Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (11/02)

Reviewing Software

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

E-mail viruses. The most common portal of entry for computer virus infections is via your email.

Originally, this could occur ONLY if and when you opened an email attachment containing the virus. The people who create these viruses may be devious and malicious, but stupid they're not! Rather than put their intelligence to good use, they stay up nights figuring workarounds to virus protection efforts. So, while most email viruses were originally contracted only in attachments, now the text in the body of the message itself is also at risk. Here are the facts and caveats:

An email message can contain a virus ONLY in messages that are in HTML format, NOT those that are in plain text. Consequently, unless you have the proper antivirus protection (see further), you are safer if you don't preview your email messages. Most users can recognize the messages that they need to delete without the need to preview them first. It's up to you to decide whether you might make an error in this regard, or run the virus risk. Outlook Express, which most of our members use, can be optioned to turn off the message preview function.

HOWEVER, if you use PC-Cillin 2002, as so many of our members do, you are safe to preview your messages as long as you are certain that either your real-time scan is enabled (this will be automatic if your installation is correct), OR you have enabled your internet mail scan option (in the program's settings tab) is enabled. Either of the two which run constantly in memory will protect you when you preview your messages.

Of course and as we have so often advised you, any antivirus protection is complete only if you regularly update your virus pattern files. PC-Cillin automatically provides an update at least every Tuesday, and often more frequently.

Need to reinstall windows? For an endless variety of reasons it sometimes becomes necessary to reinstall Windows. To help you do the job right, go to: windowsreinstall.com. This site will show you how to install, upgrade , reinstall, repair , troubleshoot and fix Microsoft Windows XP ( Also known as WinXP & whistler ) , Windows 98 ( Also known as Win98 ) , Windows ME ( Also known as WinME & Windows Millennium) , Windows 95 ( Also known as Win95 ), Windows 2000 ( also known as Win2k & W2K ), Windows NT ( Also known as WinNT), OEM computers ( Dell, Advent, Time, HP, and Compaq home PC's and Laptops ). Also tips, tricks, help, hints, how to build a computer plus much much more.

Lightning-fast regeditx. Regedit is the most popular command there is for getting at the registry (not a recommended activity for beginners). It's also the most frustratingly slow. Here's a new regedit that makes it a different ball game, REGEDIT-X. Not only will you find and fix what you are looking for super-fast, the icing on the cake is it's free! Download it from http://www.dcsoft.com/products.htm. It's a winner!

Rosecitysoftware.com, in case you missed it, is a great place to browse for an interesting collection of both shareware and freeware. Try it.... you'll like it!

Block dangerous e-mail attachments. You all know by now that viruses enter your computer most commonly via infected e-mail attachments. Applications like a good antivirus program and Zone Alarm Pro are most helpful in discovering them before you inadvertently open them. Another helpful procedure is to setup your security features in Internet Explorer as well to ward off these dangerous attachments. The Internet Explorer 6 unsafe file list includes any file types that may have script or code associated with them. To add additional file types to be blocked or remove file types that should not be blocked. Here's how:

Click Start , point to Settings (or click Control Panel ), and then click Control Panel (or switch to Classic View or View - All Control Panel Options ).

If the file type you want to add is not listed, perform the following steps:

a. Click New.

b. In the Create New Extension dialog box, type the file extension you want to add to the unsafe file list.

c. Click OK , and then click Advanced.

Click to place a check mark (block) or remove the check mark (allow) from the Confirm open after download checkbox.

NOTE: You cannot remove the check from Confirm open after download to allow some file types. For example, .exe files are in the default unsafe file list in Internet Explorer and cannot be allowed.

There is an excellent resource offered by slipstick.com which explains quite a bit about the subject of Outlook, Outlook Express, and email security. Lots of cool programs, too!

Windows media player 9. Now in beta version, this new media player is available to you for download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp, or at. http://download.com.com/3000-2139-10146792.html

The player's interface offers some new configuration options:

XP Service pak 1. A list of all fixes included in SP1 is available at http://support.microsoft.com/support/ServicePacks/Windows/XP/SP1FixList.asp ; a FAQ is available at http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/faq.asp ; and all other info and download links are available here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/default.asp

Eicar standard anti-virus test file, 68kb, free. The best time to learn how your antivirus scanner works most assuredly isn't in the middle of an attack. Fortunately, you can run your PC through a test using the EICAR Anti-Virus Test File, a small program that antivirus vendors list in their virus definition databases. The Test File shows you how your scanner will react to a bona fide infection and lets you familiarize yourself with the warning messages and dialog boxes you'll have to navigate. Once you know the ropes, you won't be caught off-guard when forced to deal with a real virus attack. http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

