Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairmans Industry Comments (06/03)The Computer Buffet
This & That from Here & There
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor
E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org
MICROSOFT ACKNOWLEDGES GLITCH IN XP SP1. Service pack can slow systems, but provides necessary fixes, company says. According to Stacy Cowley, IDG News Service, Microsoft has acknowledged and patched a glitch with its Windows XP Service Pack 1 update that can cause system slowdowns, but has not yet made its still-developing fix widely available.
Because of changes made in SP1 to Windows XP's memory management system, programs that affect large blocks of memory may take up to ten times longer to load on a system running SP1 than on one without, Microsoft said. The company detailed the problem on its support Web site in a recently posted Knowledge Base article, "Programs Run Slower After You Install Windows XP SP-1" (article #815411). The bug affects both the Professional and Home Edition versions of Windows XP. Released in September,
SP1 includes fixes for a number of security flaws and bugs discovered since Windows XP's debut.
For now, the only official way to obtain Microsoft's fix is to contact the company's Product Support Services department. Unless users are severely affected by the problem, Microsoft recommends that they wait for a broad release of the SP patch or until the next Windows XP service pack is released.
LAST IN, FIRST OUT. If you have been into computers for any length of time, you have undoubtedly experienced(with considerable distress) software conflicts. The symptoms go something like this: Your computer was working fine yesterday, but today, for reasons unknown, it's a sick puppy. Things just aren't working right! You've done a scandisk, probed your favorite utilities, and there's no indication of what may be wrong. The next question you need to ask yourself is whether you have recently installed new software.
It's a well known fact that different software applications may not co-exist happily together. Install a program ans suddenly something mysteriously goes awry in some other program. Before you pull out what remains of your hair, try uninstalling the last program you most recently installed prior to the occurrence of your tragedy. You may be amazed at how frequently that does the trick.
You probably know by now that installing any software application places all kinds of entries in your registry and elsewhere. These entries often conflict with what you had there previously or may even fight for the same slot in your computer's memory. The net result is that something that worked just fine up until now suddenly doesn't. You may even experience a rash of computer crashes you hadn't before.
Most notorious offenders are the earliest versions of new software whose kinks may not yet have been ironed out. Utility programs, beta software, and the latest upgrades of some of your tried and tested favorites are among other common guilty parties. To be on the safe side, be sure you have or can get a replacement for what you uninstalled before doing it. If you are an experienced user, remember to do a "regedit" and remove registry references to what you just uninstalled. I'm sure you have discovered by now how much junk is left behind in your registry when you uninstall.
REFRESHFORCE Is a free utility that repairs your monitor's refresh rate. Some users have problems with the refresh rate in Windows 2000 or XP and programs resolving the problem often only offer a temporary solution, and don't always work with new driver releases. RefreshForce universally and permanently fixes the Windows 2000/XP refresh rate problem on ANY variation of graphics cards, monitors, or drivers. It functions regardless of graphics card or driver versions. Execute the program one time, and it doesn't require a reboot. Its GUI is simple, and when starting the program, it auto-detects the optimal refresh rate of the monitor for each resolution setting and sets this new refresh rate as the default. You can stop here, apply the changes and be done, or you can do further tweaking. It has the ability to push plug and play monitor drivers over 85Hz, and supports systems with multiple display adapters. RefreshForce has an automatic backup facility and the ability to lower refresh rates as well as increase them, if software causes display corruption.http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/
THE BEST IN FREEWARE. Here's a site that lists freeware that users have voted the best in their category. You may well find exactly what you are looking for here: http://www.pricelessware.org/
Windows 98, Me, and XP back up the Registry automatically at regular intervals, but it's still safest to back up your Registry manually before you make any major changes to your system. These are the best ways to back up and restore the Registry in various versions of Windows.
WHEN WINDOWS STOPS WORKING. When Windows won't boot or mysteriously stops working, 98% of the time it's because something has corrupted your registry settings. The registry is a giant database the provides all the information that allows your Windows operating system to function normally and permit your various programs to work properly. The solution is almost always to restore your registry.
