Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (05/01)

Reviewing Software

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org

WE WELCOME YOUR INPUT. All of you faithful readers know that this column represents a compendium, or smorgasbord of any and all things of interest to any dedicated computer user. Many of you may have either hints, tips, suggestions, complaints, or anything else you care to pass along to me and, or, your fellow enthusiasts. Please feel free to e-mail me at reviewseditor@spcug.org and fire away. I'll be happy to include anything that might be helpful to our members, or tackle any of your complaints, brickbats, or the like. Don't be bashful or timid. Do it!

ELIMINATING THE WINDOWS STARTUP PASSWORD. If there was ever a question that comes up constantly from so many of you (although we've answered it before) it is how to get rid of the Windows password every time you start your computer. If you're the only user, having to press Cancel every time your computer starts is a real pain. Fortunately, it's easy to turn off the Windows password. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel and open the Passwords icon. Then click the Change Passwords tab and click the Change Windows Password button. Make sure all three fields are completely blank and click the OK button to save changes.

If this didn't work for you, your computer might be setup for multiple users. If you're the only person using your computer and you don't need different sets of saved preferences, you'll want to change this setting. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel and open the Passwords icon. Then click the User Profiles tab and click the All Users Of This Computer Use The Same Preferences And Desktop Settings button. Click OK to exit and save changes.

NO FREE LUNCH! Michael Vincent reminds us that In the case of a total system crash, Windows ME has a new feature called System Restore that allows the user to take periodic snapshots either automatically or manually. This feature is also available in Safe Mode. Having this feature means that if you make a change to your Windows ME system and it causes a catastrophic error that throws it into Safe Mode, then you can access System Restore and bring back a version of Windows ME that worked just fine. But there is a price to pay for this feature - literally. System Restore uses a great deal of resources (disk, memory, cache) both while running and while saving information.

WHY NOT NORTON ANTIVIRUS OR SYMANTEC? Having many times extolled the virtues of PC-Cillin, I've been asked why I don't recommend Norton Antivirus (NAV). To lay the matter to rest, let me "count the ways."

  1. I was a former user of NAV and contracted a particularly nasty virus while using the product. PC-Cillin found and eliminated the bug quickly and efficiently.
  2. In my experience, Norton products are notorious resource hogs and frequently interfere with other commonly used software. I have encountered many programs that provide "fixes" and warnings about that interference.
  3. Some time back, Symantec (the publishers of Norton products) unexplainedly discontinued their relationship with user groups nationwide. They stopped providing evaluation copies to user groups to examine and review. Certainly their actions cannot be explained by the cost of the CD's. What you pay for in a box of software is the development and research that went into the product, not the few cents worth of contents. User groups contain some hundreds of thousands of members in total. We are a highly targeted audience on the cutting edge of computer usage. When software receives a decent rating from user groups in their publications, the advertising value of their recommendation far exceeds that of the cost of the software. User group reviewers are all unpaid volunteers who can be perfectly honest and straightforward about their findings. Perhaps that is what frightens Symantec??

Based on these reasons and particularly on their negative and high-handed attitude toward user groups, Symantec will never be invited to present to our groups in SW Florida, nor is there a place for Symantec products on my computer. I urge the same for yours. When and if that attitude ever changes, I will be happy to examine the then current Symantec products and report my findings to you.

SLUGGISH COMPUTER? When your computer starts to slow down, more often than not it is your own fault rather than that of your machine. It is likely that you are not doing something you should, or doing something you shouldn't. Here are some of the more effective suggestions:

  1. Defragment and optimize your hard drive (scandisk). It takes time for your drive to find pieces of your files that are scattered hither and yon.
  2. Check your available system resources by right-clicking your My Computer icon and click on the Performance tab. Check the percentage of available resources. If you are too low (below 85%) it means you have excess running in memory. This is usually indicated by too many icons in your system tray. Go to Start-Run, and enter msconfig. Click on your Startup Tab. Uncheck anything you have running in memory that you don't really need to have running in the background all the time. If you don't know one from the other, get some help from someone who does. You can also press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to get an accurate readout of what you have running in memory. Every item on the list is using system resources.
  3. Watch your multi-tasking. Keeping too many programs open at the same time eats up more than Dave Gerber in a buffet restaurant. Relax, Dave. I do a pretty good job there myself!
  4. Restart your computer. This will shut down excessive items running in the background that may not be obvious to you. Also, some programs that appear to be closed really do not close down completely and still have bits and pieces running in and using up your precious memory.

