Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (10/04)

The Computer Buffet

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

WIN XP SP2 HALTS 15% OF SYSTEMS, SURVEY SAYS. System administrators who have been installing Windows XP Service Pack 2 on their own PCs and on test systems are reporting the results of their practice runs to the SANS Institute Web site-and the failure rate seems to be pretty high. While the vast majority of the 752 people who published feedback (as of this blog entry) had no problems, 15 percent of these competent technology professionals complain that severe problems prevent the PC from being used after they installed the service pack. About half of those say they had to rebuild the entire system from scratch after they ran SP2. Another 37 percent of those surveyed experienced some problems, but were able to solve them and get the system running after the patch.

TV COUCH POTATO? If TV Guide and TiVo are your best friends, you'll love this site. It's a comprehensive overview of the world of television. Read the latest news about television shows on all of the major networks and cable. There's information on upcoming mini-series and regular programming, as well as cancelled shows. You'll also find a calendar of upcoming release dates for DVDs of TV shows. www. thefutoncritic.com

USB PEN DRIVE ADVICE. Notable PC guru Fred Langa offers excellent advice on booting from the recently very popular USB mini pen drives:

A Complete Software Toolbox In Your Pocket. Long ago, I used to have a box full of floppy disks that I'd carry with me when I had to try to resurrect a dead PC: The floppies contained all the various diagnostic and recovery tools, common drivers, tweakand shareware tools that I'd found most useful in bringing dead systems back to life. When the stack of floppies became unwieldy, I moved the tools to a bootable CD. That, plus one boot floppy (for systems that couldn't boot from a CD) let me carry even more tools in far less space.

Now, I've moved my toolbox to a tiny, bootable 1GB USB pen drive (from Crucial); it holds even more tools than the CD, and is far faster than either the CD or floppy. Pen drives come in all sizes, and are incredibly useful for anything from moving just a few files up to holding several CDs worth of data. But getting them to be bootable can require some special tricks, such as diddling the boot-order of your PC's devices and ensuring the partition type is correct on the USB device.

In the full-length (and free!) column posted at http:/ /www. informationweek.com/story/showArticle .jhtml? articleID=28700158 , I'll walk you through the many factors affecting boot-from-USB. You'll see how to access and modify the BIOS Setup program built into your PC; how to see just what (if any) boot-from-USB support your PC offers; how to activate it if it's there; and how to add it if it's not.

We'll then look at making a USB Device itself bootable, and I'll give you links to the best free tools I know for doing this the fast, easy, and automated way. But, as usual, we'll also discuss manual ways you can use if or when the automated tools fail. We'll also touch on the two most common errors people make in setting up USB booting. Miss these steps, and things just won't work, even if everything else is done perfectly. Click on over to http://www. informationweek.com/story/showArticle. jhtml? articleID=28700158 . See you there!

PC-Cillin SP2 SAFE. Of the 3 leading antivirus program, McAfee, Norton, and PC-Cillin, only one has NO compatibility problems with Windows XP SP2..PC-Cillin! That's the word from Microsoft.

ZONE ALARM 5.1. If you were among the first to install Zone Alarm 5, be certain to update to version 5.1. This later version solves many issues that were prevalent in 5.0.

TINYSPELL IS FREEWARE. Occasionally you need to check the spelling of words in an application that does not include a spelling checker and you don't want to launch your word processor just for that. This is when tinySpell becomes handy. It is a small utility that allows you to easily and quickly check the spelling of words in any Windows application. tinySpell monitors your typing on the fly and alerts you whenever it detects a misspelled word. It also checks the spelling of every word you copy to the clipboard. tinySpell installs itself in the system tray for easy access. It comes with an American-English dictionary containing more than 110,000 words.

Checking your spelling is simple:

Option 1: While you are typing, tinySpell monitors the text you enter and whenever it detects a misspelled word it beeps and the tinySpell icon in the system tray turns from white to yellow .

Option 2: When you copy a word to the clipboard tinySpell checks its spelling immediately. Again, if the word is misspelled you hear a beep and the tinySpell icon turns to yellow. If the icon is white the word is spelled correctly.

