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Click on the links below to view all of the archives collected from my column in the Essex Voice. Feel free to use these as a resource.

As always, if you want to ask a question not included in this archive, click HERE and email it to me.

Here we go for 2007:

January 10, 2007 - Our question this week has to do with Internet Explorer 7.0. I was asked, “How do I get my home page to open up in a new tab instead of the blank page?”

In order to have your home page open in the new Tab, you must complete the following: With the Internet Explorer open in front of you, select the Tools tab found in the top right corner of the screen. Select Internet Options from the list that appears in front of you. Select the button labeled “Tabs”. After you have selected the button “Tabs”, make sure that the checkbox, “Enable tabbed browsing” is selected. Now go to the checkbox at the end of the first section that says, “Open home page for new tabs instead of a blank page.” Make sure that the check box has the check mark in it. Click on OK and the first screen disappears. Now click Apply and next click OK and you are set to go. A warning may come up telling you to lose internet explore and restart it for the changes to take effect. This is normal. I would like to do an article on how to record music from your vinyl LP’s to your computer, however, I do not own a turntable. If there are any readers that would like to sell a turntable, please email me at scott@slconsultingsolutions.com. As always, please keep your questions coming to me at scott@slconsultingsolutions.com. We are starting our third year together.

This solution is for Intermediate skill level users. If in doubt, please consult a professional. Some definitions for you to help you understand basic networking: Gateway – path to the outside world; Subnet – group of addresses you belong to; IP address – specific address for the computer; MAC address – specific address of the actual network card in your computer. Here is a real life analogy. I live at 123 Some Road West in Some Town. My gateway is Some Town, my subnet is Some Road West, My IP address is 123 and my MAC Address is John Doe.

Bruce, first you will need to purchase a router from your local computer retailer. An inexpensive suitable router is around $40.00. Some reputable names in routers are D-Link, LinkSys and NetGear. Follow the instructions that come with your router to set it up to access the internet by imputing your necessary ISP (Internet Service Provider) information (like username and password). Most routers have a wizard that you can run at first start up and it guides you in configuring your router to be able to access the internet. After you have your router configured to access the Internet, you can start to configure it to not allow some computers to access the Internet. First, make sure your router is set up as a DHCP server. This means that the router will control what addresses get assigned to the computers on the network. In the DHCP menu, most routers will allow you to “Clone” the MAC (Machine Address Code) address of each of the computers on your network. By Cloning the MAC address and clicking on accept, you are telling the router that the address you just cloned will always be associated with the IP address the router assigns when the computer accesses the network. Take note of the IP address assigned to the computer by the DHCP server and the name of the computer it assigned it to. You will need this information later. The next steps to take are sometimes labeled differently in different routers. Most are referred to as Firewall rules and some are labeled as parental controls. Check your documentation for reference to limiting access to the Internet. In the firewall rules, you will need to enter the IP address or range of addresses (addresses must be consecutive to use a range) of the computer(s) you wish to limit Internet access. All Firewall/parental Control rules allow you to set either deny all access or allow access for certain times of the day. Choose which option you prefer and click “Apply”. If you wish to always deny access to the internet, just select always and that is all you need to do. If you wish time frames, then set the start and stop times. Note that with these controls, start and stop times refer to when you want to start not allowing and stop not allowing Internet. It is opposite to the logical way of thinking. As soon as you click apply the rule should take effect and the Internet will be shut off to that (those) address(s). To really make sure, you can now go to the computers on the network and set up the computers as User accounts and not Administrator or Power User account. This way, hey cannot change any settings having to do with their network cards to try and circumvent the firewall rules you have put into place. If you wish a more detailed explanation, please write me at scott@slconsultingsolutions.com. I am still looking for a used turntable to experiment with for computer recording. Contact me at scott@slconsultingsolutions.com.

January 24 - I wanted to know: I have saved a PowerPoint photos show on my pictures is there a way to save this to a CD. How? I have Windows XP and have a burner, but I cannot find the PowerPoint show on the options menu. Thanks Jo.

Jo, PowerPoint itself has its own CD burning section. Open your presentation. Click on File and then click on Package for CD (Microsoft Office XP, 2002 and 2003 have this feature). A window appears asking you if you want to package it for a CD or copy it to a folder. There is also a section to name it. First, enter a name for the CD you are about to burn. Next, make sure there is a blank CD in your burner and click on Copy to CD. When it is finished, your CD will automatically run when you put it into a CD player on any computer. Note that if you have included any pictures or songs in your presentation, they are automatically copied for you and packaged by PowerPoint. For example, I made a 98 slide presentation containing 192 pictures and had four songs play successively as the presentation moved on. When I used Package for CD, PowerPoint automatically moved all of the pictures and songs to the CD so that when it is put in another CD player, everything is in the right place and the right order.

Well, Windows Vista is out with all of its hype which means they have to make an announcement about when support will end for Windows XP. Here is the official Microsoft statement on Windows XP support: “Microsoft Corp. is extending the period in which it will offer support for the previous version, Windows XP. Consumers who own Windows XP machines already were entitled to get customer service on the software up until April 2009. That date reflects Microsoft's policy of curtailing its support for an edition of Windows two years after a new version hits the market. “

On Wednesday, however, Microsoft said consumers who still have Windows XP running after April 2009 will be entitled to five more years of "extended support." In the extended plan, consumers will still get security fixes, but instead of free service from the Microsoft help desk, they will have to pay for most assistance.

DO NOT buy Windows Vista until you read my article next week. I have information about Vista that will knock your socks off when you find out the cost of upgrading.

January 31 - Setting up a Virtual Private Network 101

 At Nerds Onsite we often have need to allow customers to access resources at one location while at another. For example, you have a computer program that needs the database files from your main office, but you are at home sick, or you like to work from home every other Friday. This technology is called a Virtual Private Network or VPN.

There are many applications that use this technology. One simple way is to purchase Microsoft Server 2003 and use the built in VPN features that come with it. This solution, however, includes a hefty price tag of two to three thousand dollars, including equipment. This is not very practical for the small law office or doctor’s office.

            To set it up most successfully, one requires Windows XP Professional. My research and personal experience has shown me that while Microsoft claims that Windows XP Home Edition will do this, I have not found this to be true.

            In our example we will use Computer A and Computer B. Computer A is the computer that has the files that someone wants to share. Computer B will have the application that needs those shared files. It is important to note that this is different from Remote Desktop Sharing or any other kind of tool that allows a user to directly see the work on Computer A from Computer B. We are only sharing files or folders we do not want to look at the desktop directly. We are assuming that the user on Computer A still needs to do they’re work while you are using Computer B.

            On Computer B we want to set up the computer to accept VPN connections. We want to go to start/programs/accessories/communication and start the new connection wizard. This will bring up a window and we will choose: Setup an advanced connection. Choose Next. Select ‘Accept Incoming Connections’ and Next. There will be a window asking to select the connection – only click on Next. Select 'allow virtual private connections.' The next screen allows you to select which current user accounts have access to the computer remotely through a VPN. Please ensure that the account(s) you select have secure passwords set on them. You can also create a new user on this screen by using the 'add' button.

            Highlight 'internet protocol (TCP/IP)' and select 'properties.' When you allow VPN connections, Windows XP creates a Remote Access Server virtual network adaptor (RAS server) to handle the connections and hand out IP addresses to incoming connections. Each connection needs an IP address in the same network range as the one assigned to the RAS server in order to connect successfully. By default, the server is set to give out these addresses automatically as clients dial in.

            The following screen allows you to specify the IP address settings that the remote computer will receive for the connection, if any. Using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) to assign addresses (the default) will give the server and any connected VPN clients an address in the 169.254.xxx.xxx automatic private address range. Alternatively, you can specify a range of IP addresses to use. If you choose to do this, be sure to enter more than one address, as the RAS server will automatically take the first available address for itself.

You can also allow remote computers to use their own IP address settings, but this can cause connectivity problems. Note that if you want to allow computers within your local network to access files and folders on a remote computer that has connected via a VPN, as opposed to just allowing the remote computer access to the local computers, you must ensure that the IP address range used for VPN clients is in the same network as your LAN uses. Otherwise, the VPN client will be able to access the network, since the RAS server acts as a gateway for it, but computers within the network will not be able to connect to it.