Windows regularly and automatically makes a copy of the registry once daily. The object is to restore the most recent copy for the day that Windows was working properly. In most cases, it will be the day before your problem developed. Here's how:
Windows 98: Select Start, Run, then type scanreg and press Enter. When you're told that there are no errors, click Yes to back up the Registry, then OK. To restore the Registry, select Start, Shut Down, click Restart in MS-DOS mode, and click OK. At the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type scanreg /restore (don't forget to put a space before the slash) and press Enter. Select a backup from the list and press Enter again.
Windows Me and XP: Select Start, Programs (All Programs in XP) , Accessories, System Tools, System Restore to bring up the System Restore Wizard. To back up your Registry, choose Create a restore point; to restore the Registry, select Restore my computer to an earlier time.
There are utilities that will also allow you to make a quick copy of your registry, plus all your system files as well. The best of these is V-Com's (v-com.com), formerly Ontrack, System Suite. It allows you to copy and restore your registry and system files with superb ease when necessary. I use it to make that copy every day. It takes only a few seconds. I have also used it numerous times to restore my registry in an emergency. I can't tell you how many times it has saved my neck!
FREE ISP's. If you're looking for a new inexpensive, or even free, ISP (Internet Service Provider), a good approach is to visit a site that lists providers for every part of the country. An excellent example of such a site is All Free ISP. Just navigate to the site, select your state, or telephone area code, and view the list of ISPs available to you. As you'll soon learn, not all the listed ISPs are free, but those that are not are at least inexpensive. http://www.all-free-isp.com/
SENDING E-MAIL IN INTERNET EXPLORER. If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, you can quickly send e-mail without leaving the browser. Just press Ctrl + O. When the Open dialog box appears, type mailto:the recipient's e-mail address and then press Enter, after which, your default mail client will open and you can enter your message as usual.
WorldTV . Get international TV on your PC. WorldTV allows you to view Internet-enabled TV stations free around the globe. You can select from a list by country and view the live stream using Windows Media Player. You can maintain a list of favorite stations and also add your own. In addition to viewing the live stream, you can also choose to record the broadcast and even use the built-in timer to schedule it. http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106028
DLL DOWNLOADS.* Here's a tip that you can rest assured will save your bacon one fine day. DLL is short for Dynamic Link Library, a library of essential executable functions or data used by a Windows application. A DLL provides one or more particular vital functions, and a program accesses the functions by creating either a static or dynamic link to the DLL. A static link remains constant during program execution, while the program (as needed) creates a dynamic link. DLLs can also contain just data, and usually end with the extension .dll, .exe, drv, or .fon. This site lets you search for .dll, .drv, and .ocx files and download them. If a .dll is corrupted or missing, your program will not run.