Sidestep adds a collapsible window on the left side of your browser where you can find the latest prices on airplane flights to anywhere in the world. It searches through several different carriers, and also offers rental car and hotel rates too. This one is great for all you frequent travelers. Get it free at www.sidestep.com

1-2-3 Free solitaire. This collection of 12 solitaire card games includes Carpet, Easthaven, Fifteens, Four Seasons, FreeCell, Klondike, Monte Carlo, Precedence, Royal Rendezvous, Simplicity, Spider Two Suits, and Spider One Suit. Enjoy features such as animated cards, autoplay, sound, and more. Each game has more than 9 trillion possible outcomes, so the collection remains fresh no matter how many times you play. This updated version adds one new game, Gaps. Versino 5.9 also adds improved customization of cards and backgrounds. Get it at http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2101-10127248.html?tag=list

Windows XP update. According to Matt Berger of IDG news services, Microsoft will slip out an interim desktop version of Windows before 2004 under pressure from some customers who signed up for its licensing plans, several analysts predict. Microsoft's current roadmap calls for the next release of Windows for the desktop to appear in the second half of 2004, officials say. That release is code-named Longhorn. Microsoft has promised to pack a number of new technologies into the operating system that coincide with its Web-based .Net initiative.

For video fans. This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs or DVDs that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like DivX, MOV, RM, WMV and ASF. We also have an extensive list of standalone DVD Players with compatibility information such as CD-R(W), DVD-R(W), VCD, SVCD, MP3 and more. Use the menu to the left to navigate our site. Enjoy. (Start with the Newbie section if you have no clue where to start.). www.vcdhelp.com

Winamp is free. With numerous useful features and a wide variety of available skins, Winamp is the almost undisputed king of the Windows audio players. Visit the Winamp page to read all about this freeware program. Currently you can download Winamp Version 2.80. Or, if you're just a little bit adventurous, you can download and try Winamp 3 Release Candidate. www.winamp.com

East-Tec file shredder. Deleting a file with Windows or with other programs will leave the file contents on your hard disk, easy to be recovered by anyone that has access to your computer. East-Tec File Shredder securely destroys (shreds) sensitive and private files beyond recovery. Simply drag and drop files to the shredder icon on your desktop, or select the files you want to destroy directly from the Windows Explorer right-click menu.

Your sensitive files will be gone for good and nobody will be able to recover your valuable corporate trade secrets, business plans, personal files, photos or confidential letters. East-Tec File Shredder overwrites and verifies the destruction of every bit of the file, making recovery impossible.

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2092-10142713.html?tag=lst-2-12

Popupbuster is a small non-invasive pop-up killer program. Two built-in Artifical Intelligence engines kill all annoying popup windows without user intervention. Minimal CPU, Memory and Resource usage. 'No installation' feature prevents any system corruption (download & run). Can run off the internet. Cooperative, never interferes with Internet setup. Resides on system tray when minimized. http://www.cableaid.com/PopUpBuster/

The Google toolbar increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the Web, and it takes only seconds to install. When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar. This means you can quickly and easily use Google to search from any Web site location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.

Google Toolbar features include the familiar Google Search, plus other great features such as Search Site, which allows user to search only the pages of the site they're visiting; PageRank, which shows users Google's ranking of the current page; Page Info, which allows users to access more information about a page, including similar pages, pages that link back to that page, as well as a cached snapshot; Highlight, which highlights your search terms as they appear on the page; and more. Get it at google.com

Having computer problems? In a recent PC Magazine article, noted computer columnist (and, by the way, president of a PC users group in CA) details some of the most common and vexing hardware and software problems and how you can solve them Go to http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/0,aid,103763,pg,1,tk,dnWknd,00.asp for details.

Free updates. For the latest updates in both drivers and software, be sure to visit http://download.com.com/2001-2014-0.html It's worth a trip from anywhere! For the latest releases in shareware, some free and some not, try http://download.com.com/3140-2001-0-1-2.html

A personal photo map. Would you like a printed copy of a photo map that shows your house? You can get these photos from Microsoft's Terraserver Web site. To make it easier to work with the photos and to locate the area you want to view, you can download a free copy of USAPhotoMaps from JDMCox Software, .http://jdmcox.com/

Print font samples in win98. To print samples of your fonts, choose Settings from the Start menu, then in the Control Panel, double-click the Fonts folder. Hold down the Ctrl key, click the desired fonts, then right-click one of them and choose Print. Once you click OK in the dialog boxes for each font you selected, your printer will then print sample pages for each font.