For example, if your local network uses the 192.168.5.xxx network, you must specify IP addresses in the 192.168.5.xxx range for VPN clients also if you wish them to be accessible from your network.

To set up a VPN client in Windows XP Professional:

On Computer A, go to start/programs/accessories/communication and start the new connection wizard. Select 'connect to the network at my workplace' then choose 'virtual private network connection.' In the current window, you can name the connection if you wish. This will only affect how it appears in the network connection properties window.

Go to start/control panel/network and Internet connections/network connections and select the properties menu of the connection you just created. From here, we have some additional option in the 'security' and 'networking' tabs. The security tab allows you to specify additional security and authentication settings. Most of these are best left untouched unless you know exactly what you want to do.

Please note, you need to click on the Advanced button and in here you will click on ‘Use default gateway on remote network’. This will blank out the check box. The connection will not work with this checked.

If you are using an Internet sharing device such as a home cable/DSL router, you may experience problems connecting to your VPN remotely. Many home routing devices now include some form of VPN pass-through feature which will automatically open the relevant ports, but generally this needs to be configured on the router, so consult your manual.

If you have no luck there, try forwarding TCP port 1723 to your VPN server for a PPTP connection, and UDP ports 500, 1701 and 4500 for L2TP/IPSec. Some routing devices that use Network Address Translation (NAT) may not work with IPSec unless you obtain the NAT-T (NAT Transversal) patch for IPSec, available from Microsoft for Windows XP and 2000. Download it through Windows update. Additional information is available here (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;818043 ).

Once you are connected for all intents and purposes, a remote computer on a VPN is connected directly to your network. You may share drives and folders and transfer files over the link. 

With content from: Nerds Onsite from around the world.

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February 7 - If consumers really knew what Microsoft's® new Vista® won't let them do, consumers will certainly not rush to pay upwards of $500 for it (depends on which version you want to try). This is truly the most secure version of Windows. However, it is the most restrictive. Microsoft is so busy trying to protect "Premium or Commercial" content (such as High definition DVD's and movies and Blu-Ray), that it leaves the user wondering, "How in the world do I use my computer now I've got this Operating system on it?" Although Microsoft has tried to downplay the perceived impact of Vista's content-protection by stating that it'll only apply when premium/commercial content is present, this conveniently sidesteps the fact that Microsoft hopes that this situation will become universal in the near future.

Problem One - Disabling Functionality of devices: Vista's content protection mechanism only allows protected content to be sent over interfaces that also have content-protection facilities built in. Currently the most common high-end audio output interface is S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format). Most newer audio cards, for example, feature TOSlink digital optical output for high-quality sound reproduction, and even the latest crop of motherboards with integrated audio provide at least coax (and often optical) digital output. Since S/PDIF doesn't provide any content protection, Vista requires that it be disabled when playing protected content. In other words if you've sunk a pile of money into a high-end audio setup feed from an S/PDIF digital output, you won't be able to use it with protected content. Let's say you've just bought Pink Floyd's “The Dark Side of the Moon”, released as a Super Audio CD (SACD) in its 30th anniversary edition in 2003, and you want to play it under Vista. Since the S/PDIF link to your amplifier/speakers is regarded as insecure for playing the Super Audio content, Vista disables it. You end up hearing a performance that sound like it is coming from a tin can instead of a thrilling Pink Floyd performance. Further, those of you who bought a high-end video card that supports HDCP (High Definition Control Protocol), will probably have to buy another one that really and truly does support HDCP. The same issue that affects graphics cards also goes for high-resolution LCD monitors. One of the biggest is a 27" HD-capable LCD monitor, the Syncmaster 275T. The only problem with this amazing HD monitor is that Vista won't display HD content on it because it doesn't consider any of its many input connectors (DVI-D, 15-pin D-Sub, S- Video, and component video) secure enough. So you can do almost anything with this HD monitor except view HD content on it. Trust me, the list goes on and on. Don't get me started on printers and peripherals compatibility. Check this site http://testedproducts.windowsmarketplace.com to see where your hardware lies in the compatibility scheme.

Problem Two - Elimination of the Unified Driver: When drivers were written by manufacturers before Vista, they all tried to use the same technique for coding so that almost all drivers were compatible with all motherboards. This made it easy for the consumer because it was simple to install new devices and upgrade hardware in your computer. The problem with eliminating the unified driver system is no longer can two chipsets exist in harmony on the same graphic card. The drivers were originally written to work in harmony, but Vista views the relationship as being unsecured and therefore does not allow them to work in harmony. Now the driver writer's have to purposely make them incompatible so that Vista will see two different system and Vista will reassemble them to try and make it work. Bottom line is older sound cards and audio devices will not work with Vista and, as a result, you will have to upgrade your audio devices in your computer. On my home tower, Vista will not install because my 256 MB NVIDIA graphic card and my SoundBlaster Live Value 512 sound card are not supported.

Problem Three - Denial of Service because Vista doesn't trust a device or driver: Get this. Let's say Microsoft updates Vista to tell it that your sound card driver is no longer considered secure. Vista will revoke the security settings of the device and disable it without warning you. In English, it means that Vista will no longer send information to it unless it is considered, and verified as, premium content. An example of this might be nVidia TNT2 video cards, which are still very widely used in business environments. They are all you need to run Word or Outlook or Excel (or, for that matter, pretty much any non-gaming application). The drivers for these cards haven't been updated for quite some time. You don't need the latest drivers for them because you are just typing letters and emails. If Vista thinks that the drivers are "leaking" information, it will shut them down (actually, Vista will probably not support these cards at all. Therefore, you will have to upgrade your video card).

Problem Four - Tilt Bits: Vista's content protection requires that devices (hardware and software drivers) set so-called “tilt bits” if they detect anything unusual. All systems up until now have built in resilience. If there is a small power surge or you plug in a new USB device and there is a power fluctuation, your computer would handle it by rebooting, shutting down or just flickering and then continuing on without problem or issue. With the introduction of tilt bits, all of this designed-in resilience is gone. Every little (normally unnoticeable) glitch is suddenly heightened because it could be a sign of a hack attack. The reaction being that “Windows Vista will initiate a full reset of the graphics subsystem, so everything will restart”. The true impact of tilt bits remains to be seen. In English, this means any changes you may have made to personalize your Vista (i.e. turning off some of the silly things Vista comes with) would be reset to the factory defaults as a precaution.

Problem Five - Size of installation and computer resources to run it: A 1 GHz computer (32-bit or 64-bit) with 1 GB RAM and 20 GB of hard drive space is required to install Vista. The minimum hard drive size is 40 GB. A 128MB video card with DirectX 9.0c and a DVD ROM are also required. Most of us that have computers three years old or older are out of luck to meet the minimum requirements to install Vista. Oh, you will still have to activate it over the internet before being allowed to use it.

At the end of all this, the question remains: Why is Microsoft going to this much trouble? Ask most people what they picture when you use the term “premium-content media player” and they'll respond “A DVD player” and not “A Windows PC”. So why go to this much effort to try and turn the PC into something that it's not? The only reason I can think of to put us through this much pain is because once this copy protection is entrenched, Microsoft will completely own the whole premium content distribution channel. For example, let's say you have purchased and downloaded CD from iTunes or some other legal site. When you download it and use it, a legal license is created on your computer in order for you to use it. If Vista deems that the content of the license has changed (whether updated by Windows or iTunes), it will automatically lock it out and not let you play it anymore. Further, when you upgrade from XP to Vista, if Vista doesn't like the license, you will have to purchase it again. Oh, you cannot back up the license either in the case you have to reinstall Vista.

I think we will all have to wait two or three months to see how Microsoft handles the new release and to see how fast the hackers and phishers have been able to circumvent Vista. Maybe after the dust settles, there may be some merit. Expect Service Pack One by Christmas of this year. That is when it is expected Vista will have most of the fixes for hardware compatibility issues including most printers. Contributions to this article have been made by a colleague, Peter Auckland, an expert in Windows technology and compatibility. I will keep you updated as we go to keep you informed on how Vista is progressing for you, the home user.

