Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (08/01)

Reviewing Software

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

TRACK YOUR HACKER. NeoTrace is the world's most popular graphical Internet trace route utility. It's very slick. Check it out at http://www.neoworx.com/products/ntx/. It's used by law enforcement, ISPs, and network professionals all over the world. NeoTrace Express is a freeware version of the popular NeoTrace tool. This version offers the mapping features of the Professional version and the essential features you need to trace Websites. It's multithreaded, so it's very fast and can simultaneously check multiple hops on the route. It shows the route on a world map with detail on the path taken by your Internet traffic. NeoTrace Express can integrate with Internet Explorer to offer one-click tracing to Websites and URLs.

OFFICE SUITE HOOPLA ASIDE. ZDNet recommends 3 products that are absolutely free and may well satisfy your office suite needs:

  1. Pegasus Mail is for people who want an alternative to Outlook. It offers mail filters, an address book, and spell checker-pretty much the whole nine yards. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
  2. 602Pro PC Suite is an office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a graphics editor. It's compatible with documents created with Word and Excel, and it will also allow you to easily create HTML documents. Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
  3. StarOffice Personal Edition is a full-featured office suite with a powerhouse lineup of applications: word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, email, newsgroup reader, and charting and graphics programs. It's compatible with Microsoft-created files, and it lets you save your documents in Microsoft or HTML formats. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)

NO MODEM? If Windows says that it can't detect a modem on any of your COM ports, there could be a problem with the Windows 98 installation. You have to make sure that Windows did a complete installation of the communications component. To do this, from the Start menu, select Settings and then Control Panel. Click on Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel. From the Add/Remove Programs window, click on the Windows Setup tab. Scroll down until you see the communications component. Windows did not do a complete installation of important communications software if there is no check or if there is a check in a gray box. Click on the box until it becomes white and displays a check, then click OK. Then restart the computer and usually Windows will detect your modem.

THE SKINNY ON FAT. Does your hard drive still use the FAT16 file system? That means you aren't taking full advantage of your hard disk space, and you should consider converting the drive to FAT32. This new and improved system stores data in smaller clusters, resulting in less wasted space.

If you aren't sure whether to convert, run the FAT32 Conversion Utility, which is available on the Windows 98 installation CD. It'll tell you exactly how much space you'll regain upon conversion. With the installation CD in your CD-ROM drive, click Browse This CD and then navigate your way to the tools\reskit\config folder.

Double-click the Fat32win.exe file, and when the utility opens, select a drive and click Scan. (If you see a dialog box telling you the drive is already a FAT32 drive, you're all set).

Assuming the numbers convince you to convert, here's how to perform the operation. First, find a time when you won't be using your system for a while-say, three hours. Close any open programs, then select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Drive Converter (FAT32). Click the Details button, read all the pertinent do's and don'ts (for example, don't try to convert a compressed drive), then click Next. Select the drive you're about to convert, click Next, and wait as the wizard makes sure you don't have any incompatible programs installed. Click Next again, and you'll be asked if you want to back up your files before proceeding. If so, click Create Backup and so on (Microsoft Backup will help with the operation); otherwise, click Next. One last Next, and the converter is off and running.

GET LOADED FASTER. When your desktop displays many icons in full color, it often takes longer to refresh and reload. To turn up the speed, click on the Display icon in the Control Panel. Click on the Effects tab and look for the box that says "Show icons using all possible colors." If you uncheck the box, you can often speed up the computer.

UNDECIPHERABLE ERROR MESSAGES? MS Windows Error Messages Fromzdnet.com/downloads tells you in plain English what those incomprehensible error messages really mean. You can also use it to display all the error codes and messages for your version of Windows. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)

HOT KEY ACCESS TO APPLICATION. Want to open your favorite application on the fly? Create a hot key to it, and you can open it from anywhere with the press of a keyboard combo. Right-click the shortcut you use to open the application, then select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and click inside the text box next to Shortcut Key. Type the letter you'd like to use in combination with Ctrl-Alt to open the program (Windows 98 fills in the Ctrl-Alt part). For example, you could type "W" to stand for Microsoft Word. Click OK, and from now on, pressing Ctrl-Alt-W launches Word.