An excellent diagnostic application (and it's FREE) is FREEMETER. You can get it at www.tiler.com/freemeter It will monitor your system resources, memory usage, available disk space, and lots more. You will be able to see exactly why you are running out of steam and take preventative or corrective action.

5. The folks at MICROMETRIC remind us that Windows 98 and Me users should have at least 64MB of memory. If you run multiple applications at once, anything less than 64MB will feel like computing in quicksand. If you already have plenty of RAM, then you have two other options: Beef up your PC's virtual memory, and look for a memory leak.

Virtual memory is a special file on the hard disk-often called a swap file-where the PC stores overflowing data that won't fit in RAM. Windows adjusts the size of the swap file as memory needs grow and shrink. But if the hard disk starts to run out of free space, the swap file may not be able to grow to the size it needs, and the machine will run sluggishly as a result. Either delete or remove files to make room on the hard drive. Or move the swap file to a partition or an additional hard disk that has available space. On the Windows 9x or Me desktop, right-click My Computer, select Properties, go to the Performance tab, and choose Virtual Memory. To see a list of available partitions and disks, select 'Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.' For Windows 2000 users, select Advanced, Performance Options, Change.

The other option is to check for a memory leak. Sometimes software-because it's damaged or poorly designed-won't let go of its assigned memory when it's done using it. If you keep opening and closing the application, it gobbles up more memory until the system has no available RAM. Rebooting the machine can temporarily fix the problem by resetting your memory to its normal settings.

Finding the source of the leak is a lot more work. Select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and use the System Monitor utility to monitor your PC's memory usage. If it's not there, install it from the Windows CD using Add/Remove Programs. Shrink the utility's window to a manageable size, and select View, Numeric Charts and View, Always on Top. Then select Edit, Add Item. In the 'Category' list of the dialog box that appears, select Memory Manager. Then hold down Ctrl and select the following memory statistics in the Item list: Unused physical memory (Free Memory in Windows 95), Swapfile in use, and Swapfile size.

Watching those stats as you open, use, and close different applications will give you an idea as to which programs are using up a lot of memory. Also keep an eye on the Kernel category's Threads statistic; it should decrease when you close an application.

RECENT UPDATES. It's time to update your system if you use any of the following applications, which have been recently updated:

(1) HyperSnap DX 4.01.10

(2) Adobe Photoshop 6.01

(3) VuePrint Pro 7.7a

(4) WinAmp 2.73

(5) BlackIce Defender 2.5

(6) StayOn Pro 3.27

(7) ICQ Plus 3.0

(8) Fine Print 2000 4.0 Build 43

(9) MemTurbo 2.1

(10) WinRAR 2.80

To see whether any of these updates apply to your PC, follow this link to go to Updates.com now:

http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBbx0BOdMX0YD0a3Yg

SEARCH ORGANS provide the only sensible means of searching the Web for the information you are seeking. The better search organs include google.com, northernlight.com, mamma.com, among others. My favorite is copernic.com which searches all the leading search organs simultaneously and presents a very sensible readout. Copernic is free, but once you try it you may well want the Plus or Pro versions which are chock full of goodies. You can get all the info at copernic.com

For our novices, also be aware that there is both a use and a misuse for search organs. A member recently called me to question why he was unable to bring up one of the URL's (Web addresses) mentioned in this column. He claimed to have repeatedly entered it in a search organ without results. Please folks, URL's are to be entered in your BROWSER (like Internet Explorer or Netscape), not a search organ!