February 14 - I had a customer this week that lost everything on their hard drive due to a boot sector virus. Boot sector viruses can be deadly to your information and sometimes to the hard drive itself. In this instance, the user lost all information and the hard drive itself.

A boot virus infects the Master Boot Record (MBR) of a hard drive and can infect the Floppy Boot Record (FBR) of a floppy disk. A boot virus can overwrite files anywhere on the hard drive and relocate files anywhere on your hard drive. An overwriting boot virus overwrites the MBR or FBR sector with its code preserving partition table information or logical drive information respectively. A partition table is a small piece of information that tells the computer how your hard drive is set up to store information and how big each section of the hard drive is that will store the information. Relocating boot viruses save the original MBR or FBR somewhere on the hard or floppy drive. Sometimes such action can destroy certain areas of a hard drive or floppy drive and make a disk unreadable. In the case of my customer this week, it destroyed her hard drive making it unreadable.

When a computer is started, boot virus code is loaded in memory. A virus traps one of the basic computer start up functions and stays resident in memory. A virus then monitors disk access and writes its code to boot sectors of the drives that is used on an infected computers. For example a boot virus started from a diskette infects a hard drive. Then a virus will infect all diskettes that are inserted in to infected computer's floppy drive. In turn, it can spread to your hard drive and, if you are connected to a network, can spread over your network and infect other computers. To infect your network can take less than fifteen seconds.

Of course, the question begs: "How did I get this thing?" Because some viruses are writable and some are relocatable, there a few ways to get them. Most of the time, an email or file will arrive to your computer and the user is curious to see what it is and opens it. If you have good and up-to-date anti-virus protection, it should catch it and warn you. If you do not, the virus is free to execute on your computer. The prevention is that if you do not recognize the sender or the file, download it to your computer first, scan it for viruses and, only when it has been verified, open it. Even then, if you do not recognize the sender, I would delete it. Second most common way is to visit sites you are not familiar with or porn sites with tons of popup adds. Clicking on any one of the thousand of different style popups could result in one of these viruses. Be especially aware of sites linked from astalavista.com or similar sites and downloading from Limewire or like programs. Astalavista.com and Limewire are not responsible for the content of the sites linked from them, but you should be aware of it. At any one time, a search on Limewire can find hundreds of viruses disguised as the file you searched for.

The solution is fairly simple, yet sometimes taken for granted: Good reliable anti-virus software that is kept up-to-date. Examples of such are: Norton Internet Security, McAfee Internet Suite, Kapersky, Trend PC-Cillin, AVG anti-virus, Zone Alarm Internet Security.

Thank you to the reader who sent me the information on the USB turntable.

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Is there a solution? We booted his computer using a Windows 98 floppy start up disk and were able to gain access to his old drive. However, we were only able to get a few files off using MS-DOS disk utilities. By using the boot disk (which is formatted FAT16 by default, we went on the premise if that we could match file systems, we may have some luck retrieving files. In reality, he is out of luck having full access to his files. I asked him if he had backed up his files onto a CD or other means. His answer was no. Eight years of data and files lost. This week is an opportunity for me to remind you, the reader, once again how important it is to back up your work on a regular basis.

March 14 -This week's question is about web pages. A reader would like to know how to build a web page that they can put on the web so others can see it and quite possibly want to buy something from it.

March 21 - I just bought my daughter a new computer for graduation and I want to surprise her with it. Is there any way for me to set up the computer without her knowing it and putting all of her files back exactly were they were so that when she logs on everything will be good for her to go?

There is a fairly easy way to set up your daughter's new computer providing you are going from Windows XP to Windows XP. If your computers are networked, you can save the files from her computer to yours over the network using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. Click on Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. At the first window that comes up, press Next. Select Old Computer option because you want to transfer files and settings to the new computer. When you click next, a warning message may come up from the Windows Firewall. Be sure to click on unblock. Under Select a Transfer Method, use the dialog at the bottom to browse to the folder over the network you want to save all of your files and settings to. If you have a separate partition on your hard drive, you can choose that instead. Click Next. Under What D You Want to Transfer, leave the default Both Files and Settings selected and click Next. A box will come up telling you it is gathering files and system information. It is only gathering your saved files. It is not gathering the programs you have installed from CD's or floppies. On the new computer you will have to reinstall all programs. This wizard helps you keep everything you have customized. It may take a while depending on how big the hard drive is and how information you have. A summary will come up at the end and it will tell you if some of the files were not able to be transferred and how to transfer them manually. Now go to your new computer and start the wizard again and this time select New Computer from the introduction screen. Click Next and a dialog will appear with a couple of choices. Choose, I have already collected my files and settings from my old computer. Click next and locate the folder on the network (Using the Browse button) you saved all of your files in. Click next and all of the files will be transferred back into their original locations on the new drive.

Please keep the questions coming. I haven't received any regarding Vista as of yet. I have one user that is going to sum up his first month with Vista in the near future.

April 4 - This week's question comes from a secretary who has encountered the following error run Microsoft Word 2003: "Winword has caused an error in winword.exe winword will now close". She would like ot know what happened and further, how is it fixed.   When that message comes up, most people's first reaction is to reinstall Microsoft Word. Though that should fix it, there is a less time consuming way to fix it. First, close Microsoft Word to make sure it is not running. Second, Double Click on My Computer. Go To the Tools menu and then select Options. Under the View tab, make sure the radio button beside Show hiden files and folders is selected. Now, click on Start >> Search. In the box that comes up, make sure that the search type is All file types. In the search box, type in *rmal.dot and click on search. You should come up with two files. Delete both of these files and then restart Microsoft Word. The Normal.dot templates load each time Microsoft Word start. If they are missing, Microsoft Word re-creates the files when it starts up. With this completed, you should be good to go.

April 11 - Mr A. from Harrow had a problem. With his dial up connection, he would open his Outlook Express and it would say that he was receiving a bunch of emails but it wouldn't download any email past number two. He deduced that it was probably a big file and, with a dial up connection, it will take a long time to download it. And, if it does not download properly, he will not be able to receive any of the other emails behind it because emails have to be downloaded in order; no skipping. How do we fix this problem without upgrading to high speed Internet? First, if you really want to see the rest of your email and skip this big one, you can call your Internet Service Provider and they will delete that email for you so you can retrieve the others. Now, if you want the luxury of receiving those emails without upgrading, you can elect to subscribe to one of the free email services available on the Internet. The most popular sites for free email services are http://www.yahoo.ca, http://www.yahoo.com, http://www.hotmail.com and http://www.gmail.com. These free email services allow you to receive larger emails without having to first download them to your computer. Just follow the links to sign up on the web site for your email account. This way, a person can see where the email originated and can decide whether or not to download it or delete it. If you choose to download it to your computer from the email site, it will still take a while to download but at least you know what you are downloading and you can download at your leisure.

April 18 - In our Retired Teachers' magazine there is an article re: computers. One said 3 things you can do to improve performance-delete spy ware, clean up hard disc, defrag hard disc. I've done last two-no problem. Computer is running slow and I want to delete spy ware. Article says I can download free software such as Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition from LavaSoft. I've started to do this, but it asks me, "do I want to Run or Save this program. I don't know what I want, so I quit! What do I want? Also, there is a message that says when I delete spy ware files, some of the free programs I've downloaded may not continue to work correctly, so I should select what I select to delete after scan has been completed. How do I know what I can and cannot delete?

First off, the magazine is giving good advice. When you computer starts to slow down, those are first three spots to check. When you get to downloading the Ad-Aware, it does not matter which one you select. When you select Run, the program is downloaded to a temporary folder and then starts to install automatically. If you click Save As, it will prompt you for a spot to save the installer on your computer first. After it saves it to your computer, a prompt will come up asking you if you want to Run (or it may say Install) the program you just downloaded. Click on Run (install) and the program will install.