When you boot your PC or run a program, you might get a DLL error when a file is missing. Record the name of the file and see if the site has it. A .drv or driver is a program that interacts with a particular device or special (frequently optional) kind of software. The driver contains the special knowledge of the device or special software interface that programs using the driver do not. In personal computers, a driver is often packaged as a dynamic link library (DLL) file. OCX is short for OLE Custom control, an independent program module that can be accessed by other programs in a Windows environment. OCX controls represent Microsoft's second generation of control architecture, the first being VBX controls written in Visual Basic. Both VBX and OCX controls have now been superseded by ActiveX controls. However, ActiveX is backward compatible with OCX controls, which means that ActiveX containers, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, can execute OCX components. The site has annoying ads, but provides valuable information and offers it in other languages. http://www.dll-downloads.com/
PHOXEL UNIT CONVERTER.* Here's a great free unit conversion tool. Phoxel Unit Converter converts any unit to another unit using 16 conversion topics. Topics include angle, area, cooking, computer storage, energy, frequency, length, light, speed, temperature, time, torque, power, pressure, volume, and weight. You can choose the number of decimal places, and also request to get the results in scientific notation. The interface makes it easy to dig right in, as each topic has its own tab. Pick a tab (computer storage OK with you?), enter a number to convert (2500), choose the unit of the number (megabytes), ( decimal places and scientific notation, are optional) and press the equal button to get the conversion in gigabit, megabit, kilobit, bit, gigabyte, megabyte, kilobytes, and byte. http://www.geocities.com/phoxel/
DRIVERS ON-LINE.* Welcome to the only device driver site you'll ever need. Drivers On-Line finds the software to match your hardware. You can use the Driver Wizard to quickly find the right drivers instead of going to a product's vendor (and getting lost on their unusable Web site in search of the needed drivers). All the drivers and software available from this site are stored as ZIP files, so you will need to have software to extract the individual files from them. If you're using Win9x/NT, there is the option of downloading any driver as an executable file, thus avoiding the need to install any additional software. The Web site has a free Driver Wizard available for downloading and running to identify the components you have on the PC. After it completes the evaluation, click on the link to go to the Web site and get a list of the latest drivers available. http://drivers.on-line.net.nz/
DRUGDIGEST * Health and drug information. DrugDigest is a resource of non- commercial, fact-based health and medical information to keep you informed about the medicines on the market. Its information is not limited to prescription drugs, as it provides details on vitamins, herbs, medical research, health conditions, and disease management. Learn the details about the medicines, vitamins, and herbs by using the drug library.
Ginseng is said to be useful for improving memory; reading information on the herb indicates there isn't enough evidence to support its therapeutic claims. The Check Interactions tab is for checking drug interactions. We have many choices on medication by class for allergies, asthma, migraine headaches, and others. Look in the Compare Drugs section to find out how the drug you're taking compares to others like it. You can also compare side effects of similar drugs.
The site produces a chart with every symptom and its incidence rate. The Senior Corner keeps seniors informed about topics most important to them. This site is very neatly organized and easy to use. However, it's wise to let your doctor know what medicines you're taking (including herbs), rather than rely on a Web site alone. http://www.drugdigest.org
LONGHORN. The successor to Windows XP (due in 2004, and rapidly slipping to 2005) is currently code named Longhorn, and it will not be compatible with your existing software, hardware or methods. Microsoft has already stated that backward compatibility will not be a design feature.
NISTTIME. NistTime is a tiny free program that synchronizes your system clock with the world-renown atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. The program runs completely in the background, and works from six different servers to ensure it will always have a live feed. Download NistTime now at: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22775,tk,hsx,00.asp
CD CHECK This free utility detects and recovers damaged files on CD-ROMs. You can discover which files on your CD are corrupted. You can also use the program proactively, to insure that your data on CD-ROMs are safe. In addition to CD-ROMs, the program can be used with other local or removable media, such as disk drives, floppy disks, and ZIP drives.
Use it to do readability verifications, binary comparisons, CRC file creation checks-it's great for everything, and especially valuable for backup CDs. The tool also compares the files on the CD with the originals on the hard drive. The utility is free (and for all it does, quite amazing). http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22892,tk,sbx,00.asp
THREE SERIOUS SCANNERS. You can buy a scanner for less than $100, but what does spending a couple hundred more get you? We tried three scanners in the $300-$400 price range to find out. Sky-high resolution is a given; they also include features like automatic document feeders and better image-editing software than you'll find with the inexpensive models.
Read PCWorld.com's complete review of the Epson Perfection 3200 Photo, Hewlett-Packard Scanjet 5550c, and Microtek ScanMaker 6800 at: http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,109641,tk,prx,00.asp
ADD PICTURES TO YOUR MESSAGE. You can easily add icons and other graphics to an Outlook Express message. You can even add animated GIFs if you like. Just create a new message and then click in the message area. Choose Insert|Picture. When the Picture dialog box opens, click Browse. Now locate a picture file and double-click its icon.
