named 'no show' or name it whatever you like (this will save the extra files rather than deleting them). Next, place the 'show html' executable file as well as the 'HTML' folder in the newly created folder. Done. Now you can launch the Program from the desktop with the shortcut that is created during the install. OK, but how do you justify 11+ megabytes for a simple defragger? http://www.dirms.com/ "Buzzsaw" is on the fly, and works quite well. STARTUP What's all that running and where did it come from? Run msconfig Startup tab when a machine hangs up, key in Cntrl+Alt+Del to see what it is hung up on. http://www.az13.net/help/startup2.htm to find out what it is. NEWSREADERS http://www.forteinc.com Best A FAQ and help with Agent can be found in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent or get the FAQ, the manual and some great add-on utilities from the "unofficial" mirror site hosted by a member of the Forté support team, http://sd.znet.com/~lance/ -Of all the freeware readers around, Forté's scaled-down Free Agent has the most helpful features for downloading large multipart binaries. Same download and help sites as Agent. -If you want a freeware reader that has kill filters and mime decoding, try News Xpress (archive sites). There's a FAQ for it at http://www.malch.com/faq.html. -WinVN is also freeware and can handle multiple servers (archive sites). -Waste of Time. Netscape News, MS Internet News, and MS Outlook Express -- Tried them all and can assure you they are lame for multipart binaries. Get a real, dedicated newsreader client. Even the freeware ones outperform any of these. Health http://webmd.com http://medlineplus.gov/ Cooking http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes Flay and Florence WIN 98 SE In an open letter to customers, Sun executive vice president Jonathan Schwartz said Microsoft's decision to stop distributing older products such as Windows 98 is a deliberate attempt to coerce customers to upgrade to newer software. In his letter, Schwartz took issue with Microsoft's claim that Sun "forced its hand" to stop distributing older products. 1-15-04 MSoft extended its support of Win 98 SE 30 more months. MSoft products now have a life extension from 4 to 7 years. end tips 53 Tips 54 CABLE ISP IP Periodically change your IP address, if your internet connection allows this. (See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-12-12.htm#3 and http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-12-16.htm#3 ). WIN 98SE shutdown A search for "vxd fix" will turn up any number of possible download sites. Here's one: ftp://ftp.fluidlight.com/pub/nospin_files/VXD_FIX.zip. Remember, this is for Win 98 and 98SE only. Articles that contain both "98" and "shutdown:" http://langa.com/u/3t.htm IMAGE Prefer imaging tools that operate from a separate OS--- DOS, Linux, etc. If you boot from a DOS floppy or CD, for example, you can image and restore all--- and I mean *all*--- Windows files because Windows isn't running: No files are in use, and nothing is locked. See http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-07-03.htm for a fuller discussion. EMAIL CODE Free, simple-to-use, encryption software for Email messages and computer files/folders. The free version never expires and works for all email packages, all Windows 95/98/ME/XP/NT/2000, without any plug-in, adapters, or accessory software required. Each software package is less than 0.6 MB. Free encryption software, "A-LOCK" for Email messages, universal for all email packages http://www.pc-encrypt.com/_site/alock/download.mhtml. SWAP file Consider moving it to D: and Microsoft still officially recommends the swapfile be no less than 1.5 times the amount of RAM in your system, and no more than 3x the RAM. Right clik on MyComputer desktop icon and clik on Properties to see how much RAM and what ver of OS you have. then clik on Performance tab/Virtual Mem btn/LetMeDecide radio btn and select D: Internet Conn Sharing A free Java program that purports to serve as the internet connection for all network machines, when run on the computer that is connected to the internet. It is supposed to provide firewall protection. http://www.servlet.com/soho2/. See also, Win's ICS. Sygate Network is a good product, but I'm partial to NAT32 which is available from http://www.nat32.com . It comes in a "home" version for a single network ($25) or a "professional" version ($50) for more complex topologies involving routing between multiple networks. VSocks lite. It is free, has a lot of features but even better it is extremely easy to use. I have used it on a lan of 10 -15 machines and it worked flawlessly. It will dial up if automatically if need be, it provides some limited firewall protection, runs on Windows 95 and requires very little in the way of resources. You can find it here http://www.pscs.co.uk/products/vsockslight/index.html Windows' ICS is built-in and free, but it's a minimalist tool. Like the basic firewall built into XP, these tools are better than nothing, but almost any add- on product will give you more flexibility. For firewalls, ZoneAlarm, Sygate, and many others leave XP's built-in firewall in the dust. Likewise, NAT32, Vsocks, Sygate Office and other sharing tools can be much better than the built-in Internet Connection Sharing that's been part of Windows since Win98. ATTACHMENTS Whenever you forward a msg with an attachment in it, the file is auto made a eml type and then we don't know what it is until it is too late and any worm, virus, etc in it takes over. when you get a msg with an attachment save it to send it out: if it is a text file, just Select, Copy, and Paste it into a new msg if it is a pic, Insert or Attach the pic to an outgoing msg if you got it from the web, don't send it, just give them the URL and let them get it. if it is an animated pic, an exe, com, bat, jps, etc file type (executables) don't send it period. KEY CODE If you have ever have had to re-install a program and found that the key code you need is no where to be found, then this should be of help. This free download will list the key codes to the software on your machine (and much more). http://www.aida32.hu/ AIDA32 can even display temperature and fan speed info for you, too, and show you the full status of any SMART-enabled hard drives. And yes, it's free for personal use! PING How do you find a site's numeric address? The easiest way is to use Ping, a networking tool that's usually on every normal Windows system from Win98 onward; It's a command-line tool in Windows, so you'll want to open a DOS box or Start/Run or Command window first. then type PING followed by the plain name of the site. Normally, Ping lets you see if you can access a given location, and how long the raw access takes. But it also shows you the numeric address of any named site you feed it. For example: PING microsoft.com or PING www.microsoft.com (you omit the "http://" because this isn't a web browser access) In the above examples, Ping replies with "Pinging microsoft.com [207.46.245.222] with 32 bytes of data..." Those numbers are microsoft.com's IP address. In fact, if you enter it into your browser as http://207.46.245.222 , you'll go to the Microsoft.Com home page, just as if you'd typed http://www.microsoft.com. TEMP For those using Intel motherboards, the company offers Active Monitor http://intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm Or, for most mboards use Motherboard Monitor 5 http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ as a utility for keeping an eye on various motherboard temperatures, [fan speeds] and voltages. Free. SCANNER http://www.docupen.com/ $200 for a pen size scanner WINSOCK TekTips: http://www.TEK-TIPS.com WinSockFix: http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/WinsockXPFix.exe UNDELETE http://www.collina.us/files/REST2514.htm "Restore files which are deleted from the recycle bin by mistake. Conversely, delete files completely. Also, Easy Recovery. http://www.ontrack.com $$$ BIOS This site is excellent http://www.badflash.com/. It's a service specifically designed to help you recover from a bad or failed BIOS update process. major BIOS vendors and resellers may help, too: http://www.mrbios.com/ http://www.phoenix.com/en/home/ http://www.ami.com/ The IOSS Bios Savior. http://www.ioss.com.tw/eg/ AGP Is to be replaced with PCI Express DefaultInstall Location. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion In the right pane of the console, right-click the ProgramFilesDir entry. Click Modify. In the Edit String dialog box, type in a new path, such as "F:\Program Files" (that would set the new default location as the Program Files folder on the F: drive). Click OK. Close the Registry Editor. OS Operating Systems Used to Access Google ~~~~~~ Oct/Nov, 2003 ~~~~~~ Windows XP 42% Windows 98 27% Windows 2000 19% Windows NT 3% Macintosh 3% Windows 95 1% Linux 1% Other 4% AD ware Free software from Keyphr Software (Sweden) called Bazooka http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/ . WIN 98 It's great that Microsoft has taken the pressure off Win98 users, but it doesn't change the fact that Win98 is getting quite long in the tooth, in tech terms. Even if Microsoft releases additional security patches, there are fundamental limits: Win98 predates a whole range of current and new technologies--- USB2, support for huge hard drives, newer CPU types and optimizations, SATA, etc. etc.--- and there's only so much back-filling you can do. Microsoft sometimes force-feeds meaningless updates to its customers, like WinME, which should have been a free update for Win98 users. But all OSes eventually need to be upgraded at their core. That's not a Microsoft thing. It's the way all tech evolves. Langa List What is a Virus? A virus is a manmade program or piece of code that causes an unexpected, usually negative, event. Viruses are often disguised games or images with clever marketing titles such as "Me, nude." What is a Worm? Computer Worms are viruses that reside in the active memory of a computer and duplicate themselves. They may send copies of themselves to other computers, such as through email or Internet Relay Chat (IRC). What is a Trojan Horse? A Trojan horse program is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application; a Trojan horse program purposefully does something the user does not expect. Trojans are not viruses since they do not replicate, but Trojan horse programs can be just as destructive. Many people use the term to refer only to non-replicating malicious programs, thus making a distinction between Trojans and viruses. EMAIL First, leave Preview OFF in OE so the msgs are not read. Scan the list looking at the Subject and Sender to see which can be deleted without even looking at them. Just opening some msgs to see what it is is enough to start the worm. Pictures can have embedded code in them. Right clik on each msg if it still isn't clear whether it is good or not to select Properties and see where it came from in the header info. Then when you are finished deleting msgs, turn ON Preview. When you get a msg with an attachment, if you think it is safe, open the attachment and SAVE it. then if you want to send out that attachment, large files only, send a new msg and attach your saved file to it. this way we can see what type a file the attachment is If your attached file was a small text or jpg file, say only 10-35 kb, you should just look at the attachment and Select, Copy, and Paste it into a new msg going out. Just forwarding msgs with attachments hides the type of file the attachment is and leaves the new recipients with an unknown that may contain a vir*us. we all like to know the file type before looking at it; exe, txt, asp, bat, com, vbs, jpg, etc. OS CHOICE Among power users at the end of 2003 As you might guess, Windows is the most-commonly-reported OS in use. Within the Windows group, the largest single subgroup by far is XP, with 52% of the Windows OS tally. Far, far behind, roughly tied for second place, are Windows 98 with 19% of users, and Windows 2000 with 15% of the count. All the remaining Windows slices are quite small. For example, WinMe accounts for just 6%; WinNT for 1%; and Win95, Windows Server 2003, WinCE, Win3.xx and the Longhorn Beta (the next version of Windows, due out in 2005) all with less than 1%. PASSWORD MGR Oubliette The download page for the software is at http://www.tranglos.com/free/index.html, and you also can access it through the SourceForge listing at http://sourceforge.net/projects/oubliette/ Also, form-filler Roboform is http://www.roboform.com Also, Memo-Keys It's available from http://www.interlogic-concept.com/ FREE http://www.webgrid.co.uk/index.html one of the best freeware buffets WIN 98 "How To Save Your Win98 (And Other) Updates Offline" in http://langa.com/sendit.htm/newsletters/2003/2003-03-20.htm#2 . end Tips 54 Tips 55 HEADERS Your ISP will change them. Use RegEdit.exe (Windows) to change it or: Of course, not all data is held in the Registry. If you want to edit the text strings or phrases embedded in EXE files or DLLs, you can also do that using something called a Hex(adecimal) or Programmer's editor. Easy-to-use special-purpose editors and how-tos: http://www.google.com/search?q=change+title+bar+internet+explorer Hex/Program Editors: http://www.google.com/search?q=hex+program+edit Registry Editors (if you don't like RegEdit): http://www.google.com/search?q=Registry+Editors from LangaList BOOT DISK Add Format.com and Smartdrv.exe to it from \Windows and \Windows\Command dirs VIR*US Newest. Known as bot software, the remote attack tools can seek out and place themselves on vulnerable computers, then run silently in the background, letting an attacker send commands to the system while its owner works away, oblivious. The latest versions of the software created by the security underground let attackers control compromised computers through chat servers and peer-to-peer networks, command the software to attack other computers and steal information from infected systems. Affects Win 2000 and XP. See also: http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ COPY From scanner to printer. Free 900kb http://download.com.com/3000-2118-10243323.html?tag=lst-0-8 PHOTO GIMP stands for "GNU Image Manipulation Program." It's a very powerful yet free graphics tool "for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring." GIMP runs on most operating systems, including Windows: Release 2.0 of The GIMP is here! Its improvements are obvious and really make this an intuitive program to use. And it's still FREE! http://www.dpreview.com/news/0403/04032602gimpv2.asp http://www.gimp.org/ Lots more, including tutorials and how-tos, available here: http://www.google.com/search?q=gimp HD TEST Benchmark: measures the raw performance Transfer Rate Access Time CPU Usage Burst Rate Hard Disk information which includes firmware version, serial number, disk capacity, buffer size, transfer mode Hard Disk Health S.M.A.R.T. Information (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) Temperature Power On Time HD Tune is freeware! Download here http://www.hdtune.com/hdtune_100.exe What I liked is the fact that it will also test USB drives, Disk-on-key and Compact flash cards (in a card reader). RECENT HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentURLList HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\PowerPoint\Recent File List HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Picture It! Publishing\5.0\Recent File List HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentURLList HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\PowerPoint\Recent File List HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs RAM DDR took over from SDRAM and RDRAM. 184 pin module. DDR2 arriving soon, 240 pin module. Corsair and Kingston mfgrs CABLE SPEED Usually your download speeds are 1.5mbs or 3.0 mbs your upload speeds are set low at 256 kbs so you don't go into business as a server. When you first get a cable conn, you have to do certain things. Get a firewall! ZoneAlarm has a free version left side, 3 ver offered http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?lid=home_ zainfo Then get Karen's Cookie Viewer and the VB6 runtime files http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp http://www.karenware.com/powertools/runtimes.asp test your speed at http://www.broadbandreports.com/tools and then run the Tweak test to see what your settings are for MTU, RWIN, TTL and ACKs go to http://www.broadbandreports.com/drtcp get util drtcp021 Mar 21st 2002 - DRTCP021.exe (exe file) get this one, or newer then get Ad-aware http://www.lavasoft.de/ ver 6 or newer 1.7 mb then get a good Anti Vir*us util free at AVG free edition http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_updt6.php take a look at your Registry using RegEdit.exe C:\WINDOWS\REGEDIT.EXE look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP now, open up DrTCP and see what your setting are and consider a change See Tips on site page for more info using key words DrTCP, RWIN, ACK, TTL and 'edit registry' The record for transmitting data over nearly 11,000 kilometers is an average speed of 6.25 gigabits per second. This is nearly 10,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. If your ISP says it can handle 1.5mbs and you are only getting 0.8 mbs, then you can improve your speed up to the limit by making these changes. Comcast here xmits at 3.0mbs. TRAVEL Sidestep.com http://sidestep.com/?redir=A GOOGLE Great Search engine. And, http://www.google.com/whatsnew/ new GMail, free email, big. https://gmail.google.com/?dest=http%3A%2F%2Fgmail.google.com%2F Also, Go local at local.google.com Books http://www.booksnbytes.com You've got to have a look at http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com for new reviews. Also, try http://www.murderandmayhembookclub.com www.shotsmag.co.uk www.deadlypleasures.com www.janmag.co.uk NewsGroup rec.arts.mystery RAM tester the best known is the venerable MemTest86: http://www.google.com/search?q=memtest86 . Microsoft also offers a free memory tester of its own: see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-08-21.htm#2 end Tips 55 Tips 56 REMOVE APP 1 Cntrl Pnl Add/Remove and remove desktop icon 2 Explorer, delete all folders and files 3 RegEdit 4 Reboot and watch for signs that it is still there. 5 RegEdit again 6 It's possible that there'll still be a ghost entry listed under Control Panel's "Add/Remove Software" list. If this happens, navigate to this Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall You can remove any item listed in the "Add/Remove" tool on Control Panel simply by deleting the appropriate subkey in the above. In the subkeys, "DisplayName" is the name you see listed in the Add/Remove Programs tool, and "UninstallString" is where the uninstall program is supposed to reside. LL TASK KILLERS Win98 Task Killer? XP's tskill command. ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-03-15.htm#2 ) Is there something similar for Win98? You bet! There are tons of 'em; free, commercial, shareware, whatever. Some list running tasks and let you kill "stuck" or unwanted tasks; others have more features. Explore the links at http://www.google.com/search?q=kill+task+win98 and you'll get an idea of the wide variety of tools out there! LL VALID SITE? http://www.corestreet.com/spoofstick/ SpoofStick just sits there contently displaying the domain name of the site you're currently on. Before entering any information into a site, glance up at SpoofStick to confirm that you are where you think you are. SpoofStick is a normal IE toolbar, so you can turn it on and off by going to the View-Toolbars menu and toggling the checkmark next to SpoofStick. Win 2000+ LL KAREN Need to get some app or util out of your machine completely? Karenware to the rescue, with Registry Ripper. Karen Kenworthy's tools ( http://www.karenware.com ) BOOT RECORD Refresh the master boot record. This takes only a few seconds, and is usually nondestructive to the drive, partitions, formatting and data. In windows 9x/me, use "fdisk /mbr:" http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=%2Fmbr&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 In XP/2k, use the recovery console's "fixmbr:" http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=fixmbr&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 In Linux, use these: http://www.google.com/search?q=mbr+linux POPUP Smart Popup Blocker is available from http://download.com.com/3000-7786- 10282837.html. So far it has blocked all ad type of popups while not interfering with normal desired new windows. It scored 100% at the Popup Test website - http://www.popupcheck.com/. If it ever does stop a popup that you want to see, you can quickly disable it temporarily or add that site to a 'whitelist'. BLOG http://www.blogphiles.com/webring.shtml A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently. SHUTDOWN There's lots of shutdown-problem help available: Win98: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+98+shutdown WinME: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+me+millennium+shutdown Win2K: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+2000+2k+shutdown XP: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+xp+shutdown Linux: http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+shutdown+problem+hang CLEAN HD a freeware program called "Eraser " to zero out the data. It is fundamentally a security program meant to write multipass pseudorandom data over a file to completely erase and make it unrecoverable. It is also flexible enough that it can be set to write one pass of zeros over only the unused space on the disc. It still takes some time, but it's worth it. Eraser, and similar tools (mostly free): http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/securedelete.shtml http://www.google.com/search?q=security+wipe+free The "Cipher" command in Win2K and XP also can do this, and it's built right into the OS! See "HOW TO: Use Cipher.exe to Overwrite Deleted Data in Windows: at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q315672&sd=tech ENCRYPT free! encryption tool for MS Office, you might want to check out Dekart's Secrets Keeper. It integrates with MS Word, Excel and PPT and allows a user to encrypt/decrypt directly within the application. http://www.soft32.com/download_3918.html The tool also integrates outside of Office, via the normal Windows Explorer; and can work on any file type (not just Office's). COMCAST modem site https://sas.r1.attbi.com ON-LINE HELP http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/minitutorials.serveftp.net/ http://www.stevethepro.ukf.net/photoshop/minitutorials.htm for PhotoShop https://javacc.dev.java.net/doc/docindex.html for JAVA EMAIL SPAM Check the Header info on suspect email msgs before turning ON Preview Look for: X-Comment: Sending client does not conform to RFC822 minimum requirements No ID line Foreign email addr xdljldkh type of email name Delete before reading it. SWAPFILE Win98: http://www.google.com/search?q=page+swap+file+98 IE PRINT PAGE I had printed out Juno email (IE form) msgs before, but today only binary one liners would print out. I reloaded the Win drivers from the CD and printed out an OK test sheet. I had been printing from Word just minutes before. And, still it printed garbage, no docs showing in print queue, Purge had no effect and it would run forever. I ended up copying the email msg to Word and printed that OK. Has to be a problem today with Juno (or IE). I was printing time-critical stuff. Solution: I had been trying other printers before this and changing the default printer and even though i had set the correct printer to default in Cntrl Pnl/Printers it still needed to be ALSO reset in IE mnu/File/PageSetup clik on Printer btn at bottom right and select the correct printer and the binary garbage goes away and once again you are able to print the IE form for a web page. I do not know why that was not an automatic change when the default printer was reset. ANTIVIR*US Before you run any chk for vir*uses or ad-ware, use Explorer to delete extra files and cookies in your \Win\Cookies, \Win\Temp and \Win\TIF\Content.IE5 dirs first. See this method above in Tips - Search on 'content.IE' in Tips 50 and beyond. (See also, C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5) Deleting unnecessary files will not only get rid of possible virus laden files, but will also make the AV chk run faster on less files to chk. Also, before running chks, see if an update is available for AVG, Ad- aware, etc. Set your outgoing msgs to Text and not HTML to help with this problem. OE Inbox/mnu/Tools/Options/Send tab FIREWALL free Sygate Personal Firewall http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm , which is my alternate #1 choice for people who run into problems with ZoneAlarm. As for the sometimes cryptic-seeming contents of the ZA log, there are many tools--- some free--- that can parse the logs and generate a more easily digested report: http://www.google.com/search?q=zonealarm+log+analysis from LList CD BURNER Deepburner doesn't try to do everything--- it tries to do a few things very well (see features list: http://www.deepburner.com/?r=features ). It's free, and it's just 2.6Mb to download. Nice! DeepBurner allows you to burn any type of CDs or DVDs. Back up your data, create video or photo archives, record audio and mp3 CDs, copy DVD movies with just one program in easy and convenient way. PASSWORD 35+ methods of saving them posted at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=19202221 We're getting more great suggestions on safe, free, and easy password management. See http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=19202221 SPYWARE Gator is now Claria; beware. http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ Update file for Stinger from McAfee MINI DRIVES Sony and Philips plan to release minidrive-based music players toward the middle of the year in the United States to capitalize on the growing interest in small electronics devices, said Kevin Magenis, CEO of Cornice, which makes the hard- drive element in the players. The tiny hard drives from Cornice and others hold far less than standard hard drives, with capacity ranging from just 1.5GB to 4GB. But they are also far smaller, measuring an inch across. end Tips 56 Tips 57 ZIP Avoid ZipItFast. Trojan Horse files and site has both email addrs not working. ON-LINE STORES Tiger Direct-Pricewatch-Overstocked.com-Geektools.com-Thinkgeek.com BestBuys BACKUP The limit for file sizes in Fat32 (Win 98) maxes out at 4GB for any single file. Fat16 is even worse: It maxes out at 2GB. You can easily bump into these limits when making backups, ripping MP3s, capturing video and the like--- large-scale file operations that these older file systems never were designed to handle. Backup in chunks of your HD, not the whole HD as one file. NTFS (used by XP and Win2K, for example)can have over four billion (as in "four thousand million") files on a partition, and supports files as large as 16 terabytes (that's 2 to the 44th power. LL EMAIL TRICKS Beware of false flag email msgs that could mean disaster. Here is the header of one that illustrates that it is a phony Sender and Subject: Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:04:22 +0000 (GMT) X-Comment: Sending client does not conform to RFC822 minimum requirements X-Comment: Date has been added by Maillennium Received: from server1.fina.hr ([194.152.242.129]) by sccrmxc18.comcast.net (sccrmxc18) with SMTP id <20040712220421s1800rvgjue>; Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:04:22 +0000 X-Originating-IP: [194.152.242.129] From: Symantec_AntiVirus_for_SMTP_Gateways@fina.hr To: sssome@comcast.net Subject: Content violation EMAIL BACKUP C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{ED642tt-yyy-w-A618-xxx}\Microsoft is the loc of my Win 98 SE OE email msgs, save the whole dir. Your ID folder name will be different. Also, save your OE Addr Book loc at C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book AV Chk the date on your Stinger file to weed out worms, etc http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ Hijacked If you run into the "About:Blank" hijack, check this: http://www.google.com/search?q=+hijack+%22about%3Ablank%22 WIN OSs It helps to remember that WinXP isn't a update from Win9x; it's a whole new operating system with a different lineage and different background. That's why XP can deliver far more stability than Win98--- but it's also why some things work a little differently. LL changed file system. BACKUP Do a full reformat and reinstall; and then preserve that perfect setup in a thorough backup, or better, in a disk image. (See http://langa.com/backups/backups.htm ) An OS-independent tool (like BootIt: http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=bootit&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ) can provide fast, inexpensive images of your partitions or total disks for just about any PC operating system. Then, if or when a partition or disk gets hosed for any reason whatsoever, you can restore it to perfection in minutes. LL DOS In any version of Windows. you can go to Start/Run, type the word "command" (without the quotes), hit enter or click OK, and a "command window" (a.k.a. DOS box) will open. In WinMe and earlier, it's a window to true DOS. In NT/2K/XP, it's not really DOS (there is no true DOS in those OSes) but rather a command interpreter that acts in a DOS- like way. LL CPU ID Installing Intel's Active Monitor ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-03- 04.htm#1 ),it seems I have to know my chipset's "full name", i.e., letters and exact model number, not just the family, e.g. "845" using Intel's id utility. Ans: The de facto standard for CPU identification is the free tool called wcpuid.exe, available from: http://www.h-oda.com/ LL VPC You can still get a free trial copy of Microsoft's VPC at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx , or an open- source VPC at http://bochs.sourceforge.net/ Independent VPC FAQ and Link Collection: http://www.robertmoir.co.uk/win/VirtualPC2004FAQ.html Unofficial "What Works in VPC" Site: http://vpc.visualwin.com/ Virtual PC Downloads: http://www.essjae.com/VPC/virtual_pc_downloads.htm Virtualization (general): http://www.virtualization.info/ LL SCAN/COPY Scanning in a letter and then printing it can be done using images, the text copy feature, or OCR. For an image of the letter, the TIFF format produces a 3.2mb file for a page, the same page in JPG is 136kb file. it takes a detailed pic of the page and printing is slow, but detailed as the printer thinks this is a picture ZIP DISKS Our old Drives are for 100 mb disks. Then they made 250s and 750s. If you get the newer 750 mb capable drive to put in, first defrag your 100 disks, then copy the data onto ea 100 disk to nearly fill each of them. Then install the new 750 drive. The reason is that the 750 drive can read 100s but cannot write to them. Better yet, just save the old computer as is with the old 100 drive and put a 750 Zip Drive in or use the newer USB drives, thumbs or sticks for your portable storage. Also, use your old computers with a small HD, 20-40 GB, to use as the exposed net computer to the web. AV http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/ http://vil.nai.com/vil/averttools.asp#stinger http://www.networkassociates.com/us/downloads/ http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ ADDR BOOK C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book save them CD LIFE Interesting fact is that a CD-R will last up to four times as long as a CD (as the aluminum used on a CD deteriorates faster). Interesting read -- and the sidebar has 7 steps to prolonging the life of a CD (including do *not* use paper labels, but use a felt-tip pen). HARD DRIVE INSTALL http://www.google.com/search?q=dma+drive+settings Pay attention to the SMART settings: In particular, the SMART acoustical properties, which can be used to reduce drive "chatter," can reduce effective speed. Make sure the drives are set the way you want, with no needless slowdowns built in: http://langa.com/u/5b.htm Once you're ready to install software, use your fastest drive for your most-accessed files, including the swap/paging file. LL USB Drives The device comes with a separate extension cable to allow easy use of the thumb drive on PCs that only have rear-mounted USB sockets. Thumb drives the size of a postage stamp can hold 2.2 or 4.4 GB, $159. USB stick: 256 MB for $38 now. These drives are amazing: Postage-stamp size, but containing the same parts and mechanisms as in your PC's full-sized drives: motors, heads, platters, interface ... the works. The platter is typically one inch (25mm) in diameter; the entire unit fits inside a Compact Flash Type II housing and weighs around half an ounce (15 grams). Unfortunately, the phrase "USB 2.0" does not necessarily mean 480Mbps of throughput. USB 2.0 now has three different signaling rates: Low Speed (1.5Mbps), Full Speed (12Mbps), and Hi-Speed (480Mbps). "The USB Drive Revolution" that's posted now (free!) at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22100588 LL QUICK VIEW Start/Settings/CntrlPnl/Add-Remove WindowsSetup tab/Accessories/QV SPEED The two organizations announced late last week that they had managed to send nearly 840 gigabytes of data across a distance of 16,346 kilometers (10,157 miles) in less than 27 minutes, at an average speed of 4.23 gigabits per second. Commercial Server switches now run at 10 GBPS; high speed desktop is at 3 mbps. LOTTERY clik on each and Save in your IE Favorites http://home.comcast.net/~sssome/ http://www.musl.com/gamesummary.asp http://www.megamillions.com/ FIREWALL ZoneAlarm: Keep your ver 4.x, as ver 5 seems to have problems. FIND in REGISTRY RegSeeker. It is free and can be downloaded from: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/regseeker.html It has more Registry tools than any other I have tried out. What really impressed me was its search capability. LL ASSOCIATE WITH The site http://www.annoyances.org/ which deals with the problems many folks have with windows. Their page http://www.baxbex.com/openexpert.html offers a free download of their openexpert.exe. LL PRODUCT KEY This is a small download that will help find your lost Product Key. http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml LL FOREIGN LOTTO SCAMS http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/crossborder/ BOOKS http://collectbooks.about.com/ http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/rcb/ http://www.bookcloseouts.com/bc/home.asp DVD The decisions boost Microsoft's efforts in the digital entertainment arena and also advance the HD-DVD technology developed by Toshiba and NEC. HD-DVD, also known as high-definition and high-density DVD, uses blue laser light to cram more information on to discs than today's red-laser DVDs. The technology is vying against the rival Blu-ray format backed by Sony and others, as well as a Chinese format called EVD. CNET end Tips 57 Tips 58 SCAN / PRINT Use the scanner to get a copy of, say, a letter. For low file size get the file of it in a picture with the format JPG and you can further reduce the file size with a photo app compression. Use OCR if you need to Edit the letter, but expect 5 times the file size. Do not just print out this letter from the scanner s/w as it will take too much time printing out the grey scale of it. Instead use a photocopier util like Photocopier 2.28 by N. Cuppen, free, to print it out fast and use less ink. Use the jpg file you have saved to send that letter by email. BIOS Find out what the latest BIOS ver available is; compare to yours noted on your boot-up screen top left. http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/download.aspx http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P2L97&Type=Latest http://www.asus.com.tw/support/english/techref/bios/intro.aspx http://www.asus.com.tw/support/english/techref/bios/aflash.aspx Get AFlash util to decompress the file before copy it onto the boot disk. ASUS Download Site is located at http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/download.aspx Please insert a clean, unformatted disk into A:\ drive and boot the system into DOS mode. In DOS mode, please type in C:\> FORMAT A: /S or click on "Add/Remove Software" icon in "Control Panel" under Windows O/S. Choose "Create Boot Disk" icon and click on the "Create" button. By using the procedure above, you can create a boot disk without AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. Then, place the bundled M/B support CD into the optical drive. Copy AFLASH.EXE (unzipped) onto your boot disk. Otherwise, please refer to ASUS Download Site for latest version of AFLASH.EXE BIOS tool utility , please remember to decompress the file before copy it onto the boot disk. ASUS Download Site is located at http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/download.aspx Warning? AFLASH.EXE (unzipped) can only be executed in DOS mode and not from MS- DOS Prompt in Windows O/S. As a result, no matter if you wish to backup or update the BIOS content, you must create a new boot disk. Please copy AFLASH.EXE into the disk which you wish to boot the system. In addition, in the BIOS device boot sequence, you must set boot from "Floppy Drive" as the first device in the order of boot sequence. Media Player for Win 98 ver 7.1 for .wmv not recommended. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp I like ver 6.4 best, stay with the one that loads from the Win 98 SE CD. College http://money.howstuffworks.com/529.htm http://www.rothira.com/ http://www.savingforcollege.com/ http://www.collegesavings.org/ A: Drive Don't run anything from the A:\. The Registry will remember this and search an empty A:\ for all apps or utils run from A:\ producing a time wasting, irritating whirring sound of trying to read a floppy that isn't there. Copy or install the files to your HD and run everything from there, faster. If you have done this, use the RegEdit.exe in \Win to search out (Find "A:\") and erase the entries per Tips on Modify in RegEdit. VB "Visual Basic 2005 Express", promises to quickly and painlessly teach new-comers how to write computer programs in the new Visual Basic NET language. http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/ SPACE http://www.spacesounds.com/navigator/index.html SAVE WEB PAGE For standard Windows installations, with IE and Outlook Express installed, there's a "save as type... *.mht" option in IE's "File/Save As" menu that also provides copies of web pages with everything (graphics, links, everything) all in one file. See http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-02-24.htm#2 for more info. PDF PRINT Portable Document Format (PDF) is the de facto standard for the secure and reliable distribution and exchange of electronic documents and forms around the world. CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just a push of a button! http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp Free Download (Ver. 2.2; 1.04 MB) Free Converter (GNUGS7.06; 3.04 MB) Installation Requirements Supports Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003. Requires PS2PDF converter such as Ghostscript (recommended). You can get the free GNU Ghostscript 7.06 here. GNU Ghostscript is an open-source interpreter for the PostScript language and the PDF file format. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License. You may obtain the source code for GNU Ghostscript here. LL CLEAN UP I trust that everyone is cleaning out the temp and cookie files and doing a scandisk/defrag once a week per the Tips. STARTUP C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp put a shortcut to OE, msimn.exe, in this subdir if you have a cable ISP. AV http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ weekly updates McAfee AVERT Stinger Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. Stinger utilizes next generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally signed DAT files, and scan performance optimizations. Download Stinger.exe v2.3.7 [794,119 bytes] (7/30/2004) or, http://support.centralcommand.com/cgi- bin/command.