After running the program, the message may appear as you have stated above regarding some programs may not work after deleting files. This is a bit of a tricky situation. When I install free software, I always choose the Custom install if the option is available. When selecting Custom, it will show all of the other software it is trying to install with the regular program. At this point, I de-select all of the spy ware it would try to install. Now I know it is not being put onto my computer. Unfortunately, in your case, this is hindsight. In your situation, there are some situations where you will not know. In my experience, I have always chosen delete all files and not had any issues. I must state that I rarely download freeware or shareware software. I usually do research and just buy the shareware. Usually when you buy the program, the spy ware etc is not included because you have paid for the program and there is no further need to advertise. When the spy ware scanner finishes, it gives you results to look at before deleting the files. Examine the file names and see if it relates to any program you want to run on your computer and then deselect it from being erased (or fixed). This can be an arduous task if your scan comes up with over one thousand results. My advice is to be more careful when installing freeware or shareware because nothing is for free. If you need more specific advice, you can email me some of the entry names and I can give you a line-by-line analysis and let you know what you specifically need to keep or delete.

April 25 - Windows Vista... is it just a bunch of hype? Or as some are saying, to complicated or difficult to use! Well I decided to check it out for myself. I consider myself fairly competent with computers and software, and not afraid to try new things, so Windows Vista was fair game. I have been playing around with Vista for about 4 months now and for the most part, satisfied with it.
Installation: I have only done clean installs to date. My 1st install was on a 4 year old Pentium 4; 2.4 GHz with hyper-threading, 1 gig or RAM, 200 GB of hard drive in a raid 0 configuration. The video card was a 256 MB ATI 9550 AGP. The motherboard was a DFI 875PRO. I partitioned the hard drive into 2 partitions and installed Vista Ultimate on the 2nd partition, leaving my Windows XP Pro alone (I didn't want to take a chance of messing up any data I had. Also, if I had upgraded the XP, I would have lost the license for it per the Vista upgrade policy). For this install, I did not enter the Vista license which allows the install to work for 30 days only. The installation went well. For the raid drivers, I used my XP pro drivers and it worked well. I then installed all the same applications as I had for the XP Pro, such as MS Office 2003, Nero 7.5, Internet 7.0, Adobe Pro 8.0, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Lotus Organizer 5.0, Microsoft Money 99, iTunes, Grisoft AVG 7.5 (anti-virus), UltraIso 8.6, WinRar 3.51 and Kodak Easyshare. There were also several puzzle games from Game House. All the software installed without problems. The only Item that required an updated driver was my Brother MFC-5460CN printer which was available on the internet. All the software functioned properly. The only headache was the built in security of Vista which prompts you to allow a program to launch that is not Vista certified. Although the intention of this is good, it really is a pain! However, I learned that this is easily disabled if you want, and yes I did disable it! Overall, Vista Ultimate on this computer performed somewhat better than XP Pro. My 2nd install was Windows Vista Ultimate, 64 bit edition on a newer computer designed for Vista. All went well as I would have expected. Performance is better than with Windows XP Pro 64 bit edition. My 3rd install was Windows Vista Home Basic, 32 bit edition on a 2 year old Sempron 2200, 512 ram, 80 gig hard drive and 128 MB ATI 9200SE video card. The install went well. The only minor item was the 128 MB AGP video card did not allow the AERO feature of Vista to function. Not a big deal, as this feature is for graphic enhancements for the look and feel of Vista. The lower ram video card also doesn't allow for graphics intensive applications to run properly or at all in some cases. An investment of $90.00 for a 256 MB video card would take care of most of the applications and allow the AERO feature of Vista to function. This computer belongs to my daughter who is pleased with it. The computer previously had Windows 2000 Pro on it and did not perform as well as the Vista Home Basic. One thing is clear, to get the most of Vista, a good video card is a must, and I would suggest 1 gig of ram as a minimum. One particular feature of Vista that is nice is Parental control. Vista allows multi users each with individual security features and parental controls. The "administrator" for the computer can set up when users can log in during the day you specify. Also, game and internet ratings are pretty good and easily set up. Parental controls can also determine which programs an individual user can run and if the user can download programs. Personally speaking... As Microsoft operating systems go, I believe Vista is a sound product, and will be the best Microsoft has offered to date... as long as you take the time to learn to use it. As for the potential hardware and software investments you may need to make, it is a judgement call. Just like the older versions of Microsoft operating systems, there isn't complete backward compatibility. No different than most other industries! This is what I would suggest if you were considering Windows Vista. If your computer is only a couple of years old and has similar hardware as the 3rd example and is running Windows XP, keep the Windows XP as you probably won't see the benefit. If your computer is similar to the 1st example, then Vista may be an option if you don't mind parting with the cash for some minor improvement. On a newer system, get a good video card and the extra ram and you will get the benefit of Vista. Also, do a little homework to ensure that the printers, web cams, scanners and other add-on's are Vista compatible.

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May 2 - This week's question comes from a panicked reader. Her problem was as such. After a power surge, her computer would not boot to Windows either is regular mode or "Safe Mode". As soon as it would seem like it is going to boot, the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) appears and reboots her machine. She needed to know her options because all of her data was on the hard drive and she was also learning the value of having a backup of her data.

You have a few options short of reinstalling Windows (which may not fix this anyways). The following is designed for users who have more than just the basic understanding of computers. The first I would do after having tried you did would be to get a Windows 98 boot disk and boot from it. However, you need to prepare the diskette to include a couple of extra files. From another computer, transfer the scandisk.exe file, chkdsk.exe file and the fdisk.exe file to the floppy before putting into the problem computer. I know this may seem unusual me instructing someone to boot to a floppy of an operating system that is ten years old. What we need to be able to do is get to the hard drive quickly. Not many people know how to make Windows XP boot floppy disks. I will instruct that in a future article.

Put the floppy into your computer and turn it on. If it skips your floppy, you will have to go to your BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and change the boot order to boot to the floppy first. Once that is accomplished, a menu will appear once the floppy is engaged in the boot up process. Choose Boot Computer without CD-ROM support. After the computer is finished booting from the floppy, it will stop at an A:\ prompt. At the prompt type in CHKDSK c: /F. Let the computer do its thing and it will display a result on your screen. The line your are looking for is how many bytes were found to be bad sectors. If there is a number of any amount, run the next command; CHKDSK c: /R. This command may take a long time to finish executing, but it will scan for and try to recover the bad sectors. If it is successful in recovering the bad sectors, it will tell you so in the summary. If it can and has recovered them, try to reboot your machine normally (removing the floppy disk) and see what happens. If it cannot recover the bad sectors, nothing will change or it may not try to boot at all.

If this fails, there is one other option. You can install an operating system on a USB or external drive and then set your BIOS to boot from USB device and let your computer boot to that device. You will be able to access the damaged drive from the operating system running on the USB device. You may say, why not just reinstall my operating system. True, you could do this; however, you will lose all data stored in your My Documents folder and all you emails and Favorites. After you have retrieved all of your information, I would reformat your hard drive and, if there is no damaged sectors, reinstall your operating system.

May 9 - This is further to an article I wrote earlier about being able to retrieve your email on the web and be able to filter through all of the spam so it doesn't come to your inbox. A reader has suggested mail2web.com. All you have to do is type in your email address and the password to that address and it will retrieve your emails for you. Now you can sort through them eliminating the ones you do not want before opening your regular email program. If you are using Hotmail or yahoo, you have to make sure that POP support is enabled through those two accounts and all should work well. Thank you Nancy for the tip.

May 16 - This week's question comes from a reader who wants to know what a Digital Picture Frame is.

When television was first introduced, no one ever imagined that they would be flat and hang on a wall. But, we have them everywhere now. Now there is something new on the market called Digital Photo (Picture) Frames. These allow you to download photos to it and you can have a never ending slide show inside a picture frame that sits on your desk, mantle or wherever. They run by small battery, or electricity, and some can carry in excess of 1 GB of pictures. Most out today have the equivalent of a 1280X1024 screen resolution.Some have audio and some don't. Some will even show movies from the Digital Picture Frame. Thin and interesting conversation pieces these may be, but cheap they are not. However, if you want to have an ever-changing slide show of your images, you might want to check into these devices. Some even let you, or others you invite, change the images from anywhere in the world.
While researching these devices, make sure you look carefully at the specs to make sure you are comparing apples to apples. If the site does not make the specs easy to find, you should probably move to a different site.

Following are some things to think about when considering a digital photo frame:

Screen quality is really what it's all about and it's hard to evaluate without actually seeing frames side by side. You'll find that styles vary widely, but all are designed to look more or less like traditional photo frames, and some even incorporate traditional mats. Designs range from elegant to those that look like they were produced in a high-school woodworking shop.

