Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (09/01)

Reviewing Software

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

WINDOWS XP DUE NEXT MONTH. With a scheduled release date (a definite maybe) of October 25, Microsoft's new operating system is almost here. As we've been telling you right along, you would be well advised to sit this one out and wait until the smoke clears. It may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there are enough drawbacks we already know about to warrant more than a cautious approach. Compatibility issues along with a cockamamie new copy protection scheme are prominent on the list of these. Then there's the all-important matter of whether or not XP will run efficiently or at all on your individual computer. Not least of all, DOS is completely out, so if you have any software that needs DOS to run (like the PowerQuest products, you should take even greater caution. I will be following all the reviews and reports as they come out and will keep you advised. Sit tight !!

According to Scot Finnie, publisher of the venerable "Scot's Newsletter," 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.

Microsoft is working on a new utility for prospective XP buyers called Upgrade Advisor. It'll be a free 35MB download (and also available for a nominal fee on CD, although it's unclear whether that's in stores or from the Microsoft Website). Upgrade Advisor is designed to run on PCs with previous versions of Windows. It will let you know, before you shell out for install XP, whether your system components and OS installation will weather the change well. Microsoft hopes that the utility-which won't be available until sometime after "RTM" (Release To Manufacturing) - will be able to list all devices that may have issues, as well as offering links directly to manufacturer sites where you can get more information. Upgrade Advisor also covers software compatibility, giving specific advice about any software on your PC that either will not run, or might not run.

According to Finnie, Windows 98/SE/Me owners will be able to upgrade to either Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional. But Windows NT 4.0 and 2000 users are required to upgrade to the more expensive Windows XP Pro edition. Although no pricing has been set, Microsoft has added a Windows XP Home Edition to Windows XP Professional upgrade SKU. So if you buy the Home version and realize you need Pro, you'll be able to upgrade rather than having to buy the whole thing all over. Finally, if you're moving up from Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or NT 3.51, you must do a clean install. Sorry, no upgrading!

MICROSOFT OFFICE USERS will find lots of good information on a regular basis in The Office Letter available free at http://www.officeletter.com/current.html The debut issue offers a security warning about self-executing Word macros, help with Excel keyboard shortcuts, answers to common Word questions, and an analysis of the reasons you should upgrade to Office XP according to its product manager, David Jaffe. Future editions will show you how to use Outlook's calendar, provide tricks for using Excel's named ranges and percentage formatting, and deliver exclusive FrontPage 2002 tips. Whether you're using Office 97, 2000, or XP, The Office Letter provides tips, Q&A, insights, opinions, and the latest news about "everything Office" to improve your productivity.

PC-CILLIN STILL LEADS THE PACK. What's the best antivirus software? That's the question we get repeatedly at every meeting. Our answer remains the same and without hesitation: Trend Micro's PC-CILLIN! We have found it to be by far the most reliable, efficient and easiest working among its kind. The only negative is that you won't find it in the stores. It's available only at their Web site. On the positive side, you are always assured of getting the very latest files and you save the hidden cost of markup, boxing, shipping, and display.

Becoming familiar with Trend Micro's Web site is a good idea anyway. It is chock full of good info and free tools. It's located at http://www.antivirus.com/free_tools/ and includes a live, online anti-virus scan, and a tool to scan for malicious code in Outlook email and attachments. Their commercial products also have a 30-day free trial, which is nice.

Trend Micro sets the pace for the antivirus industry. Their products protect everyone from home users, to the leaders of commerce and industry. They update their virus pattern files at least weekly and often several times a week. As soon as a new virus is detected, a protective update is automatically downloaded and installed in your computer. The same applies to updates of the program's engine itself. Virus protection is provided for your e-mail and your Web surfing. It's plain and simple, the best there is! Look for PC-Cillin on September's Special Drawing.

THE IDEAL BACKUP. Time and again you have been cajoled, admonished, threatened and scolded- BACKUP! As your mother often told you, "It's for your own good!" Never were truer words spoken. Many is the broad shoulder I have offered over the years to folks whose data got clobbered and had nothing to replace it with. Unfortunately, neither tears nor shoulders can bring back your valuable files that you can no longer access. A reliable backup is the only thing that will do the job. Don't be smug if it hasn't happened to you. Rest assured that in time it will. Start thinking "backup" today!

