Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairman's Industry Comments (02/03)

The Computer Buffet - This and That from Here & There
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

THE END OF THE WINDOWS 95 ERA. The new year brings with it the end of Microsoft's support for Windows 95 and anything earlier. Microsoft will provide no further updates, online help or patches for those products. You will still find many other sources for tech assistance including SPCUG's online bulletin board. The object is to encourage users to update to Windows XP. The problem is that many older systems running Win95 can't handle XP. It may be time for a new computer???

ELECTRONIC GREETING CARD WARNING. Beware of Greeting Card Spyware. Those cute little electronic greeting cards you occasionally get from friends may be a real problem. The ones I'm speaking of are those where there's a link that says "[Some Name] has sent you a greeting card. Go here to get your greeting card."

There's a new card company called "FriendGreetings.com" When you get a card notification from them and click on the link, it will take you to their site. You will be notified that you have to install an ActiveX control in order to view the card. When you begin to install, the first thing that pops up is what is known as a "EULA" (End User License Agreement). It is very long, and you will not read it. They're counting on that. When you scroll to the bottom of it and click "Accept," you have agreed to the terms of the EULA (end user license agreement).

Part of what you will have agreed to is to have monitoring/spyware software installed on your computer which will periodically report a vast array of data back to the card company. The other part that you've agreed to is to have the software send mail to every address in your address-book (if you are using Outlook or Outlook Express).

Please do not respond to these eGreeting cards. The following is a list of some sources that you should not respond to: friend-card.com, friend-card.net friend-cards.com, cool-downloads.com, cool-downloads.net, friend-greet.com, friend-greeting.com, friend-greeting.net, friend-greetings.com, friend-greetings.net, friend-cards.net, laugh-mail.com .

WINDOWS MAXIMIZER 2.2 is a good freeware utility to eliminate the nuisance of having to maximize your Internet Explorer window every time it opens. Windows maximizer will do the job for you automatically. It also stops pop-up windows along with other neat features. Get it at http://www.jiisoft.com/iemaximizer/index.htm

SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY. Search your hard disk for so-called spy- or adbots, modules that are responsible for showing ads and transmitting information back to vendors. If SpyBot Search and Destroy finds such modules, it will remove them or replace them with empty dummies. In most cases, the host software still runs after removing the bot.

Among the adbots SpyBot targets are Aureate, CLPRS, Comet Cursors, eZula HotText, Gator, GoHip, Radiate, WebHancer, WildTangent. SpyBot also removes your usage tracks (last-visited Web sites, opened files, started programs, and cookies).

Get it free at http://security.kolla.de/

WEB ADVICE FOR NEWBIES. Are you new to the Internet? There's a great site for new users who want to learn how to make the most of the Internet. The site is called Bare Bones 101 and it's supplied by the University of South Carolina Beaufort Library. Even if you're not really new to the Internet, you may find some useful information in Bare Bones 101. You'll find the site here: http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html

REMOVE DOUBLESPACE AND DRIVESPACE. Nobody uses the disk compression utility DoubleSpace or its latter-day replacement, DriveSpace, anymore. Hard drives of immense capacity have become so affordable that it's foolish to do so. But by default, either Dblspace.bin or Drvspace.bin loads into memory when Windows starts. You can prevent this by simply deleting those files from both the root directory and the C:\Windows\Command folder.

THREE FREE ALTERNATIVES TO MICROSOFT OFFICE. Microsoft Office is a killer application filled with a passel of bells and whistles. You may not need them all. Jason Parker has found some great productivity apps that cost a whole lot less than MS Office-in fact, they're free. Plus, they're all compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, so you should still be able to swap files with your Microsoft-using friends. You can find these by searching zdnet.com or google.

RESTORE DESKTOP ICON LAYOUT. Ever find that the layout of your desktop icons resembles scrambled eggs after a resolution change or a startup in safe mode? I've been waiting a long time for the answer to this pesky problem. Here it is: A free download, available at http://www.pcnineoneone.com/tweaks/layout.zip , lets you save and later restore your icon layout.

Download Layout.zip and unzip it to extract two files. Move Layout.dll to the Windows\System32 folder. Double-click on Layout.reg to add it to the Registry. If you now right-click on almost any of the standard desktop icons you'll see two new items: Save Desktop Icon Layout and Restore Desktop Icon Layout. Choose the former whenever you change the layout; choose the latter when you need to restore it.