Size and resolution are two of the key determinants of the quality of the displayed image and the price of the frame. Specs are hard to come by so comparisons are almost impossible but the relation between these two features is critical. Available resolutions are much like those on other digital devices; 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024. For any one of these resolutions image quality will decrease as the screen gets larger because the available pixels are spread over a larger area.

Pixel pitch is the distance between pixels center to center and smaller numbers are better. This number gives you an idea of the density of pixels and will be larger on a large screen with low resolution.

Number of colors has a huge impact on how good your photos will look. Low-quality screens will have thousands (usually 256,000) and high quality screens will have millions.

Display technology also has a huge effect on how good your images appear. The best screen technology is currently active matrix thin film transistor (TFT).

Adjustable brightness, especially auto adjustment, improves the display of your images in changing lighting conditions.

Viewing angles indicate the angles at which images can be viewed horizontally and vertically. Higher numbers are better.

Contrast ratio is the difference in brightness between pure white and black on the screen. Higher numbers are better.

Display and mounting. Many frames offer both table display and wall mounting.

Analog or digital. Digital screens are better because analog is old technology.

Putting the images into your frame

Some frames are designed to stand alone with images fed to the screen from a memory card or other storage device such as a hard drive or USB flash drive, or a USB connection to the camera or computer. To put a show together, you copy images from your computer to the storage device your frame uses. However, some frames allow you to put files on the frame from anywhere in the world. For example, when I was in Italy last year, I would have been able to hook up my laptop and upload files from Italy to Essex onto my Digital Picture Frame and my kids would have been able to see the photos and pictures before I got home.

Connecting to your Digital Picture Frame

USB outlets on a frame let you connect it to a computer by cable. A phone connection can be used for connection from outside your home (or if you are really good and have a static IP and the frame attached to your computer as a flash hard drive, you can use your broadband internet connection to upload files).

Wireless capability lets you put the frame on your home or office network so it's just like any other drive.

E-mail feed lets you assign a special e-mail address to the frame so you (or anyone else) can then e-mail photos to the device.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) capability lets you download selected photos to the device from a Web site

Bluetooth support lets you transfer photos from any other Bluetooth device such as a camera phone.

As we can see, this technology is really neat. This is the kind of gift that kids can give to their parents for anniversaries, birthdays or just because.

This next bit of information is from one of our readers, Renee:

Just thought you might like to have this information. People can donate their old computers to Computers for Kids. Their number is 253-5437. I got this number from the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority. Feel free to pass along. Thanks.

May 23 - When does gaming become an addiction. Shawn from Leamington asked me this past week.

A Wisconsin woman has blamed "EverQuest" in the suicide late last month of her 21-year-old son, who had a history of mental health problems and was an obsessive "EverQuest" player. The game was also implicated in the death last year of a Tampa, Fla., infant, whose father allegedly was so devoted to the game he fatally neglected the child. While this is extreme, it asks the question, "Is this our new crack or latest type of addiction?"

Excessive computer gaming has the hallmarks of addiction, suggests new experiments on "drug memory". The researchers argue it should be classified as such, enabling “addicts” to start seeking help. Video games played on consoles such as Sony's PlayStation 3 and the new WI systems can become the object of compulsive behavior, especially among children. But such problems are usually easily solved through modest parental intervention and the self-limiting nature of such games, which become repetitive and boring at some point. Online PC games such "World of Warcraft", "EverQuest," the new "Dark Age of Camelot," or "Diablo II" can pose much more complex problems. Extensive chat features give such games a social aspect missing from offline activities, and the collaborative/competitive nature of working with or against other players can make it hard to take a break.

There are two defining characteristics of addiction, according to researchers: The person regularly engages in activity for much longer than originally planned and "(continues) doing it in spite of adverse consequences." The longer periods of time interfere with regular and normal social activities and even can interfere with going to work. In these games "Each goal leads to another goal, and there are critical choices you make along the way. You invest a lot of time and thought into developing a character. You feel like you've wasted your time unless you reach the next goal", researchers have concluded.
Like most addictions, the toughest part of recovering from game addiction is often getting the addict to acknowledge there's a problem--a task made all the more difficult by the seemingly harmless nature of games. "Environments like 'EverQuest' or "World of Warcraft" can help a person if they're shy or have trouble forming social relationships," researchers have said. "They have this environment where they can safely try new things out. They can experiment with being more vocal, or they can try out a leadership role, which may not be an opportunity they have in real life. Especially for teenagers, it lets them try out different roles and identities at a time when they may be really struggling with those kinds of issues." Addicts show addictive behaviours like craving to play the game to make them feel better or, having t play the game, as soon as, dinner is over. "Mom, I have to go on now because someone will take over my area if I don't!". Thankfully, responsible adults can help intervene with their children to help prevent these kind of addictions.

Parents need to know what their children are playing online. Don't just answer yes when they ask about joining an online community or group. Kids, if your dad or mom is spending all their time on a computer game and not paying attention to you; Tell them. And while not everyone agrees that computer games have the addictive potential of drugs, or even gambling, groups such as Online Gamers Anonymous and "World of Warcraft" Widows are overflowing with stories of people so wrapped up in slaying monsters, or conquering territories, that for days they neglect to eat, wash or sleep.

May 30 - This week's question comes from a reader in Harrow and they would like to know what "Partitioning your hard drive" means. They have been told by a friend that they should partition the hard drive in their computer. The hard drive in question is 300 GB.

First, let's get an understanding of what a hard drive really is. A basic analogy is a hard drive is like a filing cabinet. It is a place to store files and programs. Remember the hard drive is not the case sitting at your desk, it is the small piece of hardware about the size of your hand inside the case.
Partitioning a hard drive in its simplest terms mean that you divide your hard drive into separate storage areas. Most computers ship with one partition and it is called C: in My Computer. Why would someone want to partition a hard drive into more than one section? Safety of files, running multiple operating systems and running high end graphical programs.
Safety of Files: Most businesses that I set up need some assurance of their files being safe. While I always set up a back up system for them, a case can be made for separating the hard drive into two separate partitions and have all of the files saved on the second partition (it would normally show up as
D: in My Computer). This way if the Operating System were to crash and had to be reinstalled, no files on the second partition would be affected.
Partitioning the hard drive is like having two separate hard drives in your computer when you really only have one.
Running Multiple Operating Systems: Some people need to run more than one Operating System on their computers. One of my units has Linux and Windows Vista. The Linux has three separate partitions and the Windows uses the fourth one. By having them on separate partitions, they do not interfere with each other.
High end graphical programs: Programs such as Adobe Premiere and Adobe AfterEffects need incredible amounts of RAM and hard drive space to render their graphics. If you do not partition your computer before installing one of these programs, you will see significant decrease in performance. These programs actually ask you at install which partitions you want to use to install and which one you want to use to render. Having a large hard drive with two partitions allows the program to function properly without killing your computer's performance.

Programs like Partition Magic can help you partition your hard drive if you have Windows installed already. Be very careful using this program if you lack experience and back up your files before trying it.

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June 6 - I'm writing to get your advice on a remedy for the following problem. I use Windows XP operating system. Lately, I've been getting a message as follows: "This application has failed to start because MMVCP70.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix the problem. mm_tray.exe - unable to locate component." Sometimes programs won't open when clicking their icons on the desktop, and I ultimately have to unplug the computer, turn it on again, exit the above message, and then things will work again (for awhile), but sometimes rather slowly. In doing a little research on the internet, I'm wondering if I should download the missing dll file from a website such as dll-files.com, or purchase one of the registry cleaner programs, such as RegistryFix or RegCure. In doing one of the free scans (from RegCure), it indicated that there are many errors on my registry. Or maybe there's a different solution.

Your computer is tryig to access the program MusicMatch Jukebox. If it was previously installed, it has been removed incorrectly. Best way to fix this , providing it was installed before, is to reinstall it then uninstall it so that all items are removed properly. If this is not the case, I think it should be safe to go Start, Run, type msconfig then clickOK, go to the Startup tab, and uncheck mm_tray.exe or mm_tray (whichever it is, it could be either), then click OK. You'll be asked if you want to restart your computer. Answer Yes. This should clear up the problem.