There are several devices and methods currently in common use for doing backups. Many users backup only their data files, using the rationale that they can always reinstall their programs in an emergency. The fallacy to that thinking is not only the time and effort in reinstallation, but the programs, upgrades, settings, options, tweaks and the like that you no longer have or even remember what they were after you installed them. The only method that really makes sense is a full backup of your entire hard drive so you can restore everything or a part thereof if need arises.

Backing up everything is not a job for floppies, CD's, Zip drives, or even tapes. They all fall far short of accommodating the many gigabytes of information on today's hefty hard drives. That leaves only one sensible choice. two hard drives of similar size in the same machine; one for all your programs and files, and the second to back up and create a mirror image of your first. It's one of the best investments you can make, especially with the price of hard drives at an all-time low today. If you want to be super-safe, you can even place that second hard drive in a USB-connected cradle so that it can be stored at a location remote from your computer.

We recently offered some hard drive buying advice. Without too much repetition and if your computer is of recent enough vintage to accommodate it, a 7200 speed, ATA100 drive is what you should be looking for. The size will vary with your current and anticipated needs, but both drives should ideally be the same capacity. I'm partial to Maxtor (which recently absorbed drivemaker, Quantum) and offers excellent value and many modern nuances in its equipment.

The backup software of choice for hard drive to hard drive backups in the same computer is PowerQuest's Drive Image 4.0. Using it is simple, self explanatory, and very efficient in the hands of any intermediate user. It backs up in less than 15 minutes what used to take me 2 and a half hours to backup with a tape drive. Restoring entire drives or individual files is a piece of cake. Merely copy some or all of what's on your backup drive to your original. It is yet another super-winner from the clever and innovative folks at PowerQuest! They never cease to amaze me by taking the toughest computer tasks and uniquely coming up with software that does the job that nobody else will tackle. A detailed article on using Drive Image written by Gene Barlow, PowerQuest's user group rep, appears in the review section of this issue. If there appears to be any call for it, I will in a future issue give a detailed article on the easiest way to do the job. Take your Uncle Herb's well-meaning advice. Do it today! INSTALLING A NEW HARD DRIVE? If you plan to install a new hard drive in your computer, the installation software is usually included in the boxed version. If you buy via mail-order, it is likely that you will receive a "bare" drive (i.e. installation software, mounting brackets, and data cable NOT included ) at lesser expense, and perfectly OK if you do not need these items. Installation software that will take you step-by-step through the procedure is available for free download at the manufacturer's

Web site:

A second hard drive of equal capacity to your first is the ideal choice for backups.

BEWARE THE WORM! A number of especially nasty viruses have been making the rounds and playing havoc with users' computers of late. These virulent bugs are known as "worms" and spread via attachments contained in your e-mail messages. You need to be immediately suspicious of any email you receive from someone you do not know and in which you are not addressed by name. What's MOST important, never open an attachment unless you know who it's from and what's in it. Many times you will receive a virus that is replicated through the address book of a friend without that individual's knowledge or consent so the message may appear to be coming from someone you know.. That's the way some viruses work. It also helps to make sure your virus software's virus pattern files are up to date and to do a virus scan on both a regular basis and on anything that's at all suspicious. Better to be cautious on the safe side than to risk a virus that can destroy your hard drive.

The most recent infestation that hit quite a few local users as well as throughout the country was known as the SirCam worm. You can read more about it at http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB3J0HpM40U0dd50AT

COMPUTER NOT RESPONDING? Before you reach for the reset button, press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Close Program dialog box opens, listing all of the programs running on your PC at the moment. Look for the program with "(not responding)" at the end of its listing.

It will usually be at the top of the list. Select it and click End Task. If it can, Windows will close this wayward program, freeing you up to save the work in your other programs, so you can then do a proper shutdown or reboot. Follow with a ScanDisk (or the equivalent in your utilities program) and it's likely that you will find lost clusters or cross linked files to correct.