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=727 http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/virus.aspx?id=39642 http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/mydoom_m.shtml http://www.viruslist.com/eng/alert.html?id=1927068 http://www.norman.com/Virus/Virus_descriptions/16382/en-us http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32mydoomo.html http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.mydoom.m@mm.html http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_MYDOOM.M For those who don't really understand viruses, worms, etc... see http://www.cknow.com/vtutor/ TEMPS http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ go to this site clik on the header menu item: Downloads. clik on any of the names in the right column like Livewire and you can download the 1.92 mb Motherboard Monitor It will watch the computer temp for you, voltages, fan speed, etc. Install it, load it in and the icon will appear in your SysTray of your Taskbar. Right clik on it and select Dashboard to see values of your mboard. end Tips 58 Tips 59 Ad-aware 8-31-04 SE1R3 12.08.2004 Reference Number: SE1R3 12.08.2004 New in the target base e2give (1 variant) Net Malmo (1 variant) Possible browser hijack attempt (1 variant) SahAgent (2 variants) Updated signatures for trojan (win32.delf.trojan.a) SE1R4 16.08.2004 Reference Number: SE1R4 16.08.2004 New in the target base Casinopalazzo.drusearch MicroGaming (2 variants) Roings.MediaMotor Win32.psw.msnfaker Updated signatures for AdLogix (2 variants) CNSMin (1 variant) CoolWebSearch (3 variants) DealHelper (2 variants) Dialer.GlobalNetcom (5 variants) Downloadware (2 variants) Generic Browser Hijacker (11 Variants) Lop (3 variants) Meridian Popupper (1 variant) Ncase (2 variants) Rads01.Quadrogramm (2 variants) Roings.JimmyHelp (2 variants) VX2 (3 variants) Whenu.SaveNow (1 variant) Whenu.Search (2 variants) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SE1R5 22.08.2004 Reference Number: SE1R5 22.08.2004 New in the target base CWS.SearchExtender IEHijacker.TopConverting IEHijacker.RealSearcher IEHijacker.SearchFast MyDailyHoroscope Softomate.MSHBar Win32.Keylogger.eXaMiNaToR.a Win32.trojandownloader.cabdialer Win32.downloader.ustimerz Updated signatures for 404Search (+2 variants) Adintelligence.PeopleOnPage AdTomi (+2 variants) BargainBuddy (+1 variant) BDE (+1 variant) BroadcastPC (+1 variant) ClickSpring (+3 Variants) CoolWebSearch (+3 variants) DyFuCa (+3 variants) ExactSearchBar (+1 variant) eZSearchBar (+1 variant) IELoader (+3 variants) IPInsight (+3 Variants) ISTBar (+1 variant) Lop (+4 variants) midADdle (+2 variants) PowerScan (+1 variant) Rads01.quadrogram (+5 variants) SideFind (+1 variant) Statblaster (+2 variants) VX2.AbetterInternet (+3 Variants) Webdialer (+2 variant) WinPup32 (+1 Variant) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SE1R6 30.08.2004 Reference Number: SE1R6 30.08.2004 Internal build: 9 File size: 332041 Bytes Total size: 1054736 Bytes Signature data size: 1032141 Bytes Reference data size: 22083 Bytes Signatures total: 29068 Fingerprints total: 88 Fingerprints size: 4441 Bytes Target categories: 15 Target families: 539 New in the target base Several generic browser hijackers Trojan.Win32.Bizten Trojan.Win32.Ilka32 Updated signatures for Bargain Buddy (1 variant) Claria (1 variant) CoolWebSearch (3 variants) eUniverse.KeenValue (1 Variant) eUniverse.PerfectNav BHO (1 Variant) EzuLa (1 variant) Global Netcom (4 Variants) IELoader (2 Variants) Rads01.Quadrogram (2 variants) TrojanDownloader (10 variants) VirtuMundo (1 variant) VX2.Abetterinternet (1 variant) Whenu.Save (1 variant) Whenu.WeatherCast (1 variant) ONLINE INFO www.sourcemagazine.com Aug '04 has a good article on what to buy new or should you upgrade. Remember that it is more difficult to upgrade as the new components won't fit on your old board. PCI slots and AGP 1x-8x that gave us better graphics is being replaced by PCI Express, which means a new mboard which means new RAM, but a lot of functions like sound, video, NIC, etc are on-board which means you don't have to buy the cards. PCI express will improve your high def video when apps come up with the new s/w. AV Free, www.freeav.com, or http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ LIGHTNING Unplug everything or get a UPS, or a line conditioner. WIRELESS For Win 98, try PCI card from MSoft Wireless Adapter, $19. OE FOLDERS in OE Inbox, clik on Inbox in left pane mnu/File/New/Folder type in name of folder xxx Enter in right pane, clik on msg and drag into new folder in left pane, release, repeat end Tips 59 Tips 60 DOWNLOADS http://www.majorgeeks.com/ +R -R There actually are six variants of DVDs, although the +R and -R are the most common. Unlike the VHS/Betamax tussle, there are few practical differences between +R and -R technologies. Mostly, it's a turf war over who will "own" DVD standards. Std advice is to buy a drive that supports both formats. FAQ on DVD at http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html LL RAID RAID is a strange technology for desktop systems. The idea of using a "redundant array of inexpensive disks" (hence the acronym "RAID") originated in high-demand servers, where it made sense LL CLEAN HD See http://www.informationweek.com/837/langa.htm for information on making a discarded drive safe from snoops. TOOLS http://www.sysinternals.com http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/default.asp It duplicates what XP already has. http://www.dma.org/~millersg/CoolSoftware.html http://www.lexacorp.com.pg/ USB FLASH WASH you can apparently wash and dry your flash mem (in your pants), but don't put a magnet near it. NTFS The NTFS.Com site is a gem--- packed with just about anything you need to know about NTFS. http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfswin98.shtml Anyone interested in NTFS should also see: http://www.ntfs.com BACKUP Complete hard drive backups using ROBOCOPY. ROBOCOPY runs from a cmd prompt, or if you boot into SAFE Mode, you run it from a C: Prompt without all the other stuff loaded. This essentially makes a full backup of your hard drive, partitions, etc.. You can grab a copy for free, along with many other Resource Kit tools, at http://langa.com/u/5x.htm . Sites like this ( http://www.ss64.com/nt/robocopy.html ) provide an easy reference for the commands available; a Google search will turn up many other how-to pages. SPY The average Internet-enabled PC hosts 26 spyware programs, according to an audit by EarthLink. The Internet service provider worked with security company Webroot's software to scan consumer PCs, surveying more than 3 million systems between January and September. The study found 83 million instances of spyware, a sign of increasing bombardment by malicious software. Get Ad-Aware, PopUpStopper, Karen's Cookie Viewer, and Stinger. AVG is a free AV util. ZoneAlarm is a free FireWall. Delete your unneeded \Cookies, \Recent, \Temp, \TIF files daily. http://www.download.com/Spyware-Center/2001-2023_4-0.html?tag=dir BIOS Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the machine, wait for the beep, and then simply try pressing the most common BIOS access keys until you find one that works: DEL, F1, F2, F8, F11, ESC, CTRL-ALT-ESC, CTRL-ALT-ENTER. If none of these most-common access keys works, visit your PC vendor's site for the correct access method for your PC. http://www.sysopt.com/bios4.htm SAVE Except for you renegade XP people, Since we all, mostly, have older machines and older OSs, and older minds, we should concentrate on a bootable CD and not the USB key chain flash mem, as nice as it is. $10 zip disk vs $75 USB 1 GB flash mem. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=28700158 on the CD we should have: boot qualities, with Format and FDISK for win 98 SE and Win 98 Me's Defrag Win 3.1 Disks 1-5 \Favorites dir \Download dir Win 98 SE Updates (300 mb of them) Tips.txt you will have to save your own OE Addr Bk, x.wa file periodically ******** along the same, save the machine, lines we should also save our data files to a safe place and this includes, Jack, our coded password file listing. It makes sense that if your machine goes down, it will be the C: Drive which is most used, so save your data files all in one place, to the D Drive or the Zip or USB drive which are removable, and make back ups on the D Drive or another Zip or USB drive. You can set up just about any App to save to a particular place like in File Locations in all Office apps. E:\Files\Word, Excel, Access, Text, Images, ComputerStuff, HomeRepair, Recipes, etc USB If your USB device doesn't work, and your Device Manager doesn't even list USB, then go into your BIOS and go to the 4th or 5th page and Turn ON the USB function. Some older machines require s/w to turn ON or use an USB port for another use. em Also, Simply putting the USB device as a boot-up option in BIOS may not be enough. I am using an MSI KT3V board and I found that USB Legacy Support in Integrated Peripherals had to be enabled. Drove me crazy until I solved that one. Indeed, the number of possible permutations between BIOS versions and features, boot options, and USB types can be very high. Finding the right combination for a particular PC can take some digging. It can be a good idea to step through *every page* of the BIOS settings to view all the options before you dive in. I also use a trick: I use my digital camera to snap a photo of each BIOS screen so I have a permanent record of what all the settings were before I started tweaking. It only takes a minute, and the cost is negligible--- a little disk space and a few pennies worth of battery power. Having the photos means you always can restore all the BIOS settings to their exact original condition, and that can be a real bacon-saver. LL AV Symantec's free Beagle-remover is at http://langa.com/u/5q.htm , and you can find a whole raft of other free disinfection tools here: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/tools.list.html A good desktop firewall (http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=firewall&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ) , a desktop anti-virus tool ( http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=anti+virus&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ), and inoculation/cleanup tools like SpywareBlaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/ , SpybotS&D ( http://www.safer-networking.org ) , Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ ) and Pestpatrol (http://www.pestpatrol.com/ ) all can save you hours of hair-pulling after some nasty has wormed its way into your system. ISO Plucking Files From An ISO CD Image Normally, massive software downloads (such as complete OS distributions) are transmitted as a single ISO file--- a kind of disk image of a CD. You can't just copy the ISO file to a blank CD; it has to be processed into separate files first. Most normal CD-burning tools have a built-in way to do this. In Roxio's "Creator Classic," for example, it's under the File/"Record Disc From Image" option. When the ISO disc creation is done, instead of having a simple copy of the ISO file, the CD will be populated with the normal folders and files that were inside the ISO file. But some CD burner software can't handle ISO files. Or, you may only want one or two files from a collection, and don't want to be bothered burning a whole CD just to get at them. solution: the software that came with my Dell cannot -- as far as I can tell -- [work with ISO images]. I've discovered two tools to extract the files from the ISO. Undisker -- http://www.undisker.com/ -- will do the extraction. You can then burn the files to a CD. Shareware, around $30. Daemon Tools -- http://www.daemon- tools.cc/dtcc/portal/portal.php -- creates a virtual drive on your system, allowing you to treat the ISO file as if the individual files *had* been extracted and burned to a CD. LL PDF PDFill http://www.pdfill.com This shareware program not only allows you to fill in and save PDF forms that have fields, but also allows you to add your own text fields in PDF forms without them. LL PHONE Impressed by Skype's voice quality, there are still some rough edges. Both caller and receiver must have the voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software installed. Calls to ordinary phone customers will still have a cost. And the software works only on PCs and a handful of niche devices--not regular phone handsets. http://www.fcc.gov/voip/ http://www.skype.com/ BLUE DVD Blu-ray Disc, and rival format HD-DVD, are considered next-generation DVD technologies and are based on blue lasers. Current DVD technology is based on red lasers. The blue-laser technology will allow greater storage capacities, up to 50GB for dual-layer rewritable disks, compared with 4.7GB on current DVDs. The two blue-laser formats are incompatible, but both are compatible with current DVD formats. SLOW MACHINE? Get rid of ad-ware and other snoopy things with free Adaware from Lavasoft at www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/. clean out your C:\win\cookies dir. Start/Run MSCONFIG and clean out the StartUp folder. POPUP Stopper In addition to www.panicware.com try http://toolbar.google.com/ 452 kb dwnld file. Free NEW INTERNET PlanetLab, an experimental network that sits on top of the Internet, is a step in the right direction. Efforts by Cisco Systems and other networking companies to improve the existing Internet plumbing work is not sufficient to deal with the complexity of Internet2, the shift to Internet Protocol version 6 and other issues. CPUs Intel: 40 percent of desktop chips and 70 percent of notebooks chips that Intel ships in 2006 will be dual-core. Of server chips, 85 percent will be dual-core. end Tips 60 Tips 61 IMAGES Digital cameras can now take very detailed pictures; the 10x8 600+KB pics are good for printing, but too big to send in email or post on a site. You need to do a number of things for the latter options. I use MSoft's Image Composer to crop and compress images. You can find IC on your old FrontPage CDs. I use Photoshop to reduce the image size proportionally and to change the image contrast/Brightness. These are the basic tools needed to modify your images for the stated purpose. Open IC and then open the JPG image in question. If your image is not JPG convert it with this app using SaveAs. Drag the dotted lines that limit the image and move all 4 if necessary to crop the image. Then clik on mnu/File/SaveAs to compress the image. At the bottom of this dialog box is a Compression Check Box, check it. To the right is a slide for How Much to compress it. 50-60% is usually safe, but change the file name to keep the original pic as is. Then open Photoshop and Open any image. Clik on mnu/Image/ImageSize. Make sure that the Constrain Proportions check box at the bottom of the dialog box is checked. Change the, say, 1048 number in the Image Width text box at the top to, say, 400 and the Image Height box will change proportionally. Clik on OK btn. Also, clik on mnu/Image/Adjust/Brightness-Contrast and adjust the slides to suit your viewpoint. SaveAs under a diff name. Check the new file size in Explorer. SHUTDOWN ShutDown Perhaps the best single source for resolving all these and other common shutdown and boot issues is James A. Eshelman's "WINDOWS SHUTDOWN & RESTART CENTER" at http://www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm WIN 98SE shutdown A search for "vxd fix" will turn up any number of possible download sites. Here's one: ftp://ftp.fluidlight.com/pub/nospin_files/VXD_FIX.zip. Remember, this is for Win 98 and 98SE only. Articles that contain both "98" and "shutdown:" http://langa.com/u/3t.htm SHUTDOWN There's lots of shutdown-problem help available: Win98: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+98+shutdown WinME: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+me+millennium+shutdown Win2K: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+2000+2k+shutdown XP: http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+xp+shutdown Linux: http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+shutdown+problem+hang IE 5.5 Dwnld http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit/5.5 http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie/32bit/5.5/ie55.exe DOS USB SUPPORT There are some DOS-level drivers available for more or less generic USB devices: http://www.google.com/search?q=dos+usb+driver But to use them, you may have to create your own custom restore environment in which to use Ghost and similar tools (eg a DOS boot disk or CD, with the USB drivers on it). DEFAULT FILE LOC My friend is having to reinstall all his software and possibly lose data in 'My Documents' etc. Therein lies most user's problems, they use the Windows default folders to save their files. Upon reinstall the My Documents folder gets replaced. Save all data automatically to a flash, zip or 1.44 disk, or at least your D: drive, but not o C: and keep all your data under one sub dir for quick copy or a move. Other tools and techniques that can help change the default folders used by Windows, too. See, for example http://www.google.com/search?q=change+default+folder+windows WipeOut XP If you end up fdisking and your hard drive is greater than 64 gigs, get the new fdisk program at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263044 And while you are at it, get version 2 of the Windows Installer program at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=32831 It's the program that is used to install all the various programs you put on the hard drive. FILE SPLITTER a useful FREEWARE tool that could be of use to your members, it is called GSplit. The download file is 1273KB in size. http://www.gdgsoft.com/gsplit/ http://www.schmeusser.siw.de/software/chainsaw.html AV SPAZ There are two little nasties floating around the web with "spazbox" as part of their name. They started turning up a couple weeks ago. It's still early in the game, but these sites seem to be on to a fix: http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=43861 (scroll down to the post from "sebsal") http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/forum/search.php?searchid=4489 LL WIN 98 UPDATE One tool that also can help in Win98 is SFC, the "system file checker." If you make an SFC snapshot of your system when it's freshly installed, and regularly re-run SFC as you apply patches, it can help to detect version conflicts and unintentional rollbacks of important files. See http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=sfc&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 and http://www.google.com/search?q=sfc+98 for more info. With Windows 98 you can do a "scanreg /restore" LL CREATE WIN LOAD CD http://unattended.msfn.org/ Slipstreaming, sort of. Windows98: http://www.google.com/search?q=Task+Scheduler+win98 FILE TYPE You can find out what software you need to handle just about any type of file at a number of web sites, including this one: http://filext.com LL SWF SWF is a kind of "Flash" file--- a multimedia animation; and specifically, one created by and for Macromedia's "Shockwave" software. You need a "Flash Player" such as this: http://snipurl.com/88j3 Usually, not worth the risk of playing it. LL FORWARDING email MSGS WITH PICS OR ATTACHMENTS Don't do it. Avoid sending Attachments period, if possible. Normally, when, say, Ralph sends you a pic in a msg and that pic is in his MyPics dir you will see it, but if you just send it out again as forwarding, then the msg comes from your machine where it, the pic, is not stored and although you will see it as it goes out, the next person you send it to will just see the place holder. You will have to save the pic from Ralph and Insert it into a new msg to send out, which will also allow for AV chking. You can right clik on all pics in a msg to you to SaveAs. Where you and 40% of users get into trouble is just forwarding a msg with attachments and embedded pics with out further work - this leaves us open to bugs, not to mention Steganography. It is possible that the person you send an attachment to has their OE attachment file Restrictions set too high to receive the attached file, or their AV Properties are set too high to receive it and the attached file will arrive 'greyed' out. Then they will have to reset their AV properties to receive that attachment. What has to be done is to create a new msg and then attach or Insert pic into that msg and then distribute it. But, that is more work and many people just forward the 'cute' msg and get us all in trouble. The place holders come into play when just forwarding them as they are not where they orig pics were when the orig msg was created. The only time you would ever use Forward As Attachment would be when sending in a whole msg to an organization as spam or worse. It preserves the Header info they need to track down the miscreant. You can also, and should, get the Header info yourself by right cliking on the offending msg, select Properties and Select, Copy the Header info and Paste it at the head of the offending msg to be sent to the org. DIG IMAGES Picasa and this digital image organizer edit program is now free and available from http://www.picasa.com/ . Picasa lets you: Auto-transfer photos from your digital camera. Organize and find pictures in seconds. Edit, print, and share photos with ease. Create slideshows, order prints and more. Worth a look, if you're a digital camera user. WIN 98 System Setup Secrets (Win9x) http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17500413 Ten Ways to Make Windows 98 Run Better http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=12803660 NO FLOPPY 1) If any of your systems has a cd burner, you can use it to make boot cds that will function in that system and in other burner-less systems, as long as they have a cd drive and the ability (in the BIOS) to boot from a cd. In bulk, blank cds cost about 20 cents each, which can be less than the cost of floppy disks! For full info, see http://www.google.com/search?q=create+burn+bootable+cd 2) If your system(s) allow(s) it, use a bootable USB pen drive. These can work almost *exactly* like floppy drives, if you set them up that way. See http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22100588 and http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=28700158 3) Open the desktop system and see if there's really no place for a floppy; there usually is, even if there's no obvious space visible from the outside. (You may have to remove a plastic snap-out panel to gain access to the floppy bay.) If the system turns out to be able to accept a drive, they're very cheap; you can find them for $10 or less! A classic internal floppy will take 10 minutes of simple screwdriver work to set up (see http://www.ehow.com/how_8224_install-internal-floppy.html ), but will avoid some of the configuration problems that external floppies can have. Although the floppy drive won't help with the laptops, it'll be a convenience for sure on the desktop system. OE INBOX right clik on the header in the top left pane to get options. Clik on Columns. you can get rid of any of them or re-order them. be sure to clik on Descending order of msgs coming in. AVG AV Free anti virus program out there namely Avast Home Edition and it can be downloaded from http://www.avast.com/ New Generation of AVG Free Edition to Replace Current 6.0 Free Edition: GRISOFT is pleased to announce that the next generation of AVG Free will be available soon!... AVG Anti-Virus 6.0 FREE Edition will be discontinued on December 31, 2004, and virus database and program updates for this edition will no longer be available...