Correcting a misspelled word is also simple: When a misspelled word is detected, click the tinySpell icon or press the hot-key to pop up a list of suggested replacement words from which you can select a correction. The selected word is inserted into your document, or is copied to the clipboard (so you can paste it in your document), or both (depending on your settings). www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/

THE UNIVERSE WITHIN. The site at http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/ tells it best: View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

SELECTING ITEMS THAT ARE NOT CONSECUTIVE. There may be times when you want to select (highlight) items in your text that are not consecutive. It's easy to do. Just select your first item and then hold down the control key when selecting each additional item.

16X DVD'S COMING. Both drives and media for 16X and double sided DVD's will soon be available. You can expect to pay dearly for both at the outset. As more manufacturers get into the act, prices will drop.

MOZILLA FIREFOX. Firefox, a free browser from the Mozilla team, packs a wallop but steps lightly on your system memory. This free, open-source browser (formerly called Firebird) offers a wealth of features, and its developers are constantly working on new ones. Firefox organizes your windows in a tabbed interface, which makes your surfing easier and leaves your taskbar blissfully unburdened. The mouseless navigation and the built-in Google taskbar makes your searches shorter. Firefox's pop-up blocker lets you allow important pop-ups through while keeping ads from exploding in your face. And AutoDownload makes it simple to download files from your favorite sites.

The real power to the browser, however, is in its wide variety of extensions which let you mix and match the features you'd like. Among other things, you can block banner advertisements, add links to pages in your blog, and play a game of Tetris.

Free Download Mozilla Firefox now at: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid, 23160,tk,hsx,00.asp

FREE DIGITAL PHOTO ORGANIZER. Pc World's guru and noted columnist, Steve Bass, offers some good advice on software for organizing digital photos. Steve says, "While digging around our site for utilities that'd handle duplicates, I found Picasa-a free and sophisticated yet easy-to-use program to organize digital photos. After scanning my drive, I used Picasa to easily find and delete duplicate photos. The program also has limited, but useful, photo editing tools; there's also a no-brainer feature for e-mailing photos.

If you're running Windows XP, you don't need to worry as much about system resources as you do in Windows ME and 98. So there's no harm in allowing Picasa to reside in the Systray to help you detect and download photos from your digital camera.

BTW, the program used to cost $30. Since it was purchased by Google, though, it's a spyware-free freebie. Read about it in "Google Gives Away Digital Photo App": http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid, 116958, tk,sbx,00.asp You can download a copy from PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_ description/0,fid,23129,tk,sbx,00.asp And yes, Picasa's become a permanent resident on my PC."

Steve Bass writes the Home Office column in PC World's print edition and is the author of "PC Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer," available from O'Reilly: http://oreilly.com/promos/pcannoy. html? CMP= OTC-GY1058857557

IRFANVIEW IS A MUST-HAVE. IrfanView is a free, fast and simple image viewer and editor that supports all major graphic formats, including BMP, DIB, JPEG, GIF, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, multipage TIFF, and TGA. In addition, it features drag-and-drop support, directory viewing, TWAIN support, slide shows, batch conversion, and modifications, such as color depth, crop, blur, and sharpen.

The latest version, 3.92, features a host of updates including advanced batch options, JPEG auto-rotate according to EXIF information, and several plug-in updates. This image viewer and editor is a longtime favorite, and with good reason. IrfanView is simple, fast, and free for individual use. The program lets you open and edit images, as well as multiple media formats.

You can cut and crop images, apply batch conversions, add, sharpen, or blur effects, create panoramas, and change color modes easily. The program continues to add support for an array of file formats and has plug-in support for most image, video, and sound formats, including MP3, AVI, audio CD, and WMA. The interface is far from fancy and is downright awkward in spots-when you're opening thumbnails in a separate window, for example. Once you get the hang of the interface, however, IrfanView works wonderfully as an image editor, but it's not going to replace a major paint program. The image viewer works even better, providing multiple ways to preview image collections. IrfanView wraps about every feature you could desire in an image viewer, in a free, compact download. http://www.download.com/IrfanView/3000-2192-10311994.html

CALL MICROSOFT TOLL-FREE. Microsoft has a toll-free number to use if you have problems with Service Pack 2, or any other update. It is: 1-866-727-2338.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU! In a keynote speech to the [recent World Wide Web conference in New York], Microsoft's head of research Rick Rashid described what consumers might do with a terabyte of data storage that costs around $1,000, and is capable of holding more than 1 trillion bytes of computer data.