NOTHING IS FOREVER. Before Windows XP hit the streets, Microsoft was already working on its successor, code-named Blackthorne. It looks like the succession of operating system upgrades will go on a lot longer than you and I-or at least as long as people are willing to shell out the cash for newer, but not necessarily better, software.

MODIFY YOUR SCHEDULED TASKS. In your system tray you will probably see a small icon that looks like a window with a tiny red-circled clock in one corner and a notebook in the other. That's your Windows task scheduler. Double-click on it and your list of scheduled tasks will come up. You can then modify any task on the list.

STILL USING WINDOWS EXPLORER? Well, it's better than nothing. Everybody needs a good file manager, but if you want a lot better than Windows Explorer, go for the free Power Desk Utilities. It is a superb file manager. It offers single or dual-pane file management windows, includes a powerful file finder, lets you zip and unzip files, and adds all kinds of other goodies. (Free/Win95-98-NT). Think of it as Windows Explorer on steroids. You can find it at http://www.zdnet.com/downloads. An advanced version is supplied with Ontrack's utility programs and is also available from Ontrack as a standalone. I use it constantly during my computing day for dozens of different chores that nothing else will do anywhere as well or as easily.

A PERENNIAL ANNOYANCE to me has always been the size of the Window that Internet Explorer opens in. If you want it to open in full size (as most everyone does) and it insists on opening in a scrunchy little minimized Window, I have at last found the solution that I have been forever searching for. Go to Start-run-regedit. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. In the right-hand pane, locate and delete the valueWindow_Placement. Don't worry. deleting it will do no harm. Windows will re-create it when needed. Now when you go into Internet Explorer and exit on a maximized Window, it will thereafter reopen on a maximized window. Thank goodness!

DIGITAL CAMERA FANS may be interested in 3 free programs (freeware) available at znet.com/downloads :

  1. Adobe ActiveShare will import photos from your digital camera and let you edit photos. It also helps you remove the dreaded red-eye effect, create custom albums, and then email them or post them online. (Free/Win95-98-NT)
  2. Living Album 2000 lets you create photo albums on your PC and save them as multimedia presentations, upload them to a Web site for sharing, or even download them to your Palm. (Free/Win95-98-NT)
  3. Ofoto organizes your photos, lets you create photo albums on your PC or online, and share them via e-mail. And it lets you retouch your photos as well. (Free/Win95-98-NT)

REGISTRY DETECTIVE. If you are into cleaning up different items in your registry from time to time (definitely not a job for novices), you know that finding what you want is slow as a snail in mud. You can supercharge your searches by downloading Registry Detective from http://pcmag.com/utilities. You will be able to find multiple references super-fast, and you can then select and edit those of your choice in regedit. It's a winner.

FORCE SAFE MODE. As you probably already know, starting up in safe mode avoids loading the drivers and other items that prevent you from dealing with your problem. You can force your computer into Safe Mode by holding down the Ctrl key while the system is booting. A menu will appear with a few options, and one of them will be Safe Mode. Choose this option. Now your system will reboot with bare bones Windows and you can undo your change.

100GB! Maxtor has spun out a 100GB hard drive aimed at a small but growing audience of audio and video fanatics. The $300 DiamondMax D536X is the latest high water mark for an industry in which technology is butting heads with the laws of physics. For several years, hard drive manufacturers have been dramatically increasing capacity in an attempt to outdo one other. The current industry sweet spot is 20GB to 40GB drives, but Maxtor said the sales prospects for 100GB drives look very good. For more info, go to http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBvR0HpM40U0cyI0AO.

LAST MINUTE DISCOUNTS on trips booked two weeks or less from departure are available at site59.com. They are allied with travelocity.com to provide special rates for departures as close as 3 hours in advance.

E-MAIL PROTECTION is yours for the downloading at cnet.com. Some of their interesting offerings in this category include:

VCatch Virus Catcher 3.5.2.8 (CommonSearch) Download for PC The Internet's a dangerous place. E-mail viruses spread faster than the plague, hobbling servers and destroying data, while applications such as ICQ and Napster open up your PC to all sorts of nefarious attacks. VCatch keeps close watch on your messaging applications, catching viruses, worms, and Trojan horses before they can spread and do damage. It catches e-mail viruses downloaded through Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger, as well as those spread through ICQ, Gnutella, Napster, Internet Explorer, and Netscape Navigator.