LEGAL PROBLEMS? You can find all you ever wanted to know about the law (and then some) at the following sources: law.com, legalengine.com, mycounsel.com

DVD-R?? DVD recordable drives are just beginning to make the scene. The good news is that they cram an incredible 4.7 GB of data on a DVD-R disk. The bad news is that they cost about $1,000 and disks run around $40each. Undoubtedly, once the newness wears off and competition sets in, these prices will spiral downward. In the meantime, look and drool!

ME'S SYSTEM RESTORE, DISK HOG. Windows ME's System Restore is a great utility to have if your system crashes, but is also a disk hog - taking up too much space and possibly preventing you from running your regular applications. The good news is that you can control how much space the System Restore is allocated on your hard drive. To do this, go to the Control Panel and open the system icon. Now, click on the "Performance" tab and go into File System. Now, under the Hard Disk tab, set the disk space with the slider control. If the slider control is disabled, then check the Troubleshooting tab to make sure that System Restore is enabled.

QUICK WAY TO YOUR WINDOWS FOLDER. A quick way to get to your Windows directory is to go to Start-Run, and type in two periods ..

WINDOWS XP, Microsoft's upcoming new operating system to be released later this year will be available in 3 different varieties, the home edition, the professional edition, and a third aimed at machines running Intel's 64-bit Itanium family of chips.. As the names imply, the home edition will be heavier in multimedia, and the professional edition in features more appealing to a business environment. The new OS is currently in its second beta edition. If you want to run the risk of playing with it, you can get it from Microsoft for $20. We will keep you advised of test results both before and after XP is released. Don't be in an all-fired hurry to switch, like some of you did with Windows ME that turned out to have numerous drawbacks. Our recommendation is to wait until enough verdicts are in before jumping on any bandwagons. Also, remember to keep in mind Microsoft's new copy protection scheme that will permit only one time installation on one computer. This feature alone, unless modified in the final release, will make this new OS unacceptable to a large percentage of users.

Microsoft is trying to make computers less daunting and less prone to crashes. To reach that goal, Microsoft not only needs to clean up its own code, but also all the third-party drivers- little bits of software that help the system communicate with peripherals and other add-ons. When computer owners using Windows XP try to install new hardware or software with drivers that have not passed Microsoft certification, they will get an ominous warning message.

PC enthusiasts looking to grab an early copy of Windows XP may be in for a big surprise in addition to the copy protection fiasco. Many will need more computing horsepower to run the operating system. Microsoft's Web site recommends a minimum 300MHz Pentium II processor and 128MB of RAM to run the Windows XP beta, up from a 133MHz processor and 64MB of memory for Windows 2000. Although many PCs come with 128MB now, machines sold a year ago, especially budget PCs, typically came with much less memory.

I never cease to be amazed at the number of members who complain about computer problems and are still using computer dinosaurs, like a 286 processor, 16 MB of RAM, and a DOS operating system. Sorry folks... today's software was not designed to run on yesterday's machines.

With regard to the two public beta previews: The first is the Windows XP Public Preview. You give them $9.95 (U.S.) and you can download the two Windows XP Release Candidates "when they are available this summer." Note: This is a huge download. You can also get Windows XP Pro RC1 for $19.95 via CD in the mail. See the Win XP Preview Website for details and limitations: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/preview/order.asp

HOW ABOUT INTERNET EXPLORER 6.0? There does not seem to be anything earth-shaking in the upcoming revision, but if you want to learn more, go to http://www.windows-help.net/features/ie6-pr.html

TRAVEL PLANS? If you are making any, there are several sites that can give you information and save you money. Some of the ones you may want to keep in mind are:

  1. expedia.com - Microsoft's venerable location offering airline tix, accommodations, rental cars, etc.
  2. travelocity.com - Similar to expedia.
  3. cheaptickets.com - Act as your own travel agent by booking cheap fares here.
  4. frommers.com - Top notch site for good advice and great deals on everything travel-related.
  5. lastminutetravel.com - If you're ready to get up and go at short notice, you will find some super bargains here.