[more info: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/5443/lng/us/tpl/v5 ] XP Win98 is a single-user system; its Cookies could be kept in a single location. XP is, at its core, a multi-user system. Even when it's used by one person, it's still set up internally to allow for multiple users; or multiple accounts for the same user. On your XP you set up at least two accounts, even if you're the only user. One account should have full admin privileges, and the other should have much more constrained settings. You "live" mostly in the second account so that if that account gets hacked, infected, or otherwise compromised, the risk to the system as a whole is reduced. You then use the Admin account to do cleanup and system- wide maintenance. Some tools, such as the free Belarc Advisor( http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html ), may also be able to display product keys for you, if the previous system is still bootable. SEARCH Google plans to almost double their Search capability after MSN opened their new Search Engine on 11-11-04, search.msn.com CLEAN UP In addition to the usual suspects when cleaning up your computer like \Win\Temp, \Win\Cookies, C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5, and \Win\TIF, also clean out C:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs end Tips 61 Tips 62 HOSTING free tutorials for people just getting into web hosting), check it out: http://www.trkhosting.com/ . FILES http://www.openetwork.com/delta.html File Compare and others. OLDER VERSIONS http://www.oldversion.com/ It's a site that houses a free library of the older, simpler, smaller, less-aggressive versions of many popular programs, letting you grab and install the version of your choice. IE 5.5 Dwnld http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit/5.5 http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie/32bit/5.5/ie55.exe ATTACH *When you forward a normal text msg, don't Forward As Attachment, just Forward it. *When you forward a msg that has a short text msg attached, Don't. Copy the text and Paste it into an outgoing msg. *When you forward a msg that has an attachment that is a big formatted file, images, or video, etc., Don't. Save the big file using SaveAs and create a new msg and attach your Saved file to it otherwise it will arrive dangerously and as an .eml attachment which could hide an executable. Delete any msg that has an .eml file attached to it, unread. *When you want to send an Image, you don't necessarily have to send it as an attachment; you can send it Inserted into the msg body. Try to avoid sending attachments. *When you do send Images, reduce the physical (crop & resize) and file (compress) size of each image using Photo Apps. JPG format lends itself to this best. I use Image Composer and PhotoShop. For email and web sites, the image size should be around 250 x 350 pixels and 35 KB. Don't send a file attached bigger than 80 KB to a user that has a phone modem without notification. Even DSL can't handle over 500KB well, ask first. There is an industry limit for attachments of 5 mb. HARDWARE Tom's Hardware Guide (a GREAT technical resource) http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html BACKUP Disk Imaging done by BootIt is rec by Langa List, LL http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-07-03.htm MSOFT AV "Microsoft AntiSpyware," which is now available for free download. It runs on XP, Win2K, and Server2003, and actually seems pretty good. When you install the beta, a sniffer app checks to see if you have a legit copy of your OS, and refuses to install on pirated copies. RAM Which ram do your computer need? http://www.crucial.com/promo/index.asp?prog=dtlpbanr&AID=5033221&PID=820469 CLEAN UP Microsoft's free "Windows Installer CleanUp Utility," which can help unravel the problems caused by failed, broken, or aborted installations of some software: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301 . Add/Remove Pro program can be a help in removing and finding [bogus] entries in the registry. Clik on freeware from http://www.superwin.com/ DOS XP The confusion about DOS support mostly arises with ancient DOS software that directly takes over part of the PC (say, the disk drive or the video display) for itself. This kind of DOS software will never work in NT, Win2K or XP. REVIEWS S/W Top Ten http://www.toptenreviews.com/ EMAIL The bottom line is that email is now less private than ever, and is NOT a good medium for sensitive material unless you take additional precautions: Here is a fourfold solution that can help make it better: First, don't trust email much at all for initial (first contact) communication; make sure you really can get through to your recipient before you have any trust at all in email. Second, work carefully to avoid mis-addressing, accidental "reply all" emails, and other common user error. Third, don't use plain-text email for anything sensitive, private, or proprietary: Instead, either encrypt the whole email, or use the email as a "wrapper" or envelope for the real message, which you can send as an encrypted file attachment, perhaps using something like WinZip's Compress/Encrypt option. An encrypted email or attachment will keep the message contents markedly safer from all but the most sophisticated snooping. Fourth, pick your email provider (usually your ISP) with care: In the future, much of your email privacy may come to depend as much on his or her inherent ethics as on their tech skills. LL PW Password recovery/bypass/management info: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=13100343 http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-08-18.htm#1 http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-11-14.htm#5 http://www.google.com/search?q=reset+xp+password RAM TEST http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp free BIOS BEEPS Longer beeps and patterns of beeps carry different meanings, depending on the BIOS. Most of the major vendor beep codes are documented at sites like http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm and http://www.google.com/search?q=beep+codes .You usually can also find beep code information at you PC vendor's site. TCP Name: TCPNetView Description: TCPNetView was written for determining IP- addresses and MAC-addresses of computers on a Local Area Network (LAN). Homepage: http://www.eserv.ru/gorlach/netview/english.html REGMON Regmon is a Registry monitoring utility that will show you which applications are accessing your Registry, which keys they are accessing, and the Registry data that they are reading and writing http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.shtml MAC Win98 users can find it: use Start/Run "ipconfig" and "winipcfg" CUT & PASTE 2005 and it is still needed. This is the basic Windows stuff we all need left clik at the top of the msg hold it down as you go to the bottom right of the msg, release that is Select right clik in the hilited area and select Copy from the popup menu that is Copy move to the outgoing mail msg right clik in the body select Paste that is Paste this basic process is also known as Cut & Paste end Tips 62 Tips 63 DMA Here's a succinct page with info on "How To Enable Direct Memory Access (DMA) For Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows XP:" http://www.real-knowledge.com/dma.htm LL HOME NETWORK 1) Changed Cable Setup = No Connection Fred: Just started getting your "Plus" edition and it's great. I recently bought a new Vaio computer and have access to the internet using a cable modem. I decided that I would get a network card for my old PC and get a router so that I could have 2 pcs with access to the internet. My old computer has an upgrade from Windows 95 to Windows 98. I've tried numerous times to access the internet and I get nothing. I've even reformatted my harddrive and re-installed 95, did the 98 upgrade and even loaded IE 6.0 but every time I try to log into the internet I get "Nothing." Just so you know I also loaded AOL 7.0 and I am able to get into the internet under a dial up arrangement but when I try to connect using the cable modem I get absolutely nothing other than the screen message not connected to the internet. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. ---George Here's my guess as to what's going on: Your prior cable modem setup probably was configured to allow connections from your original network card, but the cable system now sees your new router and/or other new cards as unauthorized intruders. You see, every network card (or network device) in the world is assigned a supposedly-unique MAC or "media access control" number at the factory when it's built; the MAC number is burned into the firmware of the networking circuitry; a kind of permanent hardware identifier code that exists independently of whatever network the card or device is attached to. The MAC can be used as a kind of password to allow or disallow network access to any given card or device. Indeed, that's how many cable modems are setup--- they're associated with a specific network card or circuitry. The cable company checks the MAC number of any networked device requesting access to make sure it's registered to a valid, paid subscriber on the cable network. If the MAC is unrecognized, nothing happens--- no connection is allowed. So, because your setup worked before, and still works on dial-up, I'm betting your hardware's probably fine; it just needs to be allowed access to the cable system. Call the cable company and tell them what you're doing. Depending on your setup, they'll either need the MAC number of whatever device is now directly connected to the cable modem (the new router?), or the MAC numbers from all the devices you want to connect via the router. Often the MAC is printed somewhere on the device's case, or is included with the documentation; and often is printed right on network circuit boards or cards. On PCs and laptops, Win98 users can use "ipconfig" or "winipcfg" to display the MAC address. (See http://www.google.com/search?q=ipconfig and http://www.google.com/search?q=winipcfg ). NT/2K/XP users can use the simple GETMAC command or employ the free wntipcfg tool to the same effect (see http://www.google.com/search?q=getmac and http://langa.com/u/3u.htm and http://www.google.com/search?q=wntipcfg ). But confusingly, some software calls the MAC the "adapter address" and other software calls it the "hardware address," but it's not really an address in the same sense as an IP address or email address: Again, it's really a kind of hardware identifier code that exists independently of whatever network the card is attached to. Once you tell the cable company the new MAC number(s), they'll enter the MAC number(s) into their system as "allowed,", and you'll be all set. More info: http://langa.com/u/7v.htm LL UPDATES MS unleashed a raft of new security updates in the last week via Windows Update, and if you haven't yet grabbed 'em, you probably should: They seem worth having. http://www.windowsupdate.com There also have been several MS Office updates dribbled out recently. If you're using MS Office software, that separate update site is worth a look too: http://office.microsoft.com/ LL WIN98 ADD Win98's Backup Applet Hi Fred, Sorry to bother you but my version of Win98SE appears to be missing the backup function. Any idea where I can find it? Microsoft is useless! Thanks If the backup applet wasn't installed at setup (and it sounds like it wasn't in your case), go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add Remove Programs, and click the "Windows Setup" tab. Scroll down the list and click on "System Tools" and check the "Backup" box. Click OK, and feed in your original setup CD or floppies when asked; the system will then read in and install the backup tool for you. (try this method for any part of Win you left out by not using Customize Load) But note that the Win98/ME backup tool is very limited, and is not compatible with XP/2K's backup tool (that tool is actually pretty good). In contrast, the only thing that the Win98 backup tool is better than is: nothing. Lots more info on the backup tools in all versions of Windows, and a number of alternatives: http://langa.com/backups/backups.htm BTW: Win98 was supposed to go out of support a *loooong* time ago, but to their credit, Microsoft has kept much of the support alive; and will continue to do so through June 2007: You can still access Win98 online self-support via http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1139 . Microsoft is hardly a model of corporate magnanimity, but they haven't made any money on Win98 in ages, and are still providing free self- support. That's a good thing, and should help offset at least a small bit of the company's otherwise often well-deserved reputation for rapaciousness. Sometimes, Microsoft really does do the right thing. LL PDF For those who may want to write PDF files from their documents. The website is http://www.exp-systems.com, where they offer both a free program, PDF Redirect. RESTORE For windows 95, ME and 98 "scanreg/restore" is the ticket for a quick registry restoration in DOS. When things are well, copy your System.dat and User.dat and addr book to a safe place. SHARE P2P http://www.shareaza.com/ Shareaza is a peer-to-peer client for Windows that allows you to download any file-type found on several popular P2P networks. Shareaza is FREE & contains NO Spyware or third-party products. 3.15 mb HTML Editor: http://www.nvu.com/index.html free or, rough it with NotePad+ LOST FILES http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm ERASER Clik on OnDemand icon in left pane clik on mnu/Edit/Preferences for Files tab, select item 4, one pass to demo the app for Unused tab, do the same clik on mnu/File/NewTask, select C: drive repeat for D: drive and any others like Zip disks or Flash mem, or HD sub dirs. clik on task that you want to do, e.g., the D: drive and hit Cntrl R to run it, or clik on mnu/Task/Run clik on Scheduler icon in left pane to make sure you don't have a task scheduled that you didn't want, or add one. Also, mnu/Edit/Pref/Gen tab chk Explorer Context mnu. And, Sched tab, unchk Startup box Files tab clears the unused portions of the cluster tips, and Unused tab clears the unused portions of the HD, but make sure you do a defrag first, and a cookie cleaning in \Win\temp and \Win\TIFiles before defrag. end Tips 63 Tips 64 MEM LIMITS Win98 and ME has severe limits on "system resources;" a fundamental architectural limit inside those OSes as to how much they could handle at once, no matter how fast or capacious the PC itself was. ( http://langa.com/u/8k.htm ) Win2K and XP largely remove that constraint, and instead work to the limits of the hardware. LL MBR The MBR--- Master Boot Record--- is the Rosetta Stone that unlocks the contents of your hard drive: It's usually the first sector of a hard drive, and contains the "partition table" (a record of how the hard drive's files are set up, including where the operating system software is located) and the initial boot loader that the BIOS uses to launch the actual operating system. When the MBR is messed up, your PC isn't going to do much: Recreate the "Master Boot Record" on the boot drive for Win2K http://langa.com/u/8h.htm . You used to be able to fix that with "fdisk /mbr" but no, not in Win2K. There you have to use the command "fixmbr", while booted into the "Recovery Console" from the installation CD. [note: XP works the same way] Once you know about them, the FIXMBR trick for XP and Win2k ( http://langa.com/u/8i.htm ) and FDISK /MBR for Win9x ( http://langa.com/u/8j.htm ) aren't too hard to use, but as you discovered, the time to learn about them is before you're neck-deep in a crisis. If you want, there also are tools you can use to preserve a copy of the MBR. For example, see "MBRtool" http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/mbrtool.htm . MBRtool is not an automatic recovery program but will allow users to prevent dataloss (due to MBR corruption) by backing up the MBR, and offers power users all the power they'll ever need to 'mess' with their MBR. MBRtool is freeware. Or, there's a more powerful commercial version called "DiskPatch" http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskPatch.htm : Did you lose access to your partitions or volumes due to master boot record (MBR) or partition table corruption? ... You can probably fix it yourself by using DiskPatch! DiskPatch automatically repairs damaged, corrupt or missing partition tables and boot sectors... Lots more options, too: http://www.google.com/search?q=save+mbr LL ENCRYPT There's a ton of free encryption tools available, Peter, such as "Iron Key" http://www.bestcrypto.com/products/ikey/index.php and these: http://www.google.com/search?q=free+encryption I've actually switched to the high-security 256-bit AES encryption built into WinZip ($29; http://www.winzip.com/ ): It lets me compress and encrypt files at the same time. I don't often need to share encrypted files, so that hasn't been a dominant factor for me; but WinZip does allow the creation of self-extracting Zip files with the lightweight Zip2.0 encryption; so the recipient only needs to know the password to have access to the compressed/encrypted file. Classic Zip2.0 encryption is low-security, but it's almost universally supported by compression tools. Depending on what you're trying to protect, it may (or may not) be enough. PGP? LL FLASH USB Q Seeks Universal USB Flash Drivers. Is there a way to get windows 98 to recognize any USB FLASH DRIVE, without having to load each individual driver for each manufacturer? A There are some fairly generic drivers that work across many brands, but I'm not aware of any driver that's 100% universal--- one that always works in every case with every PC, OS and flash drive. There are just too many variables in the mix! Still, it shouldn't hurt anything to try one of the more-or-less universal drivers: It'll either work or it won't. You can get started with the section on generic dos drivers here: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021003S0007 LL FIX IT Win98: Boot to DOS. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22boot+to+dos%22+98 WinME: Boot to DOS (yes, it can be done). http://www.google.com/search?q=%22boot+to+dos%22+millennium Win2K and XP: Boot to the Recovery Console. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22recovery+console%22+xp+2000+2k See also: "Forced Unlock/Deletions" http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-06-03.htm#7 Boot CDs: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10818064 Boot Floppies: http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=%22boot+floppy%22&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 MEMORY HOGS A program Memload (2.0, july 2001) written by Johan Samuelson. It lists the memory usage for every main process in the order of how demanding they are. Memload is a great little tool in order to quickly find out the memory hogs amongst the programs. Unfortunately Memload only works under Win95/98 and is no longer supported by the author, although it can still be downloaded from Tucows. The program is very small and doesn't require any installation, just unzip and start using it. XP? Ans: Windows XP/2K: It's called Task Manager. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del; Task Manager will pop up. Select the Processes tab, and there's the info you want--- processes, who's running them, CPU time, and memory consumed. Each column is sortable (ascending or descending; your choice) by clicking on the heading. I usually leave mine sorted so the most CPU-intensive apps are at the top of the list, but you can sort by memory use, if that's your preference. CLEAN UP ORDER Once a week Debug is a wise thing to do, but ... You should do ScanDisk (ChkDsk) first, but You should run all of your AV utils first, but You should get rid of stuff that you don't need and that you know AV will not like by running Karen's Cookie Viewer first, and get rid of the obvious bad guys, then Get into Explorer and go to your \Win\Temp dir and get rid of what isn't needed anymore, and Go to your \Win\TIF\Contents subdir and C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 Click on Contents.IEx sub dir. Select all files, then clik on Del btn while holding down the Shift key. You will be prompted to Delete all cookies? click No, as some cookies are needed. Wait for the action to take place. The cookies will remain hilited, hold down the Cntrl key and click on the cookies that you want to save, this deselects them. hold down Shift key and hit Del btn and say Yes to delete the remaining bad cookies. This process deletes the same bad cookies in the dirs above and below this selected sub dir. Deleting unnecessary files will not only get rid of possible virus laden files, but will also make the AV chk run faster on less files to chk. Also, before running chks, see if an update is available for AVG, Ad-Aware, Stinger, etc. Now go back up this list order and execute. AV Sygate: http://www.sygate.com/ Zone Alarm: http://www.zonealarm.com/ Symantec/Norton: http://www.norton.com/ NOD32: http://www.nod32.com/home/home.htm AVG: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php MS Antispyware: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx SpywareBlaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html StartUpMonitor: http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml WinPatrol: http://www.winpatrol.com/ AdAware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Spybot S&D: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html TOOLS Spinrite, from http://grc.com , focused on preventing fatal hard disk data errors in the first place; and possibly recovering from them after they occur. SpinRite uses some diagnostics and data-recovery methods that are second only to the kind of industrial-grade tools used by drive makers and data- recovery specialists. Powerful tool like BootIt http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/ that works for almost all operating systems and can partition and format in one operation. Imaging tool, Terabyte Unlimited's "BootIt" ( http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html ) normally produces a monolithic .IMG file that contains a compressed, bit-for-bit clone of your hard drive. But Terabyte also offers a free "TBIView" tool ( http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html ) that lets you browse inside an IMG file and extract only whatever files or folders you want, without restoring the entire image. REDIRECTION Place the new address after the sequence "url?q=", and Google will quietly redirect your web browser to that new site. http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.xxxeee.com URL Discombobulator - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptlookup.asp Unravels nefarious URLs for Search http://www.google.com/search?q=unformat+free end Tips 64 Tips 65 AV Turn OFF the email scan in Avast or AVG! You don't need it and it interferes with normal operation. This advice from me and Certified MSoft experts on the OE newsgroups. It isn't worth the hassle. START OVER When you are having trouble with an account email or newgroups in OE, just Remove that account and re-Create the same account. If Windows is acting strangely, just reboot. If it continues to act up and it has been over a year since your last clean reload, save all your files and do it right with a clean reload. STARTUP When you press the power switch of your binary buddy, a small program stored in a permanent circuit called the "Boot ROM" runs automatically. This software performs a few very important tasks. First, it tests the most important computer hardware -- the CPU (Central Processing Unit), memory and keyboard -- making sure they're up to the job ahead. This process is called the "Power-On Self Test", or POST. Next, it detects more of your computer's hardware, discovering and identifying your disk drives, video circuits, ports (serial, parallel, USB and Firewire), adapter cards, and more. Finally, the Boot ROM program copies the first 512 bytes of your hard disk (called the "Master Boot Record", or MBR) to your computer's memory. It then turns control of your computer over to a small program found in the MBR. The MBR's program now searches the root directory of your hard disk, looking for another program to load and run. If you're running Windows 95, 98, 98 SE or Me, that next program is stored in two files named IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. Computers running Windows NT, 2000, XP or Server 2003 have files named IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS too. But if you look closely, you'll see those files are empty. Each is zero bytes long! On these computers the next program is stored in under a different location, in a file named NTLDR (NT Loader). Whatever the name, the program run by the MBR does the same job. First, it performs a more complete analysis of your computer's hardware. It then locates, and copies into memory, any special software (called "device drivers") needed to let that hardware go to work. Finally, it loads a portion of Windows itself. This first bit of Windows loads the rest, performs any tasks left over from the last time Windows shutdown (such as the completion of program installations), asks you to log in, and recalls your desktop and other Windows settings. Windows now searches a special place on our hard disks, known as the Startup folder. The exact full name and location of this folder varies, depending on the version of Windows we're running, and the login name of the computer's current user. But you can always view this folder's contents by selecting Programs, then Startup, after clicking Windows' Start button. Your Startup folder may be empty. But most contain a few shortcuts, or links, to programs installed on my computer. Folders containing shortcuts aren't unusual. But there's something very special about these links. All entries in the Startup folder are launched automatically, right after Windows starts! Some of these programs run quietly, staying in the background, working without displaying any outward signs. Others show a small icon in the Windows system tray (that area in the lower-right corner of our computer screens), and wait patiently for us to tell them what to do. And a few make a showy splash, displaying a conspicuous banner or initial window. That's because there are no restrictions on the type of programs that can be linked to our Startup folder. Any icon placed there will be run, just as if we double-clicked the icon right after Windows starts. But instead of trusting our fallible memories and fingers, Windows does the "double-clicking" for us. Most entries in a Startup folder are placed there by installation programs, ensuring their programs run whenever Windows is running. But you and I can place shortcuts there too. The process sounds complicated, but it's really easy. First, locate the icon you click to manually run the program. Now press your mouse's right button while the mouse pointer is hovering over that icon or Start menu entry. Now, while holding the mouse button down, drag the icon over the Start button. A moment later, Windows' Start menu will appear. Now move the pointer over the menu entry reading "Programs". When the Programs menu appears, move the pointer again, to the "Startup" folder's entry. Finally, when the Startup folder's contents are displayed, move the pointer into that sub-menu and release your mouse button. If you've been dragging the icon of a program or data file, choose "Create Shortcut Here". If you've been dragging a shortcut icon all this distance, select "Copy Here". That's all there is to it. The next time Windows starts, your newly created shortcut will start too. The program you've selected will run, or the document you've selected will open! KK VB Visual Basic, the most popular programming language in the history of the world, is no longer supported. Microsoft has decided that time is at hand. They are currently hard at work developing a radical new version of Windows that will probably be released sometime late next year, 2006. Microsoft's decision has been made. Back in 2001 Microsoft released their ".NET Initiative". It includes a redesigned Visual Basic programming language (now called VB.NET), a brand new language (C#, pronounced "See Sharp"), and more. Karen BOOKS The existence of http://www.gutenberg.org/ and numerous improved text readers, I could actually "read" whilst traveling. To this end I generate MP3 files (32Khz, mono) from books I get off www.gutenberg.org Gutenberg.org is pretty cool--- over 15,000 e-versions of literary classics and other works, all in the public domain, converted to electronic format by volunteers! LL DVD PLAY Check out the free "VideoLAN" software. It's actually meant as a way to distribute video across a LAN, but it also can serve as a pretty good standalone movie player. I've even used it to resuscitate a DVD drive for which I had no playback software or codecs at all: VideoLan let it work perfectly! See: http://www.videolan.org/ LL WEB REQUEST If browsers spoke English, you'd hear your browser say something like this to a server every time you click a link or encounter an automatically executing link: Please send me [name of page or file or picture or music, etc.] plus any additional graphics, music, or files embedded in that object. Send it to me at [your ip address goes here]. If the information I want exists in different formats for different browsers and operating systems, please respond with the format that's best for [name of your browser and operating system goes here]. The remote server logs the request, and sends the file/picture/music/whatever to the designated address, in the requested format (if multiple formats are available or required); and the transaction is done. LL KB891711 The file KB891711.exe file is found on Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Millenium operating systems. Its a Windows security update file protecting against a "Vulnerability in cursor and icon format handling could allow remote code execution". With the April 12, 2005 release of the file it runs as a service from the following registry entry: Sat Maps "TerraServer" http://www.terraserver.com/ offers a free limited "view from above" service for many places. Google Maps at http://maps.google.com that lets you view satellite imagery of sites you search out on the site. SCAN Win98 scandisk/defrag issues. See: http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-11-22.htm#9 http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-09-05.htm#3 http://www.google.com/search?q=can't+scandisk http://www.google.com/search?q=can't+defrag ADDR BK You can not only save your addr bk file but, you can save all your msgs received, too. C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{ED642500-A640-11D7-A618- A5CA55B8907C}\Microsoft\Outlook Express yours will have diff numbers The Windows Address Book (WAB) http://www.insideoe.com/files/wab.htm PNG The "portable network graphic," is the nonproprietary filetype developed to replace the GIF ("graphics interchange format") file type, after AOL/Compuserve asserted ownership of the latter and threatened to start charging a license fee to people who distributed graphics as GIFs. Because of this, GIF use is on the wane; PNGs and other nonproprietary formats are now preferred. For Win 98: Internet Explorer doesn't display PNG images. For Windows, by far the simplest approach is to use regsvr32 to re-register IE's internal PNG support. Start -> Run... -> regsvr32 c:\windows\system\pngfilt.dll (and click OK) This re-registers the primary png viewer for IE. end tips 65 Tips 66 Sounds Sometimes, the Alarm like sound that an Util uses, such as Ad-aware's alert.wav, is way to alarming, so i copy Chimes.wav from \Win\Media dir to the \Adaware dir and copy the Alert.wav to \Win\Media dir. then i rename Alert.wav to Alert2.wav and rename Chimes.wav to alert.wav ADDR BK C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book SAVE the files. C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\xxx your dbx files loc C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{ED642500-A640-11D7-A618- 495XXX04950394C}\Microsoft\Outlook Express other email files KAREN'S DISCOMBOBULATOR Find out about any URL. This util also has a list of all country abbreviations. URL Discombobulator - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptlookup.asp USB BOOT The article "Solving USB Boot Problems" includes step by step instructions, plus screen shots and links to free downloads that may help you get a USB drive to boot: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=28700158 "The USB Drive Revolution" also contains additional information that may help: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22100588 Still More Info: http://www.google.com/search?as_q=usb+boot&as_sitesearch=langa.com http://www.google.com/search?q=usb+boot LL Old Time Radio Free OTR and Old Time Radio Show Downloads.Thousands of free categorized old time radio show downloads. Thousands of old time radio show downloads can be found here. Visit this site now for thousands ... www.related-pages.com/oldtimeradio/default2.htm NEXT GENERATION Good reading: ipv6 uninstall" aaaa nxdomain http://www.ipv6.org/ http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3316 http://www.google.com/search?q=ipv6 LL ZIP CRAP Iomega, they also offer a data-recovery tool that might--- might--- be able to help you out: http://www.iomegadatarecovery.com/zip- data-recovery.html And, http://www.google.com/search?q=recover+files+zip+disk. they do not respect the spokesman for saying that they will repair all zip drives for free that developed the Clik of Death. They have been largely superseded nowadays by cheaper, larger, more reliable media such as CDRs, CDRWs, and USB flash drives. Karen's Cookie new version: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptcookie.asp IT NO WORK win 98 SE MAPS http://maps.google.com/ http://www.mapquest.com/ Microsoft's Terraserver (http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-04-11.htm#7 ), Microsoft is preparing MSN Virtual Earth for launch this month at: http://www.virtualearth.com/ WIN RELOAD, SORT OF A clean re-install without losing too much can be done this way, http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/clean.html as all data outside the Windows Folder and Program files folder will still be there so back up anything that wants saving to a Self made folder not in either of these STEG/CODE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message. MUSIC DWNLDS Free, LimeWire http://www.limewire.com/english/content/download.shtml http://www.limewire.com/english/content/downloadfree.shtml v4.9 SUSPECT EMAIL Either delete it before Previewing it, or check its Properties, e.g. Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 11:38:40 +0000 (GMT) X-Comment: Sending client does not conform to RFC822 minimum requirements Received: from settecltd.com (unknown[196.204.142.37](misconfigured sender)) X-Comment: Date has been added by Maillennium Received: from 216.148.227.126 (unknown[222.237.25.9](misconfigured sender)) by rwcrmxc16.comcast.net (rwcrmxc16) with SMTP id <20050715113729r1600rva2qe>; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 11:38:39 +0000 X-Originating-IP: [222.237.25.9] Received: from PRWUCqdav.com (EHLO alacb-a.cosine.QF.zcf.net) lizard by mail.mtk.nao.ac.jp (5.9[2 this email has to be Deleted fast. do not even look at it. USB FLASH DRIVER 98 http://www.usb98driver.com/ HD JUMPERS HD jumper settings: http://www.ontrack.com/jumperviewer/index.asp IPOD There is a website which offers an array of very useful iPod utilities for free or very inexpensive. It's called iPodSoft ( http://www.ipodsoft.com/ ). one of the most useful utilities I personally use is Pod Player. LL BHO a nifty little free tool called Browser Helper Object Demon http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm . This program can list all of your BHOs and give you its take on whether they are to be considered dangerous or not, and you can disable any that you do not need. A Browser Helper Object, or BHO, is a small program that runs automatically when you start your Internet browser, and is designed to add to, extend or enhance your browser's functions and features. Sometimes, those functions and features are truly helpful. But BHOs can be malicious; lots of malware and adware gets installed that way. BHO's with SysInternal's Process Explorer ( http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html ). you can just display BHO's with SysInternal's Process Explorer ( http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html ). LL UNDELETE Restoration. 192 kb Rest2514.exe get it. Spyware Look in your Startup dir for tgcmd.exe. get rid of it. TGCMD.EXE is spyware originally created by Tioga/Support.com. If you're an @Home subscriber, this was probably installed with your Comcast @home software. If you own a Sony Vaio system, it was probably factory installed along with the Sony Support software. This program collects data on the programs that you use and websites you browse. It is unclear if anything is being done with the data. This program and the companion file TGKILL.EXE can be safely uninstalled from the Start menu > Settings > Control Panel > Add/remove programs. Remove either "Comcast Support Software" or "Sony Vaio Support" depending upon which appears. AV An alternative to Avast, where you have to register, is ClamAV, www.clamav.net or www.clamwin.com. Look for v 1.0. you can test your firewall's ability to prevent common "phone home" attacks--- the insidious "attack from within" used by some malware--- with the free "Leaktest" ( http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm ). The other free tools at http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm also are useful at identifying--- and closing--- some other common attack vectors. BroadbandReport's fast, free "Port Scan" at http://www.broadbandreports.com/tools and its slower, much more thorough "Slow Scan" http://www.broadbandreports.com/secureme can also help exercise your defenses in a controlled way, probing for weaknesses. There are many, many other testing sites available, too, and you'll find quite a list in "The Best PC Help, Reference, And Test Sites" ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010916S0021 ). That article is a few years old, but most of the information and links are still fine. A firewall ( Sygate: http://www.sygate.com , Zone Alarm: http://www.zonealarm.com/ , etc.); antivirus (Symantec/Norton: http://www.norton.com/ , NOD32: http://www.nod32.com/home/home.htm , AVG: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php ); antimalware ( MS Antispyware: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx , SpywareBlaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html , StartUpMonitor: http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml , WinPatrol: http://www.winpatrol.com/ , AdAware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ , Spybot S&D: http://www.safer- networking.org/en/index.html LL OE An alternative to OE is Mozilla Thunderbird, www.mozilla.org E or IE When there is a problem with one of these, run IE Repair Tool from MSoft Sys Info. Start/Programs/Accessories/SysTools/SysInfo/mnuTools clik on IE Repair tool, yes, even though the problem is in Explr i've done this before Start/Programs/Accessories/SysTools/SysInfo/mnuTools Tweak UI v1.33 Free yourself from the tyranny of ordinary Windows with this extra set of tools (also called PowerToys) created by Microsoft developers. Adjust menu speed and window animation. Move the StartUp folder up the Explorer hierarchy, or move the My Documents folder to another drive. If you get the "No Help topic is associated with this item" message when you access the help menu, Tweak UI may have answers. The tool set also offers quick fixes for adding and removing items to your right-click New menu. And you may get a second chance at recovering lost uninstall options (but only if you've installed the program while the original uninstall list in Control Panel is intact). dble clik on dwnld file it will expand in \win\temp in that dir, right clik on the .inf file and clik on Install Tweak is now in the control panel clik there and clik on Repair tab run them all go thru all repair options except Associations WIN FILE CORRUPT The power of one util: SFC. Periodically run C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\sfc.exe Scan for Altered files. The other option is to specifically reload one file that you know the name of out of those 95 CAB files on your Win CD. CALC http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp Get her Calculator if you are tired of small print on small keys. Be sure to dwnld the VB file if you haven't already got it to run any VB util. WIN 98 In Win98, the OS should be more or less completely contained in the C:\Program Files and C:\Windows folders, with a few boot files in the C:\ folder as well. In fact, a trick from long ago to perform a total reinstall of Windows98 without reformatting the hard drive was to boot to DOS and "deltree" the C:\Program Files and C:\Windows folders and subfolders. This would strip out the OS, but leave all the user files intact. (You can see this process spelled out in an ancient column from 1997: http://www.winmag.com/library/1997/0301/analy026.htm ) LL CLEAN RELOAD Even when everything works right with System Restore, it cannot and will not clean up left-behind files, excess registry entries, or myriad other issues. It does not and cannot restore your entire system to its previous state--- it just rolls back certain, select (and essential) system files to try to get you going again, in the event of major system trouble. System Restore is not, repeat not, a backup. SR also is a space hog; its files can eat up a ton of disk real estate, consuming at a rock-bottom minimum at least 200MB when it's in use, and often much more. You can run into problems if a new "Restore Point" won't fit the allotted space, or if an older RP is incomplete, corrupted, or won't delete. You can help control your Restore Points, and that may improve the reliability of System Restore. Lots more info: http://langa.com/u/9s.htm and http://langa.com/u/9r.htm But it's still just an emergency tool, and is not a substitute for a full backup. In fact, GoBack--- another kind of system-recovery tool--- is much the same. It's more powerful and flexible than System Restore, but it too is no substitute for a full backup. Even GoBack's documentation says that: It's designed to be used to supplement full, normal backups; not to replace them. LL FREE Gibson's "Shoot the Messenger XP," "DCOMbobulator" 98 and "UnPlug N Pray" XP - Me (all available, free, from http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm ) 1.44s Sony, the inventor of the 3.5" floppy, has announced it will no longer make them. LAPTOP CLEAN UP One that's a little harder to implement, but that will work on virtually any system from any vendor; and the other that's easier, but that will work only on systems with a CD or DVD writer built in--- in a new how-to column, available now (and free, as always) at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163105444 . With that info, you can get a fresh, clean setup containing only the software you want, and only in the way that you want it; and with the full, rated capacity of your hard drive available to you. LIGHTENING Unplug your power strip and modem from the wall outlet. It isn't enough to just turn the computer OFF. HDTV http://www.avsforum.com/hdtvfaq/HDTV-FAQ.htm http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/campaign/dtvguide/index.jsp http://www.comcast.com/UserIncludes/HDTV/ http://www.hdtvforum.com alt.tv.tech.hdtv end Tips 66 Tips 67 XP CD Making a stripped down XP install disk for better performance. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=51202853 Web Page Editor, free home page http://www.nvu.com/index.html Nvu is positioning itself as a free, open-source alternative to FrontPage in much the same way that "Writer" (the free word processor from http://OpenOffice.Org ) is an alternative for Microsoft Word. LL FIREWALL ZoneAlarm 6 info: It's all available now, free, at http://www.informationweek.com/1052/langa.htm . 9 mb or, basic firewall like this http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/ or this https://jimweller.net/jims/lfw/ ; these firewalls fit in their entirety on a single floppy disk. They don't do nearly as much as ZoneAlarm (and in fact take an entirely different tack), but do serve to illustrate how far beyond basic firewall functions ZA has grown. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=173402915 LL HDTV http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdtv6.htm PLAYER If you can't play a song by dble cliking on it, you have a computer problem, or you have your file assoc mixed up. C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player mplayer2.exe is what you want. in Explorer/mnu/Tools/FolderOptions/FileType tab clik on mp3 and see which player is assoc with it. ERASER When you are going to use Eraser, get all the little stuff done before you start it. Once it is started, don't do anything else; just let Eraser run. When Eraser is installed it will show up in your popup menues to allow Move, Delete using Eraser and of course it can be run on its own to clean up your harddrives. RECENT HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentFileList HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\PowerPoint\Recent File List HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Wordpad\Rece nt File List HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\FrontPage\Editor\Insert Hyperlink\Recently Used URLs HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\FrontPage\Explorer\FrontPage Explorer\Recent File List HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\FrontPage\Explorer\FrontPage Explorer\Recent Page List HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\FrontPage\Explorer\FrontPage Explorer\Recent Web List ROOTKITS something else AV to worry about. A very good Root Kit scanner and removal tool you might like to try. It will be FREE until October 1, 2005. http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/ a beta, but seemingly stable. Did you know that it is possible to hide spyware or a virus in a way that will fool even the traditional antivirus products? Some spyware programs are already using so-called rootkits to hide deep in the system. And, virus authors are joining in. SPEED http://PCpitstop.Com to test your machine's performance and compare it to others in the same class. EARTH You've heard about Google Earth, now, brand new, is Google Moon. Just go to http://moon.google.com/ and be sure to explore the site. The close-in definition is stunning see also, http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ RIP MP3s http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=166401664 . XP TIPS http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm end tips 67 Tips 68 HD PROBLEM If you're running Win9x, reboot and start DOS (the "Command Only" option off the Win9x start menu), and run SCANDISK C: /SURFACE for a thorough repair/recovery scan. If that doesn't find and fix the problem, try FDISK /MBR for a nondestructive refresh of the master boot record ( http://tinyurl.com/o5883 ) MIRROR "data mirroring," and there's lots of software that can help: http://www.google.com/search?q=mirroring+software http://www.google.com/search?q=mirror+software A mirror is better than nothing, but it still doesn't substitute for backups that store the data safely offline. LL SNIFFER What's inside your machine? free "Everest Home Edition" system information tool is still available for download on many sites http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=everest+home+edition . The free Belarc Advisor PC audit tool also can help: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html . LL BATTERIES http://www.batteryuniversity.com/ AV PopUpStopper Free Version 3.1.14 Rename old dwnld file. Hold down Shift Key when Download Now btn hit. Run executable. http://www.download.com/Pop-Up-Stopper-Free-Edition/3000-7786- 10048866.html?part=dl-PopUpStop&subj=dl&tag=button VIDEO MPG format is played by all viewers, MS takes charge on WMV, AVI is another bucket of worms, i avoid SWF files, MOV: who cares as well as Apple's QuickTime. If you want to join short MPEG, MPG files into one larger file you will need a MPG Joiner. All other comments also apply to MPG format. If you want to just take one good section out of a large file or divide a large file into many equal smaller files then you need a Splitter util and i recommend www.DoEasier.org/ Easy Video Splitter. If you want to convert files of one format to another then you need a converter. If you want to add sound to your video then you need an audio adder. TCP SPEED TCPOptimizer available free at http://www.speedguide.net/ See also DrTCP (UN)LOCK FILES Menu gives you choice of unlock if it can or delete. Worked great! http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker for win 2000+ We've previously covered a number of such tools, including for win 95+ MoveOnBoot ( http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/moveonboot.html )LL Delete Del key, Shift+Del Key, Erase When the latter 2 do not have an effect, use the first to get the file into the Recycle bin and then later Empty Recycle Bin. Then Erase the HD. BuyOnLine http://www.tigerdirect.com SERVERS Use your old PC. In Praise Of White-Box PCs http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020214S0003 White-Box PCs Revisited http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030206S0014 LL BOOTABLE DRIVE -Besides the A: floppy, you can, on the newer machines, make a CD or USB Flash mem stick a bootable drive. This is a good thing. To see if you can do this on your machine, dble clik on the MyComputer desktop icon clik on the drive of choice to select it, and clik on mnu/File/Format to see if you can. If Format isn't available, you can't and you might chk your BIOS during bootup to see if this option hasn't been turned ON yet. -Some Linux distributions can boot from a USB thumb drive. In the normal Linux fashion, there's a HowTo: Linux bootable USB key http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Linux_bootable_USB_key_HOWTO -How to get an entire, lightweight installation of XP on a self-contained, zero- footprint, USB thumb or flash drive. It's posted now, free, at http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177102101 LL BIOS Boot up, to alter drives Hit Break key to stop boot process read what key to hit during boot up to enter BIOS, prob DEL key Hit Enter key to cont with bootup, keep pressing DEL key first BIOS page is where the floppy and HD info is up/down keys to go to floppy A and B line use PgUp/Dwn to go thru choices Esc key to Exit and Save FREE http://100-downloads.com/ BIOS The simplest automated tool I've found for making almost any USB device bootable is the free "Windows-based Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device." It actually works with a much wider range of hardware than the name implies, and can add basic DOS-bootability to many, many brands and types of USB devices. You can download the software here, http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html. The instructions are simple, and the software takes only a few moments to format a USB device and copy over the necessary DOS boot files. USB DRIVE We've discussed USB drives before in "What's Behind The USB Drive Revolution" http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22100588 . We also looked at ways to make a USB drive bootable from DOS in "Solving USB Boot Problems" http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=28700158 ROOTIT A "rootkit" is a kind of software that activates each time the system boots. Malware installed as a rootkit is hard to find and very difficult to control because it's up and running before most of the rest of the OS is ready; and certainly before the user interface is up. Rootkits can be a problem for 2K/XP and Unix-like OSes, including Linux A definition of a rootkit: "Software that hides itself or other objects, such as files, processes, and Registry keys, from view of standard diagnostic, administrative, and security software." LL DVD recommend +/-R DVD burners, dual-layer if possible; and -R media. There's actually not a lot of difference between the +R and -R media, but I've seen some tests that give a slight edge to the -R format; and there also seem to be more -R drives out there. LL SHARE PC "Create an Indestructible Shared PC": http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1892666,00.asp links to necessary additional software and full instructions, here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx The tool works on XP SP2. XP XP Home is scheduled to become unsupported at the end of this year: on Dec 31 2006. Icon Tweaker (http://www.icontweaker.com/ ). SECURITY OE - menu/Tools/Options/Security tab AV util - Check your AV settings for email and HD security IE - menu/Tools/InternetOptions/Security tab http://www.f-secure.com/download-purchase/tools.shtml http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ With the five simple steps outlined here, you can make just about any PC secure from online attacks and data theft. LL http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177100010 Except, when i do a scandisk or defrag utility i shut down OE & ScrnSvr and any open app that changes the HDs. i also Stop ZoneAlarm which should effectively stop all traffic in and out, but i noticed that the utils were starting over every few seconds even though the ZA graphic showed no action in or out. So, i also turned off the modem and then the utils proceeded without interruption. This is alarming. Why wasn't the Stop on ZoneAlarm enough to prevent the changing, esp, of C:\. This means that not only was traffic getting through, it was changing the C: drive, and possibly the D:. Try this and watch carefully. RECOVERY a program called Getdataback by Runtime Software http://www.runtime.org/ a commercial vendor that offers a free version that will at least show you if the full version will solve your problem: It eliminates the "pay and pray" method of buying software in the hopes that it might work. EMAIL for Comcast Servers in mail.comcast.net out smtp.comcast.net end Tips 68 Tips 69 RAM RAM-testing software is available, including the venerable (and still free) MemTest86: http://www.memtest86.com/. Just about every PC ever made has at least a basic RAM-testing tool built into the BIOS ( http://snipurl.com/of6i ). Microsoft Memory Diagnostic tool: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp Search: http://www.google.com/search?q=Memory+Diagnostic HOME NETWORK Use a traditional operating system that allows sharing--- say, XP with file-sharing enabled; or Linux with SAMBA ( http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+samba ) PhotoCopy i've been using Nico Cuppen's free util for scanner to printer copy, ver 2.28 and have been happy with it, std appearance, 980 kb dwnld file. i recently got his free ver 3.02 ver which has a mod, gameboy skin, but seems to be simpler to use once you get used to the appearance. www.nicocuppen.com 1 mb+ Print Dir Unless XP has something, Win doesn't do this well if at all. Karen's utils has a Print Dir util, but it will just print a long skinny col down the middle of a page if you only select 3 cols such as Name, size, date to list. So, i compressed, L to R, a normal dir listing in Explorer to less than 1/2 a page width and length for the 3 cols. Then i used Snag It to capture just what i wanted for less than 1/4 of a page area in JPG format. Did this for all the many pages of dir listing i wanted to printout. Opened up a new Word page, set the margins to 0.5" all around in Page Setup, and Inserted Picture 4 ea JPGs per page until all the dir listings were in one or more docs in the order i wanted. Word/Print: select one page at a time and you can manipulate the paper in your printer to colate or order them as you please, or just print them all on one side of the paper for a waste of paper, but ease of reading. More HDs This applies to many of us. I don't know why i didn't do it sooner, esp after my zip drive crashed freeing up one of the four HD conns. it started when i started filling up my HDs, hard drives, and reached critical pt when i uninstalled all my AV apps and utils and loaded in Comcast's free stuff from McAfee. My machine bogged down. What to do? save some data to CDRs - don't have one and that is 650 mb at a time; or get a DVDR for 4.7 GB of storage per disk. good thought, but what can i do now? every computer has at least 3 ribbon cables from the mboard to devices like CD and HDs. one is the floppy cable that can conn 2 floppy devices like your floppy 1.44 mb or the old 5.25" floppy. New computers do not even come with the 1.44 mb floppy any more. the other 2 ribbon cables are marked on the mboard Primary and Secondary. The primary cable can conn two HDs and the secondary is usually used for a zip drive, CDROM or DVD. As the floppy is outdated, so is the zip drive. These are now replaced with USB flash mem sticks 64mb to 8 gb capacity, up to $80 and very portable. The Primary cable conns the C: drive to your computer. Most of us also install a D: drive. I have a 30 gb and 40 gb HD installed, C: and D:, and i'm running out of room on them. Win uses large amounts of free space on the C: drive as a work area and it looks like i've infringed on it with data and apps. Fred has a proprietary computer that makes it difficult, if not impossible to add a D: drive and HP takes part of the C: drive for its overhead use leaving not much room on the 18 gb C: drive for Fred. What to do? Since i had taken out the zip drive and just the CDROM drive was installed on the Secondary cable and since Fred has 2 ea CDROMs installed, why not put in a 3rd (or 2nd) HD where the zip drive was conn (Fred's spare CDROM could be removed and a D: drive installed, etc. Went looking in the closet shelves for old HDs and found a 5 and a 6 gb drive. put the 6 gb in place and conn it, just laid it on some cardboard to insulate it from the metal shelf, screws in one side of drive, and laid the 5 gb on the floor of the computer for ease of conn when i got to it or filled the 6 gb drive, cardboard again, cables do hang down and it is fairly easy to swap HD in and out. Make sure you have your new HD and CDROM set right for Master/Slave, either way, but i set the HD to Secondary Master. Booted up and entered BIOS setup, by hitting the DEL key, Fred's is F10, see mboard manual for yours. i needed 2 pages of BIOS changes. the first basic page to set the new drive to LBA, large block addressing, and moved on to the IDE HDD auto detect page where i selected it and let it self detect. Save BIOS setting and exit. let it finish booting up. dble clik on the My Computer icon on your desktop and see if your HD is now listed, mine is the new E: drive. also, you can right clik on MyComp icon and select DevMgr tab, open the DiskDrive item and see that there are 2 or 3 or 4 Type 47 drives listed and your floppy. Open up Explorer to make sure you can address the new drive E: . i deleted the files i had on it, or Save them as needed, and ran Eraser on the drive to start fresh. voila ! the needed extra space. i could replace the CDROM, which i don't use very much with a 4th HD or a better CDROM, DVD or combo. you can get 250 gb HDs for $80 - 100 ea, $200 for a 400 GB drive. 4 of them for one Terabyte of HD space. Langa List newsletter did the 4 drive setup for his server. Also, you can add to this 3 HD and one CD/DVD combo by getting a HD Controller PCI card for $20 that will let you not only add 4 more HD devices, but will allow you to get past the win 98 SE HD limit of 137 GB. Battle Plan: locate your HD determine from top diagrams on it if it is set to Master or Slave take cover off of computer note ribbon cable to your C: drive - does it have two conns on it for the C: and 2nd drive? do you have space in the rack for any HD will the ribbon cable reach this space will you need pwr splitter pigtails, how many? i used sheet metal, cardboard, plastic to form a new shelf for a HD it can be suspended with string near where it must be placed or laid on an insulator and secured by any means. if this Primary cable cannot be used, then remove one CDROM or Zip drive and insert the HD there on a Secondary cable - not the best move as that HD will have to wait on any CDROM process that is 1000 times slower than a HD. know how to get into your BIOS, F10? can you get into a page in it for basic components and HD auto detect to install it if Win doesn't find it on its own. once installed, look at it in Properties and Explorer is anything on worth saving? scan disk, defrag, and erase as needed load in new stuff Ground: Any electrical continuity provided by metallic mounting hardware is incidental and nonessential. Rather, the electrical ground ("earth," in UK-English) is provided by the black wires in the 4- wire power cable. The yellow wire carries +12v, and the black wire next to it is the 12v ground. The red wire carries +5v, and the black wire next to it is the 5v ground. LL DEFRAG Defrag should be able to work with 20% HD space free, but that's getting close to the lower limit: Defrag needs *at least* 15% free to work properly. If you have large files, Defrag may not be able to shuffle things around well enough to do a good job. (See "Hidden File Foils Defrag" http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-12-08.htm#7 ) Too much on your one or two HDs? see above to install another. Make sure you are using the Win Me Defrag and not the Win 98 SE defrag MBM My current favorite alternative right now (I'm using it on a new laptop I got) is the Speedfan (donationware) at http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php . Intel offers the free "Intel Active Monitor" ( http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm ). PASSWORDS For software like that, I use Roboform's "Safenotes," which are freeform, plain-text files encrypted by and kept track of by Roboform. I'll use the Roboform password-generator to create a new password when needed, and then store it in a Safenote. I can open a Safenote via Roboform's single master password, and then leave the Safenote open on my desktop so I can copy/paste passwords as needed from the Safenote to the various dialogs. Roboform can be set up to close and lock any open Safenotes after a specified time interval, or when (say) the PC's screensaver kicks in. This way, the Safenote is open and easily accessible when needed, but can either be shut manually, or will auto-shut itself, when it's not being used. LL