The software updates itself daily with the latest virus definitions, ensuring that your protection is up-to-date.

VCatch is free, so there's no risk in trying it as an add-on to your more general virus protection.

PGPfreeware 7.0.3 (Network Associates Download for PC Fact is, Internet e-mail communications aren't secure. Anyone can intercept or modify messages, and you'd never know it. Free for noncommercial use, PGPfreeware offers well-proven PGP (which stands for pretty good privacy) encryption to hide sensitive information in e-mail. Public key encryption, the scheme PGP and others use, lets someone else encode an e-mail message with your public key, so you're the only one who can read it. Digital signatures ensure that no one has modified e-mail en route, and that it came from the source it claims. The software performs these key functions seamlessly as a plug-in for Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora.

Additional features include file encryption, self-decrypting archives, PGPNet secure TCP/IP connections, and much more.

SpamKiller 2.81 (Novasoft)

Download for PC E-mail's great scourge is spam, junk e-mail that's often obscene and always obnoxious. SpamKiller sits in your system tray, checking nearly all your POP3 or MAPI e-mail accounts and filtering out many annoying messages.

The program comes with thousands of preset filters to catch the most common types of spam, and you can download new filters or create your own based on the spam you receive. The program keeps a copy of all the e-mail it blocks, so you won't lose any important messages. It also imports address books from e-mail clients such as Microsoft Outlook and lets through mail from any of your contacts. SpamKiller is free for 30 days; registration costs $29.95.

Watch Your Back 4.20 (Grinning Shark Software .) Download for PC Watch Your Back works with Microsoft Outlook to protect your privacy and block attachments that might carry viruses. For example, the Read Receipt feature of Microsoft Mail and Exchange lets a sender know when you've read a particular e-mail. If you're not comfortable with that, Watch Your Back 4.20 will remove read receipts completely or let you choose which messages to acknowledge. This version of the software adds some other handy in-box protection features, such as automatic attachment removal and a quarantine that protects your in-box from viruses and oversized attachments; an HTML shield that strips e-mail of resource-hogging graphics, formatting, and scripts; and a duplicate blocker that deletes multiple copies of a single email message.

BOOST YOUR E-MAIL PRODUCTIVITY with more downloads from cnet.com. Some of what's awaiting you of interest are:

ActiveNames 6.2.5 Download for PC. If you change jobs and e-mail addresses about as often as you change your shoes, try ActiveNames. This free plug-in keeps track of your contacts and lets others stay in touch with you. Each time you send e-mail, ActiveNames checks its database of registered users to make sure you're using that person's most recent e-mail address. If your contact is registered with ActiveNames and the address you have isn't current, the software notifies you, and (with the other party's authorization), sends you the most recent e-mail address. ActiveNames software works with most PC e-mail clients (alas, no Mac clients), including AOL, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, Pegasus Mail, and Eudora, as well as Web-based mail via

Microsoft Internet Explorer.

ePrompter 1.04 (Tiburon Technology Download for PC A number of free utilities check multiple POP3 mail accounts for you, but ePrompter also checks Web-based e-mail, which we love. The free software supports up to eight accounts and works with Web services that include AOL, Juno, Yahoo Mail, and Microsoft Hotmail. The program sits in your system tray and alerts you when new mail arrives. It even displays the message header and the text of the message in a small pop-up window onscreen and works as a screensaver that shows the number of new messages you have in each account.

Call Tracker (Dovico Systems Download for PC The clever little utility works only with Microsoft Outlook, but it's impressive nonetheless. Call Tracker acts like a personal receptionist, checking the caller ID of incoming calls and opening the appropriate contact from your Outlook address book. It's handy for screening calls but also keeps records of the calls you receive. You can set the program to automatically add unknown numbers as new contacts in your address book, in case your friends are unlisted, for example. Of course, for this software to work, you need a modem that supports caller ID as well as caller ID service from your phone company. Use this utility to test whether your hardware supports Call Tracker.