GOOGLE GOES FROOGLE. Most users and experts will agree that Google is the best search organ on the planet. If Google can't find it, chances are it can't be found. This modern-day marvel alone makes a computer well worth having. Our favorite super-searcher is now branching out with the same dexterity to go shopping for you and find the best deals on whatever it is you are looking for. You will find it at froogle.com. First looks show it to be as good as its daddy.

USEFUL AND INTERESTING shareware, freeware, and system files you may need are all located at http://members.aon.at/dfg/products/downloads_e.htm . It's well worth your visit!

AHAVIEW. With this free application, you can browse images in the thumbnail mode, view images in the full-screen mode, convert your images to BMP and JPEG formats, copy images to the clipboard, and copy, move, duplicate and rename files. It's a free download at http://www.iconutils.com/ahaview/free.htm .

WHAT ARE THOSE PROGRAMS? It's not too difficult to find out what programs are currently running or run on startup. The problems lies in trying to determine what those programs do and if you really need them. Occasionally you may even get an error message that contains the name of a particular application that is doing something undesirable. We now have an answer as to what many of these mystery apps are and do and perhaps whether or not you really need them. To find the answers, go to http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm . There you will find an alphabetical listing of many of those mystery apps whose purpose and necessity may have up till now escaped you.

WINZIP IS KING! Most people will agree that the grand-daddy of all file compressor/decompressor utilities is WinZip. For newbies, it squeezes down the size of files making them easier to e-mail, store, etc. WinZip is extremely easy to use, completely stable and effective, and after many years remains ahead of whatever is in second place. For an interesting and informative download video on using WinZip, go to http://www.infopackets.com/windowstutorials.htm

WINDRIVERSBACKUP PERSONAL EDITION is a free utility for personal, non-commercial use, provided by JerMar Software Corp. specifically for backing up your Windows system driver files. It can identify all of your Windows driver files and save them to a secure location in two simple mouse clicks. Backing up your Windows driver files means they will be available to you the next time you need to reinstall the driver or the whole operating system. It places the driver files in one organized location of your choosing.

WinDriversBackup is especially helpful in situations where you have a computer in your possession and it's internal hardware is unknown. It can identify the hardware on the system and the associated drivers -then back them up to a specified location. It is even network compatible -you can just as easily connect to a remote computer on your network and backup driver files. Get it at http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm

OUTLOOK EXPRESS FILE LOCATIONS. Sue Whitehouse reminds us that before you can make backup copies of your Outlook Express 6 Inbox and Address Book files, you need to know where those files are located. To get the Inbox location, run Outlook Express 6 and open the mail folders. Right-click Inbox and choose File|Properties. The resulting dialog box will display the Inbox location. To locate the Address Book, click the Addresses button in the Outlook Express 6 toolbar and then choose Help|About Address Book.

FREE OFFICE SUITES. Members have been inquiring of late about lower cost replacements for office suites and their components. Here are a few we mentioned some time ago that are not only less expensive, they are free!

  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, e-mail, 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)

CABLENUT IS FREE. Does your Internet connection seem sluggish lately? CableNut optimizes your Windows TCP/IP stack, enabling you to tweak your Internet connection, whether you connect via cable, DSL, dialup or satellite.

The program provides custom setting files that tweak your TCP registry entries, or lets you define your own settings. An online forum is available to help troubleshoot your connection problems. http://www.cablenut.com

AS SIMPLE AS PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS. {Photoshop tutorials} Get moving with Photoshop ASAP! ASAP stands for As Simple as Photoshop, and this site offers two free tutorials as well as others for purchase. The tutorials can be viewed online or downloaded as .exe files. The Concepts [3.7M download] e-book, intended for beginners, covers the Photoshop interface and general work principles accompanied with tutorials illustrated with animated screenshots. The Tools [6.6M download] is a comprehensive Toolbox reference for all users. Visual learners will benefit from "seeing" Photoshop in action as opposed to listening to lectures or reading wordy texts. Get it at http://digicollage.com/asap/downloads/ It's for all Windows versions and it's free.