Other tools have similar functions. While nothing can make juggling many different passwords completely simple, they can at least help. IE HEADER Use RegEdit to change the forced header in IE at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main Window Title WIN 98 Currently run a very stable WIN98SE system that has 1 problem-over a period of time, system resources seem to slowly leak out and disappear. I use resource meter to monitor current status but it doesn't show what applications are using the resources. My question: do you know of a program that shows what programs are actually using what resources? Thanks. "Resource Leaks" are a well-known problem in Win3/9x/Me, Mark; and the cause goes all the way back to the earliest days of that line of OSes. It's a fundamental architectural limit of the software, no matter how fast or capacious a PC itself is. You could put infinite RAM (you can't, 512mb limit) in a Win98 PC, and you'd still have Resource limits. (See: "Why Are There System Resource Limits, Anyway?" http://langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-06-12.htm#3 ) BTW: Win2K and XP largely remove that constraint, and instead work to the limits of the hardware. In the older versions of Windows, a program may allocate System Resources to itself but then fail to give them back later for some reason (usually a programming error). As more and more Resources get eaten up this way, the total pool of available Resources seems to shrink over time, as if there were a leak! Eventually, you may reach a point when you try to run something that needs more Resources than are available, and the OS trips over itself. Crash! Because the leaks are hidden from the OS, there's no tool you can run inside the OS that will tell you what's leaking--- that's the whole problem. But you still can do a little sleuthing to track down and solve most leaks. In fact, we ran a whole series of articles on the topic: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200581 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200583 http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200586 http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200587 And: http://langa.com/u/8k.htm LL ***** http://www.mdgx.com/ , and 98SE2ME itself is at http://www.mdgx.com/98-5.htm#KRM9S ) Win98 was a truly great OS in its day--- I used it and loved it for years! But it and WinME (which is really just a refreshed version of Win98) have really been outpaced by hardware. For example, all Win9x-class OSes have trouble with large hard drives, large amounts of RAM, and with newer devices that may not even ship with 98-class drivers any more. Creating a Frankendows mix of ME and 98 parts may work, but I put it in the same category as overclocking a CPU: It's a fun hobby, and it may work, but it's not something you want to try on a machine you need to count on. As Axel216 even clearly states on his page (and the capitalizations are his): "WARNING: By replacing Microsoft copyrighted files you will BREAK the EULA, VOID your software warranty and FORFEIT your right to benefit from tech support (if any)! DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!" And even if it does work, you still have an OS that's mostly obsolete, and not getting any younger, so what's the long-term benefit? With official support for these OSes withering away, trying to keep those OSes alive will be like maintaining an antique car: You can do it, but it's going to take more and more time and effort. And when you're done, the vehicle still won't be one designed for today's roads or traffic.... In short, the Win9x OSes are approaching "hobbyist" status rather than "daily driver" status. And that's perfectly OK, if that's what you want. So, sure; As a hobbyist experiment, fine; have at it. But if what you're trying to do is eke more life from aging hardware, I'd suggest you look at one of the smaller Linuxes. They're happy in lower-powered, smaller, older systems, and yet are technologically up to date. And, not trivially, they're free. I think this really is one of the areas where Linux shines without peer--- in enabling the continued use of older, slower hardware. I've been having excellent results from "Puppy Linux" of late (even though I cringe every time I type the name) Its site at http://www.puppylinux.com/ describes it as "blindingly fast, incredibly powerful, amazingly tiny..." and I have to agree. It's also a cinch to get running, and has excellent hardware-detection routines. It's an awesome little distribution. So, if your goal is hobbyist fun, then by all means, hack away at your copy of Win98. But If your goal is to keep older hardware useful in today's world, then something like Puppy Linux is probably a better option. LL WIN 98 UPDATES Saving Win98 (or Other) Updates Microsoft has stepped back from the brink before, but I'm guessing that Win98's support really will run out this Spring; or at most, this Summer if the delay in Vista causes MS to grant Win98 one more reprieve. In any case, Win98's days are numbered. If you're using Win98, this will interest you: My question is about win98 updates I have given away over 250 computers in the last 3 years and hope to give away more. How can I save all those important updates to a CD before I cant get them anymore. The can seem a bit confusing because of difference between Update versions. But basically, what you're looking for is the "Windows Update Catalog." Go to the Windows Update page. *IF* you see "Administrator options" in the left Nav bar, click it. The right pane of the page will them display "Administrator options," the first being, "Update multiple operating systems...". The phrase "Windows Update Catalog" is a link--- it's normally in blue. Click the link. But here's a catch that trips up a lot of people: At this point, you're being brought to a separate page that requires a special ActiveX control to work. If you have a Script/ActiveX blocker, or some other kinds of security tools, the ActiveX control may not be able to install. Instead of getting to the Catalog, you'll get that "Administrator's Only" error page with lots of text trying to help you get things set up OK. So, before you click the "Windows Update Catalog" link, temporarily relax your browser/system security so that the necessary ActiveX control can install. You'll then see a "Checking for the latest version of the Windows Update software..." notice, followed by "Welcome to Windows Update Catalog." OR: *IF* you don't see "Administrator options" in Windows Update but instead see "Personalize Windows Update" (under "Other Options" in left nav panel), click that. You'll then see "Set options for Windows Update" Check the box for "Display the link to the Windows Update Catalog under See Also." Then click the "Save Settings" button. In the left nav panel you'll then see the "Windows Update Catalog" option appear under the "See also" heading. Click it. Either way, once you're in the Catalog area, use the "Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems" option to select and download any or all updates for any and all versions of Windows. Download these to a safe location and burn them to CD for later re-use. There's a related question that this raises: In what order should patches be applied? That's a messy one, too, but we tried to answer it here: http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-10-28.htm#3 LL end Tips 69 Tips 70 BLOGS Both blogs and RSS feeds are relatively new, simplified ways to publish and get content online. Blogs, short for weblogs (as in Web log--- a log or journal published on the Web), make it very easy for anyone who wants to publish on the Internet to do so, to offer and collect reader comments, archive content and to link to other sites. RSS--- the initials for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary, depending on whom you ask--- is a file format designed to make it easy to subscribe to and read online content. When you click on an RSS link and see code, you're looking at XML, or Extensible Markup Language, which is a language for describing and conveying data, a kind of more sophisticated version of HTML. Here's the key difference between blogs and RSS feeds: Blogs are designed to be viewed with a regular browser just like any other Web page, whereas RSS feeds usually require either a special kind of reader or a special Web site designed to display RSS feeds. One major advantage of RSS feeds is that you can subscribe to them, which means simply that you tell your RSS reader that you want every post to get a specific feed. When the publisher of that feed posts a new item, your RSS reader will fetch it for you--- no searching or browsing required. Like many sites that offer both a blog and an RSS feed, the Langa Blog and feed are identical in content. You can choose to visit the blog, or subscribe to the feed. (The Langa Blog RSS feed is an alternative to the Langa Blog itself, but neither is an alternative to the LangaList e-newsletter, itself, which is packed with items that will never be published on the Langa Blog or its RSS feed.) RSS readers come in two types: desktop applications and Web sites. Some of the more popular PC desktop applications are: FeedDemon http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx?ProdId=FeedDemon RSSBandit http://www.rssbandit.org/ Popular RSS reader sites include: Google Reader http://reader.google.com/ Rojo http://www.rojo.com/ Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com/ These are just a few of the many readers out there ( http://www.feed- readers.com/ ). To return to your question: How to subscribe? The answer is application or site-specific. So once you've selected a reader, just following the usually simple instructions for adding sites to your subscription list. VENDOR ID HKLM\System\CurrentControl\Enum\PCI question mark problem Example Key: VEN_10DE&DEV_0028&SUBSYS_006010DE&REV_15 Vendor ID is 10DE Device ID is 0028 Note the Vendor ID and Device ID and cruise on over to http://www.pcidatabase.com to solve the driver problem ADDR BOOK, OE, SAVE -The address book is designed to be shared by multiple identities within a Windows logon. Each identity has a unique GUID when is randomly generated when you create the identity. Entries in the address book are keyed to the GUID. So unless you go out of your way to make sure that the new OE identity has the same GUID as the old, the address book entries wont be found. Your best bet may be to backup and restore the OE registry settings so that things match. Backing Up, Recovering and Restoring Outlook Express versions 5 & 6 Files and Settings http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx http://www.insideoe.com/backup/index.htm Also see The Windows Address Book (WAB) http://www.insideoe.com/files/wab.htm It's possible to get to those hidden entries, export them and then import them back into the current identity. But you will lose any Groups since they don't import/export. -If there is only one user, or only a few, might be easier to Import the thing. http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm -Simply open the Address book>file>export, save it and put it on a memory stick etc, then put it on to your new PC hard drive, open the address book and choose import. BANKS http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/agencies/default.htm Federal Reserve http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/Complaints/ CODECs Only FREE Downloads: http://www.click-now.net http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/majorgeeks http://www.majorgeeks.com/ http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=886 Download latest video/audio codecs: http://www.free-codecs.com http://www.codecsdownload.com http://www.411forsex.com/help/codecs_and_tools/codecs.html AV McAfee Free Scan Stinger not updated http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/?siteID=1&resolution=800x600&rurl=vrContactOptions.asp Ooops You cliked on Delete, Cancel, Erase, etc, but you didn't mean it and you didn't lift the mse btn - stop. Move the mse pointer off of the wrong cmd to the right one and then release the left mse btn. MODEM with mult computers first make sure both computers are set up right to work on the one line individually; chk Dev Mgr to see that the right driver is installed. Then you may find that the modem will work for the old computer but not the new one. You have to either get a router or powercycle the modem each time you switch the RJ- 45 cable from the modem between the two computers. This is not good, so look into ICS for 2 or more computers to work on one line account. Do not install ICS until you know they will work, setup right, and have all the hardware connected between the two computers first. Make them both on the same workgroup name. WIN98 SE IE It does not load with IE v5.5 (v 5.0). You can dwnld the 75 mb file or you can load MSofts Picture It and IE v5.5 will load for you. ZONEALARM FOR WIN 98 se Ver 6.1 is the last one that will work with SE. I might like v5.1 better. http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/1012_zl/zlsSetup_61_744_001_en.exe WIN 98 Logon To avoid the Network prompt during bootup, clik on Start/Settings/CntrlPnl/ dble clik on Network icon. Bottom area of dialog form, Primary Network Logon, clik on down arrow to the right. Select Family or Windows Logon, not Client for MSoft Network. SO MANY THINGS One way of keeping track of what is in your computer is to change the labels on key items. MyComputer icon can be changed to 2.66 512 to signify 2.66 MHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM. Your HDs can be relabeled in MyComputer/Properties or right clik on it in Explorer change it to C_DRIVE_80 to signify 80 GB Now, with 2 computers and 3 HDs in each, you won't have to remember so much. NEW HD IN A NEW COMPUTER If the dealer doesn't give you the right s/w to fdisk and format it, leave. Otherwise, you will have to search the web for the right DOS or Win s/w. As an example go to Western Digital/Support page at wdc.com and see what they have. It gets trickier if you still want to load Win 98 SE. MRAM MRAM is faster than most other types of computer memory; Freescale's chip promises to read or write data in 35 nanoseconds. In addition, MRAM can hold data even after the computer is turned off. Proponents say it could replace both flash memory, used inside cell phones and cameras, and DRAM, employed inside computers to shuttle data to the processor. REGEDIT Internet Explorer add-in, that allows you to easily open Regedit and point it to the exact registry path, without the need to manually open Regedit.exe and begin to look for the relevant entry." http://www.petri.co.il/open_in_regedit_in_ie.htm LL HD INFO Hard drive have two main size limitations: There's a hardware and a software component. First, the BIOS has to know what to do with the hard drive. When the first PC hard drive came out, there was exactly one model: It had 312 cylinders, 4 heads and 17 sectors per track and was pre-configured to 10.9 MB (that's MB, not GB) in capacity. That was the only choice, so those specs were hard- wired into the BIOS. Later, when a few other drives came out, each was then assigned a unique identifier ("type 22," or some such). You'd enter the drive's identifier into the BIOS, and the BIOS would then know how to talk to that specific hard drive. After a few years, things got a little more automatic, but still often relied on certain built-in assumptions about the maximum number of heads, platters, and such a drive might have. The drives available today were unthinkable in those days; and there's literally no way to manually enter the parameters of, say, an 80 GB drive into a system designed to handle maybe a 20 MB drive at most. Similarly, today's drives can communicate to a modern BIOS much more directly, and don't use simple, preset "type" identifiers. But an old system that needs to be told, explicitly, what drive type to use simply won't know what to do with a new drive. Relatedly, there can be fundamental mathematic limitations on how much data an old system can access: If a new hard drive has more data addresses than the hardware can generate, it's not gonna work: Those higher addresses are simply invisible to the hardware. This became a huge issue starting about 10 years ago (and is still an issue for some older hardware today): It's known as "The 1024 Cylinder Barrier" or (same problem, different name) "The 528 MB Barrier." It's a mathematical limit in older systems imposed by the number of software bits available for defining a drive's geometry--- the number of heads, cylinders and sectors. In simple terms, a drive can be simply too big for the BIOS to handle on its own. That segues into software, which can have exactly the same kind of mathematic limitations. The old DOS FAT12 system, with a 12-bit addressing scheme, could only handle drives to 16.7MB in size; DOS3 brought this to 33.6MB; DOS4 to 134MB; Fat16 has a 2.15GB maximum; FAT32 a 32GB max; and so on. You also can run into problems with non-OS software: The Win98 Format tool, for instance, maxes out at 64GB due to its own, separate internal limits. OK, that's all fairly arcane, and I've compressed and simplified thing a lot in the name of brevity. If you want the full, gory detail, see http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/hard_drive_size_barriers.htm and http://www.google.com/search?q=maximum+hard+drive+size+windows . What does it all mean for readers? If the PC is very old- -- it may need a BIOS update or replacement to overcome fundamental limitations there (see http://www.google.com/search?q=replace+bios ). Many drive makers also offer "drive translation" or "dynamic drive overlay" software that can fool an older BIOS so that it doesn't know it's talking to a drive larger than it can handle on its own. Although this kind of software adds a level of complexity to things, it's often the fastest way to get a new drive running on an old PC. (See http://tinyurl.com/plsyy ) Other software limitations are more easily gotten around by replacing the software with newer versions--- a new version of Windows, or Linux, or whatever. USB drives connect through the system BIOS and the OS, so they'll inherit the same basic limitations as other drives on the system. But a shared drive, including NAS drives ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-04- 03.htm#1 ) is controlled by the hardware and software that's offering the share, and not by those connecting to the share. So, a file server or network attached storage or a large shared drive on another PC are all ways to deliver large storage to limited, older PCs. Here's another out: You can divvy up a larger drive into a number of logical drives or partitions below whatever the system limit is, and the system will be happy. For example, if your system will only "see" 40GB at a time, you usually still can use a 120GB drive, as long as you format it as three separate 40GB logical drives. This actually connects nicely with items #1 and #2, above: It's another reason why partitioning can be a good thing; and another reason to grab a tool like "Partition Logic," which can operate outside whatever limitations a given OS may have. You know, this kind of problem seemed to go away for a while when XP came out because XP will handle drives up to 2.2 terabytes in size. That seemed pretty big at the time. But a terabyte isn't what it used to be. ( See http://tinyurl.com/s5fuu ) So, some modest number of years from now, we'll be bumping up against the 2.2TB limits, and will need 64-bit hardware and software to raise the ceiling to the next level... on and on and on! LL CATALOG Keep track of your CDs Here's a collection of free cataloging tools: http://www.nonags.com/nonags/diskcat.html And there are lots more here: http://tinyurl.com/s7bwu PARTITIONS http://partitionlogic.org.uk/index.html is the home of J. Andrew (Andy) McLaughlin's website devoted to "Partition Logic." Among it's other features: - FREE! (GNU general public licence) - It can create, delete, format, defragment, resize, and move partitions and modify their attributes. It can copy entire hard disks from one to another. - It's basically intended to duplicate the work of commercial programs such as Partition Magic, Ghost, Drive Image or BootItNG -- but for FREE. - It works from a bootable floppy or CD, under it's own operating system. - And did I mention that it's FREE? end Tips 70 Tips 71 FRONT PAGE To reopen the last page worked on, Mnu/File/OpenWeb. Mnu/Tools/Options/GeneralTab. Chk box for Reopen last file. HD & OPTICAL DRIVE LETTERS Make the name of your drive more descriptive for your convenience. In Explorer, right clik on the name and edit. ex. F_Drive_250GB Also, you can assign a higher letter to your optical drives to allow more HDs to have the C thru H letters. Right clik on MyComputer desktop icon and select Properties. Clik on DevMgr tab and open up the CDROM (DVD) item by cliking on the + symbol. Clik on the device and clik on the Properties btn below. Clik on the Settings tab and change the drive letter at the botton of the dialog form. I used M to start the list of