When your computer reboots, a message may appear telling you that you have just changed the startup programs on your computer. If it gives you a choice, select keep new settings.

Remember, as with any changes to a computer, make sure your important information is backed up before making changes.

June 13 - We have a set of photographs on a CD from a photo shop. I have to email these photos to someone in Australia. Does each photo have to be saved and sent separately or is there a way to email all 28 photos to the recipient. It's a hotmail account.

This is a good question. What a pain it would be if you had to email each file separately. Thankfully you do not have to. Windows XP and Windows Vista has its own compression tool that can be used to combine all of the files together into one single file. You do not need to download any program or install anything extra to accomplish this. here is how you do it. Highlight all of the pictures you want to send to your friend in Australia. After you have highlighted them, right-click your mouse (make sure it is over top of one of the files you highlighted) and Select Send to from the menu that appears. Now select Compressed (Zipped) Folder from the menu. Now, it will make a single file that contains all of the pictures you want to send. Open your email program and attach the file to an email to be sent your friend and they will receive the file and all they have to do is download it and Windows will unzip it for them. All they have to do is double-click on the file.

June 20 - This week's question come from Dave in Harrow. Dave wants to know what anti-virus program is the best to use. Dave, some people might interpret the question as a loaded question because no matter how it is answered, someone will disagree with the assessment. But let's give it a try.

There are many anti-virus products and Internet Security programs on the market all proclaiming to be the best for the end consumer. In the corporate world of large servers and huge business solutions, the two most popular anti-virus solutions that are used is the Norton Anti-virus Corporate Edition and a program called NOD32. Each program is as good as the other. Both have very low overhead and use very little system resources to run. Each run as a service in the background of the Windows installation and you don't really know that they are installed on the system. Both programs can be setup to allow you to update two computers or thousands of computers at the same time when updating the virus definitions. Both systems are reasonably priced and you usually have to buy a minimum number of licenses to get started.
Time to talk about anti-viruses for the home computers and small offices. First to settle some confusion about anit-viruses and Internet Security Packages. Anti-viruses are only the anti-viruses. An Internet Security System contains a firewall, trusted sites url's, parental controls and an anti-virus. The main players in the home market is Symantec Norton Anti-virus (http://www.symantec.com), McAfee (http://www.mcafee.com) and AVG (http://www.grisoft.com). As far as anti-virus goes, I vote for the AVG anti-virus by grissoft. It takes very little overhead and is a breeze to use, install and update. It is comparably priced with it competitors. I also like the AVG Internet Security Suite for the same reasons as the anti-virus. The creators of this program understand that not every computer is a super computer and has all kinds of resources to devote to internet security. That is the biggest reason that McAfee and Norton fail. Though each is very thorough, they consume all kinds of resources. I refuse to install Norton Internet Security products because of the resources needed to run it. It is trying to do so many things in the backgorund while you are doing your regular work. As a result, your work becomes slower because having less computer resources to do the real work you are doing. McAfee advantage is that is costs less than Norton and takes up a few less resources, but AVG still gets my vote. One other to consider is ZoneAlarm by Zonelabs. It, like AVG, takes up very little resources. It has a lot of annoyning alerts to deal with and it is harder to configure than AVG. Dave, I guess my votes are AVG all the way. I do not paid, or given any free product, by any of the companies or their subsidiaries. I have been working with and programming with computers for over twenty years and the results speak for themselves in my experience.

 June 27 - This week's question comes from a Windows Vista user who wants to know how to get the Run box up so he can do command line operations..

In Windows Vista most of the shortcuts are the same as they were in Windows XP. Following is a list of the most common keyboard shortcuts for Windows Vista. You will find that most, if not all, work with Windows XP too.

Windows logo key
Open or close the Start menu

Windows logo key +BREAK
Display the System Properties dialog box

Windows logo key +D
Display the desktop

Windows logo key +M
Minimize all windows

Windows logo key +SHIFT+M
Restore minimized windows to the desktop

Windows logo key +E
Open Computer

Windows logo key +F
Search for a file or folder

CTRL + Windows logo key +F
Search for computers (if you are on a network)

Windows logo key +L
Lock your computer (if you are connected to a network domain), or switch users (if you're not connected to a network domain)

Windows logo key +R
Open the Run dialog box

Windows logo key +T
Cycle through programs on the taskbar

Windows logo key +TAB
Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Windows Flip 3-D

CTRL + Windows logo key +TAB
Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Windows Flip 3-D

Windows logo key +SPACEBAR
Bring all gadgets to the front and select Windows Sidebar

Windows logo key +G
Cycle through Sidebar gadgets

Windows logo key +U
Open Ease of Access Center

Windows logo key +X
Open Windows Mobility Center

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July 3 - This week's question comes from Chris who wanted to encrypt the files on his portable hard drive. He thinks he made a mistake because he cannot use his encrypted hard drive after redoing his computer. First let's cover how to encrypt a portable (or non booting) hard drive. To encrypt a hard drive, file or folder, do the following: 1. Right-click the hard drive, folder or file you want to encrypt, and then click Properties. 2. Click the General tab, and then click Advanced. 3. Select the Encrypt contents to secure data check box, and then click OK. The reason people want to encrypt files is to prevent unauthorized people from reading files from other computers or from across the Internet. The problem our user had was that after he encrypted the files on his portable hard drive, he formatted and reinstalled Windows on his regular PC hard drive. As a result, he erased the encryption key on his hard drive that told the computer how to read the files on his portable hard drive. With this file gone, he cannot read or use his own files that he thought he has secured. The way to prevent this from happening is to back up the encryption key as soon as you encrypt your files (or use a backup utility instead). In order to back up the encryption key, do the following (Thank you to the MSDN Microsoft web-site for this) : 1. Log on to the computer by using the recovery agent’s local user account.
2. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then click OK.
3. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in, and then click Add.
4. Under Available Standalone Snap-ins, click Certificates, and then click Add.
5. Click My user account, and then click Finish.
6. Click Close, and then click OK.
7. Double-click Certificates - Current User, double-click Personal, and then double-click Certificates.
8. Locate the certificate that displays the words "File Recovery" (without the quotation marks) in the Intended Purposes column.
9. Right-click the certificate that you located in step 8, point to All Tasks, and then click Export. The Certificate Export Wizard starts.
10. Click Next.
11. Click Yes, export the private key, and then click Next.
12. Click Personal Information Exchange – PKCS #12 (.PFX).

Note We strongly recommend that you also click to select the Enable strong protection (requires IE 5.0, NT 4.0 SP4 or above check box to protect your private key from unauthorized access.

If you click to select the Delete the private key if the export is successful check box, the private key is removed from the computer and you will not be able to decrypt any encrypted files.
13. Click Next.
14. Specify a password, and then click Next.
15. Specify a file name and location where you want to export the certificate and the private key, and then click Next.
Note We recommend that you back up the file to a disk or to a removable media device, and then store the backup in a location where you can confirm the physical security of the backup.
16. Verify the settings that are displayed on the Completing the Certificate Export Wizard page, and then click Finish.

Now, in the event you have to reformat your hard drive or you have a system crash, by importing this key back to your computer (or copying it to the right directory), you will be able to see and use your previously encrypted files. All is not lost on you this time. If the files are truly and desperately needed, there are data recovery services available by companies who do just that. It can come at a hefty cost depending on the size f the hard drive.

July 25 - I received an email from McAfee this week about phishing and how people are getting scammed every day in growing numbers on the internet. This is happening mostly because people very uneducated about how they are getting scammed. It is very difficult for the average Internet user to tell if a page is real or not real. I encourage our readers to take the quiz found here http://www.siteadvisor.com/quizzes/phishing_0707/ and email me and let me know how you did. I gave this quiz to my panel of "experts" and they averaged only 7 out of ten right. I encourage everyone to take this quiz because you will be infinitely more prepared to surf the Internet and protect yourself against fraud and scam.