Quickhead 3.0 (Danere Group) Download for PC Nothing's worse than receiving a huge attachment over a modem; you'll spend half your day downloading it. Quickhead solves this problem, letting you sort through and delete your e-mail before you download it from the server. It supports multiple POP3 and Hotmail accounts, notifies you when you receive new mail, displays message headers for each account, and lets you preview complete messages. Quickhead isn't strictly a plug-in-it's more a utility that sits in your system tray and lets you monitor incoming e-mail-but it's handy because you don't have to switch among e-mail clients to preview your mail.

HACKER/SPAM TRACER. If you are looking for an excellent tool to trace hackers and spammers, go to http://combat.uxn.com/.

TIRED OF SPAM Who isn't? It's a universal nuisance. Here are two freeware utilities from zdnet/downloads that will help eliminate the junkmail before it reaches your trusting eyes:

1. EmC (Email Control) is a tool that checks for junk mail on your ISP's server and kills it before it ever reaches you.

It comes with a set of spam filters, and you can add your own as well. (Free/Win95-98-NT)

2. Spam Buster is a comprehensive spam-killing system. It comes with an address list of 15,000 known spammers and lets you add addresses and rules of your own. You can preview your mail before killing spam, launch your e-mail program automatically, check up to 12 different e-mail boxes for spam, and much more. (Free/Win95-98-NT)

PASSWORD PROBLEMS Here's a couple of shareware approaches you can find at zdnet.com/downloads

  1. SnadBoy's Revelation is a remarkable program that will help you recover lost passwords that your system remembers but hides behind the familiar row of asterisks in the password box. It'll let you peek behind those rows of asterisks so you can recover your password. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
  2. Passwords Plus lets you keep track of as many passwords as you want. It encrypts them so no one else can read them, and will even generate random passwords for you if you want. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
  3. v-GO Universal Password is a free program that lets you create a single password that will automatically log you onto any Web site. It also can protect your files with password protection and lets you lock down your computer so that only you can use it. (Free/Win95-98-NT)

IF WEB SITE BUILDING is your cup of tea, here are some freeware applications you will find at http://zdnet.com/downloads that will make it easier for you:

1. LiveSite is for anyone who wants to create a Web site fast. It offers all kinds of wizards, themes, and templates to build your pages, and even makes it easy to include weather forecasts, news feeds, and more on your site.

(Free/Win95-98-NT)

2. UnFREEz is a great tool for creating animated GIFs for your Web pages. It's a breeze to use-no technical skill required. (Free/Win95-98-NT)

3. Applet Menu Pack is a collection of three Java applets that let you create menus, mouseovers, fade effects, pop-up menus, and more. (Free/Win95-98-NT)

400G IN 03. IBM's new magnetic coating technology resulting in an amazing 400 Gigabyte hard drive capacity is due in a computer near you in 2003.

BROADBAND ADVICE. You will find some excellent info on all types of broadband (cable and DSL) connections at dslreports.com and cablemodemhelp,com

TELL ME A STORY. A cheaper form of the spoken word is coming to the Handspring Visor. Audible, a company that specializes in spoken-word audio, announced an add-on module for listening to books and other media.

The Audible Advisor fits into the Visor's Springboard expansion slot and includes 16MB of memory, which Audible said is enough to hold nearly 4.5 hours of spoken audio. Audible is selling the module for $129, or for $49 when buyers sign up for a one-year subscription to its service. The monthly service starts at $12.95 for one audio book and one periodical subscription. http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB3J0HpM40U0deF0Al

DIGITAL CAMERA INFO of excellent content is yours at megapixel.net. Some interesting reading here may improve the quality of your digital picture taking..

GAME NUTS will enjoy the inside scoop on all matters game-wise at http://gamespy.com

BETA SOFTWARE VERSION NEWS will give you an inside view on what's up and coming in the world of software. Tap into it at http://betanews.com.

CELL PHONE NUTS can find the inside scoop on a service provider, pricing plans, and a plethora of related information at http://getconnected.com.

CONSUMER PRODUCT REVIEWS and related information is yours at http://consumersearch.com.