optical (non HD) devices. OE SIGNATURES OE mnu/Tools/Options/SignaturesTab Instead of Sig 1, 3, 6 etc you can Rename them or just clik on it slowly twice and edit to name it something applicable for your convenience. WIN98SE 30% of all computers still run win 98 SE because it is fine for them since they are not into Gaming or Video have 20 users on the system they can easily load it into their other machine they can clean reload can add h/w and s/w to them without having to ask MSoft for permission. can run their DOS apps NEWSGROUPS These are very helpful. Forget calling MSoft and waiting a half hour, place your question on one of these 70K specialized groups and get 4 answers in a few minutes from MSoft experts and other helpful wizards. When you set up your NG acct with needed info from your ISP site, be sure to set the reply email addr to some junk acct and not your primary email acct as some junk mail senders go thru these NGs looking for new valid accts. Clik on your NG acct Properties and fill in the right boxes. VIDEO EDITING http://www.deskshare.com/vem.aspx Read the Articles for a basic lesson in Video on the computer. Their Video Edit Magic app appears to be a good one. See also, Roxio and Adobe. You can get MPEG Decoder here when you dwnld their trial version and install it. DVI DVI stands for (D)igital (V)ideo (I)nterface. http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/dvi_info.html#Page01 DVI is a popular form of video interface technology made to maximize the quality of flat panel LCD monitors and modern video graphics cards. It is a replacement for the P&D Plug & Display standard, and a step up from the digital-only DFP format for older flat panels. DVI cables are becoming increasingly popular with video card manufacturers, and most cards nowadays include both a VGA and a DVI output port. In addition to being used as the new computer interface, the DVI standard was, for a short while, the digital transfer method of choice for HDTV, EDTV, Plasma Display, and other ultra-high-end video displays for TV, movies, and DVDs. Likewise, even a few top-end DVD players have featured DVI outputs in addition to the high-quality analog Component Video. The digital market is now swinging towards the HDMI interface for high-definition media delivery, and DVI is being again constrained to the computer market. HDMI HDMI stands for (H)igh (D)efinition (M)ultimedia (I)nterface. http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/hdmi_info.html In a constantly changing industry, HDMI is the next major attempt at an all-in- one, standardized, universal connector for audio/video applications. Featuring a modern design and backed by the biggest names in the electronic industry, HDMI is set to finally unify all digital media components with a single cable, remote, and interface. HDMI is built with a 5 Gbps bandwidth limit, over twice that of HDTV (which runs at 2.2 Gbps), and is built forwards-compatible by offering unallocated pipeline for future technologies. The connectors are sliding contact (like FireWire and USB) instead of screw-on (like DVI), and are not nearly as bulky as most current video interfaces. HDMI 1.3 further increases the bandwith limit to 10.2 Gbps, to allow for the video and audio improvements of the upgraded standard. WIN 98SE RAM LIMIT It is 512 mb of RAM. I'm told that adding this line to the VCACHE section of System.ini will allow us to add another 512 mb of RAM. MaxFileCache=512000 That setting will stop Windows 98 from producing false "out of memory" type errors that result when Windows attempts to map an excessively large amount of RAM for use as disk cache. Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm LOGON Is there a way, in windows 98, to set a password so others can't use the computer? I set a password, but all you have to do is hit cancel to bypass it, and I don't want that. I want a way to refuse other users. Thanks. Windows 98 wasn't designed for that type of security. Microsoft assumed, rightly or not, that it's used in a home environment where everyone is trusted. If you want to keep unauthorized users off your computer, set up a BIOS password that has to be entered to boot the computer. Here are some possible ways to prevent users from bypassing the Windows logon. However, it's not hard to get around these, and information on how to do it is freely available on the web: 1. When the logon is canceled, Windows actually logs the user on as the "default" user. You can configure the default user to be immediately logged off, causing the logon prompt to return: http://registry.winguides.com/display.php?629 2. Doug Knox has developed a procedure that requires a valid logon: http://www.dougknox.com Click "Security" and then click "Prevent Unauthorized Users from accessing your computer". Be sure to follow the steps exactly as documented. Done not in Windows but the BIOS (before Windows loads.) 1. Interrupt startup checks with the key identified on screen (probably DEL or F8.) 2. Locate PASSWORD in the array of menus, probably under / Boot / Security. 3. Choose a memorable password, enter it, and follow the prompts to save and exit. The BIOS battery will preserve the password. At next boot the PW must be entered from the keyboard in order to start the PC. EMAIL PICS Be sure not to Forward as Attachment any msg unless you are helping to track down a bad msg. also, when you just Forward a msg with an attachment, it often sends the jpg as an eml type, which is a big unknown and possibly dangerous. It is best to get a msg with pics, Save the pics on your machine then start a new msg and Insert the pics from your Saved files. Pics on a site are not on your machine, so when you send a site page, the pics often do not get sent at all and all they see is a placeholder. WIN98SE HD LIMITS You have decided to update your Windows 98 PC with a new, large capacity, hard drive, be aware that Windows 98 was not designed to work with hard drives larger than 64GB (later 137 GB)! This document describes some workarounds that will allow you to increase this limitation to 127GB. http://www.hexff.com/w98_hd.php Get new FDISK here. Also, http://www.48bitlba.com/ You should have Win 98 Me's Defrag. For Windows 98SE and ME, you need a PCI controller card to use an EIDE hard drive larger than 137GB without risking data corruption. The drivers for the controller card enable large drive support in the operating system, while the card itself provides the hardware support needed for the PC to recognize the full drive capacity. How to do it...? We bought 60 and 80 GB HDs and couldn't get win 98 SE to Fdisk them. Store didn't know or want to tell us how to correct the problem. i got on NGs and the web for HD mfgr sites asking questions and found that WD HDs, Western Digital, had 2 utils for win 98 - one for a new HD in a new computer where DOS had to be used. and one for a new HD in a win 98 system up and running. this was the key to Fdisk, format and use. Until ... Your machine's BIOS also has to be updated to accept HD larger than 32 GB, an earlier limit. You need to dwnld 2 files: The BIOS update file and the util to install it. Once this is done then you can work with HDs up to the win 98 limit of 137 GB. But, i found a HD that is 250 GB for only $60 - so, how to make that work. i figured i could partition (Fdisk) the 250 into 2 ea 125 GB partitions that would then be within the 137 GB limit. this was a waste of hours. the secret was to buy a $20 PCI card that is a HD Controller that has no virtual limit. then i tried to partition it again pwrd thru this card ...and that was again a mistake. the new cntrlr can let win 98 'see' the whole 250 GB as one partition. And, ... that worked. it took a little doing to get the right drivers for the card in spite of them providing an install CD; got 2 driver files from their site that helped. you can now install 8 ea HD devices like: 6ea 500 GB HDs, CDRW and DVDRW on win 98 with virtual unlimited mem storage. Now, you can try it without going down the wrong pathways. SPEED Attention Satellite Users: DO NOT USE THIS tweak TOOL - instead read the Satellite User FAQ on the subject of TWEAKING, also check out the Direcway Satellite Users Forum run speed test to see where you are at now. http://www.dslreports.com/ then run tweak test first http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks use DRTCP021 to adjust your Registry setting for optimum speed they suggest dwnld it at http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp re-boot tweak first then do a speed test to see improvement http://www.dslreports.com/tools INFO http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ VIDEO BearFlix is the fastest video download application on the Web offering access to millions of video titles, all free. BearFlix is powered by the same engine as BearShare, but optimized from the ground up for video download. BearFlix is 100% clean, with no adware, no spyware, no viruses, no trojans. Just pure video downloads. Share BearFlix with your friends. http://www.download.com/BearFlix/3000-2194_4-10590189.html?tag=list AV "ewido," a free anti-spyware tool from Grisoft, the folks who make the popular AVG antivirus tool for win 2000 and XP. I've been running ewido (yes, it's spelled all in lower case) on a couple of machines here, and it seems quite good so far. Grisoft says it's "easy to use, has daily database updates, uses heuristics to detect unknown threats, and has an automatic Cleaning Engine." Like the AVG antivirus tool, the home-use free version of ewido offers solid, basic functionality; and a $30 Pro version offers more: "Automatic online- updates, real-time monitoring of the entire system, self-protection at kernel layer guaranteeing gapless monitoring, and consent for commercial use." Ewido is new enough that there's not a lot of information about it yet. One third-party review ( http://tinyurl.com/7sk6y ) says ewido is in "a small elite group of technically advanced anti-trojans. For a new product it is an impressive effort." It looks good to me, too. If you're comfortable trying a relatively new product, you can download ewido from the same site that offers the free version of AVG: http://tinyurl.com/qrcox . Or, you can visit the ewido networks site: http://www.ewido.net/ . The latter site also offers a free tool to scan your PC for spyware, live and online. end tips 71 Tips 72 TWEAK In addition to DSL Report,BroadbandReports.com try http://www.speedguide.net/ Speedguide.net - impressed by its TCP/IP Analyzer and TCP/IP Optimizer. Auto adjust. And, an incredibly detailed manual method described in the Navas Cable Modem/DSL Tuning Guide. The benefit of the manual method is that you have complete control over every variable and can fine-tune your connection parameters to whatever degree you wish. It's a more laborious way to tune, but one that gives you the ultimate in flexibility and adaptability. http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=119 for win 98 DUAL CORE WIN98 98 will run on a dual-core CPU. The 98 kernel was not written with multi-processor operation in mind so it will not perform the necessary housekeeping and organization to activate both cores and allocate processes to them. So, 98 running on a dual-core will only use 1 of the cores. The Intel Celeron D 365 (3.6 Ghz) is probably the fastest single-core CPU that will ever be available from Intel, and I doubt that any core-2 cpu would run Win-98 faster than the D-365. NL INSTALLING WIN 98 For information on installing W98, go to: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html ATTACHMENTS don't if you don't have to. if it is text, just Select, Copy & Paste it into a msg if it is an image, Save it then Insert it into a msg don't Forward attachments don't Forward As Attachment WIN98SE HD LIMIT 137GB http://www.msfn.org/board/Enable48BitLBA_Break_137Gb_barrier_t78592.html this is an attempt to implement 48-bit LBA support into Windows 98se's default IDE driver, enabling the use of hard drives in excess of 128Gb. TWEAKING www.broadbandreports.com (formerly DSLReports). DVR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) (or personal video recorder (PVR)) is a device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive or other medium. The term includes stand-alone set-top boxes and software for personal computers which enables video capture and playback to and from disk. Some consumer electronic manufacturers have started to offer televisions with DVR hardware and software built in to the television itself. It has also become the main way for CCTV companies to record their surveillance, as it provides far longer recording times than the old VCRs. ZONEALARM Updates for Win 98 have stopped. ICONS To make an icon on your desktop to bring up in Explorer a dir of interest and much use, right clik on the desktop, Select New from the popup mnu then Create Shortcut, and type in the full HD addr of you dir or Browse to target. Type in Name of Shortcut. e.g. C:\DirofInterest\SnowScenes Snow. Clean up Shortcut icon name by editing. WIN 98 http://kgiii.info/windows/98.html SHUTDOWN Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter http://aumha.org/win4/a/shutdown.htm Windows 98 SE Shutdown Troubleshooter http://aumha.org/win4/a/shtdwnse.php Also, exit OE before hitting Shutdown. Are you using a desktop shortcut icon with: C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows as the target? copy and paste it in, do not ever retype shortcuts or email addrs. NEW COMPUTER -Never get a Proprietary computer, always get a PC Clone. No laptops unless you must travel with it. -don't have them load in Windows save that money and load in win 98 SE unless you just have to have the latest capability. This list is for old people, not Gamers. -mboard that has a 2.4 GHz or faster CPU that is not a Celeron type of restricted CPU get user manual -DDR RAM 1 GB total 4 slots on mboard is best for future, but you can live with 2 (they will say you can't use more than 512 mb of ram with win 98, but i can get around that limitation. RAM has to match mboard specs) -video and sound on mboard as you are not a gamer. -Speakers should be 5.1 at a min make sure you get a subwoofer and 2 speakers, decent qual for $70 -NIC and USB2 on the mboard -CDROM/DVD optical drive your may want to add to or update this item for read/write DVD or use the one you have in your machine, also consider the latest in this quick changing field for HDDVD and BlueRay. -you have a USB plugin mem card reader that you can use here -floppy drive a must for win 98 SE -120 GB Western Digital HD 7200 rpm min - we have s/w util to set up HD. -20 inch+ wide flat screen LCD display 16x9 (widescreen), not 4x3, with matching plugs to mboard video conn. prob VGA, there are 2 more advanced type of conns. -infra red mouse -keyboard style of choice -hub, router, ICS to conn the other computer(s) to your web ISP using the same IP addr. -The new computers are dual CPUs. Imagine how hot they get. CPU and RAM for the video & sound cards, too. -more to follow ANON http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/cgi-proxy.htm WIN MEDIA PLAYER VER http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/versions.aspx Series 9, ver 6.1 for win 98 SE http://www.afterdawn.com/ codecs and players COPY CD one way is by using the latest MSoft Player listed above and selecting Copy CD from the menu on the left side of the form. It will copy your CD selection in WMA format or the more refined format. TIME http://www.time.gov/ AV McAfee has changed their free scan site. http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/?siteID=1&resolution=800x600&rurl=vrContactOptions.asp Clik On Free Scan btn and wait while the ActiveX Controls are dwnlded and then the test will start. CLEAN UP http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm EasyCleaner, Registry. HD SPEED While a new, faster CPU won't noticebly affect your HD xfers, getting a higher speed HD will be noticeable. The 7200 is obviously faster than the 5400. 10,000 speed is avail as well as SATA. FILESHARING http://bittyrant.cs.washington.edu/ improvement over BitTorrent for those who share. Good luck. End Tips 72 Tips 73 MEDIA UPDATES Use the free Software Inspector at Secunia.com. This online utility requires Java to run, so you should use the Java update procedure described below to make sure you have the latest version of Java before proceeding. Run Microsoft Update once a month after Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month, when Microsoft releases security updates). To update Sun Java: Step 1. In the Windows Control Panel, launch the Java applet. You can also right-click the Java icon in the Taskbar tray and choose Open Control Panel. Step 2. Click the Update tab. Use the controls there to customize the update notification. Click OK. If you prefer to update Java manually, uncheck the box for automatic updating. Then return to this dialog box periodically and click Update Now at the bottom of the Update tab. Win 98 SE http://www.java.com/en/download/windows98me_manual.jsp?locale=en&host=www.java.c om http://secunia.com/software_inspector/ ENCRYPTION Use freeware tool TrueCrypt (WWW.TRUECRYPT.ORG) to encrypt data on a flash drive. Both Cybershredder and Ultrashredder (www.xtort.net/xtort/ultra.php) can be run from a flash drive. You can find TCExplorer (www.cylog.org/utils_9.asp) at the CodeProject site. www.codeproject.com/useritems/TCExplorer.asp DUAL-CORE A multi-core CPU (or chip-level multiprocessor, CMP) combines two or more independent cores into a single package comprised of a single piece silicon integrated circuit (IC), called die, or more dies packaged together. A dual-core device contains two independent microprocessors and a quad-core device contains four microprocessors. A multi-core microprocessor implements multiprocessing in a single physical package. Cores in a multicore device may share a single coherent cache at the highest on-device cache level (e.g. L2 for the Intel Core 2) or may have separate caches (e.g. current AMD dual-core processors). The processors also share the same interconnect to the rest of the system. Each "core" independently implements optimizations such as superscalar execution, pipelining, and multithreading. A system with N cores is effective when it is presented with N or more threads concurrently. The most commercially significant (or at least the most 'obvious') multi-core processors are those used in computers (primarily from Intel & AMD) and games consoles (eg the Cell processor in the PS3). In this context, "multi" typically means a relatively small number of cores. However, the technology is widely used in other technology areas, especially those of embedded processors such as network processors and digital signal processors, and in GPUs. STINGER http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ new util ENCRYPT HD freeware encryption tool, www.TrueCrypt.org CONVERT FILE SYSTEMS You can convert an existing volume to NTFS by opening a command prompt and typing: convert x: /fs:ntfs where x is the letter of the drive you want to convert. Be aware that once you've made the change, you can't convert back to the old file system without reformatting the drive, effectively wiping out all its data. WIN98SE >137GB HDs To fdisk, format, & partition a HD >137 GB, or less for that matter, execute Data Lifeguard Tools (dwnld dlgsetup11_win.zip from the WD, Western Digital, site. Install it.). Select the Drive to be worked on. IF mfgr diff from WD, you will see a disclaimer here. Select Installation Type: Additional/Boot drive Chk the 'Select this box if you want to change advanced options' if you want to partition the drive. Do not chk this box if you just want to make the whole drive a single partition and Clik on Next now. Otherwise... Chk the 'Custon partition' box Click on Next btn. Next form is presented with HD state given. Click on Delete btn if HD is formatted & you want to start over with this Drive. Move the slide bar to the right to choose the size of the first partition. Click on the Add Partition btn to end the 1st and begin the 2nd partition. Move the slide bar to select the size of the 2nd partition. Repeat as necessary. Click on Next btn to end partition session; results presented. Click on Erase btn to get a clean drive to start with, even if you think you cleared the drive. Click on Next btn Wait for partition process Click on Next btn, machine reboots and sets changes in. For $60, you can buy the real thing (for use on any mfgr drive) http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/hard-drive-software/diskmanager.aspx see also, http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/ for Disc Wizard. COOKIES Karen has a new update on viewer, 6-07 http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptcookie.asp make sure you dwnld it AND the VB runtime file, install this first INSTALL OE after the fact when you install windows, you have to select OE to be installed now, after loading in Win, go to Control Panel, Add/Remove s/w WindowsSetup tab select OE with win CD installed end Tips 73This also ends Win 98 SE Tips ********** ********** This starts Win 2000 Tips 10-1-2007