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August 1 - I've recently received Emails telling me that I have a greeting card or postcard from a friend, neighbour, colleague, family member or classmate. These come from 9 different sources - Americangreetings.com, hallmark.com,bluemountain.com, greetingcard.org, etc. They've all gone into my Bulk Mail - screened out by my Spam program. I've been told it is OK to open them if I want. When I do, there is a Website to click on. When I do, a warning comes up - "...trying to access a website that has a non-standard web address format. ...could be harmful..." I did not open the site.
Can you tell me whether I should open or just delete? Part of me says, "Delete" and part of me is curious - "Did I really get a card from somebody I know?"
Some of the latest spam hitting the web is so called greeting cards from friends. What should make you suspicious is why would you be getting five to ten greeting cards all of a sudden from friends. Your intuition is correct. A greeting card site url will NEVER start or look like this http://98.195.52.180/?338ee7c634591933434671c16. If it is truly from Hallmark or American greetings, the url will specify their name in it. It will also come from an email address that you know. If you do not recognize the email address, do not even look at the email: Delete it!! I have counted and have received 92 greeting cards from supposed friends in the last week. Further, the particular link I included in this article has a virus attached to it. The spammers are high tech and the sites will truly look real. Unfortunately when someone you know sends one to you, you may not be able to tell if it is real or not. Use these tips. Check the sender's name. The spam will not have your name in it. It will say a Colleague, friend, neighbour has sent you a greeting card. Doesn't it make sense that if I were sending you a greeting card, I would send it with your name on it.
So far, the average score on my phishing survey from last week is three. Keep the results coming.

August 15 - This week my cousin was nice enough to tell the whole world she was leaving on vacation and that any would be criminal on her MSN messaging list was more than welcome to come over while she was gone. I know I am being a bit facetious, but I need to make the point. Take a look through your contact lists in any messaging program you use. Right now, I know that one person just broke up with a boyfriend; one is mad at his mom; one is looking for a roommate; you get the picture. A lot of people put extremely long and descriptive descriptions with their usernames. However, you are giving out way too much information. I know this may seem trite, but think about it. Let’s say my username has a description that also says, “Going on vacation in three days. I can hardly wait.” I have just invited everyone I know on my lists to my house while I’m gone. Just as they say, “Do not give out credit card information or passwords over a messaging service”, do not expose yourself to unnecessary trouble. There are hackers out there that can intercept any conversation you have on any messaging service. This week’s hint is: Be Careful.

August 29 - This week, a reader’s mouse didn’t work when she booted her computer and she got to the login screen on her Windows XP computer. Perplexed, she hard booted her computer (this means that she turned off the computer using the power button instead of using the ShutDown sequence provided by Windows). She wants to know if there is a shortcut or something she could have used instead of hard booting.
If you find yourself in this situation, simply used the Tab key on your keyboard and you will see a small outline appear over the different objects on the login screen in front of you. When the highlight appear over the Turn Off Icon, press enter on your keyboard. When the screen pops up asking whether or not you want to StandBy, TurnOff or Restart, use your arrow keys to navigate to TurnOff and press enter. Now your computer will shut down properly.

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September 5 - Betty from Essex had a problem. She had reinstalled Microsoft Office on her Windows 2000 computer and PowerPoint would not recognize any of her custom fonts like it did when she had Windows 98.

If you use Windows XP or earlier version, the folder is located at Windows/FONTS. Windows 2000 also has this folder, but you need to copy them to the Winnt/fonts folder. To copy, locate the fonts your computer and copy them to the appropriate Winnt/fonts folder located on your C: drive.

September 12 - Sherry had a problem. She had Windows 2000 on her computer and her son tried to do her a favour. The favour was he would install his copy of Windows XP on her computer. The copy he had is from two years ago and is a pirated corporate version copy. After the installation, her computer booted like normal. When it came to the login screen, the computer warned her that her copy was not a valid copy. The only prompt it will give her is to enter a valid serial number in order to be able to use her computer. Since her son did a clean installation, it erased her whole hard drive before commencing the new installation. At this point, she has lost all that was on her computer and cannot use it until she enters a new valid serial number or chooses to reinstall her licensed Windows 2000 that came with her machine.

A couple of years ago, you would be able to use certain versions of Windows XP with certain serial numbers and be able to activate and use Windows XP. However, Microsoft has created an Internet database of pirated serial numbers to prevent illegal installations. As soon as you install your Windows XP and boot for the first time, it connects you to the internet to check your serial number against the list it has. If it finds your number on the blacklist, you will not be able to use your computer until you have entered a valid Windows XP serial number.

October 3 - Sharon from Amherstburg had a very inconvenient problem. No matter what kind of Microsoft Word or WordPerfect document she was working on, the applications would just quit for no reason and she would lose her work. It would not happen at specific times or events or doing a particular thing. After many weeks of frustration, Sharon did not know where to go or what to do.
This had all of the textbook signs of a memory problem. When programs quit for no apparent reason, it usually indicates that the Windows system is having a problem processing information and handling requests. I suggested that Sharon go to this web-site http://www.hcidesign.com/memtest/ to download and run there free RAM memory tester. It is really easy to install and use. After running the memory test, the following error appeared. “Memory error detected! Pair 72783721 does not store values accurately. MemTest has detected that your computer cannot accurately store data in RAM.” A correctly functioning computer should be able to store data in RAM with 100% accuracy day in and day out. A computer that fails these tests, perhaps because of old hardware, damaged hardware, or poorly configured hardware, will be less stable and crash more often. Even worse, it will become even less stable over time as corrupted data is written to your hard disk. In Sharon’s case, she needed new RAM memory. The next issue is to figure out which piece of her RAM was bad. She had two pieces of 512 MB SDIMM Ram in her computer. The easiest and fastest way to solve this is to take one piece out and redo the test. The test detected the error on one of her pieces of RAM and no the other. When we put in the new piece of RAM, the errors went away.

October 24 - A business user called with an emergency of horrific proportions if we didn’t get it solved. This gentleman is using Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. He is running a custom business application that stores all purchases, receipts, customer and vendor information. The problem was he needed to backup his database (written in MSAccess) and could not find it on his computer. The program installed properly. He knows this is true because when he goes to the Program Files directory where the software installed to, he sees the database. However, when he opened it (using Microsoft Access) to check the data was good before backing up, he discovered that none of his new data was in the database file. As is easy to understand, he was concerned that his entire day’s business was gone. What Vista has supplied users is a secure way to keep your data safe. The only problem is, you have to find it. Vista is set up in such a way that it stores the latest version of your database in a folder all by itself, but it is not the folder you installed it to. It occasionally replicates itself to your home folder. Therefore, the home folder does not have the most current data. In order to find the file, you have to do a couple of things. First set your computer to View Hidden and System Files (under Advanced Search). Now you can search for your database file name. For example, one of the database files used on my computer is receipt.mdb. When installed, it installs to the directory Program Files\SoftwareFarmers\BMS. To find the most recent database I need to go to the following directory: C:\Users\Scott Durward\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Software Farmers\BMS. The Virtual Store Directory hold the latest information for all of the program Microsoft deems important enough to protect you from yourself (i.e. so you don’t delete your own important files). Once you have located the database file you need, it is now possible to copy it to another location for backup. At his suggestion our reader was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

October 31 - What is Per Application Volume Control in Windows Vista?  Per Application Volume Control means that Vista gives you a volume control for every running program and process. For example, if you are running Windows Media Player for listening music and playing a game that has annoying music in the background (and no way to shut it off), you can turn the volume off  to the game and still listen to your music. In order to use Per Application Volume Control, double click on the speaker icon located near your clock at the bottom right of your screen. A single volume gauge will appear showing your speaker volume. Next, click on the “Mixer” (usually underlined in blue like a web page link). A control center will appear showing you all applications that are presently running that use audio. There will be a slide control for each program and the user can increase or decrease the volume to any running program. In our example, the user would select the slider under the icon representing the game he/she is playing and move it to the bottom to eliminate the sound. This is a huge benefit to those o us who like to multi-task (use more than one program at a time). I typically have music playing while I work and can have up to nine programs open at once. I turn off the volume to all other applications that are running so my music will not be interrupted.