ICONS GALORE. If you are looking for some superb icons, many of them animated, go to www.iconbazaar.com/
REGSCRUBXP is a free utility that does a clean sweep of your Windows XP registry to make it much more efficient. The net result is that XP will run faster. Read the help file to get tips on how to tweak your settings for peak performance. http://home.carolina.rr.com/lexunfreeware/RegScrubXP/RegScrubXP.htm
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003. From the beta versions widely distributed all around the U.S., it is apparent that Microsoft's new office suite is groupware that is of value to commercial users but offers little to encourage home users to upgrade. The software is massive and is not backwards compatible with Windows 95, 98, or ME. If all that doesn't discourage you, the expected price tag probably will.
POP PEEPER is a free utility that resides on your Windows task bar and alerts you when you have new email in any number of POP3, Hotmail, MSN, or Yahoo account. With POP Peeper you can read and delete email without opening your email client and save or open file attachments. It supports HTML and requires Internet Explorer 4 or better to view HTML or Webmail. Download at http://www.poppeeper.com
SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY at http://spybot.eon.net.au/ is a free program that finds and removes adware, spyware, and other nasties. It can clear Internet history files, cookies, individual programs, recently viewed files, Word text, and invalid registry entries.
EASY THUMBNAILS at http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/index.html?1.8c is a free utility that creates accurate thumbnail images from a wide range of picture formats. Contrast, sharpness, brightness, and quality can be adjusted and results checked with the built-in viewer.
MAKE AVERY LABELS IN MS WORD. Here's a free and easy label maker you can use directly in MS Word. Avery lets you type a different name on each label on a sheet and then preview it before printing. It also lets you quickly whip up a database and save it for repeated use. For example, it's a great way to manipulate the data from an Excel spreadsheet into almost any printed format that Avery products use. Grab a copy from PC World's Downloads site: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,6293,tk,sbx,00.asp
CELL PHONE CANCER. Mobile phones are at the centre of new safety fears after scientists found the first evidence of a link with brain cancer. Users who spend more than an hour a day talking on a cell phone are almost a third more at risk of developing a rare form of brain tumour, a study has found. The cancers were found most frequently on the side of the head to which the phone was held. Scientists found the cancer link with digital mobiles, old- style analogue mobiles and digitalenhanced cordless phones
MICROSOFT OFFICE USERS will appreciate the free templates and other goodies available at http://search.officeupdate.microsoft.com/TemplateGallery/default.asp
CONTACT THE DECEASED. Forget the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge and the bank account in Nigeria, this promo makes them all pale by comparison. To contact some departed sole, give your message to http://www.afterlifetelegrams.com/AFTERLIFE/. These obliging folks will gives your message to someone about to pass on, and for only $5 a word, they will pass it along to your departed designee when they get to the other side. Honest!
WANT TO SURF ANONYMOUSLY? Start out by first going to http://www.megaproxy.com/ You can venture out in discreet privacy from there.
NOTEPAD XP. NotePad XP gives you tons of extra features for zero - yes ZERO! - dollars. Some of the features include word count, customizable date/time formatting, bullets, mail merge, dockable toolbars, no size limit on documents (unlike regular Notepad), align text, and an XP graphical interface that's clear-cut and easy on the eyes. You can even have multiple documents open within the program. And probably the best feature ever (that just sweetens the deal) is the search and replace feature. http://www.acsoftware.org
IMAGE CATALOG is a free thumbnailing utility that is capable of batch processing directories and converting all found images into thumbnails. It can identify and delete orphan thumbnails, guess image titles from file names, and more. Advanced mode offers many professional-level features, like file name modification, unlimited banner code insertion, extensive Meta tag support, advanced navigational menu control, as well as creation of a separate page for each image feature, driven by templates that can be edited.