BEFORE DOING BUSINESS with some commercial site, you may want to check on others' experience with them. Go to bizrate.com for the lowdown from actual customers for everything from DVD's to BVD's.

LEARN IN YOUR PJ'S. ecollege.com offers thousands of college courses, many with accreditation toward a degree, even a doctorate, from the leisure and privacy of your home computer. You have choices of degrees, disciplines or institutions, and can even apply online for a scholarship. All the resources you need to further your education without leaving home. Barnes & Noble also offers many free online courses at bnuniversity.com

SAVE YOUR MONEY. A trip to lowermybills.com may do just that for you as it suggest good deals for lowering your bills in many different categories.

TERMINATE CRASHED PROGRAMS QUICKLY. Here's some advice for EXPERIENCED USERS only who are comfortable working with regedit:

When a program hangs, you terminate it by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del, selecting the application in the Close Program box, and clicking the End Task button. The problem is, Windows can take a long time to acknowledge that the program is not responding.

There's a Registry modification you can use to speed up the process.

Run REGEDIT and go to HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\ desktop. Right-click in the righthand pane, choose New I String value, and name the value HungAppTimeout. Double-click on the new value, and set its data to 1000 (the default setting is 5,000 milliseconds).

If a program hangs up when you shut down, Windows can take even longer to decide that there's a problem and prompt you to end the task. Create another string value named WaltToKillAppTimeout and set its value to 1000 (the default setting is 20,000 milliseconds). Try different values to see what works best.

Naturally, if the two values mentioned here already exist, you'll modify them, not create them. Absolutely do not set these values lower than 1,000 milliseconds. We suggest that you start with values that are half the defaults (2500 for HungAppTimeout and 10,000 for WaitloKi1lAppTimeout).

When Windows asks what to do about a hung application at shut- down, most of us just click End Task. If you want to automate that process, create one more string value within the Registry key mentioned above. Name it Auto EndTasks, and set its data to 1. Now Windows will automatically terminate a hung program detected at shutdown.

For more information on these settings, see the Microsoft TechNet article at www.microsoft.net/ technet/win2000/systeman.asp.

FANCY, SHMANCY, and the ultimate in accommodations, restaurants, attractions and the likes is awaiting you at timeout.com. So what if you can't afford it. Wouldn't you like to see what's there if you could?

A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA, or a fast boat to the Caribbean awaits you at cruise411.com, bld4vacations.com, shopserve.com, and cruisediamond.com Take your Dramamine and come aboard.

HERBS, NATURAL SUPPLEMENTS, and all manner of alternative medicine information is yours at tnp.com

SMILE AND SAY CHEESE while you venture to one of the Web's better sites on digital and film cameras.

FASTER HARD DRIVES COMING. Over the passage of time, hard drives have continuously become faster, cheaper and of greater capacity. The best of today's drives run at 7200 RPM and have an Ultra DMA/100 interface. The 100 signifies the burst rate of 100 megabytes per second (Mbps).

Although capacities of 60 and 80 GB are available, the best bang for the buck is a 40 GB drive. Big things are on the horizon for hard drives within the next 12 months or so. Ultra DMA (also called Ultra ATA) will give way to Serial DMA. In these new Serial ATA drives, the burst rate will increase from 100 to 150, then to 300, and eventually to 600 Mbps. The bulky flat data cable will be replaced with a round wire cable about the width of a mouse cord, and drive jumpers will be a thing of the past.

If you can wait for these newer drives, you will accrue their benefits. If your drive is more than 75% full, you need to go for the best available today. I personally prefer Maxtor as a replacement drive brand, followed by Western Digital. Maxtor's MaxBlast setup utility is the best in the business if you are installing the drive yourself. In addition, Maxtor drives are faster, more reliable, and Maxtor provides exemplary customer support. Remember also that your hard drive controller (to which your hard drive is connected) will also have to be of a 100 ATA capacity to take advantage of that drive burst rate.