You can store every conversation you have ever had, from the time you are born to the time you die,' Rashid said. A person could have a snap picture with a 180-degree fish-eye view of one's surroundings for every minute of every day for the rest of one's life. Microsoft researchers in the United Kingdom have built prototypes of such a life-recording device called SenseCam. They are gearing up for a second generation of photo capture systems no bigger than a necklace pendant, Rashid said. 'Obviously this raises a whole lot of issues about privacy and the control of one's personal information,' Rashid said. 'But this is where we are going. It's already the case that kids are walking around with cameraphones taking a lot of pictures. This is just an extension of that," he said.

CLEARTWEAK FOR LCD MONITORS. Your monitor contributes a lot to your computing experience. One of the often-overlooked aspects of computing is how the text is displayed on the monitor. You probably have just accepted how it looks already, but things can be improved. A setting in Windows XP called ClearType allows you to tweak how your fonts are displayed.

Cleartweak is a free program that helps you to modify this setting to your liking. It's important to note that this program should primarily be used if you have an LCD display, because it could make things blurry on a CRT. All you have to do is select the font smoothing options that look good to you, and the settings will be applied to your system. I noticed a dramatic difference while I was playing around with this program. It's amazing how different things can look with a few simple tweaks. Give it a try, and see what pleases your eyes. http://www.ioisland.com/cleartweak/

KAREN'S TIMESYNC is a free app that automatically synchronizes your system time to an Internet time server. It includes a large list of international servers, organized by country and listed with detailed information about each. You can choose to run the synchronization on a regular schedule, or if you prefer, only manually on demand. http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp. php? id= 108364&d=7113705/&ref=lgnome

GUARD BAR is a free toolbar add-on for Internet Explorer, that eliminates pop-up ads and also prevents spyware or adware from being installed while you are surfing. In addition, it can clean cookies, browser cache and history entries, and even includes a small weather icon that displays the current temperature and conditions for your zip code. Guard Bar also offers an integrated search feature for Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Lycos. http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=108315 &d =7123577/&ref=lgnome

PIKY BASKET is a free handy utility that extends the copy/move capabilities of Windows by allowing you to collect files into a virtual basket, and then copy, move or paste them at once. It makes file management and organizing easier, rather just add all the files via the new Explorer right-click option (Add to PikyBasket) and then process them later.

This can be a great time saver when you want to collect files for backup, sharing, CD burning and so on. In addition, the program allows you to copy file paths to the clipboard and allows you to launch a command prompt from any folder. A nice add-on for Windows, that is there when you need it, and does not use up any resources otherwise. http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=108326&d=7122802/&ref=lgnome

MICROSOFT OUTLOOK MAILINFO allows you to verify that your email messages have actually been received, and notifies you when the message has been read. This free program seamlessly integrates with Outlook 2000/XP/2003 and lets you track all or selected emails by simply clicking a button on the toolbar. It inserts a special tracking image into the message, which also informs the user about the fact that the delivery has been confirmed, so there is not secrecy involved that could be misunderstood by the recipient. A new mail folder in Outlook enables you to review the status of all your tracked messages, and also provides information about when and where the message was received. In addition, Mailinfo displays a real-time alert from the system tray as soon as your message has been read, and also notifies you of emails that appear to be lost, so you can choose to follow up. The program is very useful to determine that important emails actually get through to the recipients and have not been blocked by a spam filter. Requires Outlook 2000/XP/2003.http://www.mywebattack. com/gnomeapp.php?id= 108328&d= 7123494/&ref=lgnome

RENAME MASTER is a free utility for renaming large groups of files with a few clicks. Anyone that has worked with websites, file archives, or collections of music, videos, or pictures has probably spent way too much time renaming hundreds of files. The program provides an easy to use interface that allows you to perform simple and advanced rename operations, very easily. You can even preview the to-be-renamed file names before you finalize it and apply any changes. Advanced renaming features include adding, removing from the original file name, replacing characters (name or extension) and support for several meta variables, that allow you to perform renaming based on the files size, date and several other criteria. Renaming operations can be saved as scripts, so they can easily be reused at a later time. Additional features include optional Explorer integration, uppercase/lowercase conversion, file filters and more. A powerful, yet easy to use renaming utility! http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=104540&d=7114704/&ref=lgnome