COFFEECUP WEBCAM. With a digital camera, a Internet connection, and CoffeeCup WebCam, you can quickly put live images online. CoffeeCup WebCam lets you upload images from any camera to any Web site on a set schedule. Just set up your camera, set your interval-say, every ten seconds-and CoffeeCup WebCam does the rest. Whether you want to show Mom you're really studying at college, keep an eye on things that are going on in your office, or even watch your baby nap in the next room, CoffeeCup Web Cam can handle the job. A Security feature detects motion and alerts you when something moves in the picture. www.coffeecup.com. The cost is $30.

A FREE PHOTO EDITOR. VCW VicMan's Photo Editor is a versatile image editor with intuitive interface. This award-winning application is free of charge and comes with a wide range of essential features for both novice users and professional designers. With Photo Editor you can refine your digital photos, draw artwork naturally and effortlessly, produce superb graphics for the web. http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Reviews/r797.html

FREESNAP MAXIMIZES WINDOWS. Does it aggravate you to open a program or website and continually have to hit the mazimize button to make the app full screen? Freesnap will do it for you automatically and it's free. Get it at http://blueonion.home.att.net/freesnap.html .

WINTER STATIONERY. You will find some very nice winter stationery at a site called Winter Stationery. The stationery is free for use in private e-mail and newsgroup messages. It is not for commercial use. Download your new stationery at http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/photoshop/532/oe_winter_page.html

FREE PROCESSOR DIAGNOSIS UTILITIES. Is your system overtaxed? Diagnose, test, and troubleshoot with a collection of free utilities. You can get them at http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1164,tk,wb122302x,00.asp

FONTFREAK.COM is the place for free fonts, clipart, photos and animations to add to your collection.

REGISTRY CLEANER FOR WIN2000/XP. As one tries new software, and new applications are not always up to scratch, the system registry gets more and more "dirty" - that is, there appear keys with no parameters or wrong keys that slow down system startup and performance. To manually delete those keys would be way too insecure. Use RegScrubXP for this purpose.

RegScrubXP is a registry cleaner for Windows 2000/XP. It clears all the unnecessary keys, leaving you with a perfect registry that leads to better and more stable system performance. You can let the program scan for problem keys and then select the ones you feel safe to delete, or pick your own way through the registry and fix the wrong keys yourself. There are also additional tweaks for Windows XP users, including changing current user name and more.

The tool is invaluable for those who need to get rid of junk keys on their NT-based system. Download it today and see for yourself. Get it at http://home.carolina.rr.com/lexunfreeware/RegScrubXP/RegScrubXP.htm

MAKING THE FASTEST BROWSER FASTER. One way to speed up your Opera 6 startup and shutdown times is to reduce the history and cache sizes. To do this, run Opera 6 and then choose File|Preferences. Click the "History and cache" listing and then click in each of the History settings and reduce the number of addresses saved. Try using 25, but you can use more or less depending on your needs. Now, click in the "Disk cache" entry box and reduce that number. Try 500 KB.

After you're finished adjusting your History and Cache numbers, click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new settings.

PC INSPECTOR FILE RECOVERY V3.0 PC Inspector File Recovery is a free data recovery program for all Windows versions and with support for FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems. It recovers files with the original time and date stamp, and can optionally restore them to a network drive and can recover many files, even when a header entry is no longer available. On FAT systems, the programs finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged. PC Inspector File Recovery offers an easy-to- use interface that will scan your drive and automatically make files that can be recovered available from a "Deleted" folder in an Explorer Style navigation tree. [MWA] http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=105305

JV16 POWERTOOLS is a free pack of system tools which include a Registry Tool, a File Tool, a Temp File Tool, a Backup Tool and Access Control tool. The Registry Tool provides easy access to most frequently updated registry keys, including the autorun menu. The File Tool lets you get rid of zero size files, duplicate files, rename, copy, move and perform other operations on files in batches. The Temp File Tool lets you look for and remove temporary files on your computer, while the Backup Tool allows you to carry out automatic backups of important data. The Access Control tool lets you restrict access to your PC for one or more users.