GIVE IT HELL, HARRY! A quarter of the 4,200 PC users who participated in an online tech store's survey have confessed to physically attacking their computers at one time or another. "Looking at some of the answers, it's clear that in many cases people were actually frustrated at their own lack of know-how," David Furby, Novatech's managing director, wrote on the site. "Hopefully as technology improves and computers become ever more user-friendly, these attacks will become less frequent." It all just goes to prove...Don't get mad, get even!

REGCLEAN. Every time you install, uninstall or reinstall software on a Windows NT computer, changes are made to the registry keys. After time, this leaves the Registry in a less than perfect state and you may run into problems. To clean up the Registry, use RegClean.exe, available for download at ZDNet Downloads. When you run RegClean.exe, the utility automatically scans the Registry and you will see a progress window. Wait until scanning is finished, which can take up to 30 minutes. If no errors were found, you are prompted to exit the utility. If errors are found, you can still choose to exit RegClean without fixing errors, or you can choose Fix Errors to clean up the Registry. RegClean creates a file called UNDO xxx.REG (XXX contains the computer name, date and time). Run this file if you want to undo the changes RegClean made.

FPL VS. YOUR COMPUTER. With increasing brownouts and power interruption that play havoc with your computer, you need to do the best you can to avoid data loss and worse. Of course, the best solution is a UPS (uninterruptible power supply that you can buy cheap enough today) See apc.com or tripplite.com. Without a UPS, rather than have your power cycle on and off, sometimes repeatedly, enter your Bios setup at startup and look around for "power loss management". Once you find it (if offered), select the "shutdown" option. You may also see "return to last state", and "always restart". By selecting shutdown, the next time you lose power, your computer will stay off until you deem it safe to restart.

SYSTEM RESTORE is a recent feature in both Windows ME and in the upcoming XP. 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.

WORDPERFECT WIDOW/ORPHAN ADVICE. "Widow" and "orphan"-it's typographical terminology for stray lines of text at the top or bottom of a page. Let's say we have a paragraph containing several sentences that breaks between two pages. An orphan is say the first line of a paragraph appears at the very bottom of the first page by itself-that's an orphan. A widow is the last line of a paragraph by itself at the top of the second page.

You can avoid these typographic problems by using the correct setting in your WordPerfect documents. To set widow and orphan protection, move to the top of your document and choose Format, Keep Text Together from the WordPerfect menu. Mark the checkbox under Widow/Orphan and click OK. WordPerfect will now take care of all stray lines throughout your document by strategically inserting soft page breaks.

TRACKING BOOT PROBLEMS. If Windows fails to boot properly, press F8 while it boots for the Windows StartUp menu, and pick the Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT) option. It attempts a normal boot but records the status of every step Windows takes during the process. You can use this option to log a failed boot. Then, reboot to Safe mode if necessary and use a text editor to open BOOTLOG.TXT (in your root directory). Search for "fail" to find the boot steps Windows had trouble with. Failed steps are often excellent clues to the cause of the problem.

TWO GOOD REFERENCE GUIDES. If you want some help mulling your way around Windows, here are two good shareware guides from www.zdnet/downloads that will help:

1. The Windows Registry Guide is a Windows Help file that reveals all the best tips, tricks, and tweaks for the Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000 Registries. Use it and you'll master your PC instead of having it master you. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)

2. MS Windows Error Messages solves the never-ending problem of figuring out what those incomprehensible Windows error codes really mean. It lets you look up the error code numbers and displays a descriptive message explaining what the numeric code actually means. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)

FILE OPENING CHOICE. Many programs register the file extensions they use for their files. Microsoft Word, for example, registers .DOC as the default file extension for Word files. When you double-click a file with a .DOC extension, the file automatically opens in Word. Sometimes, however, you want to open the file in a program other than the one it's registered to. You can do this quickly by selecting the file in Windows Explorer, then pressing and holding the Shift key while you right-click the file. Select Open With from the context menu and choose the program you want.