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November 7 - Rob from Windsor got a virus on his computer and the only way to get rid of the virus once and for all was to set his computer up from scratch. He was going to erase his hard drive and reinstall his Microsoft Windows XP and start over. He had some problems though. The sticker that had his CD key was not on his computer anymore. Second, he was not able to find the binder that came with his computer that had his other programs to install and more importantly the serial numbers for them. Now, I know there are some of you out there that would say, “Just download them from one of the software pirate sites.” That being said, it may work for the programs but no longer will it work for Windows XP. Windows has blacklists out and will catch almost all pirated copies being installed as soon as you connect to the internet. Here is the solution. Before (and I emphasize before) you redo your computer go to this link http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html. Click on the “Download your free copy of Belarc advisor”. Click on run when the box appears on your screen. This program runs an audit of your computer’s registry and will extract and display (in a web page format) all specifications on your computer’s hardware and all of the serial numbers and specifications of your software. Belarc Advisor does not transmit any information across the web. It stores it right on your computer. The advantages are huge. You now can print out this paper and have all of your serial numbers for all of your programs at your fingertips when setting up your computer. Even your Windows XP CD key will be there. This is the legitimate way to retrieve your Windows XP CD key. This program will also work on operating systems all the way back to Windows 98. Did I mention this is free?

November 14 - This week I had a problem that started on my computer. I run Windows XP with service pack 2. The error that keeps popping up is a “win32 error” and “cannot find or there is a problem with the svchost file”.

This kind of problem can originate when the computer overwrites important registry files. Unfortunately, it will not always let you use System Restore when this happens. Occasionally protected files become corrupt. So what is a person to do? With the introduction of Windows Millennium,  Microsoft has tried really hard to protect its integrity by shielding the user from these inconvenient problems. However, no matter how hard they try, some problems still do arise. In Microsoft’s defense, they now protect over 99% of all files and that is why it is so rare now. For those who remember Windows 95 and 98 also remember the percentage was nowhere near this. In order to fix the protected files and restore them back to their original state, Microsoft has a tool called SFC or System File Checker. To run this utility, click on Start and then click on run. For Windows Vista user, hold down the Windows Key and press the letter ‘R‘. In the box that appears, type sfc /scannow and hit Enter. Your Windows is now going to scan the complete registry and all dll cache file and check to make sure the digital signatures are not corrupted and will fix the ones that are. During this process, you may be asked to insert your original Windows XP installation disk. This can take up to 45 minutes and sometimes beyond. When it has completed the scan, a prompt will appear telling you it is complete. Now, before you do anything else, reboot your computer to make sure all of the changes have taken effect. If you do not reboot right away, you risk redoing the damage. After reboot, all should be well.

November 21 - How can I make my mouse work at the command prompt in Windows XP? I have typed some information that I want to save but cannot copy and paste it.

The answer to your problem lies in configuring your Command Prompt for Quick Edit Mode. To configure your Command prompt for Quick Edit mode, complete the following steps:

1. Open command prompt by going to Start, Run, and typing cmd.
2. Click on the upper left-hand corner of the command window, on the C:\ icon, and  select Properties.
3. Click on the Options tab and check the Quick Edit Mode  box under Edit Options.
4. Click OK and then select "Modify shortcut that started this window"  (if it appears).

I recommend that you also customize the command prompt by going to All Programs >> Accessories >> Command Prompt. That way, you'll get the mouse support no matter how you start the command prompt.

November 28 - Our reader this week found out what happens when you turn off User Account Controls in Windows Vista. The reason User Account Controls were made a part of Windows Vista is that many viruses and spyware written today execute and install on a person’s computer without their knowledge. As a result, many, many users ended up with nasty viruses and spyware installed and taking over their computers. The only real way to get rid of them was to completely reinstall Windows after formatting the hard drive regardless of what spyware or antivirus that was installed after the fact. My advice this week is to warn the novice user of the risks of turning it off. Even professionals find themselves victims from time-to-time. User Account Controls are turned on and off using the Control Panel. They prevent a program from executing on your computer unless you give it express permission to do so. Therefore, if you do not recognize the program when the prompt comes up, I would deny it access to be safe until you can verify that it is ok to do so.

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December 5 - I was in a major department store this week and I overheard a sales clerk trying to explain to an obvious computer beginner the features and benefits of a computer in the store. I knew it wasn’t my place to chime in on what the real facts were about the computer or the right questions to be asking the clerk and know if I am getting the right answer. This is really scary. It is Christmas time and it the best time to say; BUYER BEWARE. This is not the time of year to buy a computer from a store that also sells children’s ware, car parts and bathroom accessories. The big box stores, in my opinion, are better for those who know what they want and what they are talking about before going in to purchase. Stores like the PC Connection and the Essex Home Hardware are filled with knowledgeable staff and they know what they are doing. They can answer the questions and will find the answers if they do not know them. It is so important to make sure you have completed research BEFORE you go to the store. Important questions to ask yourself can be some of the following: 1. What age group will be using the computer? 2. Will the computer be used for playing a lot of games or for basic homework and surfing the Internet? 3. What am I prepared to spend on this computer? 4. Know the different types of monitors and research the benefits and pitfalls of each kind; 5. Research the differences and advantages of each kind of computer processor; 6. Educate yourself on the basics of computer lingo so you are prepared. 7. Make phone calls before you leave the house. If a person won’t answer them on the phone with, they probably don’t want your sale too bad. 8. Email your friendly Essex Voice ICQ writer with your questions for unbiased straight forward answers gathered from over 20 years of computer experience.
The message today is research so that you are not a victim. I am trying to help the novice computer user the headache of owning your new computer for a month and realizing you have purchased the wrong computer that isn’t doing what you thought it would. Remember, in computers, it is still you get what you pay for. In the basic computer systems, the prices will be relatively low because they all give you the same basic features. It is when you get beyond the basics where it gets interesting. Ask a friend, ask me (scott@slconsultingsolutions.com) or ask a trusted source before heading out.

December 12 - This week, I have serviced three computers and all of them had three things in common. All three computers had the same cable internet service provider. All three had the Internet Security Service from the cable internet provider installed on their computer and all three had been cut off from their cable internet provider for having too many viruses on their computers. To me, this did not make any sense. If you have someone’s security package installed, you shouldn’t have viruses. They advertise that their service is better than Symantec, McAfee and Norton Security services and it is free to most of their subscribers. If it is better, why did they cut these people off for having too many viruses and spyware? One of the computers had 2320 instances of viruses and spyware; one had 239 viruses and instances of spyware; the last had 504 viruses and instances of spyware. To the novice computer user, this kind of security promise looks to be the solution to all their troubles. In my opinion, do not trust your home or small business PC security to someone else. Install a Security package locally on your computers and keep it updated. Yes it does cost you some money to buy the software and then pay the yearly subscription. However, it is a small price to pay when you realize that, with some virus combinations, you cannot save any files on your computer because the virus invades your Internet browser, pictures and files. If you do not have a backup of the files, you will end up losing it all. Second, you usually have to pay a professional to try to recover your files and get rid of the spyware/virus problems. That doesn’t sound free to me as some companies advertise.

December 26 - This week’s article is a follow up to last week’s article. I have continued research into why the customer’s mentioned in last week’s article were cut off from their ISP when they were subscribe to the Security Package from their Internet Service Provider. Because the customer’s had so many viruses and key-logger and spyware on their computer’s, it was the transferring of data that caused the problem. When a computer has spyware and fraud-ware on it, it is continually broadcasting through the always on Internet Connection. The one customer that had over 2300 instances of spyware and viruses, actually exceeded the 60 GB data limit on downloading or uploading set by the internet package they had signed up for. The ISP cut them off for exceeding the data transfer limits as set out in the user agreement.

Second item this week: Possible security hole in Windows Vista when running an OpenVpn or other VPN (Virtual Private Network) application. In Windows XP or before, whenever you terminated a VPN connection, the connection to the outside computer or network would cease and you would have to re-establish the connection before you logged in again. In Windows Vista, the operating system does not let go of the connection. It keeps all of the parameters to make it quick and easy to log in next time. The security issue turns out to be the following: Some VPN networks do not have password protection. If you do not have password protection, anyone can click on your connection icon on your desktop and be into your Virtual PRIVATE Network. Some would say, no big deal. I emphasize the private part. If you are a salesman/saleswoman on the road, someone would have access to the entire home office network and files. The obvious solution is to have passwords, but is not possible in all applications. I will continue research on this topic and let you know when I find the solution. If you need more clarity on this security issue, please email me at scott@slconsultingsolutions.com.

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