SCREENSHOT PILOT is a free utility that enables you to perform a variety of screen captures, from complete desktop to active Windows, selected areas and even dialog menus. It offers a tabbed interface to manage multiple captures and can be triggered via keyboard hotkey with optional delay timer. The program also makes it easy to email or print your screenshot(s) and includes some basic image modification tools to rotate, adjust brightness and more. Screenshot Pilot supports JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF and EMF formats, but does not offer GIF support.http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id= 108380&d=7112393/&ref=lgnome

BACK UP YOUR BACKUP. If you store critical backups on CD-ROMs, try out CDCheck, an error-checking and data-recovery utility that's free for consumers. The program creates error-checking files for a CD, stores them on your hard drive, and then lets you compare these files with those kept on your backup CD to ensure that the disc is still readable. If CDCheck finds evidence of CD damage or corrupted data, it may be able to recover the lost files. You can download the program from PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22892, tk,ur,00.asp

SOME INKJET TIPS from PC World's Kirk Steers. Get more each month by subscribing to PC World:

1. Use it or lose it. If you don't use your printer very often, print a test page once a week. And if you have a color printer but print mostly in black and white, print a color image once a week. If you switch between color and black ink printheads, store the cartridge you're not using in its factory container or in a sealed bag.

2. Turn off your ink jet printer via its own power switch, not the switch on its surge protector or on some other device. Many ink jets automatically clean and park the printhead only after the on-board power switch is thrown.

ZONE ALARM VS. THE SP2 FIREWALL. Kim Komando says, "Pundits may have made too much of potential conflicts between ZoneAlarm (and other third-party firewalls) and the firewall in Windows XP. SP2 arrives with its firewall turned on. Lots of people are concerned about potential conflicts.

You must leave ZoneAlarm (or whatever you are using) enabled while downloading SP2. Otherwise, ping programs from intruders may well find your computer and attempt to access it. Once you install SP2 (and its enabled firewall), you can disable the firewall. I doubt that the short time you have both running will result in lasting damage.

The Windows XP firewall is easy to disable. Click Start>>Control Panel. Double-click Windows Firewall. On the General tab, select Off. Ignore the dire warnings. Click OK.

Of course, you can leave the XP firewall running and disable the third- party program. To disable ZoneAlarm, double-click its icon in the notification area (in the bottom right area of the desktop). In the ZoneAlarm window, click the Preferences tab. Clear the boxes next to "Load ZoneAlarm at startup" and "Protect the ZoneAlarm Client."

I don't recommend that, though. Third-party firewalls block malicious programs that land on your hard drive from connecting with the Internet. The XP firewall does not include that protection. Microsoft believes anti-virus software should wipe out such programs. I agree, but I like the firewall protection, too. So I'm sticking with ZoneAlarm."

FREE OUTLOOK EXPRESS BACKUP. Easy Backup for Outlook Express lets you backup and restore your Outlook Express data such as identities, email messages, email account settings, message rules, the address book, list of blocked senders, signatures and settings as well as backup and restore your Favorites, Windows Address Book and My Documents. The program produces encrypted archive files containing all your data, which you can put on a CD and use for transferring your data to a new PC. Easy Backup for Outlook Express has support for multiple user accounts and identities; you can move your data not only between identities of the same user, but also between different user accounts and computers. All users of your PC can maintain their own independent backups. Backups can be stored in a folder of your hard disk, put on CD, DVD or removable devices just by using standard Windows features. The program is very easy to use, excellent online help is also available. http://www.getfreefile.com/oebackup.html

NEW BARGAIN FINDER. PCWorld.com has launched a new service that offers a daily list of hot bargains on computer gear, gadgets and other cool stuff. You'll find deals that combine coupons, rebates, discounts and free shipping. There are closeouts, price reductions and special offers, all in an easy-to-scan format. Their deal spotters have a special knack for finding the products you may want to own at pretty unbelievable prices. A fresh list of deals is posted every day. Some of these deals only last a day or two so be sure to come by often; you never know what you're going to find there. http://www.pcworld.com/resource/bargainfinder.asp

POWER DESK PRO - My Software Right Hand

Aside from Windows itself followed closely by your email client, have you ever stopped to consider what application you are into most frequently. The answer for me and lots of others is easy. It's my file manager! For many, that translated down to Windows Explorer. For me, it's Power Desk Pro that makes Windows Explorer look like a 96 lb. weakling. I have used it since its original appearance years ago and just couldn't be without it.