Faulty form frustration. Every so often in filling out a form on the net you mistakenly omit something. When you attempts to go back and correct your error, the whole cotton pickin' form is empty, forcing you to start from scratch. PC World's Steve Bass offers a fix for this annoying problem and some others that follow:

In Internet Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options, select the General tab, choose Settings, and then check Every time you start Internet Explorer. In Netscape, click Edit, Preferences, double-click Advanced, and click Cache. Set the memory cache to at least 1024KB, and the disk cache to a minimum of 7680KB. Then clear both caches. Note that you may have to click your browser's refresh button to see a revisited page's dynamic data.

Keep your Office XP menu settings. 'Custom' menus are the default in Office; but once you change this setting in one Office app, it affects every other installed Office program in one fell swoop. In Word, click any empty spot on the toolbar, choose Customize, Options, and check Always show full menus. Voil?: No more ? la carte Office menus.

Sensible download file saving. When you download a file from the Internet, before saving it, change its name so that makes sense to you and easily identifies it. If you use Power Desk 5, you have an additional option (ctrl-n) to place a note following the file name and info that will describe the file in your own words or make whatever additional notation you wish.

Usable daily info. In the course of your everyday activities your computer can be a close companion to provide you with a considerable amount of useful information:

* Take your umbrella? - weather.com

* Who can fix your house? -contracterguide.com

* Need a lawyer? -directory.findlaw.com

* All the demographic info you'll ever need. - factfinder.census.gov

* What's on TV tonight? -tvguide.com/listings

* What's in the movies? -moviefone.com

Of course, everything about anything you could possibly want to know awaits you at google.com.

Looking for a cd-rw drive? PC World has a very informative comparison report of the 10 leading drives at http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,104246,tk,cxb,00.asp

Astronomy buff? Even if you are just scientifically curious, you will find some dynamite pictures taken from the Hubble space telescope at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html.

Handy wheel uses. That wheel on your mouse (if you have one) can be useful with Internet Explorer. With the Ctrl key depressed, moving the wheel forward or backward resizes the font. With the Shift key depressed, the wheel moves you backward or forward to other sites visited in the current browsing session.

Lotto computer help. Lotto Logic Professional is a number-picking analyzer that handles more than 90 percent of today's lotteries worldwide. It allows selections of numbers (from those hit most often to those that seldom win) as well as quick picks and personal choices. Range Finder is one of the many features you will find in Lotto Logic Professional.

Instead of just entering past draws and relying on static sets of past draws for results, Lotto Logic will run through the entire database of past draws and find the range or ranges of past draws from which you should select numbers. Get it free at timersoft.com

Quicken 2003. According to PC World, the most significant change this season: Quicken has sacrificed its straightforward interface, apparently in hopes of making users aggressive consumers of online financial services (which has long been a Money objective). Both new programs are heavily laden with ads, alerts, and advice links that whisk you away to pages where the extra-cost services of the publishers and their partners are conspicuously available. Of course, you can experience most of these so-called benefits using last year's software if you like. The new versions offer no significant innovations, though a few old features have been slightly tweaked and/or relocated. For a full rundown, go to http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,104318,tk,prx,00.asp

Microsoft Money 2003. Also according to PC World and in contrast with Quicken, Money-an already effective desktop gateway for now-and-future Microsoft .Net services-got just a nip and a tuck. A favorite tweak is Tax Estimator 2003, which compares last year's tax line items against this year's, side-by-side, and estimates your obligation/refund. The Capital Gains Estimator shows you how your taxes change for different stock sales.

Most of the innovation, however, is reserved for the MSN.com Web site and can be unlocked only if you sign up for a .Net Passport password. Even though Money isn't as insistent about your taking that step this year, it exerts gentle pressure pretty relentlessly. Still, Money lovers set on upgrading will thank Microsoft for not changing the way the program works just to sell this year's models (which go for $35 to $95 before mail-in rebates, depending on the edition: no-frills Standard; full-featured Deluxe; Deluxe & Business, which has Schedule C support; or Suite, with tax and legal software).

Current users of Quicken or Money already have the best money managers available. Both software lines are full-featured, and the easiest program to use is the one you already know. If you haven't chosen yet and you want to buy a lot of online services, you might prefer Money. It's more tightly linked to its partner Web site, and MSN.com's service offerings are broader than Quicken.com's. Get more at http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,104318,tk,prx,00.asp. One caveat about Money 2003: Like it or not, installing the program also installs Internet Explorer 6.0.