CHECKOUT A VENDOR. For an inside line on an online store, go to http://ratingwonders.com or http://bizrate.com. Be an educated consumer and know just who you are doing business with.

LASER PRINTERS AREN'T DEAD! They are still the instrument of choice for users whose printing needs are largely black and white text. The cost per printed page is less than 1/3rd that of inkjet and they are much faster. The Samsung ML-1210 turns out 12 pages per minute at 600x resolution and comes with 8MB of RAM, all at a retail cost of $200. Its laser cartridge is good for at least 2500 pages. Hard to beat!

CD AUTO INSERT, or automatic activation of your CD when you insert it in your CD-ROM drive, may be something you don't want to happen. It's fine when you are installing new software, but it can be a gross nuisance at other times. There are 2 ways to eliminate it:

  1. Hold down the Shift key while inserting the disk. You will need to continue holding down the key until the disk activity stops. This deactivation is a temporary one as you insert each CD.
  2. You can permanently turn off this feature within the Control Panel. First select the System icon, then select the Device Manager tab and press the ( + ) symbol next to where your CD is listed. Right-click the CD's name that appears and select Properties. Select the Settings Tab and remove the check mark next to Auto Insert Notification.

You'll need to reboot for the changes to become active.

PASSWORD PROTECTION IS GREAT, until that inevitable day when you lose or forget your password. Fear not- http://zdnet.com/downloads has some handy utilities to help you overcome your loss:

  1. SnadBoy's Revelation is a remarkable program that will help you recover lost passwords that your system remembers but hides behind the familiar row of asterisks in the password box. It'll let you peek behind those rows of asterisks so you can recover your password. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
  2. Passwords Plus lets you keep track of as many passwords as you want. It encrypts them so no one else can read them, and will even generate random passwords for you if you want. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
  3. v-GO Universal Password is a free program that lets you create a single password that will automatically log you onto any Web site. It also can protect your files with password protection and lets you lock down your computer so that only you can use it. (Free/Win95-98-NT).

TASK SCHEDULING (98, Me) Windows 98 and Me (not Win95) will allow you to schedule various tasks to be performed automatically throughout the day so that you don't have to do the tasks yourself. Some third-party software, such as virus scanners, also come with their own built-in schedulers, and you should not duplicate these.

To use the Windows Task scheduler, select Accessories in the Programs menu, and then select the System Tools menu. Once there, select Scheduled Tasks. A small menu will open up with one or more rows. (Some third-party software products will automatically add items to the scheduler; you should leave those alone.)

To add a task, click the Add Scheduled Task row and a Wizard will take you through the steps to add any task you want. Note: Windows will search for any executable programs on your hard drive, so if you want, you can set a task to start any program at any given time.

THE SYSINTERNALS WEB SITE provides you with advanced utilities, technical information, and source code related to Windows 9x, Windows Me, and Windows NT/2000 internals that you won't find anywhere else- http://www.sysinternals.com

WINZIP 8.1 BETA. Everyone needs a good utility to zip (compress) and unzip files. If you want to save or e-mail a file of significant size, the only way to do it intelligently is to zip it first. When you download files or programs from the Internet, it is more than likely they will be in zip format. In either case, the most popular and among the most efficient utility to do the job is the venerable Winzip, newly released in its beta 8.1version.

If you don't have Winzip on your computer, shame on you. It's available from just about any and every shareware site for downloading, or you can order it on CD direct from WinZip computing for a small and well worth it sum. If you already have WinZip installed, you may want to try the beta of the new version 8.1. You can accomplish either by going to http://winzip.com.

The 8.1 beta upgrade is loaded with new features. Although I am not keen on beta software, I have been enjoyably using WinZip since version1 and have never experienced a single problem with any version, beta or final. The key features in WinZip are:

Some of the many new features in the 8.1 Beta Version include:

When the final 8.1 version is released, it will be supplied free to all registered users as has been the policy in the past. If you are not already a WinZip user, hesitate no longer and avail yourself of this superb utility that belongs on everyone's computer. :

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Copyright 2001. This article is from the September 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 1,300+ 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.