So, what's a file manager? It's the application that completely manages your files and folders, which is what your computer is essentially all about. You can use it to cut, copy, paste, move, view, associate, create, modify, run, print, delete, destroy, encrypt, label, color-code, convert, decrypt, rename, zip, unzip, email to, send to, and a host of other management functions you can apply to any file or folder on your computer. Is it any wonder that it can easily be your most frequently used application?

Windows Explorer offers some of these features, but Power Desk Pro not only offers many more, including those found on digital cameras or MP3 music players, it makes performing them child's play by comparison. It offers toolbars that graphically display and present single-click access to all its many features. It is truly Windows Explorer on steroids!

Getting down to particulars, PowerDesk Pro is basically organized as an integrated set of major application utilities each of which could easily be offered as a standalone:

  1. FTP - You access PowerDesk FTP in an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface that lets you view FTP sites as though they were ordinary folders. Once you have set up your favorite FTP sites, connecting with them is one click away.
  2. Sync Manager - Compare and synchronize the contents of two folders. This is especially useful for those who work on files that are shared between two computers, but it is also useful for backing up files, and many other uses.
  3. Size Manager - A powerful utility that shows you where and how the space on each of your drives is being used. Using Size Manager makes it easy to efficiently manage storage space on your drives.
  4. Dialog Helper - Enhances Open dialog boxes and Save dialog boxes by adding a list selections for previously opened files and previously opened folders. It also provides a file viewer pane that supports over 150 file formats. Dialog helper further allows the resizing of these dialogs that are often fixed in size.
  5. Archive Manager - users can easily compress and expand files from over 30 popular compression formats. PowerDesk also allows users to see within many archives to see the entire list of files and selectively view the contents or extract selected files with a simple drag and drop operation.
  6. File Finder - Forget where you saved that important file? No problem. With PowerDeskr Pro 6, you can quickly locate files through searches by almost any criteria with its powerful "search engine" type tool. Search by keyword, file type, size, or date range and see the "hits" displayed in a single-line reference. You can also search inside Zip files and archives, too!
  7. Dual pane operation - Makes it so easy to drag and drop files between different folders and drives.
  8. Layout Manager - Save complete layouts under single click icons or add these layout icons to your desktop, so PowerDesk starts up up exactly where you want it to!
  9. Add Notes to Your Files! - With a right-click of the mouse, you can add notes to help organize your files. Displayed in a mouse-over window or details view, these notes can remind you of what's in a file without having to open it!
  10. Customize Your File Folders with Color - Easily customize and prioritize your file folders with eight distinct colors.
  11. File Info column - This feature prominently displays specific details about each file in the file pane viewer. MP3 files will show a song title and run time. Images will show the size and resolution. Word documents show the document title, etc.
  12. MP3 Collection Management - Create and control playlist files for portable MP3 devices as well as multimedia applications, such as WinAmp or other MP3 devices. Use the randomize feature to ensure a complete play of the files in random order. Includes cool tools for MP3 users for playing previews of files, searching for files, as well as renaming and editing groups of files in a single action.
  13. File Viewer - Want to open the right file the first time without having to guess and open multiple files? PowerDesk Pro 6 has improved file preview options, which allow users to view the contents of a file in a preview pane or as a thumbnail image. This is particularly useful for browsing files from digital cameras, whole directories of images, or MP3 players where you can even view by artist name, album title, or your own personal notations.

Power Desk Pro is a product of V-com, a leader in the field of utility applications. Visit them at www.v-com.com for more information on Power Desk Pro and their other award-winning software. Installation requirements are: Pentium or better, Windows 98/Me, or Windows NT/2000/XP/2003, 32 MB RAM, 40 MB free disk space, VGA graphics. The cost is $49.99 as a download from V-Com, or a boxed product that will include the cost of shipping. :

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Copyright 2004. This article is from the October 2004 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.