XP compatability with old programs. One of the most powerful features of Windows XP is its capability to run programs designed for earlier systems, even DOS. If you have one of those relics in your closet, dust it off, browse to the application file for the program in Windows Explorer, right click to Properties and click the "Run This Program In Compatability Mode For" box. Select the Windows version for which the program was intended and click the Display Settings checkbox appropriate for the program, if you know the correct settings. Click OK, then double click on the program file and take a step back in time.

The home network hassle. Got net? Not Internet, but a network of your own-one that connects two or more PCs so they can share files, printers, and a single Internet account? According to PC World's Yardena Arar, if you have a home network or are contemplating getting one, you're not alone.

Research firm Parks Associates estimates that 7.2 million households will have a network by year's end-up from 5.7 million in 2001-and that 21 million will by 2006. However, you've also got company if you've tried to set up a network and either failed or only partially succeeded.

Home networks can really help you get the most out of your PCs and peripherals. But no matter what networking-gear Web sites or computer-sales reps may tell you, the technology is neither simple nor foolproof.. Problems range from system crashes to PCs that couldn't see each other on the network to ISPs that made network setups problematic. For the complete story, go to http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,102492,tk,cx091902a,00.asp ne

Who is hacking you? SmartWhois is a useful network information utility that allows you to find out all available information about an IP address, host name, or domain, including country, state, city, name of the network provider, and administrator and technical support contact information.

Unlike standard Whois utilities, SmartWhois can find the information about a computer located in any part of the world, intelligently querying the right database and delivering all the related records within a few seconds. The program can retrieve information from more than 20 servers all over the world. SmartWhois can save obtained information to an archive file. Users can load this archive the next time the program is launched and add more information to it. This feature allows you to build and maintain your own database of IP addresses and host names. You can also load a list of IP addresses as a text file and have SmartWhois process the whole list. Find it at www.tamosoft.com

Compressing outlook express 6 mail folders. Although Outlook Express 6 automatically compresses your mail folders when they reach 20 percent wasted space, you might want to compress periodically the folders manually. To do this, run Outlook Express and choose Tools|Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Maintenance tab. Click Clean Up Now. When the Local File Cleanup dialog opens, click Compact. When the operation finishes, click Close. Back in Options, click Close to dismiss the dialog box .

Digital camera roundup. It may be time to stop thinking about it and choose a digital camera for yourself, your family, your business, or all three. Whether it's your first one or you're just trading up, PC Magazine has 23 of the leading models from the top manufacturers, tested, scored, reviewed, and more. They've even got slide shows of image-quality results that you won't find anywhere but at PCMag.com. Read it and find out which $300, $500, or $1,000+ digital camera is best-suited to be your trusted, image-capturing companion. http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo?y=eSAJ0FJ1vh0EvR0qb50Av

A free picture browser. ZAP Picture Browser offers you not only a way to browse through your pictures, but also a way to print up to four pictures on a single sheet of paper. You can select the pictures either from a single folder, or from multiple folders. ZAP Picture Browser displays files in bmp, cmp, cur, dcx, emf, eps, fpx, jpeg, jpg, gif, ico, img, mac, msp, pcc, pcd, pct, pcx, png, psd, tga, tif, ras, wmf, and wpg formats. http://www.zapsolution.com/zpbus.htm

New hard drives coming soon. We are at the brink of a revolution in hard drives. New serial ATA drives will be available this fall that run 5 times faster than current drives and will offer capacities up to 200 gigabytes. What's equally if not more interesting is that you will be able to connect them to a serial ATA card that will easily plug into one of the PCI slots on your mother board. Consequently, they will not count as IDE devices in your computer which are limited in numbers. It will then be easy to place two hard drives internally in your computer, using one as a backup to the other with software like Powerquest's Drive Image.

Hard drive warranties. The three-year warranty on PC disk drives that has been standard for more than a decade is going the way of the dodo bird on October 1. All three top manufacturers are switching to a one-year warranty for most consumer models. Maxtor, Western Digital, and Seagate, which share more than 85 percent of the consumer market, call the move a business decision that brings their warranty policies into line with those for the other major components inside a PC.