The program offers both an Express and an Advanced mode; the advanced mode offers most of the features mentioned, while the Express mode performs simple batch conversions of image directories. Both modes are available in this free version; however, a Pro version is also available, which adds directory batch in Advanced mode. http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=101757
BOOKMARKBRIDGE is a free utility that will share bookmarks between multiple browsers-Most of you probably have huge Bookmarks / Favorites files, and it's tough to keep them all straight - especially when you use multiple browsers. I try to put all links into one bookmark file, but then I succumb to other browsers and bookmark them there, too. Bridge the bookmarks together with BookmarkBridge, a small program for sharing bookmarks between Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Opera. To use it, be sure your browsers are closed before running the program to synchronize the bookmarks between browsers. The help file is thorough and its features are simple. http://bookmarkbridge.sourceforge.net/
TOMORROW'S DRIVES ARE HERE. The serial ATA hard drives that you read about recently in the Monitor have finally hit the shelves at area stores. They provide fast drives with capacities from 80 to 200 gigabytes. Just plug the accompanying serial ATA controller into one of your PCI slots and attach the thin serial ATA data cable from the drive to the controller and you are in business. The new drives are somewhat more expensive as you would expect from the very latest technology.
BOUNCING SPAM DOESN'T WORK. Some anti-spam programs give you the capability of bouncing spam email. Unfortunately it's a futile exercise. Spam e-mail almost always contains a non-valid return address, so you will be bouncing unwanted messages into the wind.
FIGHT TELEMARKETERS. Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a real salesperson to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine-dialed call and it kicks your number out of their system
INFO ANGEL. Info Angel is a free personal information manager (PIM) that combines a notebook, a contact manager, an organizer and a Bookmark Manager into a single interface. You can manage your daily notes, create a database of personal and professional contacts, organize your time, store links to both local documents and the Internet sources, and much more. Info Angel supports rich text and images, so you can add pictures to your entries and also customize the text formatting. Additional features include alarms, integration with phone dialer, password-protected entries and more. A nicely done free organizer.http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106137
CREATING THUMBNAILS. To create thumbnail images from JPEG files, or to create HTML pages for use on the web, you can use a freeware program called Gallery. Gallery allows you to create the thumbnails, crop the images, and apply a selection of image filters (such as emboss). You can download Gallery from http://www.minostudio.com/
WORTH A TRIP FROM ANYWHERE. Gizmo Richards' site at techsupportalert.com is well worth your visit. Indeed, it's one of the most informative and helpful visits that any computer owner could possibly make. It contains a never-ending treasure trove of invaluable information. In his recent newsletter, Richards tells of his favorite spam killer:
"On my PC, the top-performing spam filter was POPFile. It was the very first I tried but in the end it proved to be the best. Its performance was staggeringly good. Maybe I should say "is" staggeringly good, because it's now staying permanently on my PC.
With POPFile in place, I have seen only 1 spam message in over three weeks. That's pretty amazing when you consider I get 150 messages a day with 30% or more being Spam. In the same time period I didn't have one false positive. That is, POPFile didn't ever wrongly classify any of my real mail as spam. Again, an amazing performance.
Mind you, I was able to train POPFile on my personal collection of over 2,000 spam messages and 3,000 real mail messages. If you haven't been saving your spam, you'll have to train POPFile to learn the difference between your real mail and spam as your mail comes in. Depending on your mail volume, it may take you a while to reach the accuracy levels I've achieved.
Now the really good news: POPFile is free, works with any POP mail client and is available for several different platforms, including Windows. POPFile acts as a POP proxy server that sits between your real mail server and your mail client. That's why it will work with pretty well any POP email program.
The product has its own browser-based interface but a number of different third party add-ons are available that will integrate the product directly into your mail reader. I use OutClass, a free program that provides POPFile buttons in Microsoft Outlook.
Check out the POPFile forums for add-ons for other popular mail clients. Don't wait any longer. Go get POPFile and as the ads say, "wave goodbye to spam." http://popfile.sourceforge.net/ A Must-Have For Outlook Express Users!
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Copyright 2003. This article is from the May 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/
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