The IDE interface is the most common, but limits you to the number of devices you can install in your computer. The SCSI interface permits much faster drives, avoids the number of devices limit, but are much more expensive than IDE drives.

COOKIE JAR lets you keep the cookies you want and delete the cookies you don't want. Simply sort cookies into Allowed and Banned (or Undecided) jars. Cookie Jar can then be set to run when Windows starts up and delete all Banned and/or Undecided cookies, leaving the Allowed ones alone. http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/cookiejar.asp

SHORTCUT TO WINDOWS EXPLORER. Just press Windows Key and your "e" key.

THE SPEED OF YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION is easily discovered by going to http://msn.zdnet.com/partners/msn/bandwidth/speedtest500.htm It's instantaneous and free!

PRIVATE INFO?? According to ZDNet, both eBay and Yahoo have inconsistently deployed security features to their sites that expose user IDs and passwords to prying eyes in shared network settings. That means they're compromising the confidentiality of personal information the average user probably thinks is protected. I personally avoid like a plague any sight that asks me for my name, address, phone number, or any other personal information. It would amaze you how that information will make its way around once you give it up. The very least of what you will get in return is a lot of new spam, or perhaps much worse. The Net is loaded with advertisers, hackers, and creeps of every size, shape and variety that constantly seek out personal info for their nefarious purposes. Of course, an easy workaround is to supply fictitious information.

TURN OFF FLOPPY SEARCH (ME) E-Mazing Technology's Michael Vincent points out that Windows Me performs a search on your system each time you reboot to determine whether you have installed a new floppy disk drive. Since 99% of the time this will never happen, this search procedure can really slow down the boot up time of your system. Fortunately, you can easily remove this check by going into the Control Panel and selecting the 'System' icon. Now, select the Performance tab and click the 'File System' button. Next, select the 'Floppy Disk' tab and uncheck the 'Search for new floppy disk drive.' option. Your system will now assume the disk drives that were there the last time it booted are still there and no new ones have been added. If you do add a new floppy drive, check this box, let Windows find it and add controllers, then uncheck it again.

AD-AWARE, the superb FREE program that detects spyware and comet cursors you can easily pick up just by surfing the Web, is now available in updated version 4.6. If you are on the Internet, you absolutely must have this utility! Member, D.J., reports she found 32 intruders sitting in her computer after she downloaded and ran AD-Aware. You can get this essential program at www.lavasoft.de The Lavasoft site was down for about 2 weeks for remodeling. For those that tried unsuccessfully, you can get there now.

THE XEROX M-940, that great multifunction printer, scanner, copier, that we reviewed in March drew a number of members to our good friends at Office Depot. They were unable to demo their display unit, but can currently do so if you ask them to. Be sure to mention that you are a member of this group. They will extend to any of our members every possible courtesy on this or any other computer related product. If you have any problems, see the store manager. He has been exceptionally cooperative with SPCUG.

ARE YOU UP-TO-DATE? When you click on your "Start" button, one of the items that appears on the resulting menu is "Windows Update." You need to visit that site frequently and download the latest fixes to Windows. It can save you lots of grief!

A QUICKER RUN. The "RUN" command is one we commonly use. To get to it, you pressed your Start button and then clicked on "Run." You can get to it much faster by pressing the Windows key and click "r" on your keyboard.

WORD PROCESSOR ENTHUSIASTS should be aware of several sites that can offer guidance in their use. Microsoft Office fans might try the Microsoft Office Newsletter at wopr.com , or Microsoft's official office site at officeupdate.com . WordPerfect users should look at wpwin.com .

WIN ME DRIVING YOU NUTS? As misery likes company, you've got plenty of both in this category. Find some help with the many foibles of Windows ME at Microsoft's site that addresses many of ME's problems. Go to support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q268/8/91.asp Another you might try is microsoft.com/windowsme/support :

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Copyright 2001. This article is from the May 2001 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/

The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,600+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.

See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.