Windows shutdown problems. When trying to shutdown, have you ever sat gazing mournfully at your screen waiting for the message telling you that it's safe to turn off your computer, but that message never comes? Sure- we all have. For some of you, it's a constant problem. The source of this irritation is something that you have running in the background that you thought you have closed down, but unbeknown to you is still running. It may be a program you were just using, or much more likely something that you have running in memory all the time, like your antivirus or antihacker software. There are a few approaches to solving this common problem:

  1. Experiment by exiting the suspected application from your system tray before shutting down. You will eventually isolate the problem app so that you can routinely close it before shutdown.
  2. Use the freeware program "End It All" to close everything running in memory before shutdown.
  3. Perhaps the best single source for resolving all these and other common shutdown issues is James A. Eshelman's "Windows Shutdown & Restart center" at:

http://www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm

Google News. News buffs are going to love this one. Google News scans 4000 news sources in real time, creating a dynamic news page displaying top world, U.S., and business news. The service is completely automated. It relies on the same information-ranking technology used in the popular Google search engine to deliver relevant results.

The same technology is used to let users search a 28-day index of news stories. Try it.... it's great! http://news.google.com/

Backing up Outlook Express mail. Making backups of your Outlook Express mail folders is often less problem than locating the mail folders. To locate your mail folders, run Outlook Express and then open your folder list. Right-click a folder and choose Properties. The Properties dialog box will give you the folder's location. Since all the folders are in the same place, you can now use Windows Explorer to go there. Copy the DBX files to your backup disk (floppy, Zip drive, etc.).

Consumer info. For the latest in consumer information, prices, etc., try:<http://www.consumerworld.org/>

It provides lots of resources for exploring a whole range of consumer products.

The search for quality hardware

Chapter one: Mitsubishi's malfunctioning monitor mess Fool me once, shame on you. Well, you know the rest of it. In this case, Mitsubishi won't get the chance to do it to me again. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Less than four years ago, I was swayed by a series of computer magazine rave reviews to look at the Mitsubishi 900U Diamondtron Pro Monitor. It was touted as the most fabulous thing since sliced bread. By golly, it sure looked like they were right. It's a 19 inch flat faced CRT with superb color, brightness and definition, aperture grill-type CRT monitor. For newbies, CRT stands for cathode ray tube, the standard monitor type before the recent LCD "skinny-minnies" made the scene. It cost me a lot more than twice the going rate for a first-class display at the time, but I broke my piggy bank open and went for it.

For three and a half years I was as happy as a college boy in a harem with that monitor. Suddenly, for reasons unknown, it pooped out on me. Well, its warranty period was 3 years. I figured an outfit as well known as Mitsubishi would still back their top of the line product a half year after the warranty expired. Right? Heck no- wrong!

A call to Mitsubishi's support informed me that I was a few months out of warranty, and a repair would run me their "standard" fee of $250 (plus $50 shipping), in addition to a hernia getting the sucker in my car and shlepping the 60 pound behemoth to UPS. Well, a brand new monitor of the same size and quality runs about $300 today with a new warranty and delivered to my door. Completely crazy I'm not!

My favorite top-notch monitor repair man is Glenn Baldwin at Computer Repair, Inc. on Bee Ridge and Tuttle (see their advertisement in the Monitor). Glenn has been repairing monitors for more than 40 years and is the best in the business. Unfortunately, Mitsubishi provides parts only to its own Mitsubishi repair facilities, so off I went with this monster to a Mitsubishi repair shop in Bradenton where I was in for another shock. They were unable to diagnose the problem without help from a Mitsubishi factory technician. Now get this for a laugh- it took 2 weeks to find a techie familiar with their own product because, according to them, it was an older monitor (a half-year out of warranty means obsolescence to Mitsubishi!) and nobody was still around who was familiar with this "old" monitor. I thought about the IBM monitor that I had for more than 10 years and was working fine when I gave it away to a relative who is still using it.

Now comes the insult to add to injury. When the local facility finally managed to diagnose the problem, Mitsubishi informed them that the necessary part was no longer available because it was an "old" monitor. Mitsubishi is now partnered with NEC, which recently absorbed Packard-Bell. It appears that Packard-Bell (the Yugo of the computer industry) quality has pervaded the conglomerate.

Am I ticked? You wanna believe it! It behooves me now to look for something in a quality monitor whose manufacturer offers what I keep preaching to you about- service and support! With the help of my good friend, Glenn, I will hopefully find a good 19 inch flat CRT from a manufacturer that stands behind their products. If we find such an animal at a reasonable price and in time, I will let you know all about it in the next issue.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2.

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Copyright 2002. This article is from the November 2002 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.