IMMEDIATE SCREENSAVER. If you like to be able to access your screen saver directly, without waiting a certain number of minutes for it to kick in, you can add a shortcut to it on the desktop. Go to your Windows folder on your C: drive and find the screen saver of your choice. (A quick way to locate the screen savers is to open the System subfolder, choose View, Details, then click the Type column to group all the Screen Saver files together.) Right-click it and choose Send To, Desktop (Create Shortcut). If prompted to confirm your action, click OK. A shortcut to your screen saver will appear on your desktop. You can launch this screen saver at any time simply by double-clicking on this shortcut icon.

HANDHELD MAP. If you have a handheld computer, you can use it for finding your way. DeLorme, the leader in computer mapping software, has created a program called Solus 3, designed to be used with a handheld computer connected either wireless or wired to the Internet. It can also be used in conjunction with GPS receiver to pinpoint your current location and offer you point to point, street level maps with route directions. Wow!...with enough money invested in equipment you will never have to go looking for a boy scout anymore.

TRUE PHOTO QUALITY. Printers have come close to photo quality output, but one finally made the full-fledged grade. It's not cheap however. The $500 (street) Epson Stylus Photo 1280 will give fully comparable processed photo quality prints at a fast speed and a reasonable cost per print which will certainly be a whole lot cheaper than photo lab enlargements. If you are a true "Chuck Mason variety" producer of fine prints, this is the machine to die for.

ADD SPICE TO YOUR GRAPHICS LIFE. Here are 3 shareware/freeware utilities that will give steroids to your graphic images. In no time flat you'll be competing with Walt Disney Studios. You can get them at zdnet.com/downloads:

1. Jasc Animation Shop will help you build animated graphics and banners for your Web site. There's all kinds of special effects and wizards built into the program, so that even if you've never done animation before, you'll be up and running in no time. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)

2. Morpheus is a great free tool that lets you automatically morph one image into another. Two versions of the program come in one download-one for newbies, and one for those with graphics experience. (Free/Win95-98-NT)

3. Macromedia Director is a powerful multimedia authoring tool for experienced artists and designers. With it, you can create Shockwave animations, as well as multimedia presentations you can put on CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)

FIGURE OUT YOUR TAX SAVINGS. Under the new tax law you may be in for some enjoyable saving. To figure out how it will effect you, go to www.quicken.com/taxes/taxrelief/estimator/. Answer a few simple questions, et voila! you will have the answer.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORY. One of the ways many of you will increase the speed and efficiency of your system is to add more memory. It's an easy task for any intermediate user that knows how to remove the cover from a computer and identify a memory plug-in module. Adding more memory will usually do more to increase the speed of your computer than stepping up to a faster processor. If you want to run Windows and most software today, you need at least 128 MB of RAM to do the job properly. Do some serious multi-tasking , graphics or games, and 256 MB will make all the difference in the world. Memory is currently way down in price. One of the best places to find what you specifically need for your computer is at Crucial Technology. They are Micron Electronics and offer top value in both price, service, and satisfaction. Micron, a famous maker of computers, is one of the most respected names in the industry.

I recently purchased 128 MB of SDRAM from them at a cost of $29 to up my system to 256, and the difference is outstanding. Their shipping, 2-day air express, was free. I ordered on a Monday morning and it was delivered on Tuesday afternoon. Among all the other nice things, they maintain an 800 toll-free number to answer your questions- 1-800-336-8896. www.crucial.com, email: crucial.service@ micron.com. A tip- It's both faster and less expensive to order online at their Website than to order from them by phone.

GETTING HEALTH INFO. One of the most referenced information categories by users surfing the Web is health. Finding the answers to questions about illness, medications, treatment, etc. is alone sufficient reason to own a computer and connect to the Internet. Although any good search engine (Google, Copernic, etc.) will provide references to specific key words, the following are some of the more popular locations to find your answers or simply browse health/medicine information. Although we've touched upon it before, it's important enough to bear repetition:

  1. Allhealth.com. Also called iVillageHealth, this site is part of iVillage.com: The Women's Network. The company was a founding member of Health Internet Ethics, a non-profit group whose mission is to improve the quality of health information on the Internet. The site has strong community components, including chats and 170 support-group message boards. The content is aimed at women.
  2. CBS Health Watch. This is the consumer site of Medscape, which bills itself as the leading provider of online health information and digital health records. The site offers a variety of interactive tools, which I found to be both intuitive and useful, and access to Medscape's professional-level content.
  3. DrKoop.com. Despite some near-death experiences of its own during the dot-com slowdown, this site is still alive and kicking. It provides a good selection of health news and recall announcements, along with features like its Drug Checker, which can spot potentially harmful drug interactions, and an online medical encyclopedia.
  4. Intelihealth. InteliHealth, a subsidiary of Aetna, provides information from a variety of credible sources, including Harvard Medical School, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. While I found the site's priorities somewhat questionable-"Shopping" is the lead item in its left-column navigation-its Health A to Z section is a nice resource.
  5. WebMD. WebMD's content mission statement says its goal is to provide medical content that's accurate, thorough, and credible. News and health features are augmented with, among other things, a comprehensive listing of diseases and conditions and a lifestyle program headlined by Dr. Dean Ornish. This site is one of our leading favorites.
  6. Drugstore.com is a commercial site that offers the lowest prices on prescription drugs that we have been able to find. It also provides a very complete listing of drugs and medications along with complete information, dosage, precautions, etc. on each.
  7. Mayoclinic.com. One of the most authoritative sources for medical information that you will find anywhere. The name alone speaks for itself.

OUT WITH SPAM! According to Fred Langa, there's a new mail-forwarding service just getting started: It's intended to help you dodge spam, and it's called SpamEx: "Spamex provides people with a simple mechanism to create a new email address at spamex.com (a Spamex address) every time they are requested to provide their real address on-line (i.e. newsletters, sweepstakes, e-commerce sites, posting to message boards, etc.). All email sent to a Spamex address is automatically forwarded to their real email address. Any replies are routed through Spamex to protect their real address. Should unsolicited email start arriving through a Spamex address, the address can be disabled and the unsolicited email will be blocked, without affecting any of the other incoming email." Mail-forwarding services can cause their own problems, of course: If the company has trouble or goes bust, you can lose *all* the email subscriptions that you tied to the service. And there are privacy considerations because you have to give the mail-forwarder your *real* address. But they can be useful. You can find a ton of similar services with a search of "mail forward service," but if SpamEx itself sounds interesting to you, you can check it out at: http://www.spamex.com/

ARE YOU RESOURCE-FULL? When you have it installed, the handy Windows System Resource Meter resides on the taskbar and tracks System, User and GDI resources. The more applications you have open and running, whether they are visible in the foreground or invisible in the background, the more system resources are gobbled up. To install Resource Meter, go to the Control Panel and choose Add/Remove Programs. Under the Windows Setup tab, double-click on Accessories (System tools for Win98) you'll find the System Resource Meter there. You can determine what's running invisibly in the background by pressing ctrl-alt-del. See what you can eliminate that you don't really need. You are often better off having the icon for some applications sit on your desktop and activate them only when you need them, rather than having them run all the time using up resources unnecessarily. Often, when you close a program, invisibly some of it remains open in the background. When things start to get unbearably slow it is often necessary to restart your computer thereby effectively closing whatever may be running that you can't see. Find the programs that have added themselves to your system files (whether accidentally or on purpose)-these are the ones that open folders on start-up for no particular reason. The Windows 98 tool called the System Configuration Utility (SCU) will help you find them. To use the SCU, select Start/Run. Type msconfig and click OK. When the SCU appears, click the Win.ini tab, then double-click the Windows folder. Check to see if you can locate the offending app in the "load=" or "run=" line. If not, click the Startup tab and look for it there. You'll be shocked by how many programs load themselves onto your system without you even knowing it. Disable any of these apps in Startup by clicking the check mark beside them in the SCU.

PRINTING FONT SAMPLES. These days, most computers come pre-installed with a bounty of printer fonts. Knowing how they will all look when they print can be tough. There's an easy way to print samples of the fonts on your computer. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel and double-click the Fonts folder. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the fonts you want to print by clicking with your mouse. Next, right-click on one of the selected fonts and choose Print. You'll have to click OK in dialog boxes for each font you selected, but once you do that, your printer will go to work printing sample pages for each font. :

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Copyright 2001. This article is from the August 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/

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