This pack of tools is very handy, free and comes with extensive documentation, too. Download it today and check it out yourself. http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/jv16powertools.shtml

SPLITTER & MERGER V4.0 Free Splitter & Merger is a tool to split large files into smaller and easier-to-handle pieces. It offers additional file compression, disk-spanning, path creation, automatic part deletion and more. You can choose to have the program create a self-extracting .exe file that can automatically reunite the split pieces or select the split file from within the interface and merge it. Splitter & Merger comes with an easy-to-use interface. The download is less than 30k, and no install is required. [27k] W9x/2k/XP. FREE. http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=105137

PRIVACY RESTORED

COOKIE PAL - The king of the cookie crunchers- Cookies are by far the most common invaders of your computer privacy. They are little electronic identifiers (and in some instances, manipulators) planted on your hard drive unbeknown to you as you visit various sites on the Internet. In fact, most every site you visit, from your first to last, will each contribute its share. Some of these are embedded to identify you as a previous visitor. Others track your wandering to form a profile of your interests in order to bombard you with pertinent advertising. A more insidious variety plants spyware on your hard drive for a variety of devious purposes. Except for cookies that are essential in sites that require them for purchasing merchandise, cookies are bad news. Regardless, Cookie Pal gives you complete control over what you will accept.

A variety of privacy utilities, firewalls, and browsers ( including Internet Explorer 6) provide some degree of cookie control, but if you want complete protection along with the capability of fully determining what you will or won't allow, Cookie Pal from Kookaburra Software is the proven best of the breed. It is far more effective and controllable that cookie control that accompanies some of today's browsers.

You can obtain a 30 day free trial version of Cookie Pal by going to http://www.kburra.com  If you are happy with it, as you most certainly will be, the price to purchase is only $15. It's an easy download and installation and is ready to go immediately. You will be able to select which cookies you want to block or allow, along with any exception you may at any time want to make. Setting up your preferences is fully explained and easy to do. An abundant help file and tutorial that you can print out as a manual is included.

Cookie Crusher will sit in your system tray in the form of cookie any time you go online. When you go on the Internet, it will silently and unobtrusively gobble up all the cookies that come your way. To save your resources, it will automatically disappear when you leave the net. You will be both amazed and shocked at the sheer number of cookies that are reported eaten as you pass your cursor over the cookie icon at any time. You can be assured that no cookie will escape its silent and watchful eye. You can setup Cookie Pal to automatically start with Windows, or you can start it manually at any time.

I have been using Cookie Pal myself for some time now. On a scale of 1 to 10, it gets an 11 with me. I would not go online without it. Abundant help is available in both the help file and in Kookaburra's website support. The software is so simple and straightforward, you will probably get along quite well without any assistance.

At only $15, Cookie Pal is a super bargain. If you need further info, visit their website. It is privacy protection that belongs on everyone's computer. Don't hesitate- try it today!

INTEGRATED FILE WIPER- Every once in a while a program comes along with a function that makes you wonder why nobody ever thought of it before. It's almost always in the form of shareware and for good reason. There are an abundance of sheer geniuses in our web world who can recognize a wide variety of software shortcomings and have the capability of writing programs to address them. Integrated File Wiper is a prime example.

As we explained many times, ordinary deletion of files merely hides them from sight. They remain on your hard drive easily accessible with the undelete functions found in dozens of common utilities. As a result, the security problem of eliminating sensitive files so that they can't be reclaimed is both common and very real.

The only way to securely eliminate files whose privacy is important to you is to overwrite them. The more times they are overwritten, the more secure the deletion. A seven times overwrite, for example, is prescribed by the Department of Defense for its sensitive files..

There are a number of security utilities that we have already introduced to you that will do secure deletions. Integrated File Wiper is unique in that it can be made available in memory to do a secure deletion with the number of overwrites you specify, automatically and each and every time you delete a file by any means. It sits silently in your system tray just waiting for you to do a deletion which it makes a secure one with the blink of an eye. In fact, if you did not keep your eye on its little red "X" icon sitting in your system tray and watching it quickly turn green as it works, you would not even realize it happened. In our test of Integrated File Wiper we were unable to recover by any means any files it deleted .

After a quick download and installation, Integrated File Wiper is ready to go to work. It is compatible with all Windows versions. You can register this little shareware gem for only $14, a small price indeed to pay for peace of mind. For downloading and further information visit http://esecurellc.com Try it, you'll love it! :

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Copyright 2003. This article is from the January 2